#PHIN WHERE ARE YOU

[autism-swagger]

Playing through Spider-Man 2 has caused me to enter my Grieving Phin Era all over again.

[klbwriting]

For Love of Fiction

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!Plus size!reader

Warnings: none

Summary: When Jason first started out as Red Hood he found a book that was starring none other than him. He picks it up, curious, and finds that he loves it, when the third book comes out he goes to a book signing and finds the author might be the person of his fictional dreams

Notes: ya, this happened, I'm not sure if I add some more or not, please reply or reblog if you want a part 2!

Jason hadn't started reading YN's books on purpose. About a year after his return to Gotham he stumbled across a book in the local library one night as he was waiting for an informant. He was in his gear, perusing the books on the author's from Gotham stand and he saw one with an interesting cover. It was a plus size woman wearing scrubs stitching up the arm of a vigilante in a red helmet. He was a bit shocked to be honest, seeing someone blatantly putting him on a book cover. He picked up, looking at the description.

Layla Olden was just a nurse, working to save her emergency room patients in a city torn apart by turf war. The city was being cut up by villains of all kinds and the hospital where Layla worked was stuck in the middle. The only hope for the dying city is found in the form of Red Fox, the masked vigilante who's willing to take on the worst of the worst to protect his city. One night he is injured and breaks into the hospital's storeroom, unaware that Layla is there. She sees his injuries and stitches him and starts an adventure she never planned while nursing not only the Red Fox's body but his soul.

It didn't exactly sound like amazing literature but Jason had never seen a book with him as the main character. He was fascinated by it. He set down a 20$ on the stand where the book was and took it with him. That morning after patrol he started reading and he couldn't stop. The cover and the description weren't completely honest. The book wasn't just a love story between a vigilante and a nurse, it was a character study on a man who can't come to terms with his father, or his past, and a study on how society treats women based on their appearance. The book wasn't exactly about him either. This woman clearly didn't know his identity, but she created a compelling character that Jason could relate too. The Red Fox was really Phineus Simpson, son of the richest man in the city who ran away due to his father's unsavory affiliation with the city's worst crime lords. He started hiding in underground fight clubs, learning skills and gaining connections to help him start to cleanse the city and repay the sins of his father. And Layla was probably the most amazing woman he had ever heard of. She was smart, funny, kind, but she was also sarcastic, stubborn, and sometimes self-righteous, she was everything Jason had ever dreamed of in a woman. Too bad she was a fictional character. He couldn't put the book down, the characters and the plot, the way she described the city as if it was a living, breathing creature worth love and protection. It was amazing.

And when the sequel came out he was first in line at the bookstore to buy it. He devoured it in one night, faking sickness for the first time ever in his life. Bruce had been suspicious but Jason really laid on the coughing and shivers and the man relented, going with Tim instead. The second book was somehow better than the first, giving insight into the heroine's struggles with her mother's death at the hands of Phin's father. It was also when she found out who Red Fox was and it almost destroyed the relationship, but in the end they came through and admitted their love. Jason wished he had something like this, someone who saw him like this author saw Red Fox. He was more than just the mask, more than his father, more than his past. There was a third book coming he knew, and when it released he was going to be first again, and maybe he would find the author, leave her a note or something saying how much the book meant to him.

The third and final book was due out at midnight and Jason had scored a ticket to an exclusive signing at a local bookstore, apparently where YN used to write the books at when she needed to get out of her apartment. He was pouring through the second book, trying to finish the last ten pages before he left to go to the signing. Dick wandered by his room, knocking.

"Not now Dick," Jason said, not taking his eyes off the book. He heard his brother laugh as he ignored him and stepped into the room.

"What makes you love that book so much?" he asked, sitting in one of the chairs by Jason's bookshelves. Jason groaned and stood. He might as well leave and read at the bookstore.

"None of your business," he said, grabbing his jacket and heading to the garage. "You wouldn't understand, when's the last time you read anything that wasn't a picture book?" Dick pretended to be wounded, laughing as he waved goodbye to his brother.

Jason hopped on his bike and got to the bookstore early, standing in between the shelves near where chairs were set up for the reading and Q and A. There were a few people sitting and waiting already, discussing the book themselves. Jason stayed back, not really wanting to share his thoughts, the last time he had talked to someone about why he liked the books they had fallen asleep, but that was how Tim was sometimes. He hung back, reading the last few pages, when he felt someone bump him. He jumped, turning and coming face to face with YN herself.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I was just trying to grab that and slipped." She pointed to a book on the top shelf. It was a copy of Persuasion by Jane Austen. Jason reached for, being quite a few inches taller than her, and gave it to her. "Thank you so much, um, o, I see you're here for the reading. I uh, hope you like the book," she stammered, blushing a little before backing away and almost knocking over a stand of her own books. She turned redder, threw him another look and went to the other side of the shelves. Jason was a little star struck, but also was struck by how pretty she was, the picture on the back of the book didn't do her justice. He could see the resemblance she had to her character, she was plus size herself with matching hair and eye color. He swallowed hard, if she was anything else like Layla in the book he was in love. He moved to take a seat in the back for the reading. YN was introduced and she took a seat behind the table in front, opening the final book to the first page.

"Welcome, well I'm just going to start since I know you're very excited to know what happens to Layla and Phin," she said, smiling wide. "First, the dedication. This is dedicated to the Red Hood, who probably has no idea this little book exists, but without them both I and the book wouldn't be here. Thank you." The group clapped and Jason felt his cheeks get red. He quickly looked at the ground, pretending to be very fascinated by something on his boot. She started reading and by the time she finished he was definitely in love. Her voice, the way she held such passion for her words, it was beautiful. She was beautiful. She answered everyone's questions with kindness and even that sarcasm he recognized from Layla. She even looked back at him at the end. "Does our gentleman have any questions?" she asked, smiling at him. He blushed but nodded.

"Why Red Hood? Why not Batman or Robin or Nightwing?" he asked. That was what originally made him pick up the book and he still wasn't sure why she would choose him out of all the heroes that were in the city. He was nobody, an after thought for everyone, even Bruce and Dick most of the time. What made him so special to her? She looked surprised by his question.

"I...I don't think anyone has honestly asked me that before, thank you," she said. "Well, around five years ago I went to a Halloween party at a club with my then boyfriend and his friends. He broke up with me that night, at the party, had some stupid, childish bet with his friends about getting the ugly, fat girl to have sex with him. It was terrible, I walked out the club into the alley outside to get some air, find my way back to my college dorm room, when a man with a gun approached me. Just like Gotham to have someone mug me after I was just humiliated. As I was struggling to stop crying and get my wallet for the guy, praying he wouldn't shoot me, Red Hood drops behind him and says 'hey, leave the pretty lady alone' and punches him. The guy is flat on his back, unconscious so I wasn't in danger anymore, he could have just taken off, instead Red Hood walks me to the curb and waits for a taxi to come by, making sure I got in it safely. The last thing he said to me was 'bye gorgeous' and well, I was smitten honestly. The next morning I woke up, skipped my classes and started writing, and well, now I'm here and I still kind of have a crush on Red Hood." She was blushing furiously by the end of the speech and Jason was blushing also, staring at her.

He remembered that night. Remembered that pour woman, crying while the mugger held out the gun. Jason almost ignored it, thinking that he was above such lowly crimes at the time, let Robin handle it, but something about the way she had looked, more sad than scared, made him stop. That one night and she wrote this book for him? He was honored, flattered. He'd never felt better about himself honestly. The Q and A ended after that and she signed books. He waited at the end of the line. When he got to the front she blushed again when she looked at him.

"I'm sorry if my story was a little much before, I got lost in the memory," she said. He smiled at her. "I did appreciate the question though."

"I'm glad you answered it, I've been wondering about it for years," he said. "Um, would I be crazy to ask for your number?" He had no idea why he was even trying, he was sure she got asked this question a lot. She looked at him surprised, biting her lip in thought.

"Well, I'm not going to give my number to a stranger, but I do have an Instagram, if you follow me you could message me there? I will answer," she said. Jason nodded slowly. "Thank you for coming....?"

"Jason," he said. She nodded and wrote something in his book before handing it back. He smiled and headed out, resolving to get himself an Instagram as soon as he got home. He opened the book as soon as he got to his room

Jason, thank you for your question, hope to see you again, YN

[shinesurge]

Yes hello I don't have any theorycrafting about your lore because honestly I'm just excited to see where you go with it

BUT IT JUST WANTED TO SAY

In the same way that Agatha getting to hold on to her anger, it makes me absolutely FERAL that Phin has to say it - say outloud, choking on her own blood, that she wants to live. Despite miserable awful circumstances in a place she hates to be, Yes She Still Wants To Live!!!

Not to get too real about it, but it echos how I feel when I hear people talking about how awful living in the US is and they're just gonna move somewhere else. Don't you want to live?? , don't you want to FIGHT?? Despite miserable awful circumstances, it'll hurt and you'll be forever changed after BUT DON'T YOU WANT TO L I V E ??

oh man thanks for this actually, i ruminated a LONG time over what i wanted to do with that panel. the violence in that whole sequence is a lot more intense (imo) than anything else we've seen so far, so i was already kind of concerned it would be Too Much to have gideon drag a response out of her sliced up throat on top of it. then putting it in any kind of speech bubble was Too Clean, and by then i figured we'd already gone this far and lukewarm is never the right answer, so i leaned into what i really wanted to say for basically the reasons you mentioned hehe

i'm generally bored with violence and gore as shock, but i DO love it as like. divine or primal currency? i think it is cool to earn things by being willing to bleed for them and do it on your own terms when you can, which is also kind of a fundamental thesis for kidd commander, so i tried not to squirm away from the uncomfortable stuff in this chapter literally setting up our protagonist to do those things. I'm so happy to hear it landed for you!!

this was a very cool thing to share, thank you for taking the time to send it <3 i know my writing isn't for everyone but it's really reassuring that people out there are getting something out of my angry bloody characters

[moonstruckme]

Hiii! Maybe you can write something with reader having like 20 plants in her dorm. Like a plant mom!

Thanks for requesting :)

Eddie Munson x fem!reader ♡ 979 words

“This isn’t gonna work,” you scold, nudging the spout of your watering can carefully between leaves to the center of the pot. “I gave you the prime sun spot, and you’re still gonna wilt on me? That’s just ungrateful, Phin.” 

There’s a knock on the door, and do a once-over of your room before going to meet Eddie at the door. He’d let you know he’d be coming by to pick up the flannel he’d lent you the other night (you’re disappointed you don’t get to keep it, though you haven’t let him know that), but he hasn’t been in your dorm before; you always wait outside when he’s supposed to be picking you up. Thankfully, you’d remembered to put away the folded laundry on your bed, and your space is looking decently tidy. 

“Hey.” Your grin is already in place as you open the door, your dopamine centers responding to Eddie’s presence the same as they respond to the aroma of cookies in the oven or your favorite song coming on the radio. 

“Hey, you.” Eddie’s smiling too, peering around you to see into your room. “Who’re you talking to?”

“No one.” You open the door all the way to show him, and Eddie’s eyes go wide enough to show white all the way around his irises. “Just Phin.” 

“You…you have a fucking jungle in here.” Eddie’s gawping, seeming unable to focus on any one plant as his gaze skims your room. You suppose it probably would look like a bit much if you weren’t used to it. You’ve got greenery lining your windowsill, pots taking up half your desk, vines drooping down from your shelves. You’ve had to put a few on the floor too, since the only other surfaces in the room don’t get enough sun. All in all, it’s a lot of green in not a ton of space. Eddie seems at a loss for words, but then his eyebrows twitch towards each other and he blinks. “Wait, who’s Phin?”

“Phineas,” you explain, gently touching the leaf of your baby pothos. You’d propagated him from a giant one you’ve had for years, but he’s struggling a bit as he roots in his new soil. 

Eddie’s looking at you like you’re a marvel now too. “They have names? You talk to them?”

“Of course they have names. And talking is supposed to help them grow.” You soften your voice just slightly, throwing a cautious look at Dorothy over on your shelf. “Though I sometimes wonder if some of them are more introverted than others. Some of my spider plants don’t seem to appreciate it.” 

Eddie grins in that familiar toothy way that makes you wonder if he’s going to tease you, but his voice is warm and sweet as honeyed tea when he says, “Well shit, sweetheart, I didn’t know I was coming over to meet so many of your friends. I would’ve dressed better.” 

You laugh, gesturing for him to follow as you go sit on your bed. “I wouldn’t worry about it, I don’t think they can even tell us apart. Which is a shame, because I devote so much care to them and they wouldn’t know me from Adam, but oh well.” You let your gaze skim over Eddie as he gets comfy beside you, laying down on his side and propping one head on his hand. He’s got on another flannel, under which is a Black Sabbath t-shirt. His jeans are faded, with a stain that looks suspiciously like chocolate just above the knee, and his hair is taking well to the lack of humidity in the chilly season, curls bouncy and defined. “You look nice anyway, so.” 

Little lines spread like cartoonish rays of sunshine from the outer corners of Eddie’s eyes. “Daww, thanks, sweet thing. Sure you’re not just buttering me up so you can keep my shirt?”

You look to where you’ve left it, washed and folded primly on your desk. “I’m not,” you promise wistfully, “but…if that would work on you, I can start.” 

Eddie takes your hand and begins tracing the lines of your palm absentmindedly. “You can have it. I mostly just wanted to see you. And I got to meet the roommates, so double bonus.” Your heart swells like a hot air balloon, big and warm and buoyant in your chest. Eddie turns your hand over, stroking gently at the skin below your knuckle. “What happened here?”

You lean over to see, laying down next to him with your shoulder pressed against his bicep as he runs his thumb over a tiny cut on your middle finger. “Oh, that was Willie.” You nod towards the cactus on the edge of your desk. “He scraped me while I was moving him to a bigger pot.” 

Eddie glares in the cactus’ direction. “Little fucker,” he grumbles, kissing your finger lightly. “You can’t let these guys push you around, babe. You’re too good, you’ll take care of them no matter what. I think I’m gonna have to start coming around more to lay down the law.” 

You don’t think of your plants as nearly so villainous as Eddie paints them, but you’re not going to argue against his being in your room more often. You tilt your head until it hits his shoulder. “If you think so,” you say noncommittally. 

“I do,” he confirms, turning your hand back over and bringing it to lay on his chest, both of his clasped over it protectively. “You’re my best girl, you know? I can’t let you be bullied by a bunch of leafy assholes.”

“They’re generally nice to me.” You smile against his shoulder, and Eddie’s kiss is a gentle pressure on the top of your head. 

“For now, sweetheart, but they’ve got you surrounded. Think I’d better stick around for a while, just to keep an eye on things.”

[spicypepperjack]

Miles: And so I absorbed a nuke, and Phin brought me to space where I friggin' exploded! Fortunately, I survived crash landing in the city somehow.

Gwen: That's great, honey, but can you please go back to sleep? And who the fuck is Phin?

[noneorother]

Share your GOS2 bibliography with me

How crazy is it that season 2 has basically forced me to go back to university. I’ve done more reading and critical analysis and historical research than I have in years. I bite my thumb at you, Neil (affectionate).

And as I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I’d love to see your bibliography of all of the references or reading/watch lists. I’m sure to pick up a few good ones! I’ll go first.

Movies + TV Arrival - Denis Villeneuve Clue - Jonathan Lynn I Know Where I'm Going - Powell & Pressburger The Ball - Magnus Dennison and Katja Roberts Every Day - Michael Sucsy About Time - Richard Curtis The Red Shoes - Powell & Pressburger The Small Back Room - Powell & Pressburger The Tales of Hoffmann - Powell & Pressburger Stairway to Heaven - Powell & Pressburger Ill Met By Moonlight - Powell & Pressburger The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse - Steve Bendelack Monty Python's Life of Brian - Terry Jones Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones The Twilight zone (The Arrival) Boris Sagal The Twilight zone (The Hitch-Hiker) - Alvin Ganzer Staged (Seasons 1 and 2) - Simon Evans & Phin Glynn Books The Crow Road - Iain Banks The Bridge - Iain Banks The Scholars of Night - John M. Ford Symbols of Sacred Science - René Guénon Catch-22 - Joseph Heller A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett Night Watch (Discworld) - Terry Pratchett Parlement of Foules - Geoffrey Chaucer The language of the birds - Farid ud-Din Attar Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Persuasion - Jane Austen Midnight Days - Neil Gaiman Negative Burn #11 - Neil Gaiman Chivalry - Neil Gaiman Other Les contes d'Hoffamann - opera, Jacques Offenbach Don Giovanni - opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Line, the Cross and the Curve - musical, Kate Bush The book of Enoch - Ethiopian Apocryphal trs. Rev. George Schodde, PhD

I'm sure there will be more... sigh. Spoiler alert: there are more! Donnie Darko - 2001, Richard Kelly Nothing Lasts Forever - 1984, Tom Schiller The Ghosts of Berkley Square - 1947, Vernon Sewell Brazil! - 1985, Terry Gilliam No Bed for Bacon - 1941, Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon Don't, Mr Disraeli! - 1949, Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon Murder Mysteries - Neil Gaiman The Man Who Was Thursday - 1908, GK Chesterton Small Gods - 1992, Terry Pratchett Ipomadon - Medieval - Trs. Richard Scott-Robinson

[jiubilant]

4.E. 170

They unload the young Ervine at the Vetring docks along with twelve tuns of wine—which she counts as they bob down the wharf on the dockers’ backs, two by two—and four thin, shivering pigs. She’s not sure where to go. She’s standing dazed with sunlight on the loading-plank, flanked by squealing livestock and the rank, seasick steam of their breath, when two youths hurrying down the boardwalk smile and wave: a lanky young mage, his cloak dyed adept’s blue, and a boy her age with a skeletal face.

“For the Kynesdag feast in town,” says the mage in breathless introduction, divesting her of books and bundles both. He means the pigs, she realizes. He darts a look over his shoulder, another at the ship, then gives her a gentle shake: half-friendly, half-impatient. “We were told to meet you. What’s your name?”

She frowns at him, suspecting a joke at her expense, then recalls how far she is from Betony and her father’s rotting lands. He’s never cursed an Ervine, this mage with busy eyes.

“Mirabelle,” she says, her voice salt-hoarse. She’s eaten nothing but hardtack for two months.

He doesn’t even ask for the rest of it—just glances behind him again and marches her down the frost-chewed wharf. Wizards, of course, always have somewhere else to be.

“Falion of Conjuration,” he replies with a hasty grin, pulling her out of the way of some rickety gibbet for fish. The cod dangling from it like gallows-fruit watch her pass with baleful eyes, as does the woman stringing them up. “That’s Phinis, also of Conjuration. Phin,” he says to the boy, who’s casting nervous looks about him like wards, “you’ll have to get used to it.”

Phinis pulls a death’s-head face. “I don’t want to get used to it—”

One of the pigs blunders with a shriek into their path. The biggest of the men dragging it down the docks stumbles, swearing in some Nordic tongue—then, with a snarling glance at Mirabelle and her companions, spits at them.

“Happy Kynesdag,” croaks Phinis, cringing sideways. Falion, with an inscrutable look, lays a steadying hand on his shoulder.

“You’ll have to get used to it, too,” he says to Mirabelle, who stares at him. He clears his throat and, with a playful flourish of his cloak, raises his voice like a mummer on the stage. “Pay the ignorant masses no mind. You are now a student of Mystery”—he grips her shoulder with jovial force, steering her away—“a novitiate of the Secret Fire!”

“A witch,” says Mirabelle, her voice steady and soft.

Falion’s grin, swift as a warning, bounds again across his face. “A scholar!”

Mirabelle glances behind her. The man with the pig, staring after them, shivers and looks away.

* * *

“They hate us in the village,” Phinis confides in her over supper: a bowl of pale and wobbly fish, glistening like glue in the sheen of the wandering lights. “Falion says they’re afraid of what they don’t understand, and that we should be”—he makes a grim little face at his bowl—“understanding.”

“Oh,” says Mirabelle through a mouthful of fishpaste. It tastes like jellied steam. She’s discovered, in her ravenous journey to the bottom of the bowl, that she can swallow it without chewing. “Why?”

Phinis scowls. “That’s what I want to know—”

“No.” Mirabelle, in the spirit of scholarly inquiry, wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. No one snaps at her for it. She dares a quick, gleeful lick at the back of her spoon. “Why are they afraid?”

“Falion says—” A pallid light kindles in Phinis’s eyes. “No. I’ll show you.”

They slip out of the refectory, accompanied by a bobbing light and a few incurious looks from the adepts’ table. Their footsteps echo in the corridor like cracking ice. Mirabelle, in her scratchy new College robes that smell of mothballs and musty spells, resists an unthinkable urge to dance up and down the hall until it resounds with noise. It would be unscholarly, she thinks. She hugs herself hard instead.

“If you think this is cold,” says Phinis sagely, misunderstanding her, “wait until end-of-term. Falion says we’ll have to crack the ice in our basins every morning.”

The giddiness, despite her best efforts to restrain it, wriggles up from her toes to her face. “What else does Falion say?”

Phinis gives her a wounded look. “You’re making fun.”

The rush of warmth she feels for the little cadaver—and for the supper-sludge, the itchy clothes, Falion who knows so much—threatens to knock her over. “I’m not.”

“It’s all right,” he says, his face funereal. She has to bite down on a laugh. “I’m used to it. We’ll go up those stairs to the ramparts.”

They wrestle with the door at the stairtop, which is frozen or rusted shut; it bangs open at last, and they tumble out into a blast of wind that nearly blows them over the parapet. Mirabelle, with a delighted shriek, grabs Phinis—poor bag of bones, he all but rattles—and staggers with him away from the crenellated wall.

The wind whips his scandalized yell past her ears. “Are you laughing?”

She is. Something in her has come unstuck. “Have you ever been up here before, or did Falion tell you about it?”

“You’re making fun!” He stomps ineffectually on her foot. “The wind comes and goes, you’ll see—”

“I’m not making fun!”

By the time they struggle arm-in-arm to the far parapet, the wind’s died down. They sag against the wall. Phinis, breathing hard, glowers so peevishly at Mirabelle that she bursts into laughter again—which makes his lips twitch, and his eyes gleam, and something almost like life flush in his face.

“What are you so happy about?” he demands, fighting a smile. Mirabelle can tell by the way he’s twisting his mouth. “Here we are at the frozen edge of the world—”

“I didn’t think they’d let me come,” Mirabelle gasps, rubbing her eyes. The tears in them sting like grains of salt. “What—what’d you want to show me?”

“Oh.” Phinis tugs her up, then points over the parapet. “Out there.”

What he had wanted to show her, Mirabelle realizes after a long, staring moment, is the sea. Gulls circle and cry over the gray mirror of the water. Glaciers—smaller, now, than they’ll be in midwinter—slouch in the shallows. The sun on the horizon breaks the surface like a drowned face.

It’s nothing that she hadn’t seen from the deck of the ship. She looks sidelong at Phinis.

“It wasn’t always a village,” he says.

A gull dips in the sky. The water shimmers, changeless and cold, over the roofs of the city of the dead.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Francis Spufford’s “Cahokia Jazz”

Tomorrow (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz is a fucking banger: it's a taut, unguessable whuddunit, painted in ultrablack noir, set in an alternate Jazz Age in a world where indigenous people never ceded most the west to the USA. It's got gorgeously described jazz music, a richly realized modern indigenous society, and a spectacular romance. It's amazing:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cahokia-Jazz/Francis-Spufford/9781668025451

Cahokia is the capital city of Deseret, a majority Catholic, majority indigenous state at the western frontier of the USA. It swirls with industry, wealth, and racial politics, serving as both a refuge from Jim Crow and a hive of Klan activity. Joe Barrow is new in town, a veteran who survived the trenches of WWI and moved to Cahokia with his army buddy, Phineas Drummond, where they both quickly rose through the police ranks to become detectives.

We meet Joe and Phin on a frigid government building rooftop in the predawn night, attending a grisly murder. Someone has laid out a man across a skylight, cut his throat, split his chest open, and excised his heart. This Aztec-inspired killing points at Cahokian indigenous independence gangs, some of whom embrace an apocryphal tale of being descended from Mesoamerican conquerors in the distant past. That makes this more than a mere ugly killing – it's a political flashpoint.

The Klan insists that Cahokia's system of communal land ownership is a form of communism (Russia never ceded Alaska in this world, so the USSR is now extending tendrils across the Bering Strait). They also insist that Cahokians' reverence for the Sun and the Moon – indigenous royals who have formally ceded power to elected leaders – makes them a threat to democracy. Finally, the Cahokians' fusion of Catholocism with traditional faith makes the spritually suspect. A rooftop blood-sacrifice could cause simmering political tension to boil over, and for ever white oligarch drooling at the thought of enclosing the shared land of Deseret, there are a thousand useful idiots in white hoods.

Joe and Phin now have to solve the murder – before the city explodes. But Phin seems more interested in pinning the case on an Indian – any Indian – than he is on solving the murder. And Joe – an indigenous orphan who has neither the language nor the culture that the Cahokians expect him to have – is reappraising his long habit of deferring to Phin.

This is the setup for a delicious whodunnit with a large helping of what if…? but Spufford doesn't stop there. Joe, you see, is a jazz pianist, and his old bandmates are back in town, and one thing leads to another and before you know it he's sitting in with them at a speakeasy. This gives Spufford a chance to roll out some of the most evocative, delicious descriptions of jazz since Doctorow's Ragtime (no relation):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/41529/ragtime-by-e-l-doctorow/9780812978186

It's not just the jazz. This is a book that fires on every cylinder: there's brilliant melee (and a major battle set-piece that's stunning), a love storyline, gunplay, and a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. There's fakeouts and comeuppances, bravery and treachery, and above all, a sense of possibility.

Most of what I know about Cahokia – and the giant mounds it left behind near St Louis – I learned from David Graeber and David Wengrow's brilliant work of heterodox history, The Dawn of Everything:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/08/three-freedoms/#anti-fatalism

Graeber and Wengrow's project is to make us reassess the blank spaces in our historical record, the ways of living that we have merely guessed at, based on fragments and suppositions. They point out that these inferences are vastly overdetermined, and that there are many other guesses that fit the facts equally well, or even better. This is a powerful message, one that insists that history – and thus the future – is contingent and up for grabs. We don't have to live the way we do, and we haven't always lived this way. We might live differently in the future.

In evoking a teeming, indigenous metropolis, conjured out of minor historical divergences, Spufford follows Graeber and Wengrow in cracking apart inevitability and letting all the captive possibility flow out. The fact that he does this in a first rate novel makes the accomplishment doubly impressive – and enjoyable.

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/04/cahokia/#the-sun-and-the-moon

[euphoric-dramione]

January Dramione fanfic wrap-up *with links*

FULL-LENGTH:

Waifs and Strays by kyonomiko: very cute fluffy fic where draco is a cutiepie pine marten.

& Obey, Till Death Do Us Part by LongtimeLurker1111: his could’ve been a dark romance, but instead hermione decided to stay with “phin” theo and i just don’t understand it. the worst part wasn’t rapist draco bc he was the bad guy, it was rapist “phin” theo who was supposed to be good smut was nice at first.

Brand New World by NinaBinaBallerina: i loved loooved the beggining of this fic. then after they graduated and she found out she was pregnant i kinda lost the plot. i read until the point draco wanted her to move in with him while he was married to astoria and then i just skimmed until the epilogue.

In Silence And Submission by gillianeliza: this was a cool smutty bdsm fic, it had some nice things but i just think the writing was kinda wonky? nevertheless, very much enjoyed reading this.

The Fever by Flightglow32: this was supposed to be a smutty novelette but the smut happens in the very last chapter and only last five pages and we skim through the smut scenes like we’re a train on schedule and i just don’t understand why? especially because the fic was so sexual in its themes so why was the smut so lackluster??

Draconian by Noelle: It was like a really fluffy wartime with not-so big stakes, at first i thought how stragely whiny and crying hermione was all the time, but then we started to slowly find out what happened to her. I didn’t feel very much towards this story but it was entertaining and very readable.

Uncoffined by lady_of_clunn: it was nice, but due to the dubious ethics i’m quite conflicted of how i’m supposed to feel.

Damaged Goods by slytherin_after_dark: look, i know i had dnfed this when i had read only like one or two chapters, but lemme tell you how much i loed this fic when i picked it back up! it was all i needed - spicy, entertaining, angsty, with toxic but possessive and loving draco. although hermione felt ooc, it didn’t dim the reading experience.

The Politician's Wife by pir8fancier: this was so realistic, the romance was subtle but powerful, the little bit of smut we got was fantastic. also, it was incredibly well-written.

Seasons Pass (To This Ass) by mighbewriting: didn’t love it, but it was short, so i read it in one night. the smut was realistic as in how sex works but it wasn’t great smut if you know what i mean. loved draco’s quidditch player physique.

More Than One Way To Win by scullymurphy: i loooved the fake dating in this one, it was short but had all the scenes, i really liked it, although i wish there was more plot for after they got into an actual relationship.

Safe Home by khakis: cute kinda short kinda omegaverse story with draco as a werewolf but the werewolf part doesn’t play a huge part.

Breed by RoseDeVents: sooo muuuch breeeding.

The Curse of Malfoy Manor by alwaysaclaw11: a nice retelling of beauty and the beast, but it didn't leave a lasting impact on me.

Our Girl by geoblock: hands down the best smut i’ve ever read, and it's hermione x draco x theo x BLAISE

Innocent Monsters by itscometothis: very fluffy, but then draco gets depressed and a lot of attention is paid to his depression which i don’t mind, but it was a bit triggering. so not extremely fluffy, even though on of the tags was “tooth-rotting fluff”.

ONE-SHOTS:

Belladona by NinaBinaBallerina

(What’s a kink?) Between Friends by morriganmercy

Bond by spicyxpisces

Tell Me by GardenAtTwilight

Keep Me Safe by Skyfire2459

Perfect by CaityBell

Fourteen Days by its_banannaz

Marked as Mine by LilithShade

WORKS IN-PROGRESS:

Let The Dark In by senlinyu

The Sun, The Moon, The Truth by pinkinku

House Pet by NinaBinaBallerina

(all three of these are pretty dark and ansgty and VERY well written, i usually don't read wips)

[queenjulia11]

Re-listened to the whole first season yesterday (because I’m chill and normal about my interests) and wow is Phineas the perfect example of how toxic masculinity completely changes a person.

In his introduction, Phineas does exactly what he needs to in order to get the job done. He doesn’t use excessive force, and is able to solve the problem without anyone getting hurt. In any other world, this would be impressive.

Spahr is proud of him, but reminds him to play it up more for the media. Okay, noted, he’ll do better next time. He did exactly what was asked of him, just not in a manner that makes The Trust sound badass and cool to the kids listening back home.

He doesn’t break even — sucks, but no time to be sad about it! Here’s Backpack with her microphone! Look on the goddamn bright side, Phineas!! He still feels his feelings, but does way more than he should to cover them up around other people.

The gala goes well for him, a much needed confidence boost; he takes pride in not accepting handouts. But he doesn’t just say “no thank you,” like episode 3 Phineas might have, he’s offended that Mr. Loxlee expected he would want his help. That would make him weak. Mr. Loxlee clearly just doesn’t get it. This righteous reaction to turning Mr. Loxlee down says more than I realized at first about The Trust’s propaganda that Phin’s been consuming literally since childhood.

Then Spahr basically tells him to stop having social anxiety. Phineas has been feeling so many emotions, asking himself so many questions, trying to put on the Starship Troopers G.I. Joe face this entire time — looking for the answer. Looking for a guiding light to tell him how to be who he’s been told he’s supposed to be. And what answer does Jonas Spahr give to sweet, mild-mannered Phineas Thatch?

Don’t show weakness.

Or else he’s out. Last warning. Is it really that surprising Phineas lashed out against Sherman the way he did?

Spahr is certainly surprised — woah, this is not what he meant. But regardless of his intentions, this is what he fostered. This ruthlessness. This cruelty. This Adsecla who Phineas never would’ve seen himself as back in episode three. “An impulsive fucking idiot.”

“Phineas sees Jonas Spahr. But Jonas Spahr does not see Phineas.”

In more ways than one.

And after finally doing as he was told (to the best of his understanding), Phineas’ mentor, his hero abandons him. He didn’t want to, he never meant for it to go this far. But Phin doesn’t know that.

And now here he is, chewed up and spat out by the system he was born into. After following all the rules, he has become one of the indebted former trustees he was tasked to hunt, with no hope of ever getting back to where he was — let alone breaking even.

This is what propaganda does. This is what toxic masculinity does. This is what a cult does. And it doesn’t happen in a way you can easily see, it slowly simmers until it boils over into something unrecognizably sharp.

Oh, Phineas. I’m rooting for you, buddy.

[lpsgirl109]

This is a post for @just-allovertheplace because they brought up a point on one of my Phin posts and I wish to elaborate

So when I say some of Phin's actions should've been a result of her own ignorance, I dont mean like, all. The attacks against Roxxon should absolutely be done from a place of hate, those fuckees killed her brother and are selling off nuform as a clean energy thing despite Knowing it's harmful. Everything against Roxxon is fine to have been malicious intent

What I mean with that post is I feel there should've been an emphasis on Phin not really thinking about the damage her attacks may cause to innocent people until after the fact. She's not putting civilians in harm's way just for shits and giggles, Roxxon is her first priority and her grief sort of blinds her to how she may be hurting others in the process. The reason I like to add her warning the people at the rally to run is that the fandom Loves using that scene to call Phin a horrible person for putting Rio in danger. And in my honest opinion, some of that can be equated to bad writing, since Phin is sort of all over the place in terms of her actions. I can definitely word this better when I finish my replay of the game but like, there's moments where the narrative villainizes her a bit Too much and it leads to people hating her more than sympathizing with her, which really doesn't work when the point of her arc was to make the player feel bad for her by the end, not cheer for her death.

This is why it works better for me if she's going into these attacks clouded by her own rage and not entirely understanding the consequences until after it has been done. She doesn't want to hurt innocent people, she wants to hurt Roxxon. She just doesn't realize innocent people Did get hurt until the action is already done. And one could say I'm watering her down and making her less evil or some shit, but I also do this because I don't really like how her or the Underground are handled in the game. You have to tread carefully when playing with the "character figting worse character is Doing It Wrong and is therefore just as bad" trope, especially in the context of the 'worse character' being a corrupt rich asshole in charge of a corrupt company who is knowingly making people extremely sick with his product just so he can sell it. And the game uses this trope pretty poorly, with how horrible Phin and the Underground are portrayed. The Underground is a literal terrorist organization and Phin herself shows no care for the people she hurts in the process of taking down Roxxon. She doesn't even care that the Underground is getting sick from handling the nuform, and that's a scene that really Icks me because there are Connotations behind saying the black girl trying to fight a huge corrupt organization that killed her brother has become no better than the white man who owns said organization and just about takes Pleasure in what he's doing. I really hope this is not a hot take and I am not the only one who thinks this.

Anyway, that's largely why in my rewrite, I tone down both Phin and the Underground a bit. If they were the only villains in the game and weren't fighting any sort of higher power, I'd probably be fine with them the way they are. It's the fact that their goal is to stop a large organization from harming the city with their product, and are written as terrorists who don't care about the innocent people they hurt that makes me look at them and go Hm. This was not handled well. At all. It's why in my opinion, Phin works best if her attacks are never meant to hurt innocent people, rather she's sort of in over her head and didn't think about the damage she'd be causing until it was too late. And like this also checks out when you remember she is an 18 year old girl, yeah she's gonna fuck up. Girliepop never even made it to her 20s /ref

Anyway this has been an episode of Peg Speaks

[dxrkenedheights]

where: the ascend program

with: phineas belcourt and ines alvarez @rviner

★・・・・・・★

"Do you think?" Phin sounds subtly offended at Linda's remark, the admin staff he relays ideas to. Not that he needs anybody's input except for his own, but Phin likes to kill some time at work by meandering through the offices. "I think this might be our first argument, oh no." he teases the woman with a light tone as he takes a glance over his shoulder. And then another when his eyes land on who stands behind him. He doesn't know her name, but Phineas isn't ashamed to admit that he's noticed her a few times. Sometimes when she's leaving a practice room in a leotard and...well, there's only so many words for that sight. "Sorry, am I in your way?" he offers her a polite grin, stepping aside so she can move closer to the desk.

This close up and Phineas can see exactly why his subconscious has sought finding the little gymnast, just casually, of course, when he's at work. Hoping to see her. In a leotard, mostly. But the freckles dotted over her nose and cheeks bring a different sort of smile to his face. Of course, it helps that she's also in a leotard right now. "Here, I want your opinion, too. Since Linda isn't being cooperative. It's our first domestic." Phineas shoots a kind wink to the staff but his attention moves to the gymnast. "What sounds better? Dinner and drinks and dancing, or just drinks and dancing? Open bar sort of thing. And yes, I will completely judge you on the answer."

[rappaccini]

Why do you think that Silk and Gwen are going to be a couple in the game?

alright here's the thing. i don't think they will be. i'm hoping they will be.

hear me out:

insomniac has already confirmed that gwen stacy exists in the insomniacverse, is alive, and has never met peter.

gwen exists, and is still alive in the present timeline. which means they either intend to use her at some point in the future, or they want to leave the door open for that possibility.

gwen has no platonic history with peter parker. which means the door's open for her to be introduced as a part of another character's supporting cast.

gwen has no romantic history with peter parker. and since he and mj are pretty set in stone at this point, that means the door's open for her to be with someone else.

2. insomniac knows about spider-gwen and at one point had plans to put her in the games.

yes, the multiplayer spiderverse game concept with her as a lead character was scrapped.

but they know there's a gwen stacy with spider powers. they know she's a rock musician. they might know some other things about her too, like that ghost-spider is queer.

and depending on how developed that concept was before it's scrapped, they might have models of gwen already created. we definitely know they have concept art of her because we've seen it. maybe they could still put those to use.

but we almost certainly would not be getting spider-gwen. that would take the spotlight away from cindy. we'd be getting a civilian gwen (or a wild reinterpretation of her a la harry being venom or phin mason being the tinkerer, which can't be speculated on because we have no proof that it'd happen).

3. insomniac has created the perfect opportunity to introduce gwen in ism3.

this is the first and only time miles has been interested in music production. i guess it makes for more dynamic minigames, and his character's so early in his history that as they were developing him, certain aspects of his story were still being figured out (his stem path has always been math, but he's a writer in the comics, a producer in the games, and an artist in the movies). but the point is: he's about to go to college for music production.

you know who else is into music? spider-gwen.

you know who knows spider-gwen is a musician and at one point had plans to put a version of her in a game? insomniac.

gwen stacy already has a history of being introduced as spider-man's classmate. in the comics, as peter's empire state study partner. and in the spiderverse movies, as miles's visions classmate.

4. miles already has a girlfriend.

this girlfriend, hailey cooper, is an original creation of insomniac's. and the studio clearly loves her. they wouldn't have put so much care into her characterization and subplot if they were just going to throw her away, and she is being intentionally set up as miles's mj.

she's the girl who chooses a similar career path as he does (mj's a journalist to peter's photographer; hailey's the artist to miles's producer).

she knows his secret identity and is supporting him. (as early as mm, she's protecting him from being exposed, and she's someone he confides in in ism2.)

she's the love interest in his civilian friend trio (miles-hailey-ganke = peter-mj-harry)

she gets playable time in the game.

miles and hailey's relationship had two games' worth of buildup, and they only just got together at the very end of ism2. it would be a waste to suddenly break them up right after we saw them become a couple for a new girl who's never been in the story until now.

if gwen is in ism3, it's more likely that she won't be miles's love interest than that she will. it would be just as weird as gwen dating peter out of nowhere.

5. insomniac's been surprisingly great with representation

their depiction of characters of color has been solid-- both side characters and miles. they immediately acted on letting miles become spider-man, gave him a whole game all about his origin story where he doesn't play second fiddle to peter at all, and ism2 let miles be equal to peter in their relationship and the narrative itself in a way no other version of their relationship has matched.

their depiction of female characters is excellent. mj, aunt may, black cat, yuri, hailey, phin and rio are all written and animated with dignity and complexity. we've had girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, mother figures, friends, acquaintances, anti-heroes and villains. a female hero being revealed as the new co-protagonist of the third game was the logical next step... and they actually did it.

they even gave miles a black disabled girlfriend whose deafness isn't the most important thing about her, incorporated her disability into her side mission, and spent two games getting them together. who the hell saw that coming?!

they've also been good with their queer rep. we've had spider-man doing a side-mission where he helps a gay promposal. we've had black cat being explicitly confirmed as bi, and that she has a girlfriend. the logical next step is adding a queer person to the main ensemble.

6. insomniac likes reinterpreting canon to improve the narratives they want to tell

in spider-man, they made a doc ock storyline far more emotional than anyone expected. and they ended by revealing that miles is becoming a spider-man.

in miles morales, miles gets an origin story where peter isn't stealing his thunder at all, we're totally immersed in his supporting cast and community, and his antagonist is a genderbent racebent reinterpretation of the tinkerer whose relationship with miles is a mix of the liz allan, gwen stacy and felicia hardy dynamics-- and therefore they have a fresh original dynamic that's unique to miles-- who dies without being fridged and has a best-of-enemies redemption twist at the end.

they took the best bits of best of enemies, kraven's last hunt, and the black suit arc and made something genuinely fresh and exciting out of it for ism2.

when everyone assumed miles was going to date gwen, insomniac decided to create an original love interest for miles who's a black deaf girl, and double down on her by giving hailey a full subplot with a playable section that's all hers, and even incorporates her disability, in ism2.

when everyone assumed that if ism3 was going to introduce a female spider-hero, that it would be gwen, they made it cindy instead.

they're already reworking cindy's origin story to make her miles's stepsister. cindy moon's mother and brother are being reworked in ism into her stepmother and stepbrother.

what else might they change?

7. insomniac needs to protect cindy from being sexualized

people have a knee-jerk negative reaction to cindy because of just how hated her origin story is. we do not want to see peter and cindy go into a misogynistic, orientalist pheromone-induced sex frenzy.

remember all those 'keep her away from peter' comments when cindy was revealed? they were about that. it's been ten years and we're still grossed out.

insomniac doesn't seem likely to go that route because their track record with female characters and characters of color has been pretty good.

they're already making changes that look like they're to protect her from that plotline and reassure the audience that they won't do it: cindy seems like she's going to be about miles's age instead of peter's, she's attached to his cast instead of peter's, and her dad's dating miles's mom so she automatically has a stepsibling relationship with him (and since peter's like a brother figure to miles, that may transfer to cindy too). if peter tries anything with her, it'll be gross. if miles tries anything with her, even grosser. years before the game's even out, insomniac's telling you "these characters are siblings."

you know what the next brick in the wall keeping cindy from being shipped with miles and peter is? making her uninterested in dating men at all

and one thing about cindy from the comics is that she's always had far more chemistry with women than men

especially felicia hardy... who exists in this universe, is canonically bisexual... and has left new york to be with her french girlfriend. so she's unavailable.

you know what would seal the deal? giving her a relationship people will be so excited about that they won't care the game isn't shipping her with one of the guys.

peter has a long-lasting committed partner in mj. miles has a new girlfriend in hailey. it would be stranger for cindy to be single than for her to get a love interest too.

and you know who also keeps getting oversexualized and forced into relationships with spider-men, who has a sapphic variant who insomniac definitely knows about and has created the perfect opportunity to introduce in ism3? gwen stacy.

(you know the best way to make it absolutely clear that they're not shipping gwen and miles, should gwen appear in ism3? friendzone, gayzone and stepbrozone him all at once by making her his sister's girlfriend. i don't doubt the gwileses will find a way to ship it anyway, but they'll be making clowns of themselves.)

8. what's the plot of insomniac spider-man 3 even going to entail?

aside from peter starting to settle down with mj and inevitably coming out of his extended break from being spider-man and miles going to college, dating hailey and having to figure out how to be The Main Spider-Man with his own new hero to mentor...

the introduction of cindy moon as a new hero and the green goblin as a new villain are the biggest story points.

yes, doc ock is coming back too, and carnage might show up. they're probably getting a sinister six-type lineup together for this one. but norman's going to be the main antagonist.

as the new co-lead, cindy needs to be the character who has the decisive hero moment during the climax, the same way miles did in ism2 when peter was indisposed.

and cindy needs a personal stake in defeating the green goblin. how's she going to get one if they've never interacted before? how's it going to match the personal history norman has with peter and miles? what could possibly give us that emotional investment?

what green goblin stories are getting adapted, and how might they be reinterpreted?

one of the most famous spider-man stories involving the green goblin is the death of gwen stacy.

and insomniac has hinted that they have plans for gwen. they've shown that they know about the variant of gwen who's a queer musician. they've created the perfect situation to introduce that kind of gwen variant into the story. they have both miles and peter in happy, well-established relationships with other women. they've already demonstrated a commitment to including well-developed marginalized characters and they step it up with each game. they've already shown that they like to take classic spider-man stories and reinterpret them from the ground-up. they're about to tell a story where cindy has to have the big hero moment, with a villain whose most infamous storyline's biggest emotional impact usually comes from gwen.

do you see it now?

anyway my dream is that miles meets gwen in music class at empire state, they hit it off and become friends, we think we're about to get a gwiles plotline, miles is stressing about how to turn this girl down because she keeps fucking showing up at his place (and met his mom? why would his study partner want to meet his mom?), but then he walks in on her and cindy making out and it turns out she's been trying to get close to his sister the whole time, and literally everyone knew it except miles because he just had broken gaydar. cue miles never living that down. and then cindy beats the g-serum out of norman when he threatens her girlfriend. gwen stacy usually gets a boyfriend and dies, but in this timeline she has a girlfriend and lives. something like that.

i don't expect it to happen. i'm just saying it would be great.

[paintedvanilla]

i’ve been thinking about marla an INSANE amount these last few days. specifically about the relationship between her and the narrator (i love their little toxic frenemie schtick they’ve got going on).

would love to hear some more headcanons for them/ how you’d imagine their relationship progress over the years if you’ve got any🤭

YEASSSSS OKAY HAIIIII PHIN thank you for sending this ask I’m gonna EXPLODE

Okay so like. One of the fics I’m working on (I told you about this on our DM’s…) has to do with Marla and the narrators dynamic immediately after he and Tyler get together and how their friendship actually like. Calcifies into something bearable to him. Because like. Really genuinely prior to this. The narrator could not stand Marla. And then the events of this fic happen and he like. Ctrl alt delete and manually operates his empathy for a few hours and comes out of it being like… actually this woman is my friend. And I care for her. He still acts like a hater to keep up appearances tho.

I think a lot about the way Marla is characterized in the book. Particularly the scene where she’s giving herself cigarette burns and the narrator describes her as a woman who’s afraid to commit to the wrong thing so she doesn’t commit to anything. That makes me want to chew glass. ALSO. IN THE BOOK SHE ACTUALLY HAD CANCER?? I FEEL LIKE THAT WAS KIND OF BRUSHED OVER. BUT ANYWAY.

I’m of the firm belief that the narrator and Marla hang out pretty regularly. She’s the only person the narrator talks to who like… isn’t Tyler. So he can talk to her about things he can’t talk to Tyler about (or just doesn’t want to). This gives him an avenue to bitch about Tyler from time to time (Marla can corroborate his bitching because she’s also dealt with Tyler). But also he talks to her about other stuff. I think she’s the only person who knows he wishes he’d studied literature in school. I think he shares the literary magazines he reads with her and tells her which stories he actually likes (he gatekeeps these from Tyler)

Additionally, Marla talks to him about her stuff. She talks to him about all her boy problems (I love in the book Marla’s “I used to have a boyfriend who…” talk, she has an ex-boyfriend for every occasion and the narrator finds this kind of fascinating). She talks about her home life and her history with him (she’s originally from New Orleans, she wanted to move to New York City but only got as far as Connecticut). They go to the thrift together. They go to lunch together (the narrator pays). Sometimes the narrator goes grocery shopping with her (he still pays).

They talk about sex. They talk about their childhoods. I think the narrators dynamic with Marla reminds him of the dynamic he used to have with his sister, where she’d just talk and he’d just listen. Marla doesn’t care if the narrator doesn’t respond to her, she knows he’s listening.

I think one of the reasons their relationship works so well, and in particular one of the reasons the narrator keeps crawling back to her, is based on one simple foundation: they talk to each other and really listen, they don’t just wait for their turn to speak. They picked that up in the same place, and they always employ it with each other. Tyler sometimes doesn’t do that for the narrator. But marla always does, and the narrator does the same.

They still go to support groups together, sometimes. Marla did drag him to debtors anonymous. Sometimes they go to the testicular cancer group for the sole purpose of catching up with Bob (I think the narrator genuinely likes Bob. Like. As a person). Marla told him that the narrator got himself a boyfriend and he had to jump through hoops explaining that one (he can never admit to this man he never actually had cancer).

Sometimes they go to groups and make up elaborate backstories for one another and use fake names. Marla likes to go and pretend they’re having marital problems, the narrator reluctantly plays along sometimes. They go see movies together. They go to museums together. Like. They’re besties. They bicker, but they’re besties. The narrator would kill for her (or, at the very least, beat a man to the brink of death, castrate him and pull out his molars for her to make into earrings).

[spaceratprodigy]

OCs as Obscure References

Thank you for the tags @darkfire1177 @bokatan @hibernationsuit 💖💕

👇❤💜 Faith, Iris, Maril, AND Poppy 💙🖤👇

Name:

Captain Faith Hawthorne

Animal:

Rat / Bunny / Sprat

Colors:

❤🖤💛

Month:

August

Songs:

Pressure – Billy Joel

Chop Suey! – System of a Down

Autoclave – The Mountain Goats

Angel with a Shotgun – The Cab

I Think We're Alone Now (Cover) – Billie Joe Armstrong

In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

The Longest Time – Billy Joel

Number:

2

Plants:

Peony / Spider Lily

Smells:

vanilla and sweet bakery smells, old books and paper smells, a nice cologne, the smell of the forest when she would go hiking on Earth, gasoline (x)

Gemstone:

Villiaumite / Peridot

Time of Day:

Sunrise / Middle of the Night

Season:

Spring / Autumn

Places:

Fallbrook, Devil's Peak Station, Botanical Lab, Edgewater, Grand Colonial Hotel Penthouse Suite, Purpleberry Orchards

Food:

Empanadas, Rice, Sofrito, Sweets and Pastries, Cheese, Potatoes

Drinks:

Water, Tea, Orange Juice, Milk, Rum

Element:

Fire

Astrological Sign:

Leo

Seasonings:

Adobo, Sazón

Sky:

Full of Stars

Weather:

Warm Spring Day

Weapons:

The Vermin II

Hunting Rifle Hyper

Phin's Phorce (sentimental)

Social Media:

Tumblr

Makeup Product:

Black Nail Polish

Candy:

Dark Chocolate

Method of Long Distance Travel:

Spaceship (via The Unreliable)

Art Style:

Art Nouveau / Baroque

Fear:

loneliness, alcoholism, addiction, abuse, not being good enough, the drastic consequences of failing or not making the "right" choice, how many people she's hurt, never being safe, never being happy, whether or not she's capable of love or being loved back, never finding comfort, her numbness and anger consuming her

Mythological Creature:

Phoenix

Piece of Stationary:

An old, worn, well loved paper. The edges have started turning brown, on it is written all sorts of calculations and schematics that probably only make sense to her, some doodles in the margins where she was lost in thought.

Three Emojis:

⭐🐀📚

Celestial Body:

Cone Nebula / Carina Nebula / Eye of God

Name:

Miss Iris

Animal:

Deer / Bear / Radstag / Yao Guai

Colors:

💜💙🖤❤

Month:

December

Songs:

Invisible Touch – Genesis

Everybody Wants You – Billy Squier

Black Sheep – Metric

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For – U2

I Want You to Want Me – Cheap Trick

Babe – Styx

All Night Forever – TWRP

Number:

4

Plants:

Iris / Forget Me Not / Hyacinth / Lily of the Valley

Smells:

gentle floral scents, wood and sawdust, the smells of spices and nice hearty soups cooking, petrichor (x)

Gemstone:

Rhodolite Garnet / Scorodite

Time of Day:

Sunset

Season:

Winter

Places:

Red Rocket Truck Stop, Sanctuary, Valentine Detective Agency, The Third Rail, Diamond City Radio, Atom Cats Garage

Food:

Soups, Fruits, Veggies, Breads, Breakfast Foods

Drinks:

Coffee, Milkshake, Fruit Juice, Whiskey

Element:

Earth / Water

Astrological Sign:

Sagittarius

Seasonings:

Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Rosemary, Parsley, Coriander

Sky:

Warm Sunset Colors

Weather:

Chilly Jacket Weather

Weapons:

Agamemnon the Fuck Upper (10mm pistol)

Amadeus (rifle)

Le Boom Stick Terribles (combat shotgun)

Social Media:

Pinterest

Makeup Product:

Dark Eyeshadow

Candy:

Chocolate with Caramel / Toffee

Method of Long Distance Travel:

Walking

Art Style:

Rococo / Art Deco / Impressionism

Fear:

losing everything and everyone she loves all over again, not being good enough, not being able to help or save people, causing harm or pain to others, being a burden, never being loved, never being wanted, never being able to free herself, never being able to rebuild a new life with people to love and be loved back by, failing her son, becoming a mother again, failing as a mother again

Mythological Creature:

Siren / Fairy

Piece of Stationary:

A love letter handled with the utmost care. She poured her heart into her elegantly written words. The precision is not lost on you, she wants it known you were worth the time. She signs her name with a lipstick kiss that makes your heart flutter. The parchment smells slightly like her gentle perfume.

Three Emojis:

💋💐🎭

Celestial Body:

Fireworks Galaxy / Pandora's Cluster

Name:

Maril Highwind

Animal:

Crow

Colors:

🖤💙💚💛

Month:

March

Songs:

Shipmeisters' Shanty – Yoko Shimomura

Traverse Town – Yoko Shimomura

The Afternoon Streets – Yoko Shimomura

A Twinkle in the Sky – Yoko Shimomura

Asteroid Attack – Yoko Shimomura

Number:

21

Plants:

Hydrangea / Morning Glory / Sunflower

Smells:

oil, grime, workshop smells, ink, parchment, wood, paint, dusty old books, the smell of food cooking in the Twilight Town Bistro (x)

Gemstone:

Azurite / Malachite

Time of Day:

Early Afternoon

Season:

Summer

Places:

Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion, The Grid, 100 Acre Wood, Twilight Town

Food:

Sea Salt Ice Cream, Sugary Skies Ice Cream, Royalberry Ice Cream, Carrot Potage, Beef Sauté, Tarte aux Fruits

Drinks:

Lemonade, Limeade, Orange Juice, Apple Cider, Hot Chocolate

Element:

Lightning / Air

Astrological Sign:

Aries

Seasonings:

Basil, Oregano, Cumin

Sky:

Clear Blue

Weather:

Perfect Summer Day

Weapons:

Custom Twin Shooters / Rifle

Social Media:

Instagram

Makeup Product:

Sparkly Cosmetic Stars

Candy:

Sour Gummy Worms / Cotton Candy

Method of Long Distance Travel:

Gummi Ship

Art Style:

Futurism / Neon Art

Fear:

abandonment, something bad happing to her family and friends, not being able to protect the people she cares about, the darkness, her world disappearing while she's away

Mythological Creature:

Wyvern / Harpy

Piece of Stationary:

A stack of worn, rolled up scrolls. The dustier ones are filled with spells and runes you're not quite sure how to read. The ones that smell of inks and paints are beautiful illustrations of various gummi ship designs. The newest scrolls are countless blueprints, they are quite fascinating! Many are for building gummi ships, some are for custom weapons and defense systems.

Three Emojis:

✨🛸🤖

Celestial Body:

Cosmos Redshift 7 / Saturn

Name:

Poppy

Animal:

Snake / Deathclaw

Colors:

❤🖤

Month:

May

Songs:

Foreign Object – The Mountain Goats

Choked Out – The Mountain Goats

Raining Blood – Slayer

Light Up the Night – The Protomen

I Am... All Of Me – Crush 40

Want You Gone – Jonathan Coulton

Number:

7

Plants:

Poppy / Bleeding Heart

Smells:

Blood, Filth, Campfire, Mildew, Foul Stench of Death

Gemstone:

Cuprite / Amber

Time of Day:

Evening

Season:

Summer / Autumn

Places:

Nuka-World, Grandchester Mystery Mansion, Pickman Gallery, The Combat Zone, Goodneighbor

Food:

Candies, Jerky, Noodles

Drinks:

Nuka-Cherry, Smoothie, Slushie

Element:

Fire

Astrological Sign:

Gemini

Seasonings:

Paprika, Cinnamon, Crushed Red Pepper

Sky:

Dark and Cloudy

Weather:

Stormy and Slightly Windy

Weapons:

Disciples Blade (from Nisha)

Pickman's Blade

Chain-Wrapped Aluminum Baseball Bat

Triple-Hooked Meat Hook

Social Media:

Twitter

Makeup Product:

Red Lipstick

Candy:

Cherry Flavored Candies

Method of Long Distance Travel:

Walking / Train

Art Style:

Expressionism / Surrealism

Fear:

weakness, not being able to defend herself, being captured or imprisoned in any way, loss of autonomy in any way

Mythological Creature:

Hellhound

Piece of Stationary:

An old, torn, crumpled up piece of paper. It's covered in dirt, or maybe that's soot. Did someone try to burn this? The handwriting is sloppy, but the words tell a story. Perhaps a diary entry. It's hard to read, but it's heartbreaking, desperate. This is something someone had to tell, to get it out of their system. It looks as if they tried to destroy it when they were done but swiftly changed their mind. Maybe, in the end, they hoped someone would find it, someone would know their story, maybe even find comfort in it that they're not alone if they've been forced to endure the same pain.

Three Emojis:

🗡💀🍒

Celestial Body:

Sun / Engraved Hourglass Nebula

–

open tag to anyone who wants to jump in!

[llamamicrowave]

Why I ✨Hate✨ Phin Mason

(any racism will be deleted <3)

In the Miles Morales PS5 game, we are introduced to a new version of the Tinkerer. Originally a one-off villain from the original Spiderman comics, the PS5 game developers try (and fail) to elevate the character.

First off, her personality. In most of the scenes, she is in with Miles, she’s just ruthlessly bullying him, this would be fine if it were a mutual thing but Miles just sits back and takes it?? Her entire personality basically dissolves into an ‘asshole that is better than Miles in every way possible’. The developers make her a weird tech genius, implied to be smarter than Miles and even Peter Parker in some scenes. This choice makes sense with her Tinkerer persona but (in my opinion) they kinda give her Ganke’s original personality and reduce him to a social media guru (refer back to the Thanksgiving scene at the beginning of the game).

In her FIRST SCENE (before we know her as the Tinkerer) she and the Underground attack a Roxon plaza where Miles’ mom Rio is campaigning. At this point, Miles doesn’t know Phin is the Tinkerer but Phin knows for a fact that Rio would be there (once again, refer back to the Thanksgiving scene at the beginning of the game). She is KNOWINGLY putting her friend's (and implied crush) mom at risk along with innocent civilians. And the WORST part of this is that this was completely unnecessary to the Underground's actual goals. Their real target was a truck containing Nuform of the COMPLETE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN, and since Phin is the leader of the Underground SHE chose to send a ton of her men to the rally, all while knowing Miles and Rio would be there. She then, out of costume, apologizes to Miles and blames the attack on Spiderman. HUH????

This bitch is dumb. And I mean that literally, her plan doesn’t make any sense. Despite the developer's attempts to make Phin seem like an evil genius, her entire plan falls apart once you think critically. Her goal is to halt the production of Nuform, a new, dangerous energy source developed by her brother, Rick. Nuform was also responsible for the eventual illness. Keep in mind that this illness didn’t kill him. While trying to destroy all the remaining Nuform, he got electrocuted (I think?) by it and then died in front of Phin.

(Apparently, this whole family is dumb ‘cause who takes a teen girl into a highly secured lab?)

Phin’s plan is constantly changing from the minute she is revealed as the Tinkerer to the final act. At one point Miles tries to warn her of Roxon's plan but she doesn;t take his warning and her entire plan falls to shit. And she has the AUDACITY to blame him for that!

And I haven’t even gotten to when she finds out that Miles is spider man! She accuses him of lying to her (which he was) in order to get access to her DOMESTIC TERRORIST ORGANIZATION! Did Miles lie, yes. But did Phin put innocent civilians at risk, including Rio? Yes! Phin needed to be taken down and she wouldn’t listen to anyone else instead of Miles.

The game wants us to believe that Phin is a sympathetic foil to Miles instead of the aggravating dumbass she really is. We see this in almost every interaction the two have. Miles is painted as a liar who doesn’t deserve a friend like Phin and is constantly apologizing to her, despite Phin being the aggressor and often in the wrong. Where ass Phin is depicted as a misguided girl with good intentions.

This is a problem because the plot of the game depends on Miles and Phin’s relationship, and if we don’t care about that relationship the emotional payoff at the end falls flat. Spoiler alert: the bitch dies. (DING DONG).