#Which isn't much since I haven't really written outside of school

[iobsesswaytoomuch]

Numbing The Pain (or: everyone gets knocked unconscious :D) [Ninjago] 

Soooo.... I kinda wrote a oneshot based on a headcannon by @jinxed-ninjago. I haven't really ever shown my writing to others, so we'll see how it goes. >:)

Cw: injuries, numbness, electrical injury and violence, uhhhhh... Overall angst?

In Jay’s opinion, being injured was less than preferable, for a number of reasons. Being stuck on bedrest every second of every day. Not being able to join the others for dinner as he listened to the laughter and joking echoing down the hall while he stared at the tray of food resting in his lap. 

It wasn’t the other ninja’s fault he was lonely, he just really wished he didn’t have to stay in bed all the time. On the bright side though, he got to play video games all day, and he got out of the usual work to maintain the monastery. After all, nothing like the power of positive thinking!

It was a stupid injury. Why were legs so breakable?

They’d been training, like usual. He didn’t remember much, but he recalled being hit by something, then waking up to his leg in a cast and Cole apologizing profusely. 

Apparently, Cole had accidentally lost control of his powers, and hit Jay with a boulder, causing him to land on top of Kai, unconscious. 

He didn’t blame Cole though. He knew as well as anyone what it was like to lose control. It made him think of when they used to fight over Nya, as Cole had apologized. It was strange how far they’d come from that.

A sudden crash startled him out of his thoughts. More followed after that, banging and thudding and shouting. He heard the others rushing to meet the cacophony, and resisted the urge to leap out of bed and join them. They could handle it without him, and he’d (grudgingly) promised to stay put. 

The sounds of fighting resounded through the room, and he grit his teeth. They’d be fine. He wondered what the heck was attacking them this time. The serpentine again? Nindroids? Maybe Garmadon had somehow come back again and was attacking? Some other random villain they’d never even heard of before? The questions raced through his mind like a river as he listened to the combat growing closer. 

Abruptly, his thoughts were once again interrupted as Cole was thrown through the air, crashing against the wall beside him and crumpling as his yell broke off upon impact.

“COLE!!” Jay screamed as he slumped to the floor. “Hey, I already passed out this week! Don’t tell me you’re stealing my thunder,” he tried to mask his wrangled nerves with humor, but Cole didn’t answer. 

“Oookay, so this is bad,” he mumbled to himself shakily as he considered his options. He could sit here and listen as the rest of his family was potentially defeated and/or hurt. He could try to help Cole (who hadn’t stirred yet but that was fine it’d be fine) somehow, without injuring himself more. Or, he could ignore his stupid broken leg and the pain that would undoubtedly follow, and go help them fight. 

As he debated, Zane decided to join the party and hurtled into the room, landing on top of Cole. As his motion stilled, Jay gasped and held back a second scream as he took in the damage. 

Half of Zane’s face looked as if it had been chewed on by a large, feral dog, ripped apart and unveiling the robotic parts underneath. One of his arms was missing, and there were open gouges displaying sparking circuits and wires, making sharp buzzing sounds. His eyes flickered as he spoke.

“S-system-m mal- mal-function- circuits-s ove-er loadd-ded-” his voice glitched before his eyes went dark and his body still. 

Jay stared, open-mouthed, before he made a decision. Jolting upright, he leapt to his feet. Or at least tried to. As soon as any tension was put onto his foot, instant agony engulfed him, and he collapsed back onto the bed. Clenching his jaw tightly, he breathed through the pain as it slowly subsided the tiniest bit. 

“C’mon Jay… You can do this!” he said, voice wavering, before trying again.

The pain was worse this time. His teeth grated against each other as his breathing became labored, but he managed to keep his footing this time. White hot knives felt like they were slicing up his leg, eventually getting so bad that it went numb.

“Well. That’s not good,” he said to the empty air as his voice quivered more. It still hurt, but now more like pins and needles gently poking him. Within a few more seconds, a lot of the feeling in his leg subsided, but he couldn’t stand any longer. Sagging against the bed, he slid to the floor. Now that he was off his foot, it started throbbing, making spots cloud his vision for a moment. 

As he looked across the room at Zane and Cole (both still unresponsive, but at least Cole’s chest was rising and falling), an idea struck him.

“Huh… circuits… nerve circuits,” he said out loud as the idea developed. Sure, it was a very very stupid idea and could very well lead to bad results. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and by the First Master he wasn’t going to stand by! The shouting had intensified in volume, and he could make out the panicked voices of the other ninja. Besides, he and the others joked that his second elemental power was stupid ideas. That was his thing!

Mind still fuzzy from the aching torture he’d experienced moments before, he remembered Zane once infodumping about how nerves operated on electrical signals from the brain, and that when overloaded, could be numbed to pain (wow, he’d actually remembered that! See, he did pay attention, Kai).

Well. He was the master of lightning and therefore electricity after all. 

“Oh boy. I’m definitely getting yelled at later for this,” he said under his breath as he closed his eyes and focused.

How was he going to do this? Could he even do this? Was it possible to shock himself? He’d never tried before, but had been shocked by other lightning on occasion.

He thought about it as he concentrated on his power. Using his element was like sneezing; almost instinctual, quick, and slightly jarring, pushing it outside of himself. So… he’d have to reverse that. Ignoring the feeling in his gut that this was going to be very terrible, he shoved the growing anxiety down.

Taking a slow, deep breath, he imagined he was inhaling electricity as well as oxygen, and it being distributed through his nerves. 

A slight tingling sensation started circulating throughout his body, and he tried it again.

A blue glow emanated from him for a second behind his eyelids, sparking.

Then everything stopped.

The throbbing hadn’t just faded away. It was completely gone. Abruptly and instantly. And it wasn’t just the throbbing either; all feeling was absent. As he opened his eyes, he discovered that he couldn’t feel his clothes rubbing against his skin, the cold floor he was sitting on, the air stirring around him; it was all gone.

“Was this how Cole felt when he was a ghost?” Jay wondered, marveling at the numbness (and slightly panicking. He desperately hoped this could be reversed later).

Getting to his feet, this time without the agony part of it, he glanced back at his unconscious brothers one last time, then sprinted out the door and down the hallway, ignoring the way his foot crunched with every footfall. Doors blurred past him as he followed the sound of voices, now reduced to an alarmingly quiet level. There was no commotion anymore, sound just as absent as sensation. He drew nearer, then skidded around a corner and out into the training yard to observe the devastation that had transpired.   

Wooden practice dummies had been splintered and broken apart, scattered everywhere. Sparring targets and weapons had been mutilated, somehow embedded into the walls and ground like shrapnel. Burn and scorch marks littered the scene, a part of the monastery wall crumbling. The sky was a deep gray, casting long shadows.

About thirty enemies were scattered around, standing at attention with their backs to Jay and seemingly waiting for something. Or someone. They wore dark, blood red kasas that cast their faces into shadow, obscuring them. White robes accented with blacks and oranges flowed around them, with brass cuffs wrapped around their wrists. Glowing gold fire designs engraved into the cuffs were arranged artistically to resemble flames wrapping around each other. Sleek black, braided hair fell down to their waists, with vivid, fiery ribbons interwoven into them. He guessed they were all female warriors. They stared straight ahead, toward the gate and eerily motionless. The voices he had followed were whispers, drifting and tangling with each other in the air and incomprehensible. It made the hair stand up on the back of his neck, but he shook it off. 

Frantically, he cast his gaze around the yard, until he finally spotted the others. They were all dumped over in the corner, bodies splayed across the ground and faces contorted with pain, yet their eyes were closed and they all lay inert. After studying them for a moment, he noted with relief that they were all breathing.

Rage boiled inside of him, and his face hardened. 

No one. Did. That. To the people he loved. 

He turned back to the warriors spaced around the yard that still had not moved, hardly noticing the electricity starting to spark around his hands.

His emotions felt amplified. Stronger. His fury grew, consuming every other thought in his mind. 

He started vibrating as the neon static spread from his hands to circulate and jerk around his body, intertwining ropes of blinding blues and whites.

Lightning flashed around his feet as he took slow, deliberate steps.

Finally, the enemies turned, and instantly and simultaneously crouched into fighting stances, raising various weapons.

Too bad for them, that did nothing but amplify the surge he finally let loose. 

Sharp, blue-white cords arced toward each opponent, turning the air white and scorching. No sound escaped them as one by one, the strands of lightning hit them, causing their bodies to convulse. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement from the direction of the others, but paid no heed.

He ignored the way his body was steaming, and searched deeper as the unfortunate warriors still spasmed, unable to move and leave the current that he was feeding. There was no way he could stop now. He’d opened a door, and a thousand-pound waterfall had come gushing out. 

He searched deeper still, disregarding the horrifying scene as he tapped into the energy stored within himself that he had put there in the first place.

Instinctively, hardly acknowledging what he was doing, he wrapped it into a twisted, contorted ball, then pushed everything out.

When it finally ran out, satiated, the air returned to normal.

Thuds echoed around the now-silent training yard, as each female warrior crumpled and hit the ground, steam spiraling from their clothes and skin.

Everything was bleached white, except for a small circle around the other ninja, where they lay untouched.

Nya was propped up on her arms, head lifted to gaze at Jay. He couldn’t tell what emotion it portrayed. There was admiration, and affection. But fear and horror was also painted across her face, and it pained him to know that he was the reason for it. She started to stand up, but Jay couldn’t think anymore.

Feeling had come back.

Everywhere was in excruciating anguish. His hands and arms were burned, with protruding raised zigzags of scorched skin beginning to turn red. He stumbled, wincing as he was suddenly very aware of his leg again.

“Nya. I-I’m sorryh…” he trailed off as his knees gave out.

“JAY!” she yelled as she dashed over to him, catching him before his head could hit the ground.

The last thing he remembered was being encircled by her arms as muffled shouts rose up around him. Trusting Nya to take care of him, his eyes shut, and he drifted off into oblivion, chasing away the agony.

Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Just unconscious :)

[the-badger-mole]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well. I saw some of your How I Met Your Mother posts, and that got me a little intrigued, because I watched that show and was stumped by its ending.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you, also inspired by YouTube videos of the show, do you think having that fixed endpoint was wrong? Because some of the videos make it seem that if the show was to end by season 2, then that made ending made sense, but extending it to nine seasons, it would have been better to change the ending. Also, one other thing I found is that even if Ted did show up outside Robin's house as the end, there is no chance of a happy ending there because they never really got those issues that caused them to break-up to be resolved at all. Just because Ted and Robin's respective goals are achieved does not mean the issues probably won't be there.

I would like your thoughts on this.

Having a fixed endpoint for a story is tricky. I'm not saying it should never be done, but up until the last season or 2 of HIMYM, the writing was so well done, so careful to remember plot threads and foreshadowings and running gags that it set up in earlier episodes. They wrote characters and relationships that felt real, and made the audience care, and yet, they couldn't pull off the ending they'd written almost a decade earlier.

I agree with the take that the ending they wrote could only have worked if the show ended in season 2. And it's their own fault. They did far too good a job showing why Ted and Robin didn't work. Then they did too good a job showing why Robin and Barney DID work. I started wanting to see the two of them end up together from the first season (although, I do maintain that Robin being single would've been a great ending for her, too). The one episode that I think should've clued the writers in that their endgame pair didn't work any more was "Baby Talk". Specifically the talk that Robin has with Ted, where he complains that she didn't make him feel needed during their relationship, and then her conversation with Barney where he tells her she didn't make him feel needed during their relationship, and that was awesome. The reason why Ted and Robin ultimately didn't work isn't just because they had a difference of opinion about having kids, or career plans. They were fundamentally incompatible personality-wise. That's not a failing on either of their parts, but it is irreconcilable. In the end of the show Ted has his kids and they're nearly grown, and Robin has been able to travel for her career, but their personalities haven't changed much. Ted still wants a fairytale ending, and Robin is still fiercely independent and doesn't need him (and btw, she isn't even that old. She'll probably still be traveling, which I doubt Ted will appreciate since it'll still mean either giving up his career and proximity to his kids who seem to still be in high school and will need support through college, or staying home and having a long distance relationship with a woman who is probably meeting a lot of interesting and interested people without him. His jealousy issues could NEVER).

Having a set ending can work. I've written fics where I knew exactly how I wanted them to end, so I know it can work. But i also know that sometimes the plot or the characters can develop in ways that make the ending no longer fit the story, and a writer has to be able to be flexible with that, even if it hurts that you don't get the ending you wanted originally. The creators of HIMYM wrote themselves into a box. When the ending didn't fit the story or the characters, they regressed everyone involved in order to make the story fit the ending, and the result was...bad.

[phantomoftheorpheum]

PLL: OS (Summer School) 2x07 thoughts

*Spoilers for 2x01-2x07 of Summer School + the trailer for the final 3 episodes.

Okay, this is it, y'all, the last chance to make any predictions! I suspect this is going to be very long.

Unfortunately I have a lot going on rn, so I'm pretty exhausted and I fear this will not be my best, but I'm going to do my best to push through the brain fog. If I struggle with expressing my thoughts, at least you'll know why.

I think, for the final analysis of the season (I will post something about 2x08, but it will probably be a much shorter post, since I don't anticipate doing much speculating [outside of loose threads]) I'm going to break things down by girl, but fully go through every character most closely linked to each girl, then move on to stuff that doesn't fit well in those categories. Okay, let's do this. I hope you're ready for overthinking. (P.S. there are weird breaks in the formatting because of tumblr's limits of how long a single block of text can be).

Faran

I'm starting with Faran because she is both my personal favorite, and because I think she may be the simplest to talk about. So while it does feel like Faran's gotten to grow this season, a lot of her story is really an internal journey for her character development, and I think a lot of it isn't super directly linked to the BR plot. Despite her character getting a lot of physically strenuous scenes, I think her confidence/emotional strength was what was really tested this season. So like I said, aside from being linked to the church through the characters outside of the girls that she interacts with the most, Faran doesn't feel super tied in to the BR motive. I've really enjoyed Faran this season (and relate to a lot of aspects of her personality), but her story does feel a bit peripheral to the main events of the season (which is fine, tying to deeply tie villain motivations back to each of the girls in this plot seems like a lot. It worked with their moms, but would be harder to do repeatedly). That being said, there are characters and plot lines attached specifically to her, so let's take a look at those.

Henry - I think he's irrelevant. He was mentioned one time this episode. I think this is just a character (or maybe more the relationship) they just wanted to cycle out. He's felt doomed (figuratively speaking) all season, and if he doesn't make any kind of appearance in 2x08, that doesn't feel like a loose thread. I've never hated or loved Henry (and I think that's a bit of the problem and the reason they've basically written him out), he's just kinda there. And now he's just kinda not there. If they have a third season, I could see him possibly making very minor appearances (depending on the availability of the actor), but it does just feel like the show is pretty done with him. Considering his connections to Kelly's church, it is possible he "sold the girls out" in some way, but that just feels unnecessarily complicated, tbqh. This is probably the last time I will talk about him at all, unless he pops up in an important way next episode.

Coach Rhodes & Stringbean - It feels like this storyline was here to close out Faran's arc of finding herself and feeling confident/comfortable in her strength, both physically and mentally. Obviously Coach Rhodes has Faran's number, and they still haven't explained the info showing up on SpookySpaghetti, but that always felt like a distraction anyway (Coach Rhodes, I mean). I'll be surprised if he has any kind of important role.

Greg - I guess it's time for me to really talk about Greg, because I've mentioned him and Faran/Greg a little over the course of the season, but mostly in passing. It now feels like it's time. Listen... Greg is (I think) in my mind benefitting massively from the fact that I didn't bother to rewatch season 1, because I don't think I have as many negative feelings about him as people who that season was fresh for. I barely remember him in season 1, so I've forgotten a lot of the stuff he said/did, so basically season 2 Greg exists in my mind by himself. BUT, please don't get me wrong, he is still annoying and problematic and I think they've rushed (and cut) key stuff they really needed for a good redemption arc for a character like him. And I do think he needs a redemption arc if they want to move forward with him as a protagonist, even a background one. In the scheme of the show, sure, Greg is probably not the literal worst (I don't think he's murdering anybody, anyway), but the show has also made him intentionally an example of toxic masculinity, misogyny, etc. etc. etc. and because the show has chosen to center a lot of these topics, then ignoring that Greg has spent the majority of his screen time as an embodiment of all those things, just having him say a few "Sorry, I'm better now," kind of lines just doesn't cut it, imo. I actually really respect the idea of taking an incredibly privileged, toxic, and even harmful character and deconstructing them, to show that it's hard and it's a process and that people can change, but it's not easy to unlearn all that stuff. It can be fascinating, and also a reminder that, as hard as it might be for us to like someone like Greg, the message that "once a shitty person, not always a shitty person," is ultimately, if executed thoughtfully, a positive. So yeah, I think that kind of storyline can be done well, but it takes time, which is something this show lacks in a lot of ways (lots of characters, lots of elements, very few episodes). Personally, I think they should have played the long game with Greg, if they really wanted to turn him into a protagonist and possible love interest. I don't know why they wouldn't, except maybe that he's going to be sacrificed to add to the body count of the finale and so they knew they didn't have time to do a developed arc with him.

Faran/Greg as a ship - If you told me I had to write a follow up to season 1 and make Greg a love interest for Faran, here's what I would have pitched- Use season 2 to show that he's questioning things and people around him (maybe we introduce his gay cousin [I know that was a Riverdale reference, but that could have been anyone] who's visiting for the summer and he's someone Greg already loves/respects who calls out his inappropriate comments and toxic masculinity). Show him listening and absorbing the thoughts/behavior of the people that he's now surrounded by (his cousin at home, Faran and Ash [and Shawn if he existed enough to be anything] at work), instead of his usual group of friends from school. Show him becoming unsatisfied and embarrassed with the way that he's been acting. Make him realize, now that he's starting to open his mind a bit, that he does really respect Faran, shown through interactions of them working together. Have them clash at the beginning of the season, but also have them talk and have friendlier moments, because they're stuck together at work and there's a lot of just sitting around, basically. Let us, the audience, watch him change, while Faran maybe doesn't see it that much, because the change is slow. If you have to have Faran/Greg "romance" in season 2, make it casual. Faran will have spent enough time with Greg by mid-season that she's friendly-ish with him, but after her breakup with Henry, she's just looking for a FWB kind of situation and, now that she's seen a slightly better side of him, she thinks Greg's kinda hot. She sees him shirtless all day, she finds that their bickering has evolved into less serious topics and now it's evolved into some sexual tension, she doesn't see him as a real romantic option, but he and Kelly are broken up (which I would have had happen earlier), so why not? Get them to a point by the end of season 2 where you've set up a "he's completely smitten with her, but she thinks it's just casual and it doesn't even occur to her they could be a real couple," dynamic for season 3. If you get a season 3, great. If you don't, that's okay, too. That way, you still get your ship in season 2 (and it's PLL, they tend to have to have their ships), but it doesn't feel entirely unsupported, and you can continue to have that relationship evolve into something deeper, OR you can have it fall apart easily, whichever direction you want to go if you get renewed because there's groundwork for either (scenario one, Faran develops feelings, scenario two, she doesn't and realizes he has and that ends things). So that would have been my pitch if you told me I have to try to make this ship work (would I have pitched this ship in the first place? no, I wouldn't have, but that won't stop me from trying to retroactively work out how it could have been handled), anyway.

As it is, I really don't get the Faran/Greg thing from a pacing/storytelling/character POV. I get the tropes that they're leaning into with this relationship. I get that there's limited time. I think I entirely get what the intent was. I just don't think they've done enough with Greg's character or his relationship with Faran to support where we are now with them. Mostly. I said last week that I thought it was good they cut the 2x06 kiss, because while I could see where they were trying to go with things, it just didn't feel like they'd managed to actually get those characters to a place where it makes sense, but now I kind of want to take that back because I think this felt even weirder? Like I don't know what was said in the 2x06 conversation that led to a kiss, or what other Faran/Greg content they might have cut from earlier in the season, but I just didn't feel like they'd had enough legitimately friendly interactions (yeah, Greg apologized to her that one time, but they've not really talked about anything of substance with each other, ever) for them to suddenly be legit hanging out and hooking up. When Greg said, "You know why," I thought to myself- Yeah, I do, but what if I didn't know about the cut kiss from 2x06 and/or I haven't been paying that much attention to the show, would I? That conversation makes a lot more sense with the context of that not being the first time they've kissed, but since that scene was cut, I guess it canonically is and hhdfjshfkjsdfs. Because romance is not central to the plot, and you have 5 main characters, this is the perfect opportunity to plan multi-season romantic arc that doesn't ruin anything if it's not resolved, and I just think they should have taken that. Y'all, I want to be very clear that my critiques of the show come from a place of fun for me. I like thinking about how things that I believe are particularly weak elements could have been different. If I weren't enjoying myself, I wouldn't be watching, and I definitely wouldn't be making posts like this. So when I say I think something is done poorly, that doesn't mean that I'm horribly upset or I don't like the show. I just like talking about what could be done better. The only time I am legitimately annoyed (and it's more frustration than anything) is when I feel like I just cannot understand what/why/how the creative decisions were made. I don't think Faran/Greg has been handled particularly well (too fast, too unsupported, not enough change on Greg's part, etc.), but I do think I understand what the intent/goal was, in this case, and so it doesn't bother me as much as it easily could.

Kelly

I'm giving Kelly her own section this time, and I think it makes sense for it to follow Faran's, since their plots are tied together this season.

Kelly's actions are quite interesting to me this episode. She seems to be genuinely investigating the Bloody Rose plot, and she seems genuinely suspicious of her mother. And also she could be dead now. (I do not think Kelly is dead, because if she is, then Faran didn't have to find her right away. I assume Faran will be able to save her, tying up the "Faran rescuing people from drowning," arc).

The question remains- is Kelly genuine? She does a lot of things in this episode that point to "she doesn't know what's going on," like calling Sandy's mom and asking where she is, questioning her mom about who she blames for Karen's death, locking her mom up and fleeing her house. All these things are consistent with actions a character would take if they don't know what's going on and are trying to find out.

My problem with this is... I think that there is a plan from the BR team (I'm calling it a team, because I think it's minimum 2 people and likely 3 or more) to frame someone (or someones) for the Bloody Rose attacks, so also all of those actions (along with a possibly faked attack intentionally witnessed by Faran) could be part of Kelly setting up her mother as a fall guy (so in this scenario, Kelly is playing out the "concerned friend & investigator" role by doing things like calling Sandy's parents to establish actions that would make her seem innocent). When you think about it, it would make sense. A lot of the BR stuff ties back to the church, which her mother has a major role in. Whoever BR is, they were able to convince people that their victims are still alive and not trigger a murder investigation or search parties. Whoever BR is, they are covering their tracks. Mrs. Beasley would be a great fall guy if Kelly were involved, and Mrs. Beasley is abusive towards Kelly, giving her motivation to frame her.

So, for that reason, I haven't cleared Kelly from my list. That being said, her behavior this episode does more likely point to her innocence, as it's a simpler explanation and allows her to stay in the show as a sometimes protagonist, sometimes antagonist. I also think this episode makes it pretty difficult to think Mrs. Beasley and Kelly are involved. If they were, a lot of their conversations don't make any sense.

However, if Kelly is involved, I can't help but wonder if her BR attack was staged (I mean, she may really be injured à la Billy and Stu) because she was tipped off about the girls beginning to close in a bit by Faran's conversation with her. She could also be pissed at Faran for her thing with Greg (though since the show seems to have cut a lot of that, it's probably not that important to the plot) if she somehow found out about that.

Mrs. Beasley is obviously incredibly suspicious at this point, but since PLL properties favor twist villains, she may very well be too suspicious. She blames the girls for what happened to Karen (and what warped thinking, that this happened to Karen because of the video is. Ma'am Karen's doom did not start with a video, it started when your husband r**ed Angela), which is certainly motive. She also specifically ties Karen's death to The Orpheum, which is another arrow pointing at Tabby's storyline. Anyway, obviously she's growing roses (but literally anybody could go cut some) and she's connected to the church and we know she's hurting Kelly, so... But those reveals are all pre-finale, and also all of those things would be a great way to frame her.

The timing of Kelly's attack is difficult to pinpoint. It looked like it was daylight when she locked Mrs. Beasley up, and Kelly is attacked after dark. It's not totally clear, but I think the only side characters with alibis during this particular attack are (actual Rose, Mouse's grandmother, Shawn, & Greg). Since I believe that there may be multiple people dressing up as Bloody Rose, this isn't really helpful. (Finally a BR attack where it seems like Shawn has an alibi, though).

Mouse

This is probably going to be a pretty short section, since Mouse doesn't have a ton going on, though there are some interesting implications in her story this episode.

So... how did Mouse get exposed on SpookySpaghetti? It still feels like there's someone with inside info on the girls (phone numbers, their redemption house info, now this), but as far as we know the only character who knows Mouse made the Angela video is Ash. Are we supposed to believe people just recognized her/her voice (which tbf, was not particularly disguised)? Or was the laptop she was brought a trap? (or even if it wasn't, could someone have remote access to Mouse's computers?) Is someone tracking her digital info, and possibly even watching her through her webcams? It's interesting because we've only seen this happen once, but Mouse accepted that video chat with Bloody Rose, so could the point of that have been for Rose to gain access to her computer? That's never come back around.

Speaking of Mouse's computer, we did meet her "computer teacher" this episode, and he is clearly a character who would be capable of all that, but it feels waaaay too late for an important introduction.

Ash - Again, I don't have a lot to say here. The fact that he knew about the Angela video does look not great for him, particularly with the leaked phone numbers, since he's someone who probably had all the new numbers at that point. The girls say they didn't give the numbers to anyone, but I think they mean new people, because they were all still talking to their boyfriends, so I assume they were excluding people they really trust. But... I just don't see how Ash fits in as a good villain for this season. He's been very background and the biggest part of his story is Pride vs Hell House, and that just feels really genuine. He's nowhere near the top of my predictions.

Mouse's Grandmother & Rose - I am glad that this plot point is going to get addressed to some degree, because I've been wondering why they had Rose jump off of a bridge. It would have been really easy to just have her be unwilling to speak to the girls or not coherent when they found her. Whether or not she actually is Rose Waters, and what her connection to stuff might be, does still feel like it needs to be resolved. I don't have much new to say about Mouse's grandmother. I suppose she might have known Rose back in the day, since her daughter obviously knew Angela.

Imogen

There are a few elements to Imogen's storyline this season that need to be addressed in the finale, the most obvious being if BR is pretending to be her mother and why.

I still think we're building to Imogen stabbing someone (quite probably Johnny), just not sure whether that's going to be a hallucination, a bad guy, accidentally a good guy, etc. I don't think the fact that she's had two meltdowns where she's grabbed knives and Johnny has talked her down from both of them is in any way an accident (rule of threes).

I'm still unsure why they introduced Rebecca, when it's had absolutely nothing to do with anything (I guess it's informed Imogen's mental state and kept her relationship with her mother at the surface). I just don't see how they tie it in with any sort of satisfaction because we've literally met this character one time.

In general, I'm honestly really not sure how Davie ties in to everything, unless she doesn't, really, but it's part of the storyline BR is crafting for a film or something.

Johnny - He's continued to be super chill about all the stuff Imogen is throwing at him. Out of the three new love interests, he is the least developed, which I think makes him the least likely to have a big twist reveal (though I do have a theory that includes him, but we'll get to that later because there's a lot of other stuff I need to bring up first), but that shot of what appears to be Imogen dragging his body across the creamery floor is something. I've thought it is most likely a nightmare that she has (because if he was revealed as a villain and killed or injured, why would she need to move his body? Surely under those circumstances she'd just call 911, like do we think Imogen is going to hide a body this season???), but I also kind of expected it to be in tonight's episode. I think I also instinctively discredit it a bit because if it is real & what it looks like, that feels very spoilery and I would never put something key like that in a trailer, but also sometimes they really do put stuff in a trailer that you probably shouldn't. Since I have no new information on his character, this is about all I've got for you on this one.

Imogen/Johnny - Johnny has one point in his favor with me, and it's a small point, which is that he got the 2x06 Greg treatment this episode, AKA they gave him a shot were Imogen leaves and then he's all smiling and smitten. There's literally no one there to see it. But I only give that a tiny bit of weight because it could just be editing. The choice to linger on him in this moment feels weird if he's going to be evil, but weird choices happen sometimes. It also makes me very nervous that Imogen keeps talking about how safe she feels with Johnny. That seems like terrible foreshadowing. I just really want Imogen to not have to relive the trauma of dating people who have literally always had an ulterior motive.

Small note, but- "Stop analyzing me." Imogen, I love you, but do you know what a therapist is for?

Dr. Sullivan - Okay, this is still a big thing, even though we got some kind of explanation out of her in this episode. It's hard to know how honest she's being. Even without her vanishing and the rose petals appearing, her past with this situation didn't feel resolved. Archie murdering her son for revenge against Dr. Sullivan for simply not reporting his situation doesn't totally line up to me. Like I get that she should have done something, but he had apparently already escaped at that point, so... She's from Millwood. Did she know the girl's moms? Did she know Davie? We know she knew Rose. Also Imogen couldn't find anything about her son online. He has a gravestone, so it feels like he's real (though she could have scouted the cemetery and found a Sullivan and then used that person's first name in her explanation to Imogen), so that makes me question if Dr. Sullivan is Dr. Sullivan. I mean, I know that Dr. Sullivan is a character from the original and she is definitely actually Dr. Sullivan, but with all the theories around twins, could she actually be Dr. Sullivan's twin, impersonating her to gain access to the girls (would also explain why she was so willing to risk her license by recording the girls without their consent)? But that feels overly complicated, too.

Obviously Imogen has that dream where Dr. Sullivan is BR and impersonating her mother. But Imogen's story is so intertwined with motherhood, she clearly spends part of the season looking up to Dr. Sullivan as a kind of stand-in mother figure, and Dr. Sullivan and Davie do look a little alike. This is clearly unresolved, but I'm conflicted in where I think it's going. It could be more about Imogen's personal journey, and I would probably assume that if BR hadn't (probably, we didn't actually see it) been wearing a Davie mask.

Dr. Sullivan's flashback scenes were weird, like tv (or film) recreations, rather than legit flashbacks (another SpookySpaghetti film? Or possibly the movie BR might be making?) and what was with Archie's mask in the flashback??? That looked like a Christian monster mask, rather than the A mask we're used to seeing. That's another reason I wonder if the "flashback" might be a dramatized recreation for the film. And is that supposed to be Archie's "real" face?

I still haven't forgotten that someone pushed her down the stairs (according to her) and we've just avoided bringing that up again.

"Something about Rose compelled me," is a very interesting wording. It's also very "The power of Christ compels you!" feeling.

And then, obviously, she disappears and the rose petals are left behind. So presumably she's either been kidnapped by BR or she's in on it. I'm still very conflicted about this character.

Noa

Here we are again. That's it.

Okay, no, I'm actually going to talk about it. I'm not going to continue to go on about all the stuff leading up to this episode because I have discussed it in length in previous posts. Yes, I'm still frustrated with this storyline, and yes, that's still mostly because I cannot figure out what the show is trying to say/do here. Either Noa is getting set up for a big fall/surprise, or they genuinely didn't see how this arc was going to be received. It's one or the other.

While I can understand why Noa would feel so connected to Jen and why she might grow apart from Shawn and why this love triangle situation happened in the first place, what I struggle to understand (from a character perspective) is how she'll go from casually discussing the fact that she's been cheating on Shawn (those are her own words, it's not like she's in denial about her actions), then crying and seemingly genuinely feeling guilty, but then she'll turn around and think she's justified in smashing up his car because... he was angry at her and Jen for their affair?

Characters respond to things emotionally, and I do think Noa is someone who operates on her gut instincts, rather than spending a lot of time thinking things through, but what in holy hell was she thinking? Of course he's gonna be really pissed, Noa. You cheated on him (and it's not even addressed if he's aware this happened while she was in juvie, too), literally moved the person you're cheating with into your house under his nose, asked him for 2k to bail out the person you're cheating with, continued to instigate a sexual relationship with him instead of breaking things off, didn't actually do anything when the person you're cheating with literally robbed his own house (which he may also still not know), then dumped him without even being honest about why. But he's the bad guy because... he yelled at the person you were cheating with a put a hole in the wall? Wild. And like... listen, someone putting a hole in the wall in anger is a red flag to me (irl), but considering the circumstances and his lack of a history of violence, if we are supposed to think this in any way warrants Noa then smashing his car (which like... at least equally big red flag irl as punching a wall) then I don't get it.

So that brings me to the fact that I'm not convinced Shawn actually did damage the wall (he does not specifically deny this when confronted, but he's also a little distracted by the fact that his ex is smashing out his car windows). I mean, who the hell knows? We literally only have Jen's version of events and she's got a history of lying and twisting situations around to suit her ends. We also don't know what her reaction to being confronted by Shawn was. Her pattern in confrontation that we've witnessed is to get angry and accusatory with the person confronting her. She also basically taunted Shawn to his face with the comment about not getting much sleep, so why would I believe she didn't intentionally escalate that situation as well? She hardly seems like a character who would sit there and be all shaken up by it.

All that being said, if Jen is going to get majorly exposed as a villain, then this storyline will make a lot more sense to me. I'm frustrated with this storyline because I feel like I don't feel the emotions they imply we should with things like the cinematography, lighting, music, editing, etc. but if that is an intentionally contradictory choice, then that removes my frustrations. I mean, it's still a trope I don't particularly enjoy the journey of, but at least it will have been on purpose. And that's the thing I've been asking myself this season, is this on purpose? If it is, then great. It's not my kind of storyline, considering I really dislike love triangles, but they did what they wanted to do. If it's not, then someone missed the mark big time.

I'm going to discuss Jen further in a later section, so I'm not going to give her character too much attention here, but I do have one thing-

"Some lies are helpful," 👀 okay, Jen, are we gonna find out about yours? Is this going to be a "Well, yeah, I originally came here for nefarious purposes, but now I actually love you, so it's all good, right?" type of thing?

Shawn - If he's not a villain, then sorry bro, this has been a rough season for you.

Tabby

We've made it to Tabby! Our ultimate final Final Girl of season 2! At this point, it very much does seem like Tabby is at the absolute center of all this (which is why I am the most suspicious of characters directly tied to her) and that probably means some really not fun things in store for her in the finale.

We already know (from the trailer) that she's going to fall down the steps at Christian's house. She's also MIA from the riot at the Orpheum scenes (Riot At The Orpheum sounds like a PATD cover band or something, lol), so I think she's getting a lot of solo screen time in the finale.

This may not matter, but I wanted to note it here that Wes calls the owner of the movie theater "Mrs. Orpheum," which stuck out strangely to me. "The Orpheum" is a super common theatre name, so I have to assume this is a nickname (and not her actual name) Wes is using to refer to their boss, so then... considering how much is centered around Tabby this season, who actually owns the theater? And could they be behind the LLC that turned Imogen's house into Redemption House? Clearly whoever owns this place has a ridiculous amount of money, considering they're running a 35 mm capable theater that appears to have practically no customers.

Wes - So. Yeah. How likely do we think it is that Wes is dead now? Or at least kidnapped? His storyline is clearly completely unresolved (masks in his apartment, mysteriously missing for days, no BR attack alibis, his relationship with the film festival stuff, etc.) and he pretty much either has to be evil or is being framed. Him suddenly moving away (I mean, I don't think he's gone, but he did clearly tell Tabby he was leaving, so it's not like that was entirely fabricated) makes me wonder (assuming he's not BR) if he's been threatened to do so somehow. I also have no idea how Tabby is not suspicious of him. He's been acting weird, you have no idea where he is most of the time, you know he's a total asshole, and you found masks at his place and evidence he was using SpookySpaghetti, but he's not on your BR suspect list??? He's ridiculously suspicious! So suspicious, in fact, that it makes me slightly less suspicious of him. But the fact that no one has brought him up as a suspect circles me back around to being super suspicious of him again. While I'm considering some other options heading into the finale, if he were behind BR (though it has to be more than one person, imo) I wouldn't be shocked. He certainly has potential motive (I mean, if you're a terrible, terrible human being, which he is) with his film storyline and his "things are so hard for straight white men these days," mentality. I just don't love this theory as much as I did before the show started pointing at him so hard.

Mrs. Langsberry - I don't think I need to talk much about this. If she is part of the BR plot, we all know why. She has also been confirmed as a member of Kelly's church, so she does have links there, and it seems like someone on the BR team must be directly involved with the church.

Christian - I didn't want to be so suspicious of him, but we're here now. Also, Tabby, I love you, but someone is dressing up in special effects makeup and masks, both a horror mask and a hyper realistic one (we think) and your response is, "I'll ask Christian if he knows anybody," with absolutely no suspicion of him?? Like, WHAT??? And then you spent the night at his house??? I absolutely could not sleep in a house I knew had all those terrifying masks in the basement, particularly if someone was dressing up in masks and trying to kill me and friends?? I also think we spend a lot of time with Christian this season (without learning much about his past or him having his own separate arc), which makes sense if Tabby's the center of the story, but also if Tabby is the center of the story, then the villains are more likely to be directly connected to her. I also wondered why Tabby didn't question Christian suggesting they leave town together (don't you think some parents might have some opinions on this?), and because I am very suspicious of anyone the girls are not suspicious of, it made me think, "Are you trying to set up a situation where people won't think to miss her right away?" Like with Sandy or Pastor Malachi.

When Tabby asked Christian if he would help her make her movie, I thought, if he is part of the BR plot, and if that plot does involve making a movie, wouldn't it be absolutely wild if he responded to this with, "Already done." (like saying it in a friendly, 'of course' kind of way, but then meaning it literally). I feel like that's the exact kind of fun/silly thing this show would do. And if he's not involved, what a missed opportunity to creep your audience out and make them spiral (but I'm doing that anyway, so) about his character.

I want to be super fair, since I just wondered how Tabby is not suspicious of Christian and how she felt comfortable staying at his house (also where are anyone's parents? Like at least with Noa we understand why there's no parental supervision, but everyone else just stays over at their SOs place anyway?? this is one of those things I just have to not think too hard about because I don't think there is a good explanation), all of that applies to Imogen with Johnny and Noa with Jen, as well.

While horror has always been referenced in this show, it really does feel like horror films are making a huge appearance in different ways, and it just feels fitting for this to be Tabby-centric.

Speculation & More

With the "trio of villains" imagery on the poster (that has literally predicted the first 4 tests, so seems very relevant), I can't help but wonder if it could be as simple as all 3 of the new love interests. Johnny, Christian, Jen, all in it together. They're all new in town and we haven't met any of their family, so they're all pretty mysterious. I have at least one big thing about each of them that bothers me.

With Johnny it's simply those shots from the trailer (well, plus my incredibly far fetched theories about set decor and his line about his dad, but I wouldn't call either of those things compelling evidence), which make it seem like he may die in the finale (or at least be incapacitated), and since it seems to be Imogen that is possibly trying to cover that up, that doesn't bode well for his innocence. I can't think of anything that's been mentioned about him that would indicate motive, so I would have to assume that he's related to someone (like Chip) and has a revenge motive. But the shots from the trailer could still all be a dream.

With Jen it's the contradictory ways they've portrayed her storyline with Noa, and the fact that we know that we cannot assume she's being honest. It's not been specifically brought up a lot, but she could easily have a financial motive to be involved. Her stealing has been a consistent part of her character, and she says this is because she and her mom need the money. I don't know whether or not to believe that, but regardless of why she needs/wants money, it seems pretty clear she is a character who could be tied to the events of the season for financial gain (or it started that way and she regrets it, but is in too deep). It's also possible production just didn't realize how unpopular this love triangle would be (but it's hard to imagine, when they were emphasizing how loving/trusting Shawn is all season, like it feels very intentional, but then sometimes it doesn't) and the contradictory tone is not intentional.

With Christian it's his special abilities (horror makeup), the fact that he fits well into the "someone is making a movie" theory, and that he's directly tied to Tabby this season. His motive would presumably be film related (though there could be a personal element as well, since we know basically nothing about his past). But he could be a red herring or a fall guy.

Anyway, my problem with these three as a trio of villains is that it doesn't obviously connect back to the church in any way that I can think of, and I think it needs to. I guess all three of them could be supporting villains with someone else as "Rose," or maybe only one or two of them are involved.

Another consideration is that any of the love interests could be secondary antagonists, not in on the BR plot (or aided it without realizing how serious it was) and they will have a separate villain reveal (like Chip last season).

I certainly haven't forgotten about the online faction of the BR cult, particularly since it looks like they're rioting next episode (The Reckoning?), but how specifically they tie in, I don't feel confident in predicting. If the film theory is true, then I suppose their purpose could be to provide a "grand finale" for the film. I mean, it's kind of hard to get extras when your film is also an actual murder project, so brainwashing people into creating a big action sequence for you is the next best thing, I guess.

Dr. Sullivan's past just really feels like it also needs to come back around and be resolved, and I keep forgetting about the fact that she vanishes in this episode because I'm thinking about so many other things.

I'm bothered that I don't feel confident about where they're going with the Davie stuff.

I am putting a certain amount of faith in the show that they heard the criticisms of season 1 and the villain reveals will be characters we've spent a lot more time with. They have seemed to take other feedback (like the Ezra thing) and apply it to season 2, so I'm hoping this is the case for this, as well.

Anyway, I think this is all I've got right now. If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me! I know this was a long one. I probably didn't need a whole "if they had to have Faran & Greg as a couple, here's how I would have done it," section, but Faran is my favorite and I've criticized Noa & Jen loads this season, so I gotta be fair and call it like I see it. If I think of anything else, I'll do a part 2, because this post is clearly long enough.

EDIT:

This literally doesn't matter, but I forgot to mention it & didn't want to make a whole new post about it, but I just now noticed Christian's movie on his name tag is Attack the Block, which is a absolutely ridiculous, underrated film, imo.

CLARIFICATION: I called all of the 3 new love interests "new in town," but I'm not sure that's really accurate. Christian is new in town, Jen (I think) lives elsewhere but reasonably near by because she mentions having to come to Millwood for summer school and clearly does not usually attend their school, and Johnny we really don't know. I didn't get the impression that he's recently moved like Christian, but we don't know where his house is, and none of the girls seemed familiar with him (and Millwood seems pretty small) and he mentions Rosewood when he's asking that girl out, so I kinda assumed he might be more from the Rosewood area. Anyway, "new in town" might only technically apply to Christian, but the point that all their pasts are pretty unknown still stands.

[eliotquillon]

16, 17, 33, 36?

16: What is one of your favorite words or phrases to use in writing?

i really like the word 'prepossessing' as a way to describe beauty! Haven't used it in a while, but it used to be one of my most-used adjectives lmao. i also love a good well-timed 'fuck' for emphasis. Phrases is trickier, but i like to use a 'too (something), not (something enough)' structure when doing character studies - i've been writing a lot of witherward fic lately, and a lot of it feels very same-y bc I tend to fall back on it whenever i'm characterising cassia (my beautiful insecure princess....)

17: What trope is your favourite to write?

IDK if it counts as a trope but 'messy blurring the lines between friendship/romance' is UP THERE for me. i find a way to work it into most of what i write tbh. more concretely, i loooove writing fake dating and friends to lovers. I am a lover at heart!!

33: Which of your fic titles is your favorite?

HMM i take most of my fic titles from songs/poems i like already so this is tricky. 'push notifications on' is probably up there as one of my faves (even if the fic itself isn't) bc it fits nicely with the social media au and it's catchy. for comedy reasons i could also nominate 'for the rain it raineth every day' because i wrote and titled that fic years ago and it came back to haunt me recently when i was in a production of twelfth night + was also writing one of my coursework essays on it and i kept jumping out of my skin whenever i saw that line in the play because i associated it solely with my silly ouran high school host club fanfiction. my actual favourite probably is 'culled a new excuse' though. i love the franny choi poem it's taken from + i think it fits the contents of the fic so well + that fic is one of my favourite things i've ever written (which shouldn't give the title extra points, but, yk. It does!)

36: Have you ever written a fic because you were inspired by a song?

YEAH. see above for the fact i steal most of my fic titles from songs anyway. weirdly most of my 'inspired by song' fics happen to be alex rider ones (i say weirdly because i have multiple hive and witherward playlists) - 'the end's not near' takes its title from a song by the new year but the mood of that fic is specifically inspired by 'inside out' by duster, 'but it's your actions that speak louder' is basically a snippet from what was going to be a songfic (in the very class fanfiction.net sense of inserting lyrics to break up scenes) to i love you so by the walters, 'you know my heart (can't take the break)' takes its title and mood from loverboy by a-wall. outside of alex rider: 'apologies on the intercom' is semi-inspired by last words of a shooting star by mitski, although that's mostly because the snippet of aftg extra content that inspired it kinda lines up with that song in terms of vibe anyway; a lot of my ohshc fics are inspired by the show's score (most explicitly 'menuet of innocence', which is names after one of the show's instrumental pieces); much of my early 2017-18 aftg fic was inspired by whatever musical theatre i was into at the time. now that i look back on it i think the only fandom i write regularly for that hasn't had a fic explicitly influenced by music is HIVE, which is funny since it's my most written-for fandom. i think that's probably because i have enough permanent hive brainrot anyway that my brain tries to make space for other fandoms by saving songs Just For Them lmao.

tysm for the ask!

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

9 favorite books

Thanks for the tag @daisymae-12!!! Much like you I have read more fanfic than books as of recent, plus I have the very bad fun habit of re-reading books I love rather than starting new ones. So a lot of these I read in middle school/high school but continuously come back to. Apologies in advance for the length. Also, this isn't in ranking order, this is in reverse chronological order of me reading them I've decided.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston - pretty obvious, but long story short: I've never seen myself so much in a character before meeting Alex Claremont-Díaz. I held out on reading this book when it was first popular b/c I didn't know what it was about and it was "trendy." When I learned what it was about I was like wait, duh, I'd love that. So that'll teach me.

Tattoos on the Heart: The Powers of Boundless Compassion by Father Greg Boyle - Read this my senior year of college for a class and was literally lying on the couch crying reading some of these stories (I don't cry often from books either). These are stories of a Jesuit priest who runs Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention program in LA.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - I haven't re-read this since my senior year of high school but I absolutely devoured this book, which is saying something because it was summer reading. This author is blowing up for writing Demon Copperhead, which I haven't read yet, but this story about a missionary family who moves to the Belgian Congo in 1959 was impossible to put down.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel - Also read this in high school for class when I was struggling with religion and figuring out my relationship with it. I found a lot of comfort in this book and the beautiful storytelling.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - The second book on this list that made me absolutely SOB when reading (still vividly remember sitting and cyring while reading the chapter at like midnight on a school night alone in a dark kitchen). Beautiful, not sure a book has ever made me feel so much (also loved learning about a different part of the world), don't think I could read it again (but you should absolutely read it once if you're cool with the contents).

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - First up: this author is a huge bigot, full stop, way worse than JKR. So don't read (or if you want to read but don't want to support the author don't buy the book). However, I read this as a middle schooler before knowing his background and it is an all time favorite because of one of its messages: "I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves." Aka this idea about empathy and that to truly understand someone you have to love them - too bad the author missed his own point.

Psion Beta by Jacob Gowans - A favorite dystopian series that's super niche (I think he originally self-published on Amazon before it was common). A plague, super powers, world governments, the Western Hemisphere are the bad guys in an unusual role reversal for books written by Americans, what more could you ask for???

Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart - If you are a nerd and want to feel like a bigger nerd/be proud of that nerdiness this is the series for you. Seriously one of the best YA series out there, plus there's a recent new addition (2019) of them grown up if you missed it!!!

Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan - I love these books so much and could go on forever about them, probably the books I've read the most in life outside of HP (exception being The Lightning Thief-I was a teacher and taught this book so I've read this book like...a minimum of twelve times). I can't wait to bring #1 and #9 from this list together for our massive WIP, "Super Six and the Siren's Call" for the fan fic of the century lmao (co-writing with @read-and-write- and @inexplicablymine).

Wow, I had so much fun choosing this list, thank you!!! If you love one of these books lmk let's talk :)

Tagging @mudbloodpotter05 @read-and-write- @kiwiana-writes @inexplicablymine @14carrotghoul @littlemisskittentoes and anyone else who wants to do this!!! I'm sure some/most of y'all have already been tagged and maybe even posted, I just want to know what y'all are reading :)

[jichanxo]

still on the topic of titles: though i can see why you wouldn't, but isn't it hard for you to let go of placeholder names? and an unrelated new question: if i remember correctly, in senseific, you've completed writing the kuwagami part, but not the school stories part? do you have a problem with stringing it together, so that the relationships/events would fit with e/o naturally? (i hope i phrased that coherent enough)

this is long as usual, so

on titles:

the working titles are too literal and functional for me to get that attached to them, I think. It’s just shorthand for the larger idea itself. I suppose if there’s a placeholder title I like enough, then I’d keep it/adapt it into something similar. Funnily enough I’m probably likelier to think of titles/captions for my drawn artworks, though the file names themselves are still super literal lmao. those ones are usually the ones I’ve planned out in advance, because I want to convey a specific idea and it can be hard to do that visually without having a plan. 

obligatory examples: this arasawa piece -- the text itself was a key part of the storytelling, so this one was decided early, about the same time as my initial sketches. it's two parts, duty and desire, conveyed in imagery and words, both important. this schrödinger's cat themed umineko artwork -- i didn't really have anything concrete for this for a long while, but this was always about flux and uncertainty, so the words were always floating around in my head when i was making this.

on senseific:

STRINGING THE TWO PLOTLINES TOGETHER, OH BOY. this is very much something I have to just… wait and see on. If my process for the kuwagami plotline is any indication, then I probably will have to rewrite/shift things around when I find something doesn’t work. That’s part of why I made an excel sheet for this fic, so I (hopefully) can see which parts aren’t meshing and how I might be able to resolve them. Move things around, put them earlier or later, etc. and of course, there needs to be breathing room so it feels like they have lives that exist outside of each other. I’m feeling kind of nervous thinking about it right now. I suppose I just have to try?

I have tried to consider where these two plotlines would interact, but I just need more details to make sure I get it right, hence my need for note taking. I've also left a bunch of gaps so that there's room to let it grow in between kuwagami stuff.

The school related (as in, including school stories but also other stuff that takes place there) stuff I have right now is something like: 

Thing I invented for the intro

Follow up to this, resolution, lead into kuwagami story beat 

the conclusion to the dance club story (as far as my vague memory could get me), but With Kitakata. since the dance club is so early, it was an easy choice as a kind of starting point

Itokura related thing I invented and desperately need to flesh out 

Follow up to that 

(Imagine a big gap of time here) 

6. big moment that’s simultaneously a kuwagami beat and a school story beat -- yagami's continued refusal to trust kitakata or let him in on the investigation, resulting in the two of them getting into a physical fight. amasawa ends up going to sawa sensei to get them to break it up, and yagami realises that kitakata has a right to be worried for his students and shutting him out was a dick move actually (spoilers? but I’ve already talked about this scene before, so…) 

and from this last point it's pretty obvious that kitakata has to be involved with the conclusion of the case. i haven't written anything yet because i need to do the rest first, but this is almost certainly happening despite not being written down yet

but yeah, because my process is Like This, I kind of have no choice but to present the story in chronological order to make sure that everything progresses logically. ...honestly the structure of the ever-changing is obscenely impressive to me, I suppose it’s the power of planning — that you can go back and forth in time while keeping it meaningful and coherent. I love it so much… I will never stop singing the praises of the ever-changing, genuinely...

anyway, while i say the kuwagami plot is done, it's still pretty open, it's just that i've locked in what i think the major conflicts and resolutions are for that relationship. there's still room for the other plot to grow into (i hope) and in worst case I can tinker a bit with rewriting some stuff to make it work.

[rivalsforlife]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I saw this going around a little while ago and wanted to do it myself mostly because it doesn't involve me having to answer about anything I did this year.

1. How many works do you have on A03?

20

2. What's your total A03 word count?

262,994, apparently

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Ace Attorney! I have to admit I've been writing persona 5 fanfic for most of this year but am still undecided on if I actually want to publish that. if I ever finish it.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Rose By Any Name (by a margin of like 1000 kudos), Deep Dark Secrets, Childswap, The Catch-Up Game, Love Languages.

I am eternally going to feel a bit bitter that the first one is that high.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to respond to them all the time because I love the interactions, but then I started getting burnt out by school and now have such a massive backlog..... so I pretty much never do these days. I'm very sorry and I still read and really appreciate all the comments I get!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write a lot of angst... and I definitely don't have a tendency to leave things on an angsty note. Maybe Need Not to Need which was in early disbarment era, or Left Behind, Looking Ahead because it's a missing scene in the middle of aai2, and Franziska ends it on the conclusion that she should prepare to not have Edgeworth in her life anymore.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Since I don't write a lot of angsty endings most of them are happy lol. Maybe The Opposing Council's Proposal because it ends on a proposal, which is a pretty happy event.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! Everyone's been really nice.

9. Do you write smut?

Definitely not. It takes me like five minutes to work myself up to writing a kiss. I'm too squeamish about that kind of thing.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, and I feel like that's not something I'd be very good at doing. There's so much work involved and I haven't had any situations where I feel like characters from different franchises have to meet in order to express some aspect of characterization that they couldn't do otherwise, which would be my main motivation for writing one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! Plenty of my fics have been translated into Chinese. I had one person write an entire rec list for my works in Chinese before and was so happy about it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, I feel like I wouldn't be good at this either, I've always been the kind of person who isn't good at playing with others and would want to take control of the whole thing lol.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Narumitsu without question. It takes a lot to get me to actively care about romance, much less write it.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a PLvsAA canon divergence fic where everyone stays brainwashed for a much longer time (and Edgeworth also gets brainwashed) that I wish I could finish, but I feel like it's a lost cause at this point. I have an earlier version of that fic which went in a completely different direction and is less than one chapter away from being complete. There's also One Good Narumitsu Story left in me that I've had in my head since 2018, never been able to bring myself to write it, and am not sure if I ever will. I hope I do someday, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think one of my favorite comments I've ever gotten talked about putting effort into developing relationships and characters outside of the main focuses of the fic - Catch-Up Game being an example, even though narumitsu is the focus, I spent some time paying attention to Phoenix's relationships with Trucy, Maya, Iris, and generally tried to make it seem like the characters had their own lives outside of what Phoenix and Edgeworth had going on. That's something I still feel pretty proud of and try to keep up when I can.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIPTIONS. I can't describe people very well at all, probably at least partially because my facial recognition skills are atrocious. I can't describe locations or settings, either. I sometimes feel like it becomes far too obvious that I rarely leave the house.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think it's fine on a one-off but not extensively. Like with Klavier as an example, the occasional Achtung or pet name or whatever is fine, but when it starts to be longer sentences or full conversations I draw the line.

Overall I think the best way to handle it (in a hypothetical conversation between Franziska and Edgeworth, depending on if the POV character is Edgeworth or Phoenix):

a) If the POV character speaks the language (like Edgeworth), doing something like "Franziska switched to German, so Phoenix couldn't overhear. "I am speaking in German, but you are reading it in English.""

b) If the POV character does not speak the language (like Phoenix), saying "Franziska switched to German and started yelling at Edgeworth" makes more sense - when I hear a foreign language, at least, I wouldn't be able to repeat it afterwards, because my brain does not process the words like it would English words, so I don't think it should stay in writing either.

There are practical purposes too: I wouldn't trust google translate to capture any nuance, and don't speak any other languages, so I'd want to find someone who knows the language to translate for me, which can be annoying and inconvenient for them. Also, readability. I don't think a reader should have to open up a new tab to understand your fic, is the point.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats!! Way back in 2012 or so.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The Catch-Up Game is still my favorite, at least partially because I got so much engagement while posting it that it was a lot of fun to go through comments on it. The narumitsu server talked about it a lot, and I'll forever be bitter that a rogue mod wiped those channels, because it's a really good feeling when something you write can inspire discussion like that. Also, I'm still satisfied with most aspects of that fic on its own - I reread a couple of chapters just the other day and was enjoying myself, which is always a win.

[lovecolibri]

I just hope that tomorrow apart from the " do more" we' ll have some eddie scenes, because the way they're underusing him in s6 it's criminal, ofc since kr hates him and likes to keep him far away from buck the moment he'll start to date again we'll see him 20 min for episodes because no homo, like there wasn't really any other sl for him but dating again right?

I know that whatever we get from all the cast tomorrow is gonna be soooo good, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm trying to keep my expectations for how much Eddie we're getting low, just so I'm not overly disappointed. I wouldn't necessarily say KR hates him (that argument could be made of Oliver too since Buck's personal storylines outside the firefam have been trash since she took over), which we know isn't true, she's just....bad a coming up with storylines in general across the board 🤷🏻‍♀️ Honestly I think that's what him dating again is about too.

A) TPTB haven't fully pulled the Buddie trigger (I expect that Tim wants to be around to get the credit for that and also she's....not the one anyone would pick to head that train), and these guys can only have so many scenes screaming each other's names while single before they gotta wedge some woman in there to "prove" there's nothing to see. 🙄

B) KR is bad at coming up with ideas and while I don't think she hates Ryan/Eddie, I DO think that she just doesn't find the character interesting so she doesn't know what to do with him. It's the same with Chim who is getting the first storyline centered on him since season THREE when Albert showed up. Everything else has been about Madney and he was written off the show for most of that, and their breakup AND resolution/working things out happened off screen. JLH has negotiated for limited time on set apparently but they continued to squander the majority of the time she DID have on random stuff instead of making sure she was included in firefam stuff like being the one at dispatch on big calls which she could film separately from the team to fit her schedule. Bobby has this WHOLE arc with Wendall, and yet KR didn't think that name needed to come up a single time before 6x09 and Bobby spent the previous 8 episodes being a background character with nothing going on. Ravi is supposed to be back with a big episode and his name hasn't been mentioned a single time in 10 episodes. Hen was apparently going to officially leave the 118 to continue med school and it wasn't ever mentioned until suddenly there was a going away party. There was no Chim being nostalgic on calls that "this could be the last time you have to hold the vomit bag in the back of the ambulance" or anything. Honestly, I didn't even KNOW she was resigning, until that party because everything was about her passing the test to move on, it never came up that moving on would necessitate her leaving which SHOULD have been a huge plot point. Chim was going to lose his partner and we didn't hear anything about it until we were watching her going away party! Yet another of the things KR had in her notes that she didn't think needed to make it on screen so the audience knows what's going on. And it's not like there wasn't time for all that ins 6a because nothing much else happened.

Point is, we've got some GOOD writers and directors back, and the cast is really excited about the work they've been doing (though it's good to remember what an actor finds exciting to DO and a fun experience for them ACTING, doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to what the audience prefers to SEE on our end), but at the end of the day the same person is still making the decisions and planning the arcs. And unless someone higher up steps in (as they did with the L mess and what appears to have happened with the sperm donor arc given that the interviews are showing distinctly opposite answers to what they were after 6x09), we're still stuck with someone who has proven since taking over partway through s4, that she fundamentally doesn't understand the characters or what motivates them, or what the audience wants from the show. The tone of the seasons has swung wildly all over the place and been horribly inconsistent, and either nothing is happening or they're trying to pack too much in to an episode.

So for my personal edification and to make my experience as enjoyable for me personally as possible, I'm working on managing my expectations so I'm either right, or pleasantly surprised and delighted by what's delivered. And as I said, at the very least, whatever we DO get, from Ryan or any of the rest of the cast, is gonna be GOLD.

[iamthecomet]

So we had a massive storm last night and I passed out as soon as I heard the first drop of rain lol, but I didn’t get the chance yesterday to say thank you for your kinda words and caring about the situation. I truly appreciate it🖤

And that it is awesome that you’re going to be writing a book?!? Like insane, I would never be able to, I don’t have the patience or big brain for that. And my school is also doing something for the solar eclipse since it’ll pass right over us for a total of 4 mins lol, and as much as I’d like to see it, I’ll be at a game which is righttt outside the line to see it:(

Also I’m high key jealous that you can crochet, I’ve been dying to learn how, but again I don’t have the patience to do something that would take me forever, but maybe I’ll try who knowss:))

♥♥♥♥ I hope today was a better day, and I'm here if you ever need to talk. I've written book length things before too! I have one that I've re-written about a hundred times that is basically my child, my pride and joy, but I haven't figured out what to do with it yet because I don't particularly want to sell it to a major publisher anymore--but I also don't want it to get lost in the ocean of self-published stuff. It's a story that's really special to me for lots of reasons. Maybe I'll figure out how to put it out there someday, and it will see the light of day. I've never wanted to be anything except a writer (or a rock star, but that's not really in the cards). Really cool that you're getting an actual eclipse. We're really just using it as an excuse to get people to come to the library for a second because we're getting this tiny little sliver of an eclipse. But it'll be fun either way. Bummed that you won't get to experience it though. Sports are fun but at what cost! (joking, of course). Crochet is not my favorite craft to do, I get very easily frustrated with bigger projects for some reason. I grew up knitting. So whenever I crochet I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and things never come out as perfectly as I want them to. (I want to be as good at crochet as I am at knitting but I've been knitting for like 15 more years than I've crocheted, so it's not happening). But! It isn't super hard to learn and you can ABSOLUTELY do it. There are also lots of crochet projects that don't take long at all, so you can make little things really quickly and feel that fun sense of "I finished something!" accomplishment. You should definitely try it out sometime!

[c4rdsharp]

💌 for chane in witcher au

To my sister - in - arms, I hope this letter finds you well. It has been awhile since we've last been in correspondence with each other. I apologize for that. I've received your message months ago and had every intent to respond, but a rather intensive contract took my attentions elsewhere. By the time we were finished, I had forgotten about the letter until a few weeks into winter. As you well know, letters have a much harder time reaching their intended destination during those months, so I had opted to wait until summer. Of course, there comes the issue of knowing where you are, but I won't disclose the details of how I came about this knowledge, supposing this message were to be compromised. You can probably guess how your whereabouts came to my attentions, anyway. A number of things have come up since we've last spoken. I don't know how I may be able to update you on my life in such a succinct manner. My brothers are all doing well. I've heard you recently found someone? If so, allow me to offer my congratulations! I understand more than anyone the difficulties that come therein for someone of our profession. I am happy to hear there are more people in your life, outside of myself and, well . . . Which, brings me to another matter I feel the need to inform you on. It is . . . rather pressing, and I hope you won't begrudge me for the rather frank manner I speak of it. I know how fond you are of Master Huey, even if my feelings are now to the contrary. Perhaps you may even find this news old. You two were always much closer than I ever was. I am not accusing you of conspiracy, if that is your worry. This is . . . well, truthfully, I need someone to inform. I'd rather leave my brothers out of this, and many of our comrades have either fallen or gone missing. Not that I have kept in contact with any of them. Once our school had collapsed, you were the only person I really bothered to see from time - to - time. But, I'm stalling ( if one can do that, in a letter ). I'll get straight to the point then : Master Huey is alive. Or, rather, I have learned that. Again, I'm not certain how involved you are, or if you even knew in the first place, but if by some off chance you weren't, I feel it would be wrong to keep that from you. At the very least, you ought to know that I'm aware, regardless of your own involvement or lack thereof. I . . . am not sure how to feel about this, if I may be honest. I have known for about 3 weeks now, and I still haven't settled on a feeling that isn't discomfort, fear, or confusion. Perhaps my impressions lean towards the negative, but even then, I can't be certain. I dislike what Master Huey has done to us on some metaphysical & logical level of reasoning, but at the same time . . . I don't know. Sometimes, I don't think I have grown up much from the young boy still vying for compliments or praise, something to indicate the certainty of my survival in a nest full of vipers. It's why I don't begrudge you or your sterling loyalty ; I think, if I had not met my brothers, I would've been in the same position. That is neither here nor there, though. I have written at length long enough the most important of our developments. I'll leave this message with a simple request : I'd like for us to meet in person sometime soon. For a day or two, depending on how long you are able. I think it would make me feel more at ease to see your face again. At the very least, I . . . do not feel safe talking through letters anymore. I am scared my words will be seen by someone they weren't intended for. If at all possible, I'd like for you to burn this. My brothers and I are on the road heading south currently. If you would like, we could meet while on our circles there. With much love & gratitude, Luck Gandor.

letters / @closedcoffins

[miss-writes-a-lot]

An Update

Time for my monthly post explaining why I'm not putting out content for my ao3! Warning, it is long and a bit vulnerable. Trigger warnings for depression, anxiety, chronic pain, intrusive thoughts, and some self-destructive ideation.

Mainly it's college. College has been kicking my ass this spring semester. It feels as though with each semester that passes, I get less and less time to work on things. Even now, my spring break week, I have to read three different essays for a timed essay coming up next week. So, in general, it feels like I don't really have a break to myself and to do things for me most of the time.

For the part, I've just been depressed. I don't share this a lot but I have been dealing with chronic pain since I was 16 that just this past summer has gotten worse. And of course, doctors don't know what it is! Hooray!/s. It's taken a lot of energy out of me and has made me reflect on how much I seemed to have taken for granted when I was "healthy", and it leads me to feel so down about how nowadays, it feels like I can hardly do anything or go anywhere without worrying about being sick or getting fatigued easily.

It's been draining me dry and I can hardly bring myself to do my work, or even write this post. I lay awake wondering what's wrong with me and being paralyzed by the fear of it being something really serious, maybe even deadly (though that still has not been confirmed). It's hard to take care of myself or even think semi-positively about myself. There was a good chunk of this month where I could barely sit and have proper conversations with people because I'm either too focused on the pain or too in my own head, thinking about how these people must hate me when that probably isn't the case at all. It made it difficult for me to want to go to school and sometimes to even try and find help or help myself.

And overall, it's been hard to motivate myself. I have ideas that I want to write and fics I want to finish, but with a combination of said depression, lack of motivation, lack of self-confidence, and probably genuine laziness, I haven't written anything that doesn't feel rushed or right to me. I scrutinize everything I write, both past and present. Just an hour or two ago, I was reading through an old fic I wrote (Suzume's 2nd debut fic) and noticed a redundant sentence, and the overall vibe/voice for the fic and damn near went into a spiral about how bad it was and how much I dislike it now, which has made it difficult to see any potential in myself as both a writer and a valuable person.

I am getting help now, feeling a tad better but still struggling with a lot that is really personal and I don't feel like getting into all of that right now. I am going to try and work on a fic again, just because I haven't written anything proper in a while and I genuinely do miss it! But, I might take the last three days of my break off from everything. Maybe try and let myself be lazy so maybe I can recuperate. I bought some stuff like planters and seeds so I can get a garden going. Maybe it'll be my new hobby! I did say I was going to try and go outside more. Maybe this'll be good for me.

Hoping to at least do what I did last year and post some things to this blog specifically and see if anyone is interested in what I have going - both fanfiction and original work alike.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through these trying times. Maybe one day this year, we'll see some sort of progress or betterment in the world. That's the hope at least.

Hope to see you all soon!

[johnkrrasinski]

started from a call

full masterlist

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x female!reader

Word count: 3,610

Warning: angst with a happy ending! that's all.

Summary: written for @wkemeup's 9k writing challenge with the prompt "character a leaves an embarrassing, drunk message on character b’s voicemail and spends the rest of the night trying to discreetly delete it from [b]’s phone." inspired by a bit of ross and rachel from friends too. you found out from steve that bucky was in love with you in high school but after he returns home with a girl in his arm, you cancelled your plans to tell him how you feel. will you and bucky have your happy ending?

a/n: please like, reblog and leave a feedback. :) enjoy!

"Alright, I'll see you tonight. Bye." He leaned against the kitchen counter and hung up the phone with a grin on his face. "You hear that, Sam? We're going on our third date tonight." He threw his phone up into the air and caught it so casually without spilling a drop of his coffee sitting on his right hand. "Looks like I'm getting that 300 bucks soon."

"Hey, easy. You ain't going to that date yet, who knows? She could bail on you. It doesn't count if the date doesn't end well."

"Oh, but it will. I just gotta turn on my charm and next thing you know, we're already meeting the parents stage."

"Meeting the parents? That's a big step from you, Buck."

"Hey, I'm a man of my words. If I said that I'm going to change this year then I'm gonna stick to it."

"So Leah isn't just a one-time thing to get 300 bucks?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see how tonight goes. But one thing's for sure is that I'm getting that 300 bucks."

Sam and Bucky made a bet as their New Year's resolution that Bucky would never go on a second date with any girl or remember to call her in the morning after a wild night. His commitment issues had given him a reputation as the player in the gang. It wasn't a new thing anymore to anyone that when they visited Bucky's place in the morning, they would see a girl with a dopey smile and slightly ruffled hair walking out of his apartment, giddy that Bucky just made a promise to call her later.

You, Natasha, Wanda, Sam and Steve were hanging out at Nat's place. The six of you had been friends since college. You, Nat, Bucky and Steve had known each other since high school and the four of you kept in touch despite going to separate universities. You met Wanda when you went to NYU and Steve met Sam while he was in Harvard. Long story short, after the four of you graduated, you and Wanda lived together as roommates and even started your own bakery business. Steve and Bucky lived in the same building as you and Natasha and Sam lived nearly alone. They were too independent for roommates. Don't even start on Natasha and how much she valued her personal space. That's how the six of you ended up here, gathered at your place on a Saturday afternoon.

"Are you gonna pick her up tonight?"

"Of course. Gonna clean up well, bring her some flowers and knock on her door at 7 pm precisely. Which girl isn't gonna fall for that?" Bucky walked over to the couch you and Nat were sitting on and leaned on the headrest, his arms caging both you and Natasha.

You didn't say anything nor did Natasha because she knew about your feelings for Bucky. Despite never feeling that way about Bucky in high school, your feelings changed a week ago after learning that Bucky used to be in love with you but never had the courage to tell you. That's why he never had a girlfriend during his high school years and he wanted to take you to prom and confess his feelings to you but he was too late. Another guy had already snooped in first.

You were his first love but it wasn't reciprocated until now. That's why in college, he learned how to get over you and slept with as many women as possible because he felt like he lost four years of his life of finding the one. He never intended to be a player and feed girls empty promises, it just kind of became his way of dating. He was too afraid that no one could live up to you yet he enjoyed being with women. Hence, the bet.

The day you found out from Steve about Bucky's past feelings for you while playing truth or dare, you immediately wanted to call him up but Bucky was out of town for a few days and as soon as he was back home, he had Leah in his arm. Your heart was crushed. Wanda told you that it would probably last for a few days and that he'd eventually be single again but you totally did not expect this thing to turn into something serious. You loved Sam with every fibre of your being, he was like the big brother you never had, but you wanted to curse him for making that bet.

So you just rolled your eyes and stayed silent throughout this entire conversation, even though your heart felt like it was being stabbed over and over again. "Alright, I gotta go. Got a big date tonight. I'll see you guys in a few hours." Just like that, Bucky walked out of the room without knowing the pain his words caused you.

The next day you were sitting in your bed watching The Notebook in your pyjamas because you were too heartbroken to do anything productive. It was Sunday so you could just have a whole day to yourself and do absolutely nothing but cry. Wanda knocked on your door bringing a plate of cookies and she had a pitiful look on her face. "y/n? Sweetie? I made you these cookies, they might make you feel better." Sometimes you thank the stars for bringing her into your life.

"Thank you, Wanda. You're so nice to me." You know you probably sound like a hormonal whiny kid but everything made you cry at the moment.

"Do you need anything else? I know how it feels to get your heartbroken, trust me. When me and Vision had a fight and we didn't talk for days all I wanted was to curl up and never leave my bed, so in case you need anything, I'm here." She offered you that warm smile of hers.

"No, all I want right now is to just eat these cookies and go back to my film, thanks Wan."

"Okay, I'll be outside." Your pity party was interrupted when Nat arrived in her leather jacket and burst into your room.

"Get up, you are taking a shower and you're getting that face beat."

"Natasha, what the hell? Leave me alone."

"Y/N, listen to me. I got a date for you. His name is Scott and he's a real nice guy, he's funny, he's a good friend of mine and he is really smart. He is so much better than Bucky, I promise you. Now c'mon, I already told him that you are meeting him tonight at Stark's restaurant at 7."

You whined, doing anything you can to get her to leave you alone with your tears and your cookies but you knew that once Natasha set her mind on something, there's no talking her way out of it. Damn that woman with her determination.

"Y/N, c'mon! Wallowing all day isn't you. I know you and what's good for you. That's why I found you a great guy who will charm you so good that you will forget Barnes even existed. You can't let him win, y/n. If he's going to be happy with someone else, then you better show him that you can be much happier with other people."

You stared at her, trying to absorb her words. There's some wisdom in that. You're not the type to cry over a guy, not even for even Bucky Barnes. So you let Natasha drag you to the shower and asked Wanda to do your hair when she does your makeup. She chose an outfit for you, a dress that was not too sexy but chic enough to leave a good first impression.

Scott was early to the restaurant and he looked elated to see you. He was wearing a grey suit with no tie and he had a really exuberant smile on his face, the type that drew people easily. You could see why Natasha called him a nice guy.

"Wow, sorry, I just- didn't expect you to be this beautiful."

"Ah, thank you, Scott. Have you been waiting long?"

"No, not at all. I just arrived here like five minutes ago."

The night went on and Scott did most of the asking and talking, you answered each question curtly with forced enthusiasm in your face and body language. You weren't even listening to half of the things he said because your mind kept playing images of Bucky with Leah and how you heard from Sam that the date went well so he lost 300 bucks. You kept thinking about Bucky and Leah and how they would probably get married and have kids and live in the suburbs with a golden retriever while you'd still be single and you'd compare every man you meet to Bucky. Maybe it was your karma for not reciprocating his feelings in high school.

Five glasses of wine and you spent more time nodding than talking. Honestly, all you wanted to do was to just go home and go back to The Notebook because their love story was much better than your love life. Scott woke you out of your daze, "Natasha told you that I was cuter than this, did she?" after you gulped your sixth glass of wine.

"Oh Scott, I'm so sorry. It's not you, it's me. I know it sounds cliche but it's just... I'm not in a place where I'm looking for a boyfriend. You are a really likeable guy and I swear, if we had met at another time, maybe I would be a better date but right now, I just- I have someone else in my mind." You sighed, it felt like a relief to get that off your chest.

"Is this guy... an ex-boyfriend?"

You chuckled, "no... He wishes."

Scott nodded, "look, I don't know what your situation is but I've been through a divorce and it's never easy. But eventually, you'll be fine. You can't see it now because you haven't had closure." Then it was as if the bulb above your head was turned on.

"That's it.  Closure, yeah. That's all I need. Okay, give me a minute. I'm gonna call him now and I'm going to get my closure."

Scott sat there watching you comically trying to find your phone in your purse and tapped on Bucky's contact number. The normal you would be sweating with every ring but intoxicated you had no worries in the world... For now.

"This is Bucky. Can't pick up right now, leave a message." Beep.

"Hello, yes, Bucky! Or James, should I call you James? I always thought Bucky was a weird name. Anyways, I'm just calling to tell you that I am fine and I am on a date with Scott. And speaking of dates, I just gotta tell you that I'm happy to hear that your date went well. And that, my friend, means that I am over you. That's right, I'm over you. Tell Leah I say hi." You said sarcastically.

You hung up the phone and threw your phone back into your purse. You felt like you just won a chess game.

The next morning you decided to sleep in because your heart was pounding and you could barely sit up without feeling like you might fall. You were supposed to be working at the bakery but since you owned the bakery, Wanda let you sleep it off until you recover. You couldn't remember anything from last night, how you got back to your apartment was a mystery. You tried to put the pictures together, from being forced to go on a date, meeting a guy named Sean? Simon? Sebastian? Scott! Yes, Scott. You ordered your meals and then... Nothing, it was all blurry. You weren't even sure if anything happened at all after eating your meals.

The apartment was empty because Wanda was working at the bakery and it was just you with your hangover pills. Bucky came to your apartment without knocking because Wanda told him on the phone that you were home. He greeted you with a smile and asked about your date.

"Uh, let's see. I think there was a restaurant, I know there was wine. And there's a guy, Scott and pretty much that's all I can recall."

Bucky made a yikes face. Seeing the state you were in, he could do the math (of the wine you had). You probably enjoyed the alcohol more than the guy. What a doofus, he thought. If he was the one going on a date with you, you'd definitely remember every detail from last night.

"Leah's downstairs and I'm taking her back to her place but I left my keys here last night. Have you seen it?"

"No, check the drawers. Maybe Wanda put 'em there."

"Ah, okay." He opened the drawers and found the keys to his bike.

"Did we... Speak on the phone last night?"

"Nope, my phone was dead and I didn't charge it all night so I haven't really checked it. Why?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just... Never mind. My memories are a bit hazy right now. You should go, say hi to Leah for me."

Bucky nodded as you walked back to your room to go lie down. Your question reminded him that he should probably check his phone now because there could be work-related messages but the first thing he heard was a voicemail from you. "Oh, y/n. I got your message!"

That instantly stopped you in your tracks. Your eyes went wide and you froze. You immediately turned around and ran to grab his phone away from him. Bucky had a confused look on his face, "who's Scott?"

"Oh my God, no, Bucky, give me the phone. Give me the phone!" But it was already too late, he was already halfway through your voicemail and by the time you successfully snatched his phone out of his grasp, he had already heard every word.

Bucky stood there dumbfounded, he needed time to process everything you just said to him. "What do you- what do you mean you're over me?"

"Oh, God... Alright, um- lately, I've um- sort of, have... Feelings for you." You never had to chase a guy or confess your crush first so this felt new and my God, it was nerve-racking.

"You have feelings for me..." He said it as if he was convincing himself that his ears got it right. Bucky couldn't believe the words that just escaped through your lips, for years he had dreamed of this moment. Though never did he ever want you to make the first move but adolescent him wanted to hear you say what he'd been wanting to say to you too.

He didn't say anything for what felt like minutes and you couldn't decipher his thoughts from the look on his face. "I need to sit down," he pulled one of the dining chairs and leaned on his side in a defeated posture.

"Bucky... Please say something." You alerted him in a hushed tone, not wanting to startle him than you already did. But he didn't. He was lost at words. What the hell was he supposed to tell her?

"Look Bucky, I'm sorry for telling you this way but I had to. I just- I've been wanting to talk to you about it since you came back to New York, well- actually, since Steve told me but-"

"Whoa, Steve told you?!" He interrupted.

"Yeah, it just accidentally slipped when we were playing truth or dare..."

"Okay well," he stood up from his seat, yet he still couldn't look you in the eye. "I can't do this right now, Leah's waiting for me downstairs and I gotta go." He basically ran out of the room and slammed the door behind him, leaving you alone.

Once your hangover had begun dissipating, you decided to help Wanda at the bakery and took the night shift. She must've been exhausted from managing the bakery alone while also helping the employees in the kitchen so you told her to go home and leave it to you. The bakery's usually slower at night.

When it was nearing closing time and your employees had gone home, you decided to clean up and turned off the lights and checked everything one last time before locking the door. The bell above the door dinged and you were slightly annoyed because who the hell comes to the bakery at this hour?

"I'm sorry we're clo...sed." It was Bucky. He stood there in a black coat, with an expression you still couldn't figure out. "Bucky, what are you-"

"You have no right to tell me that you've got feelings for me." His tone was harsh, he never spoke that way to you or anyone... Ever.

"What?"

He walked closer to you, maintaining his gaze, "You can not tell me that you've got feelings for me now when I'm doing well with my life and Leah..."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I was in love with you for years! Years, y/n! And you never said and did anything and now when everything's going well you're ruining it!"

"I am ruining it?" You repeated the question because you couldn't believe what you just heard. How dare he said those hurtful things to you.

"Yes! I was doing fine with Leah and now I don't know what's going to happen with me and her anymore..."

"Yeah, well, I was doing fine before I found out that YOU were in love with me and never had the balls to tell me!" You did everything you could to not cry, you hated crying in the middle of an argument.

"Hey, it's not like I didn't try. There were your ex-boyfriends and your dates and I had to move on. I couldn't wait forever! And now, now you're too late."

"Oh, so what? You're just gonna walk away and pretend that this never happened?"

"Yes, I'm going to do exactly that and I'm going to go see Leah." He turned around like he did earlier in your apartment and left you alone once again with your heartbreak.

"Fine! Go ahead and see Leah because I don't give a fuck about cowards like you or whoever you sleep with." You slammed the door and tried everything you could to not have a breakdown here because you really hated letting an argument hurt you. You sat on one of the chairs where the customers would sit and you hid your face with your hands and cried.

Not because you just lost an argument but because of what Bucky said and it felt like you had lost Bucky before you even had him. Now there was no hope left for you and Bucky, things were too complicated.

You didn't know how long you had cried there, alone, in the dimmed lighting of your shop but after you felt like the tears had dried, you wiped the traces of your tears from your cheeks with the back of your thumb. You stood from your seat and was ready to go home. You couldn't wait to eat some leftover pizzas, take a warm shower and cry into your pillows until you fall asleep.

But when you were about to leave, you saw Bucky standing on the other side of the door, watching you through the windows with a softer expression on his face. You opened the door and Bucky instantly grabbed your waist and kissed you as if his life depended on it.

You gave in to his kiss, letting him pour every desire and yearning into your lips for as long as he wanted. You grabbed his face because you wanted him impossibly closer and you shut your eyes, letting your guard down. Because it was Bucky, and you'd known him for as long as you could remember and you both deserved this moment.

Bucky eventually pulled away until both of you were running out of air. You were breathless from his kiss, you never knew he was such a good kisser. (It's Bucky and he's had a lot of women on his bed, of course, he was excellent at it. Who were you kidding?) But now that you've had your own front-row experience, you felt a tad of possessiveness at the thought of sharing those lips or any part of him with anyone else.

"I couldn't go back to her knowing you are here alone and I had thrown away what I've wanted for as long as I could remember."

"I'm glad you came back." You pressed your foreheads and you rested your hands on his chest. You could get used to this.

"I hope it's not too late to say this but, y/n y/l/n, will you let me take you to dinner and see a movie after maybe?"

"I wasn't the one who said it's too late," you halfheartedly teased him.

"Shut up, so is that a yes or a no?"

You bit your lip and nodded, "yes. Definitely a yes." You stared into his ocean blue eyes, so deep and beautiful, you could easily get lost in it.

"y/n y/ln, I'm going to put all of your ex-boyfriends to shame."

"Hm, we'll see about that." You put your arms around his neck. Then a thought crossed your mind and your smile faded away, "what are you gonna do about Leah though?"

"I'll talk to her in the morning. Let's take you home now, yeah? It's getting late."

You bit your lip and nodded, "okay."

Ninth grade you dreamed of popular jocks and athletic seniors, but little did you know that, sometimes, the one who sincerely loved you was the book nerd who loved The Hobbit a little too much.

[kimhargreeves]

American Nightmare-Travis Hackett x Reader

Summary: You're one of the counselors heading to Hackett's Quarry. You, Laura and Max find yourself lost in the woods and you share a couple of creepy stories. Soon the three of you will find yourself in a nightmare with an officer who isn't willing to let you go.

(A/N: see that nobody had written much on the videogame "The Quarry" so here's a short one shot I decided to do. Let me know if you want a part 2! And something with David Arquette's character too!!)

I boredly stared outside the window watching about the hundred tree pass by, not so listening to the low radio and more to Laura and Max discussing and looking at the map in their hands.

"Ugh why do they makes these so hard?!" Laura groaned which made her boyfriend take a peek at the scribbles on the map she held.

"How do you think the first colonizers did it? I mean, I'm sure they would walk around in circle for hours." Max mindedly said while staring up at the dark road now.

I sat up and reached out to grab the map from Laura's hand. "I'm sure it mustn't be that hard. Aren't councelors supposed to know these sort of things?"

"Nope." Both of them said making me sigh in defeat when I could've understand the red and blue lines.

"Where even are we?!" I asked. I was beginning to grow tired or being stuck in a car for hours.

"We are definitely lost." Laura blunty replied making us look at Max.

He looked back to check on us quick and shook his head. "We're not entirely lost..see? We haven't passed that tree yet."

I frowned and rolled my eyes reaching to shake his shoulder, "Every tree is the same Max!"

Max let out a loud sigh and turned to glance at me. "(Y/N), you worked here once right? Shouldn't you remember the directions."

I leaned forward to be between him and Laura, watching the dark road up ahead with nothing but woods and slight water hitting the car's front window.

"That was over three years ago when I was still living with my parents. They forced me too, that's not the point here! Thing is I don't remember much." I sarcastically told him which made Laura laugh when Max made a face.

"Give them some slack, Max."

"Oh, so the sarcastic twins are in it together." Max began to make fun of us.

"We're just a bunch of sarcastic young adults. It shouldn't surprise you." I muttered and saw a small smirk on Laura's lips.

Laura had always been like a sister to me. We met each other around elementary school and claimed to be twins since we dressed the same a couple of times and would always team up with each other. We became more than friends, she is the sister I never got to have.

"Anyways, don't you think we should've turned left before? I think we're far from camp and tomorrow Hackett is going to be searching for us if we're not on time."

Max turned to look at us again and shrugged his shoulders before Laura reached out to take one last look at the map. "Okay, maybe we are around this area…Max eyes on the road!"

We all looked forward and braced ourselves when we saw something in the middle the road. Max swerved it until we crashed further into the woods. He slammed onto the brakes and we all looked at each other recovering from what happened.

"Is everyone okay?!" Max asked checking us both.

I winced when I felt a sharp cut by my eyebrow, i must've hit against something as soon as he stopped the car.

"We're fine." I replied ignoring it and taking off my seat belt before getting out of the car, Laura stopped me. "Did you see that? Was it a person? I-I mean we were really close."

I smiled at her worriedly and patted her shoulder. "We'll have a look."

I followed Max outside to check the car's engine. Laura shortly followed us and grabbed the toolbox from the back, both of us took our phones out to use the flashlight.

We heard something back in the woods. We exchanged looks and focused the light out, "Stay right there. I don't want you wandering off." Max immediately said knowing how Laura is.

"You're not the boss of me. Besides, (Y/N) is here with me, and I think there's someone down there." She tilted her head and I began to follow her.

Both of us glanced back every now and then to see Max working on the car. "Shouldn't we stay back with him?"

"Nah. You know what he said, he needs total concentration."

"Doesn't this remind you of something?" Laura stays silent and looks at me so I can continue. "The Evil Dead?"

"What's that?"

"The deadites?? T-They are like zombies..how about Jason?" I ask making her chuckle at my pop culture references.

"You're such a horror freak."

"I usually know how things end..either there's only one survivor or everyone dies. Everyone had a choices, right? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

"Ew don't say that." Laura chuckled at my words.

We continued to walk forward trying to search for anything, "but seriously, being stuck in the woods is so damn creepy." I told Laura after a few seconds of silence.

"Are you still afraid of the dark?"

"No." I quickly replied and quickly pointed the light towards the woods when I heard something nearby.

Laura sighed, "There's nothing to be ashamed about." Thinking I wanted to avoid her question.

"That not it, Laura. Haven't you seen horror movies? Just like I mentioned earlier. Usually in a movie, a group of horny teenagers or young adults are suddenly surprised by something in the woods."

"Not this again." I heard Laura mutter to herself.

"Laura.."

"What?!" She whispered shouted at me pointing her flashlight at me.

I felt my heart betting faster when I remembered the thing in the woods. It clearly wasn't human, it was shaped like a human but it looked so weird. Millions of thoughts began to run through my head, Laura could see my nervous expression.

"Laura. That thing we swerved..I think it wasn't a person." I seriously told her.

"I think you and Max have been sharing too many ghost stories.." Laura said looking away. I can tell by her face that she's concerned as well. "How about you take right and I take left?" Laura nodded quick and began to walk away.

"We're not the Scooby gang!" I groaned loudly and turned my heels to head to the other side. "Why am I never taken seriously." I angrily told myself and dug for my earplugs.

I looked around and noticed that this place kinda feels and looks like the story I once read. Supposedly from true life, where witches were hanged and one of them wasn't a real witch, a child I believe it was.

I placed the cable in and hit play on my library to listen to some music. My eyes continued to look up ahead, everything was dark. I felt a breeze close to me so I quickly turned around and saw something ran past me from behind.

I furrowed my eyebrows together beginning to slowly walk towards where the thing ran off. Slowly I got closer and closer to a bush that was rustling, until…

"(Y/N)!!" Laura's sudden scream made me jump, quickly I took my earplugs out and panicked looking at her panting and running towards me. "Let's get out!" She reached for my wrist and began dragging me away.

Both of us ran until we reached Max again, the two of us climbing into the car again. The three of us began to argue about the thing in the woods, Laura saying she saw some type of woman out.

"Please just get us out of here." Laura begged. I had my hands on the back of their seats, leaning forward towards them.

Max turned on the car but it didn't move, we were trapped in a puddle of mud. "Mother fucking tires!!"

The three of us turned around and screamed when we saw a person by Max's window. "Fuck!!" We all shouted. I felt my heart still going at a rapid pace.

We looked back and noticed it was a police officer. "Fucking great, it's a cop." I whispered since I hate most cops, or any type of authority.

"Oh my God. I think my heart just exploded." Poor Max said still recovering from the jumpscare.

"Are any of you injured?" The cop asked. Poking his nose where it doesn't belong. I rolled my eyes and tried to not show my disgust.

"She bumped her head." Max said.

"Barely! I barely bumped my head! I can't even feel it, my bum I mean… I'm fine."

"Nothing out of the ordinary! Just three adults hanging out." I said rolling my eyes and earning a small snack from Laura so I would shut up.

The cop looked at us suspiciously like most do. The three of us remained silent, nothing but the sound of crickets and the officers footsteps while he examined the car from outside.

"You folks wanna tell me what happened here?" He said reappearing.

Laura and I exchanged looks. Should we tell him the truth or lie? Only one choice will determine the future.

I shook my head slightly for Laura to not tell him. The cop won't believe it in, he'll say we're either high on drugs or hiding a body.

"Something jumped in front of the car and we didn't want to hit it. We served so..here we are."

"Don't tell him." I whispered lowly.

The cop isn't buying it. "Something?"

Time to be dishonest. "It was an animal!" I quickly said before Laura could. "We couldn't make out of it since it was fast." I said trying to sound uninterested.

"Well, it looks like it. Keep the car running." The man said turning to look ahead. We furrowed our eyebrow together confused when he noticed a stain of blood on his neck.

The cop said nothing more and walked away. "Isn't that like the scariest cop?" Max suspiciously said.

"There's nothing more terrifying than getting stopped by a cop." This made Laura tell me to drop since she was growing nervous.

Surprisingly the cop helped us out of the woods but it wasn't long before he returned. A cold hard glare on his face while he looked at us all, "Now will you folks tell me what the hell you are doing this late at night."

Is there a curfew for people to not hang out at night?!

"We're headed for Hackett's Quarry summer camp. We're the new counselors." Laura quickly said.

"You're one night early."

"So? It's better than being late." I replied growing annoyed at the dumb questions.

"To be honest I got lost cuz of them." Max quickly said glancing back to give me a shut up look.

The three of us remained frozen when the cop slowly spoke again. "You're not gonna make it to Hackett's Quarry, not tonight. Harbinger motel, it's the nearest place you can bunk for the night, okay?"

"Mr. Hackett knows we're arriving. He could prefer us to be punctual than to let him down-"

"No Ma'am you're gonna head to Harbinger motel. Do you understand?"

He is testing my patience. There's no way we're going all the way around and miss this chance as counselor's.

Should I be insistent or compliant?

"I don't think that's the right choice for us. I don't understand why-"

"Ma'am, please step out of the vehicle." The cop sternly said stepping back from the car.

"What the fuck?" I was taken by surprise at his words.

"Whoa, she didn't do anything." Max said defending me.

"Yeah, she didn't mean it!"

Now my heart was clearly pounding faster than before. The cop wasn't having it, and neither was I anymore. My patience is growing thin and I won't hesitate to say how I feel.

We are not going to lose our job because of s police.

The officer repeated his words. "I would just like to show you a route on your map there."

"Can't you just show it to us in here?" I asked sarcastically. I rolled my eyes when he said nothing.

"Fuck." I mumbled and started to exit the car. "Ever heard of freedom of speech?" I asked getting to the front of the car.

I slammed the map onto the front of the car and crossed my arms over my chest. The cop said nothing for a few seconds just staring at me disappointed probably, until he stepped closer and took out a pen.

He started to scribble on the map. "Okay, so we are about here. Harbinger motel is here."

"Right..okay! Where's the camp then?" I said looking away and looking back at the map.

"Well, I'm sure the kind folks at the motel can guide you there."

This cop surely is fucking weird. "Uh uh.."I replied unsure.

I grew weary when I noticed his eyes fixed on me. "Hold still." I was beyond confused now.

"What?" Is he detaining me?!

"I said hold still." He demanded.

He took something out of his pockets, a small cloth. He reached forward to my face but I took a step back staring at his weirdly.

"Don't touch me.."

"Ma'am." His expression grew stern and darker.

"I can take care of myself." I said raising my voice for him to get the hint.

Max peeled his head out from the window, "Are you alright, (Y/N)?"

My tired eyes rested back on Max's dark ones. "Yeah, I'm fine..thanks for asking."

The cop kept looking between us. "You can return to your vehicle, ma'am."

Before he could finish the sentence I reached out and grabbed the map. Quickly climbing back into the car, Laura reached her hand out to grab mine reassuring I was safe.

I handed her the map and looked away. "Harbinger motel. Stay on the road.."

"Do you need-"

"Have a good night." The cop finally said and left.

Laura pulled out the map so Max could look at it as well. "Let's just fucking go to Hackett's Quarry." I mumbled leaning back onto my seat and hugging my legs together.

"Yeah, it's the best decision. What do you say, Max?"

I assumed he nodded his head at Laura's question since he quickly turned the engine back on and started to drive down to the road. I remained silent during the ride until we reached the camp.

"It's been forever since I've been at this dump." I told myself when we got out of the car as soon as Max parked the car outside the camp. It was around 1 am and if course no one was here to receive us.

Max stood next to me now turning to look at Laura. "You gotta be kidding me. There's nobody here and we drove all the fucking way-"

"Max, can we just look around before we jump to conclusions." Laura told him.

"Did you actually talk to Mr. Hackett or did you just leave a message."

"What's the difference?"

"This is the difference."

I walked ahead and knocked in the door again louder but nothing. "I'm gonna check if I can open a window or something."

Walking away I started looking for any entrance while Laura started to check the other place around, maybe there's an open window o I can use a bobby pin to open this door. I got on my knees and tried to open the door but failed.

"Laura! Max!" I shouted for either of them but didn't see them nearby. "Shit." I got up again and started to look for either of them to help me.

I started walking towards the back and I saw them up ahead with a few tools in hand. "Look! We found an entrance." Max waved.

"Should we head in?" I heard Laura ask.

Quickly I ran to their side and looked down, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Max and Laura began to take a couple of steps down. "Hello?!" She called out.

I shushed her and decided to remain close to her since being outside on my own will freak me out.

"Are you hurt?"

"Do you exist?"

I rolled my eyes at Max's response before I spoke up. "If you saw someone in here then that means we should remain outside."

Laura started to move ahead, "Be careful." Max reminded her and I noticed something in the corner of my eye.

Something's on the dirty ground, I reached out and saw a card upside down, I picked it up and examined if.

A tarot card. I noticed the picture on it. This is a skeleton riding a horse with a sickle. "Death?" I examined the other side but nothing.

I believe this card represents a physical death. It implies an end, possibly of a relationship or interest, and therefore implies an increased sense of self-awareness.

I looked around and slowly rose up to my feet to face Max who seemed worried, "Max, we should get Laura and leave. I think we should-" I let out a scream when I saw something fly towards him.

"Laura!" I shouted her name when I raced and saw Max in a puddle of blood, his wound wide open gushing red. Laura ran to his side and began to help him.

"Should we help or leave him?!" I shouted beginning to get scared that I was possibly right at something going on here.

"We can't leave him!" Laura shouted looking at my shocked expression.

"Y-You're right! But I should call for help, I'll be right back!!" I began to race up the stairs and heard Laura below.

"(Y/N)! Don't you dare leave!"

I continued to run up trying to not slip due to his wet the floor was. "Help!!" I shouted hoping someone was here nearby.

Continuing to run I noticed a car up ahead but before I could run any further I felt a pair of arms grabbing me from behind. I screamed and tried clawing at the person but before I could slip away I felt a sharp pain on my neck, slowly my eyes got blurry and I fell down the floor.

The lays thing I heard was Laura screaming Max's name.

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

this ask is probably annoying, i’m really sorry, but i never really read superhero comics and i’m just getting into superheroes from the.. em cee you, i guess? over the past month (actually watching h*mec*ming as i type this) and i was wondering if you’d explain some of the differences between em cee you peter and comics peter — only if you want to, of course, but it kinda seems to me like you probably have a lot to say on why you don’t like that version and you’re waiting for someone to ask?? if so, i’m curious to hear it (& i’d also love any comic recommendations, if you’ve got them to give :))

Hi, anon! Not annoying at all!

I'm not... eager to talk, I only mention it to... shall we say, clear the air? The m/cu is the most popular version of every marvel character, so, when someone wanted to talk to me about marvel, I had to assume that the conversation would go there eventually, and the last thing I wanted was for someone to approach me with love for it and to meet it with less than lukewarm enthusiasm. So, I thought, if I just pepper the fact that I don’t like it into the conversation, no one will make that mistake. Although I love you for giving me the chance, and I WILL NOW. NO TAKE BACKS.

First of all, I wouldn't give you recs off the cuff, because I don't know what you like. If you end up liking Homecoming, I might go with Untold Stories of Spider-Man. It's a flashback series, written in the 90's but set in Peter's high-school years, to expand them. I think it's a very good example of a text that modernizes the material (getting rid of all that 60's whackiness) while staying as true as possible to the source. Darker and more serious than the original, but that’s because writing had changed since then.  Maybe it had to do with the Hayes Code, too. I can think of one thing that wouldn’t have flown back then. It's still pretty different from th!Peter, but much closer than the original high-school years. Peter's also more likeable. Or, more easily likeable, I love that 60′s teenage rat bastard who can't get a grip. 

Zdarsky’s run of Spectacular Spider-Man has that hopeless-but-well-meaning vibe, too, although he’s an adult there. (It’s okay, he hasn’t acted like an actual adult since One More Day. I do think you might find USoSM!Peter more mature than Zdarsky’s Peter.) 

Hmu with more specific requests and I'll oh-so-gladly comply, you have no idea. As you’re about to find out, I’m talkative. I tried to include panels to make it a bit more bearable. I would like to apologize for any typos or mistakes, English isn’t my first language.

I guess the next order of business is to say that, unless you said it like that to avoid tagging/searching problems, there's no reason to be apologetic to me about watching/liking that Peter. I don't like him, and I think it's human nature to think your taste is better than everyone else's taste lmao, but, while I did find it... not to my taste (Peter seemed like a pushover to me, and the only thing I found actually funny, which seemed to be the point of the whole movie, was the porn joke - there's a lot of deeper issues that have to do with the em cee you as a whole, but this post isn't about that and there's plenty of people who could and have explained it better), my... anger comes from the fact that, for being a really inaccurate version of the story, it's put a lot of effort into seeming like the most accurate one to date, and that has consequences outside of any individual decisions to watch the movies or not.

The point of the movies is to bring in new readers from the audience, and the audience will want to see what they saw on the movies, so things get changed to create synergy. Dumb examples, born from the fact that I don't read those comics or haven't gotten to that part yet: last year or so, Valkyrie was killed so that she could be brought back as a Tessa Thompson look alike. Jessica Jones is a brunette, when she’s always been a redhead. Matt Murdock had a crisis or something (I think it was because he committed manslaughter, accidentally, of course, but it might be unrelated) changed his costume to one that looked like the one in the netflix show. Hell, they made a new team of the Defenders with the netflix crew! They used to have a completely different roster! Doctor Strange was there! They didn’t replace the other team, and I’m not sure either of them are still active, but still. These were just small, aesthetic examples (well, at least their consequences were - Brunhilde did die and all that, I have no idea whether she acts more like m/cu Valkyrie now, or if she did before) to get you used to the idea that there's a clear pecking order at Marvel and the movies have some big teeth.

So, people buy that that's how Peter is, so not only is all the fan content I get about that version, it also becomes more and more likely that things will get changed in the comics to make them more similar. Not just that, but people will also go into the comics with that lense and things will get twisted around. An example from a post I saw recently: there's a story in  the comics about Peter wanting to get his story out there and so he makes a deal with the Bugle that, in exchange for publishing it, he'll unmask himself publicly. As he reaches the agreed place and time to do it, a lot of people step forward in Spider-Man costume and claim to be him, letting him go through with his deal and unmask himself without exposing his real id. Now, if that somehow happened to Captain America, you'd have no doubt that it was a sign of gratitude, appreciating his heroism, you'd maybe even say it was NY giving back. And that's what it was. A show of respect to a hero. Because of the view of Peter as a smol bean, though, the op of the post talking about it immediately took it to mean protectiveness, like that of a parent to a child. Because he's so pure. 

Well-meaning, of course. Kinda condescending, when the guy was supposed to be around 30, though. It's, plainly put, a misreading. But it's all the Spider-Man fanon content you get these days.

After writing most of comes now, I went through my “peter parker” tag and found a post about the (amazing) essay “The First Thirty Years” by Peter Sanderson, published in Amazing Spider-Man #365 (if you go to that one comic reading site, it starts on page 64) that explains and touches on most of what I go into now. I’m not gonna delete all that, though. 

Now, there has been a... de-clawing of Peter since as early as the 2000's, although Straczynski held the fort well (almost too well, but if I start on that now it will sound like I just like to complain lol), but they just made him a... cleaner, more sanitized version of him, they didn't outright woobify him the way fandom does. I'm reminded of a recent comic event*, I talked about it here, where, at one point, Steve Rogers, Logan, Luke Cage and Peter are discussing berserk rages and everyone sort of agrees that it's happened to them, maybe even share some backstory... until we get to Peter. The idea being that Peter's just too pure to have those kinds of urges when... Peter's the crown prince of berserk rages (he's Logan's heir). But Marvel has seen the writing on the wall! It's the cinnamon rolls who sell these days, so we can't go around reminding people of the fact that Peter once lost it so badly he beat the Sin Eater half to death until Daredevil stopped him (and then he tried to take his anger out on Daredevil), so he, oh, only left him disabled, with a severe limp and a lisp, nothing much! It's like they want you to forget that he's a character better suited to the current Defenders than to the Avengers (although he is pretty hybrid about that).

I don’t mean to make the differences all about his anger, but that’s arguably 616!Peter’s greatest flaw and it informs his whole character, and its removal informs m/cu’s Peter’s. He just lacks... edge.

Going back to that post I mentioned earlier, about NY protecting him, there’s something the op mentioned when they talked about Peter’s pure pureness and such. They mentioned how he directs tourists to the best hot dog stands, and helps old ladies cross the street and making kids smile at their birthday parties (I looked up that post just for you) and... I don’t remember him doing any of that. Getting cats out of trees, yes, although the only example that comes to mind is that one time he gave up being Spider-Man, moved to Portland and lost his powers, so, go figure (taking into account that I was so offended by the mischaracterization post OMD in 2008~ that I just skipped most of it until Nick Spencer took over in 2018, so there’s like ten years of comics I didn’t read). The rest, though? No. And there’s something I find interesting about that list. See, there’s something nice Peter has done plenty of times that should’ve been in that list for sure, yet wasn’t: using his webs to make shelters for homeless people caught out in the rain.

Oh! Oh! Hang on! Let me show you one of my absolute favorite Peter moments:

Looking at those pages... what time of day do you think it is? Granted, the 80′s-90′s saw some very dark coloring, but it’s probably night, right? 

Funny story, around the late 70′s or so, Peter was once accused of like 3 different murders (or two murders and a crime, don’t quite recall). They renew their investigations and find him not guilty and officially recall the order for his arrest when he got a reputation boost after saving a building full of people from a fire, during the day, which he had never done before, allowing people to see him as something more than a shadowy figure the Bugle talked shit about. Now, this is bogus, of course he’d saved the day when it wasn’t night before, but it gives you an idea of the image Spider-Man had, and his MO. Muggings in back-alleys in the dark. Is... night the time you’d imagine for helping old ladies cross the street, or giving tourists directions to good carts, or children’s bday parties? Like, first impression, first image that came to your mind when you thought about Peter doing those things. No, right? Unlike helping homeless people stay out of the rain, that summons up a dreary image, best suited for the shadows, and the night, and the darkest parts of the city, where most would fear to tread... like Peter is. 

(Is that from when he had a severe mental breakdown after a year of trauma and tragedy and a bit of an exaggeration of his usual menace? Yes, what of it.)

Instances where he was doing low stake good deeds like the ones are just mentioned were just filling, he was always stopping muggings and robberies and assaults and powerful and dangerous supervillains. That is, Peter was always fighting. Not being “pure”. He is good! He’s even naïve compared to some of the Defenders. But even while standing out, he’d fit right in.

Like, there’s comics fans who will tell you Peter wasn’t nice at all, just kind, and I disagree! The only reason I don’t include examples of that is because you already assume Peter’s nice and I don’t need to prove that. But he definitely had an edge. Even his niceness could be problematic (as in, it could cause problems) because he was just too intense and/or assertive. As in, he was sweet, and nice, and caring... in his way. He’s less of a child and more of a caretaker himself.

That’s an example of him walking all over someone and things going well. 

Looking at those previous pages, though, you can see why it’s so important that Peter have his rage. So that he can rise above it. He’s fucking Achilles, is what he is. Everyone else can be as perfect and pure as they like, but Peter can rise to such heights that are only comparable (and maybe due) to his lows.

There’s also something best illustrated by what follows that interaction.

See that anger? It’s because he cares. He gives his life up at the altar of Spider-Man because he just cares so much about people, and we all like to talk about that part (I know I do). It follows that an equal anger/hate would be directed at those that would hurt people. (“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.”)

There’s another difference: 616!Peter, as I mentioned, is intense. He’s emotional. It’s not always pretty. It’s not always good. It’s essential to him, though. I don’t know what to do with a Peter who apologizes for punching a man who’d pulled out and tried to use an alien-powered weapon in the middle of a ship full of people. Don’t you care at all????? Of course, violence is far from the only way to express care, but it’s one of Peter’s main ways. Or just being mean.

Guy’s car: gets crushed

Peter: “You took a handicapped spot? Serves you right!”

Compared to that, m/cu!Peter’s... bland. He’s driven, I guess. It might be harder to tell because, unlike 616!Aunt May, m/cu isn’t old or disabled in a way that prevents her from keeping as close an eye on Peter as she’d like when he’s a teen, and with Tony (and all the freaking universe) knowing his id, too, he’s kept on a tighter leash.  But they went too hard with the “Spider-Man, the hero who could be you!” angle and he’s “Spider-Man, the hero who could be anyone, because he’s no one at all”. He’s Standard Hero #24.

616!Peter’s extreme independence, as a lone hero, one of the first, and the sole breadwinner of his family, consisting solely of him and his ailing, elderly aunt, after Ben’s death, is another difference between them and something else that’s essential to his character. Simply put, I don’t think he’d have made it in the circumstances he was in if he wasn’t the kind of lone wolf who’d take on the whole world on his own, if he had to, even if he might resent the loneliness (and he was so lonely), because, well... he often had to. Those sharp edges served him, even though it also tends to cut him.

(I do want to mention that 1- the test thing is bogus, the only Avenger that got tested was Hawkeye, at his insistence and the rest’s protest and 2- they gave him a time limit to show up and when he got there they told him they weren’t ready and to wait outside the room. Most importantly, though, look at Peter’s own reaction to his anger.)

A very common attempt to shield em cee you against criticisms of inaccuracy is to say that Peter's just a kid there, of course he didn't have such an edge. Peter was worse at that age. Not as violent, granted, not by far, but much more likely to get his temper stoked. I mean... I think I gave you the worst example of Peter's rage with the Sin Eater story, so few things can compare. Oh, sure, Back in Black, where he goes on a hunt for the people who shot Aunt May and then the man who hired them, the Kingpin, but the violence isn’t worse so much as just sustained for longer. If anything, it's more controlled and colder.

But, yeah, he was hot-headed and combative. Like, maybe you can call m/cu Peter stubborn, but it's that... heroic stubbornness to do the right thing despite the odds against him (again, SH#24). Peter's angry at those odds, and the people who stack them against him. He got into two fistfights with Flash Thompson because he just couldn’t control his temper. 

It’s not always the righteous rage of a hero. Sometimes he’s just a little bitch. A little, petty, hot-headed bitch.

There’s also the very interesting case of the “teenage superhero”. We have an idea of what that means, one that fits very well with m/cu Peter: inexperienced, sweet and naïve and not yet tainted by the cruelty of the world, “got an F bc I was out fighting Electro!”, “I will one day make it to the ranks of the grown-ups!” It’s interesting because Peter’s often called the original teenage superhero and... he wasn’t like that. He wasn’t any more naïve than he’d be when he grew up. If his youth (and take into account he was supposed to be a major) had any relevance, it’s because they made him even more emotional and a wild card.

As you can see, he wasn’t a sweet anything. Except for his Aunt.

(Ok, seriously, though, refer to my other comments. He can be sweet and nice and soft, it just takes a different quality than “sweet smol bean”.)

He wasn’t inexperienced. In The Amazing Spider-Man #1, he holds his own pretty well against the Fantastic Four. Want some badass teenage Peter content? Look no further than his very first Annual, where he fights the Sinister Six! Strong, fast, resourceful, a skilled fighter, that’s Peter!

“With every nerve tangling... every sense honed to a razor sharp edge... the most amazing human fighting machine the world has ever known goes into action with dazzling speed and surging power!” Spider-Man fighting two leopards and Kraven the Hunter. Who spoils you like I do? Seriously, though, outside of the fact that your average comic book storyline followed a structure of “hero gets defeated by the villain at first, maybe suffers a bit of a crisis because of it, then comes back stronger from getting through that crisis and/or having gathered information on his foe during that first fight”... there's no example I can think of of teenage Peter being out-and-out inept, like m/cu Peter is. 

I’m not even sure that he spent more time at school than at the Bugle, at least on panel. We see him lie about studying and going to the library more often than we see him actually studying. His grades didn’t seem to suffer. The closest he got to getting in trouble was when he got into a fight with like 10 of his classmates, but then Flash confessed that he’d started it and the Principal was glad to let Peter off the hook. He got a full ride to what looked like a very good college (I mean, the son of renowned scientist and industrialist Norman Osborn went there) on scientific merit. In college, he struggled, yes, but he definitely wasn’t a kid by then.

He also predates the Avengers, so there was no hero-worship there, even if he were to agree that fighting bigger threats out in space made you a better or higher-ranked hero (as the m/cu does). I think it’s partly why he was so meh about joining them when they recruited them and only went for the money and because Thor convinced him he was under performing and being “irresponsible” by limiting himself to street thugs. He understood that they were just a bunch of guys, like him, only they’d gone for strength in numbers. (There’s a lot to say about Peter’s ability to work in a team and about that particular invitation to the Avengers, but that’s for another time.) There was no promotion. Heck, for a time, outside of the F4 and Pym (and Hulk, who wasn’t even reaaaaaaaally a hero), there was no one. No one but him. 

I mean, seriously. Fourth strongest hero. The Marvel Universe was tiny. 

And it isn’t now! I get the difficulties this causes in the m/cu (I mentioned that Peter might have needed that edge under his circumstances, and the truth is, those circumstances don’t apply to the m/cu, which is just a long-winded way to say that the internal inaccuracies, that is, his personality, might have been caused by external inaccuracies), but none of the Defenders were belittled like Peter was just because they got late to the party, partly (I assume) because they got netflix shows instead of movies and they didn’t really interact with the Avengers as much, while Peter did and had to be adapted to fit, but what I said before stays true. Peter’s more of a (netflix roster) Defender than an Avenger. He belongs at street level. Also, while this was a bit of a retcon from 2001 and didn’t influence Peter’s teenage years, Jessica went to school with him. She’s supposed to be his age. Why does she get to be an adult? (The push to make him all about youth, and an actual teenager whenever possible, came from Marvel Comics first, of course, but it’s the movies that have made that version the most popular one. Also, my bitterness for modern comics just doesn’t come up as much because comics don’t come up as much as movies.)

Even while making him a teenager, they could’ve respected him enough to let him be his own hero, instead of constantly panting after Iron Man and the Avengers. Think Ant-Man... but, you know, a teen. The rest of the universe exists, but their casts don’t have a near to equal presence as that of Ant-Man’s. I’m reading the essay I mentioned before as I write this and I don’t think I could explain it better than Sanderson does when he talks about him being called Spider-Man and not Spider-Boy. It’s condescending. I just remembered that Tony literally does that in Civil War. It’s nuts, how the more I think about it, the worse it gets.

I’m outright following the Sanderson essay now, because it’s so good and it mentions things I thought of mentioning here but forgot about lol. The humor. A problem that’s much older than the m/cu, much less m/cu!Peter, but I’m talking abut this now. Spider-Man isn’t the chatter-box superhero, he’s the quipping superhero. The only writer I can remember making Peter a rambler is Straczynski, and he gets a pass, because he’s Straczynski, and part of being Straczynski means having some of the best Peter Parker repartee. It’s just... I’ll put it plainly. Peter’s actually funny. Like, on purpose and in a very self-aware, sometimes even strategic, way. He’s not funny because he’s gushing over the Winter Soldier’s arm. That’s like verbal slapstick! It’s only funny because it’s ridiculous

“Are you trying to defeat me by talking me to death?!” Well, are you???????

Listen. Everyone has their preferences. I personally don’t like m/cu Peter because, even outside of his inaccuracies, I think he’s bland in personality and lacks a spine. The fanon version of him is even worse in that department, so it goes double. I’d be fine with that, except for the fact that stuff about him is ubiquitous and spreading over to the stuff I do like. I just wanna enjoy my Peter “you’re the only accident around here” Parker in peace... but with other people to share with. You see my struggle.

I’m not saying my version’s better (although I do like him better), it’s just... the accurate version. I get the appeal, I get that thye were trying to tell a particular story with Peter that they  couldn’t have told if  they’d stuck to his original skills, powers and personality, but maybe... just maybe... if the shoe doesn’t fit... don’t cut off your toes and heels to make it.

(If you got to the end, are disappointed by the lack of recs and are curious about the stories the panels I used are from, hmu! Or if you have more specific requests!)

[anonymous-swiftie]

If you are on twitter, please retweet this:

https://twitter.com/ASwiftie00/status/1334245577933148164?s=19

Dear #Swifties,

I'm new on tumblr, and I really don't know how to use it.

I know you are the best supporters of the music industry and I'm here to ask your help.

I'm fighting with a crippling depression, that due this covid situation just got worse.

I'm at my lowest, I truly don't know if I will make it through this time.

I always dreamed to talk to Taylor, since I was a teenager. She is the only one that make me feel like I do fit in this world.

I've created this account because I know she is very active here, and I'm trying to reach her with this part of my story.

You can read everything below.

I didn't write any personal information because I don't want this to be seen by my family or somebody that can recognise me.

I don't want upset anyone.

I know that everyone hope to meet or chat with her, and so you are probably wondering why you have to share this here.

You're totally right, maybe it's a stupid idea to ask you this, but I haven't anything left in my pocket to fight this situation, and you're my only hope right now.

Thank you.

#taylor #swift

*******************************************

Dear Taylor,

I keep writing and deleting this, over and over again.

I feel so dumb to write my personal story here, but this truly is my last chance to feel better and try to overcome this giant monster called depression.

I genuinly don't know if I can make it through this year. It's the worst period of my entire life and i don't even know if it's worth living this hell anymore.

I know you have millions of supporters (that probably write you every single day, and they are all better fans than I am, that's for sure) but I know that you proved, time after time, to be so down to earth and to use your time to read your fans messages.. so, in this moment, I'm just trying to share a part of my story with you.

You are the one that make feel understood, since I was like 13teen.

I'm so sorry if my English isn't very good but I'll do my best.

I'm not very active on social media , because I'm very shy when I have to talk about myself.. but If this could work, I must do it.

I will try to send a letter, If I can find the strength to mark this feeling on paper.

**IF I'M WRITING TO SOMEBODY FROM HER STAFF, PLEASE JUST LET THIS MESSAGE REACH TAYLOR**

I'll try now to resume, because I don't want to bother you too much.

This has been a crazy year so far, and the all the time I spent by myself during the lockdown didn't help at all.

This situation brought me back to childhood.

I spent a lot of my days back and forth in hospitals, due to my allergies.

I had to wear a mask all the time I wanted to go outside to avoid severe allergic reaction (that's why this Covid thing awakened some hurting memories)

I didn't have real friends back then, 'cause I've spent most of the summers at home, watching other kids playing around, from my window, or from the windows of my classroom.

It was so hard to make new friends, because the only thing that other kids saw was my mask.

I was the masked kid.

I was the strange kid.

I couldn't play with them.

Everytime I tried to play with them, the only thing I heard was "oh you are ill , I don't wanna be like you so stay away".

This situation made me start to write things in my personal diary.

I wrote small sentences, as a kid, and that was the only thing I could do alone inside an empty classroom during all summer.

This situation continued  for many years.

I wasn't the cool kid before, I wasn't the cool guy after.

The only things that let me enjoy those days were writing and listening to your songs.

I started to listen to your music thanks to my English teacher. She was a fan of folk and country music and she gave me a pic in which you were singing near a lake (I still have that photo somewhere, I strongly remember the white banner with your name written in red on it) and told me to listen to the cd she gave me that day.

I immediately fell in love (I think I still have a crush on you, I'm sorry).

I loved your album. I loved your voice. I loved the lyrics.

I remember having a "test" in school: each one of the class had to write their favourite lyrics and let the others guess the song.

If the someone guessed It, We could play the cd.

I chose Love Story and I translated it in Italian.

The class guessed the song, and I played it.

After the lunch break I went back to my desk and I saw some bullies that were breaking my cd-album and they started to laugh at me because I loved your music an I loved writing poems.

I was a boy so I was a loser because I enjoyed those things.

That felt terrible, but I continued to love your songs even more .

Those were my inspiration to write and to study english.

I felt so good when I listened to your album and this still happens.

Then I went to a private high-school.

Nothing changed, I still was the nerd guy that always got good grades and I have to say that the first year was quite good, but the second year was the start of the apocalypse.

I choose that school because two girls that I knew from childhood went there.

One of the cool new guys started to spread a fake "news" about me.

He said to everyone that I was the boyfriend of one of the two girls that I mentioned before.

So he was the cool guy and one of the girls believed him and told me to f*** myself.

The other girl was her best friend, so you could imagine by what happened next.

After 14 year spent together, I was nobody.

I didn't have "friends" in that class anymore.

I didn't say hello to anybody for 4 years, and nobody would say anything to me.

Nobody to talked with me.

That's great when you're a teenager.

I hated to wake up every morning.

I had an eating disorder, I lost like 22pounds in less than a month. Got hospitalized twice. I kept vomiting for 3 years, every single morning before school.

During that time I only talked with one of my cousins, who lived like 2 hours by car from me.

He was older than me but he always tried to help.

He knew that I loved to write poems so he started to give me guitar lessons.

I made it through a lot of things thanks to him.

I'm sorry, It's hard for me to write this part of the story.

I still get emotional when I think about this.

On the 10TH of December 2013 (some days after his birthday) we received a phone call from his mother: She warned us that he didn't return home after the last working shift.

I wrote a message to him like 3 hours prior to that phone call.

Never had the opportunity to get a reply again.

This year is the seventh year that he is missing.

That destroyed me.

I felt empty.

I felt like nothing couldn't help me.

I still feel that everytime I care about someone in my life, it will disappear someday.

This have happened several other times.

You know when ignorants say that men don't cry, is real bullshit. Men cry. I cried a lot.

I wrote so many poems , lyrics, thoughts in that period of time, that I destroyed my hands.

That was the only way to close my eyes and let me reach another reality because the real one was way too much for me.

Be a sensible man in this world is somehow a curse.

All these things made me afraid  even to hug someone 'cause I feel I'm too ugly or just to scared to be refused.

I will stop here my story, but there's so much more to tell.

I make it through all of these things and memories because I keep dreaming that one day I could meet you and we could talk together.

Dreaming about the fact I could spend a day with you made me find the power to battle my depression.

I'm 25 now and this year I'm not dreaming anymore.

I was going to start again university, I wanted to get a degree in marketing and have the chance to live in the us.

For years I believed that I would make it and hopefully be part of your marketing team.

I'm so stupid. All these years I kept dreaming to avoid pain.

I wanted to pursue my passion and continue to write lyrics but all I was doing was putting myself in unrealistic realities.

This covid situation made everything clear.

When everyone had someone to facetime (or video call) I was alone.

When everyone had someone asking them "how are you?" I only had myself looking in the mirror saying: "Will I ever feel better?"

I've never been the one for anybody, and I think I'll never be.

I won't be the one among all your fans to realize his dream.

Nobody likes me, and I'm exposing myself once again just because I want the opportunity to smile at something that could happen to me.

I'm tired to smile only for others best moments.

I've always seen the sun through a window.

I want to feel happy.

I want to burn my face with the sun.

I'm so sick of hiding my pain,

sick to cry when I'm alone in my car before going to work,

sick to let my eyes rain on my pillow every night.

I'm sick to say to my mother that I'm fine, just because I don't want to make her feel bad.

It's not her fault.

She is battling with a degenerative autoimmune disease, why I should put other weight on her shoulders?

I didn't give up to my weakness before because I don't want to hurt her.

I always say to her that soon she will feel better, that's why your song It's stuck in my head.

But when she won't be here anymore, how I can go through all of that?

I don't even know if will ever get better for me.

Will this pain ever stop?

Sometimes it's so hard to live and so easy to die.

Hope that my dream to spend some time with you can become true.

Thank you for everything, you gave me the strength to go on for many years.. But this time is so hard to put on my armor and continue this battle.

But is this even worth if thy I try to surround myself with people and I always feel lonely?

D.

@taylorswift @taylornation @jackleopards-thedolphinclub

[snarky-badger]

 💭

Alright, since you already know all of my Ultron ideas, and I'm kinda out of Venom ones (beyond all the prompts I still have to write *headdesk*), I shall torment you with a Gargoyles one.

Takes place after the main season ended. We know, by the Avalon travel eps, that the world is full of mystic and magical creatures, beings, etc. But what, New York just has Gargoyles? I think not!

Turns out, someone made a big 'oops' in not sending a representative to give a meet and greet to the Clan when they became public knowledge.

I would take some of the stories from the "Goliath Chronicles", like the Quarrymen, and Margot vs Macbeth's televised bitchfests. (But that's about it because the "Goliath Chronicles" kinda sucked. Sorry/not/sorry)

New York has an underground of weird. Werewolves, were-people. Sorceresses, mages, wizards. Vampires that stick to strict codes to not harm innocent people. Not all dogs are really dogs, some are smaller dragons or gryphons. Some cats know more than most people do.

Isabelle and her niece Kathryn (Izzy and Kat respectively) are my main OCs. (Obviously there will be more since I have to build a whole mystical neighbourhood, hence why I haven't written this yet).

Izzy is the owner/mechanic of 'Screamin' Motors Auto Shop', a garage in one of the less 'affluent' neighbourhoods of New York. (Again, I need to research all of New York to pick a place. Or maybe I'll just make one up I don't know yet). Basic car/motorcycle repair shop. She owns the building, which is a three story - Garage on main floor, living space for her and Kat on the upper two.

Anyway, starts off with Kat finding the Quarrymen cornering Lexington in an alleyway on her way home from school. They'd lured Lex in with a fake 'person in distress' act. Lex holds his own, but sledgehammers that are electrified hurt like hell. Kat half-drags him to the Garage, where Izzy is working on a car. Lex is coherent enough to tell Izzy the number to call. Quarrymen gather outside the garage as Kat calls the number while Izzy goes to fight.

It's gonna be fun to write because Izzy? She isn't human. No where close.

Naturally later on I want to have her and Kat interacting with the Clan. Izzy is their new guide to the Mystic side of New York - to the underground bars that only accept non-humans, to the hidden stores and restaurants that only cater to the 'others'.

I honestly wanna have a Brooklyn/Izzy friendship/potential romance? Goliath was always a fav of mine, but he belongs with Elisa and I'm not going to change that AT ALL.

The kicker is that Izzy is afraid to tell the Clan what she is. Her kind and Gargoyles (in this fic anyway) weren't exactly 'friends'. So she and Kat struggle to keep all that hidden while still being friends with the Clan.

This would be such a huge fic, with so much world-building to do. I honestly don't have enough time, despite all the ideas and 'ready to write' scenes in my brain... I wish I did. I really do.