#also those of you who read 'We've Got Work To Do' will recognize that I have changed Victor's deadname-

[theboombutton]

Ok so Alex was the main writer for this casement, and obviously he knew we would latch on to incidental characters that seem a lot like Jon and Martin.

The questions I have are: first, whether it was a prank on TMA fans; and second, if it's not a prank, what he intended to convey by including them. Alex doesn't seem like the kind of guy to leave jmart fan service for its own sake; if those are truly alternate Jon and Martin, I suspect they're there for a story or setting reason.

Was it a prank?

I'm inclined to answer no. Darrien didn't just describe them, he wondered aloud while recounting his story if what happened to him also happened to them. That's not out of the question for prank red-string-bait, but the more you harp on incidental characters that seem like Jon and Martin, the more plausible it becomes that they are. People red-stringing over things that the author draws a circle around and writes "look at this!" next to isn't funny - it's just analysis.

Prank is still on the table, but it's not my preferred explanation.

If they are alternate Jon & Martin, what does their presence here imply?

One thing it probably implies is that we're dealing with more than one alternate universe here.

So far we've only had evidence of two: the Protocolverse, and Celia's home universe. We're reasonably sure that Celia's home universe is the Archiverse, because the character voiced by Lowri in TMA only took the name Celia after she lost her memories in the Eyepocalypse. And if Darrien comes from a universe where Martin worked reception at a therapist's office and Jon was a client, then he didn't come from the Archiverse. He came through from another, until-now-unknown-to-us universe.

Wild speculation ahead

Turn back now if you only want thoughts that are well-evidenced

There's also another possibility we could stack on top of the implication of a third universe. This is primarily supported by Doylist reasoning, rather than in-universe evidence.

Alex wrote ?Jon and ?Martin in close proximity to Darrien's universe shift. He brought attention to the fact that Darrien didn't recognize either of them - ?Martin being a new hire, and ?Jon being a new-enough face to be worth pondering. This would imply it was fairly likely ?Jon and ?Martin's first meeting - likely even their first time being in a room together. And Alex, through Darrien, further invited us to wonder if ?Jon and ?Martin had been pulled across universes as well.

Is it possible that the universe shift happened because of Therapyverse's Jon and Martin being in close proximity at the time?

Jon and Martin are apparently cosmically important in at least the Protocolverse, given that they manifested as two of FR3-D1's voices. What if something in the Protocolverse is pulling in Jons and Martins from other universes? It might be easier or more efficient to find or to pull them when they cross paths, and Darrien just got schlurped up with them this time.

Who would be interested in collecting alternate Jons and Martins? I can think of a few possibilities:

The Fears. They've got Jon and Martin reading case files, maybe they need more Jon & Martin to make FR3-D1 go.

The OIAR. Lena said some entities are benevolent, most aren't, and they're trying to maintain a balance. If Jon and Martin are their "benevolent entities," then maybe they think pulling additional copies into their universe's fear-space strengthens them. Maybe they're even right.

The Magnus Institute itself. It was still around at the time of Darrien's shift, given that the case is from the Institute's files. Jonah Magnus may have figured out (or found out) that Jon and Martin had something to do with his ascension in another universe, and started abducting alternate versions of them as part of his research.

Maybe Chester and Norris started talking a year ago because someone or something finally pulled enough Jons and Martins (and J2s?) into an extradimensional JMalgamation to give them the necessary power.

Maybe Darrien got spat out practically starved to death because he couldn't feed on fear, nor were there versions of himself that could that he could amalgamate with.

And who the fuck is the second J?

[runningfrom2am]

leveling the playing field XII

summary: with nowhere else to go after getting caught cheating to help lucy gray, you both make some desperately stupid decisions.

pairing: coriolanus snow x fem!reader

wc: 3.2k

tags/warnings: capitol brat!reader, maybe slightly ooc coryo, idk i tried my best. do they love each other or hate each other? who knows (we do, kind of). use of a derogatory term (pr*stitute) implications and mentions of abuse, so read with caution!! also a little bit of swearing but that's neither here nor there. oh, and manipulation (both of them lowkey)

masterlists // nav // requests

a/n: nothing much to say other than thank you guys and i hope you like it :)

series masterlist

"Coryo!" You grin, running out of the house and down the front porch steps, throwing your arms around his shoulders as soon as you can reach him. It had only been a few days since you'd seen him, but you had to do what you had to do. Truth be told, you did miss him, though.

He chuckles as he catches you, carefully letting you down after a moment. "Hey, Y/N/N, how's it going?"

"I'm good." You grin, turning back at the sound of people laughing inside the house. "You have to come in to meet Ash. He's gonna come with us today, and Lucy Gray is packing a picnic! It's gonna be so fun."

"Who?" Coriolanus asks, but you're already gone, heading back up to the house. An uneasy feeling settles in his gut as he follows you, shoving his hands into his pockets as he enters the home. The kids are trying to gather things into bags, and Lucy Gray is packing some food to bring with the group out to the meadow.

You, on the other hand, are wrapped around the arm of a boy who looks like he belongs in the Capitol Zoo. "Coryo, this is Ash. We met at the Hob the other night." You explain, looking between the two of them as Coriolanus clenches his jaw.

"Nice to meet you." He says through gritted teeth, reaching out out of habit to shake the boy's hand. He's got dark hair, and somehow darker eyes. Immediately, he doesn't trust him.

"You too, man. Love the peacekeeper getup." He chuckles, shaking his hand briefly and Coryo quickly recoils to wipe his hand on his pants.

"Oh, Coryo is a peacekeeper." You explain, smiling up at Ash as he drapes an arm around your waist.

"We're in the business of trusting those monsters now?" Ash asks, somehow maintaining a lighthearted tone. Like it was a joke, like Coriolanus was nothing more than his position.

"Only a couple." You laugh, shocking Coryo completely. Not so much as a word in his defense while this district trash said such horrible things about him. He was back to not even being able to recognize you. "Coryo is my best friend. We've known each other since we were kids. Sejanus too."

Best friend... That's it?

"That makes sense then." Ash nods, and Coryo stands up taller as Ash not so subtly sizes him up.

"You know, Sejanus has been awfully chummy with Billy Taupe and his friends. Ash is one of them." You say to Coryo quietly, taking up the rear of the Covey as all of you walk out to the meadow behind the house. "Have you noticed?"

He hums in acknowledgment, thinking it over. "It is odd." He agrees. He has noticed your mutual friend sneaking away on any nights out they could spare, and just generally being more cagey than usual. And it makes more sense that his name would mean anything to your new friend.

"Have you asked him about it?"

"No." He shakes his head. "You should, though. He trusts you more."

"That's not true." You laugh. "You are his best friend, after all."

"As are you." He raises an eyebrow at you.

"Oh, please. He throws that term around too loosely." You roll your eyes playfully.

"And you don't?" He asks, obviously referring to how you called him your best friend earlier. It's working. This was evidence that referring to him that way was driving him crazy- you had him wrapped around your finger, and you loved the feeling.

"Nope." You grin, bumping him with your shoulder. "Have I told you the haircut is really working for you? Because it is."

"Thank you. It wasn't by choice." He explains, smiling at the compliment but shrugging it off.

"I figured." You laugh, reaching up to run your hand over his shaved head. "I miss your curls, though..."

"Y/N! Come here!" Ash calls from up ahead, walking backward now as he waves for you to join him.

"Coming!" You call back, immediately ditching Coryo to catch up with him.

Coryo cringes at how his boots sink into the dirt and how you let Ash yell at you like that. Like you were a dog. You'd hardly known the guy for a few days and he's already talking down to you, Coryo is appalled at your taste. You run up to Ash, immediately reaching up and sticking your hand in his unbrushed hair. If Coryo was a brunette and didn't shower ever, that's probably what his hair would look like. It made him nauseous.

The following night, after Coriolanus complained endlessly to you about the birds he had to spend most of his days trapping, you had a stroke of absolute genius. He really, really hates those birds, just as much as you can tell he already hates Ash.

As the sun is setting over the field surrounding the hanging tree, you tell Lucy Gray you're going for a walk, and off you go into the woods with only your mind to keep you company.

They'd set so many traps it was unbelievable, and a good amount had trapped some of the songbirds inside. They were beautiful creatures, timid, too, for birds who were typically so vocal. They were products of the Capitol, so that would only make sense. You were careful not to make a sound as you opened every trap you could reach. You could just hope that by the time Coryo and his group arrived in the morning, they hadn't been trapped again.

You knew this was likely considered treason, interfering with government projects, but you didn't have a whole lot to lose, and seeing the frustration on Coryo's face when he ranted about how stubborn these birds were made the risk well worth it. It wasn't the revenge you were used to doling out to people who had wronged you, but you had been working on changing, after all.

After setting free no less than twenty birds that blew your hair back out of your face as they shot out of their cages, occasionally thanking you by singing your footsteps back to you or clawing at your arms, you made your way back to the street to head back to Lucy Gray's home.

You sucked your teeth over the stinging in your skin from the small cuts and scrapes that nnow littered your forearms. You suddenly understood why Coriolanus hated the creatures. They were beautiful singers, but clearly so inconsiderate. They'd be trapped again anyways, you were just delaying the inevitable to piss off your friend. They got scratches on you, but your people would still win the war.

You lift the excess fabric of your skirt to pat the beading and drying blood off of your arms as you walk. The town was quiet, only a few people scattered around very rarely. Either homeless or drunk, minding their business as you silently made your way down the dimly lit streets toward the seam. You recognize you're almost home when you pass the Hob, through the alley where Coriolanus graced you with his subpar apology. Squinting toward that same back exit as the door creaks open, you move across the alley to hug the opposite wall as you walk, trying to mind your business.

"Yeah, okay. I'll arrange for that. Thank you, yeah. We'll work it out. I promise." Was that... Sejanus? Your theory is confirmed when the speaker steps out into the alley. It was quiet, a weeknight. If the Hob had been open, it was deadly quiet by this hour.

"Sejanus?" You call out, speaking without thinking.

The boy jumps, slamming the door behind himself and looking toward you quickly. "Y/N? What are you doing here?" You can see the panic in his eyes as you get closer, tucking your bloody and exposed arms behind your back.

"Just out for a walk. I wanted to look at the stars." You nod up to the unpolluted and clear sky to accentuate your point. The sky didn't look like this at home. "What about you?"

"Oh! Uh, same." He lies. "It sure is beautiful out tonight."

"It is." You agree, looking up at the stars for a beat while you cross your arms over your chest in the silence. "Who were you talking to?"

As he panics you try and tuck your arms back once more, the stinging of movement reminding you of why you hid them in the first place. "Just, uh, no one. Myself."

You hum in response. Sejanus made his fake story hard to believe. "Why don't you trust me?" You ask, tilting your head at him. "I feel like after all we've been through, you should trust me more."

"I do trust you." He replies quickly. "It's less about that, more about... I don't want you to get involved. It's better for you."

"Is Coriolanus involved?"

"No. No, he doesn't know anything. Same as you."

You nod slightly, looking him up and down. "Well... If you need help or you're in a tough spot, come to us, okay? There are few people you can trust out here. We have to have each other's backs."

"No, no, it's not like that." He assures you. "But okay. If I need help, I'll ask."

You smile. "Well, you better get back. Don't want to get caught out so late."

"You too, Sage."

You chuckle, giving him a quick wave as you walk back away from him.

Even in the dim lighting, he could see the marks across your arm that you tucked away with your turn, sauntering away casually in the direction of your current home on the Seam.

Coriolanus was walking a beat alongside the market almost a week later, the one his bunkmate usually took, but today he was too hungover to crawl out of bed. Coryo didn't have the stomach to watch you drool all over that district boy today, so he decided to just take the shift for his new friend instead of bothering to see you. Maybe, this would result in Beanpole owing him a favour anyway, and that was always nice to have.

It was a Thursday, so not all that busy at the market. It was mostly just mother's gathering food and supplies, which left him incredibly bored for most of the morning. He was wallowing in his self-pity when something finally drew his attention. Your laugh. He would know it anywhere. He scans the street again, posture straight as he tries to track you down, which doesn't take long.

Of course, there you are with your new friend, his arm over your shoulder as you hold his hand against your chest. God, Coriolanus hopes you don't spot him. He looks straight ahead, chewing on the inside of his cheek and wishing he could disappear. You were torturing him, the fact that you couldn't see that, or you just didn't care, was driving him insane. It was worse than if you had just stayed in the Capitol.

Now, he can't help but focus on your voice on the mostly quiet street.

"No, I know!" You giggle, looking sideways at Coriolanus who stood at the edge of the street. You're sure by now he had seen you. You didn't know he would be here, normally he wouldn't, but it makes the task of agreeing to spend time with Ash more bearable. At least it was for a reason. "I've never touched a mandolin before, how could they expect me to pick it up in one night?"

"Well, I'd sure be surprised if you could. No one learns that fast." Ash replies, pressing a kiss to the side of your head. You hate it, you want to shove him off and hit him where it hurts, but you can't. At least Coryo was here to witness it.

"True." You nod, walking with him slowly past the stalls, browsing at some of the small trinkets and goods they had. It seemed to be all random things, which was foreign to you. Back home, every store had a purpose, even after the war the Capitol held onto this sophistication. "This is so pretty!" You smile, spinning out from under his arm to get a closer look at a dress someone had made. It was shorter than your skirt, typically one that would be worn by a child in this region, but it was oversized enough that you could wear it and it would land mid-thigh.

"How much is this?" You ask the woman sitting behind the wooden table, holding up the dress that she had clearly made.

"Forty." She answers, nodding to you. "It's steep, but I put a lot of work into it. It'll last your daughter a long time."

"Oh, no." You giggle, shaking your head. "I was thinking for me." You say, lifting part of the fabric to admire the stitches.

"For you?" Ash asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

"Yes, what do you think?" You reply, holding it up in front of you. "I like the red accents. It's beautifully made."

"You'll look like a damn prostitute," Ash replies without missing a beat. "That's what I think."

You bite your lip, face going red as you look down at it draped against your body. You're not sure if it's from anger or embarrassment. You sigh, folding it up again and turning to the woman who looks shocked. "I'll take it." You smile suddenly, placing it back down while you dig out some cash from your pocket, handing her fifty. "And don't worry about making change, I just hate carrying coins around."

"Thank you, dear. You enjoy." She smiles gratefully, taking the money and tucking it away in her pocket. You nod at her, and before you even turn around with the new dress under your arm you feel a firm grip on your skin, yanking you away from the stall and into a side street.

"Hey! Let me go!" You shout, trying to peel Ash's grip from your arm where it's digging in so tight it's already flushing the areas and opening your healed scratches from the birds, smearing the drops of blood across your skin.

"No, you listen to me." He says, dropping your arm in favour of pointing a finger right in your face as you're backed up against the wall. "If you're gonna be my girl, I'm not letting you walk around like some kind of whore. Do you understand?" He says, clearly fumingly angry by now.

You laugh, rolling your eyes. "You don't scare me, you're a district-born loser with no fucking job! How dare you try and tell me what to do with my-"

You're cut off when he smacks you. You take a shaky breath, instinctively holding the side of your face where his palm made contact. You feel your confidence faltering with the heat pulsing under your skin, and with your eyes closed in this back alley, suddenly you're back home. But you're not. You're not home, and he's not your father, and here, you're free. You're gonna kill him.

You open your eyes and stand up straighter, looking him dead on as your chest heaves with anger. You shove him back, pulling your arm back in his moment of shock to take a proper swing at him as he scrambles to push you back up against the wall. In your rage, you failed to account for the fact that he was much bigger than you.

"Hey! Back off her! Now!" Coriolanus shouts, clicking the safety off his gun before Ash can lay another hit on you, gun aimed unwaveringly at the boy as he quickly walks toward the two of you.

Ash panics, and you feel this as the forearm he had pressed up against your throat, pinning you to the wall loosened its hold and you shoved him off just in time for Coryo to push his way between the two of you, the barrel of his gun now inches from Ash's nose.

He raises his hands in surrender. "Hey, we're cool. I didn't do nothin' to her."

Coriolanus is fighting every urge to just pull the trigger on the loaded weapon in his hands. For you. For this asshole hurting you, for touching you, for the crime of even looking at you, he should do it. He breathes heavily, every muscle in his jaw constricted so tightly he's sure it'll ache for weeks.

You watch over your friend's shoulder, watching the gears turning in his head. Do it, you want to tell him, but even in your anger you can see that's irrational, so you keep your mouth shut.

Coryo sighs, lowering his weapon to use it to gesture to the street. "Get out of here." He mumbles, deciding to let him go. "And never so much as look at her again, understand?" You're almost a little disappointed as Ash spits on the ground at your feet, starting to walk away when Coryo turns the gun faster than you can process and jabs the butt end of it into Ash's face. A chilling crack echoes out against the crumbling walls surrounding you and he hits the ground, unconscious with an obviously broken nose.

Coryo is panting as he turns back to you, quickly throwing the gun back over his shoulder. "Are you okay?" He asks, reaching out and holding your shoulders, hands running down your arms quickly to look over the injuries. "Did he do this to you?" He looks over the scattered cuts and scratches. He could tell they were healing, and they were inconsistent with what could be done with a blade or a man-made weapon, so he deducts quickly that you must have fallen into the wrong bush or something. Maybe when you were gardening.

You shake your head quickly, eyes locked on the boy on the ground.

"Hey, no, look at me. Are you okay?" Coryo asks again, grabbing your chin and forcing you to look at him. He nods expectantly, waiting for you to answer.

"Yes. Fine." You whisper shamefully, giving a slight nod under his gentle hold.

"C'mere..." He mutters, pulling you closer to hug him. He sighs, holding the back of your head and gently smoothing down your hair. It shocks him when you start to shake, trying to muffle your crying in the fabric of his uniform. He shouldn't have waited so long. He took his eyes off you for less than a minute to maintain his own sanity, and this is what happened.

You knew you were safe with Coryo, this was your fault for straying from that over some petty anger. He had betrayed you, sure, but he told you it was because he only wanted to help. If you had listened, none of this would have happened. You should have known he was right. At least he hadn't abandoned you, he'd even saved you. You were lucky he was even around.

"He hit me." You sniff through sobs, gripping tightly onto the back of his grey uniform. "I didn't, I don't know why, I-"

"Hey, hey, hey..." Coryo shushes you, pressing his lips to the top of your head. "I've got you. You're safe now. I'm here."

"I'm sorry..." You sniff, overtaken by the foolishness of your own decisions. For denying your feelings for him in a way that only resulted in hurting the both of you.

Coryo has to fight back a smile as he takes in the familiar scent of your hair. "Don't be." He whispers, kissing your head. "I'll always protect you."

You nod against his chest, locking yourself firmly into his grasp. Even as your blood dried and stuck to his coldly grey uniform, you found it hard to let him go.

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i've closed my taglist for coryo now!! sorry to everyone who wanted to be added, but unfortunately there was significantly more demand than i expected and i sadly just can't tag everyone. BUT! if you still want notifications when i post for this fic, please turn on my post notifs!!

[livwritesstuff]

i’ve been very quiet so srry - my week started with my annual performance review (which went well) and ended with an emergency surgery (also went well) so…a lot going on to say the least

this is a deleted scene from the first chapter of plant a seed

When Robin called, Steve and Eddie were in the phase of newborn parenthood where they froze every single time the phone rang (because said newborn was napping more often than not and when she was, there was a 50% chance minimum the phone would wake her up).

So when Robin called and the ringing of the phone broke the otherwise peaceful silence, Steve froze and he waited. When the baby didn't wake up, Steve exhaled a sigh of relief and answered the call.

"This is Steve."

"Hey Steve-o!"

Steve immediately recognized the voice as Robin's – of course he did, even if he hadn't heard it since she and Nancy left for a work trip in Japan a little over a month ago.

“Oh shit,” Steve said, because this means that Robin and Nancy are finally home, finally back in their Boston apartment fifteen minutes away from his and Eddie's in Cambridge instead of the opposite side of the entire world, “You’re home!”

“Yep,” Robin replied, popping the P, “That plane was a million degrees, I’m pretty sure. No more August flights if I have any say in it. Anyways – wanted to let you know we made it back unscathed. What’s new with you guys?”

“Uh…” Steve began, not totally sure where to start, because Robin didn't know about the baby he and Eddie had been placed with two weeks ago and she certainly didn't know that they're going to adopt her (because they'd landed on that decision that very day – about two hours ago, to be specific), “Well–”

“Hey, do you still have those placements?" Robin interrupted, "The kids who like to read the Goosebumps books?”

“Oh,” Steve blinked, “No. They went back with their mom a couple days after you left.”

“Damn. Been a while. Forgot this trip was longer than usual – wait, so are you between placements now, then? Hey, we should finally make that trip to P-Town!”

"Might need a raincheck on that," Steve said with a laugh, because at the moment a trip to the goddamn grocery store required at least a day's worth of planning, "We've got another placement right now – a newborn. We've had her for, uh, for just under two weeks, pretty sure."

“Shit, a newborn?" Robin repeated.

Steve faintly heard Nancy's voice, though he couldn't make out exactly what she was saying. He listened as Robin recounted to her what he'd just said, then started to laugh.

"Nancy just said that if she misses out on a chance to hold a new baby, she'll kill you," Robin told him, "Any idea when she might move on?”

Steve paused for a second. He and Eddie had decided earlier that they wouldn’t be telling anyone about the baby until the adoption was finalized, but…it’s Robin. 

He doesn’t think he’s ever kept a secret from Robin before, certainly not something this big and certainly not for very long.

He has to tell her.

“We’re, uh, we’re actually adopting her.”

Robin was silent.

Then –

“Holy shit – Steve.”

And then –

“I’m coming over right now. Immediately. Wait–” Robin stopped, “Damn, I can’t be a dick and come over unannounced anymore, can I? Because you guys have a baby. A baby. And she’s gonna be yours? What the fuck? Wait, let me start over.”

Robin paused long enough to take a deep breath.

“Steve Harrington – my best friend who’s finally fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a dad – when will you allow us to come and be formally introduced to our niece?”

Truth be told, Steve wouldn’t say no to a visit from Robin and Nancy that day (especially after the our niece comment), but their case worker had just started faxing over all the paperwork to get the ball rolling on the adoption process and Steve has a feeling that he might catch Eddie trying to fill that shit out as it came out of the machine so tonight they might be a little occupied.

"Tomorrow?" he suggested.

"Morning?" Robin added.

Steve laughed, "Sure. Tomorrow morning."

"Bright and early, dad. Holy fuck, I can't believe you're a dad."

"You can't?"

"No, I totally can."

[serxinns]

The Hero awaits but With a deadly fate: Chapter 3

A/n:finally its been done I hope you enjoy it whatndo you thimk happens next tell me in the comments! Also f for reader for going through this shit lol

"Hey....mina!" You awkwardly hugged her, slowly patting her on the back. "We've missed you so much! It's been years!" She sniffles, trying to hold back tears. "Look how much you grown!" Laughed Kirishima as he patted you hard you glared as he gave you a shark tooth grin

"And look at those muscles you've been working out baby?~" Denki said as he poked and played with your muscular arms. "I can't believe your dumbass thought running away was an option" "Oh, cut them some slack. They were probably scared and confused right, y/n?" You ignored Jiro's comments slowly looking around to try and find a way to escape

I gotta find a way outta here and away from these psychos!

You thought to yourself, trying to think of a way out of this; there, you spotted a door that read exit. "Wait, why are you all dressed up in that.." Mina narrowed her eyes at your clothing. You gulped, trying to build up some sort of excuse. "I just wanted to play dress up!" "You never wanted to wear these types of clothes back in high school. You even said you hated that style," Sero glared at you. "Well, I like it NOW! You know people change over the years"

Denki noticed something on your left arm and grabbed it,and pulled up the ssleeve. "What the fuck!?" Denki said as the other catch glanced at what he was aiming at and everyone stood silent "Who the fuck did this" Bakugo glared as the others looked concerned

Cmon y/n think of something ANYTHING

"I....got this a while ago" (...WHAT KIND OF REASONING IS THAT!? ) Your thoughts degraded you for your choice of words as you wanted to slap yourself in the face so bad "Really y/n We aren't 1st graders.." sero said rolling his eyes "and this cut wasn't a while ago cause the womb is still fresh and bleeding" Kirishima added, you were very concern and a bit tense the way he said it so casually, jirou the grabbed your arm and observed the craved wording slowly

"Himiko got you didn't they" Jirou bluntly said as she stared at you with a stern look "That stupid blond bitch got to you 1st!?" Denki's words were laced with shock and venom as the others started crowding around you, waiting for you to respond "No, really, it was-" "Cut the shit, y/n. Who else has HT in their name!?" You slowly backed away from the raging blonde. "I...i"

They all started cornering you blocking your way to escape while you stood back in fear not uttering a simple word until a horrifying familiar voice called out

"Kacchan? Why are you at the abandoned parking lot damnit! I told you to meet us at the abounded agency down the street"

No...NO NO NO NO NOT HIM PLEASE NOT HIM

They all turned toward the green-freckled boy... Izuku Midoriya behind him were Iida, momo, Ochako, tsuyu, and Todoroki all glaring at them looking impatient Mina quickly hid you behind Denki and Sero while Sero covered your mouth shut you tried struggling out of their grip but it was useless despising your lack of energy

"Ugh fuck off, shitty nerd, it's none of your business," Bakugo barked; izuku then turned his gaze onto yours as you quickly hid behind the 2 males praying he didn't recognize you. "Say, who's that person you're hiding?" Izuku's grin widened maliciously

Denki and Sero gulped sweat pouring down their face "Just a nobody thats all" Denki quickly replied iida rolled his eyes "Oh please do you idiots think we'll believe that" Just when they were about to protest a hand touched their chest as they started to float up

"HEY, PUT US DOWN, OCHAKO!" the 2 boys yelled, squirming around. Ochako scoffed as she set her gaze on you. She was stunned as you awkwardly waved at her. "Um, hi..."

Jesus Christ, I just wanna go home...I hope Eris safe

"Y/NNNNN!!" She then jumped and tackled you, almost making your trip as Tsuyu, momo, and Iida joined in the hug, checking for injuries as the others glared at each other "Hey, why didn't you inform us you found y/n the fuck happened to the deal?" He narrowed his eyes

Can someone just pull a trigger and kill me already..

"Oh shut up we found them 1st! And there's no way we would let you keep them, especially with YOU." The green hair then laughed humorlessly at his rival. "HA! I should say the same to you! You are just as bad, and you know it, and you want them just as much as I do!" Everyone then started fighting and arguing about who gets to claim you while you stared in horror

Keep me what am I a toy!? Fuck this!

You tried to run the opposite side until bumped into someone from behind "Little listener is that you?~ your body stiffed as you slowly raised your head to the voice directly praying that it wasn't who you think it was but luck said "fuck you your on your own at that point", you were met with your former teacher present mic with a crazed look in his face "yes it has..." a dark chuckled escaped from a deep voice

...no.AIZAWA!? Please God anything but him

"Moonbean! My little star student oh how I missed you~" Your other teacher midnight appeared behind him cooing as if you were 15 again You slowly backed away cautiously as you tried to activate your quirk "Oh SUNSHINEEEEEE~" you yelped quickly turning around to see the once beloved top hero's mirio, Tamaki and neijire.. all looking with a psychotic look oh their face "p-please don't be afraid your gonna be safe with us" Tamaki added as neijire tried lunching at you but you dodged it barely

"You hooligans must be mistaken if you think they're coming with you" you groaned "You gotta be kidding me" You slowly turned to see Monoma, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Komori, and Kuroiro all appeared out of the shadows as well "My little mushroom~ it's been forever~," Komori said as she stared dreamily in your eyes

"Now, komori San, we shouldn't scare the sweeti,e," Kendo sternly sa, id, "especially when we are gonna be the ones taking them home!" "back off, you freak. We saw them 1st!" Mina slapped her hand away "Watch your tone you alien" Shiozaki threw a few vines at her which Mina dodged and threw her acid at them

everyone else was in an uproar, activating their quirks and attacking them while you struggled to get yourself up and tried limping towards the exit until Sero stopped you. "Where do you think you're going, darling?" Sero sickly smiled at you, you glared backing up while he was slowly walking towards you

You turned to see a security room you quickly activated your hyno quirk, and before Sero could react he stood there expression blank "Go to the security room and open the door" Sero obeyed slowly walking towards the security room The others not caring were busy fighting with each other

Serp then burst down the door, you quickly dashed towards the security camera making sure nobody noticed, and inside was a small dusty room with old snack wrappers, and bag, and an empty coffee mug you looked around carefully not trying to make any sound until you saw the light switch

Izuku noticed this and his smile widened maniacally "Where do you think you going!?" he used his quirk to dash toward you everyone else noticed and turned towards you two you panicked and started spamming buttons praying one of them was connected to the light, just when izuku got close you managed to press the light button and everything turned dark

That's when you ran for it. You activated your quirk to turn invisible and ran for it. You didn't care how aching and burning your legs were you were you ran and ran until you knew you were safe...

you looked around in the empty dark parking lot desperately trying to find a good place to hide, you quickly saw a bunch of cars on the 2nd floor of the parking lot and quickly jumped into one locking all doors, and slumped down catching your breath for a moment until you heard a fade radio static on your earpiece "Hello y/n hello can you hear me!?"

"Hmm, there escaped. What a shame.." izuku calmly said as he stared. "Ugh, if we would've been quicker, we would've gotten them!" Hakagure whined waving her arms around "Guess we gonna have to play a little game then.." izuku turned to look at Momo with a question waiting for her to say something "A game of hide and seek~" Izuku and the other villains' faces turned into excitement and manic gleefulness "a hide and seek game count me in!" Midnight joined in as the other villains joined and cackled with glee

"Whoever catches them will keep them fair and square!" Neijire announced as everyone agreed on the terms and service bakugo smirk grew deviously his eyes filled with hunger, desire, and pure determination he was gonna make sure he got ahold of you, and when he did he'd never let you go...you needed him and he needed you...with a crazed smile he utters the word

"is everyone ready...?" As everyone was about to head off they heard a giggle "Such a shame for leaving us out~" A dark chuckle rang out there standing at the entrance was the Lov themselves walking past the former heroes as they glared at them "Such a shame indeed how rude not to invite us izuku" the green hair glared at the mention of his name as the dry skin man smiling widely at him "yea especially when our naughty darling ran away like that! especially after I I care of her and even marked them as mine~"

"Wait, YOU craved the H.T. on their skin?!" Ochako said as she glared at Toga she smiled in return "Of course who wouldn't especially if their blood tasted yummy~" she teased "Oh you-" "OK are we gonna start this game or not" Aizawa coldly said interrupting Kirishima's outburst izuku the clapped his hands and said what everyone needed to hear "OK then! Everyone the game starts in"

3...

2...

1.

Hide and seek!

"Cmon cmon! Mirko, can you hear me?" You muttered curses to yourself, trying to get a single from the bunny hero. "C'mon, please, please!" You were trying to get the earpieces to work for what felt like forever, and you weren't backing down, not now, not ever. You want to escape those psychopaths.

"Hello, y/n!? Can you hear me? Where are you?" "YES, YES!!" You silently as you heard Mirko's voice again. "Yes, I can! I'm at the abandoned parking lot at"###### ######" Please help. I'm being hunted down!" Mirko smiled. After 3 weeks, they finally found you. "ok we'll be there, cops and all. Just hang tight and keep talking to me!" You smiled feeling a bit safe after all this

You were actually going to escape and once you did younwere gonna move locations with eri making sure the two of you will be safe-

"Oh bunny~ where have you hidden?"

You froze clutching the earpiece tightly causing it to muffle out something you couldn't understand, you then saw a tentacle hovering over the cars by you, you covered your mouth tightly with tears in your eyes as you watched in fear and with a swoop the strong tentacle wrapped its arm around the car by you crushing it in one squeeze your eyes widen at the strength and speed that tentacles have

You spotted the craze version of Tamaki, a once timid boy who always was behind the smiling boy mirror, now smiling like a psychopath. He isn't the man he was before. He was broken beyond repair...

But you weren't gonna give up especially if escape is your goal to true freedom from these hellish psychopaths it was like a little game for them but for you

A nightmare...

[ayeliiss]

My two cents on MHA430 and Izuku's character

Disclaimer: this is NOT a hate post against Horikoshi and his manga. Simply, I need to lash my disappointment out somewhere and write my feelings down before I implode. I'm not trying to sound like 'ugh, I know better than them' at all, although I am aware some of my claims may give the 'why does the author think he knows so much?!' vibes, but keep in mind this is just my irrelevant opinion and it won't change anything anyway. So, please, don't come at me with 'lacking reading comprehension' or 'you're coping' (yes, I am) because I feel like fans are allowed to be upset at this ending even if you think differently! To each their own opinion, as long as it's respectful! Also, this might be unnecessarily long so, I apologize in advance.

Discussion about Izuku's character

First of all, if you're satisfied with the ending and what Izuku did/became, I'm genuinely happy for you. Truthfully, I envy you so damn much because I personally couldn't stop feeling empty and crying at night for him, and before you come at me with 'girl, he's fictional, it's okay you'll move on', yes, I know I'm a drama queen and I shouldn't be in one hell of a state for a fictional character, but I can't help it. I've grown as attached to him as I've ever grown to any character before, and there's no turning back. MHA is the first manga that ever moved me this hard and it'll forever remain a masterpiece for me, but it doesn't mean it's not flawed and should be free of criticism (always with respect for Horikoshi's work).

Funny thing is, I didn't even like Izuku when I first met him. He was the typical crybaby and too-optimistic MC I tend to dislike when I read a manga. Yet, the more I read, the more I started to understand him, the more I sympathized with him, and the more I loved him. I realized I related to him to such an outlandish extent, though I know we remain different in the way we act or think. But Izuku, even before Katsuki (and my friends know how obsessed I am with this blond lmao), became my first and greatest over-fixation and my main reason to continue reading/watching MHA. This manga changed my life; Izuku did too, and this isn't an understatement.

Just like him—and probably just like many of us—, I've endured bullying, been made fun of for being different, felt unwanted and hated, been belittled, and treated like shit for most of my teenage years. I think that's what really endeared him to me. I wanted to watch him grow, to watch him make real friends, to watch him receive the apologies and respect he deserved, to see him succeed. I wanted him to realize he was worth it and loved and, oh God, I wish he could know just how much his fans do love him.

And for 200+ chapters, I got what I wanted. Izuku got to live his dream, be around his idol who recognized him, and made new friends who admired him and wanted nothing but to be by his side. Then, the Vigilante arc happened, and everything changed. I won't dwell on the fact that, for me, this arc was the beginning of the decline of his character. It's worth noting though that it's at this precise moment that we've lost track of all his thoughts, but I'll focus on the ending, and how the way Horikoshi handled Izuku's character remains my biggest disappointment.

I sometimes joked with a friend of mine, saying, "Hori's favorite character is Katsuki and it shows so much, he even forgets he isn't his MC!" but I don't think it's much of a joke anymore.

Again, I'm very happy for those who are pleased with Izuku's closure. But, honestly, I can't grasp their process of thinking (I wish I could) because there's no way I can understand how it makes sense. It's not about him being quirkless—actually, I think this choice was cool—, it's about his obvious fucking depression.

After his initial withdrawal, there is never any resolution. He has never talked about his feelings to anyone, never opened up about all the things that bugged him, never taken it out on anyone. He just stopped having development, and never learned how to 'control his heart' (one of the biggest plots of the story, remember???). So, he continues to take everything up on his shoulders by the end of the story, and eight years later, he is feeling lonely, as he says himself:

Yes, I can read, and I know he's also saying he's happy with helping/encouraging other people. But it's literally denial. Izuku is in denial and it hurts me so much. He's alone (I'm not talking about how he's barely seen his friends, I know they didn't abandon him or anything, I'm talking about how he is feeling in general), deprived of his dream, and never got to talk about it to anyone (at least, on-screen. And if it's not shown, then it didn't happen). Even the adults around him don't see he's in pain—or, at least, don't think it's worth addressing. Aizawa can't even simply answer 'yes, you're cool' when Izuku obviously seeks praise and needs nice words after everything he's been through. He doesn't even get fans (except for two, waouh!) after saving the fucking world. He doesn't get a statue, no recognition. Katsuki leads a project for him to get a suit, but not the government? After everything he did? Why isn't he more recognized and acknowledged for his hard work? Killing him would've almost felt like a better choice lol (#it's a joke).

Even if, in the end, he gets to join his friends again and be a hero with them, he's still not opening up. How is it sane/healthy for him???? How will he even be able to maintain good relationships of any kind if there are already so many and huge miscommunication issues?

I hate this—I dislike how it's basically saying 'his feelings weren't that important!'. Izuku deserved better, a better closure. So much is missing from him; from this bitter ending, and I can't find any way to make myself feel better or to cope with it.

I am devastated, I feel empty for him, I just want someone to take him to therapy, to help him.

Some rumors have started to spread, about how 'Horikoshi has been forced to shorten his manga' but I don't believe this—MHA has been SJ's money-maker for a while. And even if it were to be true, the epilogue could've been handled differently. Hori could've focused on the most important parts (that he hasn't even shown/resolved at all) and left the irrelevant ones out (why introduce a new character if not to make us feel hopeful to see Tenko again, lol). He chose to not address the most important aspects of his story (including his MC's resolution and growth) and left us with huge plot holes. And now, we're stuck with our imagination, as usual.

I just can't with 'open endings' and 'it's left to interpretation' stuff. It's too easy to do that. I'm tired of mangakas not taking risks, rushing their own plots, and not digging deeper into their own MCs' traumas. I don't know what happened, but among the many issues left regarding this last chapter, Izuku's conclusion remains my greatest ick. I'm so sorry to say this, but Izuku didn't grow. He never learned from his mistakes and just didn't change—oh wait. Yes, he did change on one crucial aspect—his biggest trait, being obsessed with his childhood friend, totally disappeared! Maybe he started to stop caring about 'Kacchan and the others' and put himself first, to the point of forgetting the said childhood friend died twice for him, who knows? :))) (yeah, I'm especially pissed off at this lol don't mind me).

In my imagination, I see him being a pro-hero who continues to suppress his feelings and continues to act recklessly, to risk his life in the face of any danger that shows up. This is what happens when you leave it to fans' imagination, after all.

I know fanfictions exist, and I'm very happy this unclear ending motivated some writers to challenge their creativity. For me, it had the opposite effect. I'm disgusted, I am angry at Izuku and I know I'll struggle to finish my fics where he's involved because I don't want to deal with his character anymore. I'm too attached to canonical representation.

Man, I'm just devastated. I have no other words. And I'll have to live with this for the rest of my life. I feel betrayed. Shitted on. I'm dying inside and there's nothing I can do because it's over. Just like this long-ass essay, btw lol. Thank you if you're still here, thank you if you've read this! I'm pretty much open to discussion so if anyone wants to try and reassure me over some aspects or respectfully explain why I am wrong (I know I probably am, yet again those are my own feelings), please don't hesitate to do so. Also, I definitely need friends with whom I could talk about this deeper... so, my DMs are open too if you'd like to!

Much love to Izuku though; one of the best MCs I've encountered in my life, despite how he turned.

[chaifootsteps]

(long ask, sorry - there was a lot of unpack)

I read the fix-it fic (it's very cute and wholesome!) and looked at the comments expecting to see a few flames or people disagreeing with the premise, but it's an out and out dogpile in there.

it's so ugly to treat someone just writing a vent fic like that, & they must have been actively looking for people daring to criticize Viv given that there's nothing in the tags to suggest it

also like, one of the flamers being like 'how can you say Viv and Raph didn't handle the topic of SA well but still say people are entitled to like the episode or find it cathartic? if people like it and you recognize that, that proves Viv and Raph handled the topic well!'

which is like, no. that's not remotely what they were saying or how it works. they're just giving grace to people who got something out of it, but they still think the depiction and handling of the topic as a whole was bad themselves. being compassionate for someone else's take on media & their feelings doesn't objectively prove that take is correct, they're just making space for other opinions in a way a lot of these 'it was handled well, end of discussion' type people aren't

it's such an all or nothing, combative way of thinking about art, that if you dislike it you must also call everyone who likes it stupid or something otherwise it means you secretly recognize it's good or some nonsense like that. that and it's just populism - if some people like it that means it's objectively good. which is funny because usually we treat something everyone likes as just 'having mass appeal' not 'high art'.

but I guess when people get terminally online they assume the vote of the majority is correct - it reminds me of this one debate about something pewdiepie did (I think it was an edgy joke or something, I'm not interested in relitigating it, it's just an example) where one of his supporters claimed 'we've [already framing a constructed audience] already decided he's innocent because the amount of support/likes he got on a response to [insert controversy here]'. it's literally the logic/rhetoric of 'if the mob decides something is good, it's good' which is horrifying logic and has been used to justify any number of irl awful things. but I digress

you could just as easily argue it the other way - if someone likes the scene but makes space for criticism of it, does that automatically make the criticism right?

also like - there's so much evidence in those comments that people do not understand what SA is. like so many people have this conception that SA is the same as rape - like, unless there was penetration of some kind no assault happened. but like if you actually look at the legal definition of SA, multiple places define it as

1 did person A touch person B? 2 did person B not want to be touch and person A should have reasonably understood that? 3 then it was sexual assault

dragging someone into a room while they yell and plead and say no is sexual assault, even if they got away before they were penetrated. being set upon and kissed and groped by a crowd of people is sexual assault, even if they also were not penetrated (and given Blitzo's dialogue there it's doubtful)

Sir Pent was SA'd, Moxxie was SA'd

anyone who has been held down or groped against their will but was rescued or escaped was sexually assaulted. sexually assault can include rape, but it doesn't always

we desperately need better literacy around this, it's legit disturbing to see how many people will pull the 'well technically the show doesn't mock SA because [insert logic solely reliant on the idea that Sir Pent and Moxxie were not SA'd]'. & it's such a revealing line of debate because they know they can't argue whether or not the show is making light of sensitive topics (it absolutely is) so instead they do the internet thing of making the next argument - they claim no, this wasn't SA and demand people debate them on those terms instead. it's falling into their trap because the issue behind that is the one they don't want to talk about - that Viv does not know how to handle this topic with the slightest bit of sensitivity

(tangent but back when HB aired I didn't judge Stolas as harshly for the full moon deal mostly for the tone the show had set up, if that makes sense? I thought the show wanted us to understand that Stolas and most of the cast were all terrible people and that was the entire 'joke' of the show. that Stolas definitely did a bad thing but the show was more interested in dark humor and the audience just kind of had to meet it where it was at. when they started moving towards there being dramatic consequences in Ozzie's I still though the show understood Stolas was a bad person, only now they were actually paying off a dramatic plot point they'd set up so he would actually have to grow and change. Then season 2 happened and the show is insisting he never did anything wrong, he's perfect, etc. and everything that happened in season 1 looks way worse by comparison. it was already bad, but I thought the writers understood that. they don't. instead they've engaged in the most laughable, embarassingly written domestic violence storyline I think I've ever seen in any media, ever, just to get him off the hook for anything he's done. do I respect the opinions of people who find him standing up to Stella cathartic? yes. does that automatically mean those people are right and it's good writing, actually? no. hard no. a million times no. survivors of dv, especially male ones, are often starved of media representation. I want them to feel seen. it doesn't stop me thinking they deserve far better than being represented by a terribly written character like Stolas, who himself is accidentally the show's best representation of a convincing abuser, but that's a rant for another time)

also also, it's kind of annoying that A03 allows guests to post under any handle instead of assigning a random one, because now if anyone points to AyyLmao that it's unhinged behavior to try to police fics people post on the Organization for Transformative Works (the clue's in the name what fanfiction is for!) he can just claim someone tried to frame him, even if there's plenty of reason to suspect he would totally do that (some of the more hateful bigoted flames strike me as exactly that - going as far as possible with it to be able to turn around and say 'look how hard the Viv haters want to frame me! look how cartoonishly bigoted they make me out to be!'

this is so deeply bizarre to me. I've been in fandoms where the media in question is less than perfect and fix-its exist for entire arcs of shows and everyone else is happy to be like 'I see why you had a problem with this even if I think it was OK or not a big deal', or 'I don't see the problem at all but I'm just going to let you vibe like an adult would do'. and the same with character shilling fics, I'm old enough to know that the best solution for fanfic or transformative works you don't agree with is to just click off. but some HH/HB fans are actively out to create a high control group where any criticism must be policed. if I ever get annoyed enough by HH/HB to make my own vent fic, I'm posting it under anon and with comments moderated. I'm not interested in providing an open forum for people to send me hate for a show that is far from worth defending (and even if it was, who cares? they ought to be able to get on with their day if their fave show is so obviously above criticism)

last point, sorry for the rant - it's kind of laughable to me that the author in the comments provided a long, objective list of what Viv and Raph have been doing that anyone can check and all of which happened publically, because they did it publically, and I don't recall seeing many comments in that thread attempting to respond to any of it; it just got ignored. it's pretty funny they simultaneously want to act like Viv is the victim of unfair hate campaigns when she's actively cultivated a fandom that attracts people like them, who bully people to the point they fear making even the mildest critiques. like you want to act like Viv is some bullied saintlike professional, but can you imagine the showrunner of any much bigger TV show encouraging the worst elements of their fandom to the point that said worst elements think harassing an SA survivor in the comments section of a fanfiction where they process their feelings about how lousy the show is in handling SA, and trying to claim said showrunner is still a professional?

to repurpose a point Viv herself made, a professional would know that any show with more than a cult following will attract criticism. a professional would not encourage people like AyyLmao and Norry, they would shut that shit down and know to leave the writers of a fanfic a couple hundred people at most will see that's dealing with a topic sensitive to them, in peace

No apologies needed, it was an excellent ask!

It's absolutely insane that any of this happened. In all my years of moving through some pretty aggressive fandoms and seeing (and writing) some pretty contentious fics for them, never have I seen anyone dogpiled like this just for writing a small, intensely personal fix-it fic. It's just beyond disgusting.

[bokettochild]

Hyrule and Twilight for click/clack please!! :D - 🌼

Alright! So I did a re-read, and I'm sort of surprised, but here's the result

There's only one actual interaction between these two specifically before the Sunset arc

Hyrule is trying to crack a joke about Time in the Masks comic, and Twilight is Not Having It. This gives me the impression that Hyrule is using humor as a tool to try and connect with the other heroes, something he actually does a few other times, teasing and joking at the others (especially Warriors) in order to break the ice. As we know, it worked with Wars, because those two are pretty close, but with Twilight, it's met with dead silence; Twilight doesn't appreciate Hyrule's humor, and he flat out just ignores Hyrule's joke beyond this look.

It's not until Sunset that we actually see another interaction between these two. (Which is basically the length of the whole comic so far) Until he reaches the inn, Hyrule doesn't actually know Twilight is Wolfie

Once he knows though, he doesn't get all worried and fussy like the others. In fact, Hyrule seems to be pretty harsh about some things

He approaches Twilight's situation with force, with intent. He's level headed, although clearly upset by Twilight's despair, and immediately tries redirecting from Twilight's talk of sadness and worry by presenting what he's going to do to fix it, something he's fiercely determined to actually do, no matter the difficulty.

One could say Hyrule is concentrating, and that's what that scowl is for, but I think he's actually being a bit harsh with Twilight because this situation bothers him. Not just upsets him, not just because Twilight's hurt, but there seems to be a sort of disconnect between these two, and it frustrates him, especially since he can't resolve it with Twilight like this, and that shows through in how Hyrule handles Twilight's behavior throughout Sunset.

He's not despairing. Hyrule's worried, but it's not crushing. That disconnect that stops him from feeling intense concern is still there. Twilight is a person who needs help to Hyrule, not a brother on the brink of death; a patient.

That right there? Some good bedside manner. He's being friendly and gentle now, but I can promise you, I've seen doctors take a similar tone and expression with folks.

Hyrule's choice to say "deal with" also makes me wonder. Sure, he's a guy, they mess around and tease like this, and we've already established that Hyrule teases a lot already; that said "deal with" might betray that he thinks Twilight maybe only tolerates some of them, including himself (he's got the self doubt to make you wonder).

That said, he's softening here. He cares, clearly. They're not close, but he still values Twilight if only as a team-mate.

The turning point comes here though

This is the first time Twilight has smiled at Hyrule. The first time either of them have called the other anything vaguely affectionate. This is when they agree that they are now friends. Hyrule says it in a dismissive way, almost suggestive as if testing the waters. Twilight's affirmative "my friend" settles it though. It's a new thing still, and clearly they have precious little in common, but I think Twilight's healing was the ✨traumatic bonding experience✨ they both needed to actually click a bit.

So! To recap:

Twilight and Hyrule don't interact much, and Twilight previously rebuffed Hyrule's attempts to be friendly with him. They aren't close at all through most of the comic so far, and there's definitely a bit of a clash between them, although unspoken. it's Twilight recognizing Hyrule's skill, effort and aid that has that barrier resolving somewhat and opening up the possibility of friendship. Going forwards, they have potential to get along better and be good friends, but this is still pretty new, so it might take a while, especially with how differently they approach life and this particular venture.

Result: Mostly Clack (newly Clicked)

[diabolikpersonals]

I am not certain yet that I want to call out specific blogs (last time I did that it got WEIRD) but it has been a while since we've had a discussion about reposting art as a fandom, and someone asked me to comment :')

I've been in the fandom long enough to see art reposting cause plenty of problems, and I've also been a victim of it myself, so I hope I can help someone understand.

So, fanartists, right? You might not be aware if you're not an artist yourself, but a lot of artists dislike it when you take their work and post it somewhere else. Plenty will have something like "DO NOT REPOST" written right there on their page. Even if they don't, that does not mean that they allow reposts.

There are plenty of reasons why an artist might feel this way, but to name a few common reasons, it could be an issue of credit or publicity: imagine you put hours of work into a piece of art, but another account posts it and they're the one who gains interactions, followers, etc. Even if that account mentions you as the artist, people aren't necessarily going to seek out the original artist. They're probably going to interact with the repost that's right in front of them. Can you imagine that feeling? Like, "Why is this person building a social media presence based on my work, and the work of other artists?" Interactions aside, it's really frustrating when you put a ton of effort into something and you're not recognized for it.

To name another reason, an artist might only want their work to be published in one particular place. This is often the case for me too, actually; I only want my dialovers fanart on tumblr, and I never post it on my twitter account, because I don't want it there. Another medium but still relevant: I don't want my youtube videos exported to other sites because if a lot of people view those reposts, I lose money that I would've gotten if they had just watched my video. Maybe there's a certain type of user that you don't want your work to be exposed to, or maybe you just don't like a site and you don't want your work there. This is something an artist should be able to decide for themself, and it's not right for you to put their art in places they didn't consent to putting it.

It's a case-by-case basis, of course, because different artists have different feelings about it, but generally, you need to obtain permission from an artist before taking their work and publishing it yourself. You can just ask! It's totally normal to ask. Worst they can say is no. Plenty of artists do allow reposts, and if they say that they allow reposts, then go for it!! But if they don't have "reposting is ok" written anywhere, and if you didn't ask permission......then that's not okay. You need to respect artists a little more than that.

Because you know what artists do when they don't feel respected? When their boundaries are crossed, and people post their work without permission?? A lot of times, they delete their stuff, they move their work someplace else to try and evade reposters, and sometimes they stop drawing for a fandom altogether. If you've been in the dialovers fandom for a long time, this has absolutely happened multiple times, whether or not you were aware of it. If you know which repost acc we're discussing here, you might've seen some of their posts say something like "artist is no longer active." And it blows my mind, because I was there when they became inactive, and more than one of them because inactive because people reposted their art! So, besides being disrespectful, it also leads to less dialovers fanart.

But anyway, most of you reading this probably don't repost art, so the more useful thing I can tell you is that I hope you can support artists by interacting with them rather than repost accounts. If you see a repost acc and like the art you see, and if you want to see more of it, seek out the artist's original account instead.

unfollow art repost accounts. seek out and follow artists instead. they are out there. they are awesome. change da world… my final message. Goodb ye.

[look-mom-percys-on-the-tv]

Ep 5 reactions

spoilers beneath the cut for s1e5 and minor spoilers for most of the books, but I censored the traitor's name. mostly positive tone.

ANNABETH SAW THE FUCKING FATES

"Im the last one to realize this aren't I" A LITTLE BIT

I love Percy admitting there he was really ONLY in it for Sally. Poseidon does ONE good thing and all of a sudden it's "wait I think the conspiracy to start war betten the gods is... important?" SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MEET REASONABLE PARENTING EXPECTATIONS? A certain god could be taking notes, specifically the patent of [REDACTED]

go off Percy with the emotional intelligence. A for effort

and an A PLUS to Annabeth for the sharing important info and being vulnerable.

I see that coat covering the bike seat. there's human skin on that thing, isn't there?

LIVING the portrayal of Ares as man-baby who starts twitter fights. average maturity level of anyone who likes war.

"there's no fear in you, is there?" STAWPPP

THEY KEPT THE MANHUNT PLOT🎉🎉🎉🎉 also the Gabe is Gabe-ing. Manipulate mansplain manwhore on the most literal level. except disney probably cut the womanizer bit.

the whole "Im immature as shit but my threats are real, I hold all the cards" THE GOD OF WAR IS GODOFWAR-ING

"can I walk them to the door" IS HE GONNA RUN FOR IT? they're really letting Grover miss out on this quest, huh? I mean I guess it makes sense. PLUS it means more Grover-exclusive scenes! MY BOYY

that's a lie. there HAVE to be corny movie nights at camp, right?

ALSO botl movie date, anyone?👀👀👀👀

is that? a JOKE I HEAR??? poking fun at Percy? a little. Genuine? ALSO TRUE. If you told me that "amusing" line was Liften from the book and I've just forgotten about it all five million times I read it, I WOULD BELIEVE YOU

Annabeth who complimented Circe's loom when Percy got cursed🤝 Annabeth who complimented Hepheastus when Percy got trapped

the way she says push before telling him what it is😭😭😭

WE'VE MET BEFORE. I'M 24. A FAN!? GROVER WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT

songs about feelings that was PERSONAL

*insert Coach Hedge talking about nature*

Annabeth asking what Ares need the kids for if he wants the bolt/thinks their quest means nothing🤝 Grover gaslight girlbossing : doing detective work under Percy's nose

OOOH good detail with Percy being caught up with all the "3000 year-old goss" because HIS MOTHER TOLD HIM hi sally i fuckign love u

"don't even try to tell me not to be weird about this" we love an honest queen. While I kinda miss book Annabeth being a bit stompy and whiny at this part, I do think that the show version suits its own characterization of Annabeth, saying whatever she thinks needs to be said.

this whole show, I've been able to see everything. episode five DO NOT be the one to let me down! PLEASE!

THE SONG omg i wasnt expecting that. miraculous movie flashbacks fr.

W CONVO. DOUBLEYOU CONVO. nothing to add. perfection.

Also. don't shoot but the song choice unironically fits Hephaestus's story.

SWIMMING

is that a giant gold naked statue of Hera? to taunt them for cheating on him? hypocrite.

"they like to ignore what doesn't fit their narrative" [REDACTED] APOLOGISTS TAKE NOTES.

also, SMOOTH AF

okay there's no way Annabeth doesn't know that story. there's ONE way to take a god's power and she doesn't know it? at least let them tell it in tandem! a little "Yeah I recognize the chair, what of it?" THEN let the touchy-feely boy present the bargain. AT LEAST.

SHE'S NOT LEAVING WITHOUT HIM

"do you need some help?" "FUCK OFF" that's Annabeth

in the one hand, I am not a fan of depriving Annabeth of her super wisdom hero moment. on the other hand, placing responsibility to fix things on the perpetrators instead of those kids from Season ONE queen shit, and showing people can change. slay, but PLEASE let Annabeth do some more puzzle shit!

THE SHIELD LOOKS SO BIG IN HER HANDS

THESE FUCKIGN TWELMVE YEAR OLDS

OH so [REDACTED] and Ares conspired to make sure the trio never makes it there, not just using the magic things that activate at a certain place, but also by DIRECTING THEM TO THE TIME FREEZE ON PURPOSE

TO SUMMON WHAT

that interaction. SO THEM

YOU KNOW WHO WHATTED THE WHAT

[batrachised]

I read ahead and this is sort of spoilery but do you think it’s important that Robin is now the age Andrew was when they split up? With her being so much younger maybe she looked up to Andrew and needed to experience being 33 first so she could see he was also just an idiot?

I think there is QUITE a lot going on here. We know the seeds of Robin's and Andrew's failure; Robin had no backbone and was spoiled, Andrew provided no support to Robin and was blind to her needs; it's the old Robin is spineless and Andrew is selfish/stubborn and between those two things the two cannot communicate to save their life. (This, in addition to the whole "Andrew is just back from the battlefield and snatched up anything to distract himself only to discover that Robin is a human being and not an actual otherworldly star.")

I agree the age gap is also a huge part of it, (as much as I hate agreeing with Aunt Irene). What did Andrew say, about being ten years older and the war making it twenty? Related and yet distinct from the age gap, I think the issue was, always, at heart, maturity. Robin was not mature enough to communicate her needs to Andrew; Robin was (presumably) a bit of a spoiled little girl. and ANDREW??? we don't even need to get started there, but he was worse. He was not mature enough to keep his temper in check; it's almost like Robin had not yet grown up, and Andrew had refused to. Like someone else pointed out, this man got sulky over...HAVING A BABY.

Both Robin and Andrew were always treated like children by the people who 'loved' them; Robin by the grandmother, and Andrew by Aunt Irene. So these two people meet each other, and they expect the other to treat them like they're used to. Andrew expects Robin to purr over him and meet his every need with delight aka Aunt Irene; Robin expects Andrew to take care of her every need and sparing her from every real-world problem her aka the grandmother. After all, that's what love looks like. (the line between the grandmother and Andrew is less clear to me when it comes to how it would affect Robin's expectations, but lies in the difference between cushy wealth and hard poverty.)

To be successful, both need to grow up. Robin needs to grow a spine and learn how to tell people off (including Andrew!), and Andrew needs to realize there is someone else in the universe besides Andrew. Both are capable of doing so; they were married very happily for a year; but until Robin demonstrates courage, and Andrew unselfishness, their marriage can't succeed. So, to answer your question - i think that Robin's age would help her here, but it wouldn't be enough on its own. A Robin who lived as she does with the grandmother for ten years is a different Robin than the young woman who eloped with her idea of a handsome prince. No one could go through what she has and be the same. But as long as Robin allows people to run her over, I can't see things working out (after all, Aunt Irene is still lurking).

The same goes for Andrew (if not doubly so). He's going to have to learn to put down his pride. Notably, I think we've seen Andrew already take steps towards this - he wrote Robin the letter, he puts Jane's needs first, and overall, has really stepped up. There's a lot to indicate that Andrew has changed for the better. He's still an arrogant dumbass in a lot of ways, though.

I think Robin has hoped for past ten+ years that Andrew would come rescue her, and then he finally (via letter) shows up - and it's for Jane. The first letter he's written Robin in over a decade is one in which it's strongly implied that he threatens to take Jane away from her for good, so (and i recognize this is glossing over an enormous amount of complexities) he's just as imperious with her as ever. Robin locks Jane out and isn't brave enough to talk to her own daughter about what's happening, so she's just as spineless as ever (and uncommunicative about Andrew as ever). It hasn't mattered that ten years have passed; the two are still in their old patterns.

The strength of the parents' relationship (whether this framework is healthy or not, it's the one lmm uses in the book) is reflected in their relationship to and treatment of Jane. LMM uses Jane as the lens to show the parents' growth, or lack thereof. Andrew was terrible when Jane was a baby, but now that he's stepped up as a dad, he's implied to be ready to reunite with Robin. Once they start parenting Jane, it's the tacit approval of the text of their maturity/completion of their arc. Based on the framework of the book, for Robin to be ready to reunite with Andrew, she's going to have to stand up for Jane.

major spoilers under the break

imo the last chapter is one of the weakest in the book due to this framework. It takes it too far by explicitly stating (albeit through an unreliable narrator) that the success of the parents' relationship depends on Jane, which is just ridiculous. That being said, while the parents' reunion is the end of the book, I don't think it's the emotional zenith of the book at all (that honor goes to the chapter before, one my favorite chapters in the whole book <3). The reunion happens pretty quickly and is almost like 'okay been there done that' lmao.

[valeriefauxnom]

You know, the more I read about Narcissistic Personality Disorder, the more I become curious if the writers were actually using it as a guideline for Emile's character and plot involving him. Yes, yes, it's not particularly unique to create a selfish character nor one that has a comically grandiose perception of themselves, nor do are these traits comprehensive to what NPD is, but let me explain, because BOY the dude is a checklist.

As always, long post.

First, let's break out the good ole DSMV. It may not be perfect, but hey. It's what I've got to work with for Official Sources to escape pop psychology sites. Here's the diagnostic criteria for NPD:

How does Emile stack up?

1: He immediately establishes a sense of identity that he believes he is more great than a Greatwyrm.

2: Much of his actions in the main campaign are born from a desire to live out his dreams of power, fame, and recognition.

3: *Gestures vaguely at 98.4% of what Emile says in Dragalia lost* He often refers to others with derogatory names, especially those that reinforce the status differences between them. Honestly, his vocabulary regarding this is rather impressive. Ingrate, peasant, dreck, peon, clod...

4: Here's where I might start to suspect the writers were doing more than just writing an egotistical character. NPD is defined in part by the excessive need for admiration and reinforcement (more on that later). Emile occasionally voices sentiments like above. See also this quote in his Gala story, in which, despite being in desperate need for money, ultimately personally valued the praise he got from the customer more. He's always been a character desperate for positive response.

5: A bit hard to distinguish from some of the standard entitlement royalty does get, but...yeeaaah. Emile is very much entitled in a way that Leonidas, who also expects absolute obedience of subordinates to his orders, isn't. He seems to believe that everyone automatically, no matter who they are, will immediately acquiesce to his will without question, without having any basis for their subservience. Take how he expects, -despite knowing that nobody recognizes him as Emperor at the moment, -a street artist to give up tools of his trade simply because he demands it.

6: Again, quite a large chunk of his motives in the main campaign is exploitive behavior of others. He lies to make Mercury believe her home is in danger and that he can stop it, then establishes he views a pactbound dragon as a slave to his will. Chelle agrees to lend him her androids, and he immediately absconds with the remote she 'accidentally' left lying out to serve his own needs.

Even smaller things in chapter 4, like his demand for Euden to escort him to the summit, is taking advantage of Euden's sense of justice and fairness to ensure he can undergo Jupiter's trial (which he thinks he will win). Take his scheme to foster love for him once he yoinks the throne while everyone else is gone is manipulative. He creates a 'bandit problem' and then sets up scenarios to swoop in to save the day. People see through this one, but it's still manipulative.

7: *Gestures vaguely at Emile again* Emile is...lacking in empathy or consideration for others' lives. I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory.

8: We can see this even in the comics. His first appearence in them checks off several of the traits we've already discussed and adds in 'assumes others are jealous of him' to the book. But even sticking to 'pure' canon, Emile is long, long established that jealousy of his elder siblings in particular is a driving factor regarding his behavior. There's many examples for this, but I'll keep it short since I already used an excuse to drag out the comic.

9: *Gestures vaguely at Emile yet again* Honestly I'm not even going to add any pictures for this point. I think when even your NPC unit description claims you as 'haughty' it's an established character trait.

That's NINE out of nine traits, when FIVE is the requirement for a potential diagnosis. Key word being potential, because we place more requirements on a diagnosis than just matching some features.

But I'd like to go a bit deeper into it. It's one thing to constantly drag out all the moments of Emile being Emile, but digging into the whys of it all also is compelling to me and this argument.

Here's another small exert of the DSMV:

Though hinted at in chapter 4, we gradually came to know more and more about the deeper side and reasons behind Emile's behavior. The long and short of it was: he's jealous. He knows he's inferior, deep, deep down. And we've one connecting factor for what flipped the switch to the degree of behavior he spirals into in canon: Euden. Emile spells it out early himself.

From what we know of their relationship before canon, Euden seemed to be the adoring sibling eager to learn whatever Emile deigned to teach him and was generally subservient as he was to all his siblings. He, unintentionally, fed Emile's ego at being able to instruct an inferior, feeding that need for affirmation. Thus, when canon rolls around, Emile is gravely wounded (emotionally), by Euden's betrayal of 'stepping outside his place'. He's the pillar that's allowed Emile to raise himself so high, and now that he's moved, Emile falls.

In that same conversation, Emile explicitly cites the 'degradation' Euden is putting him through, and thus enters another long-lasting characteristic of NPD. Enter his rage.

Among all his other motivations for appreciation, Emile cultivated quite a potent desire to harm Euden in particular. Several times he expresses a desire or tries to kill him with his 'own two hands', but I think the Persona crossover event is a goldmine for demonstrating the extent of how enamored he is with thoughts of violence regarding Euden in particular after his 'offense'.

He doesn't just want to kill Euden. He wants to short drop hang him (ie, the non-instantaneous kind that leaves you suffocating, though who knows if they even know the 'break the neck instantly' variety either, to be fair). He wants to break him mentally and quite possibly physically, judging by how quick he is to call in Shadows to beat him. Somehow, I'd speculate just by the sheer pleasure he takes specifically in seeing Euden in despair and misery (he should take notes from Ciella) it'd be a quick jump to actual torture if Euden hadn't immediately been busted out as planned.

Why? Again: though his elder siblings left Emile feeling unappreciated and inferior, Euden is the one to have raised him up before dropping him. It's personal. Therein is his fragile self-esteem, so dependent on the one he viewed as inferior.

All this culminates to a surprisingly replete picture of what NPD actually looks like. It's not just base selfishness or some excess ego, but a incredibly strong and persistent pattern of this kind of behavior, all in fulfillment of a need to acquire adoration. It's the fury that can follow the broken self esteem when that adoration isn't given. It's the vengeful fantasies of harming those who wronged him, the lower empathy for others occasionally paving the way for acts of violence.

Somehow, Emile is still compelling (to myself included), despite him being much of what people loathe in the real world. He's bombastic and dynamic in a way that his more emotionally-composed siblings aren't, and that lends him well to comedy in its own way. It doesn't hurt that he's like. Probably the 2nd most common of the royal fam to pop up, after Euden. He's the Saturday morning cartoon villain who is the lowest on the totem pole of threats and thus safe to have a laugh at until he rolls 20 and starts causing very real danger.

That aside, I threw together this for a more light-hearted thing regarding Emile:

Edit: I remembered Zardin. I think it's kinda funny how Emile is a "better", more complete representation of a narcissist is and does than the supposed actual narcissist himself. I think it's a case of Emile being the 'technical' one while Zardin is a 'literary' one. Aside from being obsessed with his looks just as OG Narcissus was, he's... not really displaying many traits that I can recall from him. Still interesting.

[popculturebuffet]

Mutant Month: The Marvel Super Heroes: Dr. Doom's Day!: Hawkeye is an X-Man Now (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy muties and welcome one and all, wether you fly, shoot rays out of your eyes, make pasta in your nose or your heart can shoot an all inspiring ray that teaches people how to truly love themselves and then explodes them inside out, all are welcome for a celebration of 60 years of the strangest heroes of all, the outlaws, protectors of those who hate and fear them, those undergoing a fall, the uncanny, astonishing, amazing, dark, immortal, red, blue, gold, black, and green, the

As I haven't remotely hid on this blog but will repeat for newcomers, I love the x-men. Their my faviorite superhero team and are easily my faviorite franchise in comics, with spinoffs from New Mutants, to X-Factor to X-Men red all ranking among my faviorite comics ever. I love these characters dearly and haven't covered them nearly enough on here so I decided to celebrate the 65th anniversary with mutant month... and while we're a few months late due to moving and such, this month happening was never in doubt and wills tand as a yearly celebration of all things x.

So to kick this off we've got an odd little note in x-men history, one I wasn't even aware of till asking my good friend emma what animated apperance of the x-men she'd like to cover.. and finding out their first wasn't on spider-man and their amazing friends like i'd thought but much earlier, on a show known for awesome theme songs, shoddy animation and not much else. Yes folks before costarring in the friendly neighborhood, before all the 90's tastic spandex, before 2000s teenage angst and awesomeness, and before the last gasp till a revivial of said 90s spandex, the strangest heroes of all became the allies for peace and teamed up with one of the first mutants to combat the greatest evil the world had ever known on a barely animated marvel cartoon. Also hawkeye was there. So join me under the cut if i've peaked your intrest as we inter the limitedly animated world of the sub mariner and his allies for peace on the marvel super heroes!

The Marvel Super Heroes wasn't just the first animated apperance of the x-men, but the first marvel animated series PERIOD. Create din 1966 and running for 65 episodes (with each episode having three chapters to it but seeming to tell a complete story). The series was made on a budget somewhere BELLOW a paperclip and a piece of string, a singular bottle cap. They simply scanned the actual comics, barely aniamted them, added some effects and for lip movements used Syncro Vox. For those unfamiliar with it Synchro Vox was a super cheap effect where they cut out the characters mouths and had real human mouths recite the words. And if you say "Well jee whiz jake that sounds like a styigan nightmare from the deepest depths of my subconcious" then your right on the money. There's a reason it didn't outlast the 60s.

As you can imagine this .. looks pretty bad and it's better ot just read the actual comics. The actors TRY, they do, but static, barely perserved images on a screen just can't match the panel work in the original jack kirby art. Congradulations Marvel Super HEroes, you found a way to somehow make JACK KIRBY ART not work. I hope your proud.

It's only lasting impacts are , and i'm completely convinced of this, serving as the inspriation for this incredibles short

At first I thought it was cheap animation in general but knowing now this cartoon uses synchro vox and seeing this cartoon again.. yeah. Good on you crew for doing such an incredibly deep cut and making it work on it's own.

The other is the theme songs. The theme songs for the most part slap.

YOu'll also recognize the Iron Man theme song as they used a jazzy instuermental in his film. And given it's the best of the bunch it's easy to say.

There's two themes missing from this. The first is the shows theme itself. Which is... a lot.

I mean they did get namor down pretty down pat.

So kudos. Speaking of Namor his absence from that montage kinda speaks to him as a whole. As doe shis theme being a bit.. less than the others

It's not bad, but you get they just didn't quite have Imperius Sex Machine as defined as the other 4. Captain America at the time was a man of action, who fought for the people and was a symbol of all of america has to offer. Iron Man was a playboy who kept people at a distance. Thor is a god full of the majesty and wonder that brings, and Hulk.. well okay Hulk's theme is just goofy but damn if it isn't fun and still gets the point across. But namors is "Look at him ain't he powerful. He rules a kingdom. So for those less familiar with the prince of the deep who might of missed wakanda forever, a quick recap: Namor started as a golden age super hero, one of Timely, the future marvel comics, first, and one of the big three of his day with the human torch, a diffrent one than the one who'd later flame on with the fantastic four, and Captain America. LIke most timely heroes he vanished to the sands of time for a while. So cue the Fantastic Four and the true birth of the marvel universe. And since Marvel coudln't just let their bigger names of days past simply lie around, they put the human torch moniker on our boy johnny storm. And once the fantastic four proved to be the hit they were, they decided to bring him back via this book to test the waters.

It's a clever return too: Naturally the person to bring namor back is Johnny Storm, the new human torch and spirtual successor to the original who Namor famously battled in the golden age. Johnny was a teen at the time and ran away from home eventually ending up at a homeless shelter.. and finding NAMOR. Turns out since wwII (an increasing gap but unlike most in comics one that dosen't need to be handwaved as Namor is immortal), namor lost his memory and grew a beard. Johnny uses his power to burn it off

And unable to convince namor he's a freaky fish guy dunks him in the bay. The good news is this brings Namor back. The bad news.. is this brings namor back, who sees his kingdom in ruins and wages war with the surface. The four are able to mostly repel him, and Namor ends up taking a liking to JOhnny's sister Sue. These became his primary character traits: wanting to lash out at the surface, and wanting to nail Reed Richards girlfriend and later wife. Seriously just a few years later the guy buys AN ENTIRE FILM STUDIO when he hears Reed's gone bankrupt simply to try and win her over. As other books sprouted up he'd appear in them, mostly to punch the hero or be courted by various supervillians to team up with them as he was the hottest guy in prom. And that's where the decision to make HIM the 5th pillar of this show really makes me tilt my head. Namor isn't a TERRIBLE character. He's not one I like a lot, but it's simply because outside of his stint with the x-men, where both Matt Fraction and especially Kireon Gilleon really nailed him down: arrogant, but not without honor, powerfula s hell and knows it and while certainly willing to go after someones partner does so because he senses a lack of passion. Dosen't make it okay. Also as seen above it shows his tastes are wide, varied and awesome.

The problem is most of the time he's just an angry fish man with a pretty standard power set and a fairly boring kingdom. Wakanda forever completely redesigning it really helped the MCU version.

But just thinking of the remaining superhero books they could use while fantastic fours rights were elsewhere, as were spideys, they still had ant-man and the x-men. (The avengers were around but were largely saved to adapt in cap and iron man's shorts). I get it to a point: Ant Man had recently been canceled and X-Men.. weren't exactly a hit.

See the early x-men adventures.. aren't great. Their not terrible, there's some good ones as i've read them, and it's not exactly a big secret in the x-men fandom or marvel fandom as a whole that while the CONCEPT for the x-men was great: a new evolution of mankind with powers, that next step being largely teens and young adults struggling to control them.. but Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had no idea what to do with this. Stan 100% created the concept of mutants so he wouldn't have to make up an origin for every superpowered villian or hero. You can only use good ole radation so many times before people catch on and Thor, Cap and Iron Man all had super unique origins that coudln't easily be replicated. The most they could do thor wise is bring in another god from another mytholgy with herc.

But it was at it's core just weaker versions of the kinds of stories he told elsewhere and fell HEAVILY into

Ant Man baffles me as while yes, his book was canceled.. they still had a WHOLE series to mine stories from with interesting visuals. He was still an avenger and he and jan played off each other decently when it didn't fall into Smilin Stan really not knowing how to write women.

SO I KINDA get it as Namor was more the default.. but it still felt like a weird choice given they didn't have mcuh to work with where he wasn't the villian and actively seemed to refuse to adapt any story where he was. IT was just an odd choice to pick someone who at the time was mostly an outright villian and most of whose character arc from that was in books they woudln't use.

So when you have to use WHATEVER you can, what do you do? Well if your this show.. you do something profoundly bonkers and hilarious.

The Actual Episode:

So.. this episode is a mighty marvel frankenstien's monster.

NO not him. He wasn't around yet. NO this episode is clumisly stitched together from two diffrent ff issues. Fantastic Four #6 and Fantastic Four Annual #4

The first makes sense as it features Namor teaming up with one of marvel's best villians who they apparently could use in both shows: Doctor Doom. They simply had to replace who his nemesis were. And that of course is where our futuraly uncanny x-men come in, simply slapped into the baxter building and given the ff's reputation and relationship fighting doom. Oddly they woudln't actually fight doom during the 60's like everyone else. Eventually though he did leading to this awesome cover

Granted FF writer at the time John Byrne didn't like the story because Doom was tricked by X-Men enemy and my boy arcade and tried to retcon it but that's a story for another day.

Point is the X-Men hadn't fought doom.. but given they were more generic superheroes at the time having them step into the ff's roll actually makes a lot of sense. And they even had some panels they could use from the x-mens series of them battling namor.

Yeah for some weird reason they decided instead to mash this story.. with FF Annual #4, the wedding of Sue Storm and Reed Richards. An issue that I haven't read but i'm bound to cover eventually for my annual February superhero wedding special

It is famous enough for me to have the gist though: Sue and Reed get married but this being a superhero comic, some action gets thrown in. In this case Dr. Doom decides to gift them EVERY SINGLE AVALIABLE SUPERVILLIAN in the marvel universe. That's not hyperbole. Pretty much every villian who could from street level guys to the big bads like Kang showed up to try and beat the shit out of the ff.. but this being the wedding of two public super heroes, every super hero in the marvel universe short of spidey (who didn't seem to show up, loner that he was). IT comes off at least from a distance as a big old celebration not just of the happy couple but of how much the marvel universe had grown.

As a result though the first half of this episode is just a lot of fighting and feels really disjointed esepcially once the ff #6 adaptation kicks in as there's never really any resolution to the "all the supervillians are given a subconcious signal to fuck with my arch enemy's wedding day. " part of the plot. Or here it's because the X-Men are getting a major award. Which is nice given how their usually treated.. but for some reason here their called "the alliance for peace".

Look if you had to rename the x-men, and why on earth would you even back then at their weakest, why not the peace patrol, the peace posse, Cyclops and those other 4, the Beast Brigade, the Merry Mutant Marching Society, Not-The Fantastic Four, The Fantastic Five, The Sesnational Six, Uncle Charlie's Funtime House Band, Scotty Dosen't Know, The Teen Angels, The Alps, The Marvels, The Recess Monkeys, Code Yellow, The Mutants, XX-Men, The New Justice Team, Fruit Punch, We Hate you Please Die, Hated and Feared, Diaper Time, Stars and Garters, or Suck it Erik? Did they only have 5 minutes? I did and I came up with all of that, so how.

At any rate the first few minutes is just a lot of fighting. Again they HAVE an issue with namor. I get not wanting ot use all of it: Wanda and Pietro were still in the brotherhood of evil mutants at the time and it was back when Magneto was less "one of the most complex, compelling and awesome characters ever" and more "Dollar Tree Doctor Doom". But you HAVE PANELS OF THESE CHARACTERS FIGHTING NAMOR

There's also some with beast. So there was more than enough to do that and still use bits from ff #4. Just have doom narrate he's having mole man attack them. Instead once the fighting stops most of the x-men vanish, widdling down to just xavier who, thanks to using the wedding panels, is in his best baby blue prom tuxedo.

Oh and instead of just angel and professor.. we also get the greatest of all x-men, king of kings. Hawkeye. Yes for no reason other than they could crop other characters out easier probably, Hawkeye shows up a lot in the second act and is implictly a member of the defenders of peace. So in this reality, playing Mephisto's Advocate, either Hawkeye's a mutant with super sharp aiming ablities, or Hawkeye came to the X-Men to tie one of them up to prove he could join them instead of the avengers and Xavier was like "Fuck it come on in bud."

The rest of the ep is.. fine. Namor is asked to team with dr doom, then is betrayed by doom. We do get some awesome over the top stuff as Dr. Doom needs to use the grabber to pull the x-baxter building into space. So namor SWATS MEOTRS AWAY then chases Dr. Doom and ethan hawke into space and somehow survivies. IT's the cheesy kind of fun I want

So yeah.. for a first x-men in animatoin apperance this is pretty bad. Their barely featured as a team, Jean hardly gets to do anything, and it's two stories that just don't work together welded together. We have to assume at the end new york just.. burnt to the ground because Dr. Doom left all the other super villians int he world on. Or like the actual story the watcher just said "Fuck this' and ended it. Either way it's a pretty bleh episode and even the weird as hell way the x-men are used dosen't give it much of a recomednation.

Thankfully next up in x-men month we have something a bit more fitting as it's time for one of the greatest x-men stories of all: God Loves, Man Kills. Thanks for reading.

[champagnepodiums]

I have some hypothesis about why I think f1 is not capitalizing on charles:

1. I think the language thing could be one. I think the official F1 media team are UK based team judging from the behind the scenes things. It's probably easier to get content out of native English speakers and as good as charles' English is, he doesn't get the British banter that f1 uses in their content that Lando and George and Alex and Daniel etc can easily play into

2. Ferrari might not be playing ball. A few years ago they wouldn't even allow their drivers to part take in those PR challenges from different media outlets, so while they've definitely toned down their stuffiness, maybe they're making things difficult (I don't think this is the problem though, from what we've seen from the last 2 years, Ferrari have basically changed their whole PR team and they even allowed DTS full access even though they didn't come out looking the best) also, I don't know if Ferrari has the brand appeal it once had, so that's another thing to think about

3. Maybe it's a nationality thing: as mentioned before, there seems to be more of a bias towards some drivers more than others. I think the push for Lando and George is pretty obvious and it's probably as a means to get the "next great British driver" image out before Lewis retires (don't know how this will work, but anyway). Then you have drivers from countries with big markets and audiences as mentioned before like guanyu and perez and max and even the 2 Spanish drivers who has a big following from their home countries, so maybe there's more incentive to feature them vs charles who comes from a small country. And then he's obviously very popular in Italy, but i don't think the official F1 media cares much about that, it's not a new market that has to be captured

4. (this is the option I'm leaning most towards) I think that F1 media is just slow to get the general trend of their audiences. I don't mean the official F1 team only, but just all F1 media outlets in general. And by trends, I don't mean the little fleeting trends like "George Russell is the type of guy" or "liked by Pierre gasly", I mean the general shift in mood of fans. It took them a few years to notice that the audience had shifted to a more younger demographic and to try to cater to that, it took them a few years to notice (not that they did anything about it) the increase in female fans. So I wouldn't be surprised if people only pick up on charles growing popularity in a year or 2 (if it's still growing)

(5. Bonus point: I wonder if branding and merch has anything to do with point 4 (ie. Noticing a specific drivers' popularity) you can clearly spot a Max fan with the orange hat and shirt, you can clearly spot a Lando (or Lewis fan) from the neon yellow and the same for other drivers, but Ferrari doesn't allow individual drivers merch, so when the F1 PR guys see a sea of red in Italy for example, they think oh look at all the Ferrari fans and don't realize that a lot of that is charles fans specifically)

(sorry, this got out of hand, guess I'd been thinking about this alot)

NO DONT APOLOGIZE THIS WAS WONDERFUL TO READ

I honestly think that maybe it's not just one of the things you've mentioned but all of it together.

I hadn't thought about what you said about F1 being slow to recognize where the fanbase's interest is but I think there is a lot of truth to that. It'll be interesting to see if they ever figure it out (I reckon they will eventually)

[traanarchist]

Review of The Best™ Car Seat Headrest Album, How to Leave Town

As a certified Car Seat Headrest Homosexual™, I am contractually obligated to have at least one hot take of my own to add to the pile that is CSH Discourse. Luckily for you, it's not only correct, but also pretty chill compared to some others I've seen in the abyss that is r/CSHFans.

As somebody who isn't a huge fan of the numbered albums (The first four albums Will made), I split up CSH's discography into two parts when thinking about it as a whole: the big (in both size and scope) albums, and the smaller ones. I consider Twin Fantasy (Both Versions), Monomania, How to Leave Town, Teens of Denial, and Making A Door Less Open to be the 5 "big albums". I don't declare this with any authority, just that I find it easier to think of these 5 as the more focused and more album-y albums than something like Nervous Young Men or My Back Is Killing Me Baby.

Anyways, the reason I say all this is to say that, of the 5 "big albums", my favorite is How To Leave Town, which I feel like is one of the more underappreciated albums of his discography, and especially out of those 5. Why is that?

The Vibes

As with most Ephemeral things, be it gender, sexuality, or the fiction ideas you get while stoned out of your mind at 1 AM, vibes are very hard to explain. For me, How To Leave Town just has an energy about it. It's dark and melancholic but also bittersweet, depressing but hopeful. It carries the ambivalence that I get when I'm sitting on my bed, just thinking, and I suddenly feel my perspective switch and suddenly look at a part of my life in a completely different direction. When I listen to the 5 Minute Long instrumental intro to the first song on How To Leave Town, The Ending of Dramamine, I start to feel this weird pulsing feeling in my chest, like the onset of an anxiety attack, but not in a bad way. It's not that I feel sad or happy or any emotion, it's that I just feel. And that's really cool. Am I reading too much into my own reaction to some weird electronic beats? Yup, but it's very based pog of me to do so.

The Lyrics

Will is a goat lyricist, and I feel like he represents that nowhere more so than in How To Leave Town. The Ending of Dramamine has my favorite verse pretty much ever:

And in the sky, there is a place Where it's warm, and you're there And I've got the power now Yeah, I know what to do To make you feel something besides pain 'Cause it's the love That we've come to expect, to deserve And then we fuck and it's nice It's not a complicated mess And my back doesn't hurt And your head doesn't tell you to kill yourself So we smile and embrace Until we don't know who we are

Like this is a major mood ngl. Will is able to build a story of leaving home and being in this place of extreme change and how that makes you question everything around you, not through plot points but through lyrics that create that emotional response.

You can drive across the whole thing in four days if you really wanted leaving custom thank you notes in all the houses you ever haunted

in this whole solar system we've only met one type of life it's the living kind of life and it's not one I recognize

Of course, change isn't always bad! In You're in Love with Me, How to Leave Town gets a fully happy song, where Will happily sings about falling in love, as well as when he had a dream where Obama came to his birthday party. It's weird and silly and sweet and I love it so much.

The Instrumentals

I'm not a musician, and I don't know shit about music theory, I just sing and listen to a lot of music. However, even I can tell that man oh man, the synths in this album slap, along with all the other instrumental work. Can I say anything beyond that it's really good? Nope!

The Conclusion

I'm planning on using this blog (when I'm not reblogging Homestuck Fanart) to just post little essay thingies like this on albums I really like. Please add any albums you think I might like in the tags/comments (do people use comments on tumblr? I'm very new to this) or just send me an ask and I'll post some tiny thoughts about it if I get the time to listen to it! Anyways that's it peace out gamers

[yaoisex]

Every couple of months I remember Akinator exists so I try to make him guess my fav seiyuu/characters.

Sadly he still doesn't recognize Chiaki -__-

Last night I tried making him guess Hayate (Cool Doji Danshi), but he guessed Miyoshi (Joker Game) instead! How? Why? XD

But seeing Miyoshi suddenly brought all the feels back and that made me wanna re-watch Joker Game after all of those years (almost 8!).

Even tho I remembered the ending and I knew I was going to be depressed as hell, I still wanted to re-watch the whole anime.

So I just did. It was actually nice binge-watching and not having to wait every week for a new ep.

Yep. All the feels came back alright.

Sakuma was so hot and I still think Miyoshi would have been such a good power bottom for him hnggg *___* Every time they were in a scene together, all I could think about was Miyoshi riding that **** ^^;;.

And yep, like I mentioned on a post back then, it's unusual but really nice hearing Ryouhei whimpering while being gagged. Pity this man doesn't do BL. PITY I'm telling you.

Back then Tazaki was my fav spy. Too bad since then Sakurai's scandal was revealed and I can't enjoy his characters anymore. Damn him.

I'd really love if this anime wasn't episodic, and if we got all the spies working together each ep. I loved seeing them together on the short periods we've got, like the (too short) OVAs. Also, not enough Sakuma! I'd also like to get more young! Yuuki. He was hot *__*

That's funny reading people's comments on MAL, saying "they all look the same, I can't tell who is who". Well, I said that too on my first related post, but I knew I'd recognize them fast enough after I start watching. And also, being a seiyuu fan is a pro, because even if you really can't recognize their faces - you can recognize their voices, so you immediately know who is who in each ep.

It was nice watching that after so long. Very enjoyable (minus Miyoshi's end, which felt out of nowhere, even on the re-watch, but was still sad).

*Sighs* My mind keeps going back to Sakuma x Miyoshi scenarios. They could have had it good *cries*

[cityandking]

blue 5, black 2, green 1, gold 2, silver 3 for minah & vesper 🥰

ty tabby!! // medieval heraldry oc asks

Does your OC believe that people should only believe or take inspiration from something if it is actually true? Or are there circumstances where a motivating lie is to be preferred to an awkward or uncomfortable truth?

MINAH — there are plenty of situations where a motivating lie is preferable to an uncomfortable truth (for example: no sir, I didn't touch that man's purse, but there was a shifty sort of fellow over thereabouts, you ought to talk to him). more broadly, she knows how much a lie (or a trick or a suggestion or even a misunderstanding) can inspire action, and she thinks, beyond any kinda of moral judgement or obligation, that it's just the way the world works. stories are powerful things, and she's not above using them for her own ends when she needs to VESPER — sometimes it bothers her how readily people will accept a lie (chiefly that she's some divine figure) over all sense and her own denial, but she can't deny it's a powerful motivator. she's well aware that what she believes people should or shouldn't do has little bearing on how they'll actually act, but she strives to tell the truth (or keep politely quiet) as much as she can. the exception to this comes when a lie will help protect people—like lying about a mage's location, for example. she's no narc

Has your OC always been fundamentally the same person? Or would someone from their past struggle to recognise the person they have become?

MINAH — absolutely not. as a kid she was way different from who she is now, and a lot of that change (though not all of it) was intentional. little minah would find it nearly impossible to recognize who she's become. (big minah has some pretty complicated feelings about that) VESPER — she's more or less the same. she's definitely grown up and grown into a version of herself she's proud of, but she's still recognizable. (her younger self would be so awed and proud and hopeful, and vesper feels a great deal of kindness for that little girl)

Does your OC feel comfortable expressing feelings of joy - do they laugh or smile easily? Or do they have a constantly stern or dour countenance? If so is this entirely genuine? Or something they feel they need to maintain for the sake of appearances?

MINAH — she doesn't have issues with expressing joy. she tends to default to more positive emotions: lots of teasing, smiles, jokes (especially jokes). her good humor comes easily and even honestly most of the time, but she also definitely uses it to mask deeper or more negative feelings. idk if it's possible to be honest without being genuine, but that's the line minah walks VESPER — she's very private with her joy, but that means when it sneaks out it tends to be entirely genuine. she's most open with the people she knows and trusts, even if it takes come coaxing to get her out of her shell, but when she's happy it's obvious. she kinda glows with it

Does your OC have any wishes or desires of which they are ashamed or otherwise wish to keep secret? Or do they loudly proclaim their every wish to those around them?

MINAH — some of the things minah wants most are the things she's most ashamed of, and she would never ever ever speak them aloud (or so she thinks; we've got 15 years of Blight to get through babygirl). she's happy to groan and gripe about things or express desires she considers safe (and/or expected), but good luck getting her to open up about anything truly personal VESPER — ashamed, not really, but definitely secret. she grew up (at home and also in the circle) in environments where wanting anything too openly was giving someone something to use against you later. it's constantly a shock to express a vague desire and have it fulfilled (I think josie, bull and varric are the best at reading between the lines. on the flip side, her relationship with cullen involves a lot of learning how to communicate clearly and openly in a way that's good for both of them, but especially for vesper)

Does your OC find it easy to be sincere when expressing their views or feelings? Or do they prefer to adopt an air of detached irony? If so, then why is this the case? Do they fear rejection or mockery by others?

MINAH — she kind of pendulums back and forth depending on the context. if it's about her own thoughts and feelings you can expect heaps of irony (it's the avoidance and paranoia and refusal to outwardly address any trauma she may or may not be carrying), but when she's talking to someone else (like talking to loras about his fathers' death and the power given to him to enact meaningful change; "I think it's possible to wish you could die of heartbreak" etc.) she can really buckle down and be sincere. it's just easier when it's outside herself. her inside stuff is such a mess she doesn't want anyone getting a peek at it VESPER — while slow to open up, she's very sincere about the things she fundamentally believes in (like mercy and justice and the belief that people can grow). she doesn't like saying things she doesn't mean; she'd rather just not say anything at all. she hates politics. thank the maker for josephine