#always questionable

[frownyalfred]

local mob boss, puffing on a cigarette angrily:

goon:

Batman, tied to a chair six feet away:

mob boss: did ya have to tie him to the chair with his legs spread open like that?

[fairy-of-divorce]

[disableddyke]

[aroaceleovaldez]

i had a thought of "do people not know what AUs are anymore?" and then i remembered nobody explains fandom stuff to new people anymore so it is entirely plausible people genuinely don't know what AUs are and nobody has explained it to them, so for today's lucky 10,000:

"AU" stands for "Alternate Universe" or "Alternative Universe" (same difference) and is basically any thought scenario for a fandom that isn't canon and can't fit within the canon universe. If it takes place in the canon universe but something is notably different, that is typically what's known as a "Canon divergent AU," because it diverges from canon.

an AU can be absolutely anything. There's a couple of widespread pan-fandom au scenarios that often get thrown around, like coffee shop aus, genderbend aus, hanahaki aus (hanahaki is a whole thing in itself i'd recommend researching on your own), etc. One you might hear sometimes is "crossover AU" which is when you have characters from one fandom interacting with characters from another.

You can have as many aus as you want. They can be whatever you want and you can do whatever you want in them. It's a sandbox for you to play around in and explore how things would be different or how the characters would act in those circumstances or environments. Maybe they have different relationships with each other. Maybe they behave slightly differently. Or you can just say "Okay, [x] is true. How did they get here? How would things have to be different for this to occur?" which can also be fun.

If you are ever confused about why people ship something that seems completely out of the blue or doesn't make sense to you in the canon setting, there's a good chance they like it in an AU setting! Not everything everybody is interacting with is necessarily the canon! Not everybody wants things to exist in canon and just want to explore playing dolls in a different sandbox and that's okay. And their sandbox might look a lot different than yours, and that's also okay. You have the freedom to make your sandbox whatever you please. Do whatever you want forever. Get funky with it. AUs are fun.

Okay that's my schpeal. everybody go have fun and play nice now.

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[chowadoe]

[ DARK RIDER/SPEED STAR ⭐ AU ]

a double secret identity speedbiker au me and my buddy have been working on where sonic is the resident speedbike celebrity and shadow is the new mechanic in town :D (more info )

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

🔵 green hills' very own local celebrity! 🔵 has been racing professionally since his teens. tails is (or was!) his main mechanic before passing the torch onto his new employee 🔵 also part of the underground drag racing circuit.. it takes the edge off! 🔵 among busting crime syndicates and shady operations, Sonic (and company) have been tasked with keeping an eye on the drag race scene that's been buzzing with the introduction of new and innovative (and highly dangerous) mods involving a resource called Chaos Fragments.

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG

⚫ new in town ⚫ Tails' newest (and very first) employee! specializes in the repair of bikes. ⚫ he arrived in Green Hills a little after a mysterious green meteor shower ⚫ obligatory dark past...

DARK RIDER 🩸 the newest racer in the drag racing circuit

[chloesimaginationthings]

Why did William get FNAF springlocked? Is he stupid?

[angelofdumpsterfires]

how i feel about all the changes in s3

[notrobinsomethingworse]

Dick: Happy Chrismis!

Damian: What is Happening.

Tim: Is Chrismimth.

Damian: what are you fools-

Steph: Merry Crisis!

Damian: Father, they have lost their minds.

[All four stare at Bruce expectantly]

Bruce, sighing: Merry Crysler.

[artcalledky]

Can’t have free will, If you’ve been influenced Deep Forest And Christine All our times My drunk after barracks drinking Let’s shower after PT Make love before formation 9am I’ll drive For lunch let’s go to What that’s on menu also for the ride back My Christine All out shared times In reciting in my head Harmonies & melodies In the pale moonlight Our words discussed together capturing What are thoughts were Can’t have free will Influenced by deep forest Christine Crystal clear channeling My lady Durham Smoke free Sing are selves across an album No free will We loved in our share times Are days a view Are days a view Are days a view Are days a view Are days a view Are days a view

[acewithapaintbrush]

I understand everyone's frustrations about the Lilo & Stitch live action remake, it pretty much dumps on everything that made the animation great. But I hope amidst all that anger and frustration we don't forget that the lead actor is a little girl who, as far as I can tell, is the perfect Lilo not just in front of but behind the camera as well and who is probably living her absolute dream right now

Air your grievances about the movie itself, the way it changed the story, the way it massacred the characters and the lessons and is just plain bad and unnecessary as loudly and as vocally as you want so that hopefully Disney finally gets a fucking clue. But also keep Maia herself out of it because one day she might read this stuff

[eveningrainstorm]

take responsibility.

[trickstersaint]

i want to introduce you all to a project that is very close to my heart... or lack of one. anyway. for anyone who has ever wanted to play a poem. i'd like you to meet aromanticism

(link opens itch.io - she'll run on html in your browser! please be nice to her!)

[deadwooddross]

There were some hear me out/smash or pass polls going around that simply didn't have enough sloughing skin in them for my tastes, so I made one of my own for funsies Come, spin the wheel,

[itsangrynar]

A small silly thing i did while perishing in my room

[astrhae]

crowley used the metal tool in season 1 to start time, and we learn that he's used it first to start space. to create the stars -- he still remembers how. he still remembers all of heaven's passwords: in the book crowley is described as an optimist because he has the "utter surety... that the universe would look after him". not god, but the universe. and of course he does: he helped create it and he's looking after it, too.

think about it: aziraphale had a sword, but crowley is about to face satan who wants to destroy the world, and crowley's only weapon is a tool of creation