#and do their thing for once which is overall the main fucking reason why i really

[luna7822]

congradulations assholes

u all finally got that stupid ass victory that u ppl so lovingly beg for absolutely no reason other than just to find more petty excuses to boost ur ego and outright splat any other ppl from different teams on site as if any of u dont know how to play like fair for once in ur pathetic fucking life and admittingly i do feel bad for shiver too since she actually had smth that i could agree with for once (vanilla aside) and that u assholes pretty much decided to be absolute jerks throughout the whole damn thing all cuz im on her team as if splatfests and final/seasonalfests in general were never meant to be taken srsly in the first place and overall to any stupid ass stans/spawn campers out there i wish u all a very happy go fuck urself for basically never giving me a fair fucking chance for once whatsoever and for honestly being the worst fucking idol f**base to ever exist in general so yeah

[intuitive-revelations]

While I've got critiques of a few choices (eg. bigeneration, the Season One reset), one thing I've got to commend RTD for is that the story arc of things getting "more supernatural" / the universe shifting from sci-fi to fantasy is actually a pretty perfect way of continuing the shows overall myth arcs without actually requiring knowing all the backstory.

Not only does this follow on from the Time Lords currently being gone again (which itself was kind of built up from the previous Gallifrey arcs and the Master's character development), but also is more or less exactly what the Ravagers wanted to do in Flux. They wanted to undo the Anchoring of the Thread, recontexualised in terms of the Division's universal interferenc. While time and its laws have somewhat stabilised for now, we are indeed now seeing Rassilon's laws of rationality starting to collapse. I would strongly argue this started even before the 60th anniversary, between the time loop in Eve of the Daleks and the constellations literally rearranging themselves in the sky in Legend of the Sea Devils.

Even outside of the shows main arcs, New Who has already dipped its toes into the concept that there are older creatures which don't necessarily run on science in the same way as everything else, or that are from outside the universe / incompatible with it. Primary examples being the Carrionites, Racnoss, the Beast and Abaddon, Weeping Angels, Solitract, arguably even The Timeless Child. The Dark Times have also been prominantly featured in stuff like the Time Lord Victorious series and Titan Comics.

We've also being seeing entities like Eternals gradually returning (Zellin, Rakaya, maybe Time) who were originally established as leaving the universe in the wake of the Time War in RTD's Series 1 backstory in the DW Annuals. We've even seen quite significant emphasis put on the Sisterhood of Karn and their connection to Gallifrey, something primarily developed in the EU with the Pythia lore, which also links into the likes of the Visionary in The End of Time.

All this being said, none of this backstory is (for now) important for new viewers to know. All they need to know is that Fourteen fucked up in Wild Blue Yonder, and now things which were once outside the universe, like the Toymaker, are starting to leak into it. They don't need to know, for example, that the TARDIS may only have been able to access edge of universe thanks to the scale of the Flux's destruction.

Ultimately this feels a lot like his approach with the Time War. While it was a logical conclusion to the classic series (hence why we get so many time wars / destructions of Gallifrey in the EU), with Genesis, Revelation and Remembrance of the Daleks all particularly serving as build up for a Dalek attack on Gallifrey, and indeed were all included in said prior-mentioned DW Annual articles along with the tension de-escalating 'Act of Master Restitution', none of that was important for new viewers in 2005 to know.

This being said, I do suspect some past context will return in the future, just as it did over New Who. For example, we're bound to be reintroduced to the idea that the Time Lords established rationality in the universe, maybe name-checking the Division as part of their interference. I also stand by my previous theory that we're likely to eventually see Rassilon return after his exile in Hell Bent. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he served as the face of an effort to bring back the Time Lords in some form, opening up questions of their oppressive history (expect the Timeless Child's trauma to be emphasised) and whether the universe is better off without its fantastical elements suppressed, even if this does open the universe up to the dangers he fought like the Vampires, Carrionites, Great Old Ones etc. (Particular emphasis on the last of these, given it's sort of implied the only reason eg. the Great Intelligence isn't a full-power Cthulhu Mythos Yog-Sothoth is because of the Anchoring.) Perhaps the Sisterhood of Karn's newfound influence on Gallifrey in the wake of the Time War and Lungbarrow could play a role here.

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

Wait Jensen leaves edenbrook? 🤲 spare lore pls

(~night-triumphantt this is my main loll)

OMG OMG JENSEN LORE?? were going to be here for a while (these are literally my fav types of asks)

yes jensen does leave edenbrook (and unfortunately it is not cute and fun. but anyway.) like 2-3 years post book three (i havent decided exactly when)

so in my hc ethan is as bad, if not worse than he is in canon. hes always had issues w jensen, and jensen is not one to try and smooth it over. this post is a lot more detailed, but for a quick summary, ethan always had something of a thing for jensen, but didnt know how to act on it. like hes never been w men before in a romantic sense (just some weird fucked up competitive longing way. cough cough tobias) so he had a hard time coming to terms w that aspect of it. and on top of it jensen wanted NOTHING to do w his ass

jensen tells it like it is and ethan has always taken it very personally, which has put a lot of distance between them and sparked Many arguments. jensen has been upset w him for making his first and second year so much more difficult than it needed to be, and ethan has never apologized or acknowledged it. overall, they just frustrate each other and theres a lotttt of tension between them all the time. theyre both headstrong but in opposite ways (ethan likes to be right and outsmart people, jensen just wants shit to get done which makes him very direct) and its just never worked out, essentially

ethan also has a remarkable talent for hitting triggers jensen didnt even knew he had. theyve had their fair share of blow-up arguments because of ethans demeanor, abuse of power, and how they handle cases in general, and ethan just knows right where it hurts every time. jensen doesnt even like arguing, and usually he just shuts down the second they start raising voices, but he always tries his best to get his point across before then

anyway, now that you have the backstory, we can actually get to How jensen quits

at the end of book 3, jensen takes over the diagnostics team and ethan takes up an administrative position. in fandom, a lot of people keep ethan as the dt lead bc he would hate an administrative position. i know this and put him in the administrative position anyway bc its what he deserves. with that in mind, ethan takes pretty much any chance he can to stop in to check on the dt and the cases they have. hes a Terrible micromanager and doesnt like the changes jensen has made to it

jensen tries to take his advice/guidance in his first year leading it, but is ready to make changes/decisions by himself as time goes on. ethan is not ready to give up his spot, even if he already did in writing, and it just turns into a lot of unnecessary overseeing and trying to comment and help on cases after jensen already had them distributed and handled

ethan has always had a problem when it comes to questioning and not trusting jensens calls and judgement on diagnostics cases. while he was more subtle about snooping into some of the DT cases, theres one case he goes over jensens head with and changes a bunch of the calls he made just bc he didnt trust that jensen could "handle" it

jensen ends up finding out, obvi, when the patient he spent nights and days researching for is suddenly Not following the treatment plan he laid out. he talks to the rest of the dt about it and obvi nobody knows anything, so it doesnt take him long to figure out what happened

ethan comes to see them and it is Not pretty. jensen straight up asks why tf he touched the case, and jensen knew it was because he didn't trust him, but he wanted to hear him say it to confirm. they end up arguing back and forth, but, for once, jensen doesnt just sit quietly (theres more reason to this that will be detailed in the fic i eventually post ab it). when ethan yells at him, which usually keeps him quiet, jensen lays out every instance where ethan has ruined his time there. how hes selfish, priviledged, and doesnt stand for anything someone in medicine should care about. basically spells out every way hes incompetent and biased as a doctor and how actually he should just quit bc he was never cut out for it in the first place. and then jensen quits on the spot.

now, jensen had actually been looking into leaving before that. bryces residency was done, and bryce had been having a difficult time connecting w people bc when you push everyone out of the way to get to the top, surprise, they dont like you! also, jensens ambitious as fuck. hes wanted to start more accessible dt resources and teams across the country since he heard ab edenbrooks team

so while him quitting seemed very impulsive, he was already waiting on offers from a hospital in california and chicago (and trust, they were happy to have him)

the whole thing was a HUGE point of drama for the hospital. jensen is not known for blow up reactions. hes more known for lack of reactions to big things, if anything, so to have him quit like that was absolutely wild. also like. thats just an insane way to quit as it is

but in the end it led to a lot more scrutiny of ethan and how he behaves as a doctor. his behavior is highlighted in the book jensen eventually writes ab his experience w the medical field (not by name, but it doesnt take much to figure it out) which also ends up leaking a lot more shit ab ethan as the board further pushes into the specific incidents detailed in jensens book. basically jensen ruins ethans career which is so real of him

but yeah anyway. i didnt need to post a novel length explanation but here u go <3

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Arc 1, Reflections

Well, Arc 1 down, time to reflect.

First and foremost, I do like it. I mean, I'm not really happy in some ways that I'm committing myself to reading this whole thing, and a significant part of the reason I'm reading worm now is because I have fic ideas I developed after reading all the discussions I read and reading various fanfics, and I at least have enough self-respect as a fanfic writer to believe one needs to read the source material to write fanfic about it.

Also spite, tbh. Because while yes, one cannot have a completely informed opinion about things that happen in a story without consuming that story, one can still have a reasonably informed opinion under some circumstances, and I'm going to find out if my opinion on the thing is the same once I've read the whole thing. (I was going to read it eventually anyway, or so was the plan, but spite plays a role in why now. If my opinion doesn't change, I'll feel vindicated, if it does, I'll never mention the previous thing again and pretend it never happened).

Anyway:

As a first arc, there's not that much that happens apart from the Lung Fight (which is like saying not much happens in the first half of a New Hope that isn't Darth Vader killing Obi-Wan, I suppose), but there's some vital establishing character moments, key worldbuilding, and a ton of tantalizing questions left open - what caused Taylor to be hospitalized? Where did the powers come from? If you judge the timelines around, the two are linked, obviously.

Why do Emma, Sophia and Madison hate her? Why is the school system quite this fucking broken (Which, tbh, I don't really buy. Each part of the bullying feels realistic, but the whole picture *and* the sheer degree by which the system is just... doing nothing, really does strain credulity. There's a reason a lot of fanfics use various fanon explanations to try to make sense of it. As a whole, it all feels a bit gratuitous).

I believe I heard once that Wildbow tried out a lot of main characters for this story before settling on Taylor, and I wonder what it is about Taylor in particular that made him think it was such a good choice. She doesn't seem a bad choice, and obviously without Taylor Worm either doesn't exist or is unrecognizable, so obviously it worked out.

Danny wants to be a good dad, and just... can't. There's too much going on, crossing that distance is hard, and each day it gets harder.

Taylor desperately wants to be a hero, but stumbles right out of the gate.

Armsmaster is a hero, but he's also a bit of a prick, even if his prickishness in this scene has been overstated.

The powers and the way they work, such as we know of them, are fascinating to think about so far. How do they interact, what cancels what, etc? I can certainly see why this story would have hit Spacebattles's buttons so very hard - right at the start you get the seemingly weak power being overoptimized and used to nearly take down a guy like Lung, who is presented as a huge hitter. Sure, it take's Bitch's dogs to really take him down at the end, but even then, the dogs alone probably wouldn't have been enough either.

But when Taylor used her powers cleverly, along with a bit of luck, and then the fortuitous arrival of the Undersiders to help finish the job... well, in the end, it does rather work.

Overall, I can also see why people bitch about TINO so much - though I suspect a lot of that is people not understanding things like different interpretations or not thinking about how different experiences will change a person - but also, I can see why it would come up so much.

Taylor's voice is a little hard to pick out, because... well, it's all Taylor's voice except in the interludes. But the writing in the main chapters (of Arc 1 anyway)... it feels more like... narration that is detached, than by a character who's right there in it all, feeling the emotions.

Honestly, I felt more emotional depth from Danny in his 3rd person interlude than I did from Taylor in her 1st person main story, at least pound for pound.

Not that we don't get any hints of Taylor's emotional state at various places, we do, but it feels much more... tell, rather than show.

Which may be a function of the way Taylor acts and feels, especially after a year and a half of bullying, but I also think it's a limitation of the 1st person narration, tbh.

There's a reason why I don't really care for it. Not enough to make me not read it, but enough to be noticeable.

Anyway, all this aside, I do like it. Fic ideas or spite aside, if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't choke it down. I'm not that kind of masochist, nor do I have that kind of time.

[stratossphere]

tequila sunrises | j.k

johnny and tequila don’t mix well.

warnings: overall horribly drunken behavior, fluff

word count: 3.6k

— —

Liquor was one hell of a drug. It sounded funny, because most people would’ve argued that liquor was the safest alternative when it came to booze and narcotics combined, but most people hadn’t seen Johnny Knoxville after nine tequila sunrises.

You were partying after what had felt like years of doing press that none of you wanted to do, and with the promise of a free weekend without a single occupational obligation, everyone was going hard.

The bar you were all holed up in for the night was turning into a complete free-for-all. Chairs had been turned on their sides, Steve-O and Ryan had already been in two fist fights with Dave (turned Darf) joining in on the second, and everyone was so wasted that it was like talking to completely new people every time you interacted with the friends that you had arrived with.

However, there was one person who was acting just like he always did; just adding enough tequila to kill a small child into the mix to spice things up a little bit. Johnny had drifted from your side as the night had gone on, which was probably how he had managed to down nine drinks loaded to the brim with tequila without being cut off, and you had actually lost sight of him in favor of talking to Jeff.

“—which is like, the main reason why you shouldn’t have kids. I will literally go over to the Safeway across the street and get you a box of condoms if it means you won’t get Laura pregnant.” You were drunkenly relenting to him after he had offhandedly admitted that he and his girlfriend Laura had been thinking of having kids. You weren’t sure why your drunk brain was so against the idea, but your mouth was only as coherent as your brain, so you’d been on the topic for the past ten minutes.

“I feel like I should be recording this to play back to your happy accidents someday in the future.” Jeff snickered, finishing off the last of his beer and then glancing around behind you. Suddenly, you watched as his eyes stopped and his jaw dropped slightly. “Uh, have you checked on PJ lately?”

“Fuck.” You sighed, knowing by the look on his face that Johnny was doing something that you weren’t going to like. You saw that look a lot in bars where Johnny’s tab was on Paramount. You took a deep breath before you requested what exactly that something was. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s teabagging Bam’s forehead.” That had not even been close to what you had been expecting to hear, and you choked on the drag of your cigarette you had just inhaled when he spoke. You then immediately whipped around in your seat, and true to Jeff’s observations, Ryan was holding Bam down on a table of one of the booths behind you while Johnny literally stood over him with both dick and balls in hand.

“Oh my fucking god.” You shot out of your seat, ignoring Jeff’s cackling as you bolted across the space between you and the booth of debauchery. Johnny and Ryan were laughing too hard to be paying any attention to anything other than the ‘task’ at hand, but Bam’s eyes immediately sought yours in a desperate plea for help once he spotted you.

“Get them the fuck away from me!” He screamed, wriggling aggressively in Ryan’s iron grip as he tried to get away from Johnny. Jeff saying that Johnny was teabagging Bam wasn’t exactly accurate, because that would’ve implied that he was actually successful. In reality, he was so drunk that he couldn’t stand still enough to even get near Bam’s face, and every other second he was just managing to catch himself before he toppled right over.

Once Bam had called out to you, however, both of his attackers’ attention was immediately drawn in your direction, and Johnny’s eyes met yours about a millisecond before you were forcibly pulling him away from Bam by the back of his shirt.

“What the hell are you doing?” You snapped, giving him a glare that stopped his giggling in its tracks. It was bad enough that he was trying to teabag his friend (honestly, you had seen much worse, and really weren’t all that surprised), but you were in a crowded bar. With potential indecent exposure charges just waiting to stick themselves to the first person of the Jackass crew to whip out their dick for the night. You were drunk, but nowhere near enough to excuse public exposure.

“Uh…” Johnny smiled sheepishly when he trailed off, seemingly frozen in place where you had pulled him away from Bam and Ryan (who were now shoving and hitting each other in retaliation for Ryan’s actions against Bam). When you raised an expectant eyebrow, his sheepish smile turned into a wolfish grin. “Giving the people what they want!”

“Put it away. Now.” You warned, using your hand on his shoulder to angle him away from the rest of the bar so that no one else besides you was getting a clear-shot view of his dick. He groaned like a teenager who’d just been asked to clean his room, moving like he was going to try and get away from you. Your grip on his arm solidified. “PJ. You do it or I’m going to.”

“You can.” You hadn’t even realized how stupid that suggestion had been until he immediately jumped at the opportunity, a suggestive look on his face as he did so. But, nevertheless, you did exactly that, forced to let him lean his entire body against you so that he would stand still enough to let you get his zipper done up. Once you were successful and he was once more fully clothed, you took your cigarette out of your mouth and crossed your arms as you stared at him.

“I can’t fucking believe you. You can’t just walk around with your dick out in a crowded bar!” You lectured, noticing the way his expression stayed completely the same despite the fact that you were scolding him. His eyes had been trained blankly at the wall, but soon you watched them slowly drag from the top of your head all the way down to your feet, lingering on the low-cut collar of your shirt for a lot longer than what could be considered inconspicuous.

“Can you touch me again? Like in the bathroom or something?” His voice was so airy as he begged, you were almost surprised that it had come from the man standing in front of you. You deadpanned, because he was clearly trashed way beyond being a sensible, coherent human being, before pointing to an empty table. You couldn’t hold him on his feet forever.

“No. You’re too drunk.” You said as you coaxed him into sitting down, wincing at how hard he squeezed your hand when he grabbed it to give himself some support. He whined at your refusal, dropping his head down onto the table dramatically and still not letting go of your hand.

“But baby. I need you.” He protested, lifting his head just enough to look at you with a hopeful spark in his eyes. He was clearly just jonesing for your attention, and looked a little hurt when you pulled away to sit on the opposite side of the table from him.

“You just had your dick on my friend’s face. I’m not touching it.” You said with finality, almost breaking your glare when you felt him rubbing his foot on the inside of your thigh. Johnny Knoxville: actor, producer, and stuntman, everyone.

“It was just a little bit of my balls. He was being overdramatic.” Johnny whined, his voice slurred and just a little high-pitched as he clearly tried to convince you to go jack him off in the bathroom. Or right there in the booth, considering how bold his foot was getting on your thigh. Usually that was your move.

“Babe. Look at me.” You drew his attention before leaning out and tipping his chin up towards you with your thumb and index finger, forcing his complete focus onto you. “No.”

“But I’m really hard now!” If you hadn’t been looking directly at his face, you would’ve thought he was crying. He sounded so broken-hearted that it almost made you feel bad for him. Almost.

“How can you still get hard after drinking so much?” You sighed, a small frown pulling on your face as he attempted to reach out and steal your cigarette from you. He had a habit of dropping them when he was drunk. “PJ. Nuh uh.”

“Ugh.” He rolled his eyes dramatically, as if you were being an asshole by keeping him from being a complete nuisance. As you tried not to laugh at his insolence, his eyes then sparked with an idea. “Can I sit in your lap instead?”

6’1, lanky Johnny Knoxville curled up in your lap in a bar booth seat. Sure, he’d actually done that many times before, but you were in a cramped space, and he was a messy drunk. You were already picturing him leaning back a bit too far and then falling right out of the booth while taking you right down with him.

“We’re in a bar.” You reasoned, motioning around as if he wasn’t aware of his surroundings. With the amount of alcohol he’d clearly consumed in such a short period of time, you actually wouldn’t have been surprised if he wasn’t. He shrugged like that made no difference to him, and you sighed. “Fine. You can sit on this side with me.”

“Yes!” He cheered like getting to sit in a grimy booth seat with you was the greatest gift he could’ve ever been given. You laughed and rolled your eyes as he dragged himself out of his side of the booth slowly, taking a second to let his bearings come back to him. “You’re such a sweetheart, you know that?”

“Keep your voice down. Someone’ll find out.” You teased, feeling a little bit of satisfaction run through you as he giggled at your stupid joke like a little girl. If you ever needed a pick-me-up, all you had to do was start telling even the lamest of jokes to a drunk Johnny Knoxville.

“I love you so much.” Once he was on his feet and had made it around to your side, Johnny practically fell in on top of you, ending up basically in your lap anyways with his arm thrown out haphazardly around you as he almost burned himself on your cigarette. Your back hit the wall at the end of the booth with the impact of his weight, and you groaned.

“Honey. Be gentle.” You complained, trying to stop him from rolling around too much in your lap. He settled slightly at your words, finding a final resting place with his head on your chest and his body draped over your legs.

“You smell so good.” He mumbled after a second, taking in a deep breath after he spoke to inhale the scent of your perfume. You laughed a little bit, glancing up momentarily and then noticing that Ryan and Bam were coming towards you. Not a smart idea considering what Johnny and them had just been doing, but to each their own.

“We are in a public bar. Can you not fornicate in the booths?” Bam drawled as he came within earshot, a deep frown settling on his face as he looked at you and Johnny. You smiled sourly, not even having to open your mouth to invite them into the other side of the booth before they were sliding in on their own.

“I think he’s had like, half a bottle of tequila.” You explained, shrugging it off and then raising your eyebrows expectantly. “Did you get tired of beating each other up?”

“Yes. We came to inform you that Jeff accidentally put his card down instead of the Paramount card, so he’s throwing a bitch fit at the bar. In case you’re interested.” Ryan announced, jabbing a finger back towards said bar where you could vaguely make out Jeff yelling at one of the bartenders. You motioned down to Johnny.

“I’m a little wrapped up.” Quite literally. You had a feeling that your ‘never-ending’ night of partying was going to have to be cut short soon before Johnny completely slipped into a liquor-induced coma. “Now would be your chance to teabag back.”

“Yeah, like I’m putting my balls anywhere near him.” Bam scoffed, shaking his head while Ryan shared an amused look with me. “Do you think I’m fucking crazy? He’s got a stun-gun in his back pocket.”

Upon checking, Johnny did in fact have a stun-gun in the back pocket of his Dickies. He was too drunk to even notice you pulling it out, and you gave Bam a ‘now stop complaining’ look as you dropped it down on the table in front of him before taking another drag off your cigarette.

“I don’t know if I should be giving that to you considering you’ve been drinking, but whatever.” You snickered, talking over Johnny’s sleepy groan at being touched. He wrapped his arms around you tighter then, and you let out a small exhale when he basically squeezed the air right out of you. Jesus Christ, he was strong.

“Sweet! I wonder if you can electrocute someone through their beer bottle.” Ryan immediately snatched the stun-gun off the table before Bam could even make a move for it, and you silently regretted your decision. Alcohol and weapons had never been a good mix, but with the Jackass crew, it was kind of a given.

A shoving match ensued between Bam and Ryan over the gun, which resulted in the table being jostled, pulling an irritated sigh out of you. You loved your friends (and boyfriend) to death, but sometimes they were a huge fucking handful. It was hard to believe that they were all truly adults with fully-formed brains. It just didn’t seem real.

“Hey, Y/n, I’ll give you fifty bucks to let me taze you.” Ryan still had the gun, and was now looking at you with a wickedly eager look plastered on his face. You rolled your eyes at him, jabbing a finger towards the rest of the bar.

“You’d have to pay me a lot more than that. I bet Steve-O’ll do it for 25.” You pointed out, knowing that he’d actually probably do it for 10. If you wanted painful entertainment, he was definitely your guy. Bam made a face.

“Dude, you gotta take him home. Or like, give him a bump or something.” He said, pointing towards Johnny with a slightly unnerved tone in his voice. You glanced down at your boyfriend, only to see that his eyes were closed and his head had moved to dangle off of your side with his mouth wide open. You sighed, sharing a ‘can you fucking believe this?’ look with Ryan as you gently nudged Johnny.

“PJ, honey. Get up so we can call a cab back to the house.” You prompted, ignoring his groan of protest when you woke him out of what was a clear attempt at being done with his night. When he didn’t budge, even after you shoved him lightly, you gritted your teeth in frustration before putting your cigarette out in an empty pint glass and nudging him with your knee. “Philip John Clapp. Let’s go.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Johnny snapped, looking deeply offended that you’d just called him by his full, legal name as his eyes finally snapped open at your prompting. Bam and Ryan were both snickering as he fought his way out of the booth after you had coerced him into doing so, stumbling a little bit when he stood and then grabbing your shoulder harshly to hold himself up. “Fucking ridiculous. We just got here.”

“We’ve been here for like, six hours, dude.” Bam laughed, watching you struggle to wrangle Johnny in as he did absolutely nothing to help you. Fucking typical. Johnny just brushed him off, shooting a consistent dirty look at both him and Ryan as you finally got him fully out of the booth and away from the table.

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, or if you can’t make it back to your hotel room and you just want to come back to our place.” You said breathlessly to your two friends, blowing them both a kiss and then promptly alost getting pulled down by your trashed boyfriend, who was basically crawling all over you. They both called out their half-assed goodbyes, probably more focused on getting even drunker now that there was the option to come back to Johnny’s house than actually seeing the two of you off.

“We’re gonna snuggle when we get back, right?” Johnny asked as soon as they were out of earshot, head basically resting on top of yours as he spoke in his high-pitched, whiny voice. You were waving your goodbyes to everyone else in the bar at the same time as you walked, and you could see everyone’s amused looks at Johnny’s state as you dragged him along after you. You sighed, a hint of a grin on your face.

“Sure, baby. If you make it that far.” You agreed, wincing when he took your hand and squeezed tightly. You were trying to enjoy your time while you could, because you knew the only thing worse than black-out-drunk Johnny was hungover Johnny, but he wasn’t exactly making it easy. “PJ. You have legs.”

“Don’t even need ‘em.” Johnny slurred through a snicker whilst continuing to drag his feet, leaning back lazily and giving you a proud grin as he looked down at where you were basically holding him up. “You’re so fucking strong.”

“Thanks.” You grumbled, finally making it out to the sidewalk outside of the bar and sighing in relief. The least you could do was take a couple minute break before you hailed a cab and had to deal with getting him inside on top of everything else. “Sit down for a little bit.”

“You gonna sit in my lap?” Oh, how the tables turn. He collapsed right down onto his ass before you could even answer, one arm catching the belt loop of your jeans and yanking you down along with him. You had consumed considerably less alcohol than him, but you were still drunk, so it didn’t take much for you to go right down with him.

“Ow, you fucking asshole. Warn me.” You complained as you felt his belt buckle stab right into your lower back, one arm shooting out behind you to grab his shoulder so that you didn’t go tumbling over to the side. He just wrapped his arms around you and squeezed hard enough to make you wince. Again.

“Shh.” He cooed, tucking his chin onto your shoulder before pressing a kiss to your cheek. “Don’t be such a pouter.”

“I’m gonna tell you that when you yell at me for talking to you when you’re throwing up tomorrow morning.” You pointed out dryly, giggling when his scruff tickled your neck as he continued to press kisses to your skin.

“Aw, don’t be like that. I’ll be a good girl tomorrow. Promise.” He crooned sleepily, finally ceasing his kissing attack to rest his head heavily on your shoulder.

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure.” You snorted, letting him lace his fingers with yours once more and feeling relief when he only held your hand gently. “Guess what. Jeff wants to have a baby.”

“Tremaine makin’ babies!” Johnny guffawed at the idea right in your ear, leaning back slightly as he laughed his ass off. Once he finished his giggling session, his head was immediately back on your shoulder. “You and I should practice makin’ some babies.”

“Can you wait until we’re not sitting on the street, you psycho?”

[forcedhesitation]

the end of wyll's quest is....interesting. it was VERY cool. I thought having the archetypal fairy tale prince go "slay the dragon" was a fitting ending, I just feel like it was....a little underwhelming in some ways.

more under cut

first and foremost- I wish that it was not possible for your tav/durge to converse with ansur. I wish that it automatically selected wyll, because I simply do not think that this entire scene has as much impact if it is not wyll at the forefront of everything. which is why I also have to complain about the emperor here.

the reveal that he is balduran is.... well. I knew about this already, through accidental spoilers. Initially, I thought it was a stupid reveal. but reframing the reveal in the context of a fairy tale...well it makes perfect sense. it just FEELS a bit underwhelming and strange, because your player character is not wyll. this entire area feels like it was written with an avatar wyll in mind. and I wish that there were changes made to the companion wyll version of the game that made up for this. wyll is a character who is hugely tied to the main plot by virtue of being the duke's son. he spends the game searching for his father, while trying to deal with both mizora and the absolute. mizora is the one he sold his soul to to save the city before, the reason he was cast out. the absolute wants to destroy and steal his city. and ansur, a legendary dragon, might be his way of saving the city and getting his father's approval back. ansur had wanted to kill balduran because balduran had been infected with a mindflayer parasite, but had embraced his illithid nature rather than rejected it. I feel like there's some parallel that can be made to wyll there. in that he was othered, like balduran was, because he accepted mizora's help. ansur condemned balduran because ansur is a bronze dragon and therefore lawful good. wyll's father exiles wyll because wyll was "at best a fool, at worst a traitor," in his father's eyes and his father tolerated neither. wyll & balduran are both victims of the inflexible nature those of lawful good alignments have. they are both seen as monsters for what happened to their bodies. I wish that was emphasised a little more. like autoselecting wyll for the ansur dialogue & giving him dialogue with the emperor would have made this ending feel a little more complete, in my opinion. and it would have better demonstrated the point of having the emperor even be balduran. because that's such a fairy tale thing, the stuff of real legend! for the hero's mysterious guide to actually be some great old hero thought to be long dead. and I do think it works. it just doesn't feel as impactful if wyll is not your avatar.

I also wish this area was overall bigger & more developed. I know they redid wyll's character from EA. I know they had less time. I just. I wish that this area was as detailed as the sharran temple in act 2. it feels like SUCH a big deal, it feels like it should be bigger. especially since at lvl 12, you're just. unkillable.

but the dialogue afterwards, where he says he's in the mood for celebration and wants to make a celebratory dinner? SO CUTE!!! that man's joy is contagious!!! I could practically feel him holding back how much he just wanted to jump around with joy. and the sweet little "let's hope gale won't be too upset that I'm cooking for once and not him." I love you. you are too fucking sweet wyll. this fucking city does not deserve you. this playerbase does not deserve you. you are a true gem and I wish people saw you are just as beautiful and interesting as astarion and gale.

a cool possible scene they could add, to given wyll's questline more material IS that dinner he talks about. or preparation for it! something where he asks tav/durge to taste the food beforehand? or where your avatar can ask him about where he learned to cook, prompting him to talk about his time as the blade of frontiers? out in the sword coast on his own? this scene could easily be platonic or romantic, but be given extra options for a romantic relationship. but something like this could truly be added at an earlier point in the game too, it doesn't have to be tied to this particular moment.

but overall really cool area of the game. very cool bossfight. and a rather clever ending to wyll's quest, contrary to what his haters say. I love the commitment to the fairy tale theme. it just needs a bit more. maybe it feels more satisfying if you've romanced him. although I've heard his act 3 romance scene is currently bugged? his unromanced questline is slightly bugged (doesn't rob you of any material, though, it just replayed some dialogue for me). either way, I hope that gets fixed asap. I so badly need to experience this romanced version in my other campaign.

[waynes-multiverse]

Plastic Hearts – Part 1

Pairing: Director!Dean Winchester x Actress!Reader

Series Summary: Los Angeles, 1985. Y/N’s a young actress without any success, hopping from one failed audition to the next until one desperate mistake brings her to her breaking point. Dean Winchester, on the other hand, is a grade A asshole and washed-up director at the end of his career, known for his godawful slasher movies in the 70s and his love for blow, booze, and women. Lost in the toxic Hollywood life, their paths cross when one hopeless little wrestling show changes their trajectory.

Chapter Warnings: +18, GLOW AU, self-worth issues, implied smut (reader x unknown dude 🤷‍♀️), cheating, Sam and Dean are not related in this story (--> check the series masterlist for overall warnings!)

Word Count: 2.8k

A/N: Truthfully, I wasn’t gonna share it because it was just a fun, silly project to get over some writer’s block (which I did!). Netflix never gave me an ending to this amazing show, so I wanted to write my own, y’know? But hey, it’s already written, so why not share it with the class, right? As my awesome cheerleader on this project @panicking-outside-the-disco said, the dilaogue screams Dean AU 🖤 (Thank you so much for your encouragement, bestie!) Fellow fans of the show, you’ll be happy to know I kept all the good stuff in there, from Steel Horse to pink, frosted donuts. Everyone else will make sense of those words soon enough. So, hopefully, you’ll enjoy this nostalgic love tribute, and let’s give ourselves a decent ending, shall we? 🤩

Series Masterlist || Main Masterlist

1. Holding Out For A Hero

Another failed audition.

Moving from Nebraska to Los Angeles at the sweet age of eighteen, Y/N has played the Hollywood game for quite some time. Now, at the ripe age of twenty-seven by La-La Land standards, she only has little to show for herself, though. She’s had a few background roles and starred in a handful of low-budget plays, but her big breakthrough, the role that changes everything, still remains a hopeless and seemingly unreachable daydream.

Worst of all, she is sick and tired of the simple and reduced roles Hollywood forces upon its actresses. She wants more than the shitty role of the secretary who tells a powerful man his wife is on the phone. Y/N wants a real part instead of playing second fiddle to yet another pompous dick.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

After her latest failure, she even became so desperate she hid in a bathroom stall for three hours before ambushing her casting director Josie while the poor woman was fucking peeing. But instead of the customary, unexplained rejection, Y/N wanted to hear reasons this time. She wanted to find out why she always gets pushed over for someone else, wanted to know if she could do something better, for crying out loud.

Usually, it’s the agent’s job to tell an actor all the reasons why they were wrong for the role, but she doesn’t even have an agent anymore because, as it bitterly turns out, everyone stops fucking caring about you if you haven’t worked in over two years. For once, though, she wanted some goddamn feedback.

The casting director’s response?

“Look Y/N, every director I work with says, ‘Get me someone I don’t know. Someone I haven’t seen. I want a girl who’s real.’ That’s when I bring you in, so they can see that they don’t actually want the thing they think they want. It’s 1985. Everyone wants Jane fucking Fonda. I’m sorry, honey… But listen, I have some experimental projects in the Valley, if you’re interested. Would you consider doing erotica?”

So, fucking porn. That’s where she’s at with her life.

Defeatedly, Y/N leaves the casting office in West Hollywood once more and gets swallowed by the city’s filth, lost between hellfire and demons. No matter what she does, she never feels like it’s enough. Each audition, you throw yourself against the wall and hope, this time, it’ll stick. It’s an endless game, a gamble of hope – hope isn’t an infinite resource, though, and hers is running out.

Y/N likes getting tortured. That’s the conclusion she’s come to. And because she seems to thrive on torment, she joins her best friend Joanna for a Jazzercise class – aka a room full of toned women in leotards, sweatbands, and leg warmers. The two friends have known each other since middle school and have done everything together since then, including their move to the big city. Joanna is a blonde bombshell who immediately got a role on a popular soap until she quit acting and had a baby a couple of months ago. Now, she’s a housewife and mother in Pasadena while her husband brings home the money.

Y/N loves Joanna, but admittedly, the blonde sometimes makes her feel small and insecure. She doesn’t have the big tits, the perfect curves, or the shiny hair. Jo has always been more successful than her in every aspect of their respective lives, the friendly competition leaving Y/N, more often than not, with a bad aftertaste in her mouth. She constantly tries to keep her envy in check, though, even when the blonde’s boobs exploded during their freshman year of high school. Simply put: Joanna is a sparkling diamond, while Y/N feels like a dirty lump of coal next to her.

The cheer captain versus the theater geek.

“You know, I’d actually do porn if it had a good story. Like, Shakespeare porn,” Y/N half-heartedly jokes as the women change in the locker room after their class.

Jo arches an eyebrow at her, the smile on her lips a bit condescending. “C’mon, Y/N, would you actually do porn, though? You hate being naked in front of people.”

“Things have changed since you disappeared,” Y/N shrugs her shoulders, her voice laced with rebellion, and purposely changes out of her leotard in front of her friend to drive the point home. She also tries not to sound too bitter about the fact that the blonde basically abandoned her after getting married and pushing a human out of her vagina. She knows her jealousy is silly. It’s just part of life. That’s how it goes. It wasn’t always going to be them vs. the world forever.

“I didn’t disappear. I had a baby,” Jo retorts on cue before her face lights up with an insane amount of excitement. “Which you could too! Then we’d both have babies.”

“Great idea,” Y/N snorts sarcastically and slips into her sneakers, playfully musing, “Who of the guys I randomly fuck would make a good baby daddy, huh? The alcoholic I met at the farmer’s market or the depressed stand-up with a heroin addiction?”

Jo sits down on the bench next to her and conspiratorially leans closer. “Can I tell you something that I realized recently?”

Y/N gives her a raised look that borders on amused. “What?”

The blonde has been a bit of a postpartum mess these days. It’s the lack of sleep and the fact that her boobs won’t stop leaking. Also, her kid is a biter.

“When I first was cast on Paradise Bay, I was thrilled, okay? I mean, it was so exciting, remember? And then they put me in that year-long coma, and I was just lying there in this hospital bed, feeling powerless. And then when season three came, and they graduated me to that wheelchair with that blanket–”

“I’m sorry… Is this going somewhere?” Y/N interrupts her because the last thing she needs to hear today is another one of Joanna’s success stories.

“I’m getting there,” Jo frowns and continues straightaway, “Anyways, I was so relieved when Sam asked me to marry him and told me to stop working. He was right. It was completely ridiculous. Why would I do this to myself, you know? I swear to God getting pregnant and written off that show was the best decision I ever made,” she tells her enthusiastically.

Y/N just twitches her shoulders and ignores the guilt that’s bubbling in her gut. “Well, we’re different people. I choose work. I can have a baby once I win an Oscar.”

Jo lets out a deep sigh, “But you’re not even working, Y/N. Don’t you wanna be happy and have a family?”

“Of course I do.” Y/N’s not sure that answer is the whole truth. She knows she’s supposed to want the supportive husband, the cute kids, and the white picket fence, but all those things come with the end of your career. She’s not ready to give up and pay that price yet. She wants to make it on her own first, not needing a hero to save her like some damsel in distress. “‘Sides, don’t I need a boyfriend for starters? Isn’t that how it works?”

“Oh, it’s not that complicated,” Jo huffs and rolls her eyes dismissively. “Just pick the first nice guy with money you find. It’s what I did. I mean, Sam is a complete idiot and so out of my league, but it works,” she shrugs. “Why don’t you come visit me in Pasadena sometimes if you miss me so much? I called you like a million times in the last few weeks.”

“I know,” Y/N groans in response and finishes buttoning her blouse, swallowing the giant lump of shame in her throat. “It’s so far away,” she excuses, even though it’s another white lie. A big one, this time.

Jo tilts her head at her, but Y/N knows the wrinkles on the blonde’s brow are not out of concern. It’s pity. She’s seen that look all her life. “Y/N, are you okay? ‘Cause you look sad and fucking depressing, honestly.”

“Thanks. But I’m fine,” she brushes her friend off with a bitter smile. “Just the usual, you know? I have $28 left to pay my bills, including rent, which is why I’ve been waitressing at that awful diner in Downey all week… Oh, and, uhm, I’ve eaten Honey Nut Cheerios for my last eight meals,” she lists off her miserable life and grabs her duffel bag, feigning the brightest grin, “But hey, I’m gonna do porn. Things are looking up.”

It’s late at night when Y/N returns to her rundown shoebox apartment. Her decorations include one dead plant and two ripped posters of Angela Lansbury and Barbra Streisand, respectively. It’s a sad affair, really.

Completely beat, she checks her fridge, which resembles an empty ice cave, except for that half-full box of cheap wine. Yeah, she can’t even afford to get drunk properly. The old mattress squeaks as she falls face-down on the bed and exhaustively snatches the rotary dial phone from her nightstand, only reaching her parents’ answering machine.

“Hey, Mom. It’s Y/N. I didn’t get the audition today either, but I’ll get another one soon. So, fingers crossed… again. But I was just wondering if you and Dad could maybe wire me some money? You know, just so I can pay my electricity bill and… eat food. I’m really sorry… I know I can’t keep asking you guys for money because I’m a grown-up now… but I swear it’s the last time, okay? And I’m aware I said that the last time, too… Anyways, love you. Call me back, please? Okay, thanks… Bye.”

Slamming the receiver onto the phone, she groans loudly and is close to screaming into her goddamn pillow. When did she become such a pathetic fucking loser?

Needless to say, she imagined her life would go a lot differently.

In the midst of her nervous breakdown, her ears then perk up at a strange noise, eyes darting warily to the window. There’s an audible jam of the lock, followed by the rustling of the yellowed blinds before a large hand pops through the crack.

Shit. Someone’s trying to break in.

Anxiously, she grabs the phone and holds it up like a weapon, her heart thrashing wildly in her ribcage, the sound ringing in her ears. Then, she bravely yells with a shaky voice, “Whoever you are, I have a knife in my hand and already called the cops!”

“Whoa, whoa… Y/N, it’s just me.” A young man’s head pokes through the window, raising his large palms with a chuckle.

Her shoulders slump, the tension of fear replaced with one of annoyance as she sighs half-heartedly in relief, recognizing the intruder. Y/N lowers her makeshift weapon, tossing it on the bed. “Oh my God! What the fuck are you doing here? Why are you climbing through my window? You can’t be here! Climb back out – now!”

“You said the last time that no one can find out about us, so I took that seriously,” he explains as he gaspingly pushes his tall body through the small opening. “Can’t you just be happy to see me, Y/N? It took some effort to come here and climb through that window, you know?” A charming laugh bounces off the thin, bare walls once he’s made it into her apartment and towers over her.

Y/N folds her arms over her chest and cocks an eyebrow, “You want credit for cheating on your wife?”

He sighs and rolls his eyes back a little, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Can we please not call it that?”

“What would you like me to call it? You’re married to someone and had sex with me,” she counters sternly. She absolutely doesn’t want him here. That man is only trouble and part of the reason why her life is so fucking shitty these days.

“Look, this isn’t normal behavior for me,” he shrugs innocently as if the madness can’t be helped and adds the softest puppy dog look. “I just-, I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“So?! It was a huge fucking mistake!” There’s a sharp inhale of breath as she tries to gulp down the anger, guilt, and shame inside of her. “It happened weeks ago! You shouldn’t be here… It was a party. The drinks were free… I-I was feeling sorry for myself, and you took advantage of that.”

Quietly clearing his throat, he mumbles under his breath, “I think we both took advantage of that.” As he meets her gaze, his whiskey-colored orbs mirror the same guilt she feels.

Y/N places her hands on her hips with a deep exhale, her head bobbing as the words sink in and her head begins to spin. She knows he’s right. They’re both equally to blame, but it doesn’t change anything about her regrets. “Please leave. Go home to your family,” she begs him softly, too soft, not enough strength left to fight.

“You can’t just pull the plug on this. You and me. This is real,” he tells her, his hazel eyes boring into hers. “I think you’re the one, Y/N.”

“No, I’m not,” she stresses with a heavy shake of her head, fighting against the tears that prick her eyes and cloud her mind. “I’m nothing special.”

Pensively, he nods and licks his lips, a humorless chuckle escaping between them as he rubs his mouth and ponders, “I keep thinking about what you said to me that night… You know, how there are shiny people who have everything? And then there are people like us who have to go to parties with those people and watch them get their pictures taken. And it’s not fair... ‘Cause we deserve good things, too. We deserve attention and love and… sex.”

Silently staring at him for what feels like an eternity, her mind races a mile a minute as her heart shatters into a thousand sharp daggers that pierce through her skin and leave deep scars in their wake. And then, Y/N foolishly crashes her lips against his just to stop the goddamn pain in her chest.

What is there to say that even justifies any of this? She’s fucking weak.

The harsh sunbeams that fall on her face and blind her eyes announce another dreadful morning as she wakes with a pessimistic groan. The bed is cold and empty; the married guy is long gone, leaving right after the fuck.

Y/N is alone again – with nowhere to go.

Why did she do what she did? In all honesty, she can’t quite understand it herself, the truth too cruel and pathetic to accept it. The only positive thing she can find about her situation is that at least she can’t sink any lower than rock bottom. She’s certain she’s reached the depths of Hell at this point. Los Angeles mistakenly gets called the city of angels. Truthfully, though, it’s filled with devils who lure you to the dark side until you can’t even look in the mirror anymore without seeing a white line instead of your own goddamn reflection.

The funny thing, though? She’s never even been into drugs or booze or whatever bad habit you can catch in this city, like an STD. She has always worked her ass off and walked the straight and narrow. And for fucking what?

Y/N is definitely at her lowest of lows, but that also means there’s nowhere to go but up, right? And when the red light on her answering machine keeps blinking, her hope and good spirit return as she eagerly presses the button, restarting the endless cycle once more.  

“Y/N, this is Josie. I have an audition for you tomorrow. I’m not running it, but I thought of you. It’s in Watts. And it’s not porn... They’re looking for unconventional women, whatever the fuck that means… Oh, and uhm, if you ever ambush me in the restroom again, I’ll make sure you’re gonna be blacklisted on every casting call in Los Angeles. Are we clear? Anyways, good luck, honey!”

A loud scream echoes through the tiny apartment. Y/N can’t believe her fucking ears and jumps excitedly up and down when Josie’s message ends, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.

The game is back on – and it’s not fucking porn.

2. Livin’ On A Prayer

Yikes! I think it’s fairly easy to guess who this mystery guy is, but let me know all your suspicions and gasps, anyways! 😉 And don’t worry. You’re getting plenty of Dean tomorrow (some would say too much Dean) 😎😈

Everything Jensen (1st part tag only): @extraterrestriali @this-is-me19 @writercole @awkward-and-indecisive @eevvvaa @imherefordeanandbones @dean-winchester-is-a-warrior @jassackles @maggiegirl17 @perpetualabsurdity @deandreamernp @roseblue373 @lyarr24 @deanwanddamons @deanwithscissors @flamencodiva @chriszgirl92 @lhymer1995 @wittyboldsoul @djs8891 @snowlovespie​ @b3autyfuldisast3r​ @recoveringpastaaddict​ @muhahaha303​

Plastic Hearts Series: @spnexploration @jessjad @siospins2 @mrsjenniferwinchester @akshi8278 @xlynnbbyx @wayward-dreamer @foxyjwls007 @smellingofpoetry @justrealizedimmascifygurl @ladysparkles78 @leigh70 @4getfulimaginator2022 @globetrotter28​

[dirty-bear-rick-sanchez]

OK that last post got me thinking and I think I realised why autistic Rick means so much to me:

It’s about the agency and the way he’s genuinely treated as a person rather than a human embodiment of autism

(More under the cut because this accidentally turned out very long)

Like a lot of characters who are specifically designed to be autistic or autistic-coded very much revolve around this, like they’re seen as autistic first and human second? And also another big thing that I hate about this is the way autism (and other disabilities, although I don’t think I’m really qualified to talk about them) is either infantilised or demonised, sometimes both at once. The infantilisation tends to fall into two main groups.

The first is sort of ‘oh autistic people are so good/honest/much better than us’, not in a way of ‘studies have shown that autistic people typically stick more firmly to their moral code than non-autistics’, but in a way that almost takes away our agency by suggesting that autism makes us incapable of understanding morality or the big picture, and so is suggesting that anything we do right is not a credit to us or our own choices, but simply because autistic people aren’t capable of being evil.

The other, that tends to come along with demonisation, is the idea that autism/autistic people are evil/cause suffering to those around us, but acts like this is again simply due to the autism, and doesn’t give us any control over whether we harm others or not. Even though this is obviously much harsher than the other view (e.g. parents insisting that autism is ‘taking their child’/‘destroying their family’ and acting like autism is a kind of demon possessing their child rather than an aspect of who their child is), I would argue that it still falls under infantilisation, since it treats us as if we are not responsible for this, since this is simply something intrinsically linked with autism. Maybe a better example of this might be autistic people violating clearly stated boundaries (e.g. don’t touch me) but being treated as if their autism makes them immune to criticism/unable to understand what they’ve done/unable to modify their behaviour.

So getting back to the subject of the post: autistic Rick. Rick being a morally grey character is very important for autistic representation because it helps to avoid falling into either of these two camps and most importantly, gives him agency/responsibility. He’s a grown man, and is a pretty toxic guy who’s done a lot of fucked up shit, which means he definitely isn’t going to get treated as someone inherently good/better than everyone (with the exception of some fans idolising him). However, he’s clearly shown to understand his actions, as well as right and wrong, and is making a definite choice to behave in these ways, and although his reasons for these behaviours is demonstrated, I would argue that mostly the show doesn’t allow this to justify his behaviour. I think him being older and initially having a dominant/head of household type of role also helps with this, since it’s much harder to infantilise a man who makes decisions for others and is shown to be competent in a lot of scenarios others aren’t experienced with.

Overall, I think this complexity of character is something that’s handled quite well, since generally I think the show does a good job of sympathising with characters while also criticising/pointing out their toxic behaviour, as well as giving characters moments to stand up for themselves and show their agency (e.g. The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy does a good job of exploring how Jerry is both justified in his feelings towards Rick and also simultaneously pointing out his manipulative tactics). I also think that, in general, Justin Roiland does a good job of ‘normalising’ marginalised identities and treating characters as people first, while not dismissing or ignoring the impact these have on the characters (e.g. Rick’s autism and pansexuality, as well as Terry and Korvo’s bisexuality in Solar Opposites, which gets an honourable mention here since I think it’s genuinely one of the best examples of this balance for bisexual/queer characters in media, and I also think shows a lot of Justin’s growth as a writer).

[sahaias]

Soy Luna Season 2 Episodes 1-30 Thoughts

Okay, so I've been going through season 2 much slower than season 1 because my free time is limited and things move super fast on my days off from work.

But beginning with my thoughts on this season and its plot points so far:

It's so fucked up that Sharon is faking Ambar's past just to preserve a fortune that isn't rightfully hers. Lili and Bernie didn't die so they could leave everything to their sister/sister-in-law, it belongs to their daughter

It feels like Simon's really been on the backburner this season so far, and I miss seeing more of him.

This also applies to most of the side characters, but I don't care about them as much lol.

I noticed Luna has more one-on-one scenes with her mom than dad this season, and I feel like it's the writers trying to make up for her confiding in her dad rather than her mom like 4/5 times more in season 1.

Adrenaline is pretentious with their "we don't show up to competitions or put limits on our art like this", and I don't get why Ramiro likes Fernanda so much. I do find it funny that Ramiro starts shitting on Matteo once he joins though, it's cathartic

I know they want us to feel bad about Matteo's whole "I can't let Luna get close to me because I am leaving soon" shtick, but it's not romantic or cute. It is just stupid. Luna would be understanding if Matteo gave the whole truth. Plus, it would be much easier on her than all the lies that he creates.

Nina and Gaston are very cute, but I am worried for them with this Oxford storyline. I wish we got more scenes of them though. It feels like their only big moment was singing together.

Ambar has been clearly messed up by Sharon, because despite knowing her alleged past that fills in all of the gaps, she still feels the need to compete with Luna and make her miserable. I just feel bad for her and am dreading how she'll respond once the truth about Luna comes out.

This twins storyline is already a headache, and I am dreading seeing what it'll progress into.

Pedro looks younger with longer hair, but I think he looked better with the shorter hair in season 1

Juliana is so extra and the way she just insults people for not meeting her standards is annoying as fuck. She has very exaggerated physical gestures that make it very bothersome to look at the screen when she is on it.

I feel like this season has more drama and less excitement in it overall, which makes me less motivated to watch. I attribute this to less Simon tbh

I like the main plot/secrets of Soy Luna more than Violetta, and the show feels more grounded than Violetta. However, the side characters and romantic pairings in Violetta are way more captivating. I am hoping upcoming plotlines are more engaging tbh.

Sebastian is such a weird recurring character, and him being an actual youtuber makes him feel more weird to me for some reason

Ending this post with the fact that when I first saw Matteo in a wig imitating Luna, I was drinking water and ended up choking on it from laughing hysterically

[trickstarbrave]

i actually do find it baffling that there is no documentation at bethesda game studios. like with their sheer size and scope of their projects that is absolutely a batshit thing to do. you have hundreds of ppl in different departments and disciplines working together on this project with literally no fucking actual central document for guidance. the plan was "just meet with todd howard personally for clarification on anything" and todd is the director of MULTIPLE studios. he doesnt have the time to sit in his office and let you pitch ideas like he did back in 2001.

"well it just takes too much time to update the document. we have to get in there and implement stuff in the game before we can decide if its working or not. it's not a strict, planned thing and it takes SOOOO much time to update it for every little thing--" documentation is supposed to SAVE TIME. that is what it's there for.

i will give some leeway to emil pagliorulo for once. i am a creative person who prefers to ad lib everything. i do not enjoy outlining when writing and find it stifling. i will not know exactly how a scene plays out until i sit down to write it. i'll often write out of order, or move things around. i sometimes get better ideas literally in the middle of writing a scene and change it and the stuff before it, or smth that greatly impacts the rest of the story going forward. i know how much things can change on the fly.

BUT I STILL HAVE DOCUMENTATION.

i have a discord channel for all my major fics (and a misc one) just for ideas, references, things im considering or might be handy to have later, etc. stuff that i cant immediately recall on the fly, because i'm human working on stuff long term. i have forgotten really interesting stuff i was excited abt bc i just thought "eh i'll remember later" and then i DIDNT.

but with large projects with multiple people documentation is even more important. it is what is there to help guide people on the goals, overall picture, how things will work with other aspects of the project, what still needs work, etc. it exists to make work more streamlined and easier, not to mention faster. "but then we have to sit down and keep updating the document!!" means you need someone or a couple of people who's main job is meeting with people, checking in on various projects, and updating the documentation for everyone else in the team. people have managers for that reason. you as the director should not be personally in charge of updating it every single day once projects have reached a scope beyond a handful of people.

which means this is a problem with the entire structure of their teams being just. unoptimized. either the teams are way too small and they need more people working with more managers, or they need to restructure it, stick a few managers in, and work out the development process into something more robust. why the fuck would emil think "its so annoying to update the game design documentation.... i guess we better just throw it out! no one needs this! why did we even have this in the first place?" rather than just... finding someone else to do it. so he can focus more on his directing????

[radexchangeprogram]

Ok ok- this post is gonna be me talking about my thoughts about the new game and such.

I will be honest, a big reason I haven’t been writing is bc I’ve been burnt out with Obey Me bc of the direction of the writing, but this game makes me really hopeful.

I’ve seen some people say that they think this will be a pre-mc game and that Solomon will be the MC, but I don’t see them going that direction. Solmare’s whole thing is otome games and I think a big draw Obey Me had/has is that self insert element. However, I definitely think Solomon will play a much bigger role in the game.

I think the game is going to be a series reboot.

long post w spoilers below the cut

Here’s why:

Obey Me is a lot more successful than many other of Solmare’s ips. This isn’t to say their other games don’t have fans, but Obey Me is definitely a lot larger. I don’t think they were expecting Obey Me to get this big when they were initially writing the story.

I think when the game first blew up, Solmare probably resorted right to pushing more of that fan service and provided quantity over quality to make fans happy, which I get it, it’s an otome game and a lot of us like fanservice. But I think they realized it’s a lot harder to write when you’re trying to please everyone at once and it’s a lot harder to maintain consistent fans.

Gacha games get a lot of their funding off of whales. I will be honest, I used to whale in Obey Me. I had the money and tbh, I was very impulsive. I have not opened the game since the anniversary and before the anniversary, I had not opened it in months. And I imagine many other people who are still fans have been doing the same.

I think Solmare realized this and has been trying to fix it (e.g., having events focus more on one character as opposed to shoving every character possible in there), but with the way the main story is structured, there isn’t much more they can do to make it flow well.

I think the story will definitely involve RAD and the exchange program, we can see Thirteen in the trailer at RAD.

Image taken from @animepikagirl

Solmare has also been very good about listening to the options of fans (compared to a lot of other companies of the same genre) and I know a lot of fans have been very vocal about being disappointed in recent stories and the lack of character development.

As much as it pains me to say, I think Satan is the best example of how poorly they’ve handled their characters. The poor man has been flanderized to hell and back. Compared to his season 1 self which talked about his love of cats while still giving him a personality and exploring his psyche, and you’ll see that it’s been reduced down to him purely loving cats. Even as early as season 2, he started really getting reduced down to that (e.g., the reaper’s cave. It was a funny season where he pet the trap cat and wasn’t the worst example, but I think it highlights when the writing started to go downhill). I think they realized the flanderizing has become a major issue and want to avoid it in the new series. I may be biased because Satan is my favorite character, but he was name dropped in the hints.

Another character that I think they will probably want to do better with is Asmodeus. Given that he’s pactmates with Solomon and Solomon was name dropped in the hints, I think he will also play a much bigger role in the story. Obey Me has done fuck all with Asmo despite him having the potential to be one of the most uniquely written characters. @/Neocoded has a lot of posts about how Obey Me has fucked Asmo fans over with it’s frankly poor writing and tbh, they also have a lot of posts that talk about the really cool potential Asmo could have as a character if handled correctly.

Overall, I’m very hopeful that this new game is going to be Solmare showing that they’ve learned from the writing mistakes they made in Obey Me:SWD. I think now that they have a bigger budget and likely bigger team, they’ll be able to invest more in the quality of their content to maintain their fanbase better. I’ve been playing this game for 3 years this month, I started playing 2 months after launch. This series is still very special to me but I want to see it improve instead of settling for frankly mediocre writing. This is not meant to bash any of the writers or Solmare, but is simply my honest opinion in how the quality of the writing tanked after season 1 and how I believe this new game will be Solmare showing the fanbase that they want to take the franchise in a new direction.

[micecakes]

Alright here we go, I haven't done this in years but decided to do it this year as a kinda roundup of some of the best games I've played this year and why I picked them, my kinda criteria for picking them is they have to be games I've actually finished, and actually came out this year, I don't usually include ports but remakes do make it in for me, and there will be a section near the bottom for games I did like a lot but didn't actually come out this year, so uhh let's get started i guess gonna get the Triple A junk out of the way first I think, so first off:

Spider-Man 2, rly liked the first one and the Miles Morales games and this one just continued on the story and whatever, it improved on a lot of things over the first game and I think it ended up just being more enjoyable overall, plus like, 19 inches of Venom and whatever, villains maybe weren't as good as the previous game but there was some rly good gameplay sections with some of them, tho once again i felt like the sidequests fell a bit short but they did at least have boss fights and more villain stuff in them so that was good, good game 👍

okey, game 2 is

Pikmin 4, and no i'm not editing this picture thank u, pretty much the best one in the series? just good overall and even tho i didn't 100% it i'm pretty sure the bonus mode you get is just a mini remake of the original game so that's cool, overall really good, definitely dragged near the end tho and kinda felt like it was going on too long, but still good, this was also like the only major Nintendo release of this year i played for more than like, an hour lol, outside of one dlc game 3 be:

Final Fantasy 16, this one is weird because I both loved and hated it at the same time, not rly much to say about it other than its the worst 10/10 video game i've ever played, it has some of the highest highs in anything i've ever played and its offset by some of the most boring shit in the world that made me want to eat my own head at times, it's good but it's also shit, it also runs like absolute ass for no reason and square enix were convinced it was totally 100% fine and didn't need to be patched and even when they did it still didn't fix it, there's literally no way I can sell anyone on this game, play Asura's Wrath instead 👍 okey i guess 4&5 are kinda gonna be rolled into one so:

Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 Remakes, both really good remakes of really good video games, but at the same time don't really replace the original versions? there's both no reason to play these over the OG releases but they're also different enough that it's fine for both original and remakes to exist, so worth playing if you like the original releases, i guess the only complaint i have is they cut out operation Ada and seperate ways from RE4 remake and then sold it back to us as dlc, but its actually more complete than the original version and worth the price i think, still annoying but hey, modern videos games babey

ok i guess next is like "non triple A games" and weird games that I enjoyed, not all of these are indie games but they're not triple A stuff so? 🤷

Robocop: Rouge City, its basically Robocop 2.5 the movie the video game, it's kinda jank, it's kinda slow to be expected but it's pretty fun and funny just seeing Robocop interact with people and then like, grab people off their motorcycles and throw them into exploding barrels, it's dumb it's good it rly captures the 80s jank of Robocop pretty well 👍 next is technically a game that didn't come out this year but it did because literally no one uses apple arcade so

Air Twister, this is probably the fucking weirdest game i've played in a very long time, i went in expecting to play a modern Space Harrier instead i got a lock on style shooter with a soundtrack that is just some band emulating Queen songs, no joke, i was just blown away the whole time at what was happening, it wasn't until i died and ran out of credits that i ended up in the games main menu which had so much stuff i was just clicking menus for about 20 mins and kept discovering more and more video game nonsense to play and unlock, SUPER weird, pretty fun, Yu Suzuki why did you release this on apple arcade originally and WHAT were you on when you made this sir, good job next i guess is

Graze Counter GM, an updated/sequel to Graze Counter, one of the first Shmups i've gotten in to and it's just really fun, loads of characters, about 8? stages to play, good basic gameplay mechanics, bunch of different difficulties and options to play with and it's just a lot of fun for a 20 min ish run through the game, def inspired me to play more shmups and get better at them, good game next we finally got some FPS games

Warhammer 40k Boltgun, classic boomer shooter style game, very stompy and heavy feeling but also really fast and fun, really enjoyed how colourful the game is and the fact there's a dedicated taunt button that does nothing by make you crack your knickles and yell things, only major complaint i had was there wasn't enough boss variety and one of the is kinda straight bs some of the time, but for the most part it was a lot of fun, also corvus helmet best helmet 👍 more FPS gamign which was a semi recent release?

Sprawl, it's currently on sale but its cheap anyways, from the banner art alone you can tell the dev is a MGS and Ghost in the Shell fan, and playing the game you can tell that too somewhat, really fun really gritty and pretty fast paced, has controllable slomo bullet time which is now something I love in games?? soundtrack is good and yeah, it's just good, really cool aesthetically has that very gritty industrial kowloon walled city cyberpunk look and feel to it and very satisfying to play, really good. last thing for games this year is a DLC

I really like the Xenoblade Chronicles series, and the XB3 dlc is a really good final wrap up of the game, lots of fanservice in the good way and just plays well and is fun, ties up a lot of story junk you'd want to know, I still think the XBC2 dlc is the best playing XBC thing but this is very good and just very fun, can't say too much without spoiling anything in the series lol but I enjoyed it a lot after finishing off XBC3 ok halfway there (joke) :^) next is games that didn't come out this year but I did play and really liked sooo

I got into racing games i guess around this time last year, I picked up Gran Turismo 7 in maybe January or February and played it a lot since, not the most exciting game or best or feature full but it has stuff that I like, and as a result has gotten me more into cars, car games and just made me better at it, had a lot of fun and the big update they did semi recently has just made the game better yehaw time??

not really much to say about Evil West other than it's what a new xbox 360/PS3 era action game would be like, just without the jank and with more convenience, not afraid to be cheesy and dumb its just a standard level based action game where you're a techno cowboy kinda guy fighting vampires, it's good it's fun and it's not that hard 🤠 nya:

one of the first games I played this year was Stray cuz i got it in an early sale, I had no real idea what to expect and I enjoyed every moment of it, really good aesthetics and design and an interesting post apocalypse style world you get to explore, you really end up caring about all the robot people and the cat and everything, also you get a meow button so its good 😺 more FPS game

I'd always seen this game just never picked it up, I think Severed Steel is one of my favourite FPS games ever now, the main story/campaign is only about 3 hours long, i beat it in one sitting and i think my face hurt when i was done because i was just grinning and laughing like an idiot the whole time because of how fun it was, there's also a bunch of extra modes to keep playing, the music is good and just everything about the game is fun which was my main takeaway from it, i didn't care that it was short I cared because of how much fun i had, highly recommend if you like sliding into guys, stealing their weapons and blasting them with it before they hit the ground, and with controllable bullet time if you want that too 👍👍 in a similar vein to the above, i guess the oldest game on this list is:

Outrun 2006: coast 2 coast, its the home port of Outrun 2, which includes Outrun 2 and a bunch of extra stuff, similar to Severed Steel this is just the most fun I've had with a racing/car game, it doesn't matter that i'm not super into Ferraris or that it's not realistic or whatever, it's just pure fun, and I don't have to spend a million dollars at the arcade to keep playing, so that's good woa you made it to the end!!!!!!! but wait!!! I played a lot of games this year, and even tho what I said about the previous ones was true, it was kinda hard for me to pick an actual game of the year, i did enjoy a lot of stuff but it didnt feel like anything stood out to me SO much that it deserved a "best game of the year" position for me, so the closest thing to that was:

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, hit a lot of plus points for me, I liked that I had to play the game 3 different times for different endings and a true end type thing, i did get frustrated early on but i kept coming back to play more, it def felt more of an action game than a mech game but customizing and messing with builds to get through fights was fun, tank legs thank u, it was also a similar situation to when elden ring came out, and everyone was playing it at the same time and sharing tips and builds and stuff which felt rly cool and nice and added to the whole experience, my only complaint is i wish it just had an option to start a second save file and do it all again, but oh well. and that's it! there's a bunch of stuff I didn't include in this, but i think this list is good enough for now, maybe next year this'll be a youtube video instead? I hope next years games are just as good, if not better, but even if they're not there's still a lot to play and explore 🐁🐁

[delta-lethonomia]

Re: the most recent ask prompt you reblogged.

I suppose this would be under the "asks about your works" section, but really it's a question about craft/process.

So, as a fellow author but not a writer of smut, I'd love to know how you approach writing sex scenes. I've only ever written 2, and neither are very graphic. I struggle so much trying to find an engaging way to block the characters and follow the action in such a way that doesn't drag down the pacing and/or just come out super cumbersome, so I wanted to ask you.

For All the Wrong Reasons has (no exaggeration) masterful sex scenes, both because they're smoking (lol) and because they do so much work in the story still—like they're not at all superfluous. So yeah! I would love to get some insight into your process/approach.

Oooh! Thanks for asking <3 Funnily enough, FATWR's starts off with literally the second sex scene I'd ever written in my whole life, so I feel like I've learned a lot as the fic progressed.

I'll get to pacing and action in a moment, but to start: the most important thing is why are they having sex right now. I do really enjoy smut scenes, but there are so many that are superfluous, even intentionally so, and I think that's probably the first mistake people make.

In a relationship, having sex for the first time (or in general) can both be a big deal but it's also an excellent barometer of what's going on in the relationship itself: people are more honest, more vulnerable, and the things they do (or conversely don't do) can say so much about them. There's a tendency nowadays to pretend that sex scenes don't add anything to a story, that they're purely for a vaguely pornographic, misogynistic, "male gaze"-y purpose and therefor "bad/unethical", or they're made deliberately superfluous so they can be skipped (for commercial release, to lower the rating, to let sex-averse or underage readers skip without missing the plot) that I think people overall have absorbed this notion that sex scenes in general are pointless - and that's false. Sex scenes and smut are great opportunities for character development!!!

Ok, so, I'll be using Tav as the example because you're familiar with her and the fic overall. Tav's a very sexual person who has repressed that for some time, so when she decides to go for Astarion, a lot of repressed desires bubble to the surface. Sex is her main way of connecting with people: she wants sex when she wants to connect more deeply, and struggles when Astarion wants to take a step back because it feels like a rejection of intimacy and the building relationship. But because sex is so tied to power with her, she also wants to have sex when she feels the need to clarify the power dynamics between them (hence the gauntlet of Shar scene, and why she choose certain acts as well). A character without such a fucked up/power-driven backstory is probably not gonna wanna bang every time their partner disagrees with them. Some characters might want to bang after an action sequences; others might want some physical comfort only once they're safe and secure at home. Tav would fuck in a hallway: Astarion hits on her once safe within her house. It needs to make sense for the moment and the events that lead them there.

Smut also needs to serve a point. Some plot point or character development needs to be made, otherwise it is superfluous. All the smut in FATWR either reveals something about Tav's past (via her reactions) or is a breakthrough in terms of what Astarion is willing to put up with and/or how much Tav decides to push him. If the scene can be skipped - if any scene can be skipped - you should probably cut it.

Onto the smut itself: the things characters are into (or not into) needs to make sense. It's infuriating when people write characters that are people in the book, but once their clothes come off they suddenly degrade into bioessentialist "male/female" puppets that act out some boring heteronormative fantasy sex, which is especially egregious in same sex couples where authors go "but who's the lady, though?" Everyone has sex differently, but honestly, it's probably gonna be pretty in line with who they are as a person in general, especially if we're talking about an older, more self-confident character. Younger people can surprise you - i.e. "super shy girl is actually a secret dominatrix" - but that's a lot less common with older characters as they grow older unless there's some serious outside pressure to keep the freakyness hidden.

Pacing and detail: when people are aroused, they read faster. This makes writing smut a bit different than writing other sections, because in smut, sometimes you actually want to write more than you would otherwise. You want to make it last so they can enjoy it. The readers are reading faster, so feed them more and control their pace that way. Shorter sentences and/or broken sentences are good for climactic scenes, because those speed up the pace again.

Like in real life, the difference between good sex and great sex is the emotion. Definitely keep track of the bodies and the hands - nothing worse that picturing a scene in your head and realizing the character must be twisted up into a pretzel - but the feeling, the emotion, the intimacy is what really matters. Describe enough to titillate and set the scene, but honestly, with less detail, people are going to picture what they want to picture, and it's gonna be hotter than anything you could write anyway because it's straight from their own minds. Some people like a lot of detailed cocks - others think they look like naked mole rats. Can't make them both happy!

Which ties into the most important point of all: Write what gets you (or your character) off. Don't be ashamed, don't pull any punches - commit. Go wild. There's no barrier too far. Reading is all about suspension of disbelief and you as the author need to take people on a journey that you fully 1000% believe in. I read a smut scene once where a girl got off using worms in her vagina. Gross? Yeah. But for the duration of reading it, it was hot, and that's what made it memorable. Delude yourself that you're completely into this one particular thing like your life depends on it, because if you don't think it's hot, then your readers won't either.

Last but not least: Don't be too strict with it. Here's where I made a mistake recently: there was a post going around about Astarion trying weed and having sex while under the influence, and like the rest of us degenerates, I went "oooooh that's hot, yeah, I wanna write that." I'd already decided months ago that there was a blowjob scene going to happen because I wanted to write a blowjob scene, so these two ideas merged into "Astarion tries weed at Tav's house, and gets the best head of his life." Nice, right?

No. This was not easy peasy lemon squeezy, this was lemon fucking difficult. The weed was fine - it made sense for Tav's character, and I lowkey wanted to imply her potions work had a seedier/drug-related side. But she would only smoke if very stressed, and Astarion's a judgemental prick who'd only go for it in certain circumstances. Hence, the Astral-touched tadpole cockblock. Great, now they're high, and Astarion's got the munchies - well, Tav's already down with being bitten all the time, she smoked to get out of her head and enjoys pain for the same reason. Now we're going for a masochistic biting fest with lowered inhibitions, and Astarion, who has not forgotten his intention to seduce her, starts to make some moves.

I wanted to write a blowjob scene because of my oral fixation because I literally never see them in smut. A lot of smut is written by women, for women: blowjobs just feel like work, sometimes, or can be gross if you think dicks look like naked mole rats. A blowjob, for Tav, was always going to feel like work just because of her history, even if she loves Astarion enough she wanted to give him one.

What I wanted to write was a cute sloppy blowjob in the sunlight after smoking a bunch of weed together (that also pointed to Tav's prostitute history). What I got was a violent throatfuck. My "requirements" were too strict, and I contorted the plot to make it work. I am happy with what happened because it pushed the plot forward, so yes, hold your characters over what you think ought to happen - but because I was strict about it, it didn't go the way I planned, and the overall vibe is different than what I wanted. So, really, like with sex in real life: keep it organic. Go with the flow. If you try and force it, it might go directions you don't see coming, for better or for worse, but that's also just writing in general tbh.

....but also have a document of sex scene ideas that sound hot. For inspiration. Yes. You never know when you might need them. 👀

Sorry that was really long. I hope that made sense? <3

[thebestcrew]

It's always fascinating finding out people have us blocked that we have never interacted with. Overall, I like to think we've never been antagonistic towards anyone in tags. Never attacked anyone. Never harassed. We've been very civil, even in our disagreements (that I recall at least). We have a few side blogs, and not many people have the main account blocked, so I always find out only after I go to make a comment and then see what accounts are greyed out. Silly little bonus feature of side blogs.

So

Is it because we sometimes have syscourse?

Is it because we are endogenic or identity as mixed origin?

Is it because we support all forms of plurality?

It's an amusing game. People may block for so many reasons, but those are the three main things we can think of. It's particularly amusing when people love or agree with things on our side blog but apparently hate this account. Extra funny.

If it's because people think we are toxic or out to get systems and corrupt singlets and poison traumagenic systems, then I feel quite awful for someone living in such a fearful and distorted outlook on life and others. Well, if that was the case, then why is our popular side blog not blocked? That blog is all of those things and very loud about it. But also, my partner is a DID system. I am very, very aware that multiplicity is not a silly little game. To say I spread misinformation and am bad for CDD systems blows my mind when I spend every day supporting one. What happens on Tumblr is pointless at the end of the day because what *really* matters is the support and understanding I give to them. We are a living example of how STUPID syscourse is between endogenic and traumagenic systems. Get the fuck off of social media and actually spend time supporting eachother instead of fighting.

Oh! Mayhaps it's our age. It's always interesting when it's our age. I promise we are not creeps and are quite safe to be around. Siblings, work, friends, and online communities have made me very aware of what is appropriate and how to coexist amongst a wide age range of people. I wanted to be a teacher once, and still would love to be an elementary art teacher. I promise I don't bite.

Maybe it's our fictives. I know some people cannot stand their sources or them as individuals. Which again is quite sad. Ashe and Alastor are both amazing people. I dont think I've met a single person who didn't like Ashe once they got talking with her (minus like two assholes that were ultimately voted as assholes by the entire server lol). I point her out because she's been here the longest and I owe her a lot so yeah I kinda play favorites a bit. Because I honestly love her. I say this with all the love for Al and the newest member. They aren't hurt by me saying that. They get it. Honestly, I don't think Al cares enough to be offended.

Maybe it's because I'm a furry. People always hate on furries. But that's okay. People hate on anyone who is different from them. Its why the furry, queer, and alterhuman community are so tight-knit. I'm just a silly fox in the end.

Is it because I'm critical of behavior and use of terms by people who kff or are transid? Is it because I'm thiiiiis close to being that "awful" trans guy that would still classify himself as a lesbian if only I could stop shifting gender representation every few years?

Is it because I'm working through trauma and people think that suddenly makes me being endogenic a lie? Is that the proof that people need to hate me? You hate systems with trauma and you hate systems without it. There's no winning.

Is it because I promote daemonism? *GASPS*

I'm not mad at being blocked. The internet hates and blocks people for so many reasons. I block a specific group of people every time we see them in the tags. I do it because I TRY to live by the motto if I have nothing nice to say I shouldn't say it at all. I also apply this to thoughts. If I see posts that constantly make me think shitty things about people and they aren't actively harming me or the people I care for, I block them. Because placing that into the universe is kinda fucked, even if they never would know about it.

I don't NEED people to like me. But I'll admit it's been a HUGE hurdle in my life. Trying to not care about what others think about me has always been a major issue growing up. I think everyone and anyone can relate to that. There's a saying I try and keep to and its how I'm going to end this post. [GRANTED this post has been an intoxicated, headache fueled rant at 2 in the morning. We all know how things get around 2 and 3. That's when shit gets fun (no it really doesn't I just want to sleep please) ]

[veliseraptor]

i was not!tagged by @feralkwe and decided this looked like fun so

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason.

the first fic you ever published there: This was a bit of a challenge and relied on my memory because of all the fics I've posted backdated, but since I knew it was a Yuletide fic and I joined in 2009...apparently I wrote a fuckton of fic for Yuletide that year, but I think it was either The Gravedigger, Lingering On, or Memorial.

the last fic you published: I need to finish editing and posting the fic I'm stalling about and have been for the last three weeks. But as of right now the most recent fic I posted was jiggety-jig, a short little thing about Pete being very fucked up psychologically.

any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once: If I count 616 as one fandom (rather than parsing out by series) which I feel like I should, then I'm going to go with we too (three) could be glorious, my (thus far!) only Crimson Peak fic, though I'd kind of like to write more.

your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works: good god am I meant to look through the 293 (jesus) works I wrote for the MCU trying to remember/decide a favorite? I guess the answer is "yes, Lise, you chose to do this meme." I ended up pretty proud of Will to Live, I guess. It was a fun concept and I'm pretty pleased with the execution of it. Maybe I should reread that one. If I can cheat and do a series, though, I might have to choose Remember This Cold, even if not all of it is created equal - I just am proud of the damn thing, unevenness or not. It's a magnum opus of some kind.

the fic you wish more people read: I have written a lot of fics, you guys, and there's a lot of them that I wish got more attention. I decided I got to pick five, and because considering I'm clocking in at just over 1k to choose from I think I can be forgiven.

let's start with two from my current main fandoms, the people are gone and the place is empty, an a-Qing and Xue Yang AU that I'll never continue even though I kind of want to, and like a trigger (get me ready to shoot), which isn't exactly underread overall but is one of my Kinnporsche fics that's less read and very important to me personally. I'm weirdly fond of Foundling though I understand why it's not everybody else's favorite fic, since it might tread too close to Odin apologism for some. For a flashback to Supernatural fic, (and we all end up alone) remains one of my favorites I wrote for that fandom. And then there's Ouroboros, the second-person fic about Ishamael. so I'm not surprised that people don't gravitate toward that one, but I like it.

the fic you agonized over the most: There's kind of two answers to this question, and it's sort of "the work I agonized over the most because it was hard technically" and "the work I agonized over the most because it took me eight years to write and that's a long fucking time to be writing a single thing and a lot of room for me to doubt myself a thousand times." And they're not the same fic!

I'm going to stick with fics that I actually have finished, because ones I haven't I feel like "agonized over" is self-evident. And for that...might have to award this one to (speaking of Remember This Cold) we live until we die, for being in at least some ways the culminating fic of nearly a decade of writing and having parts in it I'd been planning for five solid years. It was a lot of pressure (self-induced but perceived from outside as well) to be working under.

the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort: I know there are a few of these but the one that springs to mind immediately is could be raining. Had the idea and wrote it basically in the span of 24 hours and I don't remember any agony about it.

a work you are proud of—for whatever reason: I feel like as far as my longfics go the backyard is full of bones might be my best one. It is - and if you know me, you know it's very hard for me to say this - a good fic.

tagging anyone who wants to do this one. that means you. but especially @ameliarating, @lu-sn, and @fatalism-and-villainy.

[thefandomenchantress]

DRDT Mean Girls AU

So a while back I saw some posts about DRDT Heathers AU, and I was like ‘woah! I have so many AUs like this one where I assign DRDT characters to roles in my favorite media, I should make a post about one of them!’.

Then I forgot.

But I remembered after listening to some of Mean Girls The Musical yesterday, so I’m finally doing it. Speaking of the musical, I’ve listened to many of songs from that a dozen times, and seen the movie exactly one time. So characterization will probably be based a bit more on the musical than the movie. Anyways, let’s get started!

Cady Heron: I’ll be honest, since Cady is arguably the least eccentric of the Mean Girls cast, and her main role in the story is changing her personality based on what other people want her to be without too much focus shown to her true personality for a large chunk of the film/musical, I had trouble figuring out which character I should put here. Eventually, I settled on Teruko. Along with being the main character of DRDT, it’s also confirmed that she spent at least some of her life living in Japan, so I figured we could swap the ‘moving from Africa’ plot line to ‘moving from Japan’ since most of the Africa stuff doesn’t impact the plot too much, besides Cady’s inner monologues, which don’t effect the physical world. And I know Teruko would need to be good at math in order for the plot to work, which she probably isn’t since she’s been on the run and stuff, but just pretend she, by some miracle, got really good at math for some reason.

Regina George: I was kinda stuck between David and Arei on this one, but decided to go Arei in the end. Since it’s been stated she was a high school bully, her being the high school bully in this AU just kinda makes sense. Unlike in Miss George in the movie, I think her parents would be rather absent, which is why she wants all the positive attention at school that comes with being popular. Plus, in the musical Regina gets a small scene where it basically shows she’s starting a redemption arc after the whole bus incident, so Arei can get better, just like in DRDT.

Gretchen Weiners: Ever since it was shown in chapter two that Ace has the habit of eavesdropping and overall being a bit nosy, I’ve loved shoving him into the Gretchen role, and gossipy roles in general. Plus, Gretchen’s hair is said to be ‘big because it’s full of secrets’ and. You have seen this man’s hair, right? Plus you can swap her wanting to make ‘fetch’ a thing to one of Ace’s strange idioms (go swing your bat into a beehive, petal backwards on your tricycle). Since there’s no killing game, he’d probably fit more into his chapter 1 characterization where he’s slightly less aggressive and more of a ‘kickable scaredy-cat’ in his words, doing anything Arei says (while harboring a fuck-ton of resentment towards her, but being too scared to act on it) until Teruko comes around to ruin their tenuous friendship.

Karen Smith: Arturo. One of thier main character traits is about their looks, Karen being the ‘hot one’ according to her song ‘Sexy’ from the musical. And while Karen is definitely nicer than Arturo, I think you could still make him fit the role, by having him act a bit less air-headed and a bit more condescending than Karen (aka like himself while still filling her role in the story, which is basically just to stop being friends with Regina/Arei). Since Arei is the closest thing to a celebrity they have in the school, because of her popularity and rich parents, he’s decided following her around will be the best option for his school career, especially since it boosts his own reputation. But it’s less so that he wants to be in her posse more like he settled for it, so he’s willing to break it off with her once Teruko starts breaking up the plastics.

Janis Ian/Sarkisian: J Moreno/Rosales, and I’ll be honest. One of the core reasons is because they both dress and act in a less feminine way than their other female classmates. But J also was confirmed to really like Teruko in the Chapter 2 refresher (I’m too lazy to look up the actual name), so her wanting to be friends with Teruko right off the bat makes sense. Janis also seems artistically inclined, inviting Cady to come to an Art Show, so switch that with J wanting Teruko to come to a play she’s doing the effects for, as well as them hanging out in the theatre instead of the art room (I know the musical has them in the art room for a scene, not sure if it’s the same in the movie). The ‘people say J’s a lesbian but she’s not’ plot thread is the only thing that bothers me, since having J be mad about being called a lesbian while there are lesbian relationships in the AU that no one bats an eye at wouldn’t make much sense. But I think you could probably play around with this plot thread a little, maybe J and Arei were friends when they were kids, just like Regina and Janis, but once people started saying J was weird/a loser/insert insult here, Arei threw J under the bus (get it??? cause regina gets hit by a bus??? i’m hilarious i know) to save her own reputation and told everyone that they weren’t even friends anymore. Which obviously hurts J’s feelings and she swears revenge for Arei’s betrayal.

Damian (I couldn’t find his last name): If Damian didn’t exist, I probably would’ve cast Whit as Karen, but Damian does exist so Whit goes here. Damian kinda just goes with the flow in Mean Girls, he doesn’t seem to have any reason to ruin Regina’s life but he helps anyways because he wants to be a good friend. Whit also just kinda goes with whatever he thinks will lead to the least conflict, which in this situation is going along with J’s plan, though he does try to talk her out of it a few times, since he isn’t too keen about the idea of ruining someone’s life. Understandable. But he wants J to be happy, so he follows the plan. Plus he’s one of the few characters to be confirmed to like boys, (along with David and Ace but neither really fit this role).

Aaron Samuels: I ship Minruko so of course I made Min Teruko’s love interest. There’s a scene in the musical where they talk about how Aaron’s hair looks ‘better pushed back’ which made me think of Min’s bangs and how Arei would want her to show off her pretty eyes. Aaron also tutors Cady in Math, which would definitely work for Min, since she’s the Ultimate Student and was helping another student study in her bonus episode. The main reason Regina wants to date Aaron in Mean Girls, other than to make Cady mad or jealous or whatever, is because he’s popular and hot. And Min has got that second thing down so good enough. I’d imagine dating the most popular girl in school would make Min rather popular by association anyway, so I don’t think it’s too big an issue that she’s not a football player that everyone wants to date or whatever.

And that’s it. This AU is…kind of a mess, but I like it. If you have any arguments for why certain drdt characters should be switched around or if any characters not mentioned should be casted, I’d love to hear them! I know making two of the ‘mean girls’ trio boys is a little strange but I thought they fit the roles best. Plus I had fun imagining them gender swapped.