#basically this version of events is from an older version of the plot and it is Possible that the Previous Chapter.....

[thewhumperinwhite]

ATTD: Caught (part 1)

Once again, it has been 85 Years since my last update. Mostly this is because i have been [gestures vaguely to brain meds and wheelchair], but Also its because i keep trying to write in chronological order and Getting Writers Block About It. SO there is a timeskip between the last ATTD piece and this one, for which i apologize. My girl 'City is new, this is a fairly good introduction to Her Whole Vibe but my askbox is also always open if you have questions. Cetus Emani appeared here but we haven't seen him since. I'll link the ATTD masterpost but i think that's kind of all you need for this one in particular. thanks for reading as always ❤

@whumpitywhumpwhumpwhumpwhump @favwhumpstuffmpstuff @whump-cravings <-this is who i tagged on my last update, dm me if you wanna get tagged in the future

ATTD Masterpost

TW for: parental death (past but discussed in detail), grief, guilt, PTSD, trauma-related touch aversion, head trauma, kidnapping.

Felicity Krie had slipped her father’s signet ring off of his finger when she found him, when she was still covered in his killer’s blood. Before it had occurred to her to scream for help, or to do anything but get shakily to her knees beside him. That was all she did, when he was dead and the man who killed him was also dead, the look of shock (she did not hear her father’s last words; his killer’s white-faced gasp, “they didn’t tell me he had—” will live in her head forever) still frozen on his face, only halfway slack. She had knelt; she had reached out a shaky hand and slid her father’s eyes shut; she had slid the ring off of his finger. It didn’t fit around her fingers, of course; even on her thumb it would have been too lose. She’d strung it on a silver chain around her neck ever since.

A chain which was broken, now. Had broken somewhere in Limani, the port town, the biggest town she’d ever been to.

She’d been trying, for the week walking here, not to think of what her father would have said, about the job she’d taken, and how few questions she’d asked before taking it. The company she was currently keeping.

It was suddenly much easier not to think of that, because her mind was immediately blank with panic, now that she’d lost him all over again.

On her knees in the dust in the middle of the street, Felicity pressed her hands over her eyes and sat very still for a moment, because if she thought about the number of people who must have passed this way since she’d noticed its absence, and the odds that none of them would have seen a thick ring of real gold lying unattended in the dirt—if she thought about that, or of how his hand had felt when she’d taken it, already cold and getting colder in her grip, or of the look on her mother’s face when she’d glimpsed it under the collar of Felicity’s shirt before she left—if she thought about any of those things she was going to cry, right here, in the middle of the street, in front of a hundred big-city strangers.

Her eyes were still squeezed shut under her hands when a boy’s voice with just a whisper of an accent said gently, “Excuse me, Miss—is this yours?”

Felicity lowered her hands.

The first thing she saw was her father’s signet ring, sitting in the center of an outstretched pink palm, looking dusty but not otherwise the worse for wear. Then she looked up and felt her mouth drop open of its own accord.

Holding her father’s ring with careful pale fingers was a pretty-faced Crythian boy with high, sharp cheekbones and very blue eyes, and yellow hair cut untidily around his ears, and a long thin scar that ran down his cheek from eyebrow to chin, and—

And it was him. Felicity had been staring at his face in Cetus Emani’s crystal ball for what seemed like hours every day, and knew it practically as well as her own, although seeing it in person was something else entirely.

The Crythian boy’s mouth quirked up a little at one corner, and he said in that same pretty soft voice, “Miss? Are you alright?” and Felicity realized that she was staring and shot to her feet too fast, almost keeling right back over.

This boy—soft pink outstretched hands or no—was a criminal. Cetus Emani had told her as much, and they wouldn’t be paying her to help find him if he weren’t, besides. And he was armed, too; there was a hand-and-a-half sword belted around his waist, though it looked a bit more decorative than practical.

“Yes—y-yes, that’s mine,” Felicity said, brushing dirt from her trousers and trying to surreptitiously wipe tears from her eyes as well. She felt—unaccountably embarrassed at the idea that this boy might have seen her crying; in person it was more obvious that they were of similar age, and he was really very—criminal, she reminded herself sternly. “I thought for sure I’d lost it.”

Felicity opened her hand, and the boy dropped her father’s ring into her palm, lowering the broken chain carefully, so that it wouldn’t knot. She stared at the ring for a moment, bright against her dark palm. Her brain kept snagging on it—it was expensive; anyone would have asked for something in exchange for its return. Let alone a criminal, on the run from Cetus Emani and his mysterious employer. But the boy had simply—given it back to her.

The boy’s smile widened a fraction, as though in good-natured awkwardness; Felicity realized she’d been quiet for too long. Then he put his hand over his heart and bowed, in a way that was—strange, a little too formal. The boy was wearing a green wool tunic that seemed made for a much larger man, and rough spun trousers underneath that were frayed at the hems. It wasn’t a bow for someone wearing clothes that didn’t fit.

“Well,” the boy said, “I am happy to have helped.” And started to turn away.

“Wait!” Felicity nearly shouted, and reached out without thinking to grab hold of his arm.

----

She was a pretty Galdrean girl, perhaps two years younger and two inches shorter. She was wearing no visible weapons, and the hand with which she was now gripping his arm below the shoulder was really very small.

There was no reason her touch should pull all his muscles tight-to-breaking and send ice in ripples down his spine. There was no reason. There was no reason at all.

“I—need your help,” the girl said, but she faltered on the last few syllables. Like she could hear that he wasn’t breathing.

The boy called Will concentrated very hard, and arranged his features into a look of mild concern.

“Why,” he said, very calmly. “What’s the matter, Miss?”

The girl withdrew her hand; Will forced himself to breath in slowly, so she would not hear him gasp. (The effort made him tremble, but not so much that it was visible.) She pressed her hands together, more in nervousness than supplication, and bit her lip.

Will did not take a step back, though she was standing really quite close. It was too soon after she had seen him go tense. He would stay here—and would breathe normally—and would not rub at his arm, which was hot and tingled unpleasantly where her small hand had touched it.

“It’s—my brother,” the girl said, and she did sound distressed, now, though she seemed unable to hold his gaze. “I, um.” She cleared her throat. “He—you see. My brother twisted his ankle, on the way to the shops. I can’t carry him to the healer’s district by myself.” Then she did look up at him, brown eyes very wide. “Will you—help me? Please?”

Will blinked at her.

That, he thought, was a lie. That was—a very bad lie.

“It isn’t far,” the girl went on, and now she was looking at—the center of his chest, transparently to avoid meeting his eyes again. “It’s just, um—I helped him to one of the store fronts, a few streets over. I was—I was hoping I could find someone to help me here, since it’s busier, that’s when I dropped my—”

She couldn’t be robbing him, surely, he thought. The magician’s clothes were far too large, but it was surely obvious he was carrying nothing of value, except perhaps the sword itself. And—she was so bad at this; her voice was wavering, now, but in a way that sounded less like worry for an imaginary injured sibling, and more like miserable embarrassment. It was as though she had never told a lie before in her life, and wasn’t enjoying doing so now.

“Alright,” Will said, over the rest of her babbling explanation.

The girl pulled up short, in apparent astonishment. Will smiled at her.

“Alright,” he said again. “Which way?”

----

“How old is your brother?” the boy asked, a few steps further toward the inn Emani had rented as their base of operations. It didn’t sound like a test, exactly. But it was hard to tell.

“He’s seen ten summers,” she answered, trying very hard to keep her voice light. “You know boys his age. Always climbing things they shouldn’t be.” Teron wasn’t much of a climber, actually Felicity herself had always been the one more likely to get herself into that kind of trouble. He was also half a kingdom away, of course, and thinking of him was not helping now, and she should have told a different lie, should have found some magic first lie that didn’t multiply into a thousand other lies like a pair of rabbits.

“Where are your parents?” the boy asked, light and gentle, like a man would use on a frightened horse, and Felicity tripped over a loose stone in the road, thinking for once not of her dead father but of her mother, left behind, her mother’s shadowed eyes and brave smile, what her mother would think—

“They’re gone,” Felicity said, and it came out too hard; the boy blinked his pale eyes at her, his sunburnt mouth and brow still soft but his gaze suddenly so piercing that felt it as a prickle on her skin.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said, and his voice had not changed at all; it mismatched his eyes in a way that was nearly alien, too gentle for his cut-gem eyes. “You are very young to be on your own.”

He could be no more than a year Felicity’s senior, if that—perhaps eighteen summers, surely no older. She opened her mouth to tell him that, and at that moment he crossed the threshold of the inn and Cetus Emani raised from a crouch beside the door, all seven feet of him; the boy had a moment to register the incomprehensible shape in the doorway, and then Emani brought his fist down on the boy’s head and the boy fell like a stone.

That, after everything, was far too much.

“What is wrong with you?” Felicity shrilled. Every second since she’d reached for her father’s ring and found it missing had wound her neck and shoulders tighter, and it all came out now in her voice, twisting it into a shriek.

Emani, busy with hauling the boy properly into the inn, ignored her. Harrow, now visible in the dim light beyond, skirted Emani and the boy’s limp body with averted eyes to yank Felicity into the inn after them, and had the actual nerve to raise his other hand to his mouth in a panicked shushing gesture. Felicity shook him off, harder than she needed to.

“I had him!” she yelled. The inn was nearly empty, as if Emani’s limitless budget had extended to the exclusive use of the whole building. The real bounty hunter—Criel—was seated at the untended bar, watching Felicity with bright-eyed interest. None of that mattered; she could not have lowered her voice even if the inn had been bustling with old ladies. “I had him, he was coming, you had no call to—to—”

“You have done a small part of your job,” Emani said in his deep, unmoving voice, not looking up at her. “Let me do mine.”

“You had no call—” Emani bent to fiddle with the boy’s belt and Felicity nearly slapped his hands away. “Now what are you doing?”

“Rest assured, he will wake,” Emani said, tossing the boy’s sword belt aside, where clattered across the dirt floor to stop at Felicity’s feet. Then Emani lifted the boy by the armpits and plopped him into one of the inn’s wood-and-grass chairs. The boy’s head lolled back like a doll’s. Emani bent to secure the boy’s hands to the back of the chair with a length of rope. “No doubt he does wake he will have questions for you, girl,” Emani said, without looking up at Felicity.

Emani said it in his usual flat, disinterested tone, but it sank in Felicity’s stomach like lead. Blood dripped in a thin line from the boy’s hairline towards his eyes, which were moving visibly under the lids, as though he were dreaming.

“You didn’t have to hit him,” Felicity said again; it seemed like someone ought to. “He was coming in peacefully. We could have talked to him.”

Emani did look up at her then, raising an eyebrow at her over the boy’s head. “Could we,” he said, sounding halfway amused. “You must have told him an excellent lie, that he would have remained peaceful upon seeing all of us here, and the exits barred.”

Felicity felt a shamed flush heat her face—shamed to be so poor at this job; shamed to have taken it in the first place. Emani was right, of course, except that all of it was wrong.

“You didn’t have to hit him,” she said again. Emani chuckled to himself, and yanked the ropes tighter.

[pluckyredhead]

How exactly was Jon Kent’s introduction handled? Did Clark essentially just bring him out like “hey guys, here’s my 10 year old son I haven’t told you about” ?

Thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about this, because it is Extremely Comics and I love it.

The short version is that Jon and his parents are from another dimension.

The long version is that prior to the New 52 in 2011, Lois and Clark had been married for years, so when that marriage was erased in the reboot, fans were pretty unhappy.

Then in 2015, DC published an event called Convergence. The plot isn't important, but basically they pulled in all these different versions of their characters from different universes: pre-Crisis Green Lantern, vampire Batman, 70s Wonder Woman, etc. And they brought back a LOT of pre-Flashpoint versions of characters. (I've always assumed it was a test to see if they should undo the New 52 and that the answer was a resounding yes.)

And so they brought back the pre-Flashpoint Lois and Clark just for this one event. In the four years since we'd seen the characters, Lois had gotten pregnant, and during Convergence, she gave birth to Jon.

At the end of the event, the pre-Flashpoint world was destroyed, but the Lane-Kent family was able to travel to the New 52 universe. Of course, the New 52 universe already had a Superman and Lois, so the pre-Flashpoint Clark and Lois decided to just...live like normal people, which they'd never been able to do before. They changed their last names to White and moved to California to raise their son in peaceful anonymity.

So Jon spent the first 10 years of his life in California as Jonathan Samuel White, and has no idea that he's from another dimension, that he's half alien, or that his father is Superman. But then his powers start to manifest, and it turns out it's really hard to keep a secret from a kid with X-ray vision, super hearing, and Lois Lane's smarts. Eventually, his parents have to 'fess up.

Here is the key point: when the Lane-Kents came to the New 52 universe, they arrived 10 years in the past. So if that story took place in 2015, when it was published, they actually arrived in 2005. Meaning that Jon developing his powers at 10 is happening in the present day. Does that make sense?

Soon after this, the New 52 Superman dies, and pre-Flashpoint Clark is like, "Well, someone should be Superman," so he puts his costume back on and introduces himself to the Justice League/the world as the Superman of another dimension.

A bit after that, the 2016 Rebirth reboot happened, which was deliberately designed to push DC canon closer to pre-Flashpoint canon.

Then the New 52 Lois also dies, and pre-Flashpoint Lois is like "I guess I'll just go to the office and pretend to be her," which is wild because she is at least 10 and probably more like 15-20 years older than New 52 Lois. Lois Lane ages like fine wine: confirmed.

THEN Mr. Mxyzptlk kidnaps Jon and traps him in a featureless void and makes his parents forget he exists. In that void, Jon encounters the souls of the dead New 52 Clark and Lois and accidentally swaps them with his parents. Then he yells "NO YOU LOVE EACH OTHER" until they remember who they really are and merge with their pre-Flashpoint counterparts to form new, cohesive versions of Lois and Clark who are simultaneously from the current universe but also have been married for years and love their son.

This also, you know, just casually reboots the universe so that everyone remembers Lois and Clark having been married with a kid for years. So Jon was incorporated into continuity as a 10-year-old, but then the rest of his life was retconned into existence so that, like, Perry and Jimmy remember holding him as a baby and stuff. (And Jon has no memory of living as Jon White or anything like that.)

Anyway, very straightforward and normal, not completely bonkers at all.

[eobarried]

ok let’s talk about miguel o’hara because it needs to be done. i want to clarify that this is not a hate post or anti-miguel in any sense, but it is a critical analysis of his character and role in the spiderverse. if you don’t feel like you can read this right now, i suggest you like it/save it for later and read it when you feel like you can with an open mind

especially for anyone who’s a miguel enjoyer (i consider myself one as well) because if you really love his character, it’s important to understand why his character was created and what a great narrative tool it is! anyway-

miguel o’hara is, allegorically, a bigot. 

now - let’s unpack and clarify that. miguel is allegorically a bigot - his character is used to represent a certain, specific type of bigotry we see in real life. notice how i’m saying “bigot” and not “racist” - because despite the memes, i don’t think miguel’s hatred of miles is rooted in antiblackness. i think it’s rooted in something a little more complicated, which is why i’m using the term bigotry. but this can be a little confusing, so let’s start from the beginning. or, at least, the most important part.

the canon.

i want you to really think about the word used here - canon. hearing that word should break the fourth wall for you, just like hearing “he’s got hammerspace!” should have earlier in the movie - or discussions different characters have surrounding their distinct art styles. it’s meant to break the fourth wall and draw attention to itself. specifically, the use of the word canon here is meant for us to take a step back from the in-universe events (treating the characters as “real” people and looking at events logically) and instead think of the spiderman story and mythos.

spiderman, as a story, has been told over and over again. we, as an audience, are deeply familiar with this story, as we’ve seen it as a live-action blockbuster in no less than three separate franchises. that’s not even mentioning all the cartoon adaptations, and of course the comic runs. adhering to a specific formula surrounding the story makes sense. when someone walks into a spiderman movie, they have certain... expectations. that no matter what version of spiderman this is, that they follow certain story beats and adhere to certain rules as they follow along in their journey. miguel, when explaining this to miles, focuses on said story beats (which i’ll get to in a second), but there’s something that’s way more important than specific plot points that we need to address here.

and that’s theme. 

theme (if you’re not an english literature person), is basically something you take away from the story. it’s usually a moral, idea, or concept that can be applied to the world around you, and helps you learn more about yourself, society, culture, or history. all stories have themes - usually they have multiple. so let’s get into it.

the original spiderman comic was notable in several ways. the thing that made spiderman so popular and successful is that he was the first (notable) teenage superhero that wasn’t a part of a greater team. spiderman wasn’t a sidekick that was written in to appeal to an audience of children. he was a teenager himself - but he was no less competent or strong than the (mostly adult) villains he fought. 

and not only was spiderman a kid - he was the kid. he was a nerd. he was an older white teen, yes - but he represented the type of person who would go out and buy a comic book more than any other hero at the time. before he became spiderman, peter parker was just kind of a geek. at the time (the 60s) this still identified him as an outcast. peter was socially awkward, not good with girls, he didn’t have many friends, and he was bullied consistently. the only thing he was good at was science, basically. we can connect peter’s original portrayal to many legitimately marginalized groups - specifically those that might be autistic and impacted by ableism. to those kids reading that comic, they saw a hero that represented them.

and how does peter represent them? what does spiderman teach these children by reading these comics? the original spiderman is the story of a man who, by chance, was granted the opportunity for greatness - to become an integral part of his community. spiderman uses his skills (both those granted to him by the spider, but also those that he inherently has, such as his skills with science and engineering), in order to prove his worth and merit. it’s lonely, the road he has to walk - he can’t tell his friends and family who he is, lest they become victims like uncle ben - or lest they betray him. he can only rely on himself and his own knowledge in order to protect his community. the themes we draw from spiderman are this: luck can strike at any time, but you need to use your own strength and intelligence to pull yourself up afterwards, no matter how hard things get. no matter how many people you lose.

that’s what miguel believes spiderman is about. this original spiderman story is that of the american dream. of a youth who is ostracized by society (for whatever reason), but is still able to use their own merit to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them and the grief and pain they face on their path to greatness. it’s a hard and lonely path, but miguel values anyone who has the bravery to face it.

so why does he hate miles?

because he didn’t do it alone. because miles doesn’t believe in the traditional american dream.

if you want to read more about that, check out my analysis comparing spider-society and visions academy over here (it’s not as in-depth as i would like it to be, but it gets the job done) but basically: miles believes that every person deserves greatness. he states it very clearly when talking to his dad about how he won the lottery to go to visions: he just got lucky. he feels as if he took an opportunity away from someone else. why is it just given to him, when anyone else at brooklyn middle is just as deserving of an amazing education? when these resources should be put to use to uplift his whole community, not just miles alone?

miles brings that same energy as a spider-person. he’s not just an anomaly because his spider was from a different dimension. he’s an anomaly because he had a mentor. not only a mentor - he had a whole clan of spider-people there for him. while peter b parker and the crew weren’t always very good allies for miles, they still wanted him to succeed. each spider-person was an outcast - not in the same way as miles, but they were eager to describe what miles needed to master in order to keep himself safe as a crime-fighter. although they weren’t always supportive, it wasn’t because they were “gatekeeping” - it’s because they were worried miles might hurt himself. to them, he hadn’t put in the work on his own, and because he hadn’t proven himself as a spider-person in isolation, they thought there was no way he could be successful as a spider-person during a very high-risk mission.

however, miles proves them wrong. it’s true that miles has to pull upon his own inner strength, but he also pulls on wisdom from those that mentored him - his father, his uncle aaron, peter parker, and peter b parker. as well as love and support from his community. miles became spiderman - but not in isolation. he had help, and support, and love - always - that helped him succeed.

because spiderman - in all universes - represents success in america. in the original comics, spiderman is able to overcome his status as an outcast in order to help his city. he now has great power - a potential allegory related to wealth and social or political status. he uses that power in order to protect the community he loves (nyc) as they can’t all protect themselves.

now let’s bring it back. miguel. right.

miguel has already made his mark as a spiderman. although we know he broke canon, it wasn’t related to him becoming spiderman. we can assume that miguel still went through serious struggle and trauma to get to where he’s at. and now, through thematic analysis, we know that becoming spiderman represents success in america.

so, miguel’s dislike of miles, thematically, connects to how older generations may believe that younger generations “have it too easy” or “don’t put in the same effort.” it’s the (mainly capitalistic) ideal that in order to succeed, it has to be in isolation, without outside help. we can infer that miguel is not only upset that miles didn’t do things “canonically” - but that he is afforded success that miguel doesn’t think he deserves. miguel believes that in order to succeed in america, one needs to do it on their own, and suffer in order to succeed. no “hand-outs,” no support, no community outreach. it’s a very rigid capitalistic standard - which is why i called it “bigoted.” miguel is still a marginalized figure - and it’s important that miguel is the one stating the viewpoint, not a white spiderman. because this isn’t a white vs black storyline. miguel’s dislike of miles is specifically a sort of generational, inter-community bigotry.

for someone who hasn’t experienced it - think of it like hazing. you join a new sports team. the senior players say “you carry the equipment out and clean everything after the game.” you ask “why? can’t we all just do it together? aren’t we supposed to be a team?” and they say “no. you’re the new guys. hard work builds character. deal with it.”

alright. so we took a look at canon through a meta-story lens. now let’s pull it back even further.

so, miguel’s ideology. he adheres firmly to canon, a series of events that cannot (or, should not), change. if we apply that to our lives, that sounds a lot like predestination. destiny. fate. let’s call it predestination for now - you’ll see why in a minute.

now, a belief in predestination makes sense. it can bring a lot of people comfort, thinking that horrible events are out of their hands, and often times it can be harmless to believe in predestination in these instances. for example: someone who blames themselves for not being able to say goodbye to a loved one who died suddenly. if this person believes in predestination, it might ease some of their pain and guilt to know that there was nothing they could do - that it was the will of some higher power that their loved one is gone, and that there was nothing they could do to prevent it. some individuals might find comfort in knowing that they are not to blame for the work of the universe.

however, predestination can also be malicious. thinking that things are the will of the universe, or the will of god... that’s been used for some pretty fucked up stuff in the past. in a more moderate (and topical) example - royalty. many kings used the concept of predestination to explain why they deserved the crown. their bloodline was chosen by god himself - that’s why they’re powerful (compare to spider-people and their success. if they are also predestined for their spider-bite, doesn’t that make them akin to monarchs?)

in more nefarious examples, predestination can be used to subjugate and oppress others. predestination was used in ancient indian society in order to justify the caste system - utilizing the hindu concept of karma to justify why certain members of society were mistreated and oppressed. in a more american sense, predestination was often used as a way to justify both slavery and segregation. originally, slavers tried to justify that god wanted black individuals to serve as slaves because it was his will. later, when divine intervention fell out of fashion, they attempted to use eugenics to justify that black individuals were simply born inferior - that it was just science, and that there was nothing they could do about it.

that’s the other reason it’s called canon. the original usage of the word was to refer to the books of the bible that the church recognized as legitimate. it ties back to faith and religion. 

now, religion, faith, and even the belief in fate itself - are not inherently bad. miguel’s belief in predestination doesn’t make him a bad or bigoted person inherently. however, the way he forces other to believe and adhere to it is. it’s very likely that miguel became so attached to the canon in order to justify why his wife and daughter died - in order to remove his own accountability for their passing and instead place the blame on some higher power. this belief snowballed out of control, however - and now influences his jealousy and distaste for miles and his way of life.

because forcing a canon - a story - on miles, is wrong. when miguel tells miles that his father must die, that he has to adhere to canon - that’s a horrible thing to say to a young black boy. to tell him that in order to be successful as a marginalized individual (to be spiderman) that he has to lose the last black male role model he has? it’s heinous! it’s akin to telling miles that in order to succeed, he has to cut ties with part of his culture. which does happen to young marginalized people in america. they are told that in order to be successful, they have to leave their culture, community, and support system behind.

it’s especially sinister when looking at it from the point of view of storytelling. when looking at it from that angle, miguel is basically telling miles that in order for his story - the story of a young black boy - to be profitable, he has to go through even more trauma and loss. it’s similar to what his guidance counselor mentions when discussing how miles should write his college entrance essay - that he should lie, and emphasize that he struggles while growing up, and that his support system was unstable. it’s the traditional story of a struggling black boy - which i discuss more here when talking about earth 42 miles and his inclusion in the spiderverse.

miguel’s bigotry is centrally tried to his idea of what american society expects of marginalized individuals who were able to achieve their dreams despite it all. a story of pain and struggle. one where they were able to - only through their own strength and intelligence, and maybe with a little bit of luck - pull themselves up, and quietly work towards their own success.

miguel’s belief in the american dream and predestination not only influences his treatment of miles, but also his creation of spider-society. now, let me be frank: miguel, in this franchise, is not supposed to represent someone who created systematic oppression. he’s simply one of the people who believed in bigoted ideals and allowed those ideals to influence his decisions. because when miguel created spider-society, it basically became an elitist isolation chamber. spider-society is located in a huge tower on miguela’s earth. the tower is so tall and imposing on the utopian landscape, there’s no way that miguel is able to properly support his own community as spiderman - he’s not worried about what happens to his own community. especially once we learn that a good portion of them live underground, where miguel can’t even see them. even if he wasn’t occupied with anomalies at all times, there’s no way he could even connect with nueva york around him.

the same can be said of all the spider-people in headquarters. they’re not even in their home dimensions. how can they possibly support their communities when they have isolated themselves as far away as they could literally be? it parallels how successful individuals often treat their communities in reality - what do wealthy people usually do at the first sign of their wealth? they build a huge mansion to get away from it all. many times in our capitalist society, wealthy and successful people abandon the communities they should be supporting. 

miguel represents that. he is a successful, powerful person, who decided to focus only on other successful, powerful people like him. marginalized people who achieved the american dream on their own. people who, instead of uplifting others, instead tear down those who don’t fit into their “mold.” who are successful in their own right, but don’t hold the same ideals and values that they do. who aren’t the model example of marginalized success in the eyes of the (white) american “audience.” 

miguel is a product of a great problem within society. while he partakes and perpetuates bigotry, that doesn’t mean that he’s irredeemable. the narrative shows that miguel is a broken man. if we think about to the end credits scene from itsv, where he calls his dimensional travel bracelet a “goober” - he wasn’t always so hateful. he wasn’t always like this. he can un-learn his bigotry and he isn’t completely lost. the way that he discusses his ideas - it’s clear that he knows that there are flaws in them, just as other spider-people consistently point out. he can be changed and improved - just like our real leaders and role models can be changed and improved. miguel is not without saving - but it’s important to remember that he does need to be saved. 

[connectionterminated13]

Connection established welcome!

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

Hello my name is connection terminated13! I am a 15 year old Canadian learning artist. I use she/they

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

I am big fan of the stupid bear game (fnaf).I do like other things though like little nightmares, Adventure time, John dies at the end. But it's mostly just fnaf!

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

Also please remember I have dyslexia and use speech to type! I often make spelling errors so if you see one just tell me:3

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

DNI list: Proship, Terfs, Pedophiles/Zoophiles, Bigotry of any kind, No extreme NSFW (I mostly mean purposely sexual stuff)

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

Fnaf AU's!!!

#fnaf Inferno au

Basically my version of the events depicted in the stupid bear game :)

#fnaf Death swap

Almost all of the deaths are swapped in the main series. Charlie lives Sammy dies, Charlie's friends are the Mci, Michael dies to baby instead of Elizabeth.

The plot mostly follows a much older Elizabeth Who is soon to turn 22, Lives in a small apartment with her girlfriend Susie and plays in a punk band that she created called "Baby and the circus freaks". One night she gets a call from her father that Michael is still here, at circus babies entertainment in rentals and it's Elizabeth strobbed to put him back together...

# Fractured Memories

Evan survives the bite But understand that he is supposed to die. He also knows that his family all die and become horrible monsters. At tonight he can see the monsters his family becomes. As for the family they're dealing with the physical afflictions of death's not yet to come. All Evan can do is sit back and watch as his memory and reality fractures further

#cub au

Cassie is phone dude's daughter, phone dude dies in FNAF 3 and having no one else to take care of her Michael decides to adopt her.

It's mostly just Michael being a really good dad and Cassie being a cute little kid

#Red Sunrise

the only thing I actually written for:

The premise is Elizabeth dying in the fnaf6 Fire then diving back into the living play after tricking old man consequences

As of writing there's only 2 chapters I'm working on the third but you know life...

#fnaf Rewrite

A rewrite of the twisted ones but mostly the fourth closet novels. Getting rid of the gross stuff and generally trying to improve the story!

#Gears and rot au

William made some robot versions of his dead daughter and son then realized how fucking weird that was and shut them down in the murder clown basement. Years later Michael goes down and does a sister location. The robot version of Evan is able to save him before he becomes a skin suit but Mikey still "dies" from internal bleeding

It's now Michael's job to take care of the little robot even though it is creepy and weird...

#Victorian AU

I can't believe I haven't added this one yet! Should probably summarize it

It's kind of like 5 nights at Freddy's but Victorian... There's some twists added in.. You're just gonna have to go and find out!!!!!

I have like 6 au that I never really did anything with... You can find them if you want...

Cassie in the dark

It's not just a normal AU it's an ask blog!!!

@cassie-in-the-dark

General goofiness

Upcoming???

Extremely silly :3

÷=@%&=@@^&=+#&&$×!_&&£

And here's some of my arts!!

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki spin-off ideas

I'm going to preface this by saying, I do not think we will ever get a Loki spin-off. But that doesn't mean I can't think about all the great possibilities there could be. And also I am quickly running out of ideas again.

Spoilers for Loki.

TVA workplace comedy, featuring B-15 Verity, Casey, OB, on occasion Sylvie and Mobius, and introducing new (queer) characters. Casey and OB stumble their way into a relationship, Verity once and for all establishes that she can detect lies, Mobius is sad until in the season finale (with special guest star Tom Hiddleston!) someone figures out how to get him to Loki. And we get Lokius in the last ten seconds, because they pull a Will Shatner and purposely ruin every other take that isn't them making the fuck out.

TVA training shorts, featuring Miss Minutes (ugh), reminiscent of those high school PSAs they made Cap do ("So you got detention," etc.), but animated in the style of the introductory video Loki watched in the first episode. You could also have a second season of them as an updated version following the dissolution of the Sacred Timeline and how the branches are seen as good things now. Maybe the new ones are narrated by members of the Time Revengers, since Miss Minutes is still being rehabilitated. (I'm still deciding if the idea of listening to Mobius tell the story of how the multiversal tree was created would be heartbreaking even if he managed to remain professional and not break down in tears, or if it would be really sweet that he gets assigned that video.)

Lokis in the void, following mainly Kid Loki and (if we retcon it, set this before the show, or he somehow survived) Classic Loki, but also ridiculous schemes of President Loki (yuck, no thank you) that constantly get thwarted. The B-plot is Alligator Loki sneaking off and getting up to some shit in an anti-Perry the Platypus running gag. (Wait, maybe I just want a Phineas and Ferb parody where every character is a Loki and it takes place in the void. That could be so stupid it's hilarious.)

Classic Loki in Valhalla please I need it. Like we start similarly to the events of my fic After, where Classic Loki arrives in Valhalla and reunites at long last with Thor (don't ask me how, I know technically his timeline was reset). Then the show continues with Classic Loki and Thor getting up to hijinks in Valhalla, maybe scheming to break out of Valhalla (a storyline for Loki in various contexts I've played around with a few times). We could have different characters from the Thor movies and comics in Valhalla, but since they're all dead, they're all played by older actors. You could make some easy, low-hanging old jokes (back pain every time they use their weapon, etc.), but they're gods and they're dead, so technically they should be fine. They're just old and dead. (But like, Tony Stark is for sure in Valhalla, too. You could have some frostiron going on. Or Fandral. He's there, too, Ewing.)

Mobius's adventures in the multiverse, just episodes of him traveling through time and experiencing it (I'm realizing now that this is basically just the premise for Doctor Who...). Also going on in this series is obviously Mobius missing Loki and looking for a way to get to him. Of course (because this is my show and I say so), the series would end with them reuniting and confessing and staying together, either in the tree if need be or in the wider multiverse if Loki is able to leave the tree. And there would certainly be episodes throughout the show featuring the other members of our Time Revengers. Maybe the workplace comedy and this show are occurring simultaneously. (Like one episode of TVA someone's like "Where's Verity?" "Oh she's on a mission." And you're like oh the actor has a break or is filming something else, and then later that week the episode of Mobius airs and THERE'S VERITY!)

Sylvie in Broxton. That's it, that's the show. Just Sylvie living her best life in the small town, working at McDonald's, hanging out at Lyle's record store, ignoring 90% of the calls on her TemPad (unless it's Mobius, because in spite of herself, she's a little worried about him).

[nalyra-dreaming]

hey! as it looks like we're getting glimpses of (seemingly) human Lestat in s2, I guess we'll be seeing him through Armand's POV? Do you think this means the Les Innocents plot happened differently here, or just that Armand encountered Lestat at some point while he was still running his cult?

Hey!

Spoilers ahead ;)

Yessss, I‘m pretty sure we’ll get Armand’s POV of seeing human Lestat prior turning and the (basic) destruction of the coven after turning in a… probably a slightly toned down version of Armand’s fascination with Lestat. 😅

I mean… Lestat will show up in Paris and Daniel in modern Dubai will ask questions. And those will be answered, though likely not as thoroughly as in season 3 …

The Les Innocents plot has to run a bit differently because Les Innocents was already closed down and the bones relocated (1786) by the time Lestat is turned in the show (1795?)… however, the recent picture of Armand would fit with the tower meeting after Lestat destroyed the coven (more or less)… :)

And yes, it seems Armand encountered him while still running the cult, if the leaked pic is anything to go by:

The outfit and makeup indicate human Lestat here, and that fits with the bts announcement posters we saw:

Now, as said, Lestat is older when turned, and he seems to have kept the wolfkiller coat afterwards (so either Magnus kept it for him after the assault or Armand collected it afterward but my bet is on Magnus there).

The fact that Armand calls Lestat co-founder means that certain events stayed, and the fact that the portrait is still on the wall when Louis and Claudia come by… means the obsession stayed, too. 😈

My theory is that Armand maybe saw Lestat while still mortal with the red coat… imprinted and kept tabs on him, taking vague comfort from watching him. And he likely watched Magnus hunting Lestat and didn’t interfere because Magnus was very strong and under this weird protection/status by Rhoshamandes (it would be interesting if they drop his and Benedict‘s name at some point, though they likely will keep that for later seasons). And then afterwards… the story unfolds close‘ish to what we know.

What do you think? ;)

[frauleinandry]

a persona 3 reload review

uuuuuuh so i was meant to post this like... two weeks ago, but then real life hit me in the head like a frying pan. now that i've had the time to edit this though, here are my thoughts on p3re! this is also a minato route review, as i played kotone's in P3P (i know it's not his canon name, but i don't want to use makoto due to P5 confusion).

on the whole, reload is a fantastic game. the gameplay easily rivals P5R, and surpasses it in some aspects. the new content is typically great. i also enjoyed minato as a character (well, as much of a character as persona protagonists are anyway), though that leads me to the main gripe i had with reload...

... and that's the lack of kotone's social links. to be precise, two of her social links, the absence of which greatly hurts the overall story.

don't get me wrong, i'd still rank reload a solid 8/10, but it could have been a 10/10 with the addition of those two links (plus one other spoiler thing), and I think that's a shame.

my in depth analysis is under the cut - note, it's very much not spoiler free.

okay, so, i'm gonna split this into 3.5 segments - the good, the mixed, and the bad (you'll find out what the 0.5 is later).

1. the good:

minato - while i'm still a kotone girlie at heart, he's not a bad protagonist at all! his dialogue options have a very distinct personality to them unlike joker and yu, and his character arc is one of the best of all of the persona main leads. an aloof, apathetic boy who learns to love the world/his friends so much he's willing to die for them... it's good!

koromaru - minor, but worth mentioning. you can pat him, and it's so cute. in fact, everything about him is perfect. from his all-out attack screen, to his animations, to... well, everything. no joke, if I needed to sell this game to a non-persona fan, i'd use him as the main draw.

hangout events - while I think being able to chat to everyone in the dorm already made SEES one of the more developed casts, having additional scenes really helped flesh out the party members who are less prominent in the plot (fuuka, pre-january aigis, ken). more things to do at night is also great, given there was nothing to do in the evening after maxing your social stats in the older versions. the perks they give you are great too, but i'll talk about that more later.

voice acting - not gonna lie, i generally don't like the persona dubs, and normally always play with the JP audio. given reload features some of my favourite voice actors though and was basically fully voiced, i decided to give it a chance this time. and i don't regret it! while some actors are definitely stronger than others, none of them were actively jarring, and quite frankly, they hard carried a lot of the social links. kudos to the cast!

strega - while they could have gone a bit further with it (jin needed a linked episode for sure), takaya finally got the development he sorely needed, and his and jin's final battles were actually interesting, instead of being annoying distractions from nyx. in fact, i'd say takaya's new content is easily the best of the new reload exclusive material. in portable, he made no impression on me whatsoever, but now, he finally gets to be the anti!minato he deserves to be.

1.5. the tartarus (aka good part 2, electric boogaloo):

i have so many things to gush about in terms of the new combat/exploration system, i decided it needed its own section! the glow-up tartarus got was massive. i was pretty disappointed when i heard they were keeping it randomly generated, but somehow, atlus pulled it off! i'll talk about individual things below.

collectables/monad doors - one issue with OG tartarus is that it's monotonous. breakable collectables make it much more entertaining to romp through though, as smashing things is Fun. the monad doors interspersed throughout are another good addition - if you want a break from roaming, you can challenge them, but if not, that's fine!

floor layout - another thing that makes tartatus more fresh to explore is that the HD graphics really make the differences between the blocks pop out. the generally smaller floors with more unique layouts really helps too.

shifting - it's baton pass, though without the ridiculous power/sp bonuses that made baton pass a little bit too gamebreaking in persona 5. in other words, perfect!

theurgy - out of all the battle-specific improvements, theurgy and the personality traits have got to be my favourites. showtimes were fun, but too random/gimmicky to be that useful, and ultimate skills tended to fluctuate between being absolutely gamebreaking or too SP intensive to be worth using. blending them into one feature with a content-specific gauge fixes all the problems with them while keeping everything that made showtimes/ultimate skills good.

ambush mechanics - this was one of the things i was most worried about before playing reload. ambushing in P5 is fun, but ambushing in the other persona games...? not so much. reload manages to fix this though by making the shadows less sensitive, which makes the early game a lot better, and but introducing dash-ambushes once the floors get bigger. if the persona 6 ambush system works like this, i'll be happy.

navigator skills - fuuka being retooled to work more like a playable character was an A+++ decision. making her skills player-activated but with an SP cost is so much more immersive than randomly getting a stat boost/enemy info.

unfortunately, while i think most of the tartarus additions were great, there were a few new mechanics which weren't... dreadful, per say, but could have been implemented better.

great clocks - they're better than nothing, but quite frankly, i would have preferred it if benched units got 50% exp instead. they incentivise you to drop two units for a period of time, which is annoying, given i want to use everyone on my first playthrough. late game, great clocks are also a pain to summon, for reasons i'll talk about below.

twilight fragments - i think they're a neat idea in theory, but they need to be easier/more reliable to farm. once you finish off the bulk of your social links/elizabeth's requests, replenishing them becomes a nightmare, which is annoying because you need them for great clocks.

2. the mixed:

while reload did a lot of things right, as per above, there were some things that didn't quite hit the mark.

linked episodes - i'm gonna be blunt. anyone who thinks these are better than social links is smoking something. one thing i like about party member social links is that it gives them a subplot outside of the main story, focusing more on their mundane struggles as opposed to their supernatural ones. half of the linked episodes just develop the main plot more though (and really should have just been included in it), meaning the linked episode exclusive subplots are underbaked.

another problem is that some of the linked episodes are just... kinda badly written. ryoji's completely lacks his existential dread, akihiko's comes off as a poor attempt to make his arena behaviour less OOC, while shinjiro's... it feels like persona 5 writing, in the worst way possible. it's like atlus completely forgot that subtext is a thing that's Good, actually.

while I have been fairly critical of them so far though, there are a couple of linked episodes i liked. koromaru's actually worked with the format, given he's a dog, but the real winner here was takaya. i loved all of his. if linked episodes appear again, i'd rather they be locked to antagonists like him.

art direction- i'll say right now - the UI is fabulous, the model shaders are great, and tartarus looks fantastic. the environmental design on the whole though is a bit iffy - a lot of the environments didn't translate to the super HD very well, and the lighting sucks in general. i needed to turn down the brightness it was so eye-searing. the animation of the 2D cutscenes is also pretty mediocre, and while the 3D cutscenes tend to look better, they're held back by some of the character models looking a bit goofy (mitsuru's is probably the biggest offender). i also think they were too scared of making the sprites 'ugly', and therefore on the whole they're slightly less emotive than the ones in the older versions of the game, which is a pity.

3. the bad:

minato's social links - the vast majority of the minato-exclusive social links are just flat-out not great. serious props to the voice actors here, since they hard carried them. quite frankly, they're just... bland, except for maya's and suemitsu's, which. uh. have problems. on the topic of social links, while i'm happy the romance isn't mandatory anymore, i don't like how half the girls explicitly confess to you. i much prefer the more subtle vibes of the P5/P4 romantic options, as yeah, most of them can lead naturally into romance, but they don't make the MC feel like a harem anime protagonist (derogatory). it kinda brings to mind this twitter post; sometimes, subtlety is simply better.

the absence of shinji and ryoji's social links - i can live without saori, rio, and most of the new and improved SEES member social links, but this is where i draw the line. while shinji dying is better storytelling, just like with chidori, having the option to save him is also important. lock it behind new game plus, yes... but keep it. also, him priming kotone to support akihiko one he's gone is far better than him just flat-out telling minato that he's dying. ryoji's missing social link though is infinitely worse. where is his slowly mounting horror as he starts poking holes in his backstory? his desperation to validate that he's actually real? that he exists?! like yeah, it's nice that the linked episode doubled down on his bisexuality, but i'd rather keep the psychological breakdown aspects of it, y'know?

the difficulty - i started playing reload normal - the level i'd typically use for a blind run of a persona game - aaaaand swapped to hard the second i unlocked theurgy. even then though, the game was a cakewalk until january hit. while i love theurgy, the game is absolutely not scaled around it, especially since you can charge/concentrate them. doing that, you can easily rack up thousands of damage without even going ham with fusion. unfortunately, reload is just... really easy.

the plot's too faithful to the original - while reload added new content, it pretty much left the story untouched outside of the beach scene. that's... not good, as persona 3's narrative had some pretty big problems. the biggest issue is the unchanged pacing - the strega storyline really needed to start a month earlier, and ryoji needed an extra month to integrate with the characters due to his lack of social link. this is one of the things i'm explicitly docking a point for - reload still doesn't kick off until the yakushima arc, which is well over a third into the game.

despite my criticisms, i do want to note that my experience with reload was predominately positive. it's (extremely) sad that you still need to play portable to experience the full persona 3 story, but p3re is still a fantastic game, and has a lot of gameplay features i'd be delighted to see in persona 6.

that's all i've got to say for now - until next time!

[vagabondfromkanto]

LIFE-FIBER HUNTER

A returning MOSTLY post-canon Ryuko Matoi. Est. 2014. A traveling vagabond and a fighter on a mission. (Or a delinquent school girl, if that's more your style.)

Indie | Semi-selective | Almost anything goes 18+ on account of Mun pushing 30 Please read [About] and [Rules] OR hit "Read more" if you're on mobile.

[Permanent Starter Call]

[Mun's art for the blog (tag)]

You are highly encouraged to go on the desktop version and read all of this in detail, however here's a brief rundown for mobile users, for the sake of convenience:

Muse: Ryuko Matoi from Kill la Kill, post-canon AU (other verses available, see below). 25 y.o., traveling Life-Fiber hunter (which gives her reasons to meet all kinds of characters).

Mun: Is very much of age, been roleplaying in various ways for like 15 years and then some.

Rules (in short):

No sexual NSFW here.

Anything goes, from one-liners to novel, from crack to crossovers to angst and blood. (apart from point one in this list.)

Don't overthink it, just shoot me an ask or tag me. Or message me. I'm very chill.

If you want other verse than the default post-canon, pls specify when interacting. Otherwise she will react within those parameters. To canon muses as well, she'll assume you're 8 years older or (if gone during the plot) a trick of some kind.

Sometimes I accidentally write too much 'cause I got too into it. Don't feel like you have to match me. And do tell me if it gets overwhelming.

Godmodding: if you godmod or powerplay me, you give me the right to do it right back. My muse's abilities are powerful and specific enough for that within the basic canon. You've been warned.

Abilities:

[FULL PROFILE HERE (pls click)]

Fast regeneration, super-strength and durability, but not infinite, she can die. Life-Fiber absorption (makes her stronger). Can harden her hands into claws, if need be, but it takes some effort. Can potentially drink blood at a crisis dying point, but would rather not to.

Bonus canon abilities are reserved to be used in case of exceptional crisis (see: godmodding/powermodding or pre-planned over-the-top threads).

Important headcanons:

Aroace (there's plenty an explanation on desktop). (This doesn't mean no shipping. Just a certain kind of shipping.)

While traveling crashes at friends' places chaotically when available. Especially likes to enter Satsuki's home through a window, 'cause it's fun to friendly bicker.

Talks to Senketsu out of habit, after one too many Life-Fibers absorbed she can actually hear him talking back.

Got her scissor blades back, since what else do you fight LF with. At some point had to absorb them too, which now lets her harden her hands into claws... but not for long. It's tiring.

Is down for not traveling alone sometimes, as long as you can handle yourself. Or if you are Mako.

WILL freak out if meeting Ragyo, Nui or Junketsu!Ryuko. (Can use this for angst.)

Verses:

Verse 1: Life-Fiber hunter Years after the finale, there's a sudden resurgence of Life-Fibers all over the globe due to power-hungry people going into willing contact with them. As the only creature on Earth still capable of going toe-to-toe with them (and not quite managing the "normal" life anyway), Ryuko steps up. Now travels around searching for the things and fighting them. 25 y.o.

Verse 2: OG anime Ryuko Matoi is a transfer student at Honnouji Academy trying to find out who killed her dad. You know the drill. (Mun can attempt doubling for Senketsu if need be.) 17 y.o.

Verse 2.5: Pre-canon Ryuko Matoi is a punk-ass student who can't make a friend to save her life and fights everyone on account of chronically not fitting in. Walking trouble. 14-16 y.o.

Verse 3: Cyberpunk AU (2077/Edgerunners inspired) Basically the canonical events, but slightly aged up and converted for the setting. A high-class corpo school, a loner nomad with a dead father, a corpo-bitch who experimented on hooking her own children up to Blackwall. Life-Fibers are rogue AIs, goku uniforms are implants, Senketsu is a friendly AI and Ryuko doesn't know that she's a digital construct of a dead teenaged stuffed in a highly chipped body. She's also trying not to think too hard about living at the house of an unethical ripperdoc. 18 y.o.

Down to discuss other AUs or crossover multiverse-style.

[centrally-unplanned]

I recently re-read Lost at Sea, the first truly-published work of Bryan Lee O’Malley (author of Scott Pilgrim), which is one of my favourite short-form comics. It's a re-read inspired by all my FLCL work; I commented before about the ways in which our main girl Raleigh is a distaff-Mamimi. I definitely still see it; she is what I am now referring to as a “Sadamoto Poet Girl”, those people who express their feelings in waves of metaphors they never truly clarify:

It helps that Raleigh is a teenager; it makes sure that any risk she might have of becoming pretentious is buried by how pathetically lost she is. She also may not be rocking any of the emo drip of the time but she has full depression vibes where it counts:

That mask you're wearing is bleeding black from overuse, frikkin hardcore Raleigh. This is definitely a teen angst book but I am highlighting the peaks here, a bunch of its silly chatter with her new roadtrip friends. She isn’t haughtily looking down on a world she knows is useless; she just has no clue, yet, how to make it useful. A key trait for the Sadamoto Poet Girl; their ambiguity of expression is how they cope with the ambiguity of how to relate to their own existence.

Which I think is what makes them work, both for me and in general; the actual ‘plot’ of Lost at Sea is that Raleigh has just meet up with her online older boyfriend for the first time, it went amazingly, and then he (probably) broke up with her and she has no clue how to deal. That is very concrete, and could be very basic - but by making the entirety of Raleigh’s emotional spectrum abstract and confused, the singular plot event becomes a drop in the ocean of her generalized ennui. This is a short story, and to make an impact it needs to be efficient in its expression. Abstraction is, ironically, very good at that; with no singular concrete meaning an abstract idea can hold a dozen simultaneously. Raleigh feels very real in a few short pages due to how much ground her in-her-head narration covers, without it being didactic.

Beyond being a proto-Mamami, though, what I was struck by was how similar she is to another Ash-favourite: Mara from Perfect Tides, a visual novel by webcomic artist turned game developer Meredith Gran (that, coincidentally, Bryan Lee O’Malley playtested as they are comic-artist friends). To start, how terminally online Raleigh is did not sink in for me the first time reading this, which is Mara’s defining trait in Perfect Tides; it's not as big in Lost at Sea, but her estrangement from her physical reality due to the superiority of the virtual is readily apparent. There are these two scenes in both stories that hit directly on that beat (“this place” being their writing forum in PT):

They share other traits too - both of them, being women online in the 2000’s, are fiction writers, and being fiction writing alt girls they both live incredibly in their own heads. I have talked already about how Raleigh does that; Mara has this great way of having an idealized version of *everything* that could be that she constantly holds reality up to. There is this moment in PT where Mara smokes a cigarette for the first time, and is shocked to find it is not an effortless habit:

The author in her playthrough cackles during this scene, and describes it as “some real foreshadowing”, and it absolutely is - Mara can never glimpse reality cleanly because her abstractions about reality constantly interfere. Raleigh is more self-aware, but equally cursed by her own hallucinations.

They also just cannot handle the few moments they break through their walls of awkwardness and socially “succeed”:

Mara hilariously abandons the entirety of her emo identity and thinks she has finally Found Her Tribe until the next time some inanity triggers her spiraling self-doubt, while Raleigh is mature enough to know it's not gonna last; but they both experience the same assault from the idea of social acceptance. They are both downstream of their anxieties, if that makes sense - they build castles of rationalizations in their heads in order to defend against the emotions that beset them from elsewhere. Its why the “poet girl” vibes work - they are (generally desperate) attempts at self-understanding as much as self-expression.

I enjoy typologies, and all of this is me saying that within these characters I see a type, and I see causal linkages to the context of said type. The way a girl in the 2000’s would build an identity out of forum posts and metaphors, because society ~sucks~ but she can build an alternative online, in writing, in her head, a place for the alts and weirdos. But the very limitations that attracted those weirdos in the first place also snap back to prevent that new world from being a full substitute. Reality always wins. That identity exists today, for sure, but there is something of the time and place, of the era, that cohered this identity with a specificity I see in stories (or even people) that capture it. It's structural, and the structure has changed. In things like FLCL I see it, but you see the differences too - how the structures of Japan & the US (and Canada, Raleigh represent) intersect and how they don’t. My kind of gap moe, I guess.

Though, side note: something Raleigh and Mara do not share is that Raleigh, typical for an alt-indie 2000’s teen girl protagonist, is effortlessly pretty:

I will credit the comic, ‘effortlessly’ is overselling it - another of the petty normalities that breaks through her emo shell is how she has favorite dresses and brought them to look hot for her boyfriend. Still, the 2000’s era reeks through here; audiences wanted hot leads, even indie audiences. Mara meanwhile is a full 2020’s girl in her squat, pallid normality; the relatability privileged over the aspirational. Her story may take place in the year 2000, but it's still written for today.

[forcebewitht]

Twisted Wonderland Theory: Malleus And Crowley

(WARNING! Current Chapter 7 Spoilers included below!)

Thank you to @twisted-tech for making the original post about the similarities in shots of Malleus and Crowley (Original Post below) in the recent AMVs.

Now, this notice of similarities REALLY got my brain twisting and turning because the more I thought about it, the more potential things seemed to add up. Buckle up, y'all, because I'm about to take you on a wild ride-

OKAY! First things first, we all basically remember what the overall premise of the game is, right? The individuals who Overblot are based directly off of source, Disney Villains who basically follow the original plots of the movies/plots of the villains themselves overall- but with a twist. The game itself essentially is about the essence of old mistakes repeating themselves, yet actually being resolved instead of winding up in someone being eaten by a bunch of hyenas or stabbed by a ship or something. It's all about learning from the past and moving on, and there have been connections with this as well thanks to the MC's dreams of the past Disney movie related plots as the plots in the current day- that are strikingly similar- unfold. Now, the entirety of the game, the MC has been wanting to do one thing and one thing only- get home. We were brought here for an unknown reason and are being held here without assistance for an unknown reason as well. We keep asking the oh-so gracious Headmaster Crowley for help- to no avail. We all are aware that things aren't as they seem, but what if it's because the answer is right under our noses?

What if Crowley and Malleus are one and the same???

Now, now, hear me out for this one.

Per Chapter 6 and the recent Glorious Masquerade event, we have seen a drastic increase in which Malleus and the MC are interacting and how protective Malleus is about the MC overall- I mean, he saved them from falling from a burning building and practically LOST it when they went missing along with most of the dorm leaders and whatnot. The MC is getting themselves into trouble time and time again, and nothing is being done on Crowley's part about it- so what if that's the way that the game is MEANT to be played? (Current Chapter 7 Spoilers next)

As far as we know right now for the newest chapter, Malleus is in a veerrrryyyyyy massive mental bit of a pickle right now. Lilia will be retiring due to a loss of magic (you're sus too, Draculaura clone-) and Malleus has only around a week to see him before he's just up and gone. And to top this all off, now, his precious friend- the one person here who has shown him nothing but kindness has now just also asked him for assistance in leaving to return home. His statement was around the lines of, "No matter how powerful I am....I cannot stop people from leaving me". And then we get those lovely ink blots we all know and "love" by now.

His fear of losing the MC was already set into stone by the actions of Chapter 6- and perhaps that is why Crowley goes missing during practically the entirety of these events. Crowley knew that this set of events needed to take place to set the stones for Malleus to Overblot- because he went through it himself before. Crowley is a past, now "older" version of Malleus himself who is now trying to undo his old mistakes in regards to- possibly, Twisted Wonderland's destruction itself at his own hands. This is why one of Crowley's first statements to the MC was to the fact that only they can help prevent what destruction is to come and save them all. We have also seen within the past that the first introduction of magic into the world of Twisted Wonderland was through the discovery of magic stones in the Dwarves' Mine- which would mean that the first person to utilize such magic to their own advantage eventually to become one of the Great Seven would be The Beautiful Queen- which, given the time paradox, would explain why Crowley has the hidden apple motifs here and there and the connection with the Dark Mirror as well as a further part of masking his true identity- or, perhaps to separate himself from his past self and actions entirely.

Crowley's mask, hat, and claws upon his fingers and overall manner of dress is actually a way of covering up almost all of the features of his that would point to him being Malleus from a far past- except for a few. Crowley's ears are pointed in a way similar to Malleus, their complexion is almost precisely the same, the whisps of hair that peek out from around Crowley's mask is oddly similar to Malleus' hair overall, their legs are the same length despite them being slightly different heights (though, I highly doubt a mere height reduction spell would be a task for someone as powerful as Malleus)- and even their lips are strikingly similar. The mask Crowley dons hides his eyes and most of his face from the eyes of us players and everyone else in the world, and if you look closely enough, Crowley's hat actually seems to be positioned slightly above where the top of his head should be- almost like something is underneath of them...could it be Malleus' horns he dons atop his head????

This would also add up as to why Crowley seems to be so mysterious about his intentions and dodges around most questions in this regard- and it would also explain his odd behavior in regards to the Overblot stones. Overblots have been happening left and right in his school and no action to stop it has been taken. Is it mere bumbling, or does it have a deeper intention??? This could also explain Crowley's classic statement, "For I am so gracious", as well. Malleus has never...done anything to hurt any of the students at the school. At all. He's just honestly a nice fae who is MAJORLY misunderstood. If anything, he has been nothing but kind- especially to the MC, who he has saved and fixed things for now numerous times within the story itself. And maybe this statement from Crowley is a way of telling himself that his own destruction of Twisted Wonderland prior was not of his own collation- after all, all it takes is "one bad day".

((Hey hey, Force here! Sorry for the ramble here and the lack of my usual message at the end of my Yandere!Ace fanfic a little while ago- ya girl has been exhausted after finals week 😭🙏🏼, but I definitely wanted to get all of this out while I still have the energy. Hope to be back in full swing over this winter break I have to churn out some more writings for all of you dear Readers out there!! Hope you enjoyed this large read of a ramble, and let me know what you think in the comments or add onto anything!!! 💕✨))

[just-a-normal-regretter]

Can. Can I ask to hear more of the it was only Tuesday AU? It sounds really neat (plus powers in the real world is my JAM).

Thanks for the ask anon! o7

And yeah, I'd be happy to talk about one of my many crossover fics (seriously I have a ton lmfaooo).

Recapping "For Me, It Was Only Today": CL/MLB AU with combining lores, Lyoko powers sprouting irl, and some Odd/Adrien rarepair shipping

Okay I'll admit straight off that I didn't realize how much content I made in the trio AUs for a CL/MLB crossover. I thought it was just Cherrybird with all the stuff I wrote up but I'm looking at this one and Strays and it's hitting me my notes are so deep haha

They were so thought out that I got stuck for a moment thinking about how I'd explain this but here I'll try my best:

I mentioned this above but this fic of the trio I do plan to mix the lores together without going uh, too crazy. I don't want to reveal my hand given it's supposed to be a big plot point properly unveiled in this version's take on the episode Franz Hopper (I had to specify episode but it's also fun adjusting Hopper the character in this lore shift).

If this got posted this would likely be a fusion type of crossover I think.

This fic in particular is limited to Ulrich's POV given I want to have the story be about the Warriors seeing Odd's shifting relationship with Chat Noir. The wacky lore is just stuff that goes on in day-to-day. Also sorta open ended to leave room for additional content given the lore of this particular fic is pretty big + the cast leaves ample other stories to tell from their perspectives.

But I digress, we're talking about the Ulrich POV for this fic in particular.

I'll first start off by focusing on the format of this fic in particular. There should be about 12 chapter to match up with the Subdigitals album because I'm a bit corny and wanted to pair that up haha

Each chapter takes the premise of a episode (whether it be CL or MLB) and meshes it together with the crossover/lore shift.

An example I can throw out is the first chapter, which would just be Ulrich and Odd chatting while watching some of the events of Prime Queen happen from their phones (given Nadia did host her segment etc etc).

The CL powers though I agree I'm also a big "powers in the real world" enjoyer haha. Sometimes I just think about this AU in a bubble without the crossover and ponder the shenanigans that can crop up if you just play the power exposure as comedy instead of the angsty potential it is.

Love this AU because the kids are not alright. They have to adjust to shifting into things very much not human, despite having some of the basic human traits.

Odd gets the worst of it given he's a literal cat-boy in Lyoko. The Digitization process is subtle at first but then it becomes extremely difficult to hide that he's growing purple fur, he's nursing intense migraines whenever a Future Flash decides to crop up, his vision nearly landed him some glasses, etc.

Yumi and Ulrich don't have it as bad, but the pains that settle in once Telekinesis and Super Sprint respectively show up for each of them is exhausting. Their clothing tends to get shifted by their exposure, so there's a bit of a running gag of swapping shoes out so they don't constantly lose them (at one point Ulrich has more sandals than shoes lmao)

I also toss in some new abilities because as they grow older aka as the chapters progress in the fic. Odd deals with camouflage that glitches whenever his emotions get out of control (it changes the color of his purple fur like it's a mood ring), Ulrich has to keep a certain mask on him (the one on the back of his S1-S3 outfit) just to make sure he's not phasing through the earth every few minutes, and Yumi has to be very cautious when it comes to stepping in shadows in fear of getting stuck in them.

Digitization (i.e. the term Jeremie coins to explain the shifts the four are going through) is not completely defined all at once. It takes time and as they grow older, their forms will only grow stronger and more defined.

The process isn't immediate for anyone. It shows up with frequent scanner usage, though it isn't until the events of Frontier that it truly settles in that Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi are not exactly humans anymore.

Will also mention that I abuse the concept of TransWatches that Evolution introduced and rehash them to be a temporary solution to let the kids blend in as proper humans. It doesn't prevent some of their glitches from leaking out though, just hides away their outfit changes or their cosmetic changes (i.e. Odd's fur or Yumi's makeup).

Aelita does not immediately experience Digitization given she only used the scanners once then stayed on Lyoko for a long time. Throughout S2 she'll deal with her own changes and will catch up in time with her creativity ability being very uh, destructive when it comes to her nightmares making the power flare. This fic in particular glosses over it given it's not her perspective focus but I feel like I should mention Aelita since I don't give her a lot of love in these recaps ;-;

I also feel extremely bad for Jeremie since he always has the weight of the world on his shoulders all because of his decision. He's the leader of the group and sometimes his plans don't pan out which result in him being extremely cautious to give them another shot unless he's forced to.

One of these plans was trying to enlist Ladybug and Chat Noir for help at the very beginning of this mess. A RTTP stopped the duo from trying to get rid of the machine to prevent XANA from ever harming the real world again. So it's obvious why he wouldn't be the biggest fan of Odd turning around and trying to court Chat Noir.

I'll talk about the Chat Noir in the room. Why him? Why not Ladybug? Well besides my own shipping agenda, I do have a bit of a fic logic haha

The fic in particular starts in the midst of MLB S2. Ladybug and Chat Noir have been established in Paris enough. The whole reason Adrien gets involved is due to Fluff.

She's the one able to sense all this time phenomenons and wants to know more. Fu is already busy with training Marinette to be the Guardian atp, so he decides to give this investigation mission to Chat Noir to satisfy Fluff's curiosity.

Hence Adrien gets his own time companion and has to keep this secret from Ladybug (Fu doesn't want it to leak out to anyone that Chat currently possesses another Miraculous, that and he worries Ladybug would become distracted if she found out that Chat is working on other things not involving her).

MLB S2 is working around the same time as CL S1. So thanks to Fluff's Miraculous, Adrien can feel the time shifts too. He just can't completely remember things.

This is how Adrien gets to remember some of his interactions with the Warriors, and how he and Odd start to bond a bit. A Great Day is when Fluff can finally fulfill her satisfaction and Burrows herself, Adrien, and Plagg into these Time Phenomenons.

After that the shenanigans can properly ensue where Adrien can remember everything after a RTTP has been done. He also has to give Fluff back as she's perfectly fine with these phenomenons now that she can properly access them in her Burrow.

Adrien couldn't leave well enough alone though, way too curious about why these things were happening in the first place. It's why he continues his investigation to the other plot points that happen generally in the fic.

I'm sorry if this one seems pretty jumbled haha. I have been having some issues with sleep so my brain was just all over the place trying to convey this recap without like giving up everything plotted out.

Once again thank you for the ask anon, and thanks to anyone who reads this o7

[house-of-mirrors]

Idk if this was asked yet or not but how about a medieval au? For the ask game

I have a medieval fantasy au in my head but since this just says medieval, I'm going to answer for the medieval courtly intrigues au idea I have(so many things in my brain)

1. Orsinio's older brother Horatio is king of a small, new territory. Horatio is quite young to be on the throne, inheriting it from their parents just around age 20. Keep in mind he's 10 years older than O. Events of the story take place when Horatio's around 30. He's the main character.

2. Samuel is fulfilling his dream of being an innkeeper NPC. Orsinio hangs out at the bar in disguise sometimes and makes friends (finds cool people and bails them out when they get into bar fights).

3. Rulers or representatives of rival kingdoms (Wines and/or Miles) want to shove their heads into affairs, hence the courtly intrigue plot. Horatio is trying to protect his brother, run a kingdom, and outsmart political opponents. Some opponents want territory, others just wanna play with the pretty prince, some both.

4. Horatio and Lucretia are married. It was arranged but it works well for them and they don't have complaints. The King may be imposing but really the Queen is the one holding the country together and the one you really have to fear if you do something stupid.

5. Naturally Orsinio runs into some shenanigans with Wines or Miles or whoever the depressed horny villain of the week is. There's a possibility of exploring an alternate version of Nemesis: what if Orsinio was the one in trouble instead of Horatio. Horatio would be so ruthless and have such a breakdown, even more than O did in canon.

Basically, any story with Horatio as a main character will focus on his journey coping with an anxiety disorder. Idk, it's just meaningful for me to have a strong, masculine, professional figure struggling with it.

[townofcadence]

✨ What was your inspiration in making your muse?

Munday Meme ✨ What was your inspiration in making your muse?

I ended up getting on a roll, apologies, so I put this under a read-more ^^;;;

It depends on the character for sure! I usually end up really vibing with a concept i want to build around, like a personality archetype or a story element. Usually this is a pretty generic concept, and then I build out the rest of the OC, trying to understand their place in the world and how the life they've lived has affected who they are, and make it more personal to me so I get attached.

Caelan for example, is a fae prince who was raised as a weapon by his family during a war, due to his abilities and how intense his magic is-- he was hunting the enemy prince down, had him cornered in a fight, when the ground falls apart beneath them and they're pulled underground-- deep into webbed catacombs, where they're hunted by a monster over and over again. His whole concept was basically born from the desire to play with the idea 'character trapped in a maze being hunted by a creature'. Which--- was initially a concept i started playing with because of a song about the ghosts in pacman being trapped in the game and eaten by pacman xD

I think the main exception to this style of creation for me is Artair, which I'm sure you were asking about! So I apologize ahead of time for the tangent incoming xD

My very first character I ever rped online was Arthur from Mystery Skulls Animated, which was a collection of music videos following a plot revolving around four main characters dealing with the supernatural, set to indie artist Mystery Skulls' songs. But the thing was, MSA only gave us the vaguest details about the characters when the first video came out, which is when I started writing him. The most we knew about Arthur was that he had been possessed and forced to kill a teammate, and that he lost his arm to an animal teammate that seemed to stop the possession. Also that he was kinda like-- a fraidy cat? MSA was basically a parody of Scooby Doo with a twist, so he was a little like a yellow shaggy lol.

But yeah, it was actually really cool because every version of the same character was so wildly different, because it was so vague that there was so much room for interpretation! We weren't sure how well the group knew each other except that they were on the same team, we were only given blood types to determine personality, we didn't even know if the animal teammate spoke to the team-- even things like how they grew up or where they were or family dynamics were up in the air at the time. When his uncle was revealed soon after the video, I wrote Arthur as growing up with him after his own parents passed, but there were dozens of interpretations-- some where Arthur only came to live with him as an adult, or an older kid, with details ranging from his family was bad news, passed, or just too busy to look after him. One of the characters didn't have a last name for years. It was all kinda just--- free real estate lol.

So over the course of a decade I wrote him, i built out every detail about Arthur, including stuff like his history/backstory, his relationships, his abilities, his personality beyond the fearfulness-- even some details about the events that were canon. Over time as I was writing him, he changed personalities in a lot of major ways too, as storylines from rps and events happened while writing him. He changed, for better and worse, and the things I focused on more were less and less aligned with canon. I started experimenting with ideas and concepts i really liked too, especially ones like him being a medium, which then further deviated into eldritch/celestial/fae stuff, since I always had a deep interest in those kinds of beings. But that only continued to take him further and further from anything resembling MSA lol.

And I guess at some point a few years ago, i realized he was basically an OC, but with a canon coat of paint?

Soooo I basically took him and gave him a redesign and overhaul to make him an OC. I kept some elements i loved of Arthur that drew me to him in the first place, but I tried to get away from his original design as much as I could without making him feel too different to my brain. I kept a version of events similar to the first video, due to how formative they were, but everything else pretty much got chucked out. The rest I kept was heavily altered if it wasn't reliant on my own headcanons already.

The only other thing I kept was kind of keeping his name similar. I kept Arthur as a name he used for a while growing up due to kids being mean about 'weird' names, which he still uses as a safety precaution with people/fae, since so much of his history he was known by it. Then I gave him a scots version as his official legal name, since I had headcanoned Arthur was directly scottish anyways and would likely pick it, with the headcanon that as Artair got older he stopped caring what people thought of his name and started going by the one he chose. It was different enough to feel i was separating him from MSA, but close enough that it didn't feel wrong when I was so attached to 'Arthur' as his name for a decade (part of my initial attachment to him was connection to Arthur as a name and him being the color yellow, whoops)

But yeah! Overall for me, it's just about interesting or fun narrative concepts. And then there's Artair being the one canon guy who got hit with extreme OC-ification beams over time xD

Also, here's an old and silly spider-man meme doodle of Arthur and Artair if you made it this far xD

[mamamittens]

I'm supposed to be sleeping but nah.

Here's some AO3 statistics on my stories instead!

Under the cut of you're a nerd like me and morbidly curious as to what hits big in my fics specifically.

So, from my first fics on AO3 all the way back in 2016 to 2023, here's my top stories from kudos, which is a harder metric to hit compared to well, hits.

Btw, just realized that the by year filter is based on update not when it's written, so as long as it was updated in that year it makes the list.

As you can see this is also the year I got into Undertale. "We Are Falling" being my first Undertale fic with the zanny OC 'Tumble', AFAB nonbinary older sibling to Frisk. Mostly a story of crack taken more or less seriously.

Not at all surprised the HP crossover fic "Determined Magics" tops it cause well... It's HP and also written when the crossovers were very few and mostly drabbles. "Hopeful Magic" is the dropped sequel because I had no idea how to continue the story at a decent length and eventually forgot what little plans I did have. It was very hard to decide to officially drop it and I'm still upset it had to be done to this day.

Similarly, "It's going Tibia A Cute Time" was dropped for similar reasons because i started including more details I had no idea how to close out than when I first started. This one featuring an OC essentially raising the skeleton brothers. It was a whole thing.

"Sketchy as Hell" is actually my first romance fic and stars an OC named "Anna" in the AU verse "Underfell", which for the uninitiated is basically edgy Undertale. Wild times. "Colorful as Hell" is the sequel. It is in fact totally finished.

"Shadows in the Ice" just didn't have enough story and nothing I thought of would pad it out into an acceptable length for me, so it was also dropped after a very long time and much reluctant deliberation. At best, this story would be more of a short story. It is based off of a movie after all. Not a lot of plot to start with.

And this is for only this year alone!

Unsurprisingly it's mostly my One Piece one shots for the most part (specifically smuts).

But Sweet Child tops all of them, which honestly tracks, being a reader insert with different romantic/platonic ending with a few different characters. Some of which are still pending. A little surprised the Child AU version "How our Seeds Grow" also made it onto the top area of my list! Especially given how it's just one chapter but I guess folks love child inserts with platonic yanderes idk.

Quite surprised the FNAF fic "A Friend of Charlotte" is on here given how poorly OC fics tend to do in general but given the public nature of kudos and the way the filter works by year, I suppose this teen rates fic had a better shot. This one is about Blaire, teenage medium discovering the secrets of the pizzaplex from Security Breach before, during, and after the games events.

"Fireworks" made it to #2, which is mildly surprising but it is a smutfic about Ace and a reader insert so... Not that surprising.

"Twice Bitten (But not Shy)" being a sequel to a vampire Crocodile with AFAB reader insert smut so zero surprise that it's here.

"Sugar on Your Tongue" is another smutfic for One Piece but this time with Marco, Ace, Zoro, and Sanji in a foursome. Spicy. Zero surprise it's here.

And last on this singular screenshot (there are fics with less kudos under it) is "A Lone Melody" doing alright considering it's an OC centric fic in a massive fandom. All about Melody (half human half fishman) growing up with Arlong (and sometimes Jinbe) as she realizes not everything is as she thought it was and Arlong realizes there are consequences to being a racist prick with yandere-esque protective tendencies. Mostly. It's more about Melody though.

Just for fun, here's last year, 2022.

Unsurprised "Hopeful Magic" tops it, this is the year I dropped it and left a chapter explaining what little plans I could recall.

But yeaaaahhh... All of the 'new' entries are One Piece smut to my absolute non-shock.

"Aloe Kisses" Sabo smut with AFAB reader, "The Only Choice" yandere Ace smut with AFAB reader, "Riptide" yandere Jinbe smut with female reader, and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" werewolf Ace smut with AFAB werewolf reader. Zero shock and awe here lol.

I... Wrote a lot of smut in 2022. It's easier to get a high word count than fluff, ngl, and I did several events that year with smut as an option that I cross posted. The werewolf Ace fic is one such smut specifically for the Halloween/horror themed event if memory serves!

If I had to say which one I had the most fun writing it would probably be "We Are all Falling" cause I was literally pumping out a chapter everyday after classes in college with my roomie (still bestie) reading over it. It was dumb, stupid fun. A real treat with a random, aggressive sense of humor that if you read it, you'd recognize my trademark writing starts real early. Including having unexpected villains, body horror, dramatics, and side eyes references to anime I've seen. Tumble was me totally uninhibited by anxiety and fear with a good dose of angst and the best of intentions. Also absolutely fed up with bullshit but strangely optimistic.

After that? I'd have to say my second favorite that's on any of these 'lists' would have to be "A Friend of Charlotte". I spent what had to be weeks crafting Blaire and her backstory. Her story is also the only one that I can more or less consistently hit a pretty high word count for chapters without feeling bloated, which is quite satisfying. A bit more mature of a story with some fun taken crafting a middle ground between the ludicrously dangerous setting of literally any location in FNAF with something that could actually maybe exist without getting shut down for being... Ludicrously dangerous for literally anyone in, around, or even thinking about. Definitely a little more kind to upper management than canon FNAF management who seem to view OSHA violations as a checklist and a challenge. Seriously, how the hell do you make body snatcher animatronics without a little bit of pause??? Why?? Why would you do that?!? (The amount of haunted animatronics is also a problem but arguably not usually a feature until Funtime)

[pkmnomegaverse]

Okay unhinged omegaverse posting time but….I’ve for sure thought about what a dystopian omegaverse AU would look like for this verse (basically omegas are getting the short end of the stick in society. “Misogynistic” route, so to speak). And while it’s pretty easy with Gen 1-4 since protags so young that “arranged marriage” to a not-terrible partner is how I often run things (as ships are all presumably the same(ish) as Mainverse), it’s 5-6 that are always tricky to work with. Since protags are old enough they would be going through their heats and probably would have a matebond in the works. Per how I headcanon things.

So! My thoughts on Hilbert/N and the mess that could be. Hilbert would he promised away to some guy. No canon character fits in my head so just some older alpha guy OC. But not Cheren since would need to be an alpha so beta Cheren it out of the running. But something something in this route Hilbert hasn’t quite gone through his first heat yet (which is typically the time bonding would be arranged in these “arranged marriages”). So Hilbert is traveling around for one last hurrah before married life it is. But he would end up going into heat for the first time in Chargestone Cave while N is around and things get out of hand (obviously) and bam. They sleep together since can’t hold back (not like Hilbert actually likes the guy he’s promised to). Easy to give into the guy he’s actually attracted to. Matebond time (RIP the Shadow Triad kinda just lurking and not having the gumption to stop things tho. Even tho you know Ghetsis said they better intervene if N tries to hook up with some troublesome omega). Like in theory, Hilbert was suppose to call up his betrothed once he could tell he was going into heat and get things sorted out with him. But since he never liked the guy…

On N’s end, I headcanon that the con of Ghetsis keeping him so isolated is that he’s initially more susceptible to omegaverse nonsense since has no built up tolerance. It’s one thing if it’s an omega he doesn’t know. Can resist enough to flee the area. But when faced when someone he’s attracted to…his feelings overwhelm him.

I do think it would make kind of a mess of the plot and N leaving at the end would be extra cruel. But would for sure explain why Hilbert leaves to find him. Would not actually make N back down though. Would instead push him further towards the idea that Hilbert will join his side after he defeats him. Will still need to fulfill their roles as opposing heroes in the short term. But will be together in the end, as the twin heroes were always meant to be one (going with the idea Kyurem was originally the three dragons as one). Even in non-dystopian Mainverse I tend to view it that in the back of his mind, N kind of assumes he and Hilbert will get together in the end once he defeats Hilbert. Hero dragons were meant to be one, afterall. But the feeling is more pronounced in this version of events.

My gut reaction to the idea was actually that they would just disappear together after the main plot of BW. Hilbert had fucked up the life he was suppose to lead (disgraced omega) and since they’re bonded, the two are tied together. Would be painful to abandon each other. So when N makes his whole speech thing about leaving, Hilbert grabs his hand and asks to go with him. And they disappear together. No one sure what exactly went down during that final confrontation with the heads of Team Plasma, as no one remains behind to tell the tale.

As for how this would effect BW2, I have less thoughts on that, but maybe Hilbert is with child or recently given birth to his and N’s first child, thus why he wouldn’t show up and only N does, once word of Team Plasma resurgence gets out. Boy on maternity leave (ignoring how I don’t actually think this would stop Hilbert from getting involved. Boy could be in his third trimester and is still gonna throw hands with Ghetsis). Nate/Hugh are easy to deal with though since are just another “happily arranged marriage” where Hugh isn’t opposed to Nate going on a journey despite being at the age heat/rut are just starting to affect them both (can continue my Gen 5 parallels Gen 1 agenda since that’s how I deal with Red/Green as well. Happily arranged marriage duo who travel at the same time so the alpha can be close by on the off chance the omega goes into heat). So Nate/Hugh would def have to deal with that during their travels. Like maybe Hilbert would show up post canon to talk with Nate (since wants to meet this guy in person who N seems to like) and Nate is kinda shocked since was not expecting to meet the hero of Unova despite all the stuff he did for the region. And then it turns out the region's hero is already expecting/has had a child!! A bit inspiring, perhaps. How being an omega with a mate doesn't stop Hilbert from being kickass when the going gets tough.

[share-the-damn-bed]

First off, you have to excuse my English because I’ll say it’s good but not great yet, but I have learned a ton from constantly reading English books and blogs. Anyway, I found your Tumblr recently and am curious to hear your thoughts on something I realized. Something I haven’t heard talked about is the repeating ties that Jancy’s narrative has to older times (just as Stancy’s narrative does). It’s my unpopular opinion I guess, but as a Stoncy shipper I enjoy both Stancy and Jancy as individual ships—so the fact that each couple have some striking similarities, almost as striking as their differences, kind of makes sense in my mind. But anyway, back to my point. Jancy’s first kiss is set to the sound of Billie Holiday. Their season three plot with Driscoll puts them in an understated, vintage color palette and soundtrack, especially compared to other character’s aesthetics in the third season (bright colors, modern new mall, modern music and Madonna, advanced Russian technology and facilities, and so on). Nancy in the fourth season is pretty heavily tied to the Creels and she is the only character that watches the events unfold of Henry’s childhood in the 1950s Creel house. Jonathan’s clothes also feel like very old, though that also could be hinting at the financial loss of the Byers family. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but overall I do associate Jancy with a different time period, and to me they feel completely disconnected from almost every aspect of the modern Hawkins, like instead they should be off in their own little world and time. All that being said, I find it so interesting that instead, the writers chose to draw Stancy to the past instead, as in the Light Bright room scene, where Nancy reads her diary entry of Steve and realizes they are stuck in old times. Obviously I understand what that was going for, that Nancy has history with Steve and he represents her past self or her roots maybe. But that makes the big question for me (because in my mind I truly am not sure that either couple will be endgame)…could the vintage motifs in Jonathan and Nancy’s love story be hinting at a similar fate to their relationship as Stancy’s probable ending. Is it that the writers think Jonathan, as well as Steve, are holding onto a past version of Nancy and therefore neither boy can be her future in the end? Hell, I am so confused! I think it’s all so interesting though. Anyway, sorry for the long message, but I love your thoughts on Jancy and wondered if you picked up on any of this or if I’m crazy! 

Hi Anon! Thanks for the ask, you have some very interesting ideas and points here that I haven’t really considered before. I also appreciate that your thoughts come from an unbiased place as a jancy/stancy/stoncy supporter. That gives you such a unique perspective!  

(Also, your English is amazing, truly. And even if it wasn’t as amazing as it is, the fact that you are able communicate in a language you’re not totally comfortable with is amazing!! Take it from me, an American, whose educational system and culture basically deter learning a non-English language so much so that they intentionally “teach” languages way past the known developmentally appropriate time so that students don’t truly learn and retain the language... sorry. Mini rant.)

I guess the major difference when comparing Stancy to Jancy and their connection to the past is that when it happens with Stancy, it is always done so in direct regard to their relationship: we have the Tom cruise poster that Nancy says is “old” which is a direct reference to Steve in season 1 (says Carol thinks he looks like him and calls Tom Cruise Nancy’s “loverboy”) and season 2 (Halloween costumes), we have the diary entry in the Upside Down (UD) that follows with a Stancy flashback that I think is there to show that not only is the UD stuck in the past, but stuck on the night Will disappeared, specifically. We also see Vecna bringing up Nancy and Steve’s first time having sex to taunt Nancy about Barb’s death and place blame on Nancy.

I think so much of the Stancy scenes in ST4 and all the Stancy scenes throughout the show that reference their past allude to one thing: Barb. I will forever be angry that Nancy’s Vecna moment finally facing Barb’s death and the weight of that guilt got completely overshadowed by Vecna’s big reveal in ST4 only to never be referenced again. And, I think so much of Nancy’s guilt is intertwined with Steve and there’s so much unresolved there.

I made a post during the break between ST4 vol. 1 and 2 detailing how the current season threw in so many references to the night Steve and Nancy broke up, where she called him “bullshit” and blamed Barb’s death on them. I also talked about how their relationship (platonic, romantic, or otherwise) is stuck on that night, where they’re not able to move past that until they pick up that bathroom conversation which, I believe, will ultimately help Nancy move on from the weight of Barb’s death. That’s honestly why I think Stancy has returned for Nancy’s character arc. I think Steve letting Nancy go or realizing he doesn’t need a romantic partner is his arc. But I am biased and I’ll freely admit that.

So Stancy’s ties to the past are directly linked to their romantic relationship (and usually those early days of that relationship). Jancy, on the other hand, do have these historical allusions but this history is not associated with their actual relationship at all. I think the only time Jancy really refer to their own past is when they discuss “what happened” to them between ST1 & ST2 at the motel and when Jonathan references Murray at the end of ST3.

I believe in season 2 the choice to have jazz music at Murray’s play was to promote their scenes as their romantic. In the will-they-won’t-they prelude to their first kiss, the lyrics playing aptly describe the situation: “I want you so now / You have the lips I love to touch / You'd better go now, you'd better go / Because I like you much, too much.”

In season 3, the music choice at Mrs. Driscoll’s may be related to her age or they could be playing up the old-timey reporter duo trope from, like, the 1940s. It is interesting too that other old-timey music (i.e. We’ll Meet Again – Vera Lynn) was used in ST3 without connection to Jancy/Mrs. Driscoll. I genuinely don’t know what that means, but,since the music was in reference to supernatural occurrences (flayed victims/Meat flayer) it could be a reference to Henry/001/Vecna since that would be the era of music he is familiar with, just like how “Dream a Little Dream of Me” was used to announce his presence in Max’s happy memory in ST4. (That would be super cool if that was the case!)

 In terms of clothing and Jancy, the costume department and creative teams have always been very explicit that clothing choices for the Byers are made with their financial situation in mind. It’s been years, but there have been interviews and articles that mention that Jonathan’s wardrobe in season 1 is “older” due to probably being bought second-hand or trying to make the clothes last longer. We even see in ST1 that one of his sweaters (his beautiful cream one <3) has moth holes in the collar. We also see Joyce wearing Jonathan’s old shirts, Jonathan wearing multiple clothing staples across seasons, and costuming discussed how the boy’s Ghostbusters’ outfits in ST2 are all different depending on what each family was able to afford (Mike’s family was able to buy the newest, best costume from the store while Joyce was shown hand making pieces of the costume for Will throughout the first two episodes).

Additionally, while promoting ST3 costuming mentioned that Nancy’s (and by the transitive property, Jonathan’s) outifts were inspired by her boyfriend’s New Wave tastes (brighter colors, sharper patterns and lines, iirc) So, I think their outfits are not exactly supposed to make us conjure up images of previous decades.

Because of how different the concept of “the past” is used for Stancy (directly tied to their relationships’ past) and Jancy (vintage motifs that could very much be unrelated to their relationship), I don’t think the situations are comparable. You mention that both boys may be “holding onto a past version of Nancy and therefore neither boy can be her future” but I think the narrative has only suggested that for Steve, and only partially.

I would argue that Steve’s not even holding onto a past version of Nancy, I think he is romanticizing their relationship with an idealistic (not an accurate) version of Nancy at the center. When Steve mentions his dream of Nancy being his wife and mother to their six nuggets, this doesn’t sound like future Nancy but it also doesn’t sound like the Nancy he previously dated. This is why I think Steve’s arc will involve letting Nancy go/finally getting closure on their relationship and seeing it for what it was.

Jonathan, alternatively, recognizes Nancy’s ambition, sees her for who she is, and is very much supportive of Nancy’s future and the future she wants for herself; so much so that he deeply fears holding her back and is willing to let her go so she can succeed (when what he should actually do is talk to her. I don’t want to romanticize his approach: it’s bad and it’s actively hurting Nancy, but I do think one can sympathize with his actions while agreeing there’s a better approach).

You also mention that “[Jancy] feel[s] completely disconnected from almost every aspect of the modern Hawkins, like instead they should be off in their own little world and time” and I completely agree. It’s like when they’re interacting on screen together, they’re the only two present. Part of that is because when they speak with one another it's always in this quiet, intentional way. Idk what else to add, this is just actually one of my favorite things about them.

Thank you so much for the ask, Anon! This was a lot of fun and forced me to consider things in ways I haven’t thought about before. Also, a huge thank you to @p-zombiee for talking this through with me (as it is super confusing and I kept getting lost in it myself!)