#but it also still had issues with theming and being consistent

[keroinnie]

i do think the skz codes that are strongly themed and follow the theme closely are the best episodes of the show (ie: why cant we stop seungmin, food fighter, innie graduation, haunted school, skz-ary town, the board game one, the first mafia one)

[sunshineangel0]

𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘢

pairing- kim seungmin x reader summary- when the world is given 21 days until total destruction, two friends experience the kind of love that never got a chance. genre- sci-fi, slow-burn romance, angst word count- ~2.6k warnings- end-of-world themes, emotional intensity, mild language, grief, existential dread, implied death a/n- sorry sorry sorry sorry. im on this angsty writing streak right now plwase forgive me. also, if you've ever loved someone in silence until the end, this one's for you.

Three Weeks Prior — Impact Zero

The coffee machine made a noise like it was choking on gravel.

You leaned against the counter in the break room, arms folded, watching the old machine stutter through its final breath. The overhead lights buzzed faintly, casting a yellow tint across the white tile and metal countertops. Everything in this building felt slightly too old, slightly too used — like it had seen better years and was trying to hold on, just like the people inside it.

The mug in your hand had a faded logo on it: NAO — North Atlantic Observatory, your workplace and second home for the last four years. An isolated, high-security research facility perched on the northern coast, built to monitor orbital anomalies and space weather. Boring work most days. Too quiet. But stable.

Until recently.

You rubbed your eyes. The sun wasn’t even up yet. You hadn’t slept.

"Looks like it's finally giving up," came a familiar voice behind you.

You didn’t need to turn around to know it was Seungmin. You just let out a soft huff of a laugh.

"Same," you replied.

He came to stand next to you, setting his elbows on the counter, mirroring your tired posture. His hoodie was half-zipped over his standard-issue uniform, and there was a smudge of graphite on his jaw, probably from him resting his head on his hand while scribbling calculations again. You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye.

"You look like hell," you said.

"I aim for consistency." He smiled, but his eyes were tired too. “Also, this is my third shift in a row. I’m legally a ghost now.”

You handed him the mug. “Drink. It’s toxic, but it’s warm.”

He took it, fingers brushing yours for just a second too long. But you didn’t pull away, and neither did he. That was how it always was with you two — almost something, never said.

The silence settled again. There was something about the early hours, before the building came to life, that made everything feel fragile. And lately, fragile felt more like a warning than a mood.

“I checked the readings again,” you said quietly. “There’s still an anomaly near the asteroid belt.”

He didn’t answer immediately. Just sipped.

You glanced at him. “You think it’s real?”

He met your eyes, and his voice dropped. “I think… we’re not being told everything.”

You nodded once. That’s what scared you most.

A faint beep echoed from down the hall — the server room.

Then another. Louder.

Then, the sound that stopped everything: the intercom crackled to life.

“All personnel to stations. This is not a drill. Orbital threat confirmed. Impact trajectory locked. Impact Zero protocol activated. Estimated contact: 21 days. Repeat — this is not a drill.”

The hallway went still.

In the break room, the coffee machine gave a final wheeze and shut down completely.

You didn’t move at first. You were still holding the paper coffee cup, staring at the wall, not quite breathing.

“...No,” Seungmin said under his breath, huffing a laugh. “That’s not—there’s no way.”

You slowly turned your head toward the hallway. Monitors were lighting up outside the glass walls — red lines, looping trajectories, countdowns. Sirens began to flicker faintly through the base, not full blaring yet, just the beginning pulses of something much bigger.

People started rushing down the hall. A tech assistant dropped her tablet. Someone was already shouting into a radio.

You felt it in your chest before your brain caught up: that sinking, weightless drop of understanding.

It wasn’t a glitch. It wasn’t hypothetical. It was real.

“Seungmin,” you said softly.

He was still staring at the floor, the cup forgotten in his hands. His face had gone pale.

When he looked at you, it was the first time in all your years here that he wasn’t joking, wasn’t sarcastic, wasn’t playing anything off.

Just scared. “You don’t think—” he started, voice thin.

“I do,” you said. “I think this is it.”

And suddenly the room felt colder. The air thinner.

He nodded once. Swallowed hard. "Okay."

Then he said it again, quieter. "Okay."

20 Weeks To Impact —

The base fell apart fast after the confirmation.

People ran. Some in blind panic. Others with cold resolve. The top brass left first — whisked away on private jets, secure transports, escorted under military silence. Then the families, the ones with connections. Then the hopefuls, the cowards, the ones who couldn’t face it.

You stayed.

So did Seungmin.

No one told you to. There wasn’t a command, not even a goodbye. Just... silence. The lights in the hallway flickered one morning, and no one came to fix them. You stopped getting updates from command. Coffee stopped brewing. One by one, the monitors went dark.

You and Seungmin stayed in the operations wing, sleeping in shifts, monitoring what little data still came through. It felt pointless, but it was better than waiting with empty hands.

You didn’t talk about the meteor at first. You filled the silence with sarcasm, inside jokes, trading terrible snack bar finds like currency. But your laughs were quieter. Your eyes lingered longer.

One night, Seungmin found an old vinyl tucked in storage. You had no idea why it was there — maybe someone thought the end of the world should have a soundtrack. He didn’t say anything. Just put it on, turned up the volume, and nodded toward you like it was an invitation.

You danced. Badly. Quietly.

He watched you with this look. Like he was memorizing.

You noticed.

14 Days To Impact —

The outside world started showing signs of rot. The power grid flickered. Civilian broadcasts stopped. Riots spread through cities. Roads clogged with cars that never moved again.

From the base, you could see smoke on the horizon almost every day. Not close enough to reach you. But close enough to remind you.

Seungmin stopped making jokes.

You spent a lot of time on the roof.

He started bringing you coffee — the last of it, rationed with ceremony. Some nights you’d find him already there, staring at the stars, and he’d pass you a chipped mug without speaking.

Once, after a long silence, he asked: “Do you think we would’ve made it, if none of this happened?”

You didn’t answer. You couldn’t.

But you stayed next to him until morning.

7 Days To Impact —

By the third week, the base was a ghost. The doors stayed open. Wind blew dust across the lobby. No one was coming back.

There was no plan anymore. No broadcasts. No hopeful countdowns. Just a sky that grew redder every night.

You stopped checking the data. You started living in the in-between moments — eating together in the empty mess hall, flipping through old books, playing music through speakers with frayed wires.

One night, you woke from a nightmare — fire, sky splitting in half — and walked out into the hallway barefoot, your chest tight.

Seungmin was already there. Sitting on the cold floor, head back against the wall, eyes wide open.

You sat next to him.

Neither of you said anything.

You leaned your head on his shoulder.

He didn’t move away.

Two Days To Impact —

Now, it's quiet.

The kind of quiet that wraps around your bones. No sirens. No more data. No more pretending.

You and Seungmin packed small bags. Not because you were going anywhere — just because it felt like doing something.

You didn’t ask where he wanted to go.

He just said, “There’s a place I used to go when I was a kid. A drive-in theater just outside town. Haven’t been there in years.”

You nodded.

He looked at you like he was asking for more than permission.

You nodded again.

Tomorrow, you’d drive out together. Watch a movie that isn’t playing. Under stars that are about to disappear.

And maybe — finally — say all the things you never let yourselves say before.

Day Of The Impact — 2 Hours Until Impact

The sky looked wrong.

Too bright, too red — like the sun had cracked open and started bleeding. Clouds moved strangely, fast and low, as if the world knew what was coming and couldn’t sit still.

But the drive-in was still there.

It sat at the edge of the world.

Not literally — just on the edge of what used to be town. But now, with the roads abandoned and the sky sick with color, it felt like the end of everything. The rusted sign out front still read COSMIC DRIVE-IN in broken letters, and beneath it, someone had spray-painted: “Now Showing: THE END”.

Seungmin parked the car right in front of the big screen.

It leaned, weathered and stained by time, but still standing. Behind the projection booth, the hills rolled out into darkening gold, shadows stretching across the horizon. The sky looked bruised — reds and purples and sick yellows blending into something unnatural.

He turned off the engine.

Neither of you moved for a moment.

“Give me ten minutes,” he said, grabbing the backpack and hopping out.

You stayed seated, eyes scanning the horizon. The clouds pulsed faint orange. Your chest was tight with something massive and unnamed.

Ten minutes later, a sudden flicker lit up the screen.

And then — impossibly — the projector began to hum.

You stepped out, stunned, watching grainy black-and-white spill across the canvas.

Casablanca

Seungmin stood by the shack-turned-booth like it was something sacred. The screen flickered behind him, a grainy beam of black and white cutting across the gravel lot. He crossed his arms, the corners of his mouth tugged up in a smile that looked half triumphant, half broken — like a man who just held a crumbling world together with duct tape and spit and sheer willpower.

He walked back to you, slow and steady, never taking his eyes off your face. Like he was memorizing it.

“I figured...” he said quietly, voice rough with exhaustion and something deeper, “if we’re going out… we should go out watching something that knew how to end.”

You tried to smile, but your lip trembled. Your whole body did.

“God, Seungmin,” you breathed, barely audible. “I’m so fucking scared.”

His face changed — just slightly, just enough. Like a crack down the center of a mask that had held too long. He closed the distance between you in a single heartbeat and wrapped his arms around you like he meant to fight the sky itself.

“I know,” he whispered into your hair, his voice shaking. “Me too.”

You held on like the world was already slipping, like the ground might fall away if you let go. Around you, the gravel lot was still. The air thick with the static of endings. On the screen, Bogart told Ingrid goodbye — again, like he always did. For the hundredth time. Maybe the last time.

You pulled back just far enough to see Seungmin’s eyes. He was already looking at you like he’d never seen anything else.

“I should’ve said this before,” you whispered. “I should’ve said it a thousand times.”

His hands stayed on your waist. Gentle. Solid.

“Then say it now.”

Your throat tightened. The words hurt coming out, like your lungs weren’t built to carry them.

“I love you.”

It broke something open between you — not cleanly, not neatly, but like a dam splitting at the seams. Seungmin didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink.

“I’ve loved you,” he said, voice cracked and raw, “since the first time you brought me that godawful coffee and told me my hair looked like a dying poodle.”

You choked out a laugh that turned into a sob.

“Since you didn’t leave. Since every night we waited and wondered and watched the sky, and you were still here. You always stayed.”

And then you kissed him.

Not like the movies — there was no slow lean-in, no swelling music. It was desperate. Messy. Your teeth bumped. Your tears mixed. It was the kind of kiss people don’t survive without. The kind that says if we go, we go like this.

You didn’t stop there.

In the front seat of the car, with the old blanket pulled over half your bodies, skin pressed to skin, you clung to each other like drowning things. No words. Just gasps, touches, sobs muffled against each other’s throats. His hands trembled against your spine. Your fingers curled in his hair like lifelines. You made promises without saying them — promises the world didn’t have time left to keep.

Above you, the stars were bleeding red.

But for one hour, it didn’t matter.

For one hour, there was only the warmth of him, the sound of his breathing, your heartbeat syncing with his.

After, you lay curled against his chest, your head rising and falling with every breath he still managed to take. Casablanca was long over. The screen was blank. The speakers had gone quiet.

The silence felt like it was holding its breath.

And then you felt it.

That low, distant rumble.

Not a sound — not really. More like a presence. A vibration that moved through your bones like thunder in the marrow. You both sat up slowly, instinct holding you still.

Far on the horizon, the sky had torn. A jagged seam of light split the clouds, too bright to be natural. Too vast. It didn’t spread — it consumed.

You reached for Seungmin’s hand. He caught it instantly, but his fingers were shaking. Yours were too. You held on like it would anchor you. Like it could undo what was coming.

Seungmin looked at you like you were the last real thing left in the world.

“I’m not scared anymore,” he said, and it sounded like the end of something.

Tears ran down your cheeks, hot and endless.

“I am,” you whispered.

He leaned in. Forehead pressed to yours. Eyes wet, but steady.

“I got you,” he said.

The light swelled.

Everything turned gold and white and endless, like the stars had come down all at once to burn the earth clean.

You didn’t look away from him.

He kissed you, one final time.

No fear. No future. Just now.

And when the sky came down, he held you like he could hold it back.

Year 147 A.I.Z (After Impact Zero)

The road was cracked, but it held.

Weeds had burst through the asphalt in places, curling like green veins across what used to be highways. A rusted sign leaned sideways at the turnoff: — COSMIC DRIVE-IN — CLOSED —

No one had come here in years.

The girl stepped out of the all-terrain rover, dust kicking up beneath her boots. She was young — maybe twenty. Hair pulled back in a knot, a thick canvas jacket with a radiation patch on the sleeve. She carried a small camera slung across her chest.

She walked slowly across the gravel lot.

The metal speaker poles were still there, bent and sun-bleached. The snack shack was nothing more than a shell, but the screen stood — faded, cracked down one side, but standing.

She lifted her camera and took a photo.

Inside the booth, everything was half-rotted. Dust covered the console, but the projector still sat like a sleeping relic. She brushed off the label:

Model 1973 | Last Run Logged: April 11

She paused. Eyes narrowed. Something glinted under a drawer.

A tape. A movie. Casablanca.

Old, black, and barely labeled. The words scratched in shaky handwriting:

“our last night — s.”

She took it.

The moment felt sacred.

As she turned to leave, she noticed two names, scratched into the wall of the booth with what looked like a key:

Y/N & Seungmin Final Show.

She didn’t know who they were.

But when she got back to the rebuilt city, she’d restore the film. She’d watch it. She’d tell people.

And they would remember.

Title Card

LAST NIGHT AT THE CINEMA

They didn’t make history. But they made a moment.

One screen. One love. One ending.

April 11 — The world fell silent. But their story played until the final light.

“This was my best scene.”

©sunshineangel0 𖹭 if you liked this work, please consider reblogging, commenting or liking! xoxo franzi 💋

skz general: @velvetmoonlght @scarlet789 @estella-novella @nightmarenyxx @channiesluvrclub

(if you wanna be added to the taglist comment below!)

[mi-co-uk]

empty pages

─── expired reader has been told she's dying. but how much does it matter if she wanted to anyway? best friend matt is heartbroken to be losing the girl he never shared his feelings for - until now.

expired reader x matt

a/n poured my heart and soul into this chapter please read 😞

warnings: mentions of sickness DO NOT READ IF you have issues with health anxiety as i think it will be quite triggering, consistent theme of death and dying aswell as suicidal thoughts. SERIES ITSELF will contain angst fluff and smut <3

wc: 1.5k

PART ONE

the phantom pressure on your neck tightens. warmth clinging to your eyes while you try and swallow down relentless sobs.

the road passes the window, your grip on the seat belt to ground yourself. your entire body is tense and you can't relax, prevented by cyclical thoughts of how you can't breathe, you can't function, you can't do anything.

you don't know how you're supposed to feel.

youve spent your entire life begging for the end and now youre a walking time bomb. you don't even know when it'll happen. it could be tommorow, it could be in one month or six. it could be right this second.

or this second. or this one.

is it bad that you want it to be?

saves you from waiting. and everyone else.

your upset morphs into bitterness. of course the death you get involves having a probable psychological reset, ending up in seeing the value in living for once. why couldn't it just happen?

like a heart attack or a car crash. it's wrong to want but you can't stand waiting. the hyperattentitive listening to your breath, your pulse. hoping they'll just stop. they don't. but one day you'll go to check and they will. and it'll all be over.

how the fuck would anyone cope knowing that?

"what you thinkin'?"

he reaches his hand over to you, inviting it as an alternate to the seat belt you were still choking. you accept the offer - fiddling with his fingers and rings. how do you explain this to mr perfect? mr happy. matt wouldn't consider himself mr happy, but he's your happy.

"'m angry. I think."

"me too." his voice was softer than his implication.

his thumb caresses the skin of your thigh, your gaze fixed on the front view mirror. youre glad he came with you to the appointment. you don't think you could've reiterated what the doctors and everyone said. you also weren't entirely listening.

all you had to do was ask him to come and he did. simple enough to say but hes the only person in your life who would. its always trades and even deals instead of actually caring about you enough to just do it.

but at the same time, you know why matt does it. he isnt exactly shy about his feelings, constantly flirting and staring. its purer than perceivable but that makes it all the harder to accept. being around matt feels like living, which is more than you feel worthy of.

"dunno what im supposed to do." you mumble out.

matt pauses before responding, "what d'ya wanna do?"

die. live. suffocate. survive.

it feels as though youve been living that cycle since you were born.

rotting. waiting.

does the death sentence actually change anything?

watching. listening.

you always thought you'd pass away by your own hand. isn't this essentially the same?

breathing.

do you change nothing? do you pretend you're the same?

"could do anything you want." he continues, interrupting your emotional spiral from unravelling further. "what's first?"

his hand quickly shifts to the gearstick, beginning to pull into the driveway of your house. when still, he returns his hand to the place on your thigh, turning his gaze towards you in the passenger seat.

"nothing?"

a small smirk appears on his face. "yeah we can do that."

────୨ৎ────

the movie you don't care about filters the silence of the room. you try to focus on your own breathing - monitoring the normality of it. your head is pressed against matts chest as his arms are resting around you. youre certain matt isnt paying much attention to the movie either.

its as if you're a walking hypothetical. people speculate about how they'd react if they find out they had a limited time left to live. it's all fun and games, imagining the perfect reaction and final moments but it's all unrealistic. you can't just decide immediately the best course of action and you can barely name the emotions you feel about the fact you're going to fucking die.

you hear his breath hitch before he takes a deep inhale. oh god.

"can I um- can I ask you something?"

"matt-"

"I know you don't wanna have this conversation b-but we need to have it."

you push yourself out of his grasp and sit up, knees pressed close to your chest in avoidance. matt becomes even more timid following the distance you created between you, sitting up and placing himself beside you.

"you know how I feel." he strains out his words, fearful of how you'd receive them. "a-and I just think we should talk about them while-" he chokes a sob as you finally meet his gaze to see how glossy his eyes had become. "while we can."

you shift yourself closer - wrapping your arms around the top of his back as matt instinctively reciprocates the hug. it's a tight grip, forcing closeness as if you'll evaporate if he isn't quick. "'m sorry" you whisper while you press kisses onto matts brown locks, fingers beginning to twirl them in a soothing manner. you're filled with relief when his breathing settles into an even pace.

"is it really fair on you, matt? 'm not-" your voice loses certainty as you feel the warmth return to your eyes. "'m not gonna be here long."

he only hugs you tighter, "don't care."

matt couldn't just watch you die, not when he'd essentially been doing that since you met. he didn't understand his role, or if he even had one.

was he suppose to use those final months the way he wanted to spend the years with you as he'd imagined? or was that unfair? he'd have to move on eventually, at least that was your stance on the situation. matt was sure he wouldn't. especially not if you left him this soon. you'd formed an imprint on his heart, one that he undoubtedly cherished and always would until the day he died.

"i-i can't, matt" your voice is laced with regret, the words beginning to echo through matts mind. "I can't" you mutter quietly, repeating it almost as if you're promising something to yourself.

a sob escapes you, matt retreating slightly to cup your face in his hands gently. he starts wiping the swimming tears with his thumb as you sob quietly, your hands placed on the top of his. "'s not fair" you mumble out. matt shakes his head in agreement. you reach your arms around the back of his neck, matt reciprocates the gesture and wraps his arms around your lower back, allowing him to cradle you in his lap. he rubs soothing patterns on your back while you softly weep buried in the crook of his neck.

"I just," you sniff, "just want control over my own life," matt begins placing delicate kisses on your shoulder blade, each placed with intent as if trying to transfer his own life to yours.

"could um, could make a list? of everything you wanna do?" he whispers softly inbetween kisses.

you hesitate for a moment before nodding as you rest on matts shoulder.

"not now" you mumble, too exhausted and relaxed against matt to want to get up.

"not now, okay" he agrees, "just stay there, yeah?" he begins to lean himself more securely against the headboard as he ensures your comfort in his grasp. your breathing is calmer now, peering up to admire matt as he comforts you, fiddling with your hair. seeing you relax calms matt down too, he focuses on your breathing while he admires your features. "any ideas?" he queries with a small smile on his face, wanted to lighten the atmosphere.

you ponder for a moment, meeting matts loving gaze and scanning his face.

"wanna.. get high" matt chuckles in response, not having any guesses but regardless, that wasn't what he anticipated.

"yeah?" he smirks, glad to see your personality shine through despite the weight of the day so far.

"and get really drunk" you mirror matt in giggles, his laugh shaking you as you lay against him. "like say something stupid drunk"

"what's stupid to say?" he says inbetween small chuckles.

"I dunno, i gotta get drunk and find out!"

your laughs layer together, the same way they always had. reminding you of your whole life thus far, matt relentlessly sticking by your side through-out.

"kinda want a dog" you begin thinking out loud, evaluating all your options. "but I don't want it to end up alone."

matts smile wavers slightly but he pushes forwards nonetheless. "I could look after it," despite matts desperation to avoid acknowledging the very likely fact he'll eventually be living in a world without you, he knows he has to. if he's afraid then how could you not be? "yknow, after."

you push yourself closer to him, inhaling his scent and indicating for him to hold you tighter. the idea of your own death making you feel more fragile than ever.

"be like a mini me for when I'm gone." matt nods in agreement, not trusting himself to give a verbal response. he places a kiss to your temple, earning a giggle from you as well as a return to a smile on both of your faces.

"what else?"

────୨ৎ────

NAVIGATION

AU MASTERLIST

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p.s im quite proud of some parts of this chapter 😞 also I've ironically had a couple health scares since I made this au but yas I hope you enjoyed :3 also this chapter is dedicated to @mattsstarlet for giving me the motivation to start writing this chapter :3

taglist: @pair-of-pantaloons @oopsiedaisydeer @corspebridedelrey @faiyaz555 @izzylovesmatt @sturniolosrtewsexy @courta13 @sturns-mermaid @emely9274 @baebadoobee4ever @fw-lee @afr8idofrats @stvrniolotrxpl3ts @chrxsprettygirl @franticroads @m4gz-png @sosasturns @clairomatt @allisonclairee @mattshorsenecklace @whor3ing @matts-girlfriend @obsessedwiththesturniolos @shadowthesim237 @xeneasworld @chrisslut04 @jetaimevous @eeyoresturnz @vanteguccir

[thethiefandtheairbender]

as a lifelong ATLA fan who narrowly had ATLA dethroned as my top show by The Dragon Prince steadily over the past 5 years, the similarities between the two have very little to do with the surface level parallels that get regularly drawn between them.

Like ATLA, TDP has Books for seasons and chapters for episodes, but unlike ATLA, which only touched on storytelling sparingly as a theme, TDP is obsessed with interrogating storytelling and history and the presence of unreliable, biased narrators throughout many of its episodes (most notably 2x05, 2x06, 3x06, 4x04, and 4x07 among them). Half of what you learn in the 1x01 intro ends up being a lie once you reach S3, with more being steadily deciphered.

Yes, TDP has different magics with people living under those umbrella terms... for the elves. Humans are coming culturally at things from a completely different angle, and the elves' connection to their primal sources are discussed philosophically in detail, informing their practices and their culture first hand, including the way they chafe against humans, who are arcanum-less. Many animals in the world are also connected to magic, which influences both their design and which ones get hunted for humans' more 'clever' solution in dark magic, including each other.

The core issue of the Puppetmaster, down to being a coercive magic formed by someone deeply resentful of their imprisonment? Said puppetmaster is the main endgame antagonist of the entire show with all of S4 onwards being exploring the ethics of controlling people against their will in various methods, and the entire show itself being a thematic battleground of fate (imprisonment) vs free will for virtually every single character.

Where ATLA mostly concerns itself timeline wise with ending the war, very little thought is shown by any of the characters as to what they'll do after the war. This isn't a problem (as it reflects the sheer domineering scope of the conflict) but even Zuko being firelord is only ever really addressed with 2.5 episodes left till the finale. TDP, meanwhile, ends its 'war' in s3 and s4 opens up with dealing with the old wounds festering between people with centuries of history, the struggles that come when people aren't able to let go and believe they're safe or mourn in a healthy manner, and the religious/cultural clashes that may occur when trying to integrate different groups of people.

TDP also has an evil father with a devoted daughter and a brother who eventually defects, but it explores the reality of an abusive parent who loves/will sacrifice for you and your right to leave regardless, even if that means leaving the sibling you truly deeply love and who loves you in turn. Which means that when you and your sibling are on opposite sides of a deep ideological conflict, it actually really fucking hurts bc we've seen first hand just how much they love each other and also how and why everything fell apart not in spite of that love necessarily, but also because of it.

Is this to say that TDP is a 1:1 with ATLA or that it's better? No, not at all, and the latter is subjective. I prefer TDP, but I think they're about on equal ground when you look at each show currently as a whole (although TDP has two seasons left to go).

But TDP takes a lot of what ATLA was doing thematically with some of its most interesting beats and then builds or expands upon them further. It talks further and more consistently about the cycles of violence; in many ways, Jack De Sena's character, Callum, begins the series largely where Sokka had ended (and he's not the most like Sokka anyway; very much his own thing); we get Faustian bargains and centuries' long grief and fucked up people who are trying both succeeding and failing at not doing fucked up things. There are antagonists, but it is very hard to actually label anyone at this point a straight up villain. Moral greyness is where the show starts, and it just continues from there.

That's not to say the show is nothing but dark and depressing - like ATLA, there's a steady thread of hope and humour even as the show gets steadily closer and closer to its 11th hour point - but the show is usually emotionally heavier. There's more blood and potentially disturbing imagery with body horror and on screen death. There's so much foreshadowing you basically can't go more than 5 minutes into any episode without having something that's going to come back around or be referenced again like 3-5 seasons later.

Just to be clear - TDP is like ATLA, but it's like ATLA in interesting ways beyond the more shallow surface level that usually gets attributed to it, while still very much being its own show and its own thing. And that is why I tend to recommend it to people who like ATLA.

Thank you and goodnight

(Also, the fandom doesn't have any ship wars, and the show is queer as fuck)

[bernardsbendystraws]

Pink Petals

Chris Sturniolo x Reader

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Summary: Chris had a past with a few girls who had left him burned. Y/n had succumbed to the utter tragedy of giving up on her high school sweetheart a while ago. Chris walks into Y/n’s flower shop, searching for  a bouquet of flowers for a girl. A blind date takes the lovelorn pair into fate’s hands. Chris isn’t holding back his true colors anymore. He’s a true romantic. Handwritten letters, cheesy compliments…and maybe some flowers. 

Warnings: 18+. This series contains mature themes, read at your own risk. (SMUT, angst, parental troubles, financial hardships, and more. Don't like, don't read.) This warning is made for all parts.

A/N: ALL REBLOGS / COMMENTS / LIKES are deeply appreciated!!!

thank you @bbernard-03 for proofreading again!!!

With love and big tits, Rose

Part Thirteen: Fresh Air ** ** ** **

A flower wasn’t as hard to nurture as most people thought. Consistency was key. Few things were needed, but it wasn’t as much of a task as it seemed to be. The start of anything was always daunting. New hobbies, new activities, and new routines always came with a fear of change. 

My fear of change hadn’t been tested. I had barely pushed the boundaries of my lonely comfort, only finding solace in friendly embraces and stolen midnight kisses with strangers occasionally. There was no preparation for it, especially as things started to collapse in a landslide. 

The flower shop had been untouched for nearly a week at this point. No open sign had been flipped, no flowers had been bundled into a perfect display. There was definitely inventory that had been lost, but that wasn’t the most costly thing. 

Likes upon likes, retweets, and shares. Numbers grew astronomically through each post of rumors and gossip. There was no escaping it, but there didn’t seem to be an end in sight either. 

Stuck. 

I was stuck, I felt stuck. 

After paranoia had completely disturbed the peace, there were few solutions. I wasn’t upset with the one I chose, at least I didn’t think I was. 

But I wasn’t sure. 

I wasn’t sure of anything. 

Not anymore.

Chris had helped me pack a couple bags. They laid empty and semi-full on his floor while more and more of my stuff shrouded around his house and room everyday. That blissful routine had turned into a true routine. 

I wasn’t complaining, but I also wasn’t smiling either. Not when I was alone. 

My shop had been infiltrated. More harassment and random groups of teenagers had completely deterred me. I couldn’t take another picture of me being spread without my knowledge. Well, until I came across it later on with more than an ungodly amount of interaction on the post. 

Peace was found in his arms. At first, it felt good. I mean, it still felt good. But that was the issue.

The most selfish thing I had done in my life was open my shop to pursue my dreams. Those dreams didn’t seem as vibrant anymore. Not as numbers and money started to weigh down on my consciousness with each passing day. 

[ From Madison : Rebecca is wondering why her favorite flower shop hasn't opened for the last week…you’ve never done this, are you okay? ] 

Deserted. 

My dreams had practically been deserted because they no longer felt like the dream I started with. Not when I saw the cameras point at me from the corner of my eye, not when countless groups of fans had wandered in, careless of preserving my inventory. 

Flowers had died–-maybe even rotted. 

The only flowers left were the bouquet of pink petals on Chris’s dresser. It wasn’t from my shop, it was from one that had actually been opened recently, one on Chris’s way home from a meeting about a week ago when all this had started. 

It was miserably sweet. 

Flowers, hugs, affections, and even a stupid note left on the dresser each time he left and didn’t wanna wake me up. 

Guilt reminded me that I owed him every second he disappeared. 

I was sleeping in his bed, night after night, at no cost. 

I wasn’t even his girlfriend.

He had taken me in and cared for me as if I was and it made it impossibly more misguided for my distracted thoughts. 

His T-shirts and clothes had become my pajamas and I stayed in them all night. He didn’t tug me closer to him by his clothes that covered my body, he only pulled me tighter into his innocent embraces, ones that left stray tears falling down my cheeks once I was alone in his shower. 

I wasn’t doing anything besides watching my dreams shrivel into dust and be greedy with his caring nature. 

“Are you doing okay?” he asks, petting my head as I lay limp on his chest. I hum numbly, my lips too tired to even begin rambling a sullen excuse for my depressed behavior. I was supposed to be happy, but I just wasn’t. 

It felt good, it just didn’t feel right. 

His arms swaddling me felt like a dream I hadn’t even let myself think of before, but it also felt so so bad. 

“I’m here…if you wanna talk….” he mentions. I curl deeper into him, letting my heart bathe in the soothing relief of his touch. 

There was nothing I could say. There was nothing I could think. 

Lost and selfish was how I felt, but I didn’t even know how to begin describing how. 

The dream I had worked so hard for and been so proud of myself for accomplishing was losing value. Money had turned to gold as it started to run further and further down in numbers. Even the half-day I had spent in the shop showed me the consequences of my actions.

Rotted flowers and ghostly guests. Vacant besides teenage girls who either butured my gardens with careless actions. Empty besides paranoia and devastation. 

“I don’t know anymore, Chris. I just—I don’t know. I don’t know anything.” 

At my depressed words, Chris pulls me in tighter, kissing the top of my head. “--’m sorry. I…we’ll…we can figure this out, just, let yourself breathe,” he softly says. 

Anger starts to cloud my chest with an undesirable warmth lingering up to my eyes as I blink tears back. 

He didn’t understand. 

It didn’t feel like breathing, it felt like drowning. While he went off to meetings and showered me in love, the feeling of being lost at sea and complete failure had crushed me to a pile of ash. I stayed at home, watching numbers grow on social media with each picture of Chris and his ‘new girl.’ 

Better wasn’t coming. Today had proven it to me. 

My address. My home. Pictures of girls and the surrounding area had swarmed every inch of my camera roll as I screenshotted post after post. 

How do I go back to a dream that’s lost all color?

How do I go back to a dream that’s somehow fallen into the description of a nightmare? 

I trusted Chris. The thing was, it felt wrong because I no longer trusted myself. Somehow I had betrayed myself and although it wasn’t his fault, part of me felt bitter towards every loving act he showed me. It was all a reminder that I couldn’t love myself. He had somehow shown me more love than I ever had to myself. 

My dream had shifted into a nightmare and left me with a vulnerable hope of a future that relied on him. 

“I…I feel so lost. My shop is dying, Chris. What am I supposed to do? I can’t go home. I can’t just live to watch everything I’ve ever wanted crumble. I…how could I?” I ask cluelessly, barren of any dignity as I clutch into his shirt. 

“I…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I…”

“I’m tired of hearing you say sorry, Chris.” 

The words spit out before I can stop them. My throat closes as a lump forms, constricting the air as I try to take a deep breath. 

“I’m tired of feeling like this and the only thing to be said is sorry. It’s…it’s not your fault. I just wish that it wasn’t like this. I mean, sometimes…sometimes I wish we had never met. This is all so confusing. I, I don’t even know what I’m thinking anymore.” 

My eyes flutter shut with the sleepy daze pulling my subconscious words out from my lips. The pool of vulnerability stumbles into stale air as I let myself fall asleep in his arms. 

It feels safe, but not in the way I want it to. 

It feels good, it just doesn’t feel right. 

__

Chris had gone more quiet over the past couple days. Maybe it was a reaction to my own silent behavior, but I couldn’t help it. Almost two weeks with no income, nothing to do except watch everything rot. 

“I think you should go into the shop today,” 

His words were desperately begging me, trying to push me to help myself. It was humiliating to feel so helpless, but it didn’t feel so degrading as he comforted me while driving me to my shop.

“It’s gonna be okay, I…I know this is such a fucked situation. There’s nothing I won’t support you with in this. Even….even if it means you–um, you can’t do this anymore,” his voice shatters as he clears his throat. The poor attempt at covering his sinking heart does little to affect my numb emotions. 

Maybe it’s for the best. 

But even separating didn’t feel right. 

The only thing that felt right was going back in time and erasing everything. 

But the thought of losing him hurt more than the uncomfortable impending doom hanging behind me. 

I didn’t wanna forget, but I didn’t wanna be tied to him. The first date we had. The first glimpse of true hope I had felt romantically. Ever. I wanted to fall in love someday, I always knew that. But I didn’t just wanna fall in love with anybody anymore, I wanted it to be him. I needed it to be him. 

The future seemed bleak with trying to rebuild my shop alone. Vibrant colors bloomed as I imagined him by my side though. Every thought he was included in seemed so promising until it faded with the reality of gray skies. 

I can’t have him. I can’t be his. 

We had talked about it. Once and only once. 

“I want you to ask me when the time is right, but I don’t know if they’ll ever be a right time for us, Chris,” 

“I…I think you’re right,” 

I wanted him to tell me I was wrong, but I don’t know if I would’ve even believed him. Things were only falling and crumbling to the pile of ashes faster and harder with each step we took forward. 

But how long was it until the next thing to break was me?

It was either gonna be me or my heart, but I didn’t know how to wrap my head around either idea. 

“What if we just stayed friends?” 

That was how the conversation ended. That was what led us here. 

Nothing changed though. He still held me every night, kissing my head and my cheeks, hesitantly breathing over my lips as he pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth. 

So close, yet so far. 

But I didn’t wanna lose him. Lover or stranger wasn’t an option. 

Friends. 

Stupid fucking friends. 

A friend didn’t take up this much space in my heart. They weren’t supposed to make you cry at the thought of never truly being able to say those three stupid words that plundered into my mind hesitantly and slowly more and more each day.

Friends didn’t fight silently with fate, screaming at the universe to change something—anything.

Friends didn’t cry holding each other at night, wishing they were more. 

The title didn’t fit. Nothing fit–-nothing seemed right. 

But, at least I had a friend. 

At least I felt my heart being peeled and skinned slowly instead of the shatter of devastation all at once. 

At least I had him. 

“What is–fuck.”

His shocked statement makes my eyes shift from sulking out the side window to the front. The accompanied shops all lined up familiarly make my heart flutter with nostalgia.

The flutter turns into a silent pulse as my mind falls into a forgotten void of failure. 

“Just go back, Chris. I…don’t make me look at this any longer.”

My words are soft, almost like a whisper. Chris reverses the car and starts to drive away as my mind pops up the nightmare of an image that had just been captured by my eyes. 

The windows are smashed, flowers are sprawled along the cement with shards of glass. My dream is broken, guiding my heart to the cemetery as I reflect on the sight of my shop shattered and destroyed. 

Silence is not quiet enough. The buzz in my ears consumes my thoughts as I smell the potent fragrance of mangled florals. 

My heart was slowly dying, but my dream was far more than dead now. 

An abandoned shop. The one accomplishment that I had been so focused on was gone. I barely had the money to live, let alone repair and redo my entire store. 

I look down at my phone, seeing a new Instagram alert. 

[ Crazy fans go too far! No wonder no girl ever wants to be involved with him, I swear. But like…who wants her license plate number? Idc if I’m 13, this girl is NOT taking my husband. ] 

It was a joke to them, but it wasn’t to me. 

How much more could they take?

How much more could I take?

__

Three days. Three days and I hadn’t even spoken to him. Madison had let me crash on her couch, she was even holding a party before she left for a tour at her mansion. 

“You should come with me!” 

I shake off her suggestion as I continue getting ready. A distraction was desperately needed and I was gonna celebrate her wins no matter my losses. “Madison, you’re already letting me crash at your place while you’re gone. Plus, I need to figure out what I wanna do–”

“I know, I know. I…don’t feel bad for asking for help. I know saying probably doesn’t do much, but I mean it. Money, a place to stay, or just to talk. Anything and everything. You’re, you’re more than just a friend to me, okay? We’re family,” she explains. 

More people start to pile in the mansion as the music blasts impossibly louder. I wander around, trailing behind Madison until settling on the couch. 

He’s gonna be here. 

“Hey,” 

My bones jump in fear before relaxing at the sight of his familiar features. 

Matt.

“Hey,” I reply blankly. Matt relaxes further into the couch as my body begins to stiffen. 

Chris can’t be far. 

“He’s still in the car, he needs a minute.” My shoulders shrug down with a breath of relief. “He, um, I don’t even know, this whole shit is…”

“Awful?” I offer. Matt nods, a tight smile on his lips describing his fondness of the situation. 

“Yeah…very…” he says. 

The people dancing clouds an uncomfortable, sticky heat. My ears buzz as I try to take a sip from my plastic bottle of water, sighing and letting it fall as I realize it’s empty. 

“I don’t know what to do, Matt. I don’t wanna be strangers. I don’t wanna do anything that will end so poorly I can’t even know him anymore. I shouldn’t be saying this to you, but I don’t even know if I can be just his friend, either. I swear, I’m never the type to air out all my business, but I don’t even know what to think anymore, I,” I sharply inhale as I feel his hand rest on my shoulder. 

“He feels the same way, ya know? You should really talk to him. He’s been too scared to reach out, too scared to scare you away. I…he misses you. He hasn’t slept much. It’s…I don’t know, I hate watching him like this. He’s miserable,” Matt expresses. 

Matt’s eyes wander, nodding to someone behind me. “I’m gonna go wander around, but you should talk to him. I mean it, it’d be the best thing for both of you.” Walking off, I’m left with a pulsing head and an empty water bottle from his words. 

What do I even say? 

I let my feet push through people and take me to the kitchen. 

Throwing out the empty water bottle, I look up to see him sitting at the counter with tired, sullen eyes staring at me confused, as if he’s not sure I’m standing in front of him.

“Chris?” 

My anxiety is plundered by worry as he simply cocks his head to the side, nodding affirmatively. 

“I…I’m sorry I haven’t–” 

He pushes out from the counter, getting up and standing with poor posture. Tiredly, his feet drag on the ground as he walks closer to me. His feet stop as his shoes touch mine, standing face to face. I watch as his hand slowly grabs toward me, twirling some of my hair in his grasp. 

“Are you,” I lean my head down to analyze his dazed expression. “--are you drunk?” I ask. 

He shakes his head lazily and slowly. “--’m just tired. I…I can’t sleep. I…not without you,” he says sadly. 

My lips pull tightly as I resist the frown forming on my face. 

Vulnerability seems hard to resist—impossible to resist as I feel myself sulk under the sparse lighting of neon colors darting around the room from the doorway to the living area. The bags under his eyes and slow movements describe to me the devastation of his exhaustion. 

I grab his hand out of my hand, holding it tightly as I watch him furrow his eyebrows at my sudden motion. “No, please?” A broken sigh leaves my mouth at his question. He’s sober, but he’s not really awake. I start quick steps up to the room I’ve been inhabiting, pulling him behind me. 

“Come on,” I urge him through the door. He walks in, admiring the familiar belongings as I shut the door and lock it behind me. “How much have you slept, Chris?” I ask, pulling him to sit on the bed as I let myself fall next to him. He shakes his head, staring down at his lap. His fiddling hands stop, his fingers hesitantly pulling mine into his lap, gently squeezing around them individually. 

“I…not much. It’s hard…without you…I just…can’t seem to relax. I’m–’m sorry,” he mumbles. 

I bite on my tongue as I feel hot pools of tears flood up my flushed cheeks. 

He really is miserable. 

I was so worried about me breaking, that I didn’t even try to consider him. I guess I had assumed he didn’t care as much as I did, but now…now it seems like he cared even more than I did. 

“Don’t be sorry, Chris,” I brush his hair away from his face, combing my hand. He leans into my touch, his shoulders falling and rising with deep, calm breaths. 

“Missed you. Do you know—do you know how hard it is,” his voice breaks as he grabs my hand from his hair, pulling it to his face as he litters kisses along my palm. “--to not be with you? I, I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t say it, but…I need you. I need everything from you. I—I cry trying not to text you every second. I…I don’t think I can’t not need you. I…my heart hurts when you’re not around. Even this—I’m panicking…I just can’t lose you,” he stutters.  

My breaths are shallow as his vulnerable eyes glance up to me. “I,” I clasp my hand onto his, scooting closer to him. “I’m here, Chris. It’s okay–”

“It’s not okay though,” his eyes fall as sniffles. “--’s not okay because I know I can’t have you, I know you don’t want to keep doing this. I…I just want every piece of you I can get. I want…I want to be able to sleep through the night, but not without you. I, it feels like dying whenever I wake up and you’re not there…”

I drop my hands out of his grasp, cupping his jaw to redirect his gaze towards me. Looking intently into his eyes, I let my lips fall open. 

“Chris,” I sigh out with a dry laugh. “You have me. You have all of me—you, you don’t understand how badly I want you, how badly I just—just want to give you everything. I swear, I, I want this more than I’ve wanted anything in my whole life. I,”

“No, stop. You don’t. You don’t. You…I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t even think without crying because I’m always missing you. It’s not…you…”

The frustration leaving his voice leaves me leaning closer and closer, closing the distance as I feel his breath fan over my lips. It’s a reliving cool breath of air as he swallows thickly. 

“Chris. I want to give you everything. Anything and everything. I…” 

His hand trails up my arm, cupping the back of my head as I feel him pull me forward. Already half-way sitting on his lap, our foreheads meet as we stare at each other in a screaming silence. 

“We–we need to stop, baby. I can’t—” his eyes flicker, panicked as I start to lean my lips against his. His mouth falls ajar as I kiss gently. 

“Do you really want me to stop, Chris?” I say. His lips talk for him as he chases my mouth with an open movement of his tongue, romance drips in the air as he pulls me completely onto his lap, kissing soft and slow against me. 

“No,” The quiet air with hums of music echoes with saliva and smacking lips with slow and subtle movements. “Fuck, no. Don’t stop. Please, please don’t stop,” 

I hum against him, greedily, pushing my chest against his as my body urges every inch of skin to be touching him somehow. 

It’s just not enough. 

With each sensual slide of his lips against mine, I find myself losing all thoughts and being completely enveloped inside of a peaceful dream. 

This. This is breathing. 

I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. Motions become frantic as we crave each other impossibly so, almost as if every lost moment is being healed by the intimate touches and caresses. 

“I’m not gonna stop, Chris.” I shift my hips, earning a groan from him as he breathes into my open mouth. “--’m not stopping until you know how much of me is yours,” I breathe out. 

My words seem to affect him greatly. His hands clasp tighter on my hips, pushing me down to grind against him. 

Short breaths contradict the feeling stored in my heart. 

I’ve never felt so full of fresh air. 

[galaxymagitech]

Just read Robin and Batman. It…uh. Am I going crazy, or does it have All Star: Batman & Robin vibes? It even hits some of the same emotional beats. Actually, hits a lot of the same emotional beats…and language…and even scenes.

So, Batman is. Not a very good parent in this. In fact, I'm pretty sure Alfred is doing all the parenting here. He's much better than ASBaR, although that is...a low bar to clear. But he treats Dick as a soldier in a way I have seen no other version of Bruce but Crazy Steve do, and this is the comic I was searching for a while ago about Bruce reading Dick's diary.

Unlike the flaming dumpster fire of ASBaR, the storyline of R&B does make sense, and in many ways, it's a good comic (if you’re fine with Batman being a pretty bad parent/mentor). It had very tight themes and storyline, the art fit the story, etc. It's interesting and has a good story! Yeah, I don't love how they portrayed the Dynamic Duo, but I liked Alfred and Dick, and it certainly has plenty of fanfic fodder.

But why does it so closely mirror the most laughably horrible comic miniseries I have ever had the displeasure of reading?

"What are you even talking about?" Well, I present my evidence:

“Yes, sir.” This isn’t even a one-time thing. Dick consistently calls Bruce “sir” throughout R&B. Like a soldier. Which Bruce thinks he needs to be, by the way.

Yeah. Alfred tries to intervene and is moderately successful in both cases. In addition to making Robin a soldier—whether willing (B&R) or “drafted” (ASBaR), Bruce uses Robin against the Justice League, having him fight Green Lantern in ASBaR and spy on the sidekicks in B&R. So there’s also Robin as a proxy in Batman vs. the Justice League between the two.

Moving on, Dick, with his 11-12-year-old emotional regulation, can’t cope with being a soldier. Shocking, I know. So he beats up an enemy so badly that Batman has to intervene. Which comic am I talking about? Why, both, of course!

Near the end of the arc, Dick goes to a location associated with his parents (the derelict circus in B&R vs. their grave in ASBaR) and Batman hugs them there, which somehow resolves all their issues and the blatant child abuse.

“Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures.”

“They’re the same picture.”

Down to the positioning of the two. They’re a little bit closer on the left, but like. Come on. Seriously?

Also, both comics have Batman consistently calling Robin “boy,” which is such a strange alignment of what I think is an uncommon turn of speech that it feels like there has got to be some sort of crossreferencing or sharing of creators or something. And then there’s the fact that Bruce is constantly using the word “damn,” especially when yelling at Dick. Robin & Batman’s Bruce talks like the Goddamn Batman.

Oh, and they have really similar stubble for some reason? I noticed the mini beard hairs immediately and somehow knew the comic was going to be disturbingly similar to ASBaR.

I need to know how this happened.

(For those wondering if you should read Robin & Batman, I still say go ahead. It’s only 3 comics, and at the very least, it's good for research purposes/seeing where ideas have come from.)

[wanderingapathy]

Headcanon that before the group got together, each ninja had a fear of each other’s element.

This is some old stuff I found in my notes app, but here’s the list of their fears

Kai: Water

Cole: The Incomprehensible (Lloyd’s power)

Zane: Lightning

Jay: Earth

Nya: Fire

Lloyd: Ice

I also found the reasoning for each one too, I altered a few things form the original version though

Kai: His fear of water is shown in the show as he doesn’t know have to swim. Self explanatory, but let’s also just say that as a kid he had the same fear and when he used to see Nya swimming he’d get super anxious for her. Perhaps also the innate uncontrollability of water made him uncomfortable because he could always put a fire out but how quickly could he drain water? I think also the difficulty tied to swimming also makes him feel like he had less control and therefore enhances the fear.

Cole: Fear of the incomprehensible is primarily because I don’t think he’d have very many feats of physical things. He was shown to free-climb mountains without any gear and honestly a lot of the fears at he develops in the show are based primarily on issues with himself (especially when he was a ghost). The fear of being forgotten is also pretty major at some point too. All of these are more so concepts, and I think it’s fitting if he’s afraid of something he can’t understand, such as Lloyd’s strange and seemingly ever-growing powers.

Zane: His fear of Lightning wasn’t due to any event he had experienced, but rather just some instinct that made him cautious of electricity. Since he didn’t know about being a robot before joining the team, he’d have no clue that lightning could potentially mess with him on a degree very different to a human. So he never knew why he had this fear, but it was still prevalent.

Jay: I feel like Jay was almost much more interested in the air and sky. He grew up in a junkyard in the middle of an empty desert so I really doubt he had anything other to look at. Plus lightning being is the sky during storms. Also he has so many themes tied to the sky (his makeshift wings, his vehicles tending to be jets/planes, etc). The reason why I bring this up his because I don’t think he ever saw how big mountains could get—or when he did it was briefly—so perhaps he has some form of fear in regards to how towering they are and how they’re so different from the consistency of the sky and desert.

Nya: Now originally I had Lloyd being afraid of fire, but I switched it around for specific reasons. Nya was afraid of ice because it was so much more rigid and intimidating than the flowiness of water. Now that I have her afraid of fire, I think it’d be more based that lack of control. It parallels with Kai’s fear, both of them finding that the opposing element is difficult and impossible to control in some way or another. For Nya, fire scared her because one ember or spark was enough to burn down homes or villages, that an uncontrolled fire is almost impossible to put out even with plenty of water.

Lloyd: Now his fear of ice is mainly tied to the Cole. Ice meant cold, snow, blizzards, winter, etc. I don’t think that he actually stayed in Darkleys the entire time he was schooled there. I feel like Lloyd would’ve ran away multiple times, only to come back when harsh conditions struck. And when it came to him being kicked out, he didn’t actual have somewhere to come back to. He was left out in the cold, subjected to whatever weather was currently happening. Not to mention the first interaction he had with Serpentine was in a cold, icy environment.

Of course, I don’t think they’d show their fears around each other or perhaps they had already outgrow their fears before the team was created, but it does offer for some interesting headcanons and story material. It can also be a nice thing to, with them overcoming their fears because they grew fond of the person who has control of the element.

[thisisnotthenerd]

the thing that stuck out to me about this finale is the theme of new starts and redemptions

because it is a release for the gods in many ways. it is a release for the protagonists of the story we're following.

but in many ways it has turned into the reversal and softening of consequences/stakes that have dogged this campaign consistently.

a list of pulled punches/backtracks in the finale (in no particular order):

divine magic functioning exactly the same post-catatheosis. i think this contributes to bell's hells' reaction; if the magic is still there and the gods are gone, that still means it's okay, right? meanwhile people are grieving the loss of the beings that have defined their lives, especially in vasselheim. i guess this implies that the gods' energies have been tied to the world of exandria; those who attune to and hold faith in the particular creed of the deities can pull on their power as it was released into the world. or they pull purely from faith in other mortals, or smaller gods/beings. but they barely had any sympathy for those losing the object of their lives' purpose.

ashton sacrificing themself and not dying or losing any semblance of their powers. i get the sacrifice. i get the mirroring of fcg's sacrifice. i get wanting to go out with a bang. i also get bell's hells wanting him back. but what i want to know, is why exactly they had to be recreated with dunamis. why not be resurrected and have to grapple with the loss of that source of power and yet be in less pain because of it?

imogen (& the other ruidusborn) not losing power after predathos' release. yes i know why in the doylist sense. but it takes away the power of that decision if the source of the aberration in 'aberrant mind' goes away and nothing changes.

laudna being re-alived in a marriage ceremony/divine intervention. it feels like a little bit of a cop-out when her previous conversation with the matron implied work through time, but maybe that's just my interpretation. perhaps it's due to the reworking of magic and the expression of divine intervention.

bell’s hells threatening their way through vasselheim and getting zero flack for it even after they lost the leverage of predathos. i get the ‘heroes of the realm’ thing. i get it. did they have to intimidate their way through as much of it as possible.

orym's pact. i get why it would have constituted a break; the way it was played off felt a little flippant. it would be one thing for it to be acknowledged as him escaping a real pact that he did get powers from. instead it's more of a comedic moment.

liliana not facing public scrutiny. maybe she did, but it really seems like she recovered and just walked away. i'm aware of what she went through as an audience member; i wish we had gotten to see what imogen vouching for her on trial would have looked like. for that matter, we don't really see a resolution of the ruby vanguard at all.

opal being partially released from the circlet. this one actually makes sense to me. not protesting this one. the spider queen can't live in the circlet all the time if she's in mortal manifestation. also, opal is fully still stuck with the crown.

vax and morrighan as champions of the matron. i do think the matron's actions fit. in this scenario, she's weighing the possibilities of her champions having to run her realm against her own experience and trying to spare them both the loneliness she herself felt. it fits. i take issue with her saying she kept him greedily, rather than what it was, which was a pact fairly made that he faithfully served, which she is adjusting in a moment of mercy at the end of the world as they know it.

the gods are back on exandria. it's been treated as a bit, with reminders of evil babies and what you could do to them. recall the last time they were there the time period was called the calamity. and also, can you imagine what the followers of either betrayer gods or prime deities would do knowing that the god who ostensibly opposed theirs was out there somewhere as a vulnerable mortal? they've started an ages-long arms race of who can find the reincarnated gods first. braius stepped away from asmodeus and was promised a lifetime of being followed for his betrayal, and yet ashton was literally followed more by the kryn dynasty.

it comes across as a lot of wish fulfillment without the legwork to get there. it's not that bell's hells haven't been through the worst and come back from it; it's that the closer we've come to a conclusion, the less it seems like bell's hells have had a stake in all of it.

even their conclusions: the primary goals have been freedom and adventuring.

vox machina's original epilogues came with grief, but also a level of responsibility to their communities (whitestone, zephrah, the faith of the everlight). they had fame from their exploits because they happened on a very grand scale.

the mighty nein's epilogues came with a resurrection, and the desire to live their lives to the fullest. as the 'heroes no one knows about', they were able to step down and live quieter lives. they pursued specific purposes, whether it's beau with the cobalt soul & caleb at the academy pursuing the assembly, fjord captaining his fleet and jester pursuing her art and faith, veth and her family and camp, kingsley as the plank king, caduceus stewarding the blooming grove, yasha tending her home, and etc.

the epilogues for bell's hells focus on them achieving individual goals of freedom to travel and adventure. sometimes they have a place where they settle, but it's generally undefined. it feels as though they're not done yet, because the finality is taken out with the stakes.

everyone lives happily ever after, and the world keeps spinning. it’s like a fluffy fix-it fic, except this is fully the canon of the world.

i’ll discuss my thoughts on the greater implications for exandria another day.

[novantinuum]

Reformation ref sheet for an AU Steven (named "Astra") who's been invading my brain since like,, April. It's VERY wide, apologies. There's a lot going on here because this man is incredibly old and has poofed way too many times for varying reasons. (See This post for how I headcanon that Steven can poof and still be considered a hybrid being.)

While I will not talk in huge length about certain aspects of his AU on this blog due to some of it involving strong NSFW themes, there is a ridiculous amount of other lore I've developed over time for Astra, and I love him to death. He is my sad, lonely mans who I metaphorically hurl against the wall like a sticky hand when I need to feel something.

This version of Steven will likely never have any kind of full ass fic or comic made about him. Despite that, I do enjoy sharing some art and fun character lore for him from time to time. So, I might as well finally give followers like... literally ANY context for him. I've had this ref sheet for a while and just have never gotten around to throwing it on here, LOL.

Ridiculously long dump about my guy under the cut.

Subnote, this was supposed to be a quick post but I can't help myself and wrote you a fucking BOOK under the cut because I love my guy so much UWU

(Content warning I guess for like, extremely vague mentions of Steven/Steven later on.)

-

The huge tl;dr of Astra is as follows: he's a version of Steven who exists for SO long that he basically transforms into something of an ancient, lonely god.

He's outlived every single person he once knew as a child, and so as a result is starved for affection. At the same time, being vulnerable is the absolute scariest thing for him and he's really shit at navigating relationships, F.

The guy is THE most powerful living creature in his entire universe by the end, and yet remains a soft-spoken, (generally) benevolent soul. He dedicates himself to acting as caretaker for the vast, populous world he exists within, and to maintain the continuing legacy of Gemkind. A big discovery that occurs in this AU is that Gems are in fact susceptible to entropy over the span of millions of years and will eventually fall "inert," (but not him because of weird hybrid biology stuff he honestly sees as more of a curse than a blessing) so a huge plotline early on in Astra's lifespan is trying to either find a "cure" for this issue or to develop a means by which new generations of Gems can be created without the reinstatement of Kindergartens so Gemkind doesn't overtly go extinct.

-

But, to start... this Steven diverges off a point in canon- this is the timeline where he actually takes up the Diamonds on their offer of the throne in the movie, believing he may have a better chance of heralding true societal change working from the INSIDE rather than stepping away. Because he pours himself so thoroughly into his role on Homeworld and his mind is continuously occupied by this purpose, he never experiences the events SU: Future, nor does he develop his "pink mode" (yet...) or corrupt at all.

However, he's also so engrossed in his work that he's... kind of a shit boyfriend to Connie as years go on. (In that he's not terribly attentive... always super busy... their visits are often cut short, or few and far between.) Their relationship never really goes anywhere as a result, though Connie wants it to. To be fair so does Steven, but he's so scared that everything he's worked so hard to organize and set up in this new era will fall apart if he steps aside from his role for even a moment that he can't allow himself to follow that want.

At some point here he learns he can poof through a complete freak accident, and that's where things really begin to change in this timeline.

It takes a good few months for him to reform, but once he does he's back at it with all his work on Homeworld pretty quick.

The thing is... he doesn't have an innate physical need to eat or drink or sleep anymore, because he now consists of entirely hard light. It mimics human biology to an insane degree, so he COULD do all those things, but he doesn't need them to persist. So... he kinda takes this as an excuse to cut those activities out of his schedule entirely so he can spend more time focused on his duties as a diamond.

Connie is NOT a fan of this, and this leads to some debate and tension within their relationship. That being said, they remain an item...

Up until out of nowhere, Connie dies in an accident on Earth while Steven is off planet in a place where he doesn't have any contact with them for a few days. By the time the Gems are able to get in touch with him, it's far too late to resurrect her.

The kicker? In the autopsy it's discovered that she was a few weeks pregnant when she died.

Steven is emotionally gutted by this... and the thought of what could have been... and poofs.

The guy is understandably destroyed when he comes back in his next form, and his form reflects that- his gem flips as a sort of metaphorical severing from his own humanity.

He spends a long while in a deep depression at the loss of his childhood sweetheart... at the loss of any potential for (as far as he sees) a "normal" human life. There's a part of him that resents the choices he's made to end up in this present, but like, there's still work to be done.

And as the years move on, a LOT of that work is mitigating the growing relations (for better or for worse) between Gems and humans as humanity stretches their legs and reaches out into the stars. Humans kinda get... really aggressive in their expansion though, and quite territorial, and it leads towards some inevitable conflict between them and Gemkind. This time, with them more at fault. Things get so spicy that some groups of humans and Gems go to war.

Steven tries to mitigate one of these situations at the front lines- and gets poofed by a disgruntled Gem, speared straight through the back because she (kinda wrongly) assumed he would take the humans' side due to his ancestral ties to them.

When he reforms this time, he is glowing a perpetual pink. The Gems don't really know what to make of this, but he seems to be in perfectly fine health otherwise, so they assume it's just a normal aspect of this new neutral form.

And while this isn't something Steven has context to figure out until like... billions of years later, what's actually happened is that he's entered a permanent pink mode, pretty much. Guy's just got that much bottled up, unaddressed trauma.

He spends a long time in this form, and over all these thousands of years oversees the slow return to peace between Gems and humans... their marriage as a space age federation... and their deeper exploration of the galaxy. Beyond their home solar systems exist a bounty of alien species they've yet to meet... some friendly, some less so. There's definitely some conflict that crops up amidst the local galactic neighborhood when Gems and humans show up on the playing field here, lol.

But all-in-all, Steven develops a fairly peaceful and predictable routine during this reformation- living more like a Gem than ever before. He's still got the Crystal Gems at his side through all of this, and they are some of his greatest confidants.

And then... without any warning... Gems begin to go inert. Amethyst is among them.

Some of them simply stop reforming after they poof... especially those who were older Gems, or who have been cracked before. Steven and the other Diamonds using their powers together are able to "fix" this at first and "jumpstart" their reformation, but it's just a bandaid of a fix- these Gems will fall inert again pretty soon. And the longer they persist without poofing from alternate causes, the more unstable their form, power, and memory becomes. (Think of this as Gem dementia at its late stages,,, oof.)

The bottom line? Just like organics, Gems aren't immune to the forces of entropy. Sooner or later, their gemstones will decay from the inside out. Stubborn to find a way to save the ones he loves as he watches them slowly deteriorate all around him, Steven dedicates himself to trying to find a cure. But deep down, a part of him recognizes the futility of this. What he believes Gemkind actually needs to do is to develop a means of rebooting Gem incubation that doesn't destroy planets, so they can rebuild their quickly dwindling population and keep their legacy alive.

The big problem with this is that Gems take a SHIT load of energy and resources to properly incubate, so that puzzle will take a long ass time to sort out. There's kinda a lot of chaos that happens during this time. The reality of their own blunt mortality freaks out a bunch of Gems, and Steven has to do damage control with the heads of state for a lot of other alien species.

In the interim, all the Crystal Gems and some of the Diamonds (White is still in the picture, though) end up falling inert. Pearl is the last of the CGs to do so.

Steven is understandably SUPER gutted about this, and poofs yet again. (Lol notice a theme? Poor mans keeps poofing from friggin' anguish. Help him.)

After reforming with barely any changes, it's right back to work for this guy. He and the rest of his team of researchers are unable to find any cure for Gems decaying and falling inert, but they do end up making huge leaps and bounds in other kinds of tech. One of these advances allows Steven to finally deep-scan his own gemstone down to the atomic level to check for decay- this was previously a process that was very invasive, and came at the risk of irreparably damaging a Gem, but not anymore.

He expects to find evidence of the same micro decay that's been slowly eating away at the rest of Gemkind within his OWN diamond, but the thing is...

He just... ISN'T decaying at all? Even though the sheer age of this gemstone itself should suggest otherwise? As it turns out though, his existence as a hybridized being makes him kind of... an anomaly. When he first reformed all those thousands of years ago, all the data within his gem- data that would otherwise be susceptible to decay- was translated into genetic material. DNA that's woven entirely out of hard-light... but, DNA that has also been constantly regenerating itself thanks to a combination of all the intricate biochemistry surrounding the human telomere and his healing powers.

In other words, he is incapable of falling inert from natural causes, like micro decay. He's functionally immortal. Unless someone shatters him (or... heaven forbid... he shatters himself) he simply can't die.

Which, all of a sudden, makes his race to save Gemkind from their quickly approaching extinction all the more personal. Because if he FAILS- then he'll be the very last of Gemkind. There will be no one else left in this world who is even remotely like him. (Humanity has mixed and mingled with the galactic locals so much by now that they're very much unrecognizable from what they once were.)

His spirit is very nearly broken by this discovery, and he is severely tempted to throw all his own principles out the window and just sanction the construction of new Kindergartens again, if only to keep the dwindling Gem populations up and birth new generations. Perhaps surprisingly, it's White Diamond- the last Gem left who Steven actually knew since the very beginning- who urges him to reconsider. To not give up on his own morality, to not revert all the miraculous changes he's worked for these long few million years.

The big shift in the tides is when he discovers the means to jump to alternate timelines, and thus the existence of the greater multiverse. This allows him to gather intel and ideas from a far greater spectrum of sources.

And eventually... it's with the aid of many alt versions of himself from other lines across the multiverse that leads to him finding a suitable, eco-friendly solution to his Gem incubation problem. (This is the aspect of this AU I cannot discuss in length for discretion's sake. Use your imagination. Or don't, I don't care.)

The following two sections, I'll be talking more about the broad thematics than anything else. At this point, know that there are now new batches of Gems being created all the time. Gemkind is no longer at risk of any extinction, but now- like any stable organic species- new Gems are made at the same rate that they fall inert.

So, the BIGGEST thing here with this reformation is that this is overtly where this guy picks up the name "Astra." Why a name change? Well, after White finally went inert, leaving him the last Diamond in existence within this line, it basically just felt... upsetting to him, to continue to go by a name that every person he ever loved used for him. Thus, the new name is overtly a means to distance himself from that past, and from that pain. (It's also a name he chooses while thinking back to a meaningful conversation he had with White, back before she went inert, oOF. I'll probably yell about that at some point in another post.)

So, too, is the lack of any tangible facial features. He HAS a face, but others just can't see it. He subconsciously obscures it from almost everyone's sight as a means of avoiding vulnerability. One might also have noticed by now that this guy's proportions have gotten like, really strange and sorta "stretched out" over time the larger he becomes... and this is intentional, as it's yet another way he's just becoming more inhuman in form, yet another way he's internally separating himself from those humble human origins of his.

But here's the thing, though.

Deep, deep down, to be human and to live a simple human life is basically all he's ever craved. It's everything he feels he's lost forever, with the death of his Connie. And instead, he's kinda stuck in a hellish sunk cost fallacy of his own making, acting as eternal caretaker for this world that- no matter what he does to try and make it a better place- will never quite be PERFECT. Thus, in his mind, even though he's literally fixed Gemkind's BIGGEST problem, he can't Stop. He can't Rest. He simply can't allow himself himself to lay down and Sink Away into the unknown.

And even if he could allow himself to do so, he is so, so scared of walking that path alone.

If he's going to die... he wants that end to be at a lover's side.

How, though, is someone who's basically a god supposed to find anyone in this multiverse with experiences they can remotely relate to?

Well... ultimately, Astra finds that it's far, far easier to build up a close relationship with varying versions of himself than anyone else. He's... kinda trash at it, though. This guy has so much bottled up Gunk in his head and is so starved for any form of affection that he has a habit of throwing WAY too much of himself into the relationships he engages in, and expecting that same level of commitment in return. There's one relationship with an alt Steven he's in for a while that ends up pretty unhealthily co-dependent before it fizzles out, and then another where he assumes the individual is committing to this partnership for the long run, but then no... actually Astra was always pouring more into this dynamic than he was receiving in return.

This second relationship, when it ends, is pretty devastating to him- since it was one that lasted for like, a LONG ass time. Unimaginably long. We're talking billions of years, here.

Uh-oh! And now he's even more distanced from other people. Folks can't even parse his actual chosen name at this point- except he isn't really consciously aware of this for a while?? It's yet another silent cry for help, yet another internal defense mechanism specially intended to keep others from truly getting to know him. Because every time he does... stars. No matter what he does, he keeps getting hurt. Almost everyone he knows and loves is torn from his life eventually... if not by death, then by some form of tragedy... and he's just so, so tired.

He wants literally ANYTHING to change in his life. He craves some new form of purpose. He craves the attention of someone who might love him as passionately as he loves them.

For a while, he almost believes he's found that- in yet another close relationship he forges with an alt version of himself- but while this other Steven does care for him immensely, it's only as a friend. Which kinda kills Astra, because he's like, lost in the sauce levels of In Love with this guy. There's a LOOOOOOT of story I have here with this, oh my god. If I am thinking about this AU I am usually thinking about this Old Man Yaoi. The great bulk of it is very NSFW themed though, so y'all getting the cliff notes.

The MOST important thing to know though, is that Astra both makes intense leaps and strides in once again allowing himself to be vulnerable with this man, and ALSO kinda intensely fucks their whole mutually agreed situationship up. It's messy. I am crying and wailing at these two old dumbasses. Jesus fucking christ.

But then, it's in the aftermath of this whole deal that an individual named Orion comes into the picture.

Orion quite literally falls into Astra's world by complete accident, but it's a very lucky accident- because she is a diamond hybrid version of Connie from another universe who- beyond a few differences- has a strikingly similar history to his. The big difference, though? She never found a means to create new Gems without Kindergartens, so she was the last of just a few thousand Gems who existed in her entire line. Part of a deeply endangered species.

This version of Connie arrives in some very deep mental turmoil, and so Astra does his best to give them a stable home and a place to heal. And while a past version of him might've been tempted to throw way too much of himself into the slow building rapport they have, he's blessedly Learned a thing or two from the past few major relationship experiences he's had... and chooses to like, ease up. Just offer himself as a friend first and foremost, should they care for one. Man learns restraint, lol.

And it's a damn GOOD thing that he does, because out of the genuine friendship they foster, Orion is the one who ultimately falls in love with him first. The relationship that's established here is one that's balanced, a true partnership where they simply make each other better people. It's through Orion's encouragement that Astra eventually reconnects and makes up with that last person he had an intense relationship with, even.

In time, Astra truly grows to thrive with Orion in his life. He becomes a far more open, vulnerable person, someone who feels safe to truly exist as who he is, to bare every complicated, battered facet of his past to those he trusts. While he may have taken the LONG road to get here, he too heals. And as a result...

One day, Astra simply stops glowing entirely. Shrinks down to more reasonable proportions. He stops hovering around on automatic, stops subconsciously scrubbing the memory of his face or name from people's minds. He stops denying his truest, deepest self- the reality that he was born an organic being, and raised as a human.

The burred reality that all he's ever truly wanted since the day his first lover died is to be a parent.

To live a quiet, simple life with the people he loves.

For so long it was a mirage of a future he thought he'd never chase down, but for how much he made all the wrong choices the first time around, now he has a second chance.

And so in my brain, that's exactly what happens. Astra and Orion start a family together and continue to act as guardians over this universe for many years to come, until- after they are satisfied with the long life they've lived together, and their children have moved on to start forging their own paths- they eventually pass Beyond at their own will in each other's arms, ending their impossibly long godhood at peace.

I really don't know how to end this post lmafo, so I will simply say: if you somehow read all of this, holy shit you are so brave. Thank you for engaging with my insane ramblings. Have a nice day LOL FUIHSNUFSJG

This man haunts my brain so much I missed two off ramp turns on the highway the other day while thinking about him. Help me.

_

(EDIT: 6/10/25)

Oh and also by the end she's trans, that's also important to know. That's like, ENDGAME-endgame level stuff though, so lol. She's the one who bore the pregnancy for her and Orion's child and that experience kinda Fully Awakened some feelings that had been there for a long while but had never fully been Acknowledged and given a name until then, lol.

[lurkingshan]

Hi Shan

I've been watching your commentary on Peaceful Property with regard to its mishandling of its class conflict themes and I have to admit that I'm coming to agree with you on it.

I had to basically go "Welp, I can't see how they get out of the mess they've made now - I guess I just have to give them a pass on the grounds of found family?" in order to keep enjoying the show, which did let me do that but also left a bit of an icky taste in my mouth.

So I guess I wanted to ask - do you think there's a way they could have handled the wealth disparity and classism issues more gracefully within the show's narrative? And also whether there are any QLs you would recommend that do handle the topic to your satisfaction? I could use something good to watch!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I feel like you always make me consider topics more deeply and reflectively, even when I don't agree with you.

Hi, thanks for dropping in! I feel you on this, and I want to be clear that my criticism of the show is not criticism of people who still like it despite these failures. If you have still been able to connect to the friendship and family themes without this getting in the way, that's great and I'm glad for you. Just because the show is doing one thing very poorly doesn't mean there's nothing of value in it.

That said, you're right, they've passed the point of no return on their missteps with the class disparity themes. Early on in the show, after several episodes in a row of ghost stories involving poor or working class folks harmed by Home's wealthy real estate developer family on top of the class disparity between Home and Peach/Pang, I said I was confident that the show had something to say about this issue. And that was true! Unfortunately, what it had to say was garbage.

To your first question, I actually think it would have been very easy for the show to handle the wealth disparity and classism issues more gracefully, and that's a big part of my frustration. They had all the ingredients--a family history of exploitation, a ghost busting team including working class folks to shed light on the family's sins, and an ignorant grandson uncovering wrongdoing case by case and learning that there was always a price for his privilege. All the show needed to do was allow Home to come to some natural realizations about his family's treatment of others, via both the ghost case work and his relationship with Peach and Pang, and then use the power and resources he has to take accountability in the form of restitution and reparations to the people and communities they harmed. My ideal story line based on what they set up in the first half of the show would have had Home setting out to right his family's wrongs and take real steps to restore the communities they harmed. Even if a full on wealth redistribution narrative was too much to hope for, at the very least Home should have been made to reckon with what his family did and set out to do better in the future, both by Peach and Pang and by his family's countless victims (including Kan).

But that's not what we got. Instead, the narrative tried to sell us on the idea that none of this is anyone's fault, and that any harm that came to people at this family's hands was the result of a "curse" or one bad apple's wrongdoing. Instead of saying anything meaningful about systemic inequality and the responsibility of the wealthy and powerful to avoid extractive and exploitative practices, they painted Home's Gramps and family corporation as benevolent, concluding that they destroyed a bunch of people's lives by accident and without intent or even knowledge. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how utterly absurd and insulting that is. On top of all that, despite Home being the one with the most power in this little friend family and making some very serious mistakes that caused harm to the others, the show consistently centered him and his feelings in all conflicts, including Peach's near death and the death of Kan's father and destruction of her community. It also ignored the very real stakes it set up for Peach and Pang's dire financial situation whenever the plot demanded. The second half of the show became all about the poor people Home and his family have harmed forgiving him without any accountability because they felt guilty he was sad, and then those same people spending their time and energy fighting to save this rich family's reputation and livelihood. That's not me offering an interpretation, that is what literally happened on our screens!

So yeah, it was bad! It was clear weeks ago that it was not going in the right direction, but I understand holding out hope that they'd pull a rabbit out of a hat or look into the camera and say sike. But that ship has sailed at this point, and Peaceful Property becomes another in a pattern of GMMTV shows that try to incorporate class disparity in their narratives and get it very very wrong.

Which brings me to your second question: are there any QLs I recommend that do this better? Yes! Here is a short list for other Thai shows that have genuinely done this better:

Moonlight Chicken: not a class disparity narrative, but the only GMMTV show to date that has depicted working class people with full dignity and empathy

Dark Blue Kiss: the only GMMTV bl to tell a romance story that involves class conflict and not completely bungle it (snaps to TayNew for having another show that did better on this)

My Ride: a slow burn romance between a doctor and a motorcycle taxi driver that gets the way their class disparity would shape their relationship right

Love Sea: this one isn't perfect (I think the working class character in the pair gets too little narrative attention relative to his rich counterpart) but it does take the class disparity seriously and ensures it informs the relationship the whole way through

Laws of Attraction: don't laugh at me, I'm serious! This show is mostly absurd but the core narrative is all about class conflict, and it informs the romance quite thoroughly, too

The Loyal Pin: including this one on the word of @twig-tea because I haven't watched yet, but I understand it's dealing with class very directly in its core relationship (with the disclaimer that it still has two episodes to go so something could go sideways)

I'd also throw in some shows that aren't really about class disparity but do include it as part of the narrative background to inform characterization and plot like I Told Sunset About You, Love By Chance, Khun Chai, and 3 Will Be Free

Outside of Thailand, South Korea is always a safe bet for strong class disparity narratives, and in QL you'll find the best examples in Hwang Da Seul's works (Where Your Eyes Linger, Blueming, To My Star 2, and currently Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo). Japan and Taiwan actually don't do much of this, because most of their shows are about middle class and working people as a rule. Miseinen, a Japanese BL that just started airing, looks to be tackling a class disparity narrative, though, and doing it well so far (not a coincidence that the source material is from Korea). And We Best Love is a classic Taiwanese BL with a significant class disparity informing the romance conflict. Blue Canvas of Youthful Days is a currently airing Chinese BL that is doing a class disparity romance and has been killing it so far.

So there is my incredibly long answer to your questions! Thank you again for sending me this kind note; I'm so appreciative that we can chat about this stuff and still maintain our love for these shows. I hope you find some things you like on the rec list, as well. :)

[spotlightlowlife]

Worlds collide, further divided?

Now Helluva boss is part of Amazon like Hazbin, we get rid of the pesky hindrance of licenced characters locked into their media alone.

yet certian characters simply not being able to feature didn't have to equal irrelevance, which is the leading issue both shows.

First off, the actual leaders, pretty regularly amongst all else and no leader at all or threat if we are to like them. The perks of being royalty are immortal with magic includung getting to form shift, in a world where magic is learnt and those at the bottom also practice it, also have been seen change form and hook up royalty.

Blitzø becomes less and less relevant as time goes by and Charlie was an extra from the start.

Blitzø's story was one of a cross dimensional assassination business but at the heart of it was someone at the bottom of society making every effort to improve his situation, while Charlie who sits at the top opened a hotel to double up as a sort of rehab, she hoped to help a targeted group.

Blitzø got somewhere in his story but the plot has been sidelined to some form of complete side quest in favour of fanservise that speaks nothing to the class structure this show aggressively tries to hold on to for a rew seconds per episode, though things are worse for Charlie, who hasn't even gotten her plot off the ground and not only doesn't stand out among the massive lineup if characters and subplots, but her position as royalty accounts for zero.

One consistency both shows have in common is that they are both prime examples of the other major issue both have which is tell not show.

Both aggressively tried to assert that there is a hierarchy and oppression for a minute or two only for both to choose 'look, everyone can be miserable' to depict these things and 'look, someone from the bottom hooked up with someone from the top' as a resolution with the downside being 'some may gossip (but not always)'

The ability to cross over is certainly needed, but it opens the door to both shows becoming further diluted in fanfare that also won't go anywhere

Millie and Vaggie could be friend great, they had no friends to begin with, both are some quite bruiser spouse and keeper to someone more childlike, they're not even interested in their own stories let alone anyone else's, so to the background with both of them no doubt

Who will Angel flirt with?

who cares, everyone or nobody because where does it lead? may aswell have him and Blitzø strike up a predictable conversation then to the background with both of them

What will Ozzie think of Valentino o.o

Would it make a difference? We were presented with a perfectly good Ozzie when we met him, an avid pusher and promoter of hedonism who didn't care who he upset but dispite of his role still had room to catch feelings, yet he then got botched to someone who had to tell us how he's about consent and he's not responsible for the Fizz dolls. A sloppy attempt to make him more likeable by stripping him of responsibility. Ozzie has no credibility. Unless Val plans to rise in the ranks like Alastor does and replace Ozzie, we could go somewhere, but remember, they're both side characters in two different shows and only firmly establishing the importance of hierarchy could allow a story like this to happen which in turn deflates the subplot of Alastor's plans to snatch from Lucifer, which seems to have been shelved for Rosie

Blitzø and Loona are at the bottom in society, likewise with Millie and Moxxie who are from a whole other ring, yet why do they travel so freely throughout the rings without issue from anyone? They have always roamed into different territories and been around different demons yet nothing puts them at the bottom.

Ozzie's bar was just 'that place', Bee was just a hellhounds girlfriend who had a house party and to add to this theme of royalty we must like so therefore they're good and righteous, Lucifer dropped by to visit his daughter, who is treated as a nobody annoyance, in her hotel which is seen as lame by other characters, one being Mimzie who literally barged in, outshone and didn't notice him, the one and only Lucifer, was just a casual.

Will Charlie the 200 year old teenager who is good at crying and sulking because she didn't get what she asked for first time ask her dad real questions? History on where they live, what he does as a leader and how he selected and manages the six who help him by running entire nations?

We could actually get some answers if Charlie was given just half the screen time the average leading character gets and that be used to work on all that has already been put out there, rather than brand new subplots. She could still be the over optimistic airhead in the process of her position actually bringing about results.

A cross over should lead with the leading characters, but where could we even ho with them?

We have a good potential story idea for Blitzø being confronted for contributing to the sinners problem by relying on the negativity of sinners to take out humans, which creates more sinners, this actually takes us back to both plots, but everyone is 'nice' and Blitzø and Charlie don't seem to care for work anyway, the poor seem to manage just fine in spacious homes with large vehicles and Charlie said sinners are "her people".

They could be excellent opposites of the one desparatre and punching up on their way to better things while another is privileged, clueless and means well, but Blitzø is being ironically humbled to be more tolerant of the rich while Charlie seems to only be interested in the few she likes.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling my coworker to do her job.

I (28X) am a trainer at a theme park. Part of my job is that I'm supposed to correct errors as I catch them, to prevent them from becoming habits.

Lately we've been having an issue of people not putting back hangers and pulling out trash cans at the end of the night. Normally this isn't a big deal every once in a while but it's become clear it's a few consistent culprits. I was also very cranky and crampy from my period when I came into my store and noticed that it hadn't been taken care of.

So I asked another of my coworkers who had closed the store last night, and got told it was another coworker (20sF). This particular coworker is not great at her job and makes a lot of errors. She also gets upset over any criticism, so telling her how to do her job better is a challenge in and of itself. She also has a history of telling other people they did bad despite the fact that she can't take feedback and she's not a trainer.

So logically, I knew this was inviting problems, but not making best judgement. So I gave her a gentle poke, something along the line of "Hey, somebody let me know you didn't pull out the trash cans and put away the hangers. Not the biggest deal but just try to remember this in the future." I try very hard to not be nasty at work so I tried to phrase it as lightly as possible.

And she went to management over it. I don't know what she said to management since I heard it through the grape vine but the point still stands. I checked in with my managers to make sure I handled it properly and they told me I should have taken it to them just in general (both because she can't take peer to peer feedback and because it had happened the night before) and I respect in terms of handling policy I fucked up.

But, in terms of just being mean on general, was I the asshole for telling her to remember to put away the hangers and pull out the trash?

[utilitycaster]

In a recent post you mentioned that safety tools are a means and not an end, and "that misconception is already a massive problem". Could you expand on that?

I have my own feelings about the use of a lot of Safety Tools; primarly, that a lot of groups are focused on *just* implementing them but not do an effort into reducing triggering topics, putting all the weight on a singular person speaking out (Such as with X's and O's), but I'd love to hear your feelings on that matter.

So I may be misunderstanding you, and I also am not sure if you mean X and O cards by X's and O's, but if you are saying the issue is that safety tools require people to speak out...that is actually the thing I think they are good at doing, and I think any tool that doesn't place the weight on individuals speaking out will actually cultivate at best a generic one-size fits all dull table and at worse will be actively less safe.

My issue is a lot of people are more interested in the aesthetic signaling of safety tools - in "being a person who uses safety tools" rather than being a person who actually facilitates a process at their table that creates a safer space. You do not actually have to do a formalized X card or Lines and Veils process; you could just have a session zero conversation that says "hey, if you ever need to step away, or stop the game because you are really uncomfortable with something, that's cool and you should feel as though you are allowed to do this, and if there's anything right now that you know you are uncomfortable experiencing please let me know now so I can proactively avoid having it in the game and other players know not to pursue it; if you'd prefer you can send this all to the DM who will put out an anonymized list." I've had people attack me online for saying that I don't use X cards in virtual games because I straight up won't see them in time, but I tell players they can drop off or ask me to pause or stop; I am actively trying to protect my players by telling them how to signal me, but because it's not The Tool Some Stranger Not At My Table Prefers, said strangers have decided this is a bad thing.

Ulltimately though, and this is crucial enough for me to bold it: it is literally impossible to have a safety tool process for TTRPGs that avoids players having to speak up. Your table cannot read your mind. A card that encourages positive things does not actually help, in my opinion, because the DM still has a story to tell and part of stories is conflict and they can't just keep doing the one thing you like - not to mention that one person's O card might be an X card to someone else. This also assumes a set of for lack of a better term "standard" triggers (ie, many people don't want to have themes of sexual assault in their games; many people have arachnaophobia) and places an even higher burden on people who might have very specific triggers that are often not given the same weight or seen as a problem by most people. Some tables might explicitly want to explore difficult topics. (Related to this, but, I side-eye a lot of highly specific content warnings on shows or books because many of them also assume a very specific and standard slate, and I know people who have triggers that are consistently ignored and not warned for because they don't fit into the Normal Slate Of Things A Nebulous Group Has Decided Are Triggering.)

Safety tools should place the burden on the people at the table to speak up; but they should also serve as a signal that this is a place where you will be respected and listened to when you do. However, even among loving friends, there is no way to make a safe place for yourself without advocating for it. Any safety tool that claims to avoid individuals speaking up is a scam and a lie. But that is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about people who get mad if you say "I don't use a card system, but I let people walk away without question and I listen to my players' feedback."

[sukirichi]

PLEASE STOP COPYING FICS ‼️

I am by no means gatekeeping concepts or tropes. We all know that it’s normal to see the same tropes or AUs be used differently, and that is not plagiarism. However, I recently found a fic that was oddly similar to my old (and discontinued) Gojo x Reader series, Reckless. The CEO! Gojo is nothing new, and neither is an accidental pregnancy trope. The only reason I am concerned is because this Gojo series I found has the exact same themes as Reckless that consists of: a playboy CEO Gojo with a very notorious reputation, a poor reader who is an employee and asset to the company (someone who works closely with Gojo), reader getting knocked up from a one night stand with Gojo, reader with a seemingly dead/absent mother yet still in contact with her father, Gojo with a very traditional family who does not like reader, and Gojo with an ex he struggles to let go of - which are all elements of Reckless.

The first chapter of that Gojo fic is also eerily similar to my first chapter with the same flow of: YN finding out she’s pregnant and her friend being there for her, Gojo saying he’ll take responsibility because ‘they both made the baby’, YN having to move in with Gojo to take care of the baby, and both of them coming to a mutual agreement that their ‘relationship’ will be purely for the baby’s benefit. The flow of events and specific details about the characters’ backgrounds are too similar to mine.

Again, I am not gatekeeping concepts, just as how I’ve had other writers ask me if they could write their own stories or takes based off of the NAOYA’S TROPHY WIFE COLLECTION or the BONTEN HUSBANDS EXCLUSIVE, and I’m fine with that. I’m even happy people are inspired by what I write. But being inspired is completely different from taking someone’s story and posting it as yours. Please trust your own creativity and skills in writing. You can write amazing stories and have people love them without having to steal from others.

It’s sad to say this is not the first time I, and other writers, have been plagiarized. It’s even more upsetting to know that a friend of mine who has also written a Gojo series (that I’m sure you all know and dearly love) experiences the same issues with the same person. The fact that this is happening to many writers out there is disheartening. We work hard and pour a lot of love in the stories we create. None of us are getting paid for this, and we simply want to share our passions with others. So please, let us be kinder with one another and show love and support the right way. If you love a fic, you give feedback and rb/comment + show support to the writer. You don’t steal their ideas and play it off as your own because you liked it.

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

I like. Have not played a single Hoyo game so it is quite shocking to see people take deeper looks into the games and their themes to uncover just how DEEPLY racist Hoyoverse is.

When I say racist I mean like. Painting this fantasy, ideal, "aesthetic" world that only wears the face of multiculturalism, while explicitly making it so all the heroes and good characters are white, while making the enemy characters typically with a darker shade of skin. Like just. In fucking Genshin. Look at the Hilichurls. They've literally got pitch black skin and masks, and despite having their own culture, are constantly and consistently treated nothing more as "pests". Like just. I swear to god there are so many "Hilichurl" like examples of weaving weird racism into video game enemies in the wider media sphere, but I digress.

What really gets me is like. I saw some shit from fucking Honkai or whatever where there is an entire character who was born black, but bleached her skin out of shame. Like. What. Also this is all second hand, so forgive me for getting details wrong, but doesn't she just. Keep hating herself for her skin color and her heritage? Also the way her mother is drawn is just like. Somehow both a racist and transphobic caricature rolled into one. Like they illustrated her in a way that doesn't feel done in good taste. It fees like they want to evoke a sense of confusion and maybe disdain. Perhaps they wish for you to sympathize with the girl who bleached her own skin (???) and like. What the fuck is this writing HOW DO PEOPLE JUST NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THIS??????

Also. There is of course ZZZ. The issue here is more what people have already mentioned and something I don't feel like fully relaying. Which is the sort of heavy emphasis and inspiration from Hip-Hop and Rap culture, but without any black characters actually in the setting. Ben Bigger is like. Legit the blackest character there, problem is that he ISN'T HUMAN. Like it shows that they would sooner create an anthropomorphic bear, a fantasy character, than a black character that actually displays their culture in a proud way. Not really my place to say all of this, since others have said it much better than I ever could. Last thing I would say is that the Black edits of the characters (especially Ellen Joe), make the character designs leagues better.

To cap off this messily organized tumblr post and rant, it brings me to my biggest issue: erasure. The fact that when you search up Tighnari, you only get that dogshit anime boy, hell, the issue even still persists somewhat when you specify for Al-Tighnari. I am not well read on who Tighnari is, but even skimming past a description of that man is truly breathtaking. He sounds like a very well traveled, very wise man who likely had a sizable impact on the world. Thing is. When you search up Tighnari you don't see this man anywhere. When you bring up Tighnari, it is unlikely people actually recognize who the man himself was. Instead you have this character, who's skin is as white as a sheet, actively acting like a shroud being thrown over an old cultural icon. His design has been criticized endlessly for how little it lines up, but that's not the point. The point being is that Tighnari in Genshin has uprooted knowledge of the original in the public eye. This is but one example, and doesn't even BEGIN to touch upon the absolute shitshow that is Natlan. However, people have already exhaustively described what is wrong with it so I digress there. Oh and I said I would close this out but like. Fucking Star Rail or whatever has a character with Dark Skin who has "shacklebreaker" as one of their main skills and like. This is some J.K. Rowling type racism. Like what. What the fuck?

Look what's really important here is that I am just so fucking taken aback by learning the extent of it. I always bore a minor grudge against Genshin, but the clarification, and the knowledge of how deep this shit goes... just makes me realize this. There is no longer any confusion about how this got so popular, because racism is excusable in general fandom spaces. Racism isn't considered a dealbreaker to many people, and that is the root of the issue I believe. How general online fandom communities and people as consumers are just so unbothered by racism that they will just not criticize it, pass it off as normal, and will actively engage in racist tendencies, rather than making any effort to better themselves and to be more tasteful in what they choose to support financially, and what they choose to consume.

[guttedeggs]

OK so I have the flu so if what I'm saying doesn't make sense or if I misspell shit I am sorry

I really don't like the black and white narrative many people have about the Bakers overall as well as Mia and Ethans relationship because it's just more nuanced than healthy versus abusive. People seem to misunderstand a lot of the writings and words spoken to stear it wildly one direction or the other.

I don't think Jack is a bad father but I don't think he's a great father. He has anger issues, and there's evidence that he's a high functioning alcoholic. I see people point to the "fuck you" list for evidence of Jack's abusive behavior. Its an instance showing his worse traits, smacking Lucas across the face for checking his phone at the dinner table and drunkenly taking a bunch of Lucas's things and putting it into a red box. I definitely don't think Jack is in the right to hit anyone in his family under any circumstance. I also don't think that was a normal/consistent occurance within the household. If abuse was a common place, I feel like it would be a running theme within the notes. I also think Jack wouldn't have hesitated as much as he had during the daughters dlc. I don't think Zoe would've been as horrified by Jack's actions if it WAS commonplace for him to be physically abusive.

Joe and Jack's relationship wasn't great. It certainly wasn't healthy and had issues on its own. It's undeniable that they were close or at least cared a lot about each other but a lot of what's seen is 1. Siblings rivalry to the highest degree and 2. Joe having a similar sadistic streak that Lucas did. But the difference is, Joe could and did have the ability to physically act on those impulses. It definitely normalized violence for both Jack and Joe. Jack definitely carried that rough housing tendency over and I can definitely see him being far too rough with Lucas overall, with physically labor and pushing him over his limits.

Briefly touching in Mia and Ethan; it's not a healthy relationship. Mia takes advantage of Ethans blind trust of her far too much. The fact she can use the lie of a "babysitting job" instead of, idk, say it's a job with strict NDA or something, is insane. The fact he still keeps at it after that switch up because of the mold? Its so clear theres some kind of unhealthy codependency thay Ethan has on Mia. I love wife guys as much as the next tumblr user, I do. I also think that maybe there should be an acknowledgement to just how imbalanced and fucked up Mia and Ethans relationship is.

I'm content to have civil discussion about this since I do think about it a lot and I know I can miss things in media.

Edit for clarity before this gets far: I'm not trying to/don't want to undermine any form of abuse in any way. I'm much more here to try to talk about the gray area of how things are in the Baker family overall. Family relationships are complicated, and all the Baker family members are equally complex.