#but they ultimately decided to change it to heck

[the-bus-called-graveyard-8]

6 times Madagascar didn't say hell + 1 time they did

[fanficsat12am]

when the brothers realize how much MC loves them I Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus

📜 𝙼𝙰𝚂𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃!! 📜

Lucifer & Mammon

Happy New Year everyone!! Hope ya guys had a great flippin holiday time :> As always, notes, comments, and reblogs are highly appreciated <33 Have fun reading!!

Leviathan

Putting himself down was second nature to him at this point—sometimes he didn’t even realize he was doing it. It especially got even worse after getting into a relationship with you. His mind refused to believe that anyone could ever love someone like him. 

Levi dreaded the day you’d finally see what he sees and ultimately decide to leave, but he wouldn't hold it against you. Why would you settle for someone like him when there were countless others in the three realms who could give you so much more…

“Hey, you okay?” you asked worriedly, noticing his glazed look and how his eyes had dimmed. “O-of course I’m fine! Pft, why would I be lol,” he stumbles out, trying to keep up his facade—but of course, you saw through it. 

As he tries to get back to his game he can feel your eyes piercing him. 

“I’m going to ask you how you are one more time and I would like you to answer me honestly,” gently taking the controller in his hands from him and placing it aside. “Now tell me, what’s up?”

“I-I’m sorry,” he said, the words not too foreign to his tongue. 

“If this is about last week I've already told yo-” “Ugh, that’s not what I meant…” he cuts you off, trying to find the right words. 

“I-it’s just…you could have had ANYBODY else, but instead you’re stuck with me. I can’t 1v1 Beel's body, Diavolo’s money, Asmo’s looks- heck even stupid Mammon’s got charm! I'm just Levi, the plain old third-born…” he bites his lip, trying to keep his tears at bay. His efforts proved futile as he felt its warm trickle slowly dripping down his face, one after the other.

A part of him wanted to take back everything he just said—to restart and pick a different approach. But this wasn’t another one of his games. This was real life, and in here you've only got one shot. It was game over, he knew he had lost. 

He shut his eyes tight, listening closely for the sound of you finally walking out those doors. He couldn't bear to watch you leave him. 

You shake your head at the absurdity of his words, cupping his face into your hand. “I’m not stuck with you, silly. I choose to be here.”

Opening his eyes back again he's met with you smiling at him, the sight making his heart skip a beat. 

“I’m here because I can’t get enough of you. I love how your cheeks would go red when I catch you staring at me,” you say, leaning closer and leaving a kiss on his cheek. 

“How your brows would furrow and your eyes would squint whenever you’re focused on your game,” sending a kiss by the bridge of his nose. 

You gently grab his wrist and fumble on the soft skin of his palms with the pads of your thumb. “How you’d start gesturing with your hands a lot when you talk about the latest anime you’re into,” you reminisce, another kiss now to the back of his hand. 

“How right before you fall asleep, you hold me closer and whisper to the dead of the night how much you love me,” you say as you end it with a tender kiss to his lips. 

“And each day I find myself falling for you even more. They could try to give me the whole world, but they’ll never be you. So please, stop thinking you need to earn my affection because you don't. Not now and not ever.” 

You lift his face up to meet your gaze, looking at him as if you see right through him. “There is nothing I would change about you. You are perfect in my eyes.”

He felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest. He was left speechless, his mind going haywire with everything you had just said. 

Seeing how his brain had completely stopped working, he let his body do all the talking instead. He wordlessly wrapped you in a tight embrace, cherishing the warmth of your body against his. 

The bitter taste of the sin he was meant to represent felt absent. Levi sensed no need to be envious of others when he had someone like you to call his.

Satan

Not once had he let himself think that he could indulge himself in something such as love—for wrath did not deserve the peace of love. While love held everything together in its warm embrace, wrath tirelessly tore with its cold unforgiving hands. 

Despite their differences, there was no denying that both were blind. Just like a moth, you were entranced by the beautiful embers of his flame, blissfully indifferent to the heat. 

He stared at his reflection with disdain. The obsidian black horns adorning his head felt heavier the longer he looked, not to mention the tail that whipped mindlessly on its own. He gritted his teeth in disgust, delivering a blow to the mirror that sent it hurdling to the ground. Through his ragged breaths and the rapid beating of his heart, he hears a voice not of his own. 

"Satan?" you called, breaking him from his trance-like state. You softly closed his door behind you, hands outstretched and unsteady. 

With each step you took, he took two back—his mind screaming at him to stay away from you but his heart yearning to leap into your hold. 

"Hey, it's okay," you reassured, taking a step towards him. 

"No it's not!" he screams, backing away from your approaching form. 

Hearing the crunch of glass under the weight of his shoes, he takes notice of the mirror he broke just moments ago. Reflected on its cracked surface was a distorted image of him; a monster.

"Please, let me help," you pleaded, trying to close the gap between you. He hastily steps back, tripping on his own feet and leaving him a heap on the floor. 

"Don't come any closer!" he screams, the room shaking with the sheer volume of his voice. You kneel to his level, quickly engulfing him in your arms. 

‘Run. He doesn't deserve you. Just stay away.’ He repeated in his head like a silent prayer, hoping that by some miracle it would come true. 

But as he felt you hold him tighter, he knew you would do nothing of the sort. As he trembled in your arms, he wills himself to ask the question that had been plaguing his mind since the day you'd started dating. 

"Why?" he whispered softly, almost inaudible if not for the heavy silence of the night. "I could lose control. Why do you insist on staying? To even consider feeling anything for a monster such as myself is just…foolish."

You think about your answer carefully, knowing that what you say next will mend or break the man in your hold. "Loving someone takes courage. To trust someone with your heart and believe they would keep it safe. Keep you safe. Let the three realms call me foolish but there's no doubt in my mind that I love you, Satan. Not the Avatar of Wrath, you Satan,'' you answer truthfully, pouring every ounce of your heart into each word.  

Gently taking hold of his chin, you tilt his head up to meet your eyes. "Tell me now Satan, will you hurt me?" you ask, the demon shaking his head immediately. He wouldn't dream of ever wishing to cause harm to you. He would die first before anybody, let alone himself, hurt you. 

"Then it is not foolish of me to love you" you say, your words unfaltering. 

Tears welled in his eyes, accepting defeat at the hands of your love and melting deeper into your embrace. As he lays on your chest, he turns to face where your heart would be and whispers an oath. "I love you, MC. I shall protect you with my life" he vows, sealing his promise with a kiss.

Asmodeus

As the Avatar of Lust and the Jewel of the Heavens, he was always the talk of the town. You, on the other hand, weren’t too familiar with the gossip world. Although you knew that was going to change once you officially became a couple. 

You took no mind to it, brushing them off with a small wave knowing that the wrong move could only add more oil to their flame. But Asmo wasn’t like you. He could feel all the looks they gave him, the incessant whispers and murmurs whenever he’d turn his back. 

He typically had no care for whatever lies people have heard about him. The same could not be said though when they had the audacity to include you into the mix. It was slowly chewing away at him and he couldn’t deny the pit of doubt slowly churning inside him.

“I saw MC out with one of the brothers last week. They’ve been getting closer recently. I wonder what happened between them"

"I saw them leaving school with Simeon yesterday, I’m surprised that’d cheat on Asmo with someone like him” 

”They’ve got the most powerful people of the Devildom wrapped around their finger and they’re still with Asmo? Damn”

The final blow was realizing that everything was better without him in the picture. Your smile wasn't just bright, it was brighter, you weren't just happy, you were happier. 

He slams his door shut, sliding down the wooden surface as he feels his legs give underneath him.

‘Can’t you see? They were never the problem. No matter what you do, you could never satisfy them. Once again you've proved to be useless.’

‘You think they’d just be swayed by your face? By the number of followers you have? Underneath it all you're nothing. It's just pathetic.’

He shook his head, gripping and pulling on his delicate sand blonde hair. No matter how hard he cupped his hands over his ears, their words never ceased. His eyes pricked with tears, months of silent torture finally finding his moment of weakness.  

You on the other hand were beyond worried. You were no stranger to Asmo’s flamboyant walk outs but this was different. As you neared the door to his room, you could hear silent sobs and cries on the other side. Knocking softly, you worriedly call out to him.

“Asmo?” The sobbing stops, rendering the halls eerily silent. “Darling, what’s wrong? Can I come in?” Still no response. 

Asmo freezes at the sound of your voice, the loud thumping of his heart drowning out the constant knocking on his door. An internal conflict rages within him. Not only is the person causing all this mess of emotions on the other side of the door, but the only one who can make it all go away as well. 

“Please talk to me. I need to know that you’re alright.” Just as you’re deciding if you should get some help from the others, the door opens. From it, a hand grabs your wrist, swiftly pulling you inside and closing the door. 

Looking around, the usually bright and pinkish room was cold and dark. You could barely see anything with the only light coming from his window. 

The crisp silence of the night was cut by the uneven breathing of Asmo who was still by the door. You reach out to gently place a hand on his shoulder. 

“Sweetie?” you call, fingertips only a few milliliters away, when his voice stops you in your tracks. 

“Do you love me?” he whispers. 

“Of course I do,” you answer immediately, not missing a beat. 

You gently grab him by the shoulder and turn him to face you, your heart breaking at the sight of your lover being in so much turmoil. 

“Oh, Asmo…” your hand tenderly holds his cheek, the other wiping away the tears that have yet to cease from falling. 

“Each day, I hear another rumor about you finding somebody else…” he pauses, taking a deep shuddering breath. “If you’re going to do it, please just do it already and save me the mascara.”

He knows that watching you leave will hurt more than any hangover can ever do to him. It would be like he was falling from the pristine white gates of Celestia again, powerless as he saw all he held dear fade into a memory of what he had once had.

He could try to convince himself that the rumors were true. That you were only ever with him for his fame and looks and that he never cared about you. But of all the lies that have circulated, that would have been the biggest one.

“Honey, I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever,” you say as you tuck a lock behind his ear. “If you think I’d ever love someone after you then I have failed in showing you how much you mean to me.”

Through blurred vision, Asmo tries to find an ounce of deceit within the windows to your soul; a malicious grin, a break in eye contact, a drop of sweat. Nothing. 

He lets out a shuddering breath he didn’t know he was holding, pressing his soft hands upon your own and interlacing it with his. It was stupid of him to ever doubt your feelings for him. To hell with what they thought of the both of you. All he cared about now was now, being here in your hold, forever.

“You’re so cute sometimes, darling…" he whispers in amusement, a small smile finally making its way onto his lips. 

“Please tell me I still look fabulous even after all that tears. Ugh, my eyes are gonna be so puffed up tomorrow!” 

You chuckle at his comment, happy to see him start coming back to you. “Still ever so stunning, My Prince.”

“Let’s stay like this for just a bit more, hm? All this crying made me tired. Then after, we can run a nice warm bath for the two of us. Doesn't that sound wonderful?” He murmured, melting more into your touch.  

“Whatever you’d like, darling,” you replied, pressing your forehead to his. 

And there you stayed, forehead to forehead, hands intertwined, just you and him in the comfort of each other's touch.

AN: Thanks a bunch for reading!! Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments <33

[creatorping]

“What if the boys were moodulated”presented in 4 doodle pages!

credits to @flowery-laser-blasts for the og idea! check out her post

This is my take on how the scenes would go if Drakken and Ron are controlled by emotions. Generally, I think that both of their skills shine more when they have confidence and let it loose (especially Ron).

For example, Ron’s charisma will increase along with skills like crafting and being the Jack of all trades. Drakken will be able to create his inventions a lot faster due to heighten emotions. His decision making is stronger but may execute them recklessly.

In Love:

Ron has all the confidence that he rarely shows, and directs it at Kim, only her. Every move he makes to woo Kim chips away her barrier of resistance. Ron would continue to show the puppy love affection, including physical touch (hugs galore). Ron asks her to the parade festival, convincing her with flowers.

Drakken goes full The way of the Househusband mode: cooking, cleaning, and showering Shego with gifts and affection every chance he gets. Heck, he’ll even make new gadgets just to benefit Shego in any way. Shego is weirded out by his behavior but inwardly crumbles at his affections. However, she gets concerned when Drakken gradually loses his ambitions to take over the world, which she didn’t want him to lose that. Well maybe a bit more love time wouldn’t hurt as Drakken begs her to go with him to the parade as a date. (He gave her the pout and dinner)

At the Parade:

Shego of course agreed to the festival date for fun. After overhearing about the moodulator she wants to get it to break Drakken out of control and get back to evil ambitions OR perhaps control Drakken for herself and make things easier.

She decided to use the E.M.A on the moodulator (even tho she has no idea how it works but she’ll try it) after eavesdropping on Kim and the Inventor. But girlie doesn’t know shit about inventions so she accidentally charged the moodulator to extreme anger

Extremely angry Drakken… bites. ha r d.

yeah he wrecks havoc and she loves the power he shows but he lacks the direction he had in the first place. So Shego ultimately tries to shut him down from being a mindless zombie

Shego had to use her upmost ability to shut Drakken down and not destroy himself at the parade. So at the end, she puts a muzzle on him after dragging him out of the scene. Then perhaps an aggressive kiss sets Drakken on a sudden emotional overdrive that broke the chip, which set him free from the moodulator.

In my take of Kim trying to reject Ron is that she feels he’s been a bit off and not truly himself. Like she loves the affection but the sudden bursts of emotions during the whole time makes her suspicious. Therefore Kim tried rejecting Ron at the festival

but then right as Kim tried to tell Ron her suspicions, the moodulator changes and angry Ron misunderstands the rejection and yeah…

Kim found out about the moodulator… and internally was torn about whether or not Ron’s emphasized feelings were genuine.

Ron channels his anger on not being enough for Kim and explodes with monkey kung fu, wrecking havoc at the parade. (I noticed that Ron gets the powers when his emotions take over him)

And of course kim isn’t going to be a sitting duck so she gets back with her martial art skills. They had a battle similar to what Hiro and Kim had in the exchange ep. Lowkey Kim finds it attractive of him fighting like that.

The chip breaks after they come at a draw in the fight. Ron panicked after realizing what he did to Kim and frantically apologizes but Kim kept the conversation playful to cover up the awkward confrontations until SO THE DRAMA MOVIE

[john-get-the-salt]

Coincidences w/ Ted Lasso

Imagine: A series of seemingly random coincidences lead you to meet a dashingly handsome football coach.

Contains: ted pining hardcore, small age-gap, fem!reader who is a singer, mentions of roy x keeley

Warnings: none

The first coincidence was Rebecca deciding she needed to work on her delegation skills, leading her to give Keeley the job of finding a performer of some sort for the annual AFC Richmond charity gala. The young woman preened at the task, and coincidentally knew exactly who she had to have.

You hadn't seen Keeley in nearly a year by that point. As a semi-popular American singer heading your very own world tour, you had little free time. But the two of you had kept in contact, calling and texting all the time. You met her a few years back on a shoot for a magazine spread on you and your music, by pure coincidence. She was the sweetest thing and you two became fast friends, despite you being a few years older than her. You had a lot in common and were very similar people.

Which was why, when she reached out with her proposal, you didn't hesitate to agree. In all honestly, you admitted to her, you'd been looking for a reason to relocate to England for a while now. Queue coincidence. It was your favorite place you'd ever been- and you'd been around a lot. You were also tired of life on the road. You were getting older, entering your late 30's, and you'd gained a strong desire to settle in one place and work more on writing/producing.

Keely was over the moon with the news, and jumped right into planning. Though the gala was still months away she did not hesitate to help you find a nice flat in the Richmond suburbs, as well as help with all of the other troublesome tasks that came with moving across the pond.

And just like that, your event of coincidences finally lined up.

-

It didn't come as a surprise that when you stepped off your plane and into the London airport, Keely was standing there with a big WELCOME sign.

Upon spotting her you immediately rushed over to give her a big hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"You as well,” she gushed. "Listen, I know you just got in and are probably exhausted, but the team is absolutely gasping to meet you."

"As long as I'm fed first, I'm in."

"Deal."

-

A few hours later Keely was parking the car at the AFC Richmond field house/office building. She had indeed fed you and let you change out of your comfy travel clothes. You were now in jeans and a nice top, as the two of you planned to go out after meeting everyone.

"I don't know why I'm nervous," you said with a little chuckle as you followed your friend in. "I think I just want all your friends to like me."

"Oh babes, do not even worry about that. They're going to love you. And you and Rebecca will get on like a house fire, I'm sure of it."

Ultimately you trusted Keeley, so you shoved down your nerves as you followed her down the hall and towards your destination. She knocked on a door labeled locker room, and only entered after someone called out the all clear.

"Hi everyone," she chirped. "This is one of my dear old friends.” She's just moved to Richmond and is going to be performing at the charity gala for us!"

You waved at everyone, smiling kindly. "Hi y'all, it's nice to finally meet the people Keeley never shuts up about."

"Oi!"

A rumble of chuckles echoed through the room of people.

Kee, once she finished glaring at you, introduced the team and then the coaches, Lasso, Beard, and Kent. Roy, who you'd actually met once before, gave you a friendly nod while Beard saluted you. Then Lasso....Lasso just stared.

He couldn't help it.

It wasn't as if Ted had never seen a pretty woman before. Heck, Rebecca was stunning and he worked with her nearly everyday. But you.....you were something else entirely. You were make-his-knees-go weak, heart-stopping, drop-dead gorgeous. He had to remind himself, with a gulp, who you were. You were a semi-famous star, who would never in a million years go for little ole him. Not to mention he was nearly 7 years your senior.

That didn't stop him from appreciating the jeans you were wearing, which did nothing to hide the curves and swell of your hips and behind, and the top that showed-ehem-a generous amount of cleavage. He gulped again. He was so fucked.

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am." He finally managed to spit out, tipping his ball cap. "Welcome to Richmond. Is that a bit of a midwestern drawl I hear?”

You smiled sweetly, ignoring Keely's gaze as it burned into the side of your head. "It is, Ohio born and bred. And thank you, Coach."

"Oh Ted's just fine."

"Alright, Ted."

Holy mother of god his name sounded angelic coming from your lips, Ted thought.

Holy mother of god Keeley hadn't mentioned how hot the head coach was, you thought.

"We were just planning on going out to get some drinks if you lot want to join? Surely you must be done with practice by now?" Keeley looked to the coaches.

"I don't know, we still had a couple more formations to work on," Roy said with a frown, causing the team to groan.

"Oh come on, the sun's proper setting and the days nearly over. It'll be fun," Keely begged, giving Roy her very best puppy dog eyes.

"Come ooon," you joined in, batting your eyelashes at Coach Lasso. "I need someone to teach me darts.....and the tab'll be on me."

The boys perked up, knowing that was an offer their coaches couldn't turn down.

"Well that's mighty kind of you, though i'd sooner shave off my own mustache before I let you pay for all the drinks. But I do suppose I could pass along my darts expertise."

The team cheered, high fiving and hooping. You and Keeley joined in, exchanging excited grins.

"We'll meet you lovely ladies there, sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan, stan."

Roy snorted. "God, you sound just like him."

You flushed as Lasso shot you a beaming smile, before grabbing Keely's arm. "Come on, let's go."

She obliged, blowing Roy a kiss before steering you out of the lockerroom and back outside.

"Soooooo" she trailed off as you two climbed back into the car and headed for the bar.

"Go on, out with it."

"When were you going to tell me you had a thing for football coaches?'

"I didn't realize I had a thing for football coaches until I saw that fine man. Please tell me he's single? Otherwise I'm going to have to seriously re-evaluate my morals and stance on home wrecking."

"As single as single can be."

"Perfect."

-

You laid on the charm later that night as you hung out with the team and their coaches. True to his word, Ted taught you darts and refused to let you pay for a single drink of his. He may not have relented, but you did insist everyone else put their drinks on your tab.

When he asked why, you just shrugged and told him you had more money than you knew what to do with, so you liked to spend it on other people. You didn't say it to brag or to make him feel bad, it was just the truth. It was matter of fact.

And fuck did Ted think that was hot.

The two of you chatted about anything and everything, from your time growing up to stumbling through adulthood. You had a great time, and everyone was incredibly kind and welcoming.

Unfortunately after that night the team got busy and you threw yourself into preparing for the gala. Kee had been right, of course. You and Rebecca got along incredibly well, and when she noticed you had an eye for details she invited you to be included in the planning on the finer details of the nights entertainment. The lights, the band, the set-up, all meticulously planned. You saw the coaches and members of the team in passing, never having more than a few minutes to chat. But that didn't deter Ted, who took every opportunity to talk to you and ask about the move and the writing and if you needed help with anything.

The quick chats were nice, but all of the ongoing work meant you didn't have the opportunity to really hang out with the team or coaches again until the night of the gala itself.

-

Keeley and Rebecca had taken you dress shopping beforehand and helped you pick out an exquisite gown.

It was the perfect shade of dark blue, covered in sequins that caught the light and shone like stars in the midnight sky. The strap-less bodice and floor-length skirts left you feeling elegant and beautiful, and with matching jeweled gloves you felt like a symphony.

With your hair up, makeup on, and carefully tied into your dress; you were ready.

You arrived to the venue after most of the crowds, through a back entrance. The idea was that no one would lay eyes on you until your performance, then after which you would be free to roam and enjoy the rest of the evening. Rebecca and Keeley were in a group chat on your phone, swapping updates, and you shot them a quick message to let them know you'd. A few moments later the two found you backstage, each in their own stunning gown.

"Holy fuck," Keeley screeched the moment she set her eyes on you. "I knew you were going to look good but you look unreal, babe. Ted is going to want to rip that dress right off of you when he sees it."

“Keeley!"

Rebecca just laughed, used to Keeley's antics. "She's right though, you do look magnificent."

"Oh listen to you two, have you looked in any mirrors tonight? You both look hot."

"Enough about us. How are you feeling about the performance?"

"Honestly I thought I was going to feel nervous, but I'm just excited and antsy to get it done with so I can come hang out with you guys."

"Oh I'm sure. Ted's already cornered me once, asking where you were and when you would be coming," Keeley said, giggling like a school girl. "I told him you'd save him a dance."

"Keeley, what am I going to do with you?"

"After tonight I have a feeling you're going to thank me."

You were spared from any more of your friends teasing when one of the backstage managers came up to the three of you, letting you know you were to be on stage in 10.

"Well, that's my cue." Rebecca straightened up her dress. "I'm on to give a little speech and introduce you ." She gave you and Keeley kisses on the cheeks before leaving, promising she'd find you both afterwards.

"I'm gonna’ find my seat now too, I wanna be able to watch Ted the entire time you're on stage."

Despite everything racing through your head, you laughed. "Oh I love you Kee."

"I love you too babe. Good luck, I know you're gonna kill it aye?" She gave you a final thumbs up before hurrying off, leaving you alone.

You were quickly ushered to the stage wing, where you could watch as Rebecca thanked everyone for the attendance and donations. Perhaps at some point earlier in your career you would have felt nervous before a gig like this. But being on a stage and singing felt like home to you now, it was like second nature. You knew you were good and you were proud of that.

"Now I have the absolute joy of welcoming our guest of honor tonight. Not only did she agree to come and perform for us, but she also surprised us with a generous donation to jump start one of our new community programs. I'll let her tell you a bit about it herself, so please join me in welcoming her to the stage!"

Applause erupted as you were given the green light and you stepped out onto the stage. You didn't flinch when the lights hit you, nor when the eyes of everyone in the room landed on you. You smiled brightly, accepting the microphone from Rebecca. As you stared out into the crowd you quickly found Keely and the team, all sat at a table together. They waved and cheered and gave you thumbs ups.

"Thank you very much for that introduction Rebecca. I promise I won't take up too much of your time, I just wanted to give my sincere appreciation to Rebecca and Keeley, Ted and his team, and everyone else here for making me feel so welcome. Richmond has become my home, and I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many new friends. I am also incredibly excited to be helping launch a new school program, in partnership with AFC Richmond, to provide under-funded schools with equipment and support to help kids participate in sports and other extra curricular activities, including performing arts."

The crowd erupted once again, loud whistles coming from one table in particular. You flushed under the extra attention, pausing before you spoke again. "I'm sure Rebecca and the others will be coming forward with lots of details about all of that soon, but in the meantime I think I should get to what I know best."

Rebecca winked at you, taking a final bow before exiting the side of the stage. You set the mic in the stand already positioned at the front of the stage as the lights changed and the curtains raised on the band who'd been set up and waiting behind it. As the beginning notes of a song started, you closed your eyes and let yourself get lost in the music.

You sang your heart out, to some of your post popular hits and a few of the ones that meant the most to you. You shamelessly stared and smiled at your friends as you sang, giving Ted a wink as he watched, his mouth agape. You floated across that stage in your gown like you were amongst the stars and god with Ted looking at you like that, you could have sworn you were.

You finished the final note of your final song and stared, breathlessly, out at the crowd as the applause began suddenly and all of once. Your friends were on their feet, screaming so loud their throats would surely hurt the next morning. And there was Ted, eyes crinkled from smiling so hard, looking at you as if you were the only people in the entire room.

The applause continued, even as you took a bow and exited the stage. Your chest was still heaving, lungs trying to play catch up. You gratefully accepted a cup of water from some assistant, taking gulps of the cool liquid to soothe your throat.

"Sir I greatly respect you for doing your job, but I'm afraid I must insist that I speak with her."

You set down your water, turning to find the source of commotion. When you found it, you nearly choked on your own spit. Ted was standing nose to nose with a security guard, trying to get into the backstage area that was roped off.

"Now I don't like to raise my voice, but I'm about to get madder than a hornet's nest if you don't let me-"

"Ted!" You called out.

He looked up, meeting your eyes, and his posture immediately relaxed.

"It’s okay, he can come back."

The security guard nodded, unclipping the rope.

Ted slid past him, tipping his head. "Thank you kind sir, I hope you can forgive any threat I may had said in the heat of the moment. I-"

"Ted," you called again in warning, hoping he would just stop before the guard actually kicked him out.

"And I'm walking away." He finally got the hint, turning away from the guard with pink cheeks and walking towards you. You met him halfway, one hand holding onto your skirts so you didn't trip.

"I'm sorry about that sweetheart, I just had to see you and I wasn't about to let one guard-"

You grabbed ahold of the front of Ted's suit and pulled him in, capturing his lips with yours. He froze in surprise for a moment before relaxing into you. His mustache tickled in the best way, stubble gently scratching your skin. One hand came up to cradle your cheek, the other wrapping around your waist to pull you against him. Your hands moved up through his hair, scratching his scalp gently with your nails.

You pulled away at the last possible second, lungs screaming for air, though Ted's arm around you didn't let you get far. You stared at one another, chests heaving in sync, noses just a hair apart.

"Are you sure?" He said softly. "I'm not one of those young, athletic boys who would be lucky to have you."

You could see the uncertainty in his eyes, the desire fighting with the hesitation.

You reached up, fingertips gently dancing over his cheek as you stared unabashedly into his eyes. "Ted, you are the sweetest and most genuine man I have ever met. You are so fucking handsome, and every time you look at me with those kind eyes it feels like fireworks are going off inside my chest. And I mean, have you seen your ass in those uniform khakis?"

That succeeded in making him laugh, and the worry in his eyes eased.

"I don't care what anyone else thinks, and I have never been more sure. I want you. If you'll have me."

Then he was kissing you again, this time taking the lead, wrapping both arms around your waist so he could lift you off your feet and spin your around. You smiled into his lips, unable to keep from laughing as he pulled back just far enough to look into your eyes again.

"I'll have you for the rest of my life if you let me, darlin’. I've been waiting so damn long for you."

"And I you."

He couldn't help it, looking down at you he leaned in to peck you quickly-then again-then again, leaving you breathless every time.

"Come on sweetheart, I think we've got some team bets to settle."

You laughed again, cheeks sore from smiling as Ted settled an arm around your waist and led you back out towards the gala. "No way, tell me the team didn't bet on whether we would get together."

"Oh no....they bet on when we would get together."

"Your team is full of cheeky little shits."

"Yeah, well they're about to become our cheeky little shits."

He paused at the edge of the room, looking out to where the team was impatiently waiting for his return and then back to you.

"Ready?"

You knew what Ted was doing, giving you one last opportunity to change your mind or go running for the hills. But you did neither. A series of coincidences may have brought you two together, but you knew know it was meant to happen this way. So you grabbed one of Ted’s hands, kissing his knuckles before interlocking your fingers with his.

"Ready."

[lilianade-comics]

Soooooo your Cheese Melt/Kindred Spirits AU 👀

Since Dani figures out what Vlad’s original plan for her was, (which is what I presume she found down in the lab in that first fake screenshot. Rip XD), how do they end up getting close again? Obviously Vlad saves her life, but like, after that lol. Is it just a matter of Vlad routinely proving that he actually cares over the course of a while that does it? Something more dramatic?? A bit of both???

Also feel free to drop the deets on those episode rewrites you’ve got knocking around your brain, especially Living Large, because I’d love to see how that episode plays out in this AU <3

Essentially, yeah! It's just Vlad continually being really extra as a parent and making decent choices in regards to Dani. (He's selfishly selfless: He values his own happiness the most, but it just so happens that he's thoroughly convinced that Dani's happiness is what makes HIM happy. Leave it to him to twist everything to his own benefit, right?)

Dani is giving him another chance because ultimately, he did save her life and is clearly trying to make up for what was a truly horrible plan (that he actually abandoned pretty much the day after she was born. He may have convinced himself that he was just delaying the plan, but in reality the moment he decided "not today" was the moment he unknowingly doomed himself lol. It just took him a while to actually ACKNOWLEDGE that his priorities changed. He had no intention of letting Danielle die by the time she discovered the truth). Ultimately Dani wants what every child wants: a good parent. And Vlad, well. He's Vlad. But when he wants something, he throws everything into getting it. So Dani no longer believes Vlad is good like she used to, but she does still believe that he loves her.

As for this AU's version of Livin' Large, I'll drop a few details below the cut!

-The Fentons move next door to Vlad and Dani. Dani seems happy about this, Vlad is less so.

-In the original episode, Danny refuses to investigate what the Guys In White want with his family's portal, so this prompts Sam and Tucker to ask Dani for help instead.

-They get caught, as in canon, but Dani pings as critically ectocontaminated and is swiftly loaded up to be shipped off elsewhere. This coincides directly with Danny flying by after his little "maybe i should do something, actually" moment and he immediately swoops in to save her. Unfortunately, the GIW nab him too.

-hilarious hijinks ensue as Danny and Dani try various methods to escape confinement. None of them work.

-Ultimately, it's a deeply annoyed Vlad in a white suit and sunglasses who rolls up to the facility to collect his daughter. ("....What the heck are you wearing?" Danny asks with extreme derision. "It's called a disguise, Daniel, and it's the reason I haven't also been locked in a cage. Unlike you, I might add." Vlad fires back smugly. "You should see his other ones," Dani pipes up, prompting one to wonder just how many times Vlad has impersonated government agents before.)

-Vlad unceremoniously tazes an agent who asked for his ID on the way out.

-Dani turns her big Bambi eyes on Vlad to see if he'll help them save the Ghost Zone from certain destruction. Danny is like "No, that's okay, I think we're good." Vlad gives him a look and flippantly asks if they REALLY think the GIW are smart enough to destroy the Ghost Zone. Dani's like "they're idiots with a giant missile, they're gonna destroy SOMETHING, Dad."

-does this turn into reluctant halfa trio team up? yeah maybe, sue me.

[deus-ex-mona]

just a v e r y rough tl of lxl honeymoon 2: collab boogaloo

be sure to check out the anime (which hails from the ultimate box of the album) if you're able to!!! and support the official release!!!

all screenshots in here are from the trailer btw

Aizo: Hi Julieta! I’m Aizo!

Yujiro: Hello Julieta, I’m Yujiro.

Aizo: Today, the two of us, LIPxLIP, are on a trip.

Yujiro: We’ve come to Izumo as a reward for completing our album.

Aizo: We’ll be sharing a little glimpse of today’s trip with you guys, so enjoy!

Yujiro: We’ve been here since yesterday, but let’s start off with our wake up call!

Aizo: You’re showing them that?!

Yujiro: Good morning, everyone. It’s 6am. It’s still too early to have breakfast, but I’m going to show you Aizo’s sleeping face.

Yujiro: He sure is asleep, hm?

Yujiro: He’s drooling.

Yujiro: Aizo, you’ll be late. You’ll be late, you know?

Aizo: Eh? What?

Yujiro: It’s already 9 o’clock, hurry! Get up!

Aizo: Ah? It’s 9?

Yujiro: You’ll be late for work!

Aizo: Why’re you filming me?! You’re lying for sure! Stop it!

Yujiro: [laughs] And that, Julieta, was Aizo’s sleeping face!

Aizo: And here we are at the breakfast table. We’re about to have our breakfast.

Yujiro: Aizo has woken up too.

Aizo: Wow, Yujiro, you’re having Japanese food as expected, huh? Ooh, isn’t that Izumo Soba?

Yujiro: And you, Aizo, are having Western food as expected… Wait, what the heck? You’re having pasta first thing in the morning?

Aizo: I just felt like having it today. Even you feel like having Western food in the morning sometimes, don’t you?

Yujiro: I guess so. I wouldn’t eat pasta in the morning, though.

Aizo: I’m sure the Julieta watching this will be like “I just knew Yujiro’d be eating Japanese food and Aizo’d be having Western food”, huh?

Yujiro: Maybe they will. We do give off those impressions, don’t we? Just like how we’d have either coffee or cocoa respectively.

Aizo: I got it. Wanna change the impressions we give off by trading our breakfast meals?

Yujiro: I don’t wanna. I want to eat my soba.

Aizo: Yeah, yeah.

Yujiro: Julieta, which do you prefer? Western food? Japanese food? Tell us, okay?

Aizo: Yum!

Aizo: We don’t usually shoot vids all by ourselves, huh?

Yujiro: Though you say “usually”, this is the first time we’ve done it, right? The staff always tag along with us.

Aizo: They plan all kinds of programmes for us too, right? Yeah. So, where do we go now?

Yujiro: Ehh, I don’t know. You decide, Aizo.

Aizo: Me? You decide, Yujiro. I dunno where to go either.

Yujiro: You decide, Aizo.

Aizo: Eh?! You’re kidding! Hmm… I can’t think of anything.

Yujiro: Planning ahead sure is important, isn’t it?

Aizo: Yeah. Let’s just walk around for now.

Yujiro: And so, we’re now at the footbaths!

Aizo: Phew, it’s hot in here!

Yujiro: We came here too last time, didn’t we?

Aizo: Yeah, back during our live tour, right?

Yujiro: Oh right, Aizo, how do you feel about the release of our second album?

Aizo: Of course I’m happy ‘bout it. I mean, releasing even just one album’s already pretty amazing.

Yujiro: Yup. The fact that we’re able to release a second album is all thanks to our Julieta, right?

Aizo: Yeah. We’ve gotta try even harder to meet their expectations, huh? How do you feel about the album, Yujiro?

Yujiro: I guess I feel differently about it than I did about our first album.

Aizo: Eh? How so?

Yujiro: I feel as though I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone. It’s all thanks to the support and expectations of our Julieta that we’re able to stand on stage. And, as that stage grows bigger and bigger, I get the feeling that I wouldn’t have been able to respond to the size of the stage all by myself.

Aizo: Yeah, I feel the same way. I’ve had thoughts like “Why are there 2 guys in LIPxLIP? I could do it by myself.” before. But this has made me realise once again that going at it alone would just mean halving our power.

Yujiro: We’re able to develop better together as a pair than we would have on our own. I'd say that we’re indispensable to each other for sure.

Aizo: Yeah, we are. Plus, things would sure get boring without a rival around, huh?

Yujiro: Yup. Aizo, the friendly rivalry between you and me… Wait a sec! This is going to be a bonus video! Isn’t this conversation getting embarrassing?!

Aizo: Yeah, it is. But isn’t it fine for us to talk about our true feelings when the two of us are on a trip together?

Yujiro: I guess so. We’re alone on this trip together, after all.

Aizo: Yeah. Aight then, let’s end this off with a word of thanks to our Julieta.

Yujiro: Thank you for getting our second album, Julieta.

Aizo: Thanks, Julieta.

Yujiro: This album is packed with our thoughts and feelings. It'll make us happy if you listen to it many times over.

Aizo: You’ll listen to it, won’t ya? We’re going to keep growing from here on out, so follow our progress, yeah?

Yujiro: Follow us, okay?

Aizo: Till we meet again, Julieta!

Yujiro: Bye bye Julieta. See you around.

Aizo: See ya!

[davidmariottecomics]

It's Weird Being Between Two Jobs

Hi there and happy new year! 

Title kinda says it all in this week's blog, but the strangeness of this time in my life is really settling in. 

Just because of how things worked out with leaving IDW and starting the new job, I ended up with a little under a month of free time. And the first week and some change of that was the end of the year holiday season. But the past week has been me sort of watching from the outside as people started going back to work. I did finish up some additional new hire paperwork, but that took maybe an hour total and I'm still over a week from starting the new gig. It's an odd space to be in. I'm not working for anyone--I'm not getting a paycheck (and am currently sort of living this month off of my last IDW paycheck plus paid out time-off)--but I'm also not so far removed from a gig as to be strictly freelance. 

And to be totally honest, I don't know that I really like it. I am not great at having free time. I like the idea of free time. I like the idea of having time to write for myself or relax with my hobbies. But I am not great at the latter and the former betrays the fact that even with my free time, I'm often trying to switch into work mode. Heck, at the end of the day, my starting this blog and crossposting it as a newsletter/Tumblr/Patreon is all influenced by my not being good at not at least trying to be productive with my free time. 

If you're also someone who has been working from home and especially if you've been working from home freelance, I'm sure you know all the complications of the domestic and recreational life against your job and probably are familiar with how helpful routine and scheduling is with all that. Right now, I'm freeform. I don't want to just use my old habits--the advantage of time off is specifically that I can break a 9-5 M-F format--but I feel like I don't have enough time to start building new routines. So, it's been a challenging couple of weeks. I have not done nearly as much as I think I'd like to have at this point, but I also keep needing to remind myself that I have done a number of things that were on my to-do list and that it's okay to have time off for myself. 

As such, instead of a really specific blog on something of late, let me share a couple quick bits that've been on my mind. 

The Anti-EGOT I recently finished a big relisten of season 2 of Dungeons & Daddies and in the intro to the show of one episode, Anthony Burch introduced the idea of an Anti-EGOT. I think he retroactively changed it in a later episode, but the general idea was to be a writer in four of the least respected mediums and not win an award for any of it. I believe, in the initial mention, the idea was the four mediums of choice would be video games, comic books, podcasts, and pornography (with wrestling being retroactively either added or replacing one of these, but I don't think I'm much of one to write for wrestling). Honestly, that kinda sounds like a dream to me. As I was listening to this stuff in the run-up to the new year, there was a part of me thinking "is going for the Anti-EGOT my resolution"? And I ultimately decided, no. I don't think that's a good resolution, but it is sort of my stretch goal for the year. If I can write in all those fields, get paid for it, and not win any awards (or, y'know... do) in my lifetime, I'll be pretty stoked. 

What my actual goal for the year would be is I want to try to release 6 comics. Different lengths and varieties. I'm not currently anticipating having that be like a single mini-series or whatever, but I want to try to do more in comics with what I am producing. And if I can maybe branch out into one of those other areas this year, even if it doesn't have a release for another year or more, I'd be cool with that too. 

Steamboat Willie Last year, you may've read my four part explainer about copyright! One thing that is repeatedly touched on there is the public domain and what all that means. Obviously, this year, Steamboat Willie and two other Mickey Mouse shorts entered the public domain. And it's been really interesting to watch that play out a little. It seemed like--and I know it's only been a week--most everyone got it out of their systems within the first 2-3 days of the year. A lot of that probably goes to Steamboat Willie and those early shorts not actually being all that interesting (fun, but very story-light). A lot of it goes to so much of what people would want to do with "Steamboat Willie" is either already legal because it falls under parody, is not actually meant to be sellable in any way, or was knocked out in a day. A lot of it too probably goes to how unclear what counts as public domain remains. For a character like Mickey, people have been pointing out are you using elements that were added after 1928 or treading on issues of trademark that are not copyright and are not as available. I am very curious to watch how this continues to play out this year (if it does), how things develop next year, and in the next couple of years, watch how things fall in preparation for about a decade from now when more of the early Disney catalog will be public domain (including Snow White) and other major companies start having some of their big hits become PD (like, say, Superman). 

I'm also kinda bummed to have not seen any immediate announcements/releases of new comic versions of Lady Chatterly's Lover like there were of The Great Gatsby or anything. That's the other really interesting/wild thing about this year--to me, it seems like the majority of the fuss was around the Mouse and the things that've remained popular in part due to the mouse, Peter Pan and Tigger. I have not seen nearly enough talk about One Million Cats or any of the film or music. 

Post-Twitter

The other day, Diana Sousa was asking on Bluesky (and Twitter, I guess), if Twitter is still the major non-convention way that comics editors discover new talent. And I responded as someone who is NO LONGER ON TWITTER but who is still needing to have discoverability of comics artists. I said, part of it is I am on other socials. I see new folks on Bluesky or Instagram or whatever. I also keep an eye on various databases--you don't have to be on Twitter to have access to #VisibleWomen or the Cartoonist Cooperative database or Cartoonists of Color or the Queer Cartoonist Database or the Disabled Cartoonist Database or any of these many sorts of resources. Something I didn't mention there, but will mention here is when you've got a company email address, you've often got agents of various sorts emailing you about talent, internal talent databases and/or recruiter-type folks, sharing info with other editors (and, y'know, I've in the past shared talent who I didn't have a gig for with editor friends at other companies because I thought they'd be a good fit). 

As I've mentioned before, the lack of access to talent was why I did wait so long to delete my Twitter (and also wanting to make sure I had ways of keeping up with world events and following non-comics people). But, genuinely, I am not stressing over continuing to find new people now that I've been without it for a little bit and know I've got a system.  Check Yourself for Midjourney Training Hey, speaking of my explainer on copyright and the lengths of time therein I talk about how "AI" is a tool of theft and companies trying to avoid paying artists for the use of their copyrighted works, the lawsuit against Midjourney's resulted in a list of names of "artists" they've scraped. Now, I only put "artists" in quotes because the list was made by incompetent tech bros and/or their clueless lawyers, and so there are a number of writers listed who do not particularly do art but where you can extrapolate that the artists they work with were scraped as well as companies, systems, game platforms, etc. While I understand that of course lawsuits are expensive, I do know a number of artists have been reaching out to the lawfirm of the existing suit and seeking to join the case as plaintiffs. If you're a visual artist, probably worth the time to double-check and, if you can, do something about it. 

Okay, I think that's it for this week! See ya next time! 

What I enjoyed this week: Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Spy x Family (Manga), How to Read Nancy (Book), Hitman 2 (Video Game), Pokemon Conceirge (Cartoon), Ted Lasso (TV show, finally started season 3), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Movie--can you tell I'm in a D&D mood?), The Floor (TV show), my new discord (friends can ask for access!), sending out some feeler emails for new projects and getting to do at least a little bit of writing for myself.  

New Releases this week (1/3/2024): Sonic the Hedgehog #68 (Editor)

Announcements: The Cartoonist Cooperative is still doing E-Sim cards for Gaza and at least 500 people have shown their proof of donation. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists. 

You can also give more directly. Things are obviously still very bad in Gaza as we've hit 3 full months of them being under siege. Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, including plenty of women and children. Israel has killed more journalists than any single conflict in my lifetime. They are attacking not just Gaza and the West Bank, but other neighboring countries. I hope the Internatioal Court of Justice can help bring this to an end, but in the meantime, the US has significant influence over the situation (between internatioal political power and the weapons and money we're sending as both a nation and that are being sent my many corporations in the US). You can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives to demand a ceasefire or to protest their inaction so far or to throw eggs at the president for participating in and encouraging a genocide. You should keep aware of actions, demonstrations, protests, and celebrations in your community too. Given the nature of the things, they often come together fairly quickly, so do exercise your due diligence. Also, of course, being informed and just giving your time to Palestinian journalists and writers is incredibly valuable. I don't tend to be a big TikTok fan, but it has proven to be one of the most reliable resources for firsthand accounts of what's happening on the ground. 

Meanwhile, Becca's got their first show of the year next weekend, 1/13 at Alesmith for a mini-con with BizBaz! Come pick up some new for 2024 stuff! Also, they've still got a little room in their schedule for this year, so get them for your comic project before it's too late! 

Finally, calling out my Patreon again as well as my webstore (final stock on basically everything there except Jimmy Squarefoot), my Kofi, and my eBay account as I am between paychecks for a while and those are other ways you can support me! 

Pic of the Week: We went to one of our favorite local restaurants, Rakitori in Hillcrest. They had a spicy cheesy tonkatsu ramen and I'm not a food picture guy usually, but I did quite like this photo and I'm actually very fortunate we ate there at the tail end of 2023, otherwise I'd have already eaten the best meal of 2024. 

[midsummer-semantics]

Character Study: Tommy Hagan as Iago from Othello

To begin with, there’s just not enough analysis of Tommy, which is probably mostly due to his complete disappearance in S2. We (fic writers) use him a lot as a plot device for Steve’s King persona or the beginning of his bi-awakening, but Tommy’s presence in the show alone is arguably more sinister than most people give him credit for. He’s still a plot device for Steve, but the same way that Iago is a plot device for Othello.

For those who hear “Iago” and think of the bird in Aladdin, that’s totally valid because the Shakespeare character is 100% the influence for that bird, so if that connection helps the rest of this make sense, hang on to it.

Iago (the character and the bird) gets by on feeding Othello information. His job at the beginning of the play is the banner holder, he follows Othello around with his flag. He wanted second in command, but that job went to Cassio instead. This is kind of where Iago’s character development begins: he was snubbed for second in command, and decides quickly that he needs to do away with Cassio, feeding Othello lies until he believes Iago is a better choice.

In the same vein, Tommy has inserted himself as Steve’s right-hand man. That’s what we see from the literal beginning, Tommy following along with Steve as this second-in-command type of person. We don’t really know if there was a Cassio-esque change over with Steve since he just kind of “pops up out of the pool fully formed” (thank you @peter-pantomime for that), but Iago traveled to Venice with Othello to begin with, was always kind of there regardless, so it’s safe to say that Tommy was too. However, like with Iago, Tommy seems to be the real thoughts behind the operation while Steve is the voice that everyone hears. Tommy is, for all intents and purposes, the bird on Steve’s shoulder. Tommy is the puppet master that gives Steve just enough leeway to think he’s the one calling the shots. This is seen in particular with the spray paint incident, since it’s Tommy who’s literally shown with the spray paint can in his hand in the alley, and can be assumed to be the one who tagged the marquee, but Steve is the one who (however unintentionally) takes responsibility for it by doubling down on the accusation.

On that note, the other person Iago goes after is Desdemona, Othello’s wife. Immediately after Othello and Des are married, Iago is the one who tells her father, painting it as this desecration of his pure (white) daughter by this dark (black) [for lack of a better word] creature. It’s Iago’s idea to frame Desdemona as an adultress that ultimately ends in her death.

If we look at those ideas with Tommy, from the get go he (and Carol) are rude and distancing of Nancy, and while Steve is walking this tightrope of wanting to be seen as the top dog while also being whatever Nancy needs him to be, Tommy (and Carol) are causing problems on purpose. Don’t get me wrong, Jonathan and the secret camera incident don’t help, but ultimately it’s Tommy who whispers the thoughts into Steve’s brain about Nancy being a cheater (she was, at least emotionally, but that’s neither here nor there for this comparison) that ultimately leads to the first big breakup. The “death” of Desdemona plays out in the S1 breakup of Steve and Nancy, especially since their reconciliation is never solidified given Nancy’s withdrawal quickly after.

But what the heck is the motive for any of it?

We (Shakespeare people) know Iago has this weird desire for power without seeming to want anything to do with actually wielding it at the forefront. He seems perfectly content to have power over others in the most conniving of ways, but never an “I want to be king” sort of way. Tommy has that same energy, following Steve until it stops being convenient and then moving on to Billy when he “usurps the throne.”

But it’s this weird, intentional isolating of Steve for Tommy’s benefit that mirrors Iago’s intentions with Othello so well. This whole “if I can’t have him, nobody can” sort of attitude that leads both Iago and Tommy to push back against anyone who gets too close to their focus of attention. It’s a jealousy aspect, not in the sense that Tommy/Iago want to be Steve/Othello, but that they’re the only one allowed to be in that position of proximity to them. Tommy/Iago’s entire thing is shifting attention away from themselves while maintaining all of the power. Iago does it with Cassio, using him as the scapegoat in his plan against Desdemona, two birds with one stone. Tommy does it with Jonathan, using him to convince Steve that Nancy really is the slut he accuses her of being. Basically, the moment Steve sees (or thinks he sees) Jonathan with Nancy in her bedroom and misreads the situation just enough to convince him of her cheating is the equivalent to the handkerchief in Othello.

It also sort of begs the question of whether Iago or Tommy have done this in the past. Is Nancy the first girl Tommy’s actively caused an issue with, or does he do this regularly? Is it because Nancy is the first person Tommy doesn’t feel like he can manipulate, thereby labeling her a threat to his power the same way Iago does with Desdemona? 

There’s a surface-level (heterosexual) reading of Othello that makes it seem like Iago wants Desdemona for himself, which sure, the fact he’s already married to Emilia while contriving this entire scheme intended to break up Othello and Desdemona can be read as a parallel to Tommy’s relationship with Carol and focus on ending Steve and Nancy’s relationship. But going back to the “If I can’t have him, nobody can” idea, it’s more likely that Tommy and Iago are dealing with this unrequited love situation with their respective male subjects that results in not only a desire for power but this obsessive need to isolate them so that the only person they feel they can rely on is already perched on their shoulder at all times.

Spoiler alert, though, Iago dies, and while Tommy just kind of disappears into the ether, that final scene where Steve finally stands up for himself and cuts ties with Tommy is not entirely unlike Othello finally realizing who Iago really is and killing him himself. The death of the friendship reads like the death of the partnership in both cases. Tommy only just makes it one step further than Iago by attaching himself to the next person in line which is Billy, but there’s no telling if Tommy wouldn’t have done the same manipulative technique with him given the chance. It's also an interesting character development parallel for Steve since him standing up to Tommy can be viewed as the "death" of his King Steve persona more than Billy's introduction can, and Othello's last stand before his death is to make sure Iago goes down as well.

Obviously none of this is good, but Tommy doesn’t really get the credit he deserves for being, for all intents and purposes, a poster child for the Shakespearean villain. All of his sinisterness exists in the background, but it’s definitely there.

[meesherbeans]

Baxter MC Week: Day 2 (Date Night)

Yukino watched Baxter as he quietly stared out of the doorway, his face masked in a neutral expression. She could tell he was trying to berate himself in his head again; it was the same look he wore at the end of their early morning coffee date where he slept in, forgot his wallet, and then had a small meltdown because his plans completely crashed and burned. That was the first time she’d really gotten a glimpse of the young man behind the smirk.

He was far more insecure than he tried to let on, and it hurt her heart to think about it. There was nothing wrong with plans falling through! Heck, it can open up new opportunities to hang out. That date afterward to the bar was fantastic fun, but she mostly cared about getting to spend time with him, not the fancy drinks or performances.

She reached to hug his arm and kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry that we can’t go to that amusement park, but it’s okay!”

“Well, I am at a loss as to what else I could offer you in place of it, especially with no warning. So, unfortunately, I don’t know if I agree with you on that.” Baxter sighed and ran his other hand through his hair, staring out at the absolute downpour.

Yukino pursed her lips and tried to think of a way to get him out of this funk. They could still spend the day together, even if they weren’t able to do what he had originally planned. Her eyes slowly drifted from Baxter’s face, ultimately focusing on the offending rain that had canceled their date. Inspiration hit immediately, and she brightened, a grin popping back onto her face.

Perfect!!

“Okay, I’m taking over today.” She nudged him with her shoulder and giggled quietly, reveling in her new plan of attack. He was going to have the best day, whether he knew it or not!

Brown eyes blinked and stared at her with curiosity. “You’re… ‘taking over’ today? Could you please clarify for me?” Despite his wary words, the frown on his face was slowly turning into a smile as her mood began to rub off on him.

She nodded and took a step back, deciding that putting him on the back foot once in a while was the best way to get his cooperation. “You’re gonna have to trust me. Give me… thirty minutes, then meet me here in a pair of clothes you don’t mind getting wet!”

Before he could respond, she leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the nose and ran out into the rain, making a beeline for her house. That was not a lot of time, and she had a fair bit to prepare!

Baxter blinked and watched her zip away with purpose, lifting a hand to touch his nose as he felt his cheeks begin to warm with a blush.

---------------------

A half-hour later, on the dot, Yukino carefully knocked on Baxter’s front door… using her foot. She was too busy balancing an umbrella, two eco-bags, and her usual beach bag, unable to spare a hand.

When Baxter opened the door, he twitched with surprise and quickly moved to usher her inside. “What the… what is all of this, darling?” he asked, curiosity radiating off of him at this point.

She grinned and carefully set the three bags on the ground, then shook off and closed the umbrella. “Supplies! I’ll bring one other thing over after, but that one’s the real surprise. Oh! Don’t look in them. Ah, we won’t be here anyway, but it’s fine. I’ll set them in the living room; hold on!”

He blinked and failed to fight back an amused grin. It was obvious that he had no idea what she was up to. “Do you… require any assistance?”

“Nope! All good. Are you sure that’s the right outfit? I said to change into something you didn’t mind getting wet!” she called as she dragged the bags to set them on the couch.

Baxter shrugged and pinched the shoulder of his usual favorite black-and-white shirt with the eye pattern on it. “I have several of these, and I know a fantastic cleaner, so it’ll be all right regardless,” he assured her in a confident voice.

Well, it was his clothing at the end of the day. Yukino walked back over to him and shrugged. “Okay, if you say so!” She smiled and slid her arms over his shoulders, pulling their faces close. “You ready?”

“That entirely depends on what it is you’re trying so very hard to insist I do,” he murmured. A smirk was on his lips again, and he set his arms around her waist, most pleased with their embrace. “May I finally know what that is?”

Yukino slowly nodded. “Yeah! You’re going to have the best rainy day date of your life,” she insisted. “First, we’re going to go dance in the rain. Then we’ll each get dried off and meet back here again in pajamas for dinner and a movie night. I packed a bunch of snacks and a blanket, so we’re gonna have a picnic on the floor.”

It was clear to her that Baxter had absolutely no idea what to think of her proposed date plan. His brown eyes widened with surprise, and his lips parted as his jaw dropped a little bit. Just a little, though. He looked absolutely flabbergasted.

She giggled and scrunched her nose, taking a mental picture of his expression. A tiny part of her really hoped this was the first time someone had managed to get him to make that face! It was as adorable as it was hilarious, and she selfishly wanted to be the only one to see it.

“You… actually want to dance… in the rain,” he murmured, the light in his eyes evolving from astonishment to wonder. “You’re serious?”

Her hand slid over to gently cup his cheek, and she nodded. “Of course I am! Doesn’t that sound like fun? I’ve danced alongside my friends in the rain and stuff before, but never a real dance. It’ll be like a cheesy romantic comedy,” she whispered, feeling the excitement tingle along her spine.

Baxter smiled sweetly and hesitated for a moment… but only a moment. He tilted his cheek into her hand and enjoyed her touch as he closed his eyes. “You are incredible. I would like nothing more than to do something foolish with you.”

It was so hard for Yukino to keep herself from leaning forward and pressing her lips against that genuine and happy smile. But she managed! Barely! “Not foolish, fun.” She allowed herself to brush her thumb along his cheek while he was there. This was already turning out to be an amazing idea.

“My apologies; something fun.” His eyes slowly slid open, and he gave her a sly look. “Lead the way, my lady of the rains. My evening and night are yours, as always.”

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach again at his floridly formal flirtations, and she could feel her cheeks warm up. Instead of responding, she stepped back to take his hand with one of hers and started to lead him toward the front door.

Thankfully, the sound of steady rain continued to beat on the condo’s walls and roof. They hadn’t missed their chance!

---------------------

The pair had made it across the street and over to Poppy Hill, completely drenched by the time they arrived. Yukino was laughing the whole way, gently pulling on his hand, reveling in the refreshing combination of cool raindrops and warm Southern California summer air. They finally stopped, and she glanced over at him with a grin.

Baxter returned her gaze, amused and clearly out of his depth. He gave her a smirk and reached to peel a lock of hair away from her eyes, lightly raising his voice to be heard over the rain. “Fancy meeting you here, Yukino. What brings you out on this most saturated of afternoons?”

She did not expect him to be so silly about it, and she giggled happily. “I was drawn here by some inexplicable force! But now I see it was just you all along. Since we’re here, do you want to spend some time together?”

“It’s a lovely day.” He paused to turn his head to the side and shook it after a large drop managed to catch him in the eye. His recovery was almost immediate, and he played it up for a laugh as he faced her again with a suave smile. “Truly the kind of weather one hopes to encounter. May I have this dance?”

Yukino nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, clearly not interested in a waltz at the moment. “You know I’ll always dance with you,” she answered with a grin. Her gaze wandered over his face, and she admired how different he looked when his hair was completely soaked.

When they had run through the sprinklers earlier this summer, his hair got a little wet, but now… it was plastered to the sides of his head and cheeks, his two-toned bangs slicked away from his face so that he could see. It was such a different side of him, and she found that charming.

His hands slid around her waist again, and he gently pulled her close before slowly leading her in a simple box step. It wouldn’t be particularly wise to try anything more complicated, considering it was pouring rain and they were on a grassy hill. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, Baxter quickly began to smile instead of smirking as they became engrossed in the dance.

They continued to slowly spin around, Yukino gazing up at Baxter for most of it. Ever since she brought him up here to show him fireflies and he asked her to dance, the two had found almost any excuse to break into a waltz or foxtrot. While it was sometimes for show, like when they tried to impress everyone on the boat, it seemed like practically every night, they ended up gliding around an empty living room or parking lot.

Dancing together was uniquely special. She knew he could sense it, too; rarely did he actually let his guard down, but she was utterly certain that the Baxter gazing back at her during a dance was the real guy – the wide-eyed, impossibly sweet one that kept popping up during random moments.

After a time, the cool rain began to feel unpleasant rather than refreshing, and Yukino pulled Baxter closer. He was a lot warmer than her, after all. He smiled and took that as an invitation to lean forward and press his lips against hers.

The combination of being so wrapped up together, the increasingly chilly rain, their warm bodies, and the feeling of their already wet lips finding each other’s was intoxicating. She sank into his embrace and returned his kiss slowly, wanting to savor every second of it. Movie kisses in the rain always looked dramatic, but this one instead felt softer and… intimate. Perhaps it was because it seemed like they were in their own little pocket of time, caught up in a swirling water world, but Yukino finally admitted to herself that Baxter was more than just a summer fling. This was special.

---------------------

“You’re going to catch a cold, sweetie.”

Yukino looked at Ma and sighed again, quickly rubbing her hair with a towel one more time. “I’m gonna be okay, Ma, promise. We both went home to get dried off, and we’re not going back out into the rain again. Nice and dry and warm for the rest of the night!”

Her mothers gave each other a look and then shrugged. “So, you took him dancing in the rain. What’s next?” Mom asked, curious and direct as ever.

“Well, I already packed a bunch of snacks and brought them over with a big blanket. I just need to grab my favorite movie and hop on over!” She grinned at her moms, so very pleased with herself.

Ma thoughtfully mused aloud, smiling softly. “A movie night? That’s lovely.”

Yukino shook her head and then began to carefully brush her thick locks out. “Not just a movie night! A movie night picnic,” she boasted. This really was the best casual date ever.

Mom laughed at that. “Well, that’s just adorable. I hope you two have fun… but not too much fun, if you know what I mean!”

“Mom.”

“Pam.”

Mom laughed even harder when both Yukino and Noelani scolded her.

---------------------

When Yukino stepped through the door to Baxter’s condo again, she blinked and sniffed curiously. It smelled like there was freshly cooked food or something. She shrugged off her soaked rain jacket and gently tossed it on the nearby coat rack before looking at Baxter with an inquisitive look on her face.

He chuckled and gave her a smug grin, the one he usually wore when he was particularly proud of himself. She had to stifle a snicker at the sight.

“What did you do, Baxter?”

Feigning offense, he scoffed and rested a hand on his sternum, gesturing to the silken black nightclothes with white trim from before. “Whatever do you mean? I dried myself and got into a pair of pajamas, just as you ordered. Your accusations are completely unwarranted!”

She giggled and skipped into the living room, taking a look around. “I��m not accusing you of anything! But I also know you cannot cook, so where’s that smell coming from?”

“Is it not possible that I secretly took a cooking class in order to impress and woo you with a delicious homemade dinner?” he asked, immediately following to wrap his arms around her waist from behind and hug her close.

While it was obvious that he was teasing her, Yukino had to pause for a moment to consider the possibility. That did sound irrationally over-the-top and very Baxter-like. “…Nnnnno?” she murmured.

His face dipped to brush a few teasing kisses along her neck, and his whisper floated over the sensitive skin in a warm puff. “You see through me yet again.”

Yukino twitched and started to laugh softly. She pushed away from him playfully, then gave him a false glare. “I always do! But seriously… what is that smell?”

“In truth, I had some leftover takeout in the refrigerator, and I decided to reheat it. Since you have declared a night of sharing interests, I wanted to offer this.” The explanation wasn’t up to his standards, apparently, and he coughed, glancing to the side with a faint, embarrassed flush on his cheeks.

The only thing that could make a movie night better than a bunch of snacks, candy, and movies was the addition of old takeout. Yukino’s eyes lit up, and she couldn’t help the overjoyed smile that came to her lips. “Wait, really? That’s perfect!”

Baxter did not expect her to react so favorably. The moment that exclamation left her lips, he twitched and turned to stare at her with innocent surprise, jaw slightly dropped and brown eyes like saucers.

“…What?” She was used to Baxter being taken aback by some of her ideas, but he seemed particularly startled after this one. Her hand lifted, and she used her index finger to gently coax his mouth closed. “It is perfect,” she reiterated more quietly.

Never breaking eye contact, he slowly clasped a hand around hers and nudged it up to press her hand against his cheek. His question was simple and hesitant. Unsure. “Why?”

Her fingers unconsciously trailed along his smooth skin, tips tracing the bottom of his lower lip. “Aren’t you the one who told me that the most important part of any event is the attendees? Now we don’t have to talk to anyone else all night.” Feeling a warm glow in her chest, Yukino smiled softly at him. She hoped he understood why the idea of just the two of them being shut-ins was so appealing.

For a moment, long enough to notice but short enough to miss immediately, she got lost in Baxter’s gaze; there was something soft and vulnerable about the way he looked at her. That warm glow in her chest twisted into a knot, and it was like she couldn’t breathe all of a sudden. It was… the best and worst feeling, like she was going to float away or fall to the ground at any second.

He slowly blinked, regaining his composure. Baxter cleared his throat. “It will be a pleasure to share tonight with you,” he said in a gentle voice. “Shall we begin?”

“…Uh, yeah. Of course.” Yukino took his proffered hand and let him lead her into the kitchen, recovering from the electrifying and emotional connection that had just been made. Hopefully, he didn’t notice the goosebumps on her arms.

It was going to be a night to remember.

[vntako]

vn in a bottle: her tears were my light

ah i've found something very nice

decided to read some short vns to figure out how to write one and i thought this first one i went for appropriately explicitly defined starts, middles, and endings as part of it's narrative. along with the whole time travel shebang (you play as time) i found this was a bit too appropriate for what i was deciding to write but thought hey this is the universe nudging me gently into finishing the thing.

the story starts with time all alone, and finding space. i love the whole love at first sight schtick, oh and there's an implication of fated lovers thing ("it's like i've met you before" and all that jazz)

space is very cute

i find it difficult to talk about this game without spoiling it bc it's really short and there's not much to say about the exposition apart from space being super cute (the whole thing is around ~30 mins for me, at least less than an hour)

well, to be a bit less vague, i like the story's themes of loneliness. relationships are a complex thing, and memories aren't so reliable sometimes. and people do ultimately change. we misunderstand, we discuss, we compromise. i like that the story reminds us to do our best to try not to leave anyone in our lives lonely.

oh the the fluff between the characters is great, i like a lot

OH forgot to mention the music, it's super good. it fits over the emotional parts so well, especially the true ending song geez. also there are vocal tracks in the extras using eleanor forte and they're really good i need them on like, spotify to put in a playlist (one of them is there, it wasn't my fav but this is pretty nice)

go play this game it's free on itch over here you can play it in your browser no downloads just a bit of loading time

her tears were my light by NomnomNami (itch.io)

spoilers beyond this point

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if it gets you to play it you should know you get to kiss the girls

so you have to save space from being killed by this other girl nil, and she has the power to stop you from rewinding so you gotta start at the start every time you try to save space

the whole "doing different things but always leading to the same result" (insanity) plot line is very appealing to me, and this vn has that. space is killed every time you try to reset. you reset anyway. wowza. i love that.

eventually, we find out nil and space are the same, which is implied by their similar appearances and parallels and stuff. i like that, that's cool, so at that point the goal for you is to reconcile the two of em despite them being polar opposites of each other (space is the girlfailure and nil is the girlboss)

it genuinely hurt me resetting out of the nil ending btw, i didn't get a screenshot but jeezums (nil is best girl sorry)

a few resets in you get to have this moment with space

it's great

i don't like that this kiss decides you abandon nil, though. well, you come around eventually.

you get the true beginning by talking things out with nil, making up for what you've done (even if you don't remember), and deciding not to abandon either of them. that's great, i like that a lot. talking is good.

nil is super cute

to talk a bit more, i like how nil gets so desperate to the point that time misunderstands her intentions. i think, that like happens a fair bit in real life. heck if someone forgot about me to go and have fun with someone else i would uh, die. time hears her out eventually and they come to a compromise and it all works out for the three of them. they both forgive each other. and space doesn't die (yay)

the true beginning is basically a poly ending and that makes this vn a 10/10

[aroaceleovaldez]

Something I think the first series “great prophecy” has that the latter prophecies don’t is that it has all the elements of a really strong prophecy that’s lacking in later prophecies.

With the first Great Prophecy, it’s just vague enough that you can interpret it a ton of different ways, but still specific enough that it’s not infinite and all of those different interpretations end up ringing true. “A half-blood of the eldest gods” could mean a lot of things, and throughout the series we’re given a lot of different options for who we think the child of the prophecy will be.

Then also the prophecy is self-fulfilling, and the characters think they way more agency than they truly do. Luke is dead as of The Lightning Thief - ye olde Doomed By The Narrative. We know he is doomed from the second we see that yarn be cut (even though we don’t know that’s his life string yet). But he doesn’t die until four books later. He was always going to die. Chronologically, when the Olympians first learn of the Great Prophecy, Zeus makes Hades give up his children as part of the oath the Big 3 make. Hades refusing to do so makes Zeus try to kill them/kill Maria, which makes Hades put his children in the Lotus Casino and curse the Oracle. The Oracle being cursed makes May Castellan go insane, which Hermes can’t do anything about because it’s Hades’ curse and that results in Luke becoming jaded to the gods and running away from home. Then Luke meets Thalia, who is a result of Zeus breaking the oath, and Hades kills Thalia in vengeance towards Zeus for breaking the oath that cost him his mortal family, which makes Luke even more jaded towards the gods and directly sets him on the path to raising Kronos.

Then on top of that, once the di Angelos re-enter the picture, the Oracle literally physically marches on down in front of everyone (specifically including the siblings) to deliver the prophecy for the quest that will ultimately kill Bianca and make Thalia fully give up on Luke (and decide to evade the prophecy by becoming a Huntress), and those events make Percy decide to take on the role of the child of the prophecy to spare Nico from it. The thing is, Percy isn’t the child of the prophecy! He never was! It was Luke all along! Percy was only the one who turned 16. Luke was the one who made the decision “Olympus to preserve or raze.” And Luke made that decision because he saw the heartbreak Annabeth had suffered because of all of this - losing Thalia, losing Luke, nearly losing Percy twenty times over. It all comes back together. Percy never had the agency to chose being the child of the prophecy - it was never him. It was never a child of the Big 3 anyways and never was going to be. The gods making the oath to try and avoid the prophecy is what seals their fate. The Oracle’s curse and Thalia’s death only serve to further guarantee the course of the prophecy. Every character, the gods included, think they’re making decisions that are changing fate but they aren’t, they’re only further cementing what was destined all along. The only decision made with actual agency is Luke’s final decision - preserve or raze. But even then no matter what Luke chose, he was going to die in that moment. He was always going to die. It was just a matter of if he would take Kronos out with him.

Prophecies in the later series are generally either direct instructions or very specific. Heck, by TOA they do a literal crossword that LITERALLY SPELLS OUT that they need Reyna on their quest. “A half-blood of the eldest gods” is just perfectly vague enough that it could mean a ton of things, but isn’t too vague as to be meaningless. A child of the Big 3? A legacy? A demigod of an even older god than Kronos’ children? Historically old gods? All on the table! stuff “Wisdom’s daughter” and “Bellona’s daughter” are kind of on-the-nose. “To storm or fire the world will fall” weird dichotomy but okay I guess. Why one or the other? What’s the connection (other than us later learning that Hera adopted Jason and raised Leo)? Like, okay, presuming specifically this means a demigod that gives us... Thalia, Jason, maybe Percy (storms), Leo, and Frank (fire), more or less? It’s too specific! But if it’s not a demigod then it’s way too vague! Just storm or fire? It’s that easy to defeat Gaea? Then why hasn’t someone done that already?! Even just like “Hera’s champion” would be better because then who’s Hera’s champion? She has like, a ton. All the Argo 2 crew is technically her champions. Now we’re working with something. None of that “Three letter word starting with D” stuff unless you’re gonna do something interesting with it. Where did your wordplay go, Riordan?! Your prophecies stopped making sense! You had a really good one! We need more of that!

[thevideogameshutterbug]

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) Thoughts - Beginning At The End

No photos this time (I might add a few later). But I've got a lot of thoughts (and photos) about this game now that I'm finishing it up, but I just got finished my last sidequest in the postgame and I wanted to gush about it.

Spoilers, by the by. Quite a few of them.

----

The Mysteriums were a lopsided a pain the ass but man am I glad I saved this quest for last.

I've been thinking a lot about how much this game seeks to embody why Peter's beliefs in having empathy for the people he fights and getting to know who these villains are as people matters, and this quest - as well as Quentin Beck's final words to cap off the story - are such a perfect capper to that.

Nothing is as it seems, especially when you look at heroes and villains. Anything can change for anybody faster than you could ever realize it. When you take the masks off, it's all people making decisions. A good person can go down a dark path, a bad person can decide they no longer want to be that person any more. Not everyone is going to, but it's important to know that such a thing is always possible.

Heck, this game has an almost ''unprecedented'' number of reformed villains for a superhero franchise: Sandman, Mysterio, Tombstone, Mr. Negative, Prowler technically Lizard, all people who understand they did wrong and whose only motivation now is trying to make their way in the world going forward.

Jonah has a podcast early in the game where he insists that people never really change (about either Sandman or Lizard, iirc), advocating for criminals to be just kept in prison in perpetuity (which, I like this version of Jonah, but goddamn is he hard to like sometimes). Wraith advocates just killing these guys because naturally they're never going to change and they might as well be removed from the equation. And naturally, Symbiote Peter eventually starts considering the idea that maybe the best way forward is just to kill everybody who could be a threat.

But this game doesn't just counterpoint that by having its ultimate evolution be monstrous like most superhero works: instead, this game makes a strong point of why that mentality doesn't work - this is a fantasy story, but it's also a good point for real life.

Coming from a law family where I had a lot of interaction with formerly incarcerated people, and living in an inner city relationship where - again - anything can happen to skew a person's life in ways nobody thought they would go, it's not just a more realistic point - it's an essential point: people always change, and any belief otherwise is just an excuse not to examine the world around oneself. They can change for the worse, they can change for the better, or just kind of laterally shift, but they always change. A failure to recognize it is a failure of the self, not the other.

There's a strong trend of former villains in this game being taken advantage of by other villains, with the new villains doing so with the expectation that nobody will come to the former villains' aid, trust them, or aid them in any way (Mysterio's partners try to frame him, Tombstone and Negative get abducted by people who were sure no one would come for them, Sandman gets driven mad and dumped onto the city to be tossed into prison). And it's absolutely amazing to be Spider-Man in this game and be the one who fights tirelessly for everybody, even the people who have spurned their chances before, because that's who Spider-Man is.

Even if their stories still don't always end positively. Because it's still the right thing to do it, and it's a worse crime to stop.

Man, I love Spider-Man.

As a final note, I especially like that none of the former villains really expect to be forgiven and several never are. This might be the philosopher in me talking, but it's not in forgiveness that one finds redemption, but in the capacity of change in and of itself.

[phandomphightclub]

Important 2023 Phight Information

By popular demand, the one and only Ghost Zone Denny’s is reopening to host the notorious PHANDOM PHIGHT CLUB! Tali (@dannyphandump) and Vic (@babypop-phantom)are returning with the help of new recruit Lexx (@lexosaurus) to mod the biggest and baddest fight in the Ghost Zone! Get ready to face your friends, acquaintances, strangers, and enemies in immortal combat an organized shitposting tournament!

So… what the heck is the Phandom Phight Club?

THE SHORT EXPLANATION

It’s basically a Danny Phantom shitposting tournament, involving 64 entrants and 6 total rounds of posts. Rounds are single elimination, leaving one ultimate Phight Club Champion.

This post provides a great backstory as to how the Phight Club came to be!

THE DETAILED EXPLANATION

Please read even if you have participated in previous years as some information has changed!

For Entrants:

Registration begins December 4th at 12am EST

Entrants will be sorted randomly into a single-elimination bracket. This bracket will be posted on December 31st for everyone to view.

ONLY 64 PHIGHTERS CAN ENTER. In past years, spots filled up very rapidly, so we suggest signing up as early as possible!

Please only sign up if you plan to participate in the Phight. We don’t want people taking up slots for people who actually want to compete. If you sign up and decide you do not want to participate, or find out you do not have the time to, please reach out to one of the mods before December 31st and we will remove you from the phight. We will offer up the spot to someone else who would like to participate.

The 2023 Phight™ will take place throughout the month of January. More specific details on the schedule will be included on the January calendar to be released November 26th.

A new round will take place every few days, with a couple “dead days” scheduled for phighters to prepare their shitposts.

Please be sure you’re able to submit your entry on each entry day. Participants will be disqualified if they do not submit an entry by the deadline.

PHIGHTERS WILL CREATE THEIR POSTS ON THEIR OWN BLOGS. This is to ensure that all Phighters get credit for the shitposts they create. Phighters will paste a link to their post in a google submission form that will be released for each round. Phighters may create posts as far in advance as they would like, but submission forms for the next rounds will not open until the results of the previous round have been posted. (It is recommended that even if your post is ready beforehand, you wait to post it to keep each round organized and in case you are eliminated beforehand.)

Submission posts will be reblogged to @phandomphightclub throughout the day submissions are due.

Voters decide the winners of each round. The winners will move onto the next round. The phinal round occurs when only two phighters are left. The semiphinalist phighters will also compete in the phinal round prompt for third place. (If you make it to round 5, you automatically compete in round 6, the phinal round, to determine phinal standings.)

You cannot ask people to vote for you! This may result in disqualification! Try reblogging the voting polls to get people to vote, instead!

Limit of one vote per person. You do not need a tumblr to vote, but the form will require you to be logged into a google account to prevent duplicate votes.

Prizes for winners will be announced if we find people willing to provide them, but no prizes are guaranteed other than bragging rights and certificates for the top 3. Who wouldn't want to brag about winning the Phight?

For Voters:

Voters are crucial to the success of this competition. A poll to vote for the winners of each round will be open the whole day after the submissions are due.

Anyone can vote, whether you are a phighter or a spectator (Technically, you can even vote for yourself, but there should be enough voters that this won’t matter much).

Follow @phandomphightclub for the links to the voting polls.

Other Information:

There is no phight the day of voting.

People will be able to place bets on who will win the Phight. Betting booth information will be released with the January Phight calendar on November 26th.

Round results will be posted on @phandomphightclub after voting ends.

PHIGHT CLUB RULES:

The first rule of phight club is you don’t talk about phight club.

All entries must be SFW (absolutely no sexual content or excessive gore). People who submit this kind of content may be disqualified at the discretion of the mods.

Submissions are meant to be Danny Phantom shitposts, so please don’t worry too much about artistic or writing quality. This competition is meant to be open to anyone who wants to enter, regardless of perceived talent.

No direct personal attacks in your submissions or towards other entrants, please. This phandom is pretty good about this, but just remember to keep it clean, folks. Lighthearted trash talk is allowed; use your best judgment here.

Please do not take losing as a personal attack.

When voting, try to be as unbiased as possible. The submissions will be posted in the poll without the competitor’s name attached in order to help facilitate this.

Competitors are allowed/encouraged to advertise the Phight on their blogs, but please do not ask followers to vote for you specifically. If phighters are found to be asking, bribing, or cheating to gain votes, they may be disqualified at the discretion of the mods.

If you’re confused about anything, don’t hesitate to send an ask to @phandomphightclub.

Don’t eat food off the ground in the Denny’s parking lot. Trust me, please.

Please be patient with us mods as we work to provide the best Phight experience for you. And to those of you who have participated before, please note that this year’s Phight may not be as extravagant as it was in previous years. We are working to streamline our system and smaller side projects are very hard for us to manage on top of everything else. It is also important to note that write-ups of round results will not be as prevalent this year in lieu of our new system. Thank you for your understanding while we navigate these changes, but don’t worry… us mods still have some tricks up our sleeves…

Thank you for your interest in the Phight Club! Order an appetizer at the Denny’s, place your bets, and get ready to watch the greatest Phight this side of the ghost portal!

💚 Mod Tali, Mod Vic, and Mod Lexx

[yindelune]

PICK-A-PIC reading: A Message For You (TIMELESS)

You know what to do~ pick one of these photos and just scroll down for your reading! ^^

1st half of your reading will be about your current situation, just a little something for you to confirm if the reading is indeed for you. The second half will be the message.

SOURCES OF PHOTOS:

One: (https://lesstalkmoreillustration.tumblr.com/post/138919080233/elly-smallwood-tumblr)

Two: (https://pin.it/5ZxlXXq)

Three: (https://www.flickr.com/photos/148156833@N08/43772994222)

~~~

Pile 1

1st Half: 8 of Pentacles, Justice, 3 of Swords

There is this sort of injustice that you keep trying to change and turn around. For some of you this is more about finances or family issues, and it just makes you feel like life is so unfair to you. It's like no matter how hard you work to turn this situation around, you just can't seem to succeed. First thing you need to know is that this situation is very Karmic, and it will definitely get better than this, even though it feels at the moment like it's impossible to get through this.

2nd Half: The High Priestess, Queen of Pentacles, 10 of Pentacles

First thing I got was, "look at the bigger picture; maybe you're missing something because you're so focused on the small things". I also have a feeling that your mind tends to make things bigger than they seem. I feel like there's just sooo much that is yet to be revealed to you right now? But behind the curtains there's nothing but abundance for you. Really, that's all I'm seeing here. This message is not exactly an advice, but a reassurance that you'll get through this. It may be a slow process, but you will see this through, and when you do, you'll realise it's sooo worth it. Perhaps the advice is just to persevere and endure. But no matter what, abundance and everything you wished for are waiting for you on the other end.

~~~

Pile 2

1st Half: 3 of Swords, 8 of Pentacles, Justice

You have GOT to be kidding me- these are the same cards my pile 1s got, only in different order... :O wtf... The message is still different, though, I can feel it. But still... What the heck.

Okay, anyways. I feel like this pile is working so hard for something that doesn't really align with them anymore. You're so drained of failing at this, but have you asked yourself if this is still what you really want? Because sometimes the reasons things don't work is just because they're not meant to work. You definitely need a little shake up in your life, especially in your mindset. This feels like holding on to something so tightly just because you've been doing so for years, and letting go of it would make you feel like you wasted your time. Try to zoom out, see the bigger picture. While this might not be for you, there surely are lessons that this taught you. Maybe it's not about seeing this through all along, but just picking up lessons along the way. Lessons you'll need once you've decided yo go for the real deal.

2nd Half: Ace of Wands, The Devil, Queen of Cups

Yeah, you're definitely being nudged onto a new path, a new beginning. Because this is Wands, I assume for most of you this is a creative pursuit? But ultimately this just feels like something that will make you feel so exhilarated again. After long years of forced efforts into something that always failed, you're finally being met by something that will make you feel excited and inspired and motivated, and you won't have to force it. It will make you feel so emotionally fulfilled, and possibly help you get in touch with your Divine Feminine energy, or maybe this can be a doorway for you to meet a maternal figure who will be there for you always to lean on. The purpose of this current thing you've been working on is just to teach you something, or maybe detach you from a bad habit. The Devil can also be saying that your attachment to this thing is becoming unhealthy and that's mainly why it's time to explore new stuff.

~~~

Pile 3

1st Half: 9 of Pentacles, 7 of Pentacles, 10 of Cups

You're definitely somewhere stable and full of abundance right now, and honestly (because the bottom of the deck is 10 of Swords) I feel like you've earned it. But still, there's a part of you or of your life that just feels out of place. Like I think of it as that one dimmed spot in a place that's all lit up. These days you probably find yourself asking what else is there to be done? Or to be achieved? You've earned this stability but because you're used to struggles, this stability sometimes feel boring to you. Also, I feel like you're the type to associate your worth with your accomplishments, so now that it seems to you you've nothing left to work towards to, you feel uneasy. Perhaps this well-deserved resting period comes off to you as stagnation.

That's what I see in terms of your current background/situation.

2nd Half: 10 of Pentacles, The High Priestess, Queen of Pentacles

You have got to be kidding right now like seriously what the heck- THESE ARE THE SAME CARDS I PULLED FOR MY PILE 1'S SECOND HALF... And if you saw my Pile 2 reading, the cards I pulled for their 1st half of the reading were also the same as pile 1's 1st half... 🥲 What the heck is this honestly no one can really make this sh!t up seriously. Because it's not like I don't shuffle the cards!

Anyways.

Try to warm up more to your situation right now. As I've said, you've earned this stability and this abundance. Don't worry because there's definitely something else for you to accomplish; there's a reason why you still feel sort of incomplete despite what you've achieved. But don't rush it. Bask in this stability, because you might need to remember how it feels to get through your next journey, which I think will be more of a spiritual awakening or ascension. You've achieved material stability, and when it's time you'll be sent off to achieve spiritual completion as well, but that time isn't now. So just try to enjoy what you have at the moment. You've literally earned it!!!

That's all I'm seeing for everyone. Thank you for reading my...reading. 😆 But seriously, thank you for taking your time to read everything! See you again!

[potahun]

If you're willing to distribute wisdom, as someone looking to sentence themself to watch dmbj... what the heck is up with the different versions lol, and does it matter which one one starts with?? And also maybe where can they be accessed?

I don't know if I'm the best person to ask this to, actually, because my opinion on dmbj is extremely....biased and picky as someone who only likes 2.5 adaptations, and is mostly a casual fan since 2016. im sure a search will reveal much more complete posts reccing the adaptations in the right order and such, so this is just my personal two cents:

more enthusiastic fans can correct me, but what I understood is that until a certain point in time, due to the books' popularity, different people wanted a go at adaptations, until NPSS, the author, decided to take the whole franchise under his wing and now no one except his own company can make adaptations. now, his own team's adaptations led to things like DMBJ Reboot (2020), which i ended up loathing despite it having zhu yilong, so im not...super enthusiastic about any adaptations in general anymore

having said that, here's what i watched in approximative order, and whether i liked them:

The Mystic Nine (2016)

The Lost Tomb 1 (2015)

The Lost Tomb 2 (2019)

Ultimate Note (2020) - I actually watched this one after Reboot, but this is where it should be, I think.

Sha Hai / Sand Tomb (2018)

DMBJ Reboot: The Sound Providence Pt 1&2 (2020)

One of the Heihua specials

Out of these, i adored The Mystic Nine and Ultimate Note, I relatively enjoyed TLT 2, and......that's it.

The Mystic Nine is about the predecessors and previous generations of the families that make up the main protags of DMBJ. A lot of it is so bad it's good (especially CGI and censoring issues made up for a hilarious watch for me). The plot revolves a massive human-shaped tomb that some of these nine families have found, and what it hides. It's set around the 1930s, so.... of course, there's some of the typical stuff you can find in a plot concerning that time, too.

Ultimate Note is set in DMBJ "present", covering books 4-7 of DMBJ. It's the only DMBJ adaptation and only Wu Xie that I truly enjoy. Also the only Xiao Hua and Hei Yanjing I swear by. and boy, did i enjoy UN so much. Did it feel jarring to watch it without a good understanding of the previous books? Yeah. But personally, I find DMBJ to be a series where you can dive in more or less at any point, so it's the only adaptation I can wholeheartedly recommend. It also has a homebaked feel, between the very green actors and the occasional bad CGI.

I relatively enjoyed TLT2 while watching, but if you asked me what happened in it now, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I know it has my favorite Pangzi of all times.

I don't even want to cover my opinion of the rest. I already mentioned i ended loathing the reboot (i loved the first dozen eps, so the fall afterwards felt worse), and that hate-watch to see if my opinion could be changed at the last minute was part of decisions i regret... it deals with a much much older Wu Xie and iron triangle, in any case. Sha Hai takes place a bit before the reboot, but also deals with an older Wu Xie and has a completely different protagonist. I personally wouldn't start with these two, therefore.

Now. Some people only swear by those two, saying they're some of the best DMBJ adaptations. So again, my opinion is just an opinion. Please have a look at more complete, less biased rec posts and good luck to you in your watch!

[frozenhi-chews]

SPAMTON JUMPSCARE! I wanna know about how you fell for each other! Was it a love at first sight sort of thing or was it more slow burnish :o?

OUGH WIFE!!!

In the canonical timeline, I Scammed Death, it was a SLLLOOOWWW burn. These two Did Not Like Eachother. At all.

Pancake was fairly new to Cyber City, having an at-home shop and needing money. And one of the best ways she could get that is dumpster diving. Turning trash into art. However, there's someone else in those dumpsters.

Late one night, she found a dumpster she hadn't seen before, reached in, and then got BIT! Something had bit her arm so hard it broke her skin and she still has the scars years later. In response to this, she smacked her assailant on the opposite wall, where, TA-DA, a short angry Addison was there. He accused her of stealing his merchandise, and she felt bad enough that she put some trash back, but not without a sneer. This angered him to where he bit her shoulder, she smacked him against the wall, and she ran out.

For the next few months they had been at each other's throats. Spamton mostly, snarling at her when she arrived in his general vicinity. And Pancake sassing him out to his annoyance. They did not like each other.

Then somehow, it felt like Pancake flipped a switch. Somehow she was kinder. It threw Spamton off, thinking she was trying a new tactic to get under his skin. Checking in on him, visiting and buying things from his shop. Heck even HANDING HIM FOOD upon occasion. He hated it. But, to his denial, he liked her company.

The two of them slowly became friends, and that relationship JUMPED when Pancake defended him from someone else. Pancake was there to stay, that was her FRIEND. And one thing about Pancake across all universes, YOU DO NOT MESS WITH HER FRIENDS. She ended up fainting in front of him, and in a panic he brought her to his shop.

That changed their relationship. He found out he liked her before then, when he was in an abandoned restaurant and was singing. She was there and applauded him. Pancake found out she loved Spamton after he patched her up. And then the mutual pining commenced.

Spamton confessed first. Late at night. Having a horrible day. Sitting on the roof of his shop with Pancake. After that, they decided to pursue a relationship. And it wasn't until a couple months later he moved in.

Oooaaah that was. An infodump XD

I could talk more about I Scammed Death, I love it so much and Spamton in general. I have other AUs too, like Fallen Angel/Redeemed Demon, Dumpster Meet-Cute, and more.

As for I gained him as an F/O? I wasn't even into Deltarune. I was on the outskirts just looking at the fanart, when I realized I was CRUSHING on him. It startled me and I was in denial for a week despite making self ship art. It's been fun though. He's my wife, my husband, my second half. I love and adore him so much. There's a reason he's my #1 Rated Ultimate F/O. No one comes CLOSE to him