#but travis calling people out for doing it is also very funny

[justalittlebluetiefling]

It is never not funny to me that Travis is the one at the table who heard Matt say, "Don't yell insight check, ask if you believe them?" and latched onto it with such intensity immediately.

[blueeyedgirll]

he'd loooove that - sal fisher x tough f!reader

a/n: for lack of better words when i say tough i mean like …. you defend him from bullying and kind of skip class idk. also we’re pretending ash wasn’t there when travis was harassing sal ok? ok.

this fic includes: fem reader, second person pov, bullying, skipping 10 minutes of class, use of the term “holy roller,” Travis being rude to you (i.e. b word, telling you to fuck off), cussing, vague threats of violence, Larry teasing Sal cause he likes you. read at your own risk yadda yadda yadda

You ignore your teacher’s command for you to return quickly from the bathroom as you walk down the dingy hallway. Of course, you didn’t plan to return to class at all, much less return quickly. Who cares about what happened 100 odd years ago? Whatever.

You continue down the hallway, wondering where you should spend the next 10 minutes before lunch starts, when you see two familiar looking boys down the hall. The one furthest away, Travis, the preacher’s son who gives anyone who isn’t a total holy roller shit, was clearly insulting the one closer to you.

Sal.

The thing about Sal is that the only thing you share is a math class. You don’t share a social circle, or sit at the same lunch table, or even talk outside of that math class. However, this didn’t stop you from noticing that he was very attractive. The electric blue hair, mask, and his unique style was oddly alluring.

As your feet keep moving closer to the two boys, you hear some of what travis is saying.

“Nobody likes a goody-two-shoes, Saaaally Face.”

Without missing a beat, Sal responds.

“Nobody likes a cliché bully, Traaaaavis.”

His appearance aside, Sal’s wit and demeanor was another reason you’d fallen for him. Every time you talked, Sal made you laugh in some way. He’s so funny and nice to talk to, and it outrages you to see someone like Travis being so disrespectful to him.

Before he could say another word, upon closing the distance between you and the boys, you butt in.

“Do you have a problem?” You say, staring Travis in the face and fighting the urge to sneak a glance at Sal.

“This is none of your business, bitch.”

“Don’t call me a bitch. And definitely don’t give Sal any attitude. Don’t you have a class to go to?”

Of course, this made Travis even more upset. Turning fully to you and taking a few steps forward, he raises his voice and exclaims “Go fuck yourself! I’ll do whatever I want.”

Your anger rises with his refusal. Without batting an eye, you decide that you number one, need to get Travis out of here, and number two, need to take this as an opportunity to win Sal over. You take a step forward so that you’re almost toe-to-toe with Travis.

“No the fuck you won’t. Not on my watch. I need you to turn your holy blonde ass around and go back to class before I show you what happens when snotty little pricks like you can’t keep their nasty attitude in their mouths,” you say, jerking closer to Travis with every insult. You pause for a moment, hoping you wouldn’t get the shit beat out of you.

Travis grits his teeth, calls you some very colorful names, and walks off.

Relief floods you as you take your first look at Sal. Shock floods you as you see he was already looking.

“Thank you,” Sal says.

“You’re welcome,” you respond.

“You really didn’t have to do that. I’m tough, I promise.”

“I know, but I can’t stand to see people like Travis being assholes for no reason.”

“I get that. Thank you for standing up for me. Really.”

If you didn’t know any better, you would say that the exposed tips of Sal’s ears looked rather pink.

Before you can respond, the bell rings and Sal’s close friend Larry came running up to him.

“I heard yelling, is-… Oh! Hey, man…”

Larry trailed off when he noticed you. Suddenly, he was staring at you and it made you feel the need to explain yourself.

“I… Just so happened to be walking past and I saw Travis giving Sal shit-“ When you said Sal’s name, Larry looked at Sal and smiled, as if surprised you knew his name, “- So I stepped in, I guess. He’s gone, but I’m sorry for getting all up in your business.”

Larry, after staring at Sal with a less than necessary smirk, responded “No problem, dude. Listen, if you ever want to defend Sal again, I’m sure he’d loooove tha-“ Sal interrupts Larry with a swift elbow in the ribs. He gets the point and stops.

“Thanks. Enjoy your lunch,” Sal says, and Larry follows him as he walks away.

You pretend not to watch them walk down the hall, seeing Larry punch Sal in the arm encouragingly and yell something about protective girls.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Camp Half Blood Halloween Lookalike Shenanigans Headcanon

My little brother and I decided it would be funny if there was a Camp Half-Blood halloween party where everyone came dressed as a different member of the camp. Our ideas include:

Grover dresses as Percy, borrowing one of his flannel shirts and putting a streak of gray in his hair.

Nico also dresses as Percy, but in the most stereotypical way possible. He keeps pulling massive amounts of blue candy out of his pockets and threatening to fight people with a ballpoint pen.

Annabeth dresses as Grover. She finds a way to get food to look like tin cans and candy wrappers, and spends the whole time eating those while stopping everyone who keeps accidentally littering.

Percy and Jason dress as each other and swear they didn't plan it in advance. Piper also dresses as Annabeth and she and Jason call each other seaweed brain and wise girl the whole time.

Mr. D complains that the whole thing is stupid and he's not participating, up until the day of the party, when he's seen walking around with an orange t-shirt and a nametag that says "PETER JOHNSON"

Connor and Travis are dressed as themselves. They keep saying things like "CLEARLY I'm dressed as my brother," and "can't you tell? We switched necklaces!" when in actuality they did not at all and came dressed as themselves (or as each other pretending to be themselves I guess?)

Will plays the greatest Nico DiAngelo imaginable, wearing all black, carrying around a Happy Meal box, and walking around complaining about how "everyone hates me even though I have no evidence to support this claim" and "oh maybe those Apollo kids are right and I should start actually taking care of myself, but alas! I shall not!"

Leo dresses as Jason. Actually, he's wearing a superman costume and a blonde wig, but it gets the point across. He keeps walking up to Percy, who is also dressed as Jason, and saying "oh great, ONE of us is gonna have to change," and also finding random places to pretend to pass out and knock himself unconscious. He's having the time of his life....

That is, until Hazel shows up from Camp Jupiter in a dirty white buttondown shirt and suspenders, grease staining her face and hair, wearing a cheap dollar tree toolbelt with plastic tools. She peppers a pun into every conversation and jokingly flirts with half the girls there, and even though Leo acts unimpressed, everyone else agrees she almost makes a better Leo than he does.

Frank comes with her. Having mastered his powers of shapeshifting, he manages to shapeshift only his lower half into a horse, thus making a pretty good centaur, and he wears a suit jacket and speaks in a cryptic manner, making for a pretty convincing Chiron. At first, Frank wasn't sure if it was such a good idea. Maybe Chiron would think it was rude, or in poor taste? He ends up very glad that Hazel and Leo convinced him to do it when he sees how much everyone appreciates his costume.

And, of course, Frank realizes he had nothing to worry about when Chiron comes in wearing a hawaiian shirt, with a diet coke in hand, as he calls every single camper by the wrong name.

[staghunters]

The case for an ND reading of Jackie Taylor, a decently-sized post.

I got a lot of scrambled thoughts on this, and they need a space for coherence. Maybe this is more for my own headcanon-ing, but feel free to take this if you want to. A lot of this comes down to a certain reading of text that I do with a certain kind of lens that may not be there for everyone. And that's fine! This is just silly analysis stuff that I wanted to do.

Am I an "authority figure" on this? Probably not by some standards! I consider myself to be on some spectrum, but only my brother has a diagnosis (tm), so do with that what you will.

This a mix of new thoughts and some copy-pasted from messages i sent on discord once.

SO, where to start. The first proper introduction of Jackie with other people is that gruelling opening sequence, but I think the more interesting is her first scene with Shauna where we get the big chunk of what the history is between these two and on what dynamic they interact with each other.

Jackie's got the whole thing color-coded and planned out. She likes that, but from all the other things later in the episode -- and the season -- it becomes very clear that she likes to have some input that ranges from voicing her opinion to micro-managing in order to feel in control and somewhat safe in her position as (social) captain of the Yellowjackets.

That Shauna is going to Rutgers with Jackie is taken as a given by her. One interpretation is that Jackie thinks that Shauna, obviously, will go with her to Rutgers on the basis of their friendship. However, I would like to propose a lil switch in that maybe Jackie hopes that Shauna will go with her to Rutgers. Getting into Brown isn't nothing, and there's gotta be some pointers at High School that Shauna would be/feel overqualified for Rutgers.

High school is a game of social credits. Jackie knows what to wear, what to say, what to do. Coach points out her "influence", and she demonstrates some skills at conflict-resolution during the kegger. Soccer is a game, one that she's very passionate about, as is her supposedly on-and-off-ish thing with Jeff. The funny thing is that Jackie seems way more interested in calling out how her boyfriend's team has been doing at baseball, rather than stuff that concerns him (or the both of them) personally.

To segway back a bit: Everything is a game with rules. Jackie knows them, but is shown to be really out of her element in the wilderness and trying to bring back normal societal rules into it (this will be a surprise tool that will help us later). Is Shauna going with her to Rutgers a naive wish on the basis of their friendship, or is it also so Jackie can have someone to scout and feel out all the social conventions for her? College means that a new playbook needs to be made, and it saves embarassment if you can base it on someone else.

Jackie assuming that Shauna would go along to Rutgers to be her roommate can very well be an expression of "this is my best friend and my sole, kind, understanding constant in my life, and I need her there with me in this unknown territory." College means starting over from scratch, and if we assume the manual-based functioning to be true, then Shauna's presence there to take cues from could help a lot to smooth out this transition.

On the other hand, this is of course the opportunity to drop some masking that Jackie might've been doing. Shauna being there could then very well work against her

My greatest argument, I think, is that you can see the entirety of Jackie's lil subplot of going after Travis as an example of how such a process backfires tremendously against her.

A little step-by-step:

Jackie is shown to give Shauna multiple chances to come clean about the Jeff Thing. Shauna doesn't, but Jackie still sticks around her.

Jackie proposes the plan to have some fun with Travis to Shauna. Shauna voices her thoughts about it, underlining that it would be a bad thing to do to Natalie.

This notion is repeated throughout the episode. Travis himself brings it up, the high group of hunters brings it up, Nat herself looks not too pleased at Jackie and Travis slow-dancing at doomcoming.

There's an interesting reverse happening once the hunter girls confront Jackie about having had sex with Travis. Everyone is out of their minds, so idk how well we can factor in that almost all of them proceed to go after Travis despite mentioning once again that "he's Natalie's".

Doomcoming is post journal discovery, yet quite some time has passed between that and the episode. Jackie makes some very obvious comments at Shauna to signal that She Knows, and the Travis plan is set up after that. Hooking up with Travis can serve the plainly stated "I'm not gonna die a virgin :/", but over the course of the episode, it also creates this whole new catalogue of reactions from the others. And all of these, in their defence of Natalie, would speak in favor of Jackie if the news would break that Shauna had sex with Jeff.

So at the end of Doomcoming, we can get some sort of list of "rules" that would apply out here in the wilderness appendix for the section on CHEATING

People can call dibs on someone, and those are to be respected

Acting like the "bigger person" by calling everyone out on how little value it has out here is not going to do you any favors

The group will react badly if you crossed a line in their eyes. Taking someone's boyfriend falls under that.

It's how she plays the fight with Shauna! Shauna wants to bring up that most problems were caused by Jackie hooking up with Travis, which Jackie follows with an uno-reverse card she now (thinks) she has in her hands

If I (Jackie) hook up with Nat's boyfriend (Travis), then the group takes Natalie's side. Therefore, if Shauna hooked up with my boyfriend, then they should take my side.

And it goes so bad! Shauna outplays her by making the whole fight not about the cheating, but about their friendship as a whole, which Jackie has been viewing way differently and blinded than Shauna and the others. There's plenty of moments of Jackie "not reading the room" and either waving it off as the others being party-poopers or a lil mishap of her own.

Of course the big difference is that Jackie isn't really awkward in the highschool setting. She won homecoming queen for a reason, has many people looking up to her, and Coach Martinez probably made her captain for similar reasons. I guess what I'm going for with what's provided in Doomcoming is that Jackie lacks that "reading the room" skill (we can see it a number of times with Shauna in the pilot. In particular I'd say the Rutgers discussion, the boob dress, and telling Jeff to drop her off first) but makes up for it a lot by having a sort of manual of how to act in certain situations.

She's not seeing how Shauna might feel about her constant input on things. She's not seeing that others might orchestrate stuff outside of her knowledge. Nobody ever outright goes head-to-head with Jackie until the wilderness, and on good grounds there. If rescue isn't coming, we go to the body of water that's just been discovered. But the crash site is (ironically) safe. Whatever might happen if we leave it behind for something we're not even sure of?

It also doesn't look like Jackie has any (good) friends outside of Shauna. Might come with their years long codependence that nobody even wants to put themselves into, but also that with a captain position/being a generally popular high school student, she might not seem as approachable on a personal level. Jackie does make herself very open, and she's shown to be able to set up brief but very attentive conversations (Allie, Mari, Misty) but beyond that on a superficial level, there's not someone who she turns to when she suspects Shauna of something. Shauna's very obvious other friend is of course Taissa, but there's nobody out in the wilderness like that for Jackie.

and for some random bits:

Verbal stuff! The Beaches quote is peak, because who else would drop a line like that in such a moment. If Jackie's lying about not quoting it, then it does really speak of it being a hyper-focus movie (and we can also discuss why Shauna can recognize the movie from just the one line). But I think the possibility of it just being one of those phrases that you whip out like a vine quote, even if you've forgotten the origins of it

Presentation and maybe textures! Her luggage lacking skirts/dresses is… yeah. She wears a dress at the party in the woods and going to school with Shauna in the pilot episode, but besides the doomcoming dress, that's it. The article that says that while the others are already sharing clothes, Jackie sticks to her own wardrobe OR borrows some thing from Shauna (shoutout to the Doomcoming flannel!)

[plusvanity]

Any Ash headcannons?? I know in your fic u kinda touch on strict family or sm? (If you don’t got any that’s okay thought I’d ask anyway sense you’ve done Sal and Larry lol)

Oh, yes! I have HCs for all the characters from SF! ^^ Talking about Ash now..

-Ashley is a general sweet girl. She's shy by nature but once you get to know her, she becomes more and more her true self.

-Growing up, she had a few close friends but nobody stood out to be called 'best friend'. Not until she met Maple in middle-school. The two became inseparable as Maple (who was already into the alternative scene) shared all her favorite bands and rock teenage magazines with Ashley. They helped each other in finding their best original style. For Maple, it was classic Goth while for Ash, it was post-grunge.

-Ash's favorite band and main influence will always be Velvet Underground. She fell in love for the dark, gloomy lullabies and the hauntingly beautiful voice of Lou Reed. (She shared this band with Sal and when Sal was head over heels for Ash, he'd make mix-tapes and play all her favourite V.O. songs) She also loves Pearl Jam, Joy Division, some Iggy Pop' classics and Patti Smith. (Oh, man. SHE LOVES PATTI TO DEATH. MUSIC AND POETRY AGHH)

-Photography and D.I.Y: Just like Larry, she's into sewing stuff. (The most crucial thing every 90's alternative kid must know) Band patches, messy-cropped tops/ shirts and ripped jeans. She loves to personalise her clothes and she's pretty smart in finding ways around her parents not to be too 'right in the face' BUT dress cool and stuff. (It screams grunge but like.. soft grunge if it makes any sense???)

-The relationship with her parents is pretty good in general. Yes, arguments happens sometimes and most of them gravitate around her 'dressing style' but it never escalates into anything too bad. Both her parents are generaly busy people (her father is a workaholic) but they love and want what's best for her. This implies expectations for a real money-making career and yadda-yadda. She still tries to explain to them how she'd love to go into a more 'artistic oriented' field such as professional photography. (We'll get to see what happens lol) She's also got a strict time to be home and if it happens to be late (after 8 pm), her parents would expect Larry (Ash uses him as a 'bodyguard friend') or all of the gang to safely bring her home

- as Sal moved in Nockfell and she got to know him, she instantly liked him as a friend. Silly, funny little dude that she loved to talk to and hang out with. She's very protective and supportive. She'd be the first to defend Sal whenever Travis comes around with the intentions to fuck with them. Her reacts are quicker than Larry's and she's not afraid to stand up for her all of her friends no matter what. (There are hundreds of reasons why Sal got so infatuated with Ash, I cannot even start on this but here's like one of them lol)

In time, it didn't take much at all for her to find out that Sal had a massive crush on her. (Everybody knew and giggled behind Sal's back like silly teenagers do) The knowledge flattered her so much that she actually started developing feelings for Sal. She even expected at some point (thanks to Maple's push and Larry's assurance) that Sal would finally make a move and she'd confess her feelings too.

But it.... tragically didn't happen. It wasn't because Ash was 'too good for Sal' or 'an insufferable bitch' as it's typically depicted. (My heart aches for this girl) Sal did disappoint her, not once, not twice. She wasn't into hard drugs (smoking menthol slims and a bit of weed once in a blue moon was all she ever did) and when she saw how her 'crush' got literally shitfaced by what on Earth him and Larry took... it just crashed the whole fantasy of 'knowing Sal'. In the end, she didn't knew much at all.

-She still holds onto her friendship with him even after everything that happened and even though the spark in her heart faded, she still loves him as a friend. She'll probably alwasy do. She'd always go out with him, drag him to buy some fucking decent shoes and listen to music together.

That's pretty much all the trivia about Ash, I hope I didn't bore you too much haha. Ty for the question! ^^ 

[thepalmofyourfreezinghand]

Don't you know he's a REAL man? Real men do that all the time!

(I'm totally completely very very very serious)

It’s so funny to me that football fans are calling his behavior out and saying that it was uncalled for and that they’d never seen something like that in the SB and that if it had been anyone else he would’ve been benched, while swifties who started following football three months ago are saying that it’s no big deal.

It’s also funny that a lot of football fans think that he’s obnoxious and a dick and that his violent outburst are too much even for a sport as physical as football, while swifties hype him up and say he’s the sweetest most gentle guy ever and he’s manly but in a “non-toxic” way.

I’m also wary of swifties saying that Travis used to be a hot-head but that he’s completely changed after dating Taylor. Not because people can’t change, because they absolutely can, but because swifties NEVER award this kind of grace to anyone outside of Taylor’s inner circle.

[milfygerard]

it feels a little callous but i cant help but find this whole brittany mahomes thing kind of extremely funny because like. Ok so taylor has very valid reason to not speak out on this upcoming election at all considering she just narrowly avoided a terrorist attack from a different far right extremist group and america has guns and a decent population of people who thought shed use the superbowl to brainwash people into getting gay biden vaccines and im positive many of those people were the cops who would be in charge of investigating that terrorist threat but ALSO none of this wouldve happened if she didnt feel a deep need to be liked and so felt compelled to befriend her boyfriends coworkers wife except her boyfriend is a linebacktightendwhatever for the nfl so of course his coworkers wife (as well as a number of his coworkers) is a conservative white lady who obviously voted trump on the dl and so are most of her friends folding taylor into a circle that even at her most politically mum she never wanted to be involved in. Taylor swift is also of course a known coward who took 10 years and a movie to even just declare that shes a democrat which she obviously was and also obviously hid for marketing reasons (which was heavily encouraged by her team and her dad who is in her team) while taking advantage of the 2015 aesthetic pop politics to say that she likes gay people and respects women, which left a bad taste in peoples mouths once popular politics left its frothy naiivete behind in 2016 and she fell off the face of the earth in a valiant effort to not kill herself which allowed for the co-opting of her extremely white image from the growing reactionary movement that she eventually had to do way more work to cut down bc she didnt nip it in the bud fast enough which has left a long standing bad taste in peoples mouths and a negative association in their minds

but anyway this all leads back to the bizarre mean girl politics of 78 year old high schooler donald trump whose still mad that taylor called him a fascist because i guess he liked her music and who has spent the last few months trying to tie himself to her because she is currently God of the Monoculture and any mention of her brings attention which is mr celebrity apprentices only desire and the reason he even ran for president but now HIS star is falling as the republican party has finally found a good excuse to kick him to the curb because they have a far less embarassing woman who is popular enough that you can publicly support her and only leftists will be disgusted but fascist enough to work directly with you to continue funding and supporting the brutal racist border policies we hold with mexico and the insanse christian zionist genocide happening in palestine and definitely wont do anything to stop the transphobia culture war that you have rolling which will keep you in legislative and representative power for as long as you want BUT i digress. donald trump found out probably from understandably angry swifties that some WAG who liked posts supporting him is ALSO publicly associated with taylor swift and is considered a friend in her circles and so the DAY BEFORE hr boyfriends first game where she generally sits in the WAG group with families and partners including her new bestie brittany he makes a very public post announcing how he just SOOO APPRECIATES brittany mahomes and her PUBLIC SUPPORT and how its SO IMPORTANT TO HIM which sets a trap specifically made to torture taylor swift of choosing between publicly rejecting and admonishing brittany mahomes and her support which will not just piss off brittany and patrick burning a personal AND professional bridge, but also a large chunk of the extremely conservative NFL and could potentially have a negative impact on travis' career going forward considering how petty sports drama can be OR she can say nothing and trigger headline after headline of TAYLOR SWIFT FRIENDS WITHWOMAN PUBLICLY THANKED BY DONALD TRUMP FOR SUPPORT which isnt only a pr nightmare but also gets trump his one actual desire which is being paid attention to and discussed OR she can go to the game but show in some way that she endorses Harris/Walz which will cause a similar shitstorm but in this one the likeliness of major conspiracy thoeries and terrorist threats and plots based on those theories rises exponentially less than a month after the last terrorist plot (discussed earlier in the post) that led her to cancel a 4 show stay that I imagine wasnt great for her anxiety and paranoia

and the funniest part is this is 10000% entirely her fault for failing to pick a side on the public about politics vs just a singer and artist debate and constantly going back and forth as her morals, her business instincts, her cowardice, and her self conscious need to be liked all go to war with each other because she just had to be friends with her boyfriends coworkers wife without ever assuming that this wildly wealthy white woman may possibly be a conservative because all the wildly wealthy white women she hangs out with are DEMOCRATS! or at least PRETEND to be! and THIS is why you dont date guys who work in the NFL!

[sometipsygnostalgic]

The Problems of being a Techmaster (...or, Entrapta Forgot What Side She’s On Again).

Length: 1927 words

Characters: Bow, Entrapta, Catra, featuring Scorpia and Hordak

Bow tapped his fingers against the adorable little doodles on the paper, watching Travis spin himself back and forth in his chair out of agitation.

Travis was the guildmaster of the Makers' Guild. He was usually a nervous sort, nice enough, silently working on his prosthetics and the magazine most days, but this time he had called on Bow for help in quite a hurry. Travis had received a very strange letter.

It was scrawled in the messiest kind of handwriting, like the sender was impatiently trying to get their thoughts out way faster than their pen could move. The way it was clearly written in byro pen, rather than with a quill, already narrowed down who it could've come from.

When Bow squinted, he could make out the contents:

Hi Travin (I hope I got it right this time?)

I read your article last month about the problems youve been researching with keeping all the crops in Erelandia irrigated during the dry season, and I thought your solution with using a water arrow rainfall was very creative but also seems really inefficient!!! It would be more effective to just water the plants by hand at that stage?

There was a cute illustration of an arrow with a tiny water trail, and a big X next to it.

Bow frowned at this. Nevermind that the article on crops was written five months ago. He thought his suggestion was perfect! Exercise and agility training for everyone, while they help their food grow. But hey, what did he know!! (Okay maybe everyone had looked at him funny when he brought it up but THEY didn't have any better ideas now did they?)

I've been working on lots of exciting new projects recently, and over here they have an entire system that helps you store and use large amounts of water! There are towns with decent sewage systems, sure, but over here the water can be clean as well and people use it to keep themselves clean or drink. I think it's brilliant and it could improve so many things!!! But I've put together an early plan for how we can use a similar system to keep food healthy. They don't eat fresh food here, so I haven't tested this idea yet, but maybe you'll like it!

The notes detailed a plan of laying pipes and hoses around the crop fields, connecting them to a reservoir, and distributing water evenly. There were even very rough ideas for a conservatory, using heating and glass to keep crops warm during the coldest seasons. Bow wasn't so sure on using canisters full of incredibly flammable gas to power the system, but it was at least inspired. Bow had not been there for long, but he believed everything written down was based on the Fright Zone's gas and water technology. These plans were rushed onto paper, and the edges were covered in inattentive little scribbles, but everything important was laid out in incredible detail.

Entrapta had drawn further illustrations at the end with a tiny figure and a robot, probably herself and Emily, going “WOW!!!” at the new hypothetical irrigation system. Bow loved the energy. It was a shame they'd never gotten to bond over their love of drawing cute things before she switched sides. Maybe if he asked her to check out Tiny Bow and his other model figures the next time they were fighting, he could get her to rejoin the Rebellion---

“What can we do?” Travis whimpered. “The notes are crude and unrefined, but this really could change the outlook for Erelandia, I HAVE to post this on my name as a techmaster, but how am I supposed to publish research made by the Horde?! They'll remove me from the guild and then TOMMIE will take over, Bow, please make sure Tommie doesn't take over, he's a big jerk--” Travis's chair was rotating so fast that it flipped over and he fell onto the floor.

“--Whoah whoah, calm down, buddy!!” Bow got up and helped Travis sit back down, giving him a hug. “You're overthinking this. Probably? I'm not sure? Maybe you won't die?”

“And why is Entrapta still sending letters? With Horde secrets?!” Travis stared at him pleadingly. “That's weird. Do you think that's weird? Am I weird for thinking that's weird?!”

Bow scratched his chin. “To be honest I think she just forgets which side is which.”

“I'm... not surprised by that, actually.” Travis sighed and fell back into his chair. “Dammit Entrapta, why did you have to join the Horde!!! This would be so much easier.”

“Hey, uhh.... at least she knows about irrigation systems now? And is sharing that with us? That... almost makes it silver lining?” Bow read the notes again. Something was missing. When he realised what, a lightbulb went off in his head.  

“Travis, what proof is there that you're publishing a paper written by the Horde... when there won't be a name credited to it?”

Travis raised both eyebrows, and leaned forward on his hands, eyes piercing through Bow with sharp accusation. “Are you suggesting we plagiarize, Bow?”

“Wha-- no, of course not---”

“Do we have to re-educate you on the Ten Laws of Makers?”

“--I'm NOT PLAGIARIZING”, Bow squeaked. “there is NO NAME on the paper!!!”

“But there is literally a drawing of Entrapta on it and it's in her handwriting--?”

“That could be any random pigtailed person with, an incredibly messy writing style!!”  Bow met Travis's eyes, trying his best to calm down. “Look, we publish the submission and say it was sent anonymously, and everyone gets to learn something, and when someone asks where it came from, we have no idea, right? We suspect it was Entrapta, but can we know for sure? And we wouldn't lie, or turn away such a great submission!” Bow put his hands behind his head. “So, we are completely clean.”

Travis raised his goggles. “Bow, you are a beautiful, evil genius.”

Bow blushed and scratched his ear.

_____________________

Catra trudged towards the old prison cells after a long, hard day of carrying the entire Horde. Today, Kyle forgot to put the handbrake on a tank, which crashed into a wall that everyone had to repair. It was probably Kyle. He was blamed for it anyway. It took Catra eight hours to get the materials order and manpower in to repair both the tank and the wall. How this place had survived for 30 years was anyone's guess!

She was heading to Entrapta's “lab”. It wasn't because she wanted the company of her friends, not at all! They're not her friends, they're her co-workers. Nothing more! No more friends ever again!!! It was because she needed to hand some orders over to Entrapta for the next weapons shipment. She wondered why Hordak never did any of this busywork himself. All he did most days was growl and look intimidating. Okay, yeah, it was genuinely terrifying, but still pathetic-- wait what was she doing again? Right, orders, lab.

Catra entered the lab, and as usual, Entrapta was making happy noises and spinning around in her chair, while Emily chased her, and Scorpia cheered on from the sidelines, obviously confused as to what the good news was. Catra counted Entrapta's chaotic spins in her head, and on the seventh count, she stopped the chair with her foot as it passed her by.

“I need you to focus--” Catra flinched as some kind of notebook was flopped on top of her head. She ripped it off and nearly tore it to shreds but anything Entrapta gave her had a 50% chance of being either critically important or random trash, so she checked it first. “The Makers' Magazine...? What the--” Catra flipped through the pags. “Entrapta, is this your handwriting?”

Entrapta had been staring up at Catra, vibrating with an incredible amount of potential energy which needed to be released in small burts or it would probably destroy the room. It started to leak out. “They posted my paper!!! I spent ages thinking about that!! I'm so happy they liked it---”

“This is the fright zone shower system???? You're literally sharing Horde infrastructure plans with the Rebellion?”  

“Huh?” One of Entrapta's hair hands scratched the side of her face. “I didn't think the Guild was with the Rebellion. Is that a bad thing?”

Catra stared wide-eyed. “Yes??? They have a water princess? If she uses that then she can destroy our water system??”  

Entrapta folded her arms. “Well that seems mean, but we'd just have to put it back together!”  

Catra held back a scream.

Scorpia could see that Catra was at breaking point, so she hopped in. “Hey, I thought you did a great job! I loved the little drawings of you and Emily they were so cute! And also those plant things sound interesting?” She took the book from Catra. “Wait, did they not credit you? This was apparently sent in by 'a generous anonymous source'”.

“Aww crumbs, did I forget to write my name down again?” Entrapta shrugged with her arms and hair. “Oh well.”

“It's alright, maybe next time.”

“But hang on, that doesn't make any sense. How come Bow sent me a copy of the magazine with this?”  Entrapta produced a “thank you” note with a cute drawing of a chibi Bow waving back her.  

Scorpia squealed. “That's so cute???? I didn't know Bow was an artist too! I want to draw with him some time! Oooh, maybe he has Best Friend Squad drawings I could use as reference!!!”

Then suddenly the screen at the side of the room popped on, and Catra saw Hordak's shadow looming large.

“Force Captain”, he growled, “I trust you have delivered my orders on the next shipment?”

Catra and Scorpia bowed. “Yes, Lord Hordak. I'm briefing Princess Entrapta now. We were just facing a minor distraction.”

“What sort of 'distraction'? If there is something interfering with your work, then you must remove it immediately.”

“My letter got published!!” Entrapta replied cheerfully. “I posted an article on irrigation to the Etherian Makers Guild! It was inspired heavily by your work, Hordak!”

Catra slapped both her hands hard against her face. What the hell, Entrapta? Do you want to die?

Hordak grunted and lowered his head. “Very well, I trust we can... discuss your research later. In a way that can benefit the Fright Zone.”

Entrapta smiled and nodded happily.

“If that is all, get back to work. We require seventy five cannon renovations by tomorrow morning.”

Hordak disconnected. Catra stood in place, losing the will to live.

“Fuck it”, she said. “If you all are going to let this place burn this place to the ground, I'm grabbing some snacks. Scorpia, help me get some white ration bars.”

“Roger that!!!”, said Scorpia, picking up a yelping Catra and leaving for the canteen.

Catra and Scorpia came back with a mountain of mixed ration bars and bunked the night in Entrapta's lab while she tinkered with weapons.  

Entrapta spent only a few hours actually renovating cannons, because she was planning the next project to send to the Makers' Guild. She was brainstorming a way to make arrows deadlier and more aerodynamic, able to travel further with a heavier load. She added lots of drawings to make her point. Bow probably wouldn't find much of a use for a variant of the “sonic arrow” that was rocket-powered and could travel so fast it broke the sound barrier naturally, but the concept is really cool, isn't it? That's what science is about!

[dizzybevvie]

Hello B!

Do you have any opinions on the character designs within the aphverse?

Example: too many characters have blue eyes, there aren't enough (x) traits, etc etc

OK I WILL GET TO THAT BUT OMG NO ONES EVER CALLED ME B BEFORE ... I LOVE IT

[Keeping this to MYS because thats what I know.]

I mean, I DO think too many characters have blue eyes. Between Dante, Laurance, Garroth, Katelyn, Zane - thats already the majority of the friend group.

I dont mind the blue hair/blue eyes combo, but Dante AND katelyn having it is a bit much 🤷‍♂️ AND they couldve kept Laurances original colour pallet :( I totally get changing the design bc of the skins, but in MYS theres no lore reason for Laur having blue eyes so at least they shouldve been green right??? Im also devastated hes not ginger but alas <\3

I think overtime the girls in the show have less variety, particularly in the hair. No different lengths or anything. I mean, just take Cadenza! She has longass hair in s1 but it eventually gets cut the same length as Kate, KC and Aph. The girl with THE most variety in character design - and probably one of the best designs imo - is Kim, and i literally couldnt tell you a single one of her character traits other than 'possessed'. Her highlights are different and I like her colour pallet.

The guys all look... kinda similar too. But they did well differing them in little ways, like hair partings and such. I do want Laurance's long hair back tho. Jess dont be a coward give us ling hair ginger laurance

I think its very funny that Laurance has ABSOLUTELY NO fashion sense, but i would like clothes to be more consistent! I like Dante's outfit with the button up/button up/shirt combo, even if it was ridiculous it felt in character - although its a shame that after Aarmau was made canon no other character could wear purple or red, because dante looked good in red!! I love Garroth's hawaiian shirt getup and they should bring that vibe back for him for sure.

I dont think there are enough brown eyes im gonna be real brown eyes are beautiful and like. way too many inbred eyes /lh

this isnt so much an issue with character designs because. minecraft. but there arent many different body types. Like, I think Aphmau and Zane are fat, and then Travis has broad shoulders (according to 1 line of dialogue in s1, and hes still buff). and everyone else is just somewhere on the sims4 slider of skinny and strong.

WHERE ARE MY SHORT KINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT EVERY GUY CAN BE 6"02U392U3837 JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE THAT JESS. THERES NO WAY TRAVIS IS TALLER THAN KATELYN THERES NO WAY

It wouldve been neat seeing disabilities other than zane's blindness purely because of limited differentiation in design. Like, going forward into s7 I would love to see Travis keep the wheelchair bc im pretty sure he cant. recover from that. unless they pull some aphmau magic bs

All in all im torn abt Luci because I think its cute for her to be the odd one out (as i said in my If-I-Was-Tasked-With-Rewriting-Mystreet post), but thats clearly not the intention and you kinda forget shes a witch at all. Which would be cool if it was brought up? idk. Her black dress + bow was her best outfit i think. The red eyes and the bright ginger hair is a lot on the eyes and the black is a good combo for that.

TBH, the only Aph outfit I liked was the one from Season 3, but her current skin (non-mystreet) is actually very cute. I like it a lot

People have said this a lot, but one BIG issue i have with the mys designs is the colour pallets. Im a big fan of shows where one character is heavily associated with one colour, and though this doesnt HAVE to be the case for Mystreet, Id like then to be consistent. Kate's colour has always been blue, Travis' colour has always been green, Aph/Aaron Purple/red, Kc pink, zane black/grey, and Garroth is usually blue. but Dante, Laurance, Lucinda, Melissa, etc have had some super inconsistent ones.

One character design that I like across the series is actually KC. Once they know how to pair the pinks and black/white well, they do pretty well with it! Its just a lot of pink and easy to get wrong. but they do well

Travis' also isnt that bad, the outfit of his i really remember was fhe green hoodie and black trousers which felt correct.

To go back to the eye colours, Its fun to see Jess' thought process bc like. almost ALL of her love interests have blue eyes except aaron? idk. food for thought.

In conclusion,

[abetterscarletletter]

Taylor in a photograph with the monarchy and her republican bf (also funny with the og meaning of republican)

I mean I'm not surprised but I am like girl really. Standards

Wait, Travis is a republican? Didn’t he endorse the covid vaccine and support BLM? In my admittedly limited European leftist layman’s understanding of American politics, that would surely make him a centrist at most, but I may be missing something - frankly I don’t care all that much about him.

Taylor though… The unfortunate reality is, Taylor is her own person with her own moral code, which likely to be very different than yours or mine by virtue of her being an insanely wealthy cishet white woman. Of course she's not gonna see an issue with normalising royals as if they're just regular celebrities. She's not one of the many people whose tax money funds the BRF's unearned privilege, and she sure as hell isn't one of the countless people who've suffered and continue to suffer under that family's legacy, is she?

At this point I don't really expect much from her in terms of political action. That’s not to say I no longer wish she would advocate more actively for progressive causes or to please rethink her private jet usage. Of course I want that! Let’s not stop calling her out and talking about how she could do better! All I’m saying here is, being so invested in her ability to live up to the leftist moral standard that I felt personally betrayed when she failed to do so was unhealthy for me. I decided when the MH thing happened to stop being so emotionally invested in Taylor’s politics, and I’m taking this as confirmation that that was the right choice for me.

[urproblematicfav-arsonk]

I would deadass mean a lot to me if it was made canon that Willy, Ron and Scary all have aspd/npd/autisim. Like the(largely accidental)rep would be so great in my opinion.

I fully believe Ron also has npd but unlike Willy he had somewhat of a support system through his mother and later the dads.

Scary fundamentally struggles with empathy and connecting emotionally with others. As much as the "lol I'm an angsty teen girl who's a mean loser" is like a joke, its sorta played too over the top to not be indicative of something else here.

Even as a autistic child I knew there was something "wrong" about me. I felt out of step with reality and often that no one actually could understand me.

Scary is constantly trying to connect and then failing in a way that I actually think is really similar to Willy.

I always interpreted the Fishing Scene as Willy legitimately being like "uhhg ok what do dads do?? They take their sons fishing????" Willy was very loosely trying to be a "person" and the second it went wrong he gave up immediately and just went back to the solution that's worked for him since he was a kid dealing with annoyance/harm.

Repeatedly there are these moments where Scary, very awkwardly is attempting to connect/mask and be a part of the group and works for like 10 seconds and then she can't keep the jig up and goes back to her normal/natural behaviors. Specifically I think the DnD game is a good example of this for her. Its really common for people like us to have this tbh sorta irrational belief that we know the "right way to have fun". Travis McElroy actually talked about how his npd would often make him genuinely frustrated at his family during Graduation because they weren't playing it right and he would have to stop, think, and remember " oh I'm not the ultimate authority for fun and other ppl can play however they want"(did he actually do that? No, but still he's trying I guess)

When I was a kid I'd get mad at my brother for adding toy cars to our fantasy games cuz cars don't belong in dragons and princess political dramas and my mom would literally tell a 6 year old me "u know this is why no one plays with u at school right?" Absolutely devastating but she was right lol.

Scary being controlling and weird and saying no constantly during her game is such peak npd/autistic behavior. She thinks that her way is the "correct" and "fun" way to play and gets frustrated when they won't play right. And the worse part is that she's very clearly trying so hard here. This is uncomfortable and difficult for her to be vulnerable and open like this. But she can't seem to do it right and the end result is everyone playing without her. Once again proving in her mind that No One Understands her and that she's Alone.

Scary can't mask or connect in her own neurodivergent way and she's literally being left out. Her sense of empathy and right/wrong is slightly off from everyone else's and more often then not Link or Normal's reaction to that is to call her bad or just get(rightfully)angry at her for not being able to understand something that is literally not able to come to her naturally like everyone else.

Or maybe its just really funny for Scary to be a over the top emo teen and for Ron to be unhinged lunatic who will say the most hurtful and deranged shit of a whim. Lol its sorta difficult to apply this deep analysis cuz how much of this is Beth genuinely giving us character information and how much is it "oh wouldn't it be funny if I said who's ur daddy tho" and I'm supposed to just laugh and not go on a iasip style conspiracy on Ron's brain

[mlobsters]

supernatural s1e8 bugs (rachel nave, bill coakley)

(this is a rewatch, so spoilers abound)

i haven't been avoiding bugs, i just have been avoiding listening to myself talk about this show. i'm tired, you're tired, etc. so obviously the effects are terrible in this one, and when i watched it the first time i fast forwarded through the climactic bug scene because it took forever. however, i do remember good bro talks

TRAVIS Man, these are some phat houses, huh? I'd like to live here.

were random white people saying phat in 2005? haha

xfiles noise as man falls into pit to get killed by bugs, very appropriate. also, i really do not like bugs as a horror trope in general, i struggle with being chill about bugs in real life. the xf ep with cockroaches? a good funny episode but *shudder*

SAM You know, we could get day jobs once in a while. DEAN Hunting's our day job. And the pay is crap. SAM Yeah, but hustling pool? Credit card scams? It's not the most honest thing in the world, Dean. DEAN Well, let's see: honest, fun and easy. It's no contest.

something endearing about sam just lounging on the impala while dean's inside hustling. also feeling soft because of this good but too-sad (for my current emotional state) stanford era story i was reading

find it kind of funny they're having sam be a scold about how they make money (but also that big smile after dean's answer, i don't think sammy's too pressed.) i can't imagine trying to scrounge up living expenses with day jobs in their nomadic lifestyle, especially with the amount they have to spend on gas

DEAN Besides, we're good at it. It's what we were raised to do. SAM Yeah, well, how we were raised was jacked. DEAN Yeah, says you.

totally jacked and you're gonna be changing your tune sooner rather than later too, dean

oh right, i made some gifs from this episode too. this was a... hmm. well. it was something. dean went on a slight masculinity panic face journey. i don't think sam was being a jerk about it really (? maybe i'm biased at this point) i think he was just genuinely surprised, not mocking. something something dean felt fine bringing it up but mildly freaked out when sam didn't acknowledge in a way that he would have seen it too. and how would dean have reacted if the situation was reversed and sam made the oprah reference? file that under my newly minted spn and masculinity tag i guess (with the comment about sam's "fancy" coffee drink in 1x07)

so i was like i'll add when dean calls sam samantha but like. i searched the transcripts (only searches transcripts on superwiki via google) and only crowley calls him that. has that just been fully absorbed into fanon? whew. the hazards of fic sometimes lol. bobby calls dean princess when he's scolding him in 4x22, rando bartender in 3x04 calls sam princess when he turns down a drink, and jo calls dean princess in 2x06 after he slept badly on a couch or chair while working that apartment job together. huh. interesting. dean calls him frances in that 1x07 instance.

what did i say about being tired of listening to myself talk about this show?

hoo boy, can tell this is a jay gruska music episode. eyes rolling back in my head. he has a gift for annoying me personally with his musical stylings

DEAN All right, I'll go if you're scared. You scared? SAM Flip the damn coin. DEAN All right, call it in the air... chicken. He flips the coin, and SAM catches it in midair. SAM I'm going.

10/10 sibling bickering

DEAN I know a good place to start. I'm kinda hungry for a little barbeque, how 'bout you? What, we can't talk to the locals? SAM And the free food's got nothin' to do with it? DEAN Of course not. I'm a professional.

again with the good banter/bicker

DEAN Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out. SAM Why? DEAN Well, manicured lawns, "How was your day, honey?" I'd blow my brains out. SAM There's nothing wrong with "normal". DEAN I'd take our family over normal any day.

s2e20 what is and what should never be

sure, dean

the x-files s1e5 the jersey devil - andrew airlie as rob / the killing s2e3 as dr madigan

well, we're brothers moment guy has been in a couple of my shows (and he pops up in 15x04 but i didn't hiky him) including being gillybean's date in the xf jersey devil ep!!

as a one-off thing, someone assuming they're a couple, it's kind of whatever. skirting around straight up homophobic joke. but they (the show) make it weird by doing it more than one episode. anyway, i hadn't paid that much attention and didn't realize sam laughed and dean got vaguely indignant

not me trying to figure out when dean switches to the logger boots. i know sam is in sneakers for a fairly long time (like that bad luck at black rock where he loses a shoe, still). good for running around but not great protection

could dean's face get any more scrunched up before he decides to go with it. and sam's amused until he gets his ass smacked (course j2 smack each other all the time at cons, but i guess sam doesn't subscribe to the platonic bro butt smack)

(also whew that's some harsh makeup on this sales person. i get it's part of the personality they're trying to go for but it's A Lot)

LYNDA Who can say "no" to a steam shower? I use mine everyday.

read an article trying to figure out why people would like a steam shower and the long not specific reason was, repeatedly, "wellness." ok

MATT You gonna tell my dad? SAM I don't know. Who's your dad? MATT Yeah, Larry usually skips me in the family introductions. SAM Ouch. First name basis with the old man - sounds pretty grim. MATT Well, I'm not exactly brochure material. SAM Well, hang in there. It gets better, all right? I promise. MATT When?

got our sam-parallel character here. and sammy's not brochure material because he wanted to go to college 😤

SAM Remind you of somebody? Dad? DEAN Dad never treated us like that. SAM Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect. He was all over my case. You don't remember? DEAN Well, maybe he had to raise his voice, but sometimes, you were out of line. SAM Right. Right, like when I said I'd rather play soccer than learn bowhunting. DEAN Bowhunting's an important skill. SAM Whatever.

i know people have very particular thoughts about john and how he raised them and what bad things he did to them. the show made me hate with him a particular intensity mainly because of the neglect when they were so young, and probably kinda sorta using them as bait. but dean's like well, he yelled sometimes, but it was justified. (all parents yell sometimes.) just the understanding that john was raising them as soldiers vs like, you need to learn to swim because it's an important life skill and i don't wanna.

did you know the ever-resourceful superwiki has a section on the impala page for all the times someone besides dean drives baby?

DEAN Maybe they're being controlled somehow. You know, by something or someone. SAM You mean, like Willard? DEAN Yeah, bugs instead of rats. SAM There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals - elementals, telepaths. DEAN Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing

but dean doesn't know dick van dyke/mary poppins 🤪 is this gonna be another thing i start tagging...

SAM We're gonna squat in an empty house? DEAN I wanna try the steam shower. Come on. (SAM doesn't move.) Come on!

dean wants some of that Wellness ™️i just can't imagine how sitting in steam would be more enjoyable than a good shower, but i'm not about that wellness life

lol sam smacking him in the gut as he reluctantly pulls in to park the car, had to make gifs of that too 🤪

okay i couldn't forget the terrible effects of the spiders in the shower with the high strung makeup lady, but i did forget that she had a whole big ass spider crawling on her face that she just brushes away, mildly annoyed, beforehand. is this a regular occurrence? no freaking out??

the most copy pasted looking spiders ever 😂

towel for comedic effect 😑 sam has no patience for this nonsense, a lady is dead from BUGS, DEAN

speaking of masculinity...

wiki:

This is the only time we see the boys with umbrellas in the rain. Kripke explained why in a Tweet:

"Kim Manners directed X-Files, where they often had umbrellas, so figured it was fine. I called him, said "the boys aren't scared of demons, but they're scared of rain?" From that point forward, a hard rule: no umbrellas. Not easy for Vancouver."(source)

matt is samandriel in s8 who i did a hiky for because he was in the killing too

MATT Believe me, I've tried. But, uh, Larry doesn't listen to me. SAM Why not? MATT Mostly? He's too disappointed in his freak son. SAM I hear you. DEAN You do? SAM Matt, how old are you? MATT Sixteen. SAM Well, don't sweat it, because in two years, something great's gonna happen. MATT What? SAM College. You'll be able to get out of that house and away from your dad. DEAN What kind of advice is that? Kid should stick with his family.

said it before and i'll say it again, when the show wants to make a parallel it will hammer it over our heads 😂 sam and dean are just gonna have a little fight over sam going away to college right in front of matt's salad

DEAN Yeah, so with that kid back there... why'd you tell him to just ditch his family like that? SAM Just, uh... I know what the kid's goin' through. DEAN How 'bout tellin' him to respect his old man, how's that for advice? SAM Dean, come on. This isn't about his old man. You think I didn't respect Dad. That's what this is about. DEAN Just forget it, all right? Sorry I brought it up. SAM I respected him. But no matter what I did, it was never good enough. DEAN So what are you sayin'? That Dad was disappointed in you? SAM Was? Is. Always has been. DEAN Why would you think that? SAM Because I didn't wanna bowhunt or hustle pool - because I wanted to go to school and live my life, which, to our whacked-out family, made me the freak. DEAN Yeah, you were kind of like the blonde chick in The Munsters. SAM Dean, you know what most dads are when their kids score a full ride? Proud. Most dads don't toss their kids out of the house. DEAN I remember that fight. In fact, I seem to recall a few choice phrases comin' out of your mouth. SAM You know, truth is, when we finally do find Dad... I don't know if he's even gonna wanna see me. DEAN Sam, Dad was never disappointed in you. Never. He was scared. SAM What are you talkin' about? DEAN He was afraid of what could've happened to you if he wasn't around. But even when you two weren't talkin'... he used to swing by Stanford whenever he could. (SAM'S smirk fades.) Keep an eye on you. Make sure you were safe. SAM What? DEAN Yeah. SAM Why didn't you tell me any of that? DEAN Well, it's a two-way street, dude. You could've picked up the phone.

so this is the conversation that i think stuck out to me even the first time watching - it's obviously the kind of, culmination of all the parallel groundwork to bring up the issue. i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it. the way it's framed, it feels like the show is trying to make us sympathetic to john's side, which is dean's side by proxy. which is nonsense. sam is the kid. john is the adult. it's not sam's job to try to go back and fix what john broke by telling him to never come back. there's this emotional music playing as dean tells us john checked up on him at stanford and like okay, so what? sam was still in the lived experience of being kicked out and cut off by his dad (and the show probably doesn't care but the logistics of having literally nowhere to go over the summer, living expenses not covered by his scholarshop, etc) ugh. and i think i complained to someone about wanting to smack dean because he's sticking up for john, and they mentioned that you know, dean's got his own warehouse full of john shaped issues that make him the ever obedient son at this stage. anyway, i'm not mad at the show or anything. but it definitely gets my defensive feelings fired up on sam's behalf. i also have my own little storage locker full of john shaped issues 🤪

editing 9/8/24 to add that I totally missed the fact that Sam was asking why Dean didn't tell him what was up with John and Dean's saying he could have called - so blinded by my irritation at John I was misunderstanding thinking he was saying Sam should have called John. anyway, I don't think Dean can say much if he didn't contact Sam either. just think like okay, so Sam didn't try but you didn't either Dean? but at the end of the day, I also have a hard time accepting knowing how they are about each other that they could both go cold turkey no contact for 3+ years (1x01 Dean says he hasn't bothered him or asked for anything in nearly 2 years and we know that was a mistake of years # due to aging Sam up a little and not adjusting script.) the conflict of Sam leaving has never (I don't think?) been implied to have animosity between Sam and Dean? so like, Dean was obviously very hurt/upset (see 5x16 "one of the worst nights of my life") but would that be enough to refuse to make contact? I know theyre both stubborn but goddamn.

s1e8 jimmy herman as joe whitetree / the x-files s1e19 as ish

funny, david nutter directed that episode of the xfiles too (he directed the spn pilot and wendigo), he was a kim manners rec (who also worked on xf obviously, and directed this spn ep)

i'm never going to finish this episode and surely gonna hit the 30 image limit

always kind of... nervous when especially the supernatural-ish shows decide to bring in any sort of indigenous lore/plot, but at least this one revolved around fuck the white man colonizers

Eric Kripke often cites this episode as one of his least favorites in the series. When Chuck meets Sam and Dean, he asks them if they had to live through the "bugs". He laments that they were "forced to live bad writing."

well, i think they're heavy handed but overall has groundwork laying character moments for sam and dean. wouldn't argue about the rest though

such a pretty shot. early days really were filled with them

MATT My dad doesn't listen in the best of circumstances, what am I supposed to tell him? SAM You've gotta make him listen, okay? DEAN Give me the phone, give me the phone. (He grabs the phone from SAM.) Matt, under no circumstances are you to tell the truth, they'll just think you're nuts. MATT But he's my-- DEAN Tell him you have a sharp pain in your right side and you've gotta go to the hospital, okay? MATT Yeah. Yeah, okay. He hangs up, and so does DEAN. DEAN Make him listen? What are you thinkin'?

snorted

SAM Look, this land is cursed! People have died here. Now, are you gonna really take that risk with your family?

made me giggle. so earnest. i mean, what can you do, those cheesy lines

dad tells mom to call 911. and tell them what? bugs? what are they gonna do about it?? lol and the bugs chewed through phone and power lines

dead end chemical corp.!! i kind of love that. new blog name??? lol

i think i missed these progressive holes being chewed through the roof in my fast forwarding of this scene 😂

that was the shortest 6-7 hours ever. like, truly nonsensical. and they weren't able to keep the swarms of bees out, yet no one died? haha

looks like a stock photo of a busted roof plastered onto this shot

sammy looking longingly over at matt and his dad reconciling over shared bug trauma...

SAM I wanna find Dad. DEAN Yeah, me too. SAM Yeah, but I just... I want to apologize to him. DEAN For what? SAM All the things I said to him. He was just doin' the best he could.

forgot myself for a second and blurted out, BULL. SHIT. haha. don't let dean get you twisted, dude. if you leave (go to college on a full scholarship), don't come back. IS NOT. DOING. THE BEST. HE COULD. never fucking mind everything else. aaaahhhghgfdsjkksfl LOL what did i say about my john issues. anyway, this isn't the end of that particular friction obviously :p

DEAN Well, don't worry, we'll find him. And then you'll apologize. And then within five minutes, you guys will be at each other's throats. SAM (laughs.) Yeah, probably. (They sit in silence for a few seconds.) Let's hit the road. DEAN Let's.

that is more like it :p it is a miracle i shut up long enough to finally finish this episode! too much going on

[captainsspnanon]

C3E67 reaction

What a fan-fucking-tastic episode!!!!!! I LOVED IT!!!

Though it started off poorly, with my pet peeve of Sam. STOP telling other players what their PCs are doing. And STOP metagaming to try to have people RP a scene that you want to see. Nothing Marisha RPed in the past episode indicated that she was 'glowing', and in the episode before it could very much have been read as excitement over a new dress. And just because you saw Laura and Marisha roleplay their PCs kissing, doesn't mean that FCG suddenly can tell.

*grumbles* Sorry, like I said, pet peeve. He's done it multiple times in C3 (to the point where players had to actively contradict him trying to tell them that their PCs were doing something or had something happen to him), he did it a bunch in C2, and while I can't remember, he probably did it in C1 too. And several times when he does it, he ends up completely changing the characterization that the player was RPing- ie Fearne confidently flirting with the were-panther, and then he tells her that she's blushing and nervous, completely the opposite of how Ashley was doing it. (he also does it later again in the episode implying that they slept together. seriously fuck off with this sam.)

(on the other hand, I cannot deny that Laura just absolutely losing her shit while Laudna was stuttering was hysterical)

Why am I not upset at Marisha for doing a very similar thing afterwards (forcing Taliesin to talk about backstory)? One, it was information that her PC knew, and two, it wasn't presented as a good or funny thing. It was a clear deflection, and very angrily done. It is perfectly reasonable to imagine Ashton calling her out later for doing so.

Honestly, everyone's opinion on the gods make sense for me EXCEPT for Orym. Iunno, maybe Keyleth's attitude rubbed off on him during his training, and that influences the fact that he's had several positive interactions with gods and makes it more neutral?

Let me be very very clear. All the jokes about the flower names? 10000 percent worth it for the 25ish temp HP that the boss got at the end. Some of these were SO clever! Plus, Matt's exasperated face is always fun XD

Three nat 1s for stealth!! I cannot remember the last time that this happened, unless it was Travis with the three nat 1s for Fjord at the festival way back at the beginning of C2. DELICIOUS!

The combat was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I do kinda wish I could see two different versions, one where Fearne's persuasion failed, and one where the enemies actually rolled decent. Because the group was freaking out a lot, but I'm actually gonna go back and do calculations, 'cause I'm pretty sure most of them were really good on HP? Like, I genuinely think only Imogen was in true danger.

Okay, before the short rest from last episode/start of this one - Fearne was at 16 HP, Ashton at 88, Orym at 79, Laudna around 72 depending on temp HP gain, Chetney 82, FCG 19, and Imogen at full. Unknown how much healing with short rest.

After the short rest, Fearne took no damage in her regular form, Ashton only took 16 points, Orym only took 22, Chetney took 14, FCG took 19, and Laudna took none. Imogen went down and was brought back to 4 HP.

So.....Yeah, I don't get why they were freaking out so hard, when basically all of them had a bunch of HP. (I also don't get why Tal tends not to tank despite having the best HP and having rage damage reduction.) Ah well. Still entertaining! Plus seeing them freak out is always fun, even if at times confusing.

Travis and cursed swords, what is a better pairing?

ASHLEY. FEARNE. BOTH OF YOU. WHAT ARE YOU DOING, THIS IS AMAZING, I LOVE THIS AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE FALLOUT OMG (also you totally should have just propositioned him right then and there! XD)

[miraclesnail]

YOUR STOLL SERIES IS A MARVEL THAT WE SHOULD TREASURE FOREVER

THEY ARE SO FUNNY SILLY AND HAVE GROWN UP SO MUCH I LOVE THEM

THANK U VERY MUCH FOR WRITING THEY ARE MY FAVOURITE AND HOW U DESCRIBE THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS IS FANTASTIC

and maybe they do not show it but they so worried about new campers. they welcome everyone in their family with open arms nd its just so nice. like a found family

Do u mind answering some questions? i would like to know about callie. i mean, she is six or so. how did she get to camp? her mom/dad dropped her there and left? a stayr? bc i image that it may be different from the way in which the stoll arrived. does connor feel kind of protective with her? not just because she is a toddler, but also bc he was the same age when he first stepped on camp. And she arrived kind of the middle of the war. What travis and connor make her do when they are in the battle? Does she wake up in the middle of the night terrified bc of nightmares? i mean how a toddler deals with all of that? do travis and connor send everyone back to sleep and take her out to calm her down? i cannot imagine their suffering during and after the war.

i dont know, maybe i just a want a chapter of callie jajajajaj

another one: do travis and katie end together? i hope so bc THEY ARE SO CUTE he is a golden retriever and she is not a black cat, maybe a grey cat. less hyperactive, but still supporting him

THANKS THANKS THANKS FOR ALL THE WRITING YOU ARE AMAZING I LOVE U ❤️

same anon that asked about callie here! I just realized sth: does callie (and other hermes children) really mistake the stolls names or she does it on purpose most times? bc i believe that after some time that u r all day and night with people that look alike, u can say who is who better than others. So I imagine that Callie tries to seem confused and cute so she can change the focus of what is happening (pranks, lies, not the importamt things). I also think that she and the others can identify the brothers even if they dont see their faces. And another question: when does travis let the children get away with lies? cause his lies detector is always turn on and he knows that better than anyone. So he knows they are children and they do not need to be call out all the time and that should feel they fool their authority figure/got away with sth, even if the things are just small ones well, i think thats really everything, thank u!

(I hope you don't mind me just copy/pasting the second part into the first ask)

Thank you for reading the series! It really, really makes me happy! 😊

I know the topics are kind of niche and I wrote them to suit my tastes, so I'm happy to know others like it as well!

i would like to know about callie.

To answer your questions, it's probably not what you want to hear 😣 but I like to picture Callie as a well-adjusted demigod for her age with loving parents who probably wanted her to start her demigod training early because weird things started popping up and they didn’t want to take any risk. I don’t think I had anything tragic planned for her like I did for my other OCs. I was going to write a one-shot for her where she tells the brothers apart by what snacks they like but I got ideas for Lee’s and Michael’s parts and they took years to write that I completely forgot about the cabin 11-snack chapter 😅. It’s more fluff than angst, so I don’t know if you’ll like it. But I like to think Travis and Connor are protective of her, just like they are with the rest of their cabinmates. I don’t think any of the counselors are crazy enough to let anyone under 10 or 9 fight, so I just picture them ordering their younger siblings to hide in their cabins. And those that they think are too scared/too incapable to fight like how I pictured in Clovis-nightmare. 

do travis and katie end together? 

I'm sorry, but there won't be any chapters with Katie and Travis in a romantic relationship. I probably won’t write Travis or Connor in any romantic/sexual relationship. Mostly because writing romance takes me a long time and also because I like the Will/Travis ship and I headcanon Connor as aroace. Sorry to disappoint. 

Friendship and familial relationships are far easier for me to write so that’s why the series is full of the & tags.

does callie (and other hermes children) really mistake the stolls names or she does it on purpose most times? 

I like to think most of yearrounders can tell Travis and Connor apart in seconds (except for Clarisse, because I legit don’t think she would hang out with them for any extended period of time), but for the summer-only campers I think it’s harder for them. I never been to summer camp so maybe I’m very wrong, but there’s not many one-on-one interactions with the head counselor unless needed, right? They’re just the people that keep things in order and help out the campers that's struggling to adjust? Especially in a big cabin like Hermes, not every camper will have a close relationship with Travis and Connor to the point they can tell them apart quickly. 

But they can always get them back to back and compare the heights easily enough lol 😆

So I imagine that Callie tries to seem confused and cute so she can change the focus of what is happening (pranks, lies, not the importamt things).

I like this so much! It's such a cute picture 😄

when does travis let the children get away with lies?

I like to think Travis and Connor are pretty chill. As long as their cabinmates' antics won't lead to someone dying, then they'll let it be. And in case someone gets super mad and wants to kill them, I'm super sure Travis and Connor got their back 👍

Thank you for the asks! Have a nice day!

[randomvarious]

Today’s compilation:

Totally Hits 2001 2001 R&B / Hip Hop / Pop / Pop-Rock

Fuuuuuuck, man. Can we please just go back to the year 2001? Y'know, before *the big main event* happened? Top 40 and hip hop/R&B radio were sooo good back then!! 😭

And here's an excellent collection of radio bops to prove it, put out by Totally Hits, the main, always-runner-up to the ever-dominant Now That's What I Call Music! series. I feel like a lot of people aren't aware of this, but, while the US run of the Now series was originally made up of a partnership between Universal and EMI and all their many subsidiaries, Totally Hits was its answer, provided by BMG and Warner Bros. and all of their subsidiaries. (And BMG also includes Sony, mind you.) So, while Now always outsold Totally Hits and released their albums more frequently, and also had a bigger pool of pop songs to pick from, Totally Hits definitely wasn't a slouch either, especially with this 2001 installment; they had plenty of goods to offer that Now couldn't.

But I don't even know where to start with this thing. Like, nearly all of this CD holds a special place in my heart. Those classic strings from Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up (Oops!)" ignite and my inner child just immediately activates 🥺.

So I guess I'll just pepper this post with some observations and fun facts about a bunch of these songs then...

Diddy and co.'s "Bad Boy for Life" still bangs hard to this very day. Its beat sounds just as nuts now as it did the day when it first came out 21+ years ago. I mean, I’ve still yet to hear anything else quite like it. And it was made by this dude Megahertz, who also produced Nas' "Got Ur Self a Gun" in the same year. And while the song only peaked at #33 on Billboard’s Hot 100, its “there goes the neighborhood”-themed music video was in *super* heavy rotation on MTV and featured an extended cameo from Ben Stiller, along with other cameos from Xzibit, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Shaq, Mike Tyson, Baron Davis, Travis Barker, Dave Navarro, Access Hollywood’s Pat O’Brien, Fonzworth Bentley, fucking Crazy Town, and weirdly enough, the character actor Richard Dunn, who’d wind up playing a bunch of different roles on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! some years later.

Does anyone else remember that early 2000s rap and R&B fad that was obsessed with making South Asian-sounding beats? Did Timbaland start that whole trend with Missy Elliott's bhangra-infused "Get Ur Freak On"? I could be wrong, but it feels like he did? 🤔

Here's what I think is the most slept-on song out of this entire slate: the remix of Dream's "This Is Me." I actually totally forgot that this song even existed, but this CD helped jog my memory. Do you even remember Dream? No, not The-Dream, but Dream; the ultimately fleeting female R&B and pop quartet that were most famous for that song "He Loves U Not." Anyway, they were on Bad Boy and Mario Winans took the original version of "This Is Me" and remixed it to include a sample of the bells from Bob James' "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," which is one of those samples I go nuts for every time I hear it. I first heard it in Snap!'s "The Power" and I've loved it dearly ever since. It also appears towards the end of Missy Elliott’s “Work It.”

Those who call Eve 6 a one-hit wonder are just flat-out wrong. "Here's to the Night," a soft, Police-inspired follow-up to the catharsis of “Inside Out” (the “heart in a blender” song), only placed two spots below it on the Hot 100.

It’s really funny and interesting how Uncle Kracker (what a stupid name) came out of the Kid Rock milieu as the turntablist in his backing band (lmao), and then, despite being a rapper, rose to immense adult contemporary fame with “Follow Me” and then a cover of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” (🎶Give me the beat boys and free my soul🎶). It also seems like Kid Rock kinda followed in his footsteps too, dropping his brash, working class, trailer park asshole gimmick for a quick sec to make “Picture” with Sheryl Crow the following year 🤔.

Remember “I Do!!” by Toya? It was her only hit, but that catchy, midtempo R&B groove was 🔥. Produced by this guy Antoine “Bam” Macon, who then went on to co-produce Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s “Dilemma.” Toya would release one more single after this one, which didn’t fare too well, and then she’d appear on Cam’Ron’s 2002 classic, “Hey Ma,” before falling all the way off.

We gotta talk about Willa Ford too. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the people who produced “I Wanna Be Bad” also produced a bunch of songs for Britney Spears as well. Willa says she wasn’t trying to copy Britney, but damn, does this sound like a Britney song! Also, what on earth is Eminem friend-and-foe-and-friend-again Royce da 5′9″ doing on this?!?!?

           Oh yeah, and we can’t ignore this from Willa either:

That article was then followed up with this:

Which then allows for the perfect use of this meme:

Is there a stronger trio of singles to come from a rap album than the one that came from OutKast’s Stankonia? I mean, how can you beat “B.O.B.,” “Ms. Jackson,” and “So Fresh, So Clean”? I really don’t think you can. The production group of Organized Noize had a large hand in OutKast’s first four albums, and one of their members, Sleepy Brown, also provides the falsetto parts on the chorus for “So Fresh, So Clean.”

Why wasn’t Craig David a bigger thing in the US? He could’ve been our British R&B king, but he only wound up with two successful singles here with “Fill Me In” and “7 Days.” “7 Days” actually performed better on the Hot 100, but I feel like “Fill Me In” is far more remembered in the States. Anyway, despite his brief showing here, he managed to stay relevant all the way into the 2010s back home. Awesome voice and great beats.

Lastly, Dido’s “Thank You.” This song took such a long path to reach #3 on the Hot 100. It actually first came out in 1998, appearing on the soundtrack to an indie flick called Sliding Doors that starred Gwyneth Paltrow. Then, in ‘99, it was included on Dido’s debut album, No Angel. Following that, Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, which included “Stan,” a song that made the chorus from “Thank You” its own. Naturally, that helped to increased the popularity of “Thank You” itself and Dido then released it as a single in September of 2000. Then a couple months later, Eminem released “Stan” as a single too. Finally, in January of 2001, “Thank You” entered the Hot 100 at the #80 spot, and by April it had climbed all the way up to #3. It then stayed on the chart until September and became one of the biggest hits of 2001.

What a fucking nostalgia rush this whole thing was. Radio was at its absolute peak in these days. Just so many good and fun songs. Take me back! 

More of these installments from Totally Hits and Now in the near offing, so if you enjoyed this post, stay tuned!

Highlights:

Blu Cantrell - "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" 112 - "Peaches & Cream" Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On" P. Diddy, Black Rob and Mark Curry - "Bad Boy for Life" Dream feat. Kain - "This Is Me (Remix)" Usher - "U Remind Me" O-Town - "All or Nothing" Eve 6 - "Here's to the Night" Uncle Kracker - "Follow Me" LFO - "Every Other Time" Sugar Ray - "When It's Over" Willa Ford - "I Wanna Be Bad" Toya - "I Do!!" OutKast - "So Fresh, So Clean" Ludacris feat. Shawna - "What's Your Fantasy" Craig David - "Fill Me In" Dido - "Thank You"

P.S.: I wrote a long Twitter thread about almost all of the songs on this album. I only covered a little more than half of them here in this post, so if you want more observations and fun trivia, check it out!

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Nineteen things I noted about CR2E133 “Hunter and Hunted” and the Talks Machina about it :

Thank the gods there was a disclaimer before WHATEVER THIS IS :

Matt said “toothy maw”, and Laura screamed “Take a shot !!!” and then immediately drank out of her canteen. A legend.

I liked how they reacted to this encounter, they expressed very well the thought on everyone’s minds : they can’t waste high level spells on these two lizards, because the real fight with Lucien is waiting around the corner.

The description of the streets of Aeor, its building collapsed, the skeletons, is jarring. Even more so when Caduceus flew over the amphitheater and Matt described that there was a lot of people here when death took them, when the destruction happened. Hear this after watching ExU Calamity is even more horrifying, because WE KNOW exactly what those 15 seconds before the end must have looked like for Aeor…

Jester, as Veth is dismantling the robot they found in the ruins of Aeor, for Caduceus’ spell of Speak with dead : “It have a soul, potentially… I don’t know how these things work !” Sam, jokingly : “Don’t be judgmental !” ARE YOU KIDDING ME ????!!! HAVE I JUST SEEN THE MOMENT WHERE SAM HAD THE IDEA FOR F.C.G. ????? A ROBOT WHO’S NOT SURE IF THEY HAVE A SOUL ?????

“In every campaign, we need at least one flying cow”

I agree with Jester 100%. They should set up the ambush and not go explore. However…. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh I want to see everything Aeor !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so curious !!!!!!!!!!

Yasha is trying to crush opals into dust for Jester, while flexing her arms, with her sheer strength. Beau, a lesbian : “Come on, babe, this is the hottest you’ve ever been” Caleb : “Maybe thighs is the way to go.” Beau, agreeing : “She’s got really strong thighs…” (my mind and Marisha’s mind went into the gutter)

I would like to thank the cast of Critical Role for forcing me to google ‘Bad Dragon’ to get the joke, and thus subjecting me to the unspeakable horrors of bad sex toys.

Very important information : Essek’s favorite food is soup or nice stews. I love this dude.

Caleb : “You know what a bunch of wizards in one place is ? Fucking trouble.”

Oh god, THE WAITING !!! I did agree with Laura’s theory, that they’re not going to get a full rest before Lucien & Co enter. That’s what I would do as a DM, and also Lucien has done this before, because he’s a pain in the ass. And there it went, minutes after.

Oh, Fjord. The choice of knowing you can sacrifice soldiers for a battle and still not win the war, but gain an advantage (wounding slightly the Tomb Takers, maybe)… And he did it. Knowing that those rangers and Dagen will be lucky if they escape alive.

They got 3 of the 5 Tomb Takers, and more importantly, Otis is amongst the victims !! I’d call that a win.

Fjord, as he’s killing Zoran with two hits on his turn, to Lucien : “No way out of this fight, my friend.” HOT

Talks Machina almost got called Critical Role After Special, or CRAS. Figures.

Travis talking about how he figured out in-game when looking at the map that Vandren is literally on the next island after their ship crashed, and that he just… stayed there… is amazingly funny, because he came to the conclusion that he was a “fucking moron” for never deducing he should look there first.

Travis, the self-described man who doesn’t know youth linguo, made a Tumblr reference when they discussed Essek, and I’m proud. We do have an Essek obsession over here !

Travis describing Fjord’s time in the Happy Fun Ball with Yasha and Beau : “I’m just, back at the fish market… at the whims of the lesbians !” THAT’S THE TRUEST DESCRIPTION EVER