#but when i say that EVERYTHING he's been in hasn't been a caricature of a single project im being so for real

[briefcasejuice]

l'eclisse (1962) / dir. michelangelo antonioni

[nekropsii]

Small Atomic Ask Bomb!!

I've got a bunch of short asks that I'd hate to spam the dash with individually, so I'll just put 'em here, under the cut!!

Content Warning: Long, Brief Discussions of Racism, Misogyny, Grooming, Brief Mentions of Incest and Pedophilia in Fanfiction.

I've always been a hater, and I honestly don't really think it's a bad thing - not as much as everyone says, at least! I think being kind of a bitch about things that don't matter is good for you, actually. Gets the urge to be angry out in a way that's healthier than just snapping at people in critical moments. I also just think being strong and passionate in your convictions is good for you. Being a hater gives you a spine if you do it right, and it fires a gunshot and scatters people you don't really want to be around. It also has the funny side effect of people thinking I take things way more seriously than I do, just because I'm opinionated and will state said opinions clearly. Big fan of this meme:

This is me.

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I used to peek in there every now and then, just to be nosy. Incest at the top, always. Or straight up pedo shit. Sigh. Looked in the Mituna tag a couple times. CroTuna fucking nightmare hell dimension, always. Or KanTuna, which I also have gripes with. Or KanMiTula, which I have even more gripes with.

It is my understanding that the state of Homestuck fanfiction hasn't gotten much better since the 2010s. Everyone is wrong and no one is normal. Sad.

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I don't know if the mere act of only making Jade and Jake brown out of all the Kids is Racist on its own, per se, but it is kinda silly in the sense that, you know, John and Jade are siblings, so realistically they'd look similar. And... People absolutely do get racist about it. Like, making Jade and Jake uniquely huge, hairy, threatening, and oddly shaped - gangly in the context of Jade, buff as hell in the context of Jake. I've seen some SEVERELY racist drawings where Jade and/or Jake were the only hints of melanin in the Kid line up and... Oh my god. It can get to straight up caricature levels. Watermelons and everything. Just comedically racist.

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Genuinely one of the dumbest fucking things in the world. People will say literally anything. Saying Damara isn't Japanese is on par with calling Porrim a fucking Men's Rights Activist. It's a funny little claim people who are grievously wrong say as a condemnation of the Alpha Trolls for no reason. Why. To look smart? To fit in? Dumbass. Notice how they always have to invent bullshit lies to critique anything instead of just saying things that are true. It really frustrates me how 99.9% of Alpha Troll criticism just isn't at all legitimate when there's some real, genuine issues you could critique. It's stupid horseshit. I hate it so badly.

I don't actually care whether or not someone likes the Alpha Trolls, but at least hate them accurately. Come on.

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@sleepy-apparition

Everyone is so, so quick to turn a blind eye to just how violently misogynistic Kankri is, lmfao. Genuinely, I don't think I've ever seen anyone other than myself bring up the fact that he's an avid Slut-Shamer in the modern day. Other than that, I only really saw older Mituna fanatics bring it up over in the early-mid 2010s, but none of them are around these days.

Genuinely, some of the shit he says is so appalling, lol. Kankri FULLY deserves to get his ass beat.

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I have said this before but I'll say it again - I do not think a Red Romantic Relationship will fix Dirk, or even really help him all that much. Before he gets into a RedRom, he needs some therapy, a break, and mood stabilizers.

However, I'm thoroughly of the opinion that a good BlackRom could work wonders on him, way more than a RedRom would. I think a solid, established Pitch Relationship with, like, Caliborn would be genuinely great for him, both mentally and in a Character Development sense. I hold zero interest in watching Dirk and Jake badly fumble a traditional romantic relationship - that notion is painful to me. ... But I do think I could read a full Intermission's worth of Dirk and Caliborn fucking around and not get tired of it once. They have a fantastic dynamic. It'd be good for Caliborn, too, I think.

This has been my Dirkuu propaganda bit. Thank you.

Also, the Voyeuristic feel of how people handle his Mental Illness. It makes me uncomfortable.

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True. I don't have any other remarks to make about this, you're just correct. True.

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... Fuckin'... Why, though? What- what's the appeal? There's nothing there. I literally cannot conceive any way in which that would be compelling, and I'd say Hal and Kankri are pretty high up there in the list of Male Homestuck Characters I Enjoy.

People will do anything but pay attention to Female Characters for five minutes. God. Lol.

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It's literally just DaveKat 2. I don't think it even qualifies as a Crack Ship when it's just a variant of The Fandom's Most Darling M/M OTP. It's just a deeply mid RarePair. Crack Ship would be, like, Dirk Strider x Rainbow Dash.

Dirk x RD was a popular Crack Ship, sure, but it's still a Crack Ship on basis of being a Crossover Pairing.

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I can't recall any specific instances of seeing this myself, but I'll believe it. People will do anything except be normal about Vriska. People will fight the war against Vriska on the side of and against Vriska at the same time. People will call her a Huge 8itch but then call her pathetic when she stops being a Huge 8itch.

We love Misogyny, I guess.

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Well, he is based on Tumblr, after all. Particularly how dogshit the politics are on here. Of course he would. He'd do numbers on here, considering his Woke Hate Speech.

It's called Bubblr, by the way. Like, canonically. We do know what it's called.

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It's actually based on the Three Wise Monkeys. You know, that old Japanese Proverb that goes "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil"? That.

Kurloz is Speak No Evil, Meulin is Hear No Evil, Mituna is See No Evil.

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Great Question. My personal guess is that he's a little too nuanced for a lot of people to be comfortable with handling. He throws out too much surface-level Bigotry that people aren't willing to ignore because it isn't Racism for many to feel comfortable making him their Blorbo. When Dave says the N-Word and talks about how fucking Racist he is and it literally never gets acknowledged or resolved, that's fine and dandy, but god forbid Caliborn be a Misogynist in the funniest way possible AND have that get acknowledged literally constantly as a problem. The fact that Caliborn isn't a Fuckable White 13-Year-Old Twink means none of his crimes are ever forgivable because he's ugly and unshippable, or whatever.

The fact that he's Mentally Disabled doesn't help. People can't fucking STAND IT when a character is Mentally Disabled in a way that isn't Cute and Consumable, much less a character who is Unconsumably Mentally Disabled AND Complicated. It's just not allowed!!

[molter-writes]

dude i have a question that might be considered out of pocket but i need your brilliant take on it

i was rewatching the finale last night (because i like to cause myself pain) and i got to the part where aemond said he wanted to make a gift of luke's eye to his mother

so my question is

genuinely, what the hell do you think alicent would have done if aemond returned with luke's fucking eye😭😭😭

lmao welcome to my entirely unrequested character study of aemond. short answer: she'd be horrified, and that scene more than anything speaks to the beautiful fraught asymmetry of alicent and aemond's relationship, palpable and tragic and woefully understudied.

alicent does not desire violence and does not particularly respect violent people. e.g., we can imagine characters who might have been heartened or reassured — even if interspersed with guilt — that larys had been willing to kill to advance their interests. alicent is never shown to appreciate this silver lining; she is deeply remorseful and properly disturbed. the end of the season finds her attempting to stave off catastrophic violence surrounded by men who are effectively unbothered by the thought. aemond is one of these men. he is also her favourite man. i think this breaks her heart a little.

i'll preface this by stating again how much i sympathise with aemond, who is really neither a slick badass — his facade — nor a calculating psychopath — his caricature. aemond spends his childhood awash in a feeling of inescapable, humiliating powerlessness, and everything he becomes is a direct response to this experience, including his unfailing loyalty to his mother, his sole childhood advocate and ally. but aemond clocks alicent's powerlessness, too; and probably at no other time more palpably than during the quarrel at driftmark. viserys leaves her in the lurch; cole backs out when the rubber hits the road. when he tells her i gained a dragon, i don't think he's actually saying it was a fair exchange; clearly he doesn't really feel that way — he's still seeking his revenge years and years later (and fair enough). rather, i think he's telling her — and importantly, telling the people he perceives to be her enemies — we have real power now. we're safe. i got you.

aemond consistently strives to be alicent's one reliable ally. aemond also spends his life trying to make himself more powerful, and, if i were to really speculate, probably hasn't determined within his own heart whether he's done so to protect himself and his mother in the conflict he's seen presaged at driftmark, or in excited anticipation of that conflict as an opportunity to seek revenge. herein we find the crucial difference in how alicent and aemond each perceive safety, and perceive power — alicent thinks safety is found in the absence of violence, and power is the ability to be free from it; aemond seems to believe safety is found in a monopoly on violence and power is the ability to do it. it's entirely unrelated, and not to be insensitive by mixing factual and fictional tragedy, but i think sometimes about something prince harry once said about his childhood experiences watching the press chase and torment princess diana — his frustration knowing he would one day be a man, that he would one day be able to protect her, but not yet — and the anger, the frustration that caused. i append to aemond, though fictional, a very similar pain.

regardless, to whatever end, aemond's intention is to be feared and to be dangerous. he tells cole i don't give a fuck about tourneys for the express purpose of tipping us off: aemond is trying to become as effective as possible at killing real opponents in a real conflict. two things here: first, though aemond may not care for tourneys like the knights Rhaenys calls green as summer grass, he's equally inexperienced; he also doesn't know — cannot know — the true meaning of war or the costs associated. (see, e.g., his crucial misunderstanding of the nature of vhagar.) and second, tragically, though he's probably (if perhaps only partially) done so for her, he's become exactly the kind of man who has left alicent feeling trapped and perpetually terrified. olivia cooke somewhere noted that alicent lives in trepidation surrounded by 'psychopath men', and part of this fear seems to be what these men will do in her name and under the guise of advancing her interests. e.g., she knows larys' murder of lyonel did double duty. Tis only a look of pride, Ser Criston. Larys is the new lord of Harrenhal. to have become somewhat afraid of aemond — apprehensive, at least, of his adult nature — will likely only grow harder on her and harder to ignore. and the same will likely come of aemond's unintentional killing of lucerys, and would come had aemond returned instead with his severed eye: horror at the act; guilt and terror and frustration at the knowledge — however deeply buried — that aemond would have done it not for her, or for their family, but for himself; and that once again, she has been made the unwilling catalyst for the very violence she strives so painfully to prevent.

[weaselbeaselpants]

Hey I wanna thank everybody both for listening to me last night when I made my post but also asking for evidence of what was said on the BWW directly. It's a little hard to strum up all the screencaps and evidence of the nastiest shit said there without just reading through(what remains) of the forum threads yourself. I personally have never fangled with any kind of webarchive or wayback machine-thing and it shows. People have better stomachs for it than me- because even w there's a lot of people just shooting the shit or being right in accusations made abt Viv we're all making to this day, I'm really compounded by the attitude of the mods and owners of that site [BWW] as a whole. They're all admitted antiSJWs and one guy unicornically quoted Saargon of Akkad. They're the kind of people that I personally don't have the stomach to be around considering what it is they say, but obviously some people have stronger wills than me and can ignore them.

Point being, of everything I've been able to find: the specific forum posts and Viv and co's responses to said forum posts that majorly crossed the line are (I think) lost to time. So it's hard to 100% find them for you all.

I remember once in like 2020 or 2021 there was someone who had a whole Google Doc abt Viv and they showed her speaking about 'the pic' w Gooseworx chiming in- but I can't for the life of me find said document. That document, wherever it is, was where I saw the confirmation from Viv and Goose that, indeed, one BWW user did send her 'the pic' as well as other zp r34. Said doc was abt the op airing their greviences with Viv after they thought she made a mean caricature of his oc as a dead pelt in one of her drawings.

I know it happened and I'm 100% positive to have seen that user (he had a viv-styled sihlouette of a fox profile as his icon at the time; maybe he changed it if he hasn't finally been just run off the site) admitted to it on the BWW himself that he sent her that. I also have the strongest memory of that not only being in existence but then other users being rightfully disgusted and saying shit like "wtf now Viv's NEVER going to believe us now" I mean, if you want more dirt based on my anecdotal memory of the place as it was when it was 'thriving'.

I can tell you A LOT of that: anecdotes - stuff I know I remember but I have no concrete proof to show besides that. And I know that's frustrating, both to critics and fans. It's because of that that I just want to say I'm thankful and happy for the people in the critical tag to not only hear me out on that matter but also ask me up front what I 'know', for clarities sake. I just think it's good to be transparent and aware of the actual vile shit that's been done in Viv's life without excusing her behavior. I advocate what I've seen but only as spectator to the drama and not directly taking part in it.

I hope someday the people who were taking part/know the full deets can spill the beans on what I DON'T know happened when they're fully comfortable with it. That includes Viv herself, by the way.

[kats-fic-recs]

The Best Stranger Things Fics I read in 2022

Common Cents

Making a will at eighteen seems incredibly morbid. The lawyer stares at him long and hard the entire time. She acts like he's contagious, like she might catch her death from him or maybe he'll ruin her rug by dropping dead in her office. Steve figures she has nothing to worry about. If anything's going to kill him, it's probably going to be a monster from the Upside Down.

-

In which Steve hunts monsters, becomes a deputy, makes a will, and finds a family. Among other things.

darlin’ you give love (a bad name)

The first time he hears Dustin and Mike mention the name Eddie Munson he almost walks into a VHS display at work.

Steve wants to ask them how Eddie’s doing but then his face from that last party flashes into his head and he always clams up. If he was Eddie he’d want nothing to do with him and rightly so.

Instead Steve teasingly complains about how much time they spend with Eddie and that’s as far as it goes.

To Be Loved For No Reason At All

It all starts with Steve finding Eddie Munson in Alison Brown’s bathtub.

Or, how one night leads to a conversation, leads to shotgunning, leads to confessions, leads to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Steve's just along for the ride.

sub-culture

“Is he whining about Eddie being mean to him again?” Robin is leaning in the doorway, eating a leftover slice that’s probably cold by now. “You talk about him more than you talk about girls, Steve, it’s getting concerning. Anyone would think you had a crush.”

or, steve is pretty convinced eddie now hates him. turns out eddie has the opposite problem.

get you back (by my side)

Eddie hasn't spoken to Gareth and the others since whatever went down with Chrissy Cunningham, now Gareth sees him playing basketball with Steve Harrington and a bunch of kids, what the fuck is going on?

Sinclair sighs longingly.

“Okay, man, I can get behind you on the sweet and salty,” says Gareth, “but New Coke?”

“He was crazy for it,” says Harrington, grinning all fond at the back of Sinclair’s head like he’s retelling the story of his toddler’s foray into the world of art and talking Gareth through all the monstrosities in pride of place on the fridge. “Weird kid.”

Eddie is smiling at the side of Harrington’s face and Jesus Christ, Gareth never wants to meet another gay man in his whole life if their taste is Steve fucking Harrington.

our house (in the middle of our street)

He's in the market for a house, it's not his fault the Creel Murder House is the cheapest place he can find. It's kind of the perfect house, really, Steve's got a big family.

Eddie fumbles in rolling the blunt. They’re sitting in Eddie’s room while he rolls on the tray balanced on his knees. “You’re — you’re giving me a key?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if you want to move out of here but uh… option is there if you uhm, need it?”

He stays staring at Steve, fingers paused over the tray like the ridiculous caricature of a stoner caught red handed by the cops. “For real? What about rent?”

“Yeah man, of course. I know you haven’t been sleeping great here for obvious reasons and like, a new place isn’t going to help that much but…” He shrugs. “Got more rooms than I know what to do with, so fuck rent. I’m getting keys for you and Rob next week and maybe some for the kids, I don’t know if I trust them with keys to my house.”

when you need me, call me (no matter where you are)

Steve isn't having the best time of it but he's trying to make time for his kids. Then everything goes to shit again. At least he gets a fugitive boyfriend out of it.

When it all starts happening again Steve mentally blames Tammy Thompson’s singing, probably woke Vecna up and he was all like “these people need to remember their favourite songs, because if that’s the musical talent in this town… boy are they fucked” or something along those lines. Or maybe he’s just feeling a little bit insane because he just saw Max — little Max with the red hair who scared him a little bit and saved him from Billy that one time — floating up in the sky like, like an angel. And he couldn’t do a thing but hope Max really, really likes Kate Bush.

strung through the tether

The talk explained how it all worked, why his pain was her pain and vice versa, but it didn’t answer any of the questions Robin would come to formulate in the following years.

Questions like: what makes someone your soulmate? Questions like: why do so many people get married even if they aren't soulmates? Questions like: who ever said it was a boy?

your shadow's red (like a film i've seen)

Three days after Vecna, Robin tries to kiss Steve. Tries to be something he deserves. Someone who can fuck him, be with him. Something better, a good person like she isn't. She tries to not be fucked up. Steve doesn't let her.

If only for a moment they are wild and cold, faces up to the unreflective sky, just a boy and a girl holding hands watching the stars as the wind tugs and pulls them, kindly cruel in a way that mends.

Maybe they don’t need anyone else, she thinks, maybe they can stay there until the wind strips them to their bones. She wouldn’t mind dying if it was with Steve.

He turns to her and she thinks he might kiss her but then he’s just holding her against his chest and it feels like such an impossibly mean thought to have about Steve, to even think that he might do that to her, that she starts crying. Sometimes she thinks she doesn’t deserve him and he doesn’t deserve how she thinks about him. He’s just so much good sometimes Robin thinks something must turn for the worst, surely King Steve isn’t all gone, surely at some point he’s going to reveal himself: he was making fun of her the whole time, trying to make her normal.

feel the magic (there's something that drives me wild)

Robin is drunk and not for the first time wishes she could fall in love with Steve Harrington. Wishes she was 'normal'.

It’s dumb, really dumb, that she still wants to crow to the whole of Hawkins High that she knows what Steve looks like in the morning, in his boxers, coming out of the shower. She still wants to be normal, and it stings sometimes so harshly she thinks she might cry, that she’s never going to swoon over Steve’s arms or his stupid hair.

i wanna make a supersonic man (out of you)

Lucas is the man of the group, he knows this. He's got to be the man, like Steve, and wear polos and khakis and come between evil and the weak and be a lady killer and a charming, funny, sweet guy. Like Steve who has started hanging out with Eddie Munson and getting piercings and wearing eyeliner and not being the man Lucas thought he was.

“Steve is that an earring?” says Dustin, at one of his highest pitches, slap bang in the middle of one of Eddie’s tirades.

Everyone pauses. Number one, you never interrupt Eddie, especially not during D&D. Number two, what? (Lucas has strong suspicions he can’t let Max ever find out about this, or she’s going to break-up with him and become a full-time Steve admirer.)

They all lean forwards.

Steve shifts slightly uncomfortably, but he looks amused. “Yeah.” He shrugs. And there it is, a single tiny silver hoop in his left ear. Lucas stares, amazed.

“You’re a guy,” says Lucas, without thinking about it.

Steve only laughs. “I am aware, Lucas, thank you.”

lover boy pizza

A follow-through to the idea “fuck it make em all gay” ft the addition of: no no no jonathan and argyle as a couple but they don’t know everyone else is also coupled up and they’re high as shit trying to act normal on this now-quintuple date they think is just-bro-time.

(The Real) Stranger Things Season 3

(Because after (gestures at what Netflix gave us), we really needed a rewrite.)

It's summer vacation, 1985.

After everything that's happened in the past two years, Will just wants to go back to the way things were - and the Party seems to be racing on ahead, leaving him behind as they get swept up in the new adventure of being teenagers. But when something darker threatens to reenter their lives, the Party has more to deal with than just dating and summer shenanigans.

Joyce knows that something is wrong - she can just feel it. And Hopper knows by now to trust her instinct. Together they set out to find answers - and find that not all is as they assumed.

Unappreciated and heckled at her internship at The Hawkins Post, Nancy picks up the phone to a strange call. Sensing a story, she grabs Jonathan and chases the lead.

El isn't sure who she is - or if she has the strength to defeat the evil that's rearing its head in this once-quiet town.

Dustin picks up a strange code on his ham radio.

Steve hates his Scoops uniform.

Something strange is stirring in Hawkins - something that wants to get back in.

One summer can change everything.

kiss it better

Of course Will is here. They take care of each other. It’s what they do.

or: Mike and Will, through the years and in between the lines of friendship and something more.

I Never Find Out 'Til I'm Head Over Heels

Wherein Mike believes he’s being obvious, Will doesn’t know what he believes, and the pair of them could use a lesson or two in effective communication. Somehow all of this has both nothing and everything to do with five years' worth of school dances.

The Dad Who Stepped Up

Hopper’s many attempts at bonding with his youngest unofficial stepson over the course of their first year in Hawkins.

Sometimes it goes well, other times he’s trying to see if he’s unlocked his daughter’s ability to glare someone (Michael Wheeler) to death.

i’d love to see me from your point of view

Now that Will’s sitting and Mike’s the one that’s standing, he looks impossibly tall. Tall and lanky, and huge. He should sit back down, Will thinks, lay back down next to Will and stay in their own secluded little bubble.

“I really want to kiss you,” Mike says, and Will’s eyes snap back up to his so violently he thinks he hears his own neck crack with the force of it.

“Don’t,” Will croaks, before his brain has even processed the words. “Don’t say that.”

“Okay,” Mike says easily, still staring. And what the actual fuck is going on? Is Will hallucinating? Is the weed making him hallucinate? “So sausage and pepperoni?”

Will stares dumbly at him. “Um - yeah. Yes.”

“Cool,” Mike replies and then just turns around and leaves Will sitting dumbly in his own room.

or

Mike and Will get high on Jonathan’s weed and Mike has an amazing idea.

you rearrange me 'til i'm sane

Will has never had a girlfriend (or a boyfriend) before. There may or may not be one person behind the reason why.

i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this).

The first time it happens, Will classifies it as a little accident.

When he wakes, the morning sun is burning through the window onto their faces, and Mike’s cursing as he stands to close the curtains, stumbling all the way.

“Scoot over,” he grumbles, voice dry, and for a second Will can’t do anything other than sigh like a lovesick idiot. It’s a second too late for Mike, because he grumbles more words Will doesn’t catch under his breath and then physically pushes Will towards the wall to lay beside him, arm over Will’s middle. A second of silence passes, then Mike sighs, only to whine: “Fuck, my head hurts.”

Will can’t help it: he breaks down laughing, much to Mike’s offense.

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Alternatively: five times Mike kissed Will, and one time Will kissed back.

all this time (how could you not know?)

Mike sighs, looking down at his hands. "I always thought I would end up with someone more similar to me, you know? Someone I can talk about, like, hobbies and music and stuff with, without them visibly losing interest halfway through.”

You have more in common with him than El, says the voice in Will’s head. He wonders, briefly, whether it would be weird to shove his face back into the pillow and scream.

Will is definitely not qualified to be giving out any relationship advice. For one, he's never actually dated anyone before. Second, one of the people in said relationship is his sister. And third, the other person is the guy he's sort of in love with. There's no possible way this could backfire. Right?

sealed with a kiss

“Dude,” Dustin says, sounding kind of horrified but also kind of delirious with elation. “Oh my God, you like him. You like Will. Will. As in, our Will. Our best friend Will.”

“I do not–” Mike tries, even though he’d kind of just admitted to accidentally kissing Will Byers, a little, so maybe that’s an entirely fruitless road to go down.

Listen. No one should ever let Mike make decisions right after he wakes up from a nap, okay? Especially not decisions where Will is concerned. This is so not his fault.

keep glowing (come back)

And despite this, he will gather the pages and leaf through them. Read the words he didn’t want to think about during the daytime because they were wrong and awful and shitty. Half-scribbled confessions and outbursts and meltdowns, memories and stray thoughts and promises that he’d nearly forgotten to keep.

Skip through them after the first few, skim the bottom of the pages in a move just like El’s, see what she always wanted to see: Love, Mike scrawled at the bottom of every page.

-

or: mike & will through the years

people like you find it easy (naked to see)

Will sees these people. These pink people and these blue people. He sees the way they fit together and hates the way he doesn't ever want a pink half of his soul, he wants something blue, something wrong.

Will still remembers that ice cold shock in the rain that started in his bones and reverberated outwards until the edges of him were static, fizzing and unreal, and the only thing about him that was fact, immovably and intrinsically true, that it wasn’t Mike’s fault, it wasn’t anyone’s but his own, that he didn’t like girls. The bike ride, the rain slick on his face like a membrane, his whole body burning and freezing all at the same time, still blurry at the edges, and the only thing, the only thing, he knew about himself to be true was that he liked boys, he liked boys in a way he wasn’t supposed to. He was broken, a freak like Jonathan had said, but not a freak in a good way, he was bad and rotten.

He had wanted to blame it on the Upside Down, back then. He had wanted it to be something out of his control. But he knows, knows like Lonnie knew when he was just a kid, that he has always been this way. He’s always been wrong in some unfixable, innate way that will stay with him until he dies.

home is where the heart is

“It’s a good thing,�� Will reassures, and his thumb swipes over Mike’s cheek. Mike thinks he might explode. “It means you’re nice to look at. Artists would love you.”

Mike’s heart feels like it’s about to burst out of his chest. Will is still looking at him, and he swallows, throat dry. “Yeah?”

Will’s own face reddens, like he’d just thought about what he said. “Yeah,” he answers, and Mike grins.

Living in a shared apartment with Will is all Mike could ask for, except for the part where he keeps thinking about kissing Will in the middle of their kitchen.

i'll find myself in the moonlight

He looks up at him, eyebrows drawn together. “Do you not love her?"

Mike shrinks back. “What?"

He hadn’t meant to say it. He wouldn’t have, if he’d stopped to think about it for half a second. But it’s too late to take it back, and he can’t breathe until he knows the answer, and he looks at him resolutely and says, “Do you only love her because of what I said?

Something darkens on Mike’s face, twisting it into a shape Will’s never seen. “Get out.”

It’s not a no.

or: Mike and Will share a room, and Mike finds out the truth about the painting.

mike wheeler's guide to falling in love with a superhero

“Uh-huh,” Mike says faintly, and he yelps when they narrowly avoid the edge of a shining skyscraper, and his hands clutch onto Spiderman instinctively. “Oh – my fucking God, that –”

Spiderman’s fingers press a little firmly into Mike’s shirt. "Just – hang on!"

"What do you mean just hang – was that a pun," Mike sputters, clutching onto Spiderman for dear life as they swing through the city, and he can hear the superhero laugh through the racing wind in his ears, the rumble of it under Mike’s arm wrapped around his middle.

In a city of superheroes, Mike keeps running into Spiderman, much to his dismay.

On a completely different and unrelated note, Mike also attempts to woo and charm his neighbor into a date.

Heavy Hopes

Mike walks in on his roommate making out with another guy, and gets really upset about it. For all of the normal, straight reasons.

[femboyhunting]

The more I think sort of offhandedly about the dynamic Bailey and my pc have the more weirdly attached I get to it. Like Mikie is very adamant of proving himself to be an asset to Bailey in a way that still cements his independence and competence. He started off hating Bailey, thinking of him as the ultimate antagonist in his life. The human embodiment of everything Mikie hates about this whole putrid world and his whole pathetic life.

He's incredibly goal driven, he needs to have something to work towards or else he falls apart. So he pinned up a picture of Bailey to the dart board in his room and declared that one day he's going to beat the absolute bloody shit out of him, empty his safe, and run away with Robin in tow. But then the world started opening up to him like carrion cracking and expanding from bloat as it rots and Mikie learned two things at once. Firstly, that there are a lot more threats out there than just Bailey, things more ancient and powerful than he could really comprehend, as well as those more mundane threats that somehow managed to rival Bailey in sinister intent. And secondly, that Bailey is far far more powerful and with influence much father reaching than he'd thought. In fact, Bailey must be one of the kingpins of Doltown's criminal underbelly. Mikie had been naive to think he could take him down that easy.

So. Change of plan. Mikie's going to have to be smart about this. Bailey's a piece of money hungry orphan farming shit but he also represents a degree of protection that Mikie knows he needs to survive. It's not lost on him how people react to the B word. How many times has he seen someone tremble at the mention of Bailey's name? How many times now has Bailey removed him from a new fresh hell he was sure was inescapable? Being on Bailey's side? That's safety Mikie can't secure on his own. What does his own name evoke? An image of the towns unwilling bicycle? The fact of the matter is that he needs Bailey. And he wants Bailey to know that he needs him right back.

Mikie doesn't fawn and beg for Bailey to need him. Even if he thought that would actually work, he doesn't think he'd even physically be capable of it. No he tries to prove he's strong. A valuable asset not just as pretty body or an object you can pawn off. But because he's smart, driven, and capable. And irreplaceable. He doesn't stop rebelling. He makes calculated moves to get under Baileys skin. He rallies the orphans. Bailey fetches him from yet another misadventure and later Mikie showes up in his office with a stack of bills that he drops on his desk. Mikie answers his incredulous scowl with the explanation that he wanted to show he was grateful to him for the rescue, the money is a thank you. But his tone doesn't really sound "grateful" and his eyes are intense. He wants to say "I'm valuable, you want to keep me safe". He wants to say "You want me as an ally because I'm enough of a fucking problem that you don't want me as an enemy".

He needs Bailey to trust him, to need him. Because that's when he'll be most vulnerable. That's the only possible way Mikie could even dream of taking him down.

So they do their little power play dance. Mikie tries to prove himself both useful (and low-key a threat) to Bailey. He doesn't think of him as The big bad of his life, he's met a lot of bigger eviler bads. In fact, he's almost a protective force. Their back and forth and banter almost feels playful sometimes. Bailey tears down posters of his caricature that say "why are you Breathing when you could be making me money" off the walls of the orphanage and he immediately knows that somehow someway this is Mikie's doing. Mikie calls him an orphan farmer Bailey calls him a parasite. Mike tells him he should think about getting a pet dog for the kids. Bailey says Mikie's already the pet dog and Mikie says he's really more of a cat. Something has changed. Not drastically. But Mikie thinks of Bailey a bit differently, and he hasn't even realized it himself.

[finitefall]

Hi! Love all your takes. Sorry to bother you, but I saw that allegedly George responded “this guy gets it” to a 2013 blog post about Dany becoming the Mad Queen? Have you heard of it? I admit I’m a bit worried.

Hi nonnie! I’m glad you find my posts interesting, and you're not bothering me at all :)

GRRM referred to the Meereen storyline in A Dance with Dragons as "the Meereenese knot" because of how complex it was to write. He talked about it in an interview:

Now that we know how the "Meereenese knot" played out, what was the problem with this? For example, was it the order in which Dany met various characters, or who, when, and how someone would try to take the dragons? Now I can explain things. It was a confluence of many, many factors: lets start with the offer from Xaro to give Dany ships, the refusal of which then leads to Qarth's declaration of war. Then there's the marriage of Daenerys to pacify the city. Then there's the arrival of the Yunkish army at the gates of Meereen, there's the order of arrival of various people going her way (Tyrion, Quentyn, Victarion, Aegon, Marwyn, etc.), and then there's Daario, this dangerous sellsword and the question of whether Dany really wants him or not, there's the plague, there's Drogon's return to Meereen… All of these things were balls I had thrown up into the air, and they're all linked and chronologically entwined. The return of Drogon to the city was something I explored as happening at different times. For example, I wrote three different versions of Quentyn's arrival at Meereen: one where he arrived long before Dany's marriage, one where he arrived much later, and one where he arrived just the day before the marriage (which is how it ended up being in the novel). And I had to write all three versions to be able to compare and see how these different arrival points affected the stories of the other characters. Including the story of a character who actually hasn't arrived yet. (source)

Someone wrote a series of essays called "The Meereenese Blot", which is also the name of his blog. They were written in 2013 (ADWD was published in 2011), and the thing is that many people thought the Meereen storyline was a mess, while the author of those essays made some good points about its relevance, the major storylines within the whole Meereen's storyline, the themes GRRM explored. Now, it’s been a very long time since I’ve read all of this, and I don’t remember it very well, but Adam begins his "Untangling the Meereenese Knot" with:

Meereen. The mere word probably makes you groan. It’s considered to be the weakest, most frustrating plotline in ADWD, and perhaps in in the whole series. It’s thought to be where GRRM lost the plot and spent endless chapters on pointless filler. The solutions seem so obvious, the villains seem obviously evil one-dimensional caricatures. And many fans see it as the plotline that ruined Dany’s character, revealing her to be a naive, incompetent, lovesick girl.

Because that's how people saw it, even some Dany fans were frustrated. And I can't find the link, but yes, GRRM did say "this guy gets it". However, is he approving literally everything Adam said? I don’t think so, I’m not sure he’s read all of it. He could have been saying that this guy understood the importance of the plotline. Without reading the whole thing again, it’s clear the peace wasn't real and that Dany chosing Fire and Blood in the end only means she understood the peace she tried to make in Meereen wasn't working. She will be darker in The Winds of Winter, like literally every character, but saying it’s her giving in to her selfish and darker impulses? No. So I have very mixed feelings about The Meereenese Blot, because making good points and getting people interested in the storyline isn’t a bad thing, but there are more accurate metas that have been written and aren’t used by antis for their Dark!Dany foreshadowing.

Edit: I’m adding the comments from nonnies on this post as I believe they’re relevant to your question:

GRRM complimenting The Meereenese Blot was so obviously him being happy someone wasn’t dismissing the subplot outright, not a full scale endorsement of a fan theory. People are so desperate to have Dany go mad that they will just ignore logic. Like yeah GRRM is gonna go out of his way to confirm 1 (one) single major fan theory as absolute fact despite him never doing that before or ever again. He even later denied parts of that theory outright (Dany burning the water gardens)

My understanding was that GRRM didn't even read Feldman's essay, he just heard about it from Linda, and who knows how she described it to him 😭 I'd be very surprised if he agreed with those essays because Feldman seriously mischaracterizes Arianne and Melisandre as well. On the whole, it's a bunch of misogynistic crap. Brideoffires has a really good, in-depth debunking of the whole thing.

[rosenecklaces]

Just so you know, i'm cackling because of your tags under that post about Lucien 🤣 the problem with Lucien fans is that they think Lucien is so relevant SJM is going to change everything she wrote and reduce elain and azriel's characters to Lucien's just because they think he's decent and therefore he deserves a prize (elain). Why makes them believe he's this important. Is he a secret Archeron? SJM barely talks about him.

No but is af we are at fault that SJM had given him nothing but "the best friend of tamlin, now best friend of feyre, uhhh son of helion- oh! now elain mate oh wait! and possible lover of vassa" like?? That redhead CAN'T drive a narrative alone and the autor herself has shown that, she needs to push him/relate him with bigger characters so he can do something and move him trought the situations just in case we needed a reminder that he's there... doing stuff. Because lucien having moments of himself existing isn't priority for her (as shown on his barely explored loyalty to tamlin and his ex gf murder, she served us that in the most "have this. Bye" way)

One thing that frustrated me about his character since the get go is that he doesn't pick a side, he doesn't want to it seems and why? because he wants to benefit of whoever and whatever keeps him in a position of power/stability where he can say "look! I'm in the winning side" and although i do think in the first book that'll make him a worthy character and i could even understand why he got fans for it, unfortunately SJM did him a 180° and decided he's...a saint now? The good guy all along? That doesn't matter how much he betrayed feyre and caused harm to her family hes a good friend 🥺 he wants to help the night court now 🥺 ( surprise surprise i wonder why) he's getting new friends! ( good for him honestly, why is he keeping contact with tamlin still tho) he's doing his best with elain and feyre 🥺 (he literally isn't and hasn't even apologized but okey)

And big part of this I would blame SJM of, because she was the one turning around what lucien was supposed to be and what actions he has taken, but also let's not pretend this fandom doesn't loves turning characters in something they aren't or caricatures of those. For me lucien has the potential of becoming a heavily morally grey character close to rhysand on the first books or even antagonistic like tamlin (lucien was literally his side kick and classist as hell so he already was an antagonist) but no miss ma'am decided to throw a half made redemption for him that didn't even worked because he's still asshole- ish and extremely doubtful as a loyal ally, acting as if him following anyone who keeps him in his high horse like a lost puppy is some breathtaking take on him...is not and had never been

and now the only important thing about his story is the undesirable mate bond with the next MC and his relationship with vassa + jurian 💀like listen I am a fan of a "barely there and unique" side character (azriel mi patrón) but atleast my fav basic men haves a background, interesting and brutal backstory, loyal to his characteristics, values and personality, you can see that sjm atleast has interest in him and is planning more for him. Even the little we know about Az sparks interests on exploring who he is, where he came from, what's his thoughts, his relationship with each character without sidelining him and make him seem less important than them (he even haves something related to koschei c'mon). He's a mystery and yes the autor gave us little but what we do have makes for a man that you can understand and follow his actions in anticipation without feeling like someone is pushing you into paying attention to him when there's nothing compelling to look at 🤷🏽‍♀️ (lucien has been since book one compared to az yet the one that makes me go "ohhh what would he do/say next?" Is the shadowsinger)

(Also "booo lucien/elucien I hate your pussy" is one of my most beloved creations thanks for the appreciation 💕)

[oh-katsuki]

you are so right like consistently the takes on bakugo i don't usually love come from people who think he's easy to write

no exactly... like with katsuki it is always exceedingly obvious when someone hasn't taken their time writing him or thinking abt his character. he's got so much going on personality-wise that he's a really tough character to bullshit. like i know because I've TRIED and I've never been satisfied with the smut i used to put out as a product of it.

and like the phone call for this IS coming from inside the house because i have sat in front of my computer ENDLESSLY anguishing over how to write him only to realize that i was trying to jam him into a scenario that i don't think he'd ever be in, yk? he's just one of those characters who i find SOOO hard to pin down.

but also... i think ur right bc the people who think he's easy to write usually aren't writing him (ofc there are exceptions to everything). they're usually writing a caricature of him, which is fine and dandy if that's what you're looking for. but people who think he's easy to write are usually only writing the very obvious aspects of him and are disregarding any subtext (or general context) the source material may give that shows us deeper parts of him.

i think a lot of the time, when people say that he's "easy" to write they're saying that they've gotten comfortable writing him how they do, be that good (bc in some cases it's very good) or bad.

for me personally tho... it is a never-ending battle that i wish i could finish.

[incarnateirony]

I cannot believe Shea is still stalking your blog. The miserable bitch got no personality of her own except horrible or what???????? Can't tell Mark you didn't warn him. Dudes gonna be in for an awful time when she finds her next, uh, mark. Heh.

Sorry you're still dealing with that bullshit from your past life. I hope she lets it go soon.

She also stole her LATEST branding straight from a personal experience of mine around 2010 and wrote a big bio about it. That's why I'm like, oh you're pretending that's some message from the gods you hear and honor? Cool story bro, what's the name of the woman that shit was said to. Oh, you and "him" won't know that?

After all the time she went uwu ur magic is different than mine, way over my head, calling herself a shaman, she's made a shop for her "services" painting herself as the hermes dedicant, jacking my shit for her own branding, literally just painting "fraud" on her head to anyone that knows history or the origin of Things.

From stolen character design, stolen shop branding, and now down to even stolen practices she doesn't really understand or study, she is literally doing everything she can to like. roleplay being able to be me. It's the weirdest fuckin shit. Literally psychotic shit. And I know for a fact just cuz I know HER, she's going to be pretending to channel him for people, boiling down to her understanding ending at "be flamboiyant, sit on chair wrong, make Funny Jokes". She used to try to use "channeling" as escapism like a LARP, and basically tried to beg me to bother and call Hermes for any time she had a hair up her ass and essentially got mad neither I or he wanted to play, and more chapped when she was told to stop running from her identity and life by him. But dollars to donuts she's waving her hands around like jack sparrow on the seventeenth sequel caricatured telling people she's channeling.

And they'll defend her. If Mark is even REMOTELY like me he's already sorta covered his eyes and looked away and pretended he didn't notice her forgery or overcompensation. But he'd do real well to catch her standing in the livingroom and ask her when she's pretending to not be her to, say, cite the seven axioms. Or the seven or fourteen processes. Something fundamental to who she's pretending to be a dedicant or vessel for that she hasn't even been assed to read, and watch the blank stare and evasion.

But he won't. He'd have to face the same struggle I did at the last few years of our relationship of me realizing she was at large a fraud. He'd have to face that she is literally trying to recreate me being in her life because Mark isn't enough and doesn't provide the things she still wants. He'd have to accept she still hasn't moved on, and she's engaging in a LARP to try to imagine me in an invisible spot while pretending she isn't. And man, wouldn't that be a bitch to realize about your fiance. As a friend said, "Because if she pretends to be you she doesn’t have to admit she’s a failure at being her. At being a decent person or human or admit she was wrong in how she treated you. The reasons stack up honestly."

I cannot emphasize enough how fucking weird it is to watch an ex throw away her defining attributes (native american shaman, later athena) to badly mimic shit after you left. (It went from "I don't understand the things you do" to "lol actually I do it too I follow hermes too!!!" after the detour she took into 5d flat earth lightworker facebook to scream about cursed lemons as her pivot point--not missing of course her trying to make me cast a twined black candle curse on people because she went fuckin WEIRD.)

ITS. WEIRD. FUCKIN. WILD SHIT TO WATCH. Yes, the marvelous dedicant that hasn't read a book of his, can't cite where her branding is from, can't even picture him without copying my work, and encouraged/antagonized/harbors people that tried to delete one of the largest non-closed-lodge epicenters of information about and from him that people were allowed to explore. Like sitting with people that tried to blow up a church and then saying you're jesus' best special snowflake. Literal insanity. I'm not coming back, Shea, and neither is he. So just stop.

Take a gander at why your Etna muse fucked off to the wind. Figure it out sweetheart. These are literally consequences for your choices, you weren't just abandoned for no reason, they left you because of what you chose to do, and doodling mandalas with mirror features or stealing my shit to turn into literal fucking roleplays to mask through will not change it. Even if it actually gives you a vision to draw and present that's interesting again and doesn't look like a character a 14 year old would make on Furcadia like your shit since.

This is gonna be one of those "I'm going to die mad about it" levels of offense, and then when I die, I'll join hermes, and flip through all the death by a thousand cuts troll tortures he put her through for abusing his name for her free pass for misbehaviors or pretending to be him. She might as well have named herself The Incarnate Irony pagan or The Crustdaddy pagan. Fuckin shit. Dig a little deeper, girl, maybe steal his SomeCrumbAugh. Oh, no, you only knew to steal the one I told you about. Funny how that works. Catch up bitch that's so 2010 of him anyway, it's CrustDaddy now. Nerd.

Quite frankly she'd turn inside out in fucking rage if she understood Why Crustdaddy, too. But her mimicry will never explain it to her. And frankly I can't even say what on the timeline, for the same reason I said I had to step back from leaking for people's protection, but like, bitch That Could Have Been You. Your loss. What could have been? IDK. Figure it out. She calls him crustdaddy. Whomst? Too bad, so sad, you'll never get the benefit she was given instead. Your choices. Your cost. Your hilariously scammed bank account. But sure you have the protection of the god of thieves and the internet who let you fall for some shit that even senile geriatrics can smell the bullshit on. She got a glo up. You got an emptied bank account.

[thefirstknife]

Some of the more interesting bits of today's reset and dialogues. I loved this from Mara. She acknowledges her participation in steering Uldren towards his downfall AND she realises that she will have to do better with him in the future. This is from the ending dialogue when you finish the exotic quest for the Ager's Scepter.

I want to mention something from the start of the week because I've seen people get angry (but when do they not when it comes to Mara?)

Long post under read more:

It's about the discussion she and Ikora have at the terminal. Hot take, but both Mara and Ikora are right and wrong in the argument. Transcript:

Mara: "How long have your Hidden been privy to Uldren's resurrection?" Ikora: "Long enough to watch over him in your absence." Mara: "And you didn't direct him home. Why?" Ikora: "There was a concern he'd pick up some old habits." Mara: "You know the Garden made him sick. Riven twisted his mind. Eris would have seen it. She is not so easily deceived by skin-deep tricks." Ikora: "It's true I made mistakes, out of an idea of justice... out of grief. Are you leveling this same scrutiny toward Petra? Wasn't she supposed to be watching his grave?" Mara: "Petra has paid her dues. The Vanguard murdered him and has yet to pay theirs." Ikora: "We both lost family. I am sorry for my part in yours, but... Crow has been treated --" Mara: "My brother is dead. He was exhumed; his body twisted into a caricature. You had your vengeance." Ikora: "Is that what you're after? Cayde... I still feel that grief like a stone caught in my chest. Some days, it's more pronounced than others. Vengeance didn't erode that grief." Mara: "Then tell me. Who am I to blame? Who sent him to Savathun's clutches? Who bludgeoned Uldren into a scared animal and drove him from his home?" Ikora: "You did, Mara. And those Guardians that hurt him, did so out of misguided anger. Don't make the same mistake. Don't make my mistake."

This is some heavy stuff and there's a lot going on. First, I like that Mara doesn't respond at the end. It's uncharacteristic for her. It shows that Ikora's words did something to her. This is evident in the exotic quest later which I've already put at the beginning of the post. She's had time to think and she's admitting the part she played.

I dislike some of Ikora's arguments a lot. First, "concern that he'd pick up some old habits" goes entirely against the Vanguard policy and belief that Guardians are new people. They were only concerned because of bias towards Uldren due to what he's done. And Crow knows this! He said so last week when he wondered why is he the only Guardian judged by his past life. No one else is subjected to the same way of thinking. This is the reason why Guardians aren't supposed to dig around their past lives. Obviously with Crow, there's no way for him to avoid it, but the argument that, if he knew, he'd just magically become Uldren (and not just base!Uldren, but murderer!Uldren who will... I don't know, go after Ikora and Zavala or the innocent people in the City?) really shows how much the Vanguard mistreated Crow.

I also dislike the move to Petra. As Mara says, Petra has paid her dues. She really has. Let's not forget that Uldren was not just some guy to her or just her Prince; he was her friend. She had to watch him spiral out of control due to things she couldn't help him with, she had to make the choice to put him away until Mara comes back and at the end she had to make the choice to kill him. This trauma has shaped her.

The Vanguard hasn't paid any dues. That's kinda the whole point of Mara's questioning. Ikora tries to explain that this was due to grief and losing family, but pray tell Ikora, has Mara not lost family too? Mara mentions this immediately as expected.

Ikora is however right to say that it was ultimately Mara's actions that led to the situation we're currently in. The Vanguard had no say in Awoken royal family affairs. Mara knows this, she said as much in the past few weeks and other lore in general: she spoke at length about the distance she pushed between them out of perceived necessity, the need to shape Uldren in a way to make him less like himself (since she disliked his recklessness and dangerous behaviours), but ultimately that only made things worse. She's aware that his venture into the Black Garden was fuelled by Uldren's need to prove himself. Ironically, in an effort to make him loyal and devoted, Mara pushed him into more recklessness instead of stopping it. She's aware of this. Asking Ikora "who am I to blame" was just waiting to be roasted.

But Mara is also right to ask about how the Vanguard treated both Uldren and Crow. How they washed their hands from killing him "officially" by hiding behind the Guardian, how nobody in the Tower answered for this. Their treatment of Crow as well: forcing him into hiding, isolating him. Excusing all the suffering he felt at the hands of the Guardians as "misguided anger." The torture he endured from Guardians just for showing his face was so much more than just "misguided anger" and Mara is right to feel heated and enraged when she talks about this and when she asks her questions. She expressed similar distaste and anger in a voice line with Glint in regards to how the Spider treated Crow.

I got an interesting dialogue at the end of my Shattered Realm run which also made me really irritated on behalf of both Crow and Mara when it comes to the Vanguard. Ikora asks Crow why didn't he send his latest report and Crow replies that he's had a lot going on and a lot to deal with. Which is true! He's not the Drifter who doesn't send reports out of spite; Crow genuinely wants to help but he's struggling with a lot of things that we can't even begin to unravel. He deserves patience and understanding. However, the following then ensues.

Ikora:

Crow:

Ikora:

This last part is a nice sentiment. But excuse me. Crow has literally been resurrected, isolated, tortured, enslaved and then "rescued" only to be thrust into a cage in the Tower and given "responsibilities." He is not obliged to be the Vanguard's errand boy. It's honestly quite rude from Ikora to tell him that he has to take his responsibilities seriously. The man hasn't lived a single day in his life without anxiety over whether he'll be tortured to death in the street if he shows his face.

I know the Vanguard gave him protection from the Spider and stuff to do (which he enjoys) and accepted him into their ranks. That's all good. But there's very little empathy here that acknowledges the life he's lived. Crow deserves to experience things that aren't isolation, imprisonment and following orders.

And most of all, he deserves to know the truth. Something the Vanguard has denied him for almost a year now. I know Savathun's schemes were involved and specifically, they were involved through impersonating Osiris which made a lot of people turn a blind eye. But now that this is known?

Crow can't share his burdens without knowing the truth. That's the whole problem. Everybody, except him, knows who he was. Everyone looks at him and treats him through that lens. He can't unburden himself without being told half-truths and being denied information. His burdens exist precisely because he doesn't know while everyone else does. So while the sentiment is nice, it reads more like a "that sucks buddy" than a genuine offer to help him with what is really bothering him.

On the other hand, obviously sharing the truth is difficult. His past life is more complicated than for most other Guardians. He's been through things that other Guardians haven't. The situation is complex on every single level and every character has a reason for the choices they've made.

Sometimes those choices are wrong and they are mistakes. And Mara isn't the only one who made the wrong choices and mistakes, consciously and unconsciously. It's a disservice to the complexity of the situation, Ikora, the Vanguard and Uldren to boil everything down to "Mara bad." Doesn't make for a compelling story.

That's what I wanted to address in detail because on the surface, it's easy to just dismiss either of the character you dislike more. And that's just reducing the story to a spectrum of black and white that Destiny really, ironically, isn't about.

[sunfoxfic]

Been thinking for the past couple days.... With both of our main characters but especially with Adrien, it is absolutely essential to understand their civilian identity in context of their superhero identity and vice versa. Because if you only look at Chat Noir's identity, or you only look at Adrien's identity, he becomes exactly what the salters think he is: a flat caricature of a child living through abuse. Either he's a rebel, but only when no one knows it's him, he's flirty and does all the things he isn't supposed to do, he has fun and latches onto the first person he meets, or he's the perfect son, the picture of beauty and grace who never sticks up for himself and doesn't have anything to say that someone else hasn't already told him.

Without the context of knowing that Adrien spends all day listening to everyone else, who cares that Chat Noir is known for having fun and being playful? Without the context that he escapes every night to do everything his father does, it never becomes all that obvious that he's suffering as much as he is. To understand the motivations and actions of one of his identities, you need to look at both -- but Adrien is so good at compartmentalizing himself that people struggle to do that. And yeah, in-universe, that's like A Thing, especially in S4. But there's a great irony because I think a lot of Adrien salt -- not all, but a lot -- comes from being unable to understand these identities in context of each other. Salters have not picked up on the subtext, taken the story at face value, and come to the conclusion that Adrien is flat, 2D. But from where they sit, they have enough information to turn that on him, rather than what the characters of the show do, which is assume that he's just Normal. They say that this flatness is a mark of being malevolent, or at best they call it bad writing on the writers' part.

[stimmypaw]

stimmypaw reads the apprentice’s quest, a blog post

A big one, just a bunch of thoughts as I’m reading it, of course, lots of spoilers for the first book in the Warrior Cats series A Vision of Shadows. This will be covering just the first book tho, it’s all in the Read More, let’s gooooooo!!!!

Vision Of Shadows time

Lots of new cats!!! I don't remember these guys as kits or anything wrow!!! I like their names but itll take a while to get used to them

Also cant believe they printed stormcloud's dead name

Omg there's a cat named beepaw

I love these cats all of them so much im going 2 cry

All new names are perfect

I FORGOT HOW GORGEOUS THE CAT VIEW IN THE RECENT BOOKS WAS, LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT

I'm glad leafpool smokes weed

I love reading from Jayfeather's point of view, his grumpiness hasn't grown on me ever but thats just me, I still enjoy it lots he's great and its fun

Firestar and Leopardstar's characterizations are On Point i love it

OOF i feel so bad when jayfeather is mean to others, poor kestrelflight, I love those two

Lovely Jayfeather moments now its time for the first chapter

I like this duo! Also I didn't think I'd ever say this but shut up squirrelflight one can have fun AND learn with their mentors

Sparkkit sounds nice she makes jingling bell noises when she walks around

Alderkit is chadphobic /j

I can see Alderkit taking deep breaths to relax its rotating in my mind its beautiful

God this first chapter feels so good and comfortable, like eating noodles and chicken nuggets. I am so so deeply in love with it, its gorgeous!

Sparkkit is so perfect too, and Graystripe remembering Firestar aaaaaa

DUSTPELT SAID WHAT? PHDHAHAHHA OH NOOOO I don't remember their relationship much, must have been fun, I love young little creature squirrelflight I MISSED HER SO BAD WOW

I started reading the second chapter and died, I think ill take a break now 2 sleep heehhee

I love them describing twoleg stuff its always so fun and alien, like watching an animal planet show about funny sea creatures.

Also I have determined sparkpaw is my favorite, might be my favorite cat ever next to hollyleaf??? I really identify with her and also she's autistic i have decided that

Alderpaw baby noooo hhhh their mentor at least is trying to show its okay, he seems very emotionally distant so far and alderheart feels very emotionally needy, actually both of them do, did I mention I love Sparkpaw??? I might be imprinting myself 2 much on her

I love how like, its clear both of them are absolutely anxious and worried about others opinions on them, which is clearly something they got from being Firestar's grandkids, deputy kids and leader kids. And bramblestar too, I recall him being quite the anxious lad ahhah. Sparkpaw will be showing confidence and being loud but the second anyone isn't approving of her or she does something "wrong" she gets small and quiet, and she ended up setting a high bar for herself by being good at hunting and fighting so I'm curious to see how that will go. Also there's nothing wrong with being guided through a crowded place to meet others Sparkpaw!!! I bet the two of them would be stuck without not knowing how to talk to others had Needlepaw not shown up. I love them, my gf is mocking me saying I'm a Sparkpaw kinnie.

Apprentices will like learn about a thing and tell everyone about it all the time and assume its always true in every situation and thats valid I love kids like that. Also in my head Needlepaw kinda looks like a porcupine. Oh boo she's fatphobic >:(

I love apprentices they are so fun and silly, just making fun of the leaders like its nothing. The way they are clearly learning and absorving everything their warriors say and do like sponges its just ***chefs kiss***

Omg shadowclan is just full of 12 year olds help

And then the old person said "it sure is hard being old!" And everyone clapped

Shout-out to pretty Riverclan apprentice #481977 I love her

Leafpool: 👁👁

Alderpaw: I knew it im cursed and awful and terrible and I will never amount to anything

I wish the cats didn't seem to be giving up on him so easily though

Ah yes the classic thunderclan move "you suck, into the medicine hole you go"

The way sparkpaw changes the things she says and how she does when it isn't the status quo around her oooooooooooooyeaaaaaaa I love 1 autistic cat

Alderpaw considering your problems lesser than other cats won't help you deal with them better bro

I love Needlepaw's excitement about Alderpaw being a medicine cat apprentice, and her sarcasm, she feels like a preppy teenager

Ahhh this is so good, I am so thirsty for family moments like this, just Alderpaw bonding with grandma, I’ll definitely want to draw this one it’s so sweet.

Oh to be young and silly.

I really am enjoying like, Alderpaw’s struggles to seeing how he fits in the clan, how he fits in himself, how he wants to be seen and what he wants to be, it’s really good. I Am Engaged(tm) With This Plot.

SPARKPAW NOOOOOOO but also Yes I want her to be shown vulnerable and weak please 

POP, god watching this stuff always awful, the cats must have thought he broke her ahahah

Also, really great that they learned from Dovewing and now like leave choices and discussions about prophecies between adults

And plus Brambles seemed to take the time to explain stuff to him, seems he wont be going alone either the 1 thing is that he will be the only one knowing what the journey is really about, why though??? I didnt read Firestar's Quest or whatever why does Skyclan need to be secret??? Seems quite silly really!

YESSSS SANDSTORM GET HIS ASS FIGHT FIGHT LOVE THIS LOVE SANDSTORM

I could feel squirrelflight nearing explosion here, this was very fun, i wish they werent hiding this though!!!

The secret thing is showing to be a plot point so I am once again Very Engaged

Also, wonderful dialogue bit, someone asked Bramblestar why an Elder is going and:

Lovely perfect perfect

I miss you dovewing

SQUIRRELFLIGHT LOVE YOU

Oh boy this is it

Traveling book moment

Graystripe: Soooo you're excited to go on the journey to the old territories and Skyclan?

Sandstorm: Yes! It's been ages and-

Graystripe: I'm sure the tribe will love the visit too

Sandstorm, groaning: Oh noooo I forgot about how the tribe is in the way of every journeyyyyy noooooo they're such a racist caricature, please tell me you have a plan

Graystripe: Yes don't worry about it the writers forgot about the tribe in my comic book so you can just use the excuses i did to actively avoid it

Sandstorm: Oh thank Starclan

Sparkpaw's desperation to prove herself oof, her anxiety with understanding the prophecy, oh boy, and Alderpaw feeling too overwhelmed by the questions and not managing to talk!!!! I am so glad they are both autistic

Hoping "Being Leader" wont mean theyre putting nonsense responsibility on the apprentice again

Ah good Sandstorm is on the lead again, as she should, she should have been leader she would have been great

I can't believe Alderpaw thinks I look stupid and diseased :( /j

Everything about this twoleg scene was scandalous I loved it, Sparkpaw just toppled over a trash bag and they are eating from it, iconic, also did those twolegs throw out a whole turkey? Damn

Its not that Sparkpaw is freakishly good at hunting she is very hungry and constantly on the watch for things to eat

BRO Ive never been in a road where the drivers are this wild, throwing bottles out of the car????? Ive seen Fruit being thrown like once or twice, what the fuck!!! I'm glad they are going to wait until the morning to continue

Okay I was not expecting Needlepaw to show up this girl is chaotic I love her

ACTUALLY YEAH WHY DIDNT THEY TELL THE OTHER CLANS ABOUT THIS SINCE THE PROPHECY IS ABOUT ALL THE CLANS???

Needlepaw is like Rono from Bambi 2 if he wasnt a mean bully and thats very epic

Very curious character though, how come her mentor isnt teaching her the warrior code properly? Is that an issue with all apprentices?? Is the clan overwhelmed by 12 year olds and they won?

Having lots of fun trying to play the game "what animal are they describing this time" the erins made here, im glad they're in a farm. Worried about Sandstorm though :c

Fuck im worried about sandstorm a lot, her wound hurt on Me

Yeah water is good youre right sandstorm

Aw man I hope she's okay let her at least survive to meet skyclan please

NOOOOOOOO SANDSTORMA A AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sandtteooonrjrbbbmmnnnnnnnnnn

I am so sad

Alderpaw denying it, Starclan shining upon their vigil, everything crushed me i cried

Alderpaw considers Nihilism

Haven't seen a cat thank starclan for prey in a while its

Oh look they time skipped a journey! They don't tend to do that thats nice

I'm so excited to be meeting The Skyclan that everyone in the fandom knows now

So far they seem kinda mean but thats most clans at first glance really

Okay somethings up

I uh have heard of Darktail pretty sure he's a bad guy so yeah something really bad happened to Skyclan

Am worried

Darktail sounds like an evil himbo* i may be enjoying him actually

*himbos are usually nice by default so he's just evil and stupid and strong

Does needletail know these cats already?????

Ah

Shit

Oh okay fuck

I've been quietly reading the rest because I am just concerned and I want them to be okay as quickly as possible

Waterfalls are a classic nice

Oh boy time for our unlikely duo of Alderpaw and Needlepaw to get out of a Mess!

I did not expect this to end up with the two of them journeying into parenthood, but I'm happy it did

Well actually I'm very unhappy theyre so lost and there's no sign of Skyclan I am very worried for everyone involved Sparkpaw must be feeling awful!

Twigkit is a great name

Yeah this ended terribly

Overall! Frigging loved it this book was GOOD and a great start for the series I am very excited to read the rest, SO WORRIED ABOUT SKYCLAN THO AAAA the characterizations were great the characters were great the pacing was fun and I didn't get bored once!

I think o only wish I had read this sooner really so I could look up others thoughts without getting heavily spoiled about the last books, I can watch a few videos already though thats a start ahhaha. But yeah it was great and it felt very good to read, haven't swallowed up a book so quickly in a very long time!!! Very happy I finally got my hands on this 💕💖💕💖💕💖 cant wait 2 start the next one

If you read all this, hope you had fun hahaha, ill be making more of these cus theyre fun and I like talking about warrior cats thats just my thing

Til next time