#finally getting back to the shippy stuff

[tigirl-and-co]

Specks of Dust in Hallowed Halls

Part 2; Linguistics

Part 1, the introductory chapter, is here!

Now we get into the shippy stuff! And bonus points for anybody who recognizes the book I've chosen here

"Howlsong, who had fallen asleep at the outer edge of the canyon while he waited, led them silently back through the forest. Fritti, full of vague resentment and doom, had no conversation to offer, either. After a long stretch of unspeaking travel, Pouncequick finally broke the stillness.

"Just think, Tailchaser," he said, "we've actually been to see the Queen of Cats!""

You were curled up in a nook that you had unofficially claimed as your own somewhere in the human residence. Made more comfortable by a few blankets and pillows, you had chosen it for its out-of-the-way location and because Metroplex could both see the spot with a camera and use a nearby speaker to talk with you.

In your lap was your phone, currently accessing his personal communication line, which let him hear your voice.

Metroplex loved your voice. It was his favourite sound, the most wonderful melody he'd heard in all his unfathomable eons of existence. Every syllable, every stutter and stumble was permanently caught in his memory circuits, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

And when he learned you had a collection of books back on earth, he had practically begged you to import some to read to him. Not only was he desperate to hear your voice, Metroplex was also curious about you. What you liked to read, what the human culture you hailed from was like, what you thought about things...

So, you found yourself contacting a friend on earth to bring a few books to the supply ship every so often, and spending a bit of extra cash to get them shipped here and back. You didn't mind. It felt nice to be heard. To have your interests acknowledged and considered important.

And, quite honestly, you simply enjoyed hearing him speak. The deep rumble was both soothing and impossible to ignore, and his contemplative nature gave every statement the gravitas of some ancient philosopher comprehending the universe.

"So, Metty, what'd you think of that chapter?" you asked, keeping your own opinions out of it. You were just as interested in his thoughts as he was in yours.

A few moments of pause. "Hm... are human noble courts typically like that?"

You chuckled. Of course that's what he picked out- he'd borne witness to much more sophisticated councils time and time again. In fact, some other part of his processor was probably preoccupied with one now.

"Honestly? Never been. But if I walked in to one and it went like that, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. Fancy people looooooove making overly complex routines and rules and then not actually doing anything to help." You looked up into his camera and beamed at him. "But I get the feeling that sort of behaviour isn't unique to my species."

You felt as much as heard his merriment at that one. "No, it truly is not. Although I've found Cybertronians prefer bureaucracy to bloodlines."

You snuggled back into your nook, still making eye contact with the camera as you got ready for what was certain to be the nerdiest bout of flirting any human had ever partaken in outside of a lab. "Ah, humans most definitely get up to red tape and government nonsense too, but I'm afraid that compared to millions of years of rule-writing, ours would pale in comparison."

You smirked. "Although I'd like to see what would happen if somebody addressed Prime as 'Your Regal Softness.'"

Metroplex desperately wished he had finer control over his internal mechanisms so that he could embrace you right now. But he would have to settle for watching you curl up against his walls. "Knowing that mech, he would assume it was an actual title and wear it with pride."

You burst out laughing at the image, and how it didn't seem all that far-fetched. You both respected Optimus, but that didn't mean you couldn't be irreverent about him in private.

And as you chatted with the titan, book now just conversational fuel, you were struck by how easy it all was. The meandering levity, the way you each made both space and time for each other...

And how easy he was to love.

[autolenaphilia]

Tedd/Elliot is so endgame: the massive proof document

I’m a long-time Tedd/Elliot shipper, I have been since I first discovered EGS in the latter half of the 00s. A lot of it is probably explained by these panels:

And upon re-entering the fandom and re-reading, I’ve become convinced that Tedd/Elliot is endgame. Like I’m biased of course, but there is such a thing as fiction hinting at future story developments and foreshadowing, and oh boy are Tedd/Elliot foreshadowed. This post will have a read more otherwise this might turn into a “do you love the color of the sky”, except its Tedd/Elliot.

I had to literally stitch comics and panels together into collages to get this post past tumblr 30 image limit per post. And I’m sure I have forgotten some stuff, there is just so much.

The earlier Tedd/Elliot might be intended as jokes but the hints have felt more and more real, especially during the last 10 years or so of comics.

Exhibit A:1 Canonical Alternate universes

Whenever there is an AU of EGS, it’s pretty much a rule if we meet alternates of both Tedd and Elliot, they are a romantic couple. It’s like they are destined to be together.

The first one is a canonical one. Some of the earliest hints of Tedd/Elliot came with https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2002-07-23 in which it’s revealed that Beta Tedd and Elliot’s female alternate that universe are a couple:

“Incidentally, I like creating scenarios in which it's implied that Elliot and Tedd could very easily be dating each other given different circumstances, so I hope you do, to.” – Dan Shive in the commentary to the above comic.

The other canonical universe we see alternates of Tedd and Elliot in is Magus’s universe. Magus calls his version of Tedd, Terra, “A friend” but you can certainly read into his wistful memory of her, maybe he’s just missing his friend, maybe it’s something more:

Exhibit A:2: The non-canon AUs

Other than that… there are numerous non-canonical AUs in EGS:NP where alternates of Tedd/Elliot end up in a romantic relationship. Like it’s non-canonical but the recurring nature of this certainly implies things.

There’s the Blank check for Weirdness AU from 2004

Or the Oblivious Hand-waving AU from 2008.

It’s really a tradition at this point for silly EGS:NP non-canon stuff. The NP comics are currently in an arc re-telling Cinderella where Tedd is Cinderella and Elliot is the prince. And as Dan Shive admits it’s something the author loves:

Exhibit B: they canonically are attracted to each other

Tedd/Elliot are sexually attracted to each other. This is undeniable canonical fact. You could reasonably argue for Tedd/Elliot not being an endgame ship, that this attraction won’t lead to a relationship, but you’ll be outright ignoring canon if you denied this attraction exists.

Exhibit B:1: Elliot’s attraction to Tedd

Elliot’s attraction to Tedd has been obvious since at least 2003, and his denials have been increasingly portrayed as rooted in a kind of internalized homophobia (since he finds Tedd attractive even when Tedd is in a male body). Ellen has embraced being bisexual since the start, and sharing Elliot’s memories, has talked to Elliot about his attraction to Tedd multiple times.

The first time was in February 2003, at the end of the Sister arc:

And they did it again, 14 years later, in part 15 of the Sister 3 arc in May 2017, in which Elliot finally accepts being bisexual and doesn’t argue with Ellen when she brings up Tedd as an attractive boy.

Elliot’s subconscious was being obvious even earlier, as this dream from part 7 of the Identity Arc back in December 2013 proves:

(If only he had remembered this dream, we might not still be waiting on the ship becoming real 11 years and 6 months later.)

Since that conversation with Ellen, Elliot has been even more obvious about being attracted to Tedd. Like in Tedd’s little haircut saga in the Layers storyline from May-June 2023. (we’ll get back to this storyline, it’s very shippy) Elliot gets very frank about how cute and good-looking Tedd is.

Ellen and Elliot then get into another conversation about their shared attraction to Tedd, which mirrors the one from 2003. Keep in mind that “just thinking about baseball” is a running gag in the comic for unconvincingly denying having sexy thoughts.

Later in November 2023 in part 4 of Layers, we get Elliot thinking Tedd is “way too cute.” More on that little saga in a bit.

Exhibit B:2: Tedd’s attraction to Elliot

And what about Tedd then?

Unlike Elliot, Tedd doesn’t have a clone sister with his memories to call him out like Ellen does to Elliot. But it’s undeniably there.

This bit from February 2014, during the Identity arc is telling. And sure, Tedd is a transformation fetishist, so he is interested in the act of transformation itself, but I don’t think his choice of subject for his transformation fantasy here is completely arbitrary. Like I don’t think he would fantasize in this way about a random person they are not attracted to. Sarah even imagines Tedd/elliot in response

And there is this subtle moment from Sister 3: Part 10 from February 2017, where Tedd is clearly attracted to Elliot in boymode. (So much for their claim back in 2005 that they are not bisexual.)

Even stronger is Tedd’s reaction to Elliot transforming into a girl at the party in the Reflections storyline in January 2020. And this bit I think nails a large part of the appeal with Tedd/Elliot. They have similar things going on gender-wise, and the potential for nb4nb kinship here is strong.

And Tedd’s expression here in this moment from the Blanket NP arc from September 2021 speaks volumes

There is also this moment from The “Nanase and Her Fox” NP arc (February 2024) Dan Shive even points it out in the commentary for the following comic, Tedd didn’t have to imagine Elliot in undersized clothing, but they did anyway.

Finally, let’s go back to the page where Elliot thinks about how Tedd is “way too cute”, back to Layers Part 4 (November 2023) Now, Tedd seeing through Elliot’s shirt isn’t actually any kind of shipfuel, because as Elliot points out, Tedd wasn’t trying to do that.

But the whole conversation that follows certainly is. Tedd just admits it: “Elliot’s very attractive” And they both blush.

Exhibit B:3: The whole fricking “Superhero Science” Arc

This NP storyline deserves a section all of its own, because oh my god just read it, it’s pure Tedd/Elliot shipfuel. Elliot literally enters the story with Tedd resting her head on his lap.

And sure they dismiss it as casual platonic cuddling. But there is obviously a lot more going on.

Tedd is obviously horny for Elliot transforming into Cheerleadra, and for Elliot in that form. And then Elliot lands on top of Tedd. Elliot flirts with Tedd, and they both imagine making out.

And this storyline is canon, or at least possibly canon. And the feelings shown in the story are definitely canon as Dan Shive explains in the commentary:

“As for the eternal question of how canon this all is, my answer has to be "for the time being, it's possible". The reason it has to be that is that this would be a future event, and I can't be 100% certain whether this exact scenario will fit. It's a "we can't really know until the main timeline catches up" sort of thing.

I will say, however, that there's every reason this could be canon, and if for some logical reason it can't be, I plot to re-establish the feelings shown in this storyline.”

And the main feelings shown is that Elliot and Tedd want to make out.

Exhibit C: The other characters have noticed. Seriously most of them seem to realize Tedd/Elliot is real.

In response to this ship, one might ask “but what about Grace? And the answer is that Grace is already probably a Tedd/Elliot shipper. Like there is this moment from the Reflections arc, (september 2020), where Grace and Sarah due to a magic door mirror accident have been transformed to look like Tedd and Elliot respectively.

(This is of course also a major Grace/Sarah moment, fueling the popular Tedd/Grace/Sarah OT3 ship. And that feels totally compatible with Tedd/Elliot. This couple is only part of the puzzle and the solution to that puzzle I suspect is that most of the main cast will be involved in some kind of complicated polyamourous arrangement.)

And that Reflections bit is not the first time Grace is having a Tedd/Elliot shipping moment. I already shared the Blanket arc bit above. And much earlier, in Identity Part 5 (November 2013) we get this page, where Grace goes full fujoshi for them. She says the fantasy “just” involves her transformed into Elliot, but the fantasy is still super-telling of her desires.

Ashley is not as openly supportive, but because she can see the obvious, she does notice what Tedd and Elliot has going on, and even gets jealous of Tedd. Like when Elliot gets very protective of Tedd in the little argument with Diane about magic, in the Reflections arc (June 2020). She both notices and gets jealous

There is also the bit in the Layers arc during Tedd’s haircut saga where Tedd and Elliot hold hands. It’s a very shippy moment and Ashley clearly recognizes this.

(Also Grace’s openness to polyamory is unknown, as is that of Ashley, but it wouldn’t be surprising. It’s not exactly the weirdest thing these two girls are into)

Their girlfriends are not the only characters who notice the obvious energy between Tedd and Elliot.

Susan was of course characteristically blunt about it way back in Grace’s Birthday party arc (August 2005)

(seriously, 2005 Susan. You are right about everything as always, Tedd is very transfem and Elliot is very horny for them, but you really didn’t have to say it like that)

And since Diane shares Susan’s brains, she has noticed as well:

(Dan Shive’s commentary for this scene talks about how Tedd and Elliot’s “date” will be “a couple of gal pals hanging out”, like come on.)

Even Tedd’s dad Edward seems to suspect Tedd/Elliot. At the start of the Balance arc, April 2021, Edward compares Tedd and Elliot to Tara and Andrea, griffins who are a lesbian married couple (they are indeed similar). And then wonders outright at an intimate Tedd/Elliot moment:

I guess, congrats on your future son/daughter in-law, Edward.

And the defense rests

Hope you enjoyed this tour into my rarepair shipping madness. I’ll leave you with this sketchbook by Dan Shive:

[ryuichirou]

I apologize if it is too personal but how do you deal with "antishipper" and the way they make callout posts and harassment campaigns against you ? It’s legitimately so scary and it makes me hesitant of posting my own art

Anon! I am very sorry you are going through this horrible feeling of hesitation and anxiety; knowing that people get targeted like that could not only stop you from posting, but stop you from creating altogether, and this is the worst part about this whole thing.

It’s not too personal, and I don’t mind talking about it at all. I’ve talked about our position and our relationship with fandom policing a bunch of times already, so I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself.

I used to be worried about posting certain stuff too. Well, when I was a teen/in my early 20s I wasn’t worried about anything: we had so much juicy stuff posted here lol But then the nsfw ban happened, and the social climate of this app and internet in general started shifting, the first stories about people driven to end their lives because of the hate they received started to come out, and we stopped posting completely. It wasn’t a huge loss to us back then, and this situation wasn’t the only reason why we stopped, but still, it clearly became much more difficult to just appear out of nowhere, throw problematic stuff in your blog and run away again.

I vividly remember us wanting to post my Shingeki no Kyojin drawings and comics based on our AUs and stuff, but not knowing what to do with Ereri – there was no way for us to be “unproblematic” (which was never a concern to us, we just didn’t want to get tons of hate lol) and still post Eren with a man twice his age. So we started posting them without a tag, starting with a drawing that wasn’t too shippy, and then miraculously the world didn’t end. That made us bolder, and we started to post them openly, and posted them for almost two years pretty regularly, alongside some of our other problematic ships + problematic themes. Of course we did get hate, we got a lot of hate while we were posting SnK stuff from all kinds of people, but what we also got a lot of people who found our content refreshing and interesting, even if it was weird and uncomfortable at times.

We weren’t the only people who shipped Ereri (let’s ignore my petty thoughts about the difference between Ereri and Rivaere for now), and we weren’t the only people in Twst fandom who liked Shroudcest, which is another ship that we were super hesitant about posting or even mentioning at first. But with all the hate around I was so certain the world was going to end the moment we post them, and that didn’t happen. The end of the world never happens, but what does happen is that people either get introduced to a fun new dynamic and get invested, or get happy that someone finally posts for the ship they were too afraid to post for. Somehow, when you see some other person being ballsy, you don’t feel as scared anymore – it happened to us with other people’s posts too. Yes, I still say this even though it spawns a bunch of callout posts and harassment, as it did with us. Were we cancelled? Yeah, somewhat. There’s so much you can say about an acc that states “problematic stuff, 18+”, right? I was super relieved and happy, actually, that a lot of people left/blocked us just because they’re the people I’d never want to interact with my art.

I’ve been yapping for a long time already lol so I’ll give you some pieces of advice instead… These are things that legitimately help us.

Surround yourself with people who support you – if not you personally, then at least your ideas (i.e. other proshippers). Luckily, nowadays it’s easier to find them… But also, having a friend who you can vent about these things to helps a lot! It’s cheesy but it’s a fact: when you’re not alone, it’s not as scary.

Always ignore comments/asks from antis and block them on sight, block anonymous asks too. Even if you really want to sass them, it’s much more effective to ignore them: when you give them attention, it invites more engagement from them.

Block people you get bad vibes from. Block those who like or comment bad takes or support harassment of others, block all of their alt accounts. It’s tedious and takes time, but it really helps to keep you hidden from them, at least to some degree. I look up Shroudcest sometimes just to block new people. They try to make fun of me for that, but who cares if it works? You can’t block everyone, but these people usually flock together and it’s usually just a bunch of friends, so taking several posts on these topics from people from the fandom and blocking everyone involved will obliterate the majority of harassers.

In terms of your safety, having multiple accounts in case you main one gets mass-reported helps + I would advice to keep irl stuff away from your fandom stuff just in case.

This is going to sound stupid, but please keep in mind that this isn’t about you. These people are very miserable and not very smart. Even if they try to paint you like a bad person, they don’t know anything about you, so don’t let their judgment affect how you feel about yourself. This is exactly what they want – to have power over you.

Stay strong and take care of yourself, i.e. lock your acc and/or take a break if you feel overwhelmed. Don’t worry, it will pass: it’s very rare for these clowns to keep focus on one person for a long period of time; they have like 5 different dramas per day. There are some absolutely batshit crazy rapid assholes who won’t leave an artist alone for years, but those are super rare and special cases altogether, I don’t think you need to be worried about those.

Keep in mind which fandom you want to do this with, btw. It’s usually okay for the most part, but if the fandom is just a bunch of kids, it’s more likely not worth it or deserves an empty account, at least. Twst is surprisingly good despite anything it might look like! Thanks to Yana being a shotacon and a creator of Kuroshitsuji, I guess. There are many great and supportive people in the twst fandom, it’s been a pleasure to be here, even though, once again, it’s the first fandom where I got a bunch of callout posts and nasty stuff in my ask (SnK fandom usually harassed me for other things).

TL;DR: it is scary, and you could easily get callout posts about yourself, but guess what, you also get to be yourself. Because realistically, callout posts can’t stop you from creating art. They want you to believe that they have power over you, but this isn’t true. Your life online won’t end after some random callout post – mine didn’t. They also don’t understand that each consequent callout post affects the person being called out even less. We do have a minor panic attack for the first hour or so, and it does involve more extra blocking, but mostly it just sours our mood for the day and drops our morale. I still draw, though, out of spite a little lol Oh, and do try to report these types of posts if you get them, there’s nothing wrong with that.

People had been persecuted for their art and ideas for centuries, so what happens now is really nothing new. Without diving into specifics, there are way worse things they could do than writing callouts, but they aren’t super likely to do those. Luckily.

Take care of yourself, but also please don’t doubt yourself; when it comes to your art being way too fun for lovers of censorship to handle, you’re in a very good company. I’m referring to all the artist and writers of this world btw and not just me and Katsu lol but us as well!

[lestappenforever]

So, I’m like a realist, right? Sure, yes, I ship people from time to time but I know it’s just for funsies. So, I saw a lestappen edit last week and was like “hey cute guys, what’s up with these two? I better check it out.” and have fallen into a bit of a rabbit hole it seems. So I’m back in the real world now, where Max is in a long term relationship and Charles has a girlfriend, and am wondering: how does one explain Max’s behaviour? Does he just have a friend-crush on Charles? Has he always wanted to be friends with him since they were young and it was just hard since they’ve been rivals for so long? Does he envy him maybe since his father wasn’t a pos and he still turned into a great driver? Is it a “it’s lonely at the top” kind of situation, where he’s never been able to make many friends his own age? (I’ve seen Charles with a bunch of friends outside of racing, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Max with any, but that could be on me.) I mean, a blind person could see that Max takes every opportunity to talk to him or be close to him and he knows stuff about him I’d personally be too embarrassed to admit (like getting his “stupid” quote exactly right or knowing about the twitch thing with his girlfriend forgetting her keys, etc.). I guess I’m looking for the actual non-shippy explanation for this behaviour cause it fascinates me. What are your two cents on this?

Hi anon, and welcome to the world of Lestappen! We're happy to have you. ❤️

I will preface this by saying that shipping is solely for fun, and I don't actually believe Max and Charles are in a secret relationship or anything of the sort. The majority of Lestappen shippers on Tumblr are on the same page about this, with some exceptions, but there are exceptions to anything. And a big part of shipping is speculating, being delusional about them, and overanalyzing things.

Now, in terms of a non-shipping explanation as to why these two behave the way they do around each other, I think it's a combination of all the reasons you've already listed. And the thing about Max and Charles is that they have known each other for so many years. They have been in each other's orbit, in one way or another, for the majority of their lives, and there is no denying that they have seen each other as one of — if not the — biggest rival they've had since they were children. Despite the fact that a lot of the current drivers on the grid have raced each other at some point before F1, there doesn’t seem to be any of them that have the same sort of rivalry that Max and Charles have, which goes so far back. And that kind of bond is one that I believe sticks with you forever.

Now this is not a delusional take at all, as this quote by Armando Filini, manager of the Maranello Kart, the first team for which Leclerc raced, proves: “They were always fighting. It didn't matter if they were competing in a tie or in a final, if it was raining or if the track was dry. Once we were in Genk, Belgium, in the first free practice, and they went on track. Charles and Max met, began to push each other and almost hit each other, with the risk of being left out. Jos Verstappen and I were glued to the fence to look at them and he turned around and said to me: 'These two will fight forever. They will fight even in F1′. A prophecy”.

Even though Max and Charles obviously haven’t been best friends for the majority of the time they've known each other, and they've only started building what appears to be a genuine friendship in the last few years, they share a connection that has been evident to people around them since they were little.

Max's comment from last season where he said that he wasn't surprised both him and Charles were sitting in that press conference together because he always thought that if he made it into F1, Charles would too, is just another testament to how tied together they actually are. And Charles' fond recollections of their karting days in the past season shows that it's a mutual thing: that Charles feels that same bond with Max that Max feels with him. And I think this is the whole baseline for why they've never been able to be normal about or around each other: because they go so far back and their lives are so intertwined that I honestly don't think either of them is fully capable of treating the other as just any other colleague or friend, because they don't see each other that way. They're something more, and by that I don't mean they're secretly in love with each other — they just have this bond that goes beyond normal friendship, forged through years of rivalry, envy, conflict, mutual growth and respect, and eventual friendship.

I have a childhood friend sort of like that: obviously not with the rivalry and drama that comes with the surroundings in which Max and Charles met and grew up, but someone that I share a bond with that I don't share with any of my other friends, old or new, and it's honestly my most treasured friendship because it has helped shape me as a person in a profound sort of way. He's not my closest friend and not the friend I talk to the most since we live on different sides of the country and our paths haven’t crossed much in the past few years, as is often the case when you grow up and become an independent adult. But when I do talk to him and hang out with him, it kind of feels like coming home. And to me, it seems like Max and Charles share that same type of bond.

This is just my personal take as I obviously don't know Max or Charles, and this is all based off of watching their interactions and watching their relationship develop over the past few years, as well as deepdiving into their history in the past. But this is the explanation that makes sense to me.

[beaconfeels]

Okay playing off @mirrorthoughts last ask:

Thoughts on Alpha werewolf Stiles and his second in command, werewolf Chris Argent? 😉

I HOPE YOU’RE THINKING SHIPPY THOUGHTS BECAUSE I’M THINKING SHIPPY THOUGHTS! Ahem. *smooths down hair*

I love the way this ask is worded because it makes me feel like I can handwave how this situation came to be and just GET TO THE GOOD STUFF.

When I think Chris and Stiles, I think PINING. Second in command werewolf Chris being OUT OF HIS MIND because twitchy kid Stiles Stilinski turned into young but extremely competent alpha, person Chris trusts most in the world, maybe love of Chris’s LIFE, but he can’t fuck this up because they actually have a stable pack, and Beacon Hills is finally not the murder capital of Northern California, and also Stiles wasn’t even born yet when Chris graduated high school. Fuck his life.

Meanwhile Stiles is over here like, he might be the glue that holds the pack together, but Chris is the glue that holds him together. Chris became his second in the early days, back when Chris was still human. He doesn’t really understand how it happened, but Chris became his rock, that solid energy he rests up against when everything feels like it’s spinning out of control. He trusts him, not just with his life, but with helping him make good decisions for the pack, to have his back, to tell him when he’s off the rails.

Derek and Peter had hammered it into him that having a person as his anchor isn’t a good idea, so Stiles has anchored himself to something else but…Chris is still a big part of what keeps him sane and grounded.

Also, turns out when Chris is happy and healthy he not only has bulging werewolf-fueled muscles, he also has a little extra meat on his bones, and a belly that is just a bit soft around the edges and he looks big and solid, and Stiles is OBSESSED with the way he feels small and protected when Chris wraps him in his arms, even though they’re the same height. He’s pretty sure if he could curl up with Chris and sleep for about eleven years, it would fix him.

Chris knows he and Stiles don’t have a typical Alpha and Right Hand relationship. He’s seen how other packs operate, and it’s definitely more of a business relationship than he and Stiles have. He and Stiles are wrapped up in each other in all the ways. Protecting the pack. Protecting each other. Hugs and neck nuzzles and eating meals where they end up still sitting at the table hours later just talking about anything and everything.

Everything he’s read says it shouldn’t work that way, but every time he tries to put some distance between them and act like he’s “supposed to” around his alpha, things fall apart. It’s bad for Stiles. It’s bad for the pack. So fuck the rules. He and his alpha are what they are, and everyone will just have to deal with it. Including himself. Because fuck his life he’s in love with his alpha.

And Stiles decided ages ago that what he has with Chris is enough. Sure, he really really wants to push Chris up against a wall and kiss him senseless before letting Chris take him to bed, but he can live without it. Chris is partner enough, just as things are.

This might have gone on forever if Peter and Derek hadn’t come back for a visit. They watch the alpha and his second in command like they’re a reality show until suddenly one day Peter can’t take it anymore and says “Jesus Christ, you’re not the typical Alpha and Right Hand because you’re mates, you idiots!”

And…

Oh.

[t00thpasteface]

i very deeply respect your mashposting and even though im not as enthusiastic about hawkahy as you are i think the content you make for them us delightful and some of the best mashposting on this godforsaken website. that being said, i wanted to know ur takes on the hawkeye & trapper dynamic, and the hawkeye & bj dynamic. Not in a shippy way, just in the World of Hawkahy what role do trapper and bj play in their relationships with hawkeye :3 this because i love that one comic u did where hawkeye is spunchbop and bj is Patrick its one of my fave pieces of mash fanart lol

(⁠๑˘❥⁠⁠ ˘๑⁠) first off, THANK YOU!! i'm soooo crazy about hawkahy and i really enjoy contributing to my fellow shippers, but i'm glad my art can also still appeal to people who are less interested the ship itself.

second, VERY fun question!! i wish i had definitive answers for yall, but you know me... i love to go "well idk it could go either way" ^_^;; really, it depends on what kind of tone and theme i'm looking for. i don't really write heavier stuff (because i have so much fun writing funny fic) so that kind of narrows my options, but there's a lot of potential i'd love to explore— or see someone else explore, if they're so inclined!

TRAP:

generally the trapper reading i typically default to is that he and hawkeye have a pretty casual FWB thing going on. trapper considers hawkeye a very close friend and hooks up with him at an intersection of bicuriosity and deep platonic affection, but hawkeye catches baddddd feelings and ends up genuinely heartbroken to find out their thing was lopsided. in this case, hawkahy would happen only after trapper leaves— mulcahy has a tough time trying to get noticed before that point :( but at the same time, i don't think mulcahy would pounce at the first opportunity, because i don't think an immediate rebound would be good for hawkeye nor mulcahy... but it could happen for dramaaaaa...

another version of the hawkeye-trapper rapport that i love playing with in my fics is trapper being generally very supportive but nonetheless slightly grossed out. i think there's a lotttt of comedy potential with hawkeye thinking it's okay to fuck a priest but NOT a married woman, and meanwhile trapper is pro-infidelity but anti-priestfucking (for whatever reason), and they squabble and tease each other about it the whole time.

it's also funny to think about is trapper trying to figure out whether mulcahy now gets the "one of the bros" back-slapping beer-chugging dude treatment, or if instead he's now slotted into the "go easy on 'em trap" category that protects hawkeye's ladyfriends from hearing trapper's bawdiest jokes and comments when hawkeye brings them along as a plus-one to the swamp.

trapper seems like he's pretty likely to sniff out that hawkeye and mulcahy are seeing each other even if they try their damnedest to keep it secret. i like to think hawkeye trusts trapper enough that he would go ahead and divulge it it up front pretty soon after it's official. trapper could probably even pick up hawkeye's crush beforehand... maybe even before hawkeye knows about it!

i don't see trapper as being too jealous of hawkeye spending a lot of time with mulcahy, even if it means hawkeye is now exclusive and not sleeping with trapper anymore. if anything i think he'd be pretty stoked that he's got one less guy to compete with for the nurses' attention. pretty sweet deal as far as he's concerned.

i do think there'd be some tricky navigating between how hawkeye acts with trapper and the STARK difference with how he acts around mulcahy, which you can see clear as day in the s1 finale, where hawkeye gets soooo soft and careful while talking to mulcahy. i don't think either one is disingenuous; i think hawkeye contains multitudes. hawkeye's not the type to fake sincerity. and to that end, i really don't think hawkahy should hinge on hawkeye totally giving up all the cruder parts of his personality (especially since mulcahy is really no saint either), so it could be pretty interesting to see that manifest in whether/how he's still maintaining a close friendship with trapper now that he's been seeing mulcahy regularly and trying to make a good impression.

BEEJ:

the direction bj goes in depends on whether hawkahy are already an item before he gets there. he does form that almost instantaneous trauma-bond with hawkeye on his first day, but i think if hawkeye admitted "yeah by the way the chaplain is my boyfriend" as soon it seemed safe, bj would be able to take it in stride as another weird little quirk of the mash he has to get used to. he's too hung up on dealing with all the gore to worry about who's banging who.

by contrast, i think he could potentially get pretty upset/jealous if hawkeye and mulcahy paired up a little while later. i can see him feeling really betrayed, like, "what do you normally do when i'm gone?" "wait for you to get back!!"

if bj still doesn't feel like he's really enmeshed himself into the unit— which i think on some level, he never wants to, because he's banking on dropping everything like a hot potato the second he can— then i can totally picture him just feeling completely lost and isolated when hawkeye is suddenly forgoing their boys-nite boozathons in favor of getting some priest pipe. like, at least trapper could always go find his own cuddle buddy to pass the time and had nurses lining up to volunteer; bj has basically nobody and doesn't seem inclined nor equipped to fix that. hawkeye is his liason to the rest of the camp, and bj isn't so great with people without having hawkeye there to help as both teleprompter and safety net.

basically i think bj wants to keep hawkeye within a very specific arm's-length radius— not too close, but not too far either, and hawkeye having so much private time with someone else could really get under his skin.

you could also have bj think the priestfucking is gross/bad on sheer principle like trapper did, even without the jealousy angle, and it'd probably hold a little more water coming from bj than trapper. however, it'd be funny if he's insisting it's definitely not a jealousy thing and he's being fully objective about it, but you can totally tell he's just jealous. x)

i admit i kinda love seeing bj get tormented, because he's got such obvious buttons to press and yet sternly insists that they don't even exist, similar to houlihan and frank. like, you can't just set that up and not expect me to rub my hands together and SLAM those buttons as hard as i can. ergo, bj getting jealous about hawkahy is supremely funny to me. i'm not too proud to admit that!

[yuukei-yikes]

Long as hell text post under the cut my guys

me when i wake up and talk every day about the same shit. heart <3 i could talk for days abt jin and the misogyny he writes with. it's everywhere of course lol but out of the female characters takane's like…. the most tragic, in my opinion, because she's the only female character to have absolutely 0 backstory. yes, there's Some stuff, such as her illness, but truly takane does not have that much angst surrounding her illness. everything about her is rather about haruka. takane's moment is yuukei yesterday, but yuukei yesterday is entirely about both haruka and takane and their relationship. yes it's takane's pov, but it's ultimately still about… haruka, and how she feels about him.

back then in the fandom, pre over the dimension specifically, there was a take going around i remember pretty well. "people write haruka and takane like there's nothing more to them than being in love with each other" like the only time we'd see haruka and takane specifically (in fan content), they'd just be there to be shippy. i TOTALLY agreed with this sentiment and i always have, especially because i've always been obsessed with them as characters and i was overanalyzing every little thing (when otd came out i was over the moon bc i got so much stuff right btw. if u even care)

HOWEVER. if u think about it. pre over the dimension, with the manga having covered yuukei yesterday already and the next time takane (and haruka) appear as themselves in the manga is A LOT later in volume 10 (by that time, otd was already out) (also i'll get to takane in 2nd manga route in a second), so what we had at the time, for haruka and takane's backstory, was manga&novel yuukei yesterday and what we got from the anime. if you consider this… truly, at first the only thing to go off really was. just their relationship. that was all there was to both of them, because haruka was described from takane's pov, and everything we got from takane was how she felt for haruka. that was IT. for everything else u had to read between the lines like i was doing bc 10 years later i'd still be here talking about it teehee

of course there are also the songs. takane's songs set in time before she's ene are yuukei yesterday and of course headphone actor, one of the Best kagepro songs dont even come AT ME anyways headphone actor as a song touches THE OTHER BIG THING we were offered about takane at the time. okay, she isn't JUST in love with haruka. the other thing about takane is… she wants to SURVIVE!!!

i've talked about this LOADS of times i know (about this entire thing actually but i just like talking about also it's my blog) takane gets opening eyes because she's so determined to live. ratio + this from novel 2 headphone actor

which brings me to. ugh. second manga route. takane….would not…. KILL HERSELF…. second manga route WHY. we finally get to see Takane again in the manga and she's just so spectacularly NOT HERSELF it's crazy. takane since her INTRODUCTION is presented as "selfish" and how her want for attention from haruka or in general gets the best of her. that's ene. THAT'S ene!!! that's also why ENE stays with shintaro!!! it is FUNDAMENTAL to her character. we were given miserably little about her and in the most simplified way to put it, those things are: takane 1. is an attention whore<3 2. doesn't want to die. so tell me. how do you manage to get these 2 very simple things so incredibly WRONG in second manga route.

where in the world would takane get mad haruka got another friend. it makes NO sense!?!? bro haruka and shintaro ARE ALSO BEST FRIENDS IN THE MAIN ROUTE, where takane ACTUALLY HAS REASONS TO ACTIVELY REALLY DISLIKE SHINTARO, and she doesn't give a fuck that they're friends, why would she randomly care so much now when she has no reason to even dislike shintaro? so basically because she doesn't have ayano she gets jealous and wants haruka all to herself?? erm ok?? let's say that's true (it's not), even if she was jealous of shintaro her desire to be by haruka's side WILL be stronger, she would NEVER just turn around and leave. absolutely NOT. one of the stupidest things takane does is want haruka to look her way so bad she doesn't realize HE'S DYING ON HER. this bitch is so insanely self centered she would never in her life walk out on haruka just for having another friend. REAL takane walks in there with that stupid basket and be like Everyone look at me NOW<3

ok. first trait: attention whore: second manga route FAILS. second trait: doesn't want to die. wonder what second manga route will do. (looks into the camera) takane kills herself in second manga route.

dude you're crazy. you literally get EVERYTHING WRONG. it pisses me off. and not only does she kill herself but she does it because haruka DIED!?!?!?!?!? OH MY GOD. i hate it it's so fucking fake it's not HER THAT'S NOT TAKANE ENOMOTO THAT'S A SHIT CHARACTER JIN AND MAHIRO SATO DECIDED TO SUDDENLY WRITE INTO THE STORY i already put it in this post but let me attach it again

dear lord. anyways i've talked about that loads of times but i needed to include it in this talk cuz. yeah. i dont even HATE the rest of second manga route i just hate how takane is written specifically but since she's everything 2 me erm. you get my thumbs down!!! anyways having acknowledged second manga route we can move on.

back to main route discussion. so takane's backstory. not super deep, especially compared to other characters. yes her backstory is basically that she's sad because her boyfriend dies. but as ene there's so much more to unpack, right?! a character who will 100% accept a HALF DEATH because she's so determined not to die, but she's also mentioned to be tirelessly looking for her body because despite everything she's got HOPE? that's SUPER interesting, i love her!! what will she- *is obsessed with shintaro* ene's obsession with shintaro again ties in with everything else, desperate for attention, finds kinship with shintaro because she (or rather, ayano) decided he's compatible with her, but most importantly, he's doing badly and she wants to help him. takane isn't a person anymore, she's alive only as a technicality, so… she spends time with shintaro! but we ignore, it's TWO YEARS. and only in one of those she is with shintaro. we tend to overlook she spends the WHOLE TIME looking for her body in that other year. of course ene talks a lot about how much she loves her power, how much she loves being ene and not having to take care of her sick body but it's a REALITY that she wants to get it back. if she really didn't want it, why would she look for it and later get back into it when she does find it? but that's in between the lines. ene's obsession with shintaro is super interesting and you KNOW i love everything we know about takane be it her obsession with shintaro or her crush on haruka. i just wish there was....more.... like everyone else gets more! like HARUKA, a damn side character, gets more!!

haruka gets so SO much, he even bonds with SETO!! he gets a really well developed friendship with shintaro, he gets a very long detailed introduction scene with ayano with funny younger mekatrio shenanigans, he gets yuukei quartet hangout moments, he gets a GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH KENJIROU (fundamental imo as he's very important both in general and haruka and takane's social circle back then) and not just all that, but super thoughtfully written feelings about his illness, views on life, wishes... and all takane's story gets is…. she's sick, but it's ok it's not deadly, HARUKA HOWEVER…. oh, HE'S the real delicate one….especially since she's in love with him ofcourse!! dont forget!! btw she's grumpy cuz of her illness. she wishes she just didn't need sleep. aaanywaaays did we mention it's not as important as haruka's illness and btw she's in love with him?

unlike haruka, takane gets no relationship with ayano, and all their interactions are talking about how in LOVE they are with haruka and shintaro. no relationship with kenjirou beyond comic relief of ugh useless ass teacher, even revealed later on she stays in the dark about kenjirou forcing them to participate in the festival ON PURPOSE and playing her like that so she would be determined and make haruka join. her dynamic to shintaro pre being ene is just pitiful, and if it wasn't for his behavior towards her shintaro would be…. erm normal?? yea he's cold to ayano but that vs the way he randomly treats takane without even knowing her. god. imagine kagepro where shintaro DIDN'T do that. he'd still be flawed and stuff like what was the need😭 like HUUHH. takane gets nothing!!!!! and if we're still on the shintaro subject, why she's the asshole for being a menace as ene? whatever. i support women's wrongs. bully him harder.

alright. later she's ene, bonds with the dan. wait!! look!! it's KANO!!! she has so much in common with him, to the point he chooses her to open up to and helps her get her body back!!! this is a GREAT character choice to pair her with and to develop a dynamic with!! uh. oh wait….. kano's just totally awful to her and then later leaves her to get her body back offscreen and on her own? (looks into the camera again)

to continue comparing haruka and takane. takane mentions grandma makes her lunch, grandpa is dead, and they're both SUPER worried about her illness. there's…. nothing about their personalities or their relationship to her. meanwhile, haruka mentions everything! he's all like my illness… when it killed my mother it was exactly when the doctors said it would. my dad is cold and a little strange and doesnt spend time at home. we have a live in helper who does chores. like that's already so much deeper!

u find out through another mention later on that takane's parents work overseas but you dont know ANYTHING else despite it being so specific. while haruka goes on about his relationship with his dad or rather lack of relationship, and there's even some stranger at home doing chores for him. and again HE GETS TO HAVE A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH KENJIROU, heavily written as a father/son dynamic. man.

anyways…. this is kinda all over the place and it's something i talk about very often but teehee. wanted to do it again. i was thinking about it again because i realized i don't tend to draw haruka in a context outside being takane's boytoy. which i don't particularly care about because i know that's not all i see him as and i do see him as a deep character of his own and i like analyzing him just as much… it's just in art specifically he's just always there to be in love with her and nothing else. and i was like damn does that suck of me?? but you know what. i dont care<3 thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[pacing-er]

Krakoa Era Reading List Cherik Version (part 5)

8. X Lives and X Deaths of Wolverine

A lot of rapid fire plot stuff and time travel fuckery. Centers around Wolverine, Jean, Moira, and Xavier and established some essential stuff for the following volumes. There are no Cherik interactions in this arc at all, but it may be necessary to skim through for plot reasons. Thankfully it's relatively short with only 3 volumes, combined into a single omnibus.

After this point the reading order gets super fucky so I'm trying my best 😭 Yes, there are reading guides that go issue by issue but I'm not keeping like 20 tabs open with all the different titles and switching between them.

9. Legion of X (Issues #1-5)

Mostly just Legion and Nightcrawler hijinks. Charles is in a scene interacting with his brother and David in a way I found pretty funny. Magneto does not appear at all in the first five issues, everything after that point contains major plot developments that are covered in Immortal X-Men, A.X.E Judgement Day, and X-Men Red.

10. Immortal X-Men 2022 (Issues #1-4)

The start of Professor X and Magneto's divorce era Krakoa edition 🙃 Magneto became disillusioned with the concept of Krakoa after everything that happened in Trial of Magneto and Inferno. Then a lot of conflicts happen one after the other and everyone's mad at each other. They are separated so not many shippy moments, but the initial breakup is worth reading:

You can read this one up to issue #4, after which I recommend reading all of A.X.E. Judgement Day.

11. Hellfire Gala: Immortal

Charles is in a single panel and that's it. Some pretty big villain!Moira stuff happens but idc so I just skimmed through it. I didn't read it so idk where it sits timeline wise but I think it's skippable.

12. A.X.E. Judgement Day

The entirety of the Judgement Day arc, happy to say that this one is only 6 issues instead of sixteen 🙃 You get a detailed explanation of major developments that are echoed in the rest of Immortal X-Men, Legion of X, and X-Men Red. You can read this one first but you won't get the context for certain things that are mentioned in passing. No Cherik interactions, unfortunately.

13. X-Men Red

Basically what Magneto and Storm have been up to on Arakko after Mag retires from the Krakoa council. Some really badass moments and I found the difference in Arakko and Krakoa culture to be super interesting. You also get to see Magneto's final words to Storm (about Charles), and later on some pretty intense Charles angst as he attempts to cope with Erik's permanent death. Tbh at this point I'm getting pretty tired of going back and forth between different titles so I read this one all the way through. Of the 16 issues only issues #1-11 have Cherik bait, with issue #11 specifically dealing with plot points from Sins of Sinister. I THINK if you want to read in the correct order you can read up to issue #10, read everything Sinister, and then go back and read #11. Everything from that point onwards in X-Men Red is Arakko and Storm-centric.

14. Immortal X-Men (2022) (Issues #5-10)

The conclusion of the Judgement Day arc and the lead up to Sins of Sinister. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Mystique, Destiny, and Sinister. Charles is called annoying a lot and Magneto's death is mentioned multiple times. Then some more unexplained developments are shown which I need to read the other titles to get context for. Great. Don't worry about Dr. Stasis or Nightcrawler's horns just yet, because by issue #10 there's a whole lot more to worry about. After a very cool monologue from Xavier we get a direct lead in to Sins of Sinister.

15. Legion of X (Issues #7-10)

Charles being a bad dad saga continues! Whole lot of twists and mysteries that are not resolved by the end. I think a lot of people will be frustrated by Charles behavior here, but to be fair he is likely being influenced by something/someone as shown in immortal X-Men. I find legion's storyline to be interesting so I didn't skip anything, but there are no Cherik ship bait-y moments aside from Charles generally missing him and being lonely.

Idk where this sits in regard to Sins of Sinister, but seeing as Nightcrawler has horns and Charles doesn't have a diamond on his head, it likely sits somewhere between Immortal X-Men #8-10 on the timeline. Or simultaneously? There's a lot of timeline fuckery happening. I'm honestly so confused.

16. Sins of Sinister

Gotta be honest I didn't expect this one to be such a complicated read. Basically X-Men Red, Legion of X, and Immortal X-Men all build up to this single issue, at which point there's a whole new series of titles to read set in this Sinister-verse. Originally I planned to cover the whole sinister business in this post but it's a lot so I'm gonna cut it here. I think that Sinister is genuinely very funny so I do plan to read it all.

According to this helpful guide on reddit, I seem to be on the right track. There are a LOT of titles going simultaneously for this period in Krakoa history, covering branching plots for Wolverine, the Marauders, Sabertooth, and more. I'm mostly concerned with plots having to do with Charles and Erik, so I'm not going to bother with those (maybe I'll check out Sabertooth idk). The important thing is that I've read all the primary interconnected titles: Immortal X-Men (*only up to issue #10), A.X.E. Judgement Day, X-Men Red, and Legion of X.

Honestly there are a lot of great moments, which makes it even worse that this is such an awfully complicated experience. I wish anyone attempting to read it all good luck and I hope this post is even remotely helpful.

[starrysnowdrop]

I know this is a little late, but here’s my New Year’s post where I’ll discuss what my plans are for 2025 and some of my thoughts heading into this new year. I’m assuming that I might be a little long winded, so I’ll put the rest under the cut. Have a happy 2025 everyone!!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who reached out to me after the attack in my hometown of New Orleans. As I mentioned before, no one I personally knew was there on Bourbon Street when it happened, but it nonetheless left me feeling extremely distressed, and everyone here in Nola is grieving together, so we are taking it one day at a time.

Because of the attack, I wasn’t in the right mindset to write out this post, but I’m finally alright enough mentally to get these thoughts out.

Next, spurned on by my new profile picture, I decided that I wanted to change up the look of my blog a bit. There’s lighter, brighter colors used, and along with the new colors, I decided to make some new banners for my pinned post. The new banners are already being used in my pinned post, but I’ll attach them below in case you haven’t seen them yet. The background is a painting of snowdrop flowers! Don’t worry, the starry banners that were there previously will still be used interchangeably with the new ones when I answer asks.

Speaking of Hali and her ships, I have plenty of things that I want to gpose and write for Hali, and at the moment I’m still going forward with Hali having two ships in separate universes, but I’m not going to lie: I’m extremely inspired to write for Hali x Themis at the moment.

So does that mean that I’ll drop the Aymeric ship in the future? Well, I don’t know that yet. I’m still very happy with what I’ve done for the Hali x Aymeric ship, and even in the Themisverse, Aymeric is her first love. The only difference is that Aymeric pushes Hali away so that she doesn’t have to be stuck in Ishgard with him when she’s an adventurer, so they never get together in the Themisverse. So Aymeric would still be a very important person who plays a very important role in Hali’s story regardless if they are in a relationship or not.

However, my mind just will not leave me alone when it comes to Themis. I currently want to explore Hali’s experiences with seeing Themis in her dreams and not knowing who he is or why she can’t stop dreaming of him, and also having a Deja vu feeling whenever she encounters Elidibus but neither of them recognizing each other nor remembering their past love for each other. And of course, there’s much to write about Hali’s personal story during the events of Pandaemonium when they start falling in love with each other.

On the gpose front, I already have made some great strides with getting back to doing some more complex posing and using some shaders and presets that broke in the DT graphics update that I FINALLY got around to fixing! So once my son is back in school and I have more free time to practice, I’ll be getting back to do more gposes and especially more Hali x Themis shippy stuff!! So please look forward to it!!!

Alright, so let’s move onto Yume and Zenos (her side blog is @firelightmuse). I’m going to continue housing Yume’s stuff on the separate side blog even though all of my other OCs will be on the main blog, and that’s because Yume’s story has some darker content and themes from her backstory and her relationship with Zenos that is very different from Hali’s story and what I’m planning on for Sohna’s story.

There’s already several WIPs on the Yume x Zenos front, and I will be going forward with what I’ve wanted to explore with Yume for a long time: Yume will be heading home to Hingashi and facing what’s happened to her home since she left over a decade ago. It’s a storyline that I’ve been planning for a few years now but I finally feel confident enough in where she’s at that I’m going forward with it finally. So there’s much more that will be coming out from Yume’s story this year, so once again, please look forward to it!!

And lastly but certainly not least, I’m still going to be exploring Sohna’s story and developing her relationship with Alphinaud, but that’s going to be slow going, because Sohna is from Tural, and her story is so tied up in Dawntrail’s MSQ that I don’t know how much of a role she will play in the events going forward. I do know that down the road I want her to join the Scions and obviously she will grow closer to Alphi, but I’m not sure how I want to approach all of that just yet. Just know that I still love them greatly and I’m excited to see how things progress this year!!

And with that, those are currently my plans for 2025, and I have so much on my plate that I want to accomplish, but I’m really motivated right now and I’m excited to start working on it all. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time, and feel free to ask me anything that I didn’t cover here or if you want more details on something. Once again, thank you, and here’s to a Happy 2025!!!

[porcupine-girl]

I had the weirdest possible Check Please dream.

Ngozi was going to do another volume, and we were all excited because Shippy and Taylor were finally going to get together.

Who tf are Shippy and Taylor you might ask?

Shippy, I immediately realized upon waking up, is Tater, but in this dream world somehow he got a different nickname and I don’t even know how. Idk if my brain was just like “he’s part of this popular ship and I’m lazy” or “Tater and Taylor would sound too cutesy and I really want this girl to be named Taylor for some reason” or what.

Taylor was not Vanessa with a different name. She had spiky lavender hair that looked a bit like this animal crossing hairdo:

But longer, like if it were lying flat it’d be about chin length, and of course in Ngozi’s drawing style.

I didn’t find out much more bc I woke up due to my husband getting up to get ready for work, but somehow when I got back to sleep, for once my brain deigned to continue my dream from before. It is apparently very invested in Shippy/Taylor (although after I woke up and realized Shippy was Tater my brain went back and forth between the two names).

So in the continuation, I learned that Taylor was already dating another member of the Falconers (I’m not sure I ever got his name), but he was very controlling and emotionally abusive and everyone on the team was hoping she’d leave him and kind of shunning the boyfriend socially due to his behavior.

Tater ran into her in like… a mall food court sort of location? And somehow their conversation led to him confessing his feelings but saying that it was fine if she didn’t want to be with him, just begging her to leave the controlling guy and saying he’d help her however he could just as her friend. She was clearly not quite ready to leave yet, but then her boyfriend called and when she said oh I’m at the mall and I ran into Tater so we were just hanging out he got really pissed that she was hanging out with another guy (in a totally public location, and being honest about it) without him and demanded she come home right away. And when she hung up you could see that having that conversation right after the conversation with Tater was kind of making her realize that she really did need to get out of it.

Tater saw that too and jumped on it, like “If you don’t want me to help I’ll call Jack and Bitty (which my brain then corrected to Zimmboni and Little B, it was like my brain was like helloooo this is Tater unlike you Ngozi would write him correctly) right now and they will come help you get your stuff, you can stay in their guest room, they would love to help.” And she was kind of mortified by this, like oh god does the entire team know??? And he was like, well. Yeah. Kinda. Everyone’s rooting for you to leave him, that’s why nobody talks to him or hangs out with him outside practice, we all know how awful he is. And she was like oh god, great, everyone knows how stupid I am for staying with a guy like him, but Tater was like no no no everyone knows how hard it is to leave that kind of thing but we all know you’re strong enough to do it as soon as you decide you’re ready.

And that was about as far as I got in the Shippy/Taylor saga before I woke up for good. I can only assume Jack and Bitty did come get her and let her stay with them, and eventually once she was over the nasty breakup she got together with Tater.

What’s really funny was that when I went to start writing this post I couldn’t remember her name, only that it started with a T and was like 6-ish letters long. I started the post calling her Tricia and was like no that’s not right, so I googled girl names that start with T and was just hoping that if I read enough lists of names something would click and maybe I’d recognize it if I saw it. Then I opened the first list and the very first name was Taylor and I was like OH RIGHT MY BRAIN NAMED HER AFTER TAYLOR FUCKING SWIFT HOW DID I FORGET THAT??

[aliusfrater]

how do u think sam n dean stay busy in heaven

i was literally thinking about this the other day. the idea that no matter how shaped sam was by dean, his relationship with dean or the john-dean-sam dynamic, he still lived a majority of his life outside of it. he is not the same person that died with dean's head on his shoulder and like i've said before i'd imagine sam would gave forgotten a lot about dean in favour of memory because that's kind of how grief works. i think he'd really struggle to get back in stride with what sam and dean's relationship is, even more so if dean wanted to hunt or something

most of the post-series stuff i've read are super shippy and they don't really reflect my own earnest/faithful headcanons but i did really like that hathfrozen fic where they drive until they find a place to stay that reflects both their lives and their relationship, and a place where they can be content Forever so i'm adopting that into my belief system. i think their Forever Residence would be either half bunker (because that's the last place that dean called 'home') and half sam's house or something from their shared childhood. i also think that a major aspect of sam's initial time in heaven would be him waiting on his son to introduce dean jr. to dean and to finally breach that separation between normalcy and what his life was before and dean would be really interested in sam's life without him. so first and foremost they'd catch-up with each other :) and it'll be super fucking awkward and dean won't know why and they're really happy they're together again but something isn't clicking the way it used to and dean's smile is a little different than sam remembers, a little blurry because he couldn't see well in his final years and he tries not to wonder into the bunker part of their house because he doesn't remember the layout. but it's heaven and he's happy because he can hardly feel anything else and dean is happy and that makes everything okay for now etc etc

[collectionoftulips]

So for the three people who are also watching The Way Home, I thought I would share my season three thoughts so far (3x05), for no other reason than I want to haha (the general gist - I have some issues with the writing)

I think that this season has some really deep fundamental problems. the most significant of which were the results of Jacob coming back. Most crucially, I think, the way it impacted Kat. Or, more accurately, the ways in which it didn't impact Kat. In the previous seasons, the show went to great pains to show the trauma and consequences of what happened to Jacob and the way that impacted Kat. It meant that she put a lot of blame on herself and had deep feelings of shame. She was so desperate to get Jacob back that she was ready, when finally confronted with that potential in S2, to fully sacrifice herself to make that happen, despite that she had Alice and others back in the present time that needed her. That trauma runs deep.

As much the return of Jacob has been presented as a 'closure' on that, to some degree, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We had some exploration of how disorienting it was having Jacob back with Del (badly done, in my opinion, but still) but we had absolutely none of that with Kat. She developed a lot of trauma-informed behavioural patterns as a result of losing Jacob and while he might be back, it doesn't make any sense for her to develop a sudden very different way of being. Which is sort of what has happened with the writing in season three and while I understand that they did a time jump to skip past the practical issues with Jacob's return, it doesn't really also apply for character writing. One does not come a different person in nine months or whatever it was.

I think it's fundamentally a problem where I feel like the writing has really shifted from being character-centric with plot relevant beats to a show that has plot-centric writing and the very occasional character moment. Additionally to that, the character moments are (especially in relation to Kat) nonsensical. The fact that she has a daughter has almost absolutely no bearing on her character at all, even though in S1 it was demonstrated how Alice would always be her absolute number one priority (barring getting Jacob back due to trauma). A central pillar of her character was sacrificed in order to get a 'shippy' moment with Elliot and for them to move in together - not really because it made sense for their relationship progression (also when relationship dynamic development happens off screen, it's not a good look). And at least personally the occasional line of Kay saying 'Alice knows I'm there any times she needs me' or 'I'm just across the field' isn't really parenting. That logic that these lines indicate (thrown in to make the plot make sense) is completely contrary to the type of parenting we have seen from Kat before.

Now the show is kind of hinting at them having moved in together too soon and while I think that makes way more sense given how the moving in thing happened and (in my opinion) Elliot and Kat already has the chemistry vibe of two people who really want a relationship to work, even though there's a fundamental disconnect between them. The driving pillar in their relationship is so heavily reliant on Elliot having carried a torch for her for years and how much he loves her.

Plus, as much as I clearly have a preference for Kat to be with Thomas (mainly because the kind of epic love and stuff that Kat has expressly said she wants a bunch feels like it is more evident with Thomas, plus I think Thomas is way more clued into who Kat actually is than Elliot who is too preoccupied with the idea of Kat), it's also very frustrating that Kat's storyline has basically been boiled down to (in any meaningful way) the question of which person she should be dating, all the while the show's writing seems to be going down on a 'let's try to appease all camps' route, which isn't really going to work. Because you end up with some moments and character choices where it feels so out there and disconnected from anything called reality it is actually angering. Last season, it was Elliot just offering up the coins that Thomas gave to Kat to save the farm without even so much as speaking to Kat about it first (and actively ignoring, in what came across as incredibly cruel as a result, that Kat has feelings for Thomas and that the coins meant a lot to her emotionally). This season, you have in the latest episode the show actively showing you (once again) that Kat has a tendency to completely suppress her feelings for Thomas, then project them onto Elliot and push her into situations that she is not ready for with him (the moving in part specifically, and not quite the same but the heavy make out session when she returned after having been reminded of Thomas would have really really really pissed me off if I wanted Elliot and Kat together). The show has her going between these men with little to no coherence, and occasionally Susanna as well (which again, would piss me off if I wanted Susanna and Kat as endgame).

I could really write a dissertation about why I don't think Elliot and Kat are good together and seem to bring out the worst in each other, but I will try not to. I will say though is that even if I was on board with the Elliot and Kat train, I would be so angry about how they are being written this season. Kat heavily making out with Elliot to push thoughts of Thomas out of her mind, her calling her living situation with Elliot temporary, and the writers seemingly just insisting over and over in dialogue that they are happy without actually showing the viewers, would piss me off if I was a fan. So much of their relationship progression happens off screen and key fundamental issues that they wrote into the pairing (in season two) never really got a meaningful resolution.

There's also how Del is being written and I honestly can't make heads or tails of her writing this season either, and the way that the complex difficult family dynamic between Del and Kat has sort of been swept under the rug but also not also makes the family relationship feel less authentic to how they were before, but also much more standard stock Hallmark-y in a way that bothers me. Like the dialogue in the episode before where Kat said something to the effect of "how about you stop judging me and my life, that should free up some of your time" was a really really cruel thing to say in context of the conversation that they were having, and instead of getting angry at Kat being cruel (the way 99.9999% of humanity would), Del just does the sort of most awkward laugh ever that does not follow with the dialogue that is being presented? What?

I don't know. I think for a show that had such character-grounded, complex writing in Season 1, the way the show is being written now feels very disappointing and so far away from how the show started. It's too preoccupied with plot but also all the scripts feel superrushed and unpolished.

[forest-falcon]

Gonna attempt to see this one through as I think I've only ever jotted down WIPs and no chaptered stories. So here goes! Carrying on from yesterday's post, here's more scribblings!

💙💚💛

The Butterfly Effect

Chptr 2

Scott was ready.

Ready to be home.

Ready to hand over control.

Ready for Virgil's trusted hands to tend to his  wound and to tell him that he'd be alright.

Because right now, he wasn't certain.

He'd reasoned that autopilot would allow him to rest, and the pain would slowly subside.

Only, halfway across the South Pacific, that was not the case. 

One was taking him home, but the reality was a lot rougher in theory than on paper. There were good reasons why his younger brothers dubbed One 'The Vomit Comet.' And, though he'd hate to admit it; right now, he'd take the more sturdy and comfortable design of Two, over One in a heartbeat. 

Scott balled his hands and pressed his fists against closed eyes. It was too bright. The turbulence, too much. Each wind current further pummelled his brain and addled his stomach. 

He mentally slapped himself.

Get it together, Scott. It's just a concussion. Not his first, and almost certainly not his last. Each minute that went by brought him that bit closer to home. God, all this fuss for one stupid, rib-worthy accident. The ocean passed in a blue blur beneath him, and Scott slumped in his seat.

*  *  *

Gordon ran a towel through his hair and slipped on one of Alan's old gaming hoodies left in the communal lockers.

In the distance, a disgruntled Virgil could be heard singlehandedly rearranging the interior of Two's hangar. 

Gordon had one foot in the elevator, when a series of clatters and curses peaked his interest.

"A'right. Better go pacify the Bear." 

A pair of jeans poked out from an under-sink cupboard. 

"Hey! Tall, scary, dark and hairy!"

A dull thud and grunt sounded as brother-bear's head made contact with the underside of the sink. 

Gordon winced. 

A disheveled Virgil emerged, looking less than impressed.

"Gordon."

"Everything okay there, Virg?"

"Would it hurt people to put things back where they found them for once? How the hell am I supposed to carry out maintenance on Two if people keep moving all my stuff?"

Virgil began stacking the discarded items back under the sink.

"What've you lost?

Gordon scooped up a pile, working alongside his brother to clear the mess.

"Two's green toolbox. Someone's nabbed it. You all have your own. Why people keep borrowing Two's..."

"Wait. Didn't Scott borrow that this morning to fix the overhead locker in One?"

"What's wrong with the locker on One?"

Virgil closed the cupboard and stretched out his back. 

"Ah it was no biggie. It just kept popping open after all that turbulence One dealt with in the Philippines, yesterday."

"Huh. He didn't mention anything this morning."

"Wasn't time. He had a callout to rescue some wedged potholers. I'm guessing he must've stashed it somewhere on One," Gordon shrugged.

"Anyhoo, how long have you been down here?"

"Two. Hours." 

Gordon couldn't help but grin. 

"About time someone made you a coffee then.”

Virgil conceded with a smile.

"Sure."

"C'mon, I'll tell you all about Shippy Shippy Bang Bang."

"Ah, so you finally found a ship with as poor a name choice as yours?"

"Hey! How dare you insult Scuba Dooby Doo!"

[sophia-helix]

Since last fall I’ve been doing a very low-key X-Files comfort rewatch; I started with the pilot and then went “every time in the last 20 years I say I’m doing a rewatch of the series I get bogged down in S1 or 2” so I just started skipping through to my favorites and then slowed down in S3. I watched all the good ones in the middle, and then after “Pusher” realized I probably have not actually seen the legendarily bad twofer of “Hell Money” and “Teso Dos Bichos” since I first mainlined S1-4 on FX in 1998, the summer the show went into syndication.

So I watched them! They are objectively terrible! But it had been so long, it was almost like getting a new classic era X-Files episode to watch, plus there were a couple of flirtatious MSR moments that followed on from the hand grab at the end of “Pusher.” My first season was S5 so it was like new fandom juice to suddenly be teasing out the UST back in the early seasons, which is just what I need since I’ve been been fandoms so long now. (Highly recommend returning to whatever fandom you were fired up about as a teen/young adult if you’re also in this place.)

I just finished S3 and started 4, and though I know the show is about to hit its stride in terms of production values, MSR, and the MOTW episodes improving…it’s also pretty clearly when they started losing control of the mytharc. In the early seasons I was struck by how often a standalone episode would still have a conspiracy tie-in, with a CSM or informant appearance, which you basically never see later on. I think this is the point when they fully realized that the show would be going for the indefinite long haul, so they were going to have to keep playing sleight of hand, which did admittedly work better in the days before DVR or boxsets when they didn’t expect audiences to see an episode multiple times.

But like…it doesn’t even get mentioned when the bounty hunter shows up in “Talitha Cumi” that Scully already got kidnapped by him last season, and both watched him shapeshift from Mulder to himself but also supposedly drown in a river? And then there’s a bad continuity error where Mulder is shown picking up the plam after he stabs him, but then the damn thing is still sticking out of his neck the rest of the episode. And finally when Mulder is relating his experiences in “Herrenvolk” to Scully, you really see how they’re going to play it—he mumbles some stuff about green fields and seeing his sister to Scully, rather than saying “I definitely saw a bunch of clones of my sister as a little girl, which makes sense given all the other clone stuff we’ve seen so far.”

And I get it. Different era, no real precedent for telling a story like this over multiple open-ended seasons, and they also liked doing the Twin Peaks mystery stuff (having now watched that it is kind of painful how hard the early XF seasons crib the TP aesthetic). This all just reminds me of how despite getting pulled in by the conspiracy stuff at the start (watching the movie 3 times in the theater was an Event) I eventually gave up on it ever making sense and just enjoyed the lighter shippy vibe they steered into with S6/7. It was such a fun show to watch at the time, but also the fandom just got so frustrated with all the inconsistencies and cop outs, and it’s kind of wild to watch and basically see the exact moment they decided to give up on ever making it make realistic sense, and just go with Vibes from then on.

(The vibes are great! I’m looking very much forward to rewatching S4-6 for the first time since the mid 2000s! The actors never looked better and the writing was so good. Again, highly recommend returning to something you really loved that’s been on the shelf for a while right now.)

[thislittlelog]

Shippy stories

Some shippy short stories (both Touhou and original) because I felt like it for some reason or another, may or may not have a random prompt and in the case of original non-Touhou stuff may have character art to accompany it.

And when I say they'll be short I mean they will likely be very VERY short--more like a thing to convey ideas than anything else.

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

Reimu x Marisa: Reading

A cool spring morning--the sound of birds, insects and fairies flittering about just before the spring blossoms begin to bloom. Reimu lazed about on the floor reading another Agatha Chris Q book she had obtained from Suzunaan, in a long series of murder mystery novels the still unknown author had been writing about. Just as she was getting engrossed, a breeze swept through the shrine grounds for just a brief moment, causing her to reluctantly look away to see where it had come from. She didn't have to wonder for long as someone in black and white stood in front of her a mere seconds later before looking back down to continue where she left off. "Yo!" a cheery Marisa looked down at the shrine maiden flipping through pages of the book she had been reading from, her broom and a parcel in hand. "I brought snacks!" She held up the bundle in question, which contained various rice crackers, fruit and other goodies to munch on. "Just set them there". Reimu handwaved the witch, her eyes glued to the current page she was on before turning to the next one. Marisa set the bundle down, then laid next to Reimu. It was a nice day out and both women were enjoying every moment of it in comfort. Marisa watched as Reimu flipped another page in the book she was fixated on. "Whatcha readin'?" Her eyes darted at her friend, but she didn't answer back. "Is it any good?" Reimu hummed, then held up a page in one hand to get a better look at one of the texts as if she was trying to make sense as to what she was reading. "...Can I look?" Scooting herself closer, Marisa tried to get a peak before being gently but firmly pushed away by a hand to the face with a stern "no", which finally made the shrine maiden turn to face the nosy person trying to read over her shoulder while feeling somewhat annoyed.

"Aww, why not?!" whined the witch. She would get her answer, in the form of something warm and soft pressing against her lips for a moment before retreating back. Reimu looked up, sighing and smirking while resting her face in one hand, a small blush forming. "Well, it's because I'm now reading something else and that something else is right next to me" Marisa, in a daze, felt her face turn several shades redder, then buried herself under her hat to try and hide it from the girl giggling at the sight. "Damnit, that's not fair!"

---

(Starting with a ship that's near and dear to my heart, of course I had to write something ReiMari related.)

[weekend-whip]

Ninjago Fic Rec Week: Day 2

Prompts: AU+Movieverse/Jay Recs! *vibrates at the thought of Jay content*

AU/Movieverse Recs:

if you could date any of the ninja, which one would you date?: Lloyd experiences the world's worst second-hand embarrassment and the rest of the ninja absolutely are not helping. Not actually shippy, just really funny and Lloyd has a (mostly) light-hearted hard time.

Reference Letters: Kai is tasked with recruiting some fresh talent to the Secret Ninja Force, and what starts as a joke to welcome Lloyd Garmadon into the squad turns into a genuine crusade for his friendship. The Green Ninja, however, is having none of that. (It goes exactly how you expect it to and gah it's beautiful. Kai and Lloyd duo forever!)

Who's the New Guy? He Looks Awfully Green: Movieverse fic in which Lloyd is the last to become a ninja, and the last to learn everyone else's identities. It's full of team-bonding (collectively and one-on-one!), hilarious Wu moments, and Movie!Lloyd being Movie!Lloyd ;w;)/

Jay Recs:

Unfortunately, You're Amazing: Jay faces the dilemma of *maybe* possibly kinda sorta having a small little totally non-consequential thing for Samurai X. But beyond that Jay just gets to be his dorky, smart, snarky, easily impressed self and it's so fun and delightful to read, I go back to it all the time!

Play to Win: An au/ canon divergent whump fic where Jay and Cole are roped into a round of Scrap-N-Tap...and that description does NOT do it justice, but if you like emotional tension, a heaping of personal distress, and a Jay who is unfortunately one step ahead of everyone else, you'll love this. Probably not for the faint of heart, definitely for the angsty daredevils (such as myself)

Jay and the Important Differences Between Spider Pokemon: Pokemon AU that explores Jay's "perplexing" fear of spiders post S6. A fascinating and fun idea for a plot, plus, there's Pokemon. it's all good stuff!

And She Wore Blue, Right?: Jay starts suddenly having reason to look into who his birth mother is...was. Hits just right for people who've always wondered how the show might have tackles this little interesting conundrum.

turtle or the hare: WOW I forgot I read this one aaaaaaaa BUT Jay inadvertently meets his bio mom in a rather...expected place. God their personalities are so similar yet mesh so well hnnnnnnnng (we could have had it aaaaaaall)

Jay and the Deafening Sound: ...this one's mine BUT I've got all three categories covered—extremely about Jay, takes place in the movieverse, and has shades of my legacyverse au to boot <3 Not-so long story short, Jay finds himself up against the main faction of the Shark Army all on his own and finally has a good excuse to pop off with his powers <3

this doesn't really have a title but it IS really very good: A scene or so where Jay and Kai spat over caring for each other too much and it's just such a beautiful depiction of their relationship, rocky tho it may seem ;w;)/

The Fantastic Mr. Walker: All these years later and it's still my favorite Jay-related thing to exist. Really gotta re-read it again so I can be delightedly distressed all over again <3