#grandma has committed so many war crimes

[unhinged-ghoste]

I really love talking about my cats so I wanna share my cats with you (pics included)

This is Toast. I got her first. Her birthday is April something, like 7th-17th. She's my most photogenic baby. She's very lazy and fat. We think she's part ragdoll bc you can literally just fling her around and she's like "ok". I adopted her out of sheer anxiety bc I went to the pound alone and picked the first kitten I saw and was like "this is the one simply bc I'm anxious and I wanna go home." Her original name was Athena but I didn't want that name so I named her Toast bc the top of her head looked like toast. Also she has cat herpes.

This is Whisper. He has anxiety like me. My bf picked him out at a different shelter. My bf clearly has a thing for creatures riddled with anxiety. We call him Boy a lot bc he's our only boy cat. His original name was Lennon but who tf has a cat named Lennon so we named him Whisper bc he was quiet as a mouse when we first got him. This has since changed. He is the loudest mf I've ever experienced. He screams when he forgets where you are. He screams when he's hungry. He screams when he's bored. He would open doors if the knobs weren't spherical. He used to SH??? But he's stopped finally. He can speak English slightly but only the word Hello. His breath smells like ass and he needs constant attention or he'll cry. He's the same weight as every cat else but his bones are so heavy bc when he steps on you its like blunt knives are being attemptedly driven into you.

This is Fart. Yes, Fart. Her full legal name is fartsoundeffect.mp3. She's my meme cat, I have so many funny pictures of her. Her original name was Roxanne but she is very deserving of the name Fart. She loves concrete time and her wet food deeply. She is a War Criminal and has been convicted of at least 72 felonies. She was thrown out of a car window as a baby and because of that, she only has 1 brain cell and it is full of Rage. Here is some things wrong with her:

* Rage. Anger. Spite.

* liquid shit

* Insanity

Here are some crimes she has committed:

* Shit on me while I was in bed twice

* shit in my mom's home office, her bathroom, her living room, and behind the stairs in the stairwell

* ripped my dad's, my bfs, and my arm open

* pissed on multiple bathroom rugs multiple times

* dug a hole in the litter box, aim properly, then completely missed and peed all over the floor. In front of me.

* farted in front of house guests, my late grandma's physical therapy nurses, home health nurses, and a church pastor.

* Vomit logs onto the floor

I have taken her and her poop in a Tupperware container to the vet to analyze it to see if it was a bacterial infection or anything wrong with her in that way, and she's perfectly healthy apparently. We've switched food brands 28 times and she's still like this. So. Yeah. I would however go back and choose her again bc I truly believe no one would put up with her other than me.

Anyways thanks for reading ab my disabled cats I'd love to learn and read ab your cats.

[anotherrosesthatfell]

I honestly never make Alive angst opinion on everyone- 💀 (or if I did, then I forgot 💀) so let's go. I will also change some of his old opinion to new one because Cherry and I uncovered the dark side of Angst

Sunflower Au belong to @abloomingsunflower / @itzcherrybonbon

His personality explanation:

Angst is quiet and mysterious man. No one actually hang out with him expect for Gradient. (Plus Angst is depressing 💀)

He is a bookworm and very intelligent. Angst never reveal his full power unless he snapped.

Appearance:

He wear royal clothing in some occasions but mostly wear comfy clothing. On his daily life, you can see he wearing a red scarf and pairs of black earrings.

Magic/Power:

This dude is stronger than corrupted Nightmare. Only in E.L.A of course- yet, he never use his full power.

Angst power is almost alike to E.L.A Lily. His power is 10/10, second strongest after Dream. Even if Palette and Lux awaken their true form, Angst is still stronger.

Other than that, he has the ability to see ghosts even memories from the past when he touch an old object (or a person)

His opinion on people he knows

Adult

Dream

"Dream Light, the king of sun. Rumours says he committed many crimes years ago by letting the wars to happen. How did I know it? Well, let's just say I have little friends to tell me."

Ink

"Ink Comyet or her now name, Ink Light. Hmm.... Honestly this woman has another last name but I don't think I should mention it. She drinks to forget her loveless marriage. How sad..."

Swap/Blue

"The ex royal guard. He was very useful to the light kingdom. Sadly, father took his power away... This is why people sometimes should live quietly."

Hope

"The last witch of this generation or should I say the current Queen of witches? People think witches extinct but there are many of them, hiding and not knowing their abilities... Hope, she know witches are hiding but she didn't do a thing about it. All she said was 'it's better to move on'... ... But I am more interested about the revengeful spirit watching her."

Error

"the destroyer and the man who lose his wife. I am not fond of him and him too, hating me."

Alphonse (corrupted nightmare)

"I hate father."

Killer

"mother... I don't sympathize with mother at all. It feels bored to do it... Mother has the witch to support her."

Cross

"the babysitter, he had a crush on mother until he met Albedo. Hmm, I remember he used to protect mother and us from the abused... I don't like him after knowing what he has done to the king of light kingdom. He don't even know Lux is his daughter."

Dust

"A pawn of father. I am surprised she didn't run away with Swap when she had the chance... Stupid woman, she could live a happy life but instead she chose to stay."

Horror

"the most sympathetic man I know... I like to eat his cooking."

Albedo

"That Albedo guy, I seen him carries many sins in his back. His emotions are overwhelming and lots of negativity.."

Ship children

Palette

"a bothersome hero. Why grandma chose this weak boy to be a protagonist... He is nothing but a scared little kid. How annoying..."

Goth

"she live a quiet happy life. I am jealous, really. She somehow is able to sealed her ability to see spirits but that can't stop her curse of having a deadly touch."

Lux

"Ah yes, the antagonist of 'Palette story'. Can you believe it? A little girl who were abandoned by her parents and isolated from the world, was chosen to be the antagonist... Isn't it a sad reality? Yet, she is very intelligent which is I like it."

Merciless

"My heart dropped when I found out my dear little brother is the sidekick of the antagonist. Hmm... Well I don't mind it, he is strong one. I believe he do well to destroy this dammed world."

Crescent

"My 'twin brother'. I am ashamed to have someone like him to be my brother... He believes in whatsoever God and he is in love with Palette, someone who is younger than him... Love is love my ass.. All he love is the ideal of having Palette."

Artemis - @abloomingsunflower

"My little sister is the sidekick of the protagonist. Sad reality isn't it? Now my little brother has to fight our naive little sister. I wonder when will there's a timeline where she found out I know how many times she died. I want to laugh thinking about it, I hope she will start to live quietly when she found out."

Gradient

"My 'friend'. It's not like I love his attention or affection anyway, I just got used to him. Since he made me feels like this, he should take the responsibility."

Paperjam

"I don't know much about her. Gradient only says the same thing over and over again. Luckily, a silly ghost told me she has a crush on Crescent."

Spirits

Nim

"grandma can be nice sometime but mostly she just complain about her old life. It was nice when she sang a lullaby."

Passive nightmare

"The revengeful spirit who is guiding Lux and watching over Hope. He is the one my father hate the most... He look nothing like Merciless. If father open his eye, Merciless face resemble mother. He is a bit annoying and lose himself while playing this useless game."

Lanny

"The Queen of magic. She has no descendant to manage her kingdom. Now the magical kingdom is nothing but forest for remaining mystical creatures."

Quetzalcoatl

"He hates my father for taking over his kingdom and manages it badly."

Bonus (what if!)

Vivi - @canon-vi

"the daughter of Dream and Ink. She is not on Palette side rather on Merciless and Lux side. It was a nice sight. Just image having your own sister to choose people who killed you... Artemis can relate to that."

Starcross

"he was an annoying brat but I'll be glad to educate him some manners. Maybe I should let him know that he is capable of taking Palette's power."

Callisto

"The child of Hope and Dream. He has a very handsome face and very respectful despite hating me. Pfft, I like to see this now prince of witches capable of."

Tasya - @canon-vi

"Ah, Hope died because of her? Hmm... She has a little elemental magic such as to grow plants unfortunately she don't realize it yet. I should lend her some witchcraft books."

Shelki - @canon-vi

"A petty little ghost told me this little one got a deadly kiss as her curse. She can't see spirits that well... It should stay like that or else I'll to take action."

Lily

"she's a very interesting little one. Unfortunately, I must hate her actions on making my dear little brother traumatized. She can torture Palette as much as she want but she should never touch my little brother... And I will make her regret it."

[em-dash-press]

The Dark Art of Character Sacrifice: 5 Reasons Why Writers Kill Their Characters

There are some good reasons to kill characters in your fictional stories and definitely some bad ones. It’s hard to know what’s cliche and what’s not when you’re first starting out (or when your mind is caught up in the middle of a manuscript).

Use these ideas to see if taking one of your characters out of a story could make it work better.

1. To Start Their Story

Plenty of stories start with someone dying in the first chapter or two. It’s usually someone important to the protagonist. Sometimes it’s someone whose death directly or indirectly changes the protagonist’s life.

Here are some examples:

The protagonist is a 10-year-old child raised by their grandma, who passes away. The story is about the protagonist experiencing the foster care system.

The protagonist is an 18-year-old graduating from high school. A few days after graduation, the president of their country is assassinated by another leading country. The protagonist joins the military to fight in the ensuing war. The story is about the horrors of war.

The protagonist is a 50-year-old woman. She’s independent, has a thriving career, and feels great about her life. Suddenly, her best friend of 20 years dies. The story is about processing and living with grief.

All of these deaths are foundational to each story’s overall plot and theme. Without the deaths, the stories would be very different. The protagonists would continue living their normal lives and not experience the specific events you want to write about.

2. To Emphasize the Theme

Character deaths can emphasize a story’s theme. Let’s say you’re writing about how deeply cruel humans can be to one another over money. The antagonist kills someone the protagonist cares about. The loss sets the protagonist back due to staggering grief, so the antagonist gets to make a financial deal that the protagonist was trying to score.

There are a few ways this would reflect the theme. It shows how greed can be all-consuming, to the point of erasing someone’s morals. It also speaks briefly to the reality that cruelty happens to people indirectly. It’s horrible for the person who dies and those who love them.

3. To Add Closure to Their Arc

At some point in your story, there will be a character who completes their arc. They might make amends with someone they hurt, feel at peace about their life after reaching a big goal, or otherwise finally feel settled. If that character dies, the reader and protagonist grieve together. They can also come to the same conclusion through the rest of your story—the character who died lived a life that made them happy.

That’s not to say happy people can’t continue growing. Life is always going to present new ways to grow. Stories will do the same for characters. However, when you don’t necessarily need a character anymore, death can be a poetic end.

4. To Add Justice to the Story

When your protagonist stops the antagonist from harming others, the crimes the antagonist committed might make the protagonist call for their death. We have this in the real world with the death penalty. 

This post isn’t going into the ethics behind the death penalty, but I mention it because wanting justice to the point of killing the perpetrating criminal is something many people can relate to. It’s a tool you can use in your story to drive home your theme (what real justice looks like, mercy, forgiveness, etc.) or exemplify your feelings about real-world dilemmas (the actual death penalty, vigilante justice, etc.).

5. To Add a Plot Twist

While you’re writing your story, that draft belongs exclusively to you. You can do whatever you want with it. Sometimes it’s helpful to write a death scene and re-read your work. See how the story feels and if it works with that death written into it.

You might not have planned it, but maybe it gives you fresh ideas about where to take the story. Every plot twist has a purpose—you can find it before or after writing the twist by giving yourself the freedom to explore alternate realities within your fictional world.

-----

There are many other reasons why writers kill their characters. By all means, do more research if you don’t feel like these ideas fit with your WIP. It’s better to know what deaths can mean and do in fiction because it informs your writing. Your stories will make more sense to you and your readers.

[megatraven-art]

hi please look at my grandma assassin venusaur oc for the pokemon mystery dungeon rp i'm a part of :] her name is talia and she's usually very friendly but also she has committed so many war crimes and atrocities 😊💛 her flower is also carnivorous so that's fun!

i'll be posting another pic of what she looks like regularly sometime later :]

[evansbby]

I was there too with my older brothers and cousins, it warmed my heart seeing so many people in support of Palestine. I also saw a lot of Jews there and I think people forget that there’s a difference between a zionist and a Jew. As a Palestinian muslim woman myself I spoke to a few of them and they explained that they do not support the actions of Israel and that it’s against their religion. When I was younger I was always mad at the ‘jews’ for taking over my country and that I got called a terrorist and they didn’t when they clearly killed many innocent lives. I also tried to talk to Israeli people but when I told them everything Israel did to Palestine and how it was wrong they would call me antisemitic and get mad. I was like 16/17 when I finally realized that I should leave the faith of Palestine in Allahs hands and not get kind of mad when people tell me they’re jewish, because I always thought that automatically meant that they were zionists😭 I always felt this survivors guilt, I was born in Palestine but my parents moved us to London when I was 2, but I still have some family there and it’s awful for them. Like why do I get to live in a safe environment when they can’t? I’m 20 years old now and my cousin had it way harder growing up than I did, thankfully she also made it out, but I just feel bad when she talks about her childhood knowing that I didn’t have to worry if there would be Israeli soldiers outside on my streets. I’ve seen pictures of our neighborhood before it got destroyed and it was so beautiful, my grandma would tell me stories about how she and my grandpa would walk to the markets and now it’s all gone. Alhamdulillah they’re safe now.

I’m honestly so happy to see many people support Palestine, thank you to all who protested and constantly donate to help the people in Gaza🇵🇸🩷

Also so real for that Rishi Sunak comment because who told him to open his mouth😭😭😭 Every time I see him I get so mad omg💀

Thank you so much for sharing your story with me 🥺🙏🏼🇵🇸

Sooo many people from different religions are conditioned to hate other religions. I know so many people who were raised to hate Muslims, who were raised to hate Jewish people etc etc. It’s just up to us, as we grow up, to combat these views and stereotypes, speak to more people, understand situations and see that there is good and bad in every religion.

I can’t even begin to imagine how you feel, with Palestine being your homeland and yet you moved away so you are safe from the war and yet your people are suffering so much 🥺🥺🥺 It’s heartbreaking and I can’t even imagine, the fact you have family there as well, going through such atrocities.

I just watched a video on tiktok of a man from Palestine who said that a dog in Europe lives a better life than a Palestinian human being in Palestine. Because at his camp, they are waiting for water. A dog on Europe has access to water and the Palestinians do not because Israel cut access bc of course “they have the right to defend themselves!1!1” How a nuclear state cutting water and electricity access from innocent people is helping Israel defend itself, I won’t understand lmfao.

Honestly, this is at the end of the day not a war based on religion at all. No one cares what religion the Zionist alt right government of Israel are… we only care about the 28282992 war crimes they are committing as we speak.

But it’s still great to see Jewish people supporting the Palestinian cause—and the fact there is so many of them! ALSO a lot of Israeli people supporting Palestine shows that there is hope.

I hate Rishi Sunak. This man went to Israel and said “I hope you win” and “the uk stands with Israel” meanwhile there are protests pro Palestine protests here every other day.

[a-flaming-idiot]

TOH Grandparent Headcanons

I need more happy The Owl House stuff so here are some cute headcanons for the current adult characters as grandparents.

Camila: Has no idea what her grandkids are really doing but tries her best to learn. Still getting a grasp on the magic and demon stuff. And even if she can't figure it all out she's crazy supportive. Gets a little competitive about cooking for family events. Has thrown mild shade at Luz for her dry lasagna at one cookout. "Look at how big you've gotten!" every time she sees her grandkids. Will ask if they're being fed properly considering they're "Little bean poles". Called Abuela.

Eda: Slightly crazy and unhinged grandma. Ain't got too much time left so she drinks like it's going out of style and marches around like she owns the place. Will tell her grandkids about the many war crimes and regular crimes she committed back in the day. Luz has to keep telling her off to not tell the seven-year-old about when she popped a coven scout's head like a watermelon between her harpy woman thighs. Just called Grandma.

Raine: Very stereotypical old person. Glasses string, shawl, and all. Very sweet on their grandkids. Hides treats in the house and their bag to sneak to their grandkids at every opportunity. Will rarely but casually drop tidbits about the war. Sasses Eda about being the same crazy old show-off she was forty years ago. Called Gran or Gran-Gran

Darius: Looks great for his age. Rocking the grey hair and wrinkles. Refuses to accept that he's old and ended up having a crisis when he tried to lift something and seriously injured his back. Goes on big vacations to the wildest places just for the fun of it. Occasionally takes his grandkids with him so you just have an old man sipping wine in France with a five-year-old slurping up juice boxes and eating chocolate croissants. Brings his family wild souvenirs from the places he goes. Ended up getting called Grunkle and is a little grumpy about it.

Eberwolf: Basically the same as Darius but more thrill-seeking. Does have a better grasp on their age and is starting to make a shift for younger people to take over for them. Has absolutely no problem playing with their grandkids and being dumb with them. Takes the little ones into the woods to play and they all come back drenched in mud, covered in thorns, with a few minor injuries, and a couple ticks. Grandtiti.

Alador: No idea what's going on. Wants to be involved in his grandkids' lives but doesn't know them as well as he wishes he did. Gets them all confused regularly and ends up trying to talk to a grandkid about a hobby their cousin has. Grandpa.

Gilbert & Harvey Park: I don't really know. They don't have much of a personality in the show. They do love being grandads though. Will spoil their grandkids if given the chance. Papa and Gramps.

Odalia: Has no relationship with her grandkids. Hasn't actually even been told they exist. Amity, Emira, and Edric refuse to let her within a mile of their kids or spouses.

[maedivae]

Who was the worst, snow or coin?

Why?

Thank you. @curiousnonny

This will be a long post! But I have some funny little sentences thrown in there, it's worth it. I can safely say Snow was worse, especially with the prequel in mind but even just counting the trilogy, he's definitely the source of most of everyone's problems. But it's a testament to how annoying Coin was that she can appear in one book and be compared to the main villain at all. I'll explain my perspective on Coin but first Snow:

I think by nature he always had some narcissistic and self-serving traits, since he's an asshole early on in Ballad. I mean, in the first chapter he has extremely weird judgmental comments about how his cousin Tigris might have prostituted herself out since they're heavily impoverished. He's very morally pure, only thinking in black and white. Overall he's controlling in his relationship to Lucy Gray, as he gets jealous over any references to her having previous relationships, and pretends to have empathy for other people but it's surface level. Even his grief over Sejanus lasts a short time, with his only concern being whether or not his mom will still send him cookies. And then with his death he steals Sejanus's entire claim to his family, since Snow is on the verge of bankruptcy if not already there. It's not difficult to see how well he fits into the world of politics from here.

Although Snow was more ambitious than his classmates and rivals, he had just about the same underlying ideologies so I guess in that way he was ultimately a product of the Capitol and represents a lot more in the story. He believes humans are inherently self-interested, and when it comes down to it, anyone would be able to put their own survival above their own morals. It's what he does in the prequel. It's what he believes the Games prove, that the most innocent members of society (kids) are able to turn into monsters.

That kind of viewpoint is in opposition to Katniss's actions, so he's a better direct antagonist than Coin. Like, there's no way any of Katniss's actions could be attributed to pure survival if we're being serious. I know some people like to pretend she's an unemotional survivalist, but time and again she wants to team up with someone's grandma who's nonverbal from a stroke, middle aged computer science nerds, a twelve year old, a recovering drug addict who keeps her up at 3 AM, an alcoholic who trips on his own puke, and a lovesick teenage boy whose bone you can see protruding from his leg wound and leaking pus. She has the option to not tolerate many of these people she just never takes it. It's why the rebels liked Katniss to begin with! When she says she doesn't want Snow to win, she doesn't want his mindset to win. She bets on Peeta not having a flashback and trying to kill her because she believes that people aren't as bad as Snow makes them out to be.

So really I just feel like Snow was always the villain, Coin was more of a side antagonist, a secondary threat for Katniss to deal with after everything's said and done.

We know more about Snow than Coin, and we expect him to be evil as a dictator, so perhaps we may be more surprised or betrayed by Coin committing war crimes when she's supposed to be a rebel leader. But I feel like she wasn't always evil based on what little information we have of her. Just strict, because leading District 13 through an epidemic in close quartered underground spaces was probably rough. The same outbreak which took out her own family (she had a husband and daughter). She uses the same strict set of rules as we see District 13 under when Katniss arrives. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the severity of what it means to break these rules and the lack of equity in the presence of equality.

Like, Katniss has to fight for her Capitol prep team to not be tortured over stealing food. They were being starved in a room by the time she found them. She also has to fight for the victors currently being tortured and manipulated into saying anti-rebellion statements in the Capitol to be pardoned if they even make it safely to 13, no guarantees there, because they wait a few months to try rescuing them. When they do get the victors from the Capitol, Coin and Plutarch try to speed up their recoveries in order to get them back in the public eye to be used as propaganda. This means drugging them and sending them into a war zone against their consent. And that's not even covering Coin's barely disguised attempts to kill Katniss, endangering everyone around her too, then when that fails killing her sister instead because then she'd finally stay out of her way. But of course that doesn't work out.

Coin is very cold-blooded like Snow. Obviously. And she's really a symbol of what's to come if Katniss doesn't nip some of these rebels in the bud. Rebels who haven't even been in danger from the Capitol, by the way, since the people from 13 have been hiding in a bunker for 75 years. Coin, who suggests punishing the Capitol with their own Games, hasn't had to sacrifice any of 13's young to the Games. It's not her decision to make (and it's the wrong one anyways). District 13 is practically a separate country trying to swoop in and take over Panem with an actual civil war between oppressor and oppressed happening.

At a certain point in Mockingjay, Katniss knows Snow dying is an inevitability, the geezer is coughing up blood and swallowing it back with his wine and then taking inconspicuous naps at his desk. A light breeze could come in from an open window and get the job done. So there's no use in her wish of killing him anymore. That doesn't mean he's not as evil, because he's done far more over the years, but I think by Katniss going on a vengeful quest to kill Snow for a large part of the book to ultimately give it up is powerful. Because while Snow was the origin of the evil, Coin would've just continued it if she wasn't stopped. And she had only one arrow to spare.

~~~

Also an aside that Katniss's motivations are mainly for Peeta in Mockingjay. What triggers her to go to the Capitol in search of vengeance is literally what happens to Peeta. She can't deal with it in 13 and she feels useless trying to help him, to the point where assassinating Snow is a more likely goal. What ultimately convinces her to become the Mockingjay is Peeta. I gotta say it!

[blurglesmurfklaine]

I have a stupid story for you.

So my partner keeps chickens and I have a cat so when we moved in together had to work out the whole 'unlikely roommate situation' with the natural fear being that the cat would harass the chickens (she's primarily a house cat but does go out in the yard sometimes)

Anyway we needn't have worried. One of the chickens worked out that if she hides in the shrubs around the door and waits for cat to venture out, she can leap out in dramatic squawking fashion and scare the absolute shit out of the cat.

Cat now has a very healthy fear and respect for all the chickens and will in fact try to get me to come outside with her if she wants to go to keep her safe from the 'scary chickens'.

SULLY

I have been thinking about these mafia chickens nonstop for like ten days but haven’t been able to answer bc ✨life✨ and it’s seasons and whatnot but I have read this like three times omg it’s so silly and funny and cute and I have so many questions??? (Mostly Stupid Pointless ones like What kind of cat? What kind of chickens? Do they know I would commit war crimes for them?)

(Omg side note I just remembered this bc if this ask: we had a chicken when I was a child but she wouldn’t lay eggs so my grandma bought a rooster so she would start laying. Good news: it worked! Bad news: he was the MEANEST motherfucker on the planet. He attacked me unprovoked when I was like 7 (I KNOW it was premeditated bc he waited until I was out there alone) and I have a scar on my knee from where he fucked me up with his Bitchass beak. Flash forward to a few weeks ago, my friends and I surprise my best friend to a therapy farm where we have a great time cuddling with goats and cows and pigs and as we’re leaving there’s a chicken coop! The people say we can go in, they’re friendly, and I jokingly tell my friends “we should go in so I can face my fears bc a rooster attacked me when I was a kid” and I’m actually being so chill and brave about it and feeding some chickens when a fucking peacock comes up and starts stalking me??? Anyway he fucking shanked me with his talons and I started bleeding and I was like ??? I don’t have a fear of birds but should I???)

ANYWAY. that got away from me lmao. THANK YOU FOR SHARING!! I love your cat and chickens and I hope they are kind and sweet and not mean roosters

[etrata]

OC Showdown Round 2/Technically Semifinals I Guess

Serenity is drawn by my friend @ardonious, and Sango is drawn by my friend @bahamutgreen!!

Gonna post more facts below different from those in last round!

Serenity

-Has, like many D&D characters, actually committed a war crime! Tried to waterboard a man to execute him to take care of witnesses. Also tried to prestidigitate metal shavings into being flavorless to poison a man by putting them in water.

-Refers to Tiamat as "Grandma" when she is talking about worshipping her so that people who would object don't catch on

-Can tell the inherent value of any object not on someone's person by looking at it. I use this for accounting. This is Descent into Avernus so excited to find out the concrete monetary value of a human soul eventually.

Sango

-Has a Krasis named Lt. Lambert (after the woman in the first Alien movie) that is a hybridization of a Hammerhead Shark and a Selesnyan Greatwurm (statistically a bullette with shark traits/swim speed) which has the personality of a large overexcited dog.

-Her bio-modifications to herself: the tentacles were a mutation induced from Eldrazi proximity, not intentionally grown, but to control them she grew a culture of her own brain and grafted it into her spine to enable fine motor control so technically she has two brains. Also has horseshoe crab blue blood (mutated that in herself so she can harvest it for use in medical purposes without farming the crabs), gills, and better night vision.

-Met and is somewhat liked by Jace Beleren purely because she's the only party member to not immediately either insult him or call him a twink.

[hellshee]

Grandma Dragon aww I love that! <3

Btw do you think the show writers changing that detail from the kill being intentional to accidental will be significant in season 2?

yes and no.

i can't fully answer this because i have not read the books. aemond, vaghar's rider, kills his nephew in the books intentionally. which makes him a kinslayer. and in this universe, kinslaying is one of the worst thing you can do. it starts the civil war and a chain of horrible events where two groups within the same family war against one another.

tbh personally to a degree that's still kinslaying even if it was accidental and even if it isn't, i think the show can still keep the character on track for future events that will happen. tbh it's better like this simply because aemond, although scary looking, has not yet done any crime really so to go from zero crime to kinslaying like a boss... just not the way i think of him. but he can become that scarier character once future events happen to him.

a lot of book fans are disappointed he didn't intentionally commit the a war crime because this + another event that they changed from the book make the dance of the dragons (the civil war) start from a misunderstanding and a mistake. and many believe that to be unserious and lazy storytelling.

also the book is weird because it's basically the telling of events from three sources afaik, two maesters (maesters are an order of scholars, healers, messengers, and scientists) and a court fool who was drunk most of the time. every one of the sources is biased or, in the case of the fool, unhinged so when you read the book you're not always sure what really happened because accounts of the same event vary by source. but i read somehwere that hotd is supposed to be what actually went down, the truth of it, and the writer of the books is actively working on the series so i guess he has some say in what goes down.

[tortilla-of-courage]

Describing it as being like home is actually pretty accurate yeah.

And YES! I am totally willing to talk about my modern AU.

I've been calling it the Adoption AU because Time ends up adopting all of the boys. It mostly started as, I saw an edit for a tweet someone did with Wars and Wild that involved Taco Bell (cannot remember the blog or post for the life of me though), and so I wrote a thing about Warriors sneaking out of his university dorm to pick up Wild, who snuck out the window despite his broken arm, and then got extorted by Legend in exchange for silence at 3am.

This was followed by a fic where Groose decided spray painting a public building was a good idea and got himself and Sky arrested, set earlier in the timeline.

So then I made a timeline. Twilight is Time and Malon's biological son, and he found Wild on the side of the road one day (Wild's backstory involves a bad car wreck and an underground hospital, but no conspiracy bullshit. Yet). Wild has no memory, so they keep him. Wild brings home Legend, who was told his uncle died at school before a holiday. They then also keep Legend. Malon finds Four in her barn one morning for complicated reasons, and they keep him too. Twilight finds Warriors, who is in his class, hiding in an alley one day after he ran away from an abusive home and brings him home too. SS Impa (who I've nicknamed Shield because there are enough prominent Impas here that they should get nicknames too) is a social worker who's trying to find Sky a home and has run out of options, and turns to Time, who has a record of successfully housing 'unhousable' youths, and asks if he can take one more. He can. Wild finds Hyrule and brings him home because 'Rule needs a shower even more than Wild does. Hyrule stays. Wind's grandma ends up with Wind and his sister but can't financially take care of both and so Wind ends up with the boys and everyone is +1 Grandma.

Twilight has a fic detailing how he knows Midna and Dusk and I ended up shooting him (oops) but at least their social project gets handed in on time.

Then I started hashing out Time's backstory and suddenly this AU had plot. And organized crime. And a conspiracy. And secret societies.

The summarized version is that the gems from OoT are like, Idk what they do yet. Haven't gotten to a point where I need to figure that out yet. But they are Important and have to be carefully guarded. The Great Deku Tree (just called Deku because he's not a tree here) was Time's foster father before Ganondorf killed him. Also, Ganondorf is Deku's half brother. Because. However Time 'stole' the Emerald and he and Navi ran until OoT Impa (Sage) and Lullaby found them. So Time got adopted into Lullaby's family. Ruto inherited the Sapphire from her mother who also died from mysterious circumstances, and Darunia has the Ruby. Lullaby got the Ocarina from her late paternal grandmother.

Then Ganon finds them and tries to steal the Emerald from Time, so Lullaby goes looking for help and thus finds the sages. Saria is an anonymous hacker who uses the screen name 'Kokiri'. Time reveals he didn't steal the Emerald, he was Deku's heir, and then Navi goes missing. Time is home worried enough that he's physically sick, and Ganon decides to try and attack the home. Only Lullaby's family is Olde Money, and they live in a big, old manor, so Lullaby as Sheik decides to play 'Home Alone' with the secret passages in the walls and they piss off Ganon because when did that brat get a sheikah bodyguard??? Sage and Rottla (Lullaby's mother, who is fully sheikah as well) rush home from a thing and Kokiri is running a play by play watching the security cameras.

I pull in my headcanon that Time was killed in the Downfall Timeline by getting impaled on Ganon's tusk and Ganondorf stabs him with the tusk of a mounted boar head and then Sheik shows up to protect his brother, and then Mama gets home and is not happy to find this man in her home attacking her kids. Time is fine, but Navi stays missing. (She's alive tho.)

Also, Time's foster dad was the last leader of a secret society known as The Order of The Lost Woods, and Time learns this upon meeting Tatl, who gets him sucked into another event that would probably make a good action movie. I have thought too much about the Order and it's hierarchy, but what's important here is that Time ends up with a standing job offer and Tatl and he remain friends and we find out how I fit FD into this AU. It's not pretty. This is where Time loses his eye too.

The AoC came out and I added that Link in as Wild's twin brother and he shows up during the main plot.

Which starts with Twi getting kidnapped. (I'm not really meaner to him than the others, I swear, he's just the most logical choice to be Time's heir. Which he is. He doesn't know this though.)

So he's kidnapped by Ganondorf, who broke out of jail, Zant, who shot Twi in highschool, and Ghirahim, who has some history with Sky I haven't fleshed out yet and a very public rivalry with Warriors over twitter. About six weeks later Sage finds him in an abandoned warehouse (because of course) with a shackle on his left arm and a lot of new injuries. He ends up fine, but he tells Time later in the hospital what happened and he's both message and messenger and Time is this close to just committing murder. Tatl talks him down.

Somewhere here is the half finished fic where I introduce AoC Link as Luke/Knight, and this is as far as I've plotted thus far.

Other tidbits: Wild and Lullaby/Sheik are both genderfluid, Lullaby/Sheik married Ruto, Wild has a very popular YouTube channel, Twi does drag racing sometimes, Sky has a pet bird, Four has DID to explain how the Colours are here too, and Wolfie exists in the form of a random wolf-dog Wild found and brought home that Legend somehow convinced half the family was Twilight. Also, Warriors has somehow befriended an entire sorority and he doesn't know how this happened.

This... got long. As you can see I have a lot of thoughts about the Adoption AU. It's gotten a bit away from me, I'll admit. This went from 'Wild does stunts on his motorbike and keeps breaking bones but somehow not the bike' to 'Twilight got kidnapped and Time is the target of a mafia that Ganon runs and also maybe killed a man once' and I don't know how that happened. Also, this is the condensed version of the summary. My actual summary/outline is much, much longer than this. So if there's any detail you want more on, feel free to say so and I'll happily go into more detail (there are so many things I didn't even mention....)

And yes, Robbie having a bong is very important to my best friend, for some reason. He has one in a modern AU and he probably invented one in canon. I happen to agree that this makes sense for his character, if anyone would invent a bong in LoZ it's Robbie (this is such an anticlimactic end to this ask after the stuff about the modern AU...)

Also, sorry for the long ass ask. I genuinely don't know how to condense the Adoption Au down any further. There's a lot of important plot beats to cover, and I still skipped things.

-Attllhak

oh my GOD???? if you ever write and post this somewhere id love to read it, the level of "crazy" conspiracy/action movie elements implemented sound sosososo cool, from Ganondorf being Deku's half brother to trying to "send a message" via Twi and- just- all of this is SO good.i sat here and reread this ask like 3 times as if that would magically spawn more info about it ahaha

there's so much to unpack here but it's honestly so worth it i love every single detail!!! i can imagine the actual outline being way longer, nad honestly that just makes me the more excited/curious about all that might be missing from this ask - i cant believe it started with Wild and Wars going to Taco Bell of all things

also i can totally see Robbie making a bong, no matter the setting or AU. fits him a lot I'd say

and dont worry about long asks!! i adore opening up my askbox to see one ask take over the entire thing, it makes me really happy aha

[kinnoth]

What's your take on Thor Ragnarok? What's your take on Thor's development within the MCU so far?I'm a fan of your posts and tags!

GREAT QUESTIONS THANK YOU FOR ASKING, THANKS FOR BEING A FAN

tldr I """"like"""" Thor's canon development now bc I've done some fucking Olympic grade backfilling and contortion to recontextualize the canon to make it meaningful, but this results in me living in my own pocket universe of an interpretation where I can't really interact with other people bc they don't subscribe to my exact reading of canon

But bro I LOVE Ragnarok. I know that can be a controversial take (I've read the meta of people who think it "slaughtered" Thor and Loki's characterisations), but I just thought it was so much fun! Like on a movie watching experience level and on a lore/meta level, it's FUN. That's not something I can say for 95% of marvel movies, which are nigh universally too dimly lit and too reliant on hateful sarcasm between characters as a substitute for a relationship.

On a meta level, I 1000% subscribe to the idea that the entire movie is a retelling that Thor is preforming for his refugees, so it's a heavily edited, exaggerated, and sillier version of events meant to keep everyone's spirits up. On the point of lore continuity, I really appreciate that thor3 makes CANON and EXPLICIT Odin's campaign of imperialist violence behind his "peaceful" reign over the nine realms, I FUCKIN LOVE IT. I LOVE the context Hela gives to their family, because she makes canon and explicit Odin's disappointments in Thor. I LOVE that Mjolnir was Hela's weapon before it was Thor's because Mjolnir was never meant to be a metric for moral goodness or readiness for rule, but a metric for a colonialist's commitment to imperialist violence on behalf of an empire WHICH IS WHY IT FINDS CAPTAIN AMERICA WORTHY BUT NOT LOKI

(btw if anyone else can draw a line between Hela and Steve Rogers that is a. representative of Odin's priorities and b. includes Thor but excludes Loki, hmu, bc this is the best I got.)

(Mjolnir rejects Thor in thor1 bc Thor was trying to conquer Jotunheim for personal glory and doesn't accept him again until he starts thinking about the good of the empire again by protecting Midgard, an imperial asset. Mjolnir rejects Loki bc Loki is a not an imperialist in service of an empire)

Off topic but I know a lot of people get hung up on Thor leaving Loki paralyzed in the parking garage, potentially to be found by the grandmasters dudes? Like people say that was unaccountably cruel and ooc for Thor. But like, ok, they killed everyone on the way up, and Thor knows his armed gladiator rebellion is on his heels also headed for the parking garage, so I dunno, I never read it as Loki was in any particular danger? But I'm a notorious Thor apologist as well as a Loki apologist so 🤷‍♂️

Things I also love: loki defunding the military to spend that money on art and infrastructure, Loki's live action thorki fanfic that Asgard unaccountably loved, Loki stonewalling Odin's attempt to reconcile bc fuck Odin, Thor's lightning powers, Bruce banner is now a Jewish grandma, Hela have I mentioned Hela love that girlboss, Jeff goldblum love that wiggly man, the Valkyrie love that angry girl, "piss off ghost", inglorious deaths for all the warriors 3, "I'm here" (screaming, crying, shaking), the story about how Loki bit Thor as a snake as well as the confirmation that they are in fact the same age

I have complicated feelings about Thor's canon development tbh. On a very ground floor sort of reaction, I despise what they did to My Boy in infinity war and endgame. I think it's a disgusting character assassination and I don't think the russos understand humour and specifically how to use humour to expand on tragedy like what thor3 did.

On the other hand, if you've read my fic and meta, you'll know that I've accepted the canon development, bc at this point, I've done a LOT of very deliberate and concerted labour to MAKE the canon development we see between thor1 and endgame WORK. But, like, there was a LOT of labour that I, specifically, put into it. It fully relies on me specifically doing a lot of digging and reaching and mining these movies for every possible frame of content to the point where I am pretty sure I've put more effort into making all the development make continuous sense than any of the screenwriters put into the actual development.

And I think I've probably just drank too much of my own Kool aid but like, I am in a position now where I do think my interpretation of Thor's character development is THE most complete and accurate reading of his character development. Key to these points are: a) I think he is an ex-imperialist who is currently and actively trying to deprogram himself from the colonialists' mindset that Odin instilled within him b) he is trying to deprogram himself from Asgard's culture of extreme toxic masculinity wherein he was not taught to have any sort of emotional processing that did not involve physical violence c) Loki is/was/always will be the person he loves best

So like, as I try to show in my thorki canonverse fics (shameless plug for myself), I can make most of the bad decisions made about Thor's character in infinity war and endgame work if I recontextualize all of his canon actions with my own (well supported, well documented) headcanon'd baggage. Of course he goes on a death wish mission to get revenge on Thanos -- he has a literal deathwish bc he was already supposed to die with Loki. Of course he sinks into an unshakeable depression afterwards -- he has no identity now that he has no family bc he was never taught to live by himself or for himself. Of course he leaves new Asgard and abdicates his rule -- he hasn't wanted a hand in the dirty business of Empire ever since Odin's ambition got his mom and brother killed in thor2, and that hasn't changed. I try to make him go through all the canon-implied feelings and anxieties and doubts in front of the reader. My entire goal of this is that people read my shit, then look at canon and think "oohh that context DOES make it better!" I will be gratified if that is the case.

(The only thing I cannot fix is the bit in endgame where Thor walks past Loki's Tupperware cell and the narrative doesn't come to a screeching fucking halt as Thor has so many feelings that he has some sort of paralytic breakdown where he simultaneously wants to commit Time Crime (tm) so he can just stay here forever and also wishes he could just die here, next to loki, like he was always supposed to. Like, that needed to happen to really lynchpin all of my work together into one smooth, problem free reading, but I'm not allowed to have nice things so)

(oh also I didn't like Thor calling frigga "mom". Shouldn't it at least be "mum"? I think "mother" is best tbh, bc I don't really read them as having that sort of relationship, see "toxic masculinity", see also "homosocial socialisation")

(and ok I get that it was a nice moment for Thor to call the hammer back to his hand, and I get that it even still works with my headcanon that mjolnir finds Thor worthy still bc Thor is defending the imperial asset that is Midgard, but like God damnit. The uncritical and unquestioning use of that word "worthy" when he catches the hammer again. Like worthy of what you guys? Do you ever ask yourself that question bc I very much do. I kinda wish they didnt bring it up at all, or if they did, it didn't come back to Thor's hand and he is just like, wistfully, "that's all right, I suspected as much. I'm such a different man now, mjolnir doesn't recognize me. I don't think I'd be alive right now if I had been the same man I was")

Wow that got long, anyway, thanks for chatting with me! Again, always a pleasure to field asks!

[myriadism]

Unrelated to Anything here is an unordered out of context list of some of my OCs

Serendipity: she's a time traveling universe hopping bombastic linguistic extraordinaire. It's all a long story

Cara Whittaker: runs a Bed & Breakfast out of a "halfway house" which exists halfway in reality and halfway out like some sort of horror movie house, but this one isn't evil its just sentient and magical and and always trying its best to be any world's most comfortable Safehouse. Cara is one of many house caretakers operating a single wing, and also Serendipity's adopted sister.

Birdie: a cute kid who only speaks with eerily accurate impressions of birdsong. May be some sort of child god? Unclear.

Rowanna: a Raven. Literally just a bird with all the powers of a bird. Apparently she used to be a human sorceress and warlord tho, and was long ago cursed and trapped in this useless bird form. Has likely committed several war crimes but it's cool cause she's just a raven now. Don't @ me abt Sandman or Harry Potter or anything please I know nothing about blackbirds is original anymore

Christina Carls: a US or Canadian swimmer aiming for Olympic medals 🏅 who has her dreams completely derailed by unexpectedly turning into a mermaid. It doesn't help that mermaids and their magical underwater society don't even exist anymore for unknown mysterious reasons...

Cy: he's a bit of an asshole but damn if he isn't real good with computers and math and practically everything else (except for not being kind of an asshole sometimes but he has really good reasons I promise!) no relation to Cy Twombly the abstract expressionist painter or a Mr Darcy I keep hearing about

Becca (Rebecca) Sharrd: companion to the 11th Doctor on "Doctor Who" because everyone just has to have at least one or several DW (self)inserts. A recent library sciences graduate in Chicago, IL with social anxiety and depression she runs into the Doctor when he literally runs into her with his wacky giraffe-man body chasing an alien through Millennium Park. As is typical, things get weirder from there. On the plus side tho- it seems like many less humanoid aliens are so uncanny valley it completely bypasses most social phobias and gets right into xenophobia! Wild. The human brain sure is an extraordinary 3 pound bowl of fuckin soup innit?

Sara "Renae" Diaz: this is actually just Serendipity again whenever she needs to have an official ID and not some sort of hippie name

Celyn Bowen: a welsh genderfluid part-time Witch, part-time historian. Living in the DC comics universe, specifically the continuity of that really good animated show "Young Justice". His/her great great something grandma is Elaine of Garlot in the Welsh and Arthurian Myths. Oh? you've never heard of Elaine? well she may have been historically upstaged by her sister, Morgan le Fay. Celyn also ends up in a bit of a body timeshare situation with an extremely ancient and powerful helmet possessed by Dr Fate.

Nadine: one day Nadine rolls over in bed and wakes up on the ceiling. She's read too much Franz Kafka and now gravity pushes her up instead of pulling her down to earth. She's a physicist so this is really embarrassing.

Tyto Alba: you know how everyone loves werewolfs? Well Alba isn't a werewolf, they're a barn owl. And they weren't bitten by a were-owl or anything, that's ridiculous and also doesn't exist in Ty's world. No it's all Shapeshifters. Two forms, mostly human and various other species (cause humans are the most common animal to get really into the whole shapeshifting vibe those wonderful weirdos). But there are also many so-called "non-sentient" animals of all stripes and spots who are shapeshifters and Tyto Alba came from a nest of 'em. Father was a Barn Owl - Mongoose and mother a Barn Owl - Cormorant, they lived by a fertile waterway you see, and liked to fish.... but somewhere back in the history of Alba's genes intertwined with shapeshifter magic was a human being. Because one day as Ty was living their bucolic owl fledgling little life, they spontaneously turned into a human child, and all hell breaks loose. Talk about a coming of age story.

Sarah Day, Lady Luc, Porter, Lucien, various etc... these are also just Serendipity again. Look, it is not that weird to have a lot of names when you end up going to a lot of different places where people speak different languages and also may try to shoot you for taking their money in an ad hoc wealth redistribution plan--- don't judge

[fluorescentbrains]

I'm just gonna say, I would love to hear your uncharitable essik meta theories (though I'm not at all involved in cr, I just like hearing your thoughts on it and am curious about this, so like definitely feel free to ignore)

ok so with the caveat that i'm really just spitballing here:

ever since i watched ep 97 i just kept getting the vibe that essek suffered from a similar syndrome as jon magnusarchives, in that the creators seemed to feel beholden to constantly remind the audience of his various character flaws and misdeeds and "punish" him appropriately, in a way that comes off (to me anyways) as performative and very No Fun Allowed? all the joking references to "haha, poor war criminal" started to wear on me real quick, because it felt like the cast was just saying shit to remind everyone they hadn't forgotten essek did a crime. i know at least in fandom people have compared essek to kylo ren, which is an ABSOLUTELY bonkers interpretation utterly divorced from the text of both star wars and cr, but the cultural backlash against kylo ren has apparently rotted everybody's brains and now we can't have any fun with sad boys who commit a bit of light treason because it's ~condoning villainy~ or whatever.

obviously what essek did was worse than anything jon did, but i think there are similarities, especially when it comes to other protagonists who are not exactly paragons of virtue themselves judging him very harshly. the m9 are truly self-centered murder-happy assholes for much of the first 50 episodes or so (that whole mess in nicodranas???), and i thought that was part of their appeal, but when they discover essek's crime they immediately adopt a position of ethical superiority over him and appoint themselves as arbiters of his progress towards becoming a better man, which essek accepts as his due (shades of castiel lmfao). he spends the rest of the campaign working to regain their approval with mixed results, which i personally found quite difficult to watch.

the cast has also constructed this post hoc narrative after episode 97 that by confronting essek about his treason and "keeping him calm" they saved the peace talks--they just assume he was about to ruin everything without their intervention, even though it was very much in his own best interest NOT to disrupt the talks! and the more i think about it the more grossed out i get by it, because before the finale i at least had hope that this was something they would all grow out of, but instead they just. were completely validated every step of the way lmao.

one of the other things that i find hard to swallow about essek's arc is the way the m9 were apparently fine with him being a shady ass FBI-type guy who had probably tortured POWs, including veth's own husband, until they found out he's actually a traitor to his country, at which point they started acting like he personally poisoned all their grandmas? like yall KNEW he was involved in shady shit but you're mad now because, what, he was able to fool you about some other shady shit? meanwhile, the m9's own impact on the war i.e. running off with the beacon and revealing empire troop movements to the bright queen--canonically resulting in many empire casualties--is never confronted in any way.

anyways i'm not trying to say essek's actions were like... "good" or even "fine" but this pervasive view that his treason was a uniquely horrendous act relative to the protagonists rests very much on the assumption that the dynasty is more righteous than the empire, in spite of all indications that the dynasty itself is very corrupt and that essek was RIGHT to have doubts about their monopoly over the beacons and consecution. "essek is literally responsible for thousands of deaths and should live the rest of his life in self-abnegation to atone for his sin" is the accepted post hoc interpretation of events, but it also lets king dwendal and the bright queen off the hook for their own bullshit. essek didn't make them do all that. and in fact, things were stable for a couple of years until the beacon vanished courtesy of the m9 themselves! so! i think what essek did was negligent and self-interested, but the relative Badness of it has been magnified through the lens of the generally pro-dynasty narrative that the show and fandom ended up running with.

jesus that got really long lol tl;dr i feel like the cast learned that essek was lowkey a sexy villain and proceeded to trip all over themselves trying not to look like they condone sexy villainy.

[spookyvalentine]

Aptitude 1 through 5 for Mercy and Stellan

thank you for the ask!!! lord above my favorite pastime has truly become talking about them all the time i should be banned from my google docs

A: Aptitude

1. what are your oc’s natural abilities, things they’ve been doing since young?

stellan's is answered here!

for mercy? lying, stealing, and smooth talking. they had a rough and exciting childhood on earth, and most of it was spent fending for themself. they briefly had a pair of foster moms that encouraged their sense of morality, right vs might and justice. the only other adult in mercy's childhood was kasumi's grandmama. and then of course, later, anderson

2. what activities have they participated in?

im gonna go for pre-me stuff!

stellan was a little nerd that went to chess/kepesh-yakshi tournaments. and after the first two, won all of them. helped out on the commune. a quiet life

mercy uh. committed so many crimes. like all the time, constantly. went to juvie twice. and only got worse when they joined forces with kasumi

3. what abilities do they have that they’ve worked for?

for stellan? both therapy and speech therapy. when chakwas (one of their aunts that didn't live on the commune) took them in after the raid on mindoir, they were nonverbal for over a year. they still sign while talking. stellan had to work hard to become a capable and efficient fighter, and practiced with their pistol a lot

and for mercy--breaking and entering, blackmail and extortion, hacking and data mining, going for the throat, fighting dirty, and racing cars. and then when they're anderson's ward, they learn diplomacy and how to wield justice (more) legally

here's a couple snippets you can find here and here (look for 'teenagers') for my upcoming anderson pov fic about baby mercy :) ive got another snip floating around but for some reason i cant find it in my tags lmaooo TnT

4. what things are they bad at?

stellan is wretchedly bad at lying. and not great at hand to hand. OKAY SO my 'canon' shepala is that shiala stays with zhu's hope the whole time and their relationship starts through emails and love letters and the occasional video call. and they dont have their first smooch til the war is over. BUT in my au (god im fucking ridiculous, so sorry yall) shiala joins the normandy after the people of zhu's hope are tucked away as safely as they can be w reapers around, and she trains stellan in hand to hand. in her commando leathers. or in a sports bra and sweatpants. stellan is a WRECK and just. SO red the whole time

mercy's not good at NOT meddling. if they can help, have the ability to solve someone's problem, they will. "I cannot live with myself if I do anything less" type of thing, which makes it hard to rest, sometimes. but they'll go out on a shore leave for errands and come back late with free mods, someone's grandma's best casserole, and the names of bad people to visit--gossip is fun and very very useful. mercy uh, also has a bad sense of privacy at times. it’s second nature to look up everything about you, okay? it’s like kasumi in the citadel dlc just lurking cloaked and listening to people lmaooooooo they are also extremely bad at catching a clue when it comes to flirting and romance

5. what is their most impressive talent?

stellan's capability of forgiveness. their strategic mind

mercy's ability to connect quickly with others, and how to get someone to open up

they both have wells of seemingly infinite patience, and are, actually, good dancers and skilled drivers

[buzzdixonwriter]

TROTS AND BONNIE Review

Trigger Warning: This will review a work that often addresses human sexuality, emotional / physical / sexual abuse, and adolescents’ views on same.  Be advised.

. . . 

When I was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s, two old comic strips that remained popular were J. R. Williams’ Out Our Way and Gene Ahern��s Our Boarding House, both started in the 1920s and, from their daily panels and Sunday pages, never moving out of that decade.  My favorite cartoons on local kid shows were Fleischer Brothers Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, many of which took place in urban / suburban settings heavily reflective of 1920s and 1930s America.

So when I first encountered Shary Flenniken’s Trots And Bonnie I instantly recognized the flavor and style of the strips.

The content, on the other hand, came straight out of her underground comix pedigree, with the refreshing point of view of the female gaze instead of the admittedly too often misogynistic male cartoonists of the milieu.

Flenniken is one of the best artists and writers to come from the underground era, displaying a confident early mastery of the form (don’t listen to her protestations she really wasn’t good at the start of her career; she clearly ranked among the finest of the underground comix artists).

But the sweet and innocent look of Trots And Bonnie belies the frank and frequently shocking honesty of Flenniken’s work.  

As cartoonist Emily Flake notes in her introduction, “that’s the terrible power of children, the monstrous innocence that makes them capable of anything, a state of being we fatuously describe as ‘pure.’”

Innocence is not synonymous with purity in the world of Trots And Bonnie because the cast lack the moral and cultural filters we acquire as adults.  They are reporting on reality as they see it, and as with all children (and the elderly, and drunks) there’s nothing to stop them from commenting on the foibles of hypocrisy of humanity, nor is there a single iota of shame to hold back their expression.

And when you add the impact of puberty to that mix, holy &#@%, you have no room left for pretense or propriety.

Hold on to your hats, folks, ‘cuz it’s gonna be one helluva ride.

One helluva ride…and a hilarious one, too.

If modern audiences can get past the admittedly often shocking visuals and situations, they’ll find some of the most brilliant coming-of-age comedy ever penned.

The truth is always an absolute defense, and Trots And Bonnie dishes it out lavishly.  Brava to Shary Flenniken for having the courage (or honesty, of lack of filter; take your pick) to pen it, to the original underground comix and National Lampoon to publish it, and to new York Review Comics to bring almost all of it back (Flenniken herself opted to withhold a few strips that she feels might be construed now as hurtful or insulting).

Flenniken is the daughter of a military family, growing up in a variety of climes and places before her father retired in the Seattle area.

She reached adolescence and young adulthood during the hippie era, and the earliest strips cast a fond eye back on that time.

An original member of the infamous Air Pirates crew, she and fellow underground comix artists gained immediate recognition skewering Disney icons.  Air Pirates Funnies and Paul Kassner’s The Realist generated no small amount of tsuris for the House of Mouse in the late 1960s / early 1970s but The Realist, true to its name, possessed to good sense to adhere to the unofficial so-called “one-time fair use parody” rule while the Air Pirates pressed their luck with Air Pirates Funnies #2, resulting in the Disney legal department descending on them like an anvil dropped from orbit.

Crawling away from the wreckage, Flenniken kept contributing to a number of underground venues, creating the first Trots and Bonnie strip for the 1971 underground comix Merton Of The Movement. 

Trots and Bonnie (soon joined by Pepsi, a beguilingly sweet looking elfin-like child with the heart of Germaine Greer, the reproductive organs of Karen Finley, and the mouth of an interstate trucker) popped up in several single page strips and short stories until NatLamp recruited Flenniken in 1972 to be a regular contributor and (briefly) an editor.

NatLamp proved to be the perfect venue for Flenniken and her characters because the magazine possessed the economic mojo and suicidal “Who gives a &#@%?” attitude to publish Trots And Bonnie while at the same time providing a perfect audience of proto-incels who desperately needed some consciousness raising, especially if said consciousness raising arrived in the form of a kick in the groin.

Trots And Bonnie’s tenure at NatLamp lasted slightly more than two decades, but a big hunk of that era saw the Reagan culture wars raging, not to mention much of the country becoming obsessed with a literal modern day witch hunt in the infamous Satanic panic (an apt subject for Flenniken’s characters, but one she wisely avoided, thus following the old military adage, “Never draw fire on your own position.”).

The already edgy material in both NatLamp in general and Trots And Bonnie in particular threatened to be perceived as too edgy by law enforcement, legislators, and judicial authorities who seemed either unwilling or incapable of distinguishing between photographs and video of actual sexual assaults and rapes committed against real children as opposed to crudely drawn Xerox copied mini-comics made by outsider artists with audiences that might possibly number in the dozens.

Flenniken’s willingness to honestly recall the turbulent emotions of early adolescence resulted in stories and strips where prepubescent kids engage in activities and discussions that would be acutely problematic if done today.  Again, the utter lack of self-consciousness in Flenniken’s characters swerves her work away from the low grade smut ground out by many of her male contemporaries and flung open a window on how adolescent females perceived the world around them.

The stories are wildly transgressive, and like all transgressive art can only be understood in the context of their time and mores.  Flenniken’s art carries a sweetness that leavens out the most horrendous situations (she gets astonishing comedic mileage off a story about a woman raped by a police officer, never once blaming or exploiting the victim but lambasting the culture and mindset that makes such a crime possible).

The fact these stories are told from a vibrant feminist / sex positive point of view makes them relevant to this day, and Flenniken’s ability to draw both truth and humor from dysfunctional families, emotional abuse, and drug use keeps them from being one-note exercises.

Most importantly, Flenniken comes across as strongly pro-child, even while honestly depicting her own characters’ failings and misconceptions.

She always brings a genuine emotional connection with her characters as adolescents, neither glorifying nor patronizing them.

One of the most notorious Trots And Bonnie strips finds Bonnie looking at herself in a mirror, fantasizing she’s famous actresses of the past.*  

At the hands and brush of Norman Rockwell, this theme tries for poignant but lands in schmaltz, looking down on an anxious child studying her reflection in a mirror; in far too many bad novels by sub-par male writers, it’s borderline (and often not-so-borderline) pornography.

At the touch of Flenniken’s deft pen, it’s honest and sweet and shockingly frank but it never depicts Bonnie as a figment of the male imagination but as a character and personality all her own.

Flenniken has not done any new Trots And Bonnie strips since the last ones published in NatLamp in 1993.

To be honest, I think that’s a good thing.

The characters are of their particular time and cultural gestalt, it may not be possible to recapture that lightning in a new bottle, and rather than diminish the old, perhaps it best remains a perfect artefact of its era.

Mark Twain tried repeatedly but could never transport Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn out of antebellum Hannibal, and to use an example more contemporary to Flenniken’s work, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers resolutely thwart all efforts to move them out of San Francisco during the Summer of Love.

You can’t go home again, as Thomas Wolfe famously observed, but that only applies if you’ve successfully left home.  At a certain point, if you haven’t moved beyond your old confines, you never will.

Flenniken’s honest frankness could have turned into a big crosshair on her back during the cultural wars, but to paraphrase John Lennon, life happened while she was making comix.

She married twice, divorced once, widowed the second time.  While she never completely withdrew from professional illustration, she no longer sought out the high profile gigs.

Trots And Bonnie from New York Review Comics is the first extensive English language compilation of her strips and stories, a very handsomely produced volume designed by Norman Hathaway.

The strips are meticulously presented, making it possible to enjoy Flenniken’s fine line work and exquisite character depictions in greater detail than every before.  It’s a genuine delight, sure to thrill old time fans of the original strip and quite likely to win a new generation of admirers.

But brace yourselves, noobs, this ain’t your grandma’s Betty Boop…

© Buzz Dixon

 *  It should be noted that for all its apparent revolutionary newness, the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, the crucible that forged Flenniken’s point of view, also enthusiastically embraced the past.  W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers became cultural icons to a new generation, Betty Boop regained her old popularity, old movies were rediscovered and reimagined, African-American spirituals and blues sprang from new voices, obscure books and novels from earlier decades and centuries became the new cultural touchstones.

I’ve posted elsewhere on how the boomer generation enjoyed a unique conflation of new technology and old media to produce a brand new synthesis; there has been nothing like it since even with astonishing advances in technology.  When old media is rediscovered and reinterpreted in this era, it too often tends to be in the form of irony, which mocks that which it cannot understand.

Give those old hippies their due -- they got the &#@%ing point!