#how did dc fans stay sane all this time

[whywoulditho]

I'm just getting into DC lore and from what i've seen so far i think DC losing in all the "Marvel vs DC" polls is literally their own fault

[maxmagi]

A List of My OTPs

because it's 11 and I can't sleep.

Enjolras x Grantaire a.k.a. Enjoltaire a.k.a. ExR- Les Mis

How I fell into this I don't remember now. I vaguely remember reading a crackfic of this and then everything just went sideways.

This was also the fandom that helped me realize that I wasn't exactly straight and that it's okay to not be loud about my sexuality, that I can just be.

I think that explains my attachment to this ship, not to mention just the movie's Grantaire (played by George Blagden) also shipped the characters and played his character like how he thought it should be, Grantaire loving and pining after Enjolras without the revolutionary knowing it.

Except in the fan fics, Enjolras returns his feelings and they work it out, even though it's not easy because they're both stubborn as mules. Ah, ultimate fantasy I guess. And the number of great fics here, *whistle*

Also, the Les Amis? Is amazing? Especially in the modern AUs? Like they're great friends? I love this fandom so much! Permets-tu!

Shen Wei x Zhao Yunlan - Guardian / Zhen Hun

C'mon, Zhu Yilong & Bai Yu's performance and emotions? Plus just the fact the fanfic writers of this ship are absolutely amazing? Please, escape from this pairing is impossible!

Best opposites attract trope for me. An academic by day, superhero by night in love with a roguish police chief who has no powers but whose charisma, wit, and heart can get him to toe to toe with the legends.

Also, Professor Shen Wei constantly acting like an innocent civilian and lying badly? Gold!

Loki x Tony Stark a.k.a. FrostIron - Avengers

How did I honestly get to this ship? I really can't remember what started it all. I think it must have been a Loki redemption fic where Tony Stark and Pepper broke up and something something happened. Let me tell you, the writers of this ship have written sagas and ballads of epic and sometimes confusing proportions, and that is why I fell deeper into the pit. I mean, they gotta give justice to two brilliant but chaotic characters, right? Angst. This ship has sooooooooo much angst.

Eiji x Ash - Banana Fish

My god, if you want to keep your heart intact and not be reminded of all that's ugly in the world, DON'T WATCH OR READ BANANA FISH. YOUR HEART WILL NEVER HEAL!

If you're gonna watch/read it anyway, make sure to watch something fluffy and sweet after. There's a reason that people from this fandom go, "If you've seen Banana Fish's ending, then you can handle whatever angsty show you're watching now." ~ or something to that effect. Another thing we like to say in this fandom is, "Other fandoms: Let's write a Mafia AU! Banana Fish fandom: We are the Mafia AU." Yes, all of us in this fandom is dramatic af.

Yuuri x Viktor - Yuuri!!! on Ice

Uh, does this really need an explanation? Aside from the fact that you will surprisingly find a lot of Mafia AUs here because we all know that hiding behind that beautiful face of Viktor Nikiforov is a devil capable of... tearing down your self-confidence, like WTF Viktor, don't make Yuuri cry! Also, their dance together at the end, such beautiful love.

Magnus Bane x Alec Lightwood aka Malec - Shadowhunters

I never read the books and have no plans to in the near future. I just saw a video on Youtube about why Malec is life and now here I am, still reading some Malec fics from time to time.

Some stuff on the show were WTF but overall they were a really good couple who supported each other. Plus, they're a Power Couple.

Erwin x Levi aka Eruri - Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Not to be confused with Ereri, which is Eren x Levi, which I don't generally ship except for that one time when a writer wrote an epic fanfic series with Eren in his mid 20s and Levi in his late 20s/early 30s, reincarnation AU. Boy was that one a surprise. I did not expect that.

Anyway, I'm an Eruri fan through and through. Especially with that promise that Levi made to Erwin. And the reason he gave the serum to Armin. HE DIDN'T DO IT FOR THE KIDS YKNOW. HE DID IT FOR ERWIN. Plus, Levi, Erwin, and Hange are my special trio. Erwin's batch was really amazing.

Also, I really like the fact that the shorter and slighter person is the more badass fighter while the taller, bigger one is the more calculating and strategic one. Rocks the boat of stereotypes and all that. Bonus: how these two met. My god, what a meet-cute! 😂

Dani x Jamie aka The Au Pair and the Gardener - The Haunting of Bly Manor

It really is more of a love story than a ghost story. I dunno how to feel about this. I loved these two characters so much and I wished they had a better ending but I wasn't SO surprised because it was a horror series (Like, I was still hoping at the end that they'd be together forever but yknow...). In any case, Jamie was just awesome. And her nickname for Dani? Poppins?! God, what a lover and fighter. She was not afraid to cock a gun in a ghost's face.

... and now for my flexible BROTPs

Merlin x Arthur aka Merthur - BBC Merlin

Yeah, my brain is so chaotic multiple OTPs and BROTPs of the same pairing exist at the same time without clashing with one another or having major identity crises.

I actually really like BROTP Merlin and Arthur and also like reading OTP Merthur.

And when Merlin is paired with Morgana or Freya or sometimes even Gwaine, that's fine with me too. As long as his bromance with Arthur stays intact, because that's what drew me to the show in the first place. Personal preference. I see them as platonic soulmates.

*Shout-out to the Merthur writers though, you kept me sane during my "Post-Merlin Depression," which is actually a term thrown around in the fandom because of that horrid final season (not saying it's a good term but it's what it was called). A lot of amazing fics here, too, both Magic Reveal and Modern AU ones. Full of action and adventure too! I mean, there are boy-band-looking Knights and magic-wielding badasses!

Tim Drake x Conner Kent/Kon-El aka Red Robin x Super Boy - DC Comics

More like flexible otp. I dig Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake BUT I really really also dig Tim Drake and Conner Kent. When they're TimKon, it's like an entirely different entity from TimSteph. Ugh, hard to explain.

I mean, Kon telling Tim, "You'll always be my Robin" and Tim telling Kon, "And you'll always be my clone boy" is the shit. Also when Kon could pick out/recognize Tim's heartbeat. And when Tim nearly went mad scientist trying to bring his bestie back. Like, dudes, wtf. And at the same time, hell yeah.

Liu Kang x Kung Lao aka LiuLao - Mortal Kombat

- I see these two as more like ride or die best friends connected by fate/platonic soulmates. But also like their dynamic is so awesome, cute, sweet, badass, can't-live-without-you vibes.

Basically the same way I feel about Merthur. I like reading both romantic and platonic relationships between these two characters. Like, the LiuLao fan creators peeling off the layers of this relationship and exposing every raw nerve is beautiful.

They love diving into the characters' psyche, emotions, motivations, fears, and doubts and you get really amazed because... Aren't they just characters from a video game, you ask? Well yeah, but MK video game has several interesting storylines and the Mortal Kombat 2021 movie was just the perfect jumpstarter to this beautiful blaze.

I mean, "We swore that if we were to die, it would be together"? Hell no, you're not dropping that on us and not expecting us to create our very own spin-offs and 12-page essays on that shit. That's what we fans do, baby. And also, really, we need a shaolin monks/white lotus spin-off/prequel. We're starving here.

As this ship is the newest one on my list, it's the one I'm looking forward to the most. Not enough fan content, I tell you. Not enough. One of these days, I just might add my own.

But right now, it's past 1 and so I shall attempt to sleep.

***No images for TimKon and LiuLao coz apparently I've gone past my 10-images allowance 😤

[nobodiesheartlessshitblog45]

Joseph Oda Headcanon’s because why not I love this man and his is a precious baby.

Before Moving too America Joseph worked has a  Forest ranger in one Cadana’s National parks. He loves the great outdoors and loved spending his summer out in nature.

He’s a huge a book worm, is a total Stephen King fan and loves mystery novels and science-fiction. His favorite book, all time is The Stand. Dose read some manga and comic books. DC man for life.

Dosen’t watch TV all that much, but dose enjoy Game Of Thrones, Dexter, The Walking Dead and The Stephen king miniseries. (he watched that like a million times) Enjoys classic tv’s like I love Lucy, The Nanny Fran, Friends and Reba. (And  Golden girls) Just some. Loves  old Japanese monster movies and black and white movies. Watched ever Studio Ghibli and dose enjoy occasional horror movies. 

Jojo loves contury music. But loves classic rock, like Queen, The Who, Pink  Floyd, dose like Judas Priest. This boy has a man crush for Blake Shelton, knows all songs by heart. He’s big Tom Waits fan. Wants to learn how to sing like him, but sounds like pissed off wet cat. So he just hums along to his songs.

He may look it, but Jojo is very Athletic. Loves to rock climbing, plays basketball and works when he can. Wakes up early to go jogging before work. He was apart his high school basketball team, and throughout his College days. Thought about being a pro basketball player, wanted to follow in  grandfather’s footsteps.

He’s a great cook. Tries to stay away from fast food, he cook his on food and bring with him to work, and bring extra food for Sebastian and Myra, and when they have family dinner, Joseph was the cook, no buts.

He was very to grandfather and grandmother when he was a kid. His  grandfather was a police officer and his  grandmother was a nurse when they both still to lived in Japan. Joseph is very close to his family. Family is very important thing to Joseph, and when he moved to America from Canada it was an  emotional goodbye, and since then Joseph would try to call his family everyday making sure that he was fine.

This man is a addicted to caffeine. Needs his coffee every morning, afternoon and those nights where the man has to work overtime. This man can have up 4-5 coffees a day. Lord help this man... He dose drink herbal tea, if wants to wine down the day. This man drinks so much a lot his fellow police officers wonder if he has coffee in vains.

Has it said, Joseph speaks little Japanese, but dose speak full French Canadian and European French, did travel to France a few times.

Joseph’s friendship with Sebastian and Myra

Myra was the first one to befriend Joseph, and the introduce to Sebastian. The two were a bit awkward it, but Joseph found out the Sebastian was also a huge a Stephen King and Game of Thrones and the two geeked out, and then became really close friends.

Joseph is a workaholic, when started to his real job as a full time Detective, he work crazy hours everyday. For the first two weeks, Myra would have to make sure that Joseph was taking care himself, and making eating well. (Mom detective FTW).

If anyone was Joseph a hard or trying to bully him, Sebastian would set right in and would that person a new one. Would stand for Joseph if someone as giving the young detective no matter. See Joseph as a younger brother.

Whenever the three of them would have dinner, Joseph would help out around the kitchen. Trust him, then man knows how to cook, and knows what to do. Not do question hi

Joseph was one Sebastian’s best men at his wedding.

Joseph’s ideal S/O

Joseph is huge family man, and would to start his own someday. He would love someone who he could get along with family, mostly his mom. His last Girlfriend always butted head with his mom, and bictor about things.

Joseph is a huge workaholic, most days he’s fine being on his own, after living on your own and doing but working could get a little lonely for him. He would like that fact he could come home to someone. Do all the cheesy couple things, cook together (mostly him doing it) watch movies together, just someone who can make him feel sane after long crazy days.

He always be the kind of who encouraged his s/o to chance after their dream and ideas.

He ideal dates are walking around the park, any time of the day and any time of the year, staying home with s/o, just talk on the couch and watch a some movies. His ideal vacation his camping and staying the cabin in the woods, no people, no work. Just him, his s/o and nature. Road trips to see his family and friends.

[bestillmyslashyheart]

It’s @michaels-blackhat‘s birthday and she asked for Patrick in the Unexpected Tidings AU so that’s what she got. (If you haven’t read UT, just know that Michael grew up outside of Roswell but he and Alex still met and fell in love. This takes place after Michael comes to Roswell for the first time)

Maria, Liz, and Kyle were talking around him but frankly Alex didn’t care. The sun was warm without being too hot, the food was good, and Michael was beaming. 

Alex couldn’t look away.

“Wow,” Liz said, long and slow. Something in her voice managed to snag his attention and Alex dragged his eyes away from Michael long enough to glance over at her. She was looking at him, a pleased smirk on her face. Kyle and Maria weren’t sitting next to her.

“What?” He looked back over at Michael.

“This is what love looks like, huh?” There was a teasing edge to her voice.

Alex glanced over at her, longer this time. “What do you mean?”

Her laugh filled the air. “You can’t look away from your boyfriend! He’s been here for four days and he’s not leaving for another three but you look at him like you can’t believe he’s real or like he’s going to disappear if you take your eyes off of him for a second.” She pauses. “It’s cute.”

Alex glared. “I am not cute.” He didn’t bother arguing her other points. He was looking at Michael like he couldn’t believe he was real mostly because Alex still couldn’t believe this was really happening. Michael was here, in Roswell, with his brother and sister. 

There had been a moment, not too long ago, when Alex had been afraid he’d lost this. The way he’d left DC, the way he’d handled this posting, had been...not great. But they’d gotten through it. And Michael was here. Alex looked back over at his boyfriend and his lips turned upwards in a helpless smile. The sun was catching his curls and making them glow. It had nothing on his smile though.

Michael was standing a little ways away from the house, Max and Isobel crowded around him, as he demonstrated his powers. Well, they’d done the show and tell the first day Michael was here. Now he was mostly just showing off under the guise of ‘training’.

Liz made a sound. Alex turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not staying, are you? In Roswell, I mean.”

Alex furrowed his brow. “As soon as my enlistment is done, I’m going home.” He’d never said anything else. “You know that.”

“I know,” she agreed. “I guess I was holding off a little bit of hope that maybe you’d decide to stick around after.” She smiled. “But Roswell isn’t home anymore, is it?” Alex shook his head. “Unless Michael wanted to move here?”

“Michael’s moving?” Maria asked as she and Kyle rejoined them. She had two margaritas in her hand and deftly passed one over to Liz. Kyle handed Alex a bottle of water. Maria looked over at Alex then out at Michael. “You’re staying in Roswell?”

Alex laughed and shook his head. “No. Michael’s job is in DC and he loves it way too much to ever leave.” Laughter rung out loud and clear and Alex was captivated once again. “I have a feeling we’ll be back to visit a lot though.”

“Good,” Maria huffed. “No disappearing on us again.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Kyle laughed. He nodded out at the trio. “You’re going to need a forklift to separate those three.”

Alex wanted to object but he couldn’t. Since they’d arrived, Michael had been spending a lot of time with Max and Isobel. Alex didn’t, couldn’t, begrudge him their time together but if Michael hadn’t been sleeping at his house, he wasn’t sure they’d have had any time alone together. 

He was pretty sure that was the only reason Michael was staying with him and not crashing in Max’s spare room.

A crisp ringing split the air and Alex quickly dug out his phone. When he saw who it was he answered it without hesitation.

“Hey,” he greeted warmly. “What’s up?”

“Hey yourself,” he heard in response. “How’s life in the land of aliens?”

Alex looked out at his said aliens as Isobel visibly huffed and shoved Michael’s shoulder. Max stood next to them, laughing. “It’s good,” he replied. “It’s really good.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

Alex frowned absently. “You haven’t heard it?”

There was a noncommittal grunt. “Been a couple of days since I talked to Michael. I know things were a little rocky after your relocation and I was trying to give you guys space in case you needed to work anything out.”

Alex tilted his head back to look at the passing clouds. “We’re good,” he promised. “Michael’s fitting in like he belongs. I hate that he’s leaving in three days but I’ll be home in six more months. We’ve made it through worse.”

“Yes you have,” came the instant agreement. “But don’t let it go six months without seeing him again, yeah? I can’t handle the stress.”

Alex laughed. “Oh you can’t handle it?”

“Who the hell do you think gets the middle of the night phone call when he’s paranoid and freaking out?” Alex might be worried if he couldn’t hear the teasing lilt. “He was really upset that you didn’t want him in Roswell.” That came out much more serious.

“I know. But I had a reason.”

“A good reason?”

“...a reason.”

“Manes,” came a heavy sigh.

“I know. It’s fine now, though. We’re good.”

“Uhuh.”

Alex sighed and looked over. “Michael!” All three aliens turned at his shout. “Your boyfriend’s worried I don’t treasure you enough!” A booming laugh came out of the phone, loud enough that Kyle looked at the phone in surprise. 

Michael grinned and bounded over. He pressed a quick kiss to Alex’s lips before plucking his phone from his fingertips and pressing it to his own ear. “Patrick, Patrick, Patrick, you know exactly how well Alex treasures me.” He stepped inside as he continued to talk.

Alex’s eyes followed him through the glass doors. “Michael’s boyfriend?” Isobel asked, dropping gracefully into a free chair. 

Alex hummed. “Best friend,” he corrected, turning back to the group. “But sometimes I think it’s only because Patrick is tragically heterosexual.” 

“That doesn’t bother you?” Kyle asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Alex replied honestly. “He’s a damn good friend.” And he was. Despite Patrick being in the Air Force, Alex had actually met the man through Michael. Patrick had been another member of the bachelor party Michael had been in Vegas with when Alex crossed paths with them there. He was fairly certain neither of them spoke to the groom anymore but they’d formed a fast friendship that weekend that had lasted ever since. Alex was almost as big a fan of the guy as Michael was. In fact, though they’d never been posted to the same base, they’d been deployed at the same time during Alex’s last deployment and Patrick’s company had been one of the only things keeping him sane. Plus, he’d been the one to save Alex’s life by sacrificing his leg. And he’d called Michael to tell him when the Air Force refused to. 

Patrick was good people. He’d fight anyone who implied otherwise.

“Good,” Max said firmly. “Michael deserves it.” Alex smiled over at (his future brother-in-law? Friend? Friend’s boyfriend?) him. 

“He does,” he agreed.”

---

“You know I don’t want to hear about your sex life, Guerin,” Patrick whined in his ear as Michael escaped into the house.

“You asked!” Michael laughed.

“I distinctly did not!” Patrick grumbled. Michael flopped onto the couch gracelessly. Outside, Alex was looking in at him and Michael met his gaze, smiling warmly. “How’s New Mexico?” Patrick asked.

“It’s great,” Michael replied honestly. “Alex has been worked up over this thing with his dad lately but it’s all over now so he’s finally letting himself relax a bit and he’s good.” He smiled. “We’re good.”

“Good,” Patrick replied. “Now how’s New Mexico?”

Michael laughed. “Hot. It’s November, it shouldn’t be hot.”

“Man, I’m in Florida,” Patrick reminded him. “It’s hot and humid.”

“Yeah that sounds terrible,” Michael told him without sympathy. “Shouldn’t have requested Patrick just for the irony.”

Patrick sighed. “It was a good opportunity,” he insisted.

“You couldn’t resist,” Michael corrected.

“I couldn’t resist,” Patrick agreed. “And now I’m suffering for it.”

Michael hummed. “Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“Alex found my brother and sister.”

There was a pause on the other end followed by a shuffling of fabric like Patrick had just sat straight up. “What?”

“Yup,” Michael smiled, looking out at Max and Isobel. “We got separated at a group home when we were kids but Alex found them.” He laughed. “Turns out he grew up with them actually. They’ve been here in Roswell the whole time.”

“Holy shit, Michael,” Patrick breathed. “That’s amazing.” He paused. “That’s amazing, right?”

“Yes,” Michael said emphatically. “It’s absolutely amazing. They’re amazing. Turns out they’ve been looking for me, too. As soon as I saw them, it just clicked.”

“I’m so happy for you, man,” Patrick told him. “Does Alex get along with them?”

“Yeah. I mean, they were never friends exactly but they seem to have always gotten along. And now my brother’s dating one of his best friends.” He paused. “He’s my brother.” He sounded like an idiot, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. For the first time in 20 years, he could talk about them. They were standing right outside, not trapped in his childhood memories. 

Patrick laughed. “Guess you have to get used to the desert, huh?”

Michael groaned. “I’d rather they come up to DC but I don’t think that’s going to happen too often,” he agreed. 

“You going to be okay to leave them?”

“Yeah,” Michael replied. Honestly, it would be a rough adjustment, he knew. Now that his connection to them was bright and shiny and intact, stretching it across the country would be a challenge but he didn’t have a choice. As much as their life was here, his was there. Well, it would be as soon as Alex came home. “I can’t wait for Alex to come home,” he confessed suddenly. “I miss him.”

“Isn’t he right there?” Patrick asked.

Michael looked out the window. Someone had clearly just told a joke as everyone was laughing. Alex’s head was thrown back and the sun was making his skin glow. “Yeah, he is.”

“Stop ogling your boyfriend.”

“I can’t help it!” Michael defended himself. “He’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, yes, he’s very pretty and love makes him even prettier,” Patrick grumbled goodnaturedly. They’d had this discussion before. “How do you miss him when he’s right there?”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Max and Isobel,” Michael admitted. “My brother and sister,” he clarified.

“Thank you, I managed to make that connection all on my own,” Patrick teased. Michael had the strange urge to stick his tongue out at the phone but he restrained himself. “So, what, you flew all the way there and now you’re ignoring him?”

“No!” Michael denied. “I’ve just been, I don’t know, busy with them. Getting to know them, you know? I haven’t been completely ignoring Alex.”

“Right,” Patrick agreed easily. “But you’ve been spending so much time apart that you miss him even though he’s right there.”

“Yeah.”

“Michael,”

“Don’t take that tone with me.”

“Don’t act like an idiot and I won’t have to!” 

“I’m not!”

“Michael,” Patrick sighed. “I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve had a front row seat to the Alex and Mikey show for almost as long as you two have been together.”

“Your point?”

“My point is that the last six months have been rough,” Patrick didn’t sugarcoat it. “This might be the closest I’ve ever seen you two to calling it quits.”

“Hey, woah, we were not going to call it quits!” 

“I didn’t say you were,” Patrick soothed. “I just said it’s the closest I’ve ever seen you guys get to that point. Maybe spend a little time with your boyfriend? Your brother and sister aren’t going anywhere, you know. You don’t have to spend every second with them.”

“It’s not every second,” Michael denied. But he could admit, it was a lot of seconds. Most of his waking moments, really. As soon as he walked through the door four days ago, Max and Isobel had hugged him then called out of work for the week he’d be here. Alex had taken off as well but he’d given the three of them their space to connect and get to know each other. “Okay you might have a point.”

“Of course I do.”

“Don’t be smug,” Michael rolled his eyes.

“It’s not smug if it’s deserved.”

“I think there’s a flaw in your logic.”

“Oh? Where?” He could hear Patrick’s smirk.

“I don’t want you to be smug.”

Patrick hummed. “I don’t think that’s a flaw in my logic.” Alex opened the back door and stepped inside. Michael looked at him and smiled. He looked good. Besides the sun kissed glow he wore carelessly, there was an ease to him that Michael hadn’t seen in a while. Alex hadn’t been this relaxed since they took that road trip down the Pacific Coast before his last deployment. “Alex is there, isn’t he?” 

Michael startled. “How’d you know that?”

“Because you stopped answering,” Patrick laughed. “You get distracted when he’s around.”

Michael sighed dreamily. “He’s just so pretty.”

Alex rolled his eyes. Michael grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the couch with him. “Ok fine,” Patrick said in his ear. “I can tell when I’m intruding.”

“Can you really, though?” Michael asked. “Because I remember-”

“Goodbye.” Patrick hung up.

“He hung up on me,” Michael stared at the phone. Alex laughed and took it from him.

“You’ll get over it.”

Michael leaned over and kissed him. Alex was clearly surprised but immediately returned it, the phone slipping from his fingers as he dug his hands into Michael’s hair. Michael curled his fingers around Alex’s hips and leaned back onto the couch, pulling Alex with him. They exchanged long, slow, lazy kisses until the back door opened and let the outside world in.

“Really? On my couch?” Max huffed as he walked past them into the kitchen. A few days ago Michael might have been worried, might have taken Max honestly at his gruff tone, but now Michael knew enough to see the upturn of his lips, the amusement behind the gruffness. 

“Really,” he replied, not letting Alex get up. He kissed him again. “Hi,” he said quietly.

“Hi,” Alex replied. He smiled. “What the hell did you and Patrick talk about?”

“I think I’ve been ignoring you,” Michael said instead of answering.

“That’s okay,” Alex assured him. It wasn’t a denial. “You just met Max and Isobel, I get it.” He ran a hand down Michael’s arm and squeezed his hand. “I don’t need to monopolize all of your time.”

Michael sat up. His movement pushed Alex away slightly and Michael pulled him back in. “No. Not okay. They’re great,”

“Hell yeah we are,” Max passed them again on his way back outside. Michael and Alex laughed.

“But they’re not you,” Michael continued when the door shut behind Max. “I came out here because I missed you and I feel like I’m still missing you. We need a day to ourselves.”

“We’ve got time, Michael. You only have a few days here, I don’t want to cut in on your time with them.”

“Fuck ‘em,” Michael grinned. “I met them four days ago. It’s been a great four days, and yeah I want to spend more time with them before I leave, but I came here for you. I want to spend time with you and I want you to show me where you grew up and I want to get to know Liz and Maria.” He leaned forward until his forehead pressed against Alex’s. “You got any plans for tomorrow?”

Alex closed his eyes and pretended to think about it. “I’m sure I could pencil you in.”

“Oh could you? Could you pencil me in?” Michael laughed.

Alex hummed. “Somewhere between watching Netflix and taking a long shower.”

“Room for two in that shower?”

“I think we could make it work.”

Michael kissed him. “But after that shower?” Alex raised an eyebrow in question. “Max has this hat…”

Alex pulled back to look at him in surprise. “You want a hat like Max?”

Michael’s eyes flicked over to where Max’s hung on a hook by the door. “Maybe not exactly like Max’s but I think I’d look good in a cowboy hat.” Alex didn’t say anything. “No?”

Alex brushed a curl out of his face. “Black, I think,” he mused. “You could make it work.”

“Hell yeah I could.”

[hypnotica-ships]

how abouuuuut... 1,3 and 4 too?

Oh boy, this got suuuuuuuuuper long, but I’ve been holding a lot of this in, and I didn’t even get to mention the crow raisings...I’ve tried to keep this short and skipped a ton of things, so if you want some more info about anything, let me know, I”d be more than happy to answer! The last two questions will be under the cut, cause wow, can I talk....

1. What is your s/i's name & pronouns? Legally- Mathew E. Sionis However, only a few very close people know it, and even then they all still call him Crow. Even when he still had his deadname. No one but him and his father know what the "E." stands for. Also he goes by He/Him and They/Them. Mostly the first set though.

3. Does your s/i have a full backstory yet? Or is it still in the works? If it's done can we see it? Oh boy, do I. It's fairly messy, and you need to keep in mind that the first media I inserted myself into was DC Comics, plus I was 15 and never knew about the whole Self-Shipping Community until like last year, thanks btw. It gets dark and some spots, my bad, blame 15 year old edgelord Crow.

Let's start at the beginning yeah? Crow was born the second child to Circe, not much is know about her, and Roman Sionis who at the time had just started to make his name big in the underground crime scene, in Gotham City. She had an older brother and a younger brother, each sibling was born with some darker magic powers, but showed no sign of it at the time they were in his care. After Crow's younger brother was born (both siblings have names, but I'm a bit shy about saying who each one is, but as we'll see later, they don't really get along anyways...), their mother died. Which sent Roman into a bit of a spiral, he became incredibly paranoid. He thought the only way to save his children (who are all a year apart, so the oldest is about 2 and a half to three) was to kill them, but he had a hard time doing it directly after what he did to the older brother.... So he sent the other babies away in basket down a stream hope that would solve the problem. There was a fork in the stream, one child went one way while the other one went another. Crow's way went into a run off into a sewer, not just any sewer, (oh boy...here we go...) the Arkham Asylum sewer, where a big ole' Mr. Killer Croc found what he thought was a dead child. Once he realized the child was still alive, he tried his best to get one of the orderlies of the Asylum's attention. They....had no idea what to do, so (even though I"m pretty sure they probably would of sent the child to an orphanage...) they decided to have the inmates, with constant security around, raise the child (15 year old me had some ideas....to bad i never changed this...).

Yadda yadda yadda, time skip, Crow now has realized she has shadomancy powers and just basic magic as well, but no clue how to use em, so they 'wing it', they also have a pretty good gig at stealing things, since she can travel through the shadows real sneaky like. She finds out at some point who her dad is, and the younger brother, Crow is furious, and vows to never speak to her father ever again, but he insists on buying her love and gives her an "allowance" of like a billion a month, but she refuses to keep it all and only saves enough to live on while the rest gets sent to charity. She's about 13 at this point and has bought out an old hotel to live in that was ment to be torn down, so it's basically falling apart except for one room and the roof. Safe enough to live in though. Yadda yadda, still the same age, she meets Lonnie while looking for one of her pet crows that went into his cell at juvie, stuff happens they become friends, he finds out about her living situation, tells his folks, and now they basically adopted her. Crow and Lonnie cause trouble for a few years as a fucking awesome team. When they are around 16 or so, Jamm just shows up, and he needs a place to stay, and at this point Crow's hotel is fixed up a bit more thanks to help from Lonnie. So they let him stay in an extra room.

He now forever part of this group.

They make a band, The Nest, but it's kind of a cover up for vigilantism. At this point, since I like to keep things as cannon as possible, Lonnie fakes his death, which cause Crow to spiral, similar to how her father did when he lost her mother. It's sad and depressing time, lot of plot points, but I'll try to sum it up: Drinking problems, lots of failed relationships good and bad, possible murder, the older brother comes back and explains some stuff he may also be Satan, Crow and Jamm bonding time, and ect.

I dunno, about 18-ish now or whatever, I really don’t have the best concept of time, Crow dates Jimmy, thanks to some old connections with Lois who set them up, it goes pretty well, Crow is healing. She's not fully healed though, and Jimmy recommends getting out of Gotham since it seems to make things worse and she needs a vacation. Cool, she'll just move to Metropolis where Jimmy lives, nah, doesn't last long, but she does take a trip to Washington D.C. Crow sees a figure on the roof tops lurking around on her trip. One rainy night she confronts it, whoops, Lonnie is still alive! They end up fighting about him not telling her for a few months or so, until he finally says he's sorry. Crow and Jimmy adventures happen, (such as Crow finding out about her Uncle Guile and meets Holger and Marnie, which leads into like a year long hijinks, one relationship that ended in an uncertain way, and now Crow goes back home but has a distant little sibling now, they call and text each other now and again, even go out to lunch), but Crow is still not happy, and Jimmy takes note. Stuff happens, and he proposes.....Crow says no. She realized that she.....probably should of been a he. Crow with this knowledge dumps Jimmy, he takes it well and understands, but Crow still feels bad about it.

After, Crow moves back to Gotham, he talks to Lonnie about going about transitioning. He helps Crow with the whole process, killing whatever ill will was left form the faking death for years bit.

Crow's about 19-20 now, dates Jimmy again, he takes him to meet his cousin Archie in Riverdale. As he visits, he notices a kid and his dad. Said dad is....abusive....and Crow takes note. Stuff happens, Crow and Jimmy breakup again, but Crow moves to Riverdale, cause he needed a change and felt happy there. He remembers the dad and kid, and confronts them, big mess happens, and now Crow has an adopted son, Reggie (who's about 16). Tiny time skip, more garbage happens and then a dying bloodied kid shows up on Crow's doorstep, after helping him and saving his life he asks about the kids family, stuff happens, and now he has kid x2, Julian (also 16, but like 5 months older then Reggie, who hates that.) Stuff happens. Crow is happy with his family and the occasional visits from Uncle Lonnie and Uncle Jamm really help keep Crow sane, (a lot of trauma, a lot of mental issues here, same s/i, same) things are about to get a lot more interesting when the band Reggie is in is asked to open for Josie and the Pussycats....

4. How did your s/i feel when they first met your f/o(s)? How do they feel about them now? I decided to kinda make this a continuation of 3.

Crow was hanging out backstage of his son's performance, checking out the food and making himself a little serving even though the sign said "For band members only!". All of a sudden, a guy in a blue suit, sunglasses and a smug aura about him, slid up next to him. Crow immediately did not trust this man.

Dude asked if Crow was THEE Crow from the Nest, mentioned he was a fan, and wondered what they were up to since they went silent a few years ago. Crow answered as nice as he could, against his better judgement. This guy, Alexander, had the gull to offer him a contract to manage The Nest to "give them a second chance..." The Nest need not a second chance, if they wanted to go big, they would of years ago without this clown’s help.

Yadda yadda yadda, Alex doesn't stop pushing, and Crow ends up becoming a sort of mentor to the Pussycats, while also helping them keep their manager at bay, aka a distraction. Crow and Alex somehow become friends after he realizes that Alex was super lonely growing up and at this point Crow might be his only friend besides the Pussycats (who pay him/he pays them). They get quite close, and Crow, even though he hates that he let this happen, kinda has a major soft spot for this dork.

It took them over a year or so to finally tell each other that though. Not my fault they needed to go through a bunch of agnst/yearning adventures....

Sorry this got super long, but oh boy, did it feel good to finally get this off my chest. I clearly skipped a ton to keep this "short", but that doesn't mean I don't have those ideas fully fleshed out. So if in any point in the future you want me to elaborate, I"d be more than happy too! Thanks for the ask, and sorry to bombard you with a huge wall of text. <3

[darkspellmaster]

E3 2018 Thoughts on Nintendo

So Nintendo over the years has learned to show only what’s coming out soon rather than bait fans with a teaser for a game that is way out in production (Looking at you Sony and Microsoft). In addition, they used their direct this year to push forward the versatility of the Switch as well as give a huge show of appreciation to the Smash Pro community that pretty much built itself from the ground up.  I will give Nintendo this much, their booth this year, while not as cool as the Mario one last year, did have a lot going on and the game lines for just Smash and Let’s go Pokemon were over 4 hours long. They had to cut them off on all three days and set up areas for people to watch others play on big screens.

Also both of their tournaments did strong numbers this year, showing that Splatoon and Smash are still hitters in the E-sports area. Though now I hope Arms gets in there because that game is fun.

Dameon X Machenia reminded me a hell of a lot of the Super robot Wars games that come out for Gundam and other series. Yet this was very different. Flying robots to fight what looks like monsters/mecha seems like a fun way to pass the time. Also, based on the Tree house showing, there’s a customization element going on not just with the avatar (which you can chose your gender) but also the robot itself and it’s weapons. There’s also an area that looks to allow online play along with a single player campaign. Again, mixed feelings, unless you can invite people into the server that you want playing with you so that you know no jerks will just jump in and ruin the game. Over all I like what I see, but it’s a ways out. Nice of them to start with something exciting.

Super Mario Party looks amazing. So apparently we can have four players to one switch via the tv set up, but also two switches can be made to change up the board, which brings up the question, can you have more than four players playing if you have three or more switches? It’s Mario Party so most people know the drill for this one. I do like that they kept in a lot of things from the older titles and apparently we’re going to have Bowser as an option to play. This should be interesting to see, and probably will be a buy for me once I’m done with my back log of games.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna the Golden DLC. This could practically be a game in and of itself given the way that the story is taking shape here. It looks really interesting and is certainly filling in gaps in the story that we had from XC2. What I’m wondering is if Xeno will rival FF, Tales and DQ in the future with the story telling and now the world building. I should note too that the Challenge mode brought back in Shulk and Fiora from the first Xenoblade Chronicles story. Visually the game looks amazing and really got me excited to buy the DLC, and, apparently there is a second edition that let’s you get both the DLC and the original game. Similar to the FF XV Royal edition.

This one is the one that I’ve personally been waiting for. As a Fire Emblem Fan since way back from the Game Boy Advanced Version, it’s exciting to see an new FE show up on the Switch. Fire Emblem Three Houses showed up and wow. Since this is clearly an incomplete game there’s things that need to be worked on, but from what we saw I would say it’s really visually amazing. Reportedly the artist that did the art for the Uta wa no Prince Sama series is providing the art here. Though I don’t know because others are saying it reminds them of the artist from the Persona Series. I will say though that the character’s look amazing, and the fact that it’s not an Avatar in this game means that a lot of the story and depth of the story will rely on the characters interacting with one another. Another cool thing was the system where you can train the characters in different triangle weapons, which can become useful. From what we’ve seen there appears to be an open world aspect of this, and you can run around. Also units now have warriors with them and can create formations based on what you need. Over all this looks fun and the animation for the cut scenes are top notch. I won’t lie I’m a bit biased on this one.

Fortnite was a good move on the switch’s part, and the fact that they showed it in a way that is different than how Sony, Microsoft, or PC shows the game means that they can pull in players that normally may not want to play this. The vibrant color had me going “Wait…is that Fortnite? What the hell? Is it really that goofy?” as most version I’ve seen have had people wearing serious clothing rather than the goofy stuff that you can get. Honestly, if I was good at shooters and liked them, this trailer would have made me pick it up. I hope that people playing on PC and Xbox are having fun with Nintendo players…Sony, I know you were burned in the past by Nintendo, and have issues with Microsoft and for some odd reason hate PCs, but come on…stop locking people out of playing with others. Sheesh!

Hollow Knight, another interesting showing here. Hollow Knight I heard was a good get for the switch, given that it’s a fan favorite. Mix of platforming and fighting will work well on the switch. To be honest while it’s cute and all I’ll have to see if I want to get it.

Killer Queen Black is a surprise for some people, as it was a small arcade game that had a loyal following but was believed to not be able to be put on a console system. Apparently they did it. It seems to be a timed exclusive so it may not stay just on the Switch. Looks like fun, but I’m not a bee fan honestly. But it looks nice and I’m sure that other people will love to play it.

Overcooked 2, I can’t wait to get. It seems like an awesome game and one that I will be playing a lot with friends. Reminds me a bit of dinner dash but with puzzle elements and strategy. Should be a good buy for people that want to have something a bit more relaxing to play in it’s own way.

Octopath Traveler showed up again, and mentioned a new Demo. Square later went on at E3 to say that they’re going to make a division for the Switch so that’s a promising thing. The game’s demonstration at the tree house has made this a day one for me, which is rare outside of again, Fire Emblem. So this has me very excited and I hope to see more games like this and others from Square Enix on the Switch.

Let’s Go Pokemon: Pikachu/Evee. Pretty much seemed like Pokemon Yellow. I mean, you play with Pikachu following you around rather than in the ball, and it combines elements of pokemon go. On top of that you can transfer pokemon from go to the game, and you get a mew in the new pokeball add on...although I wish the price was a bit lower for that pokeball. Sheesh! 

They had a quick run down of games coming out including: Octo Expansion, SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Ninjala, Paladins: Realm Royale, Roller Coaster Tycoon Switch, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (may have shown this it went fast), sushi Striker. 

Smash Brothers Ultimate, I know some were disappointed that this took up so much time, but there’s something that has to be said. This is really, outside of maybe the bigger tournaments, that Nintendo has shown that they have been paying attention to the pro scene for their fighting game. With all the tweeks that they did to this game, and allowing the characters in there the way that they did, they’re going to be a contender at larger game tournaments like Evo and the like. Back when the switch was first show in 2017 there was the whole E-sports section, and I think that Nintendo is actually looking into that with some of it’s games. The various things, like the one on one fighting being made to be more devastating when you have solo fights means that, for pros, the game will move faster. Having the different stage styles also means it’s better for the competition scene so that the game can be played there.

I’m glad to see Ice Climbers back, all my Fire Emblem characters are still there, Wii Fit is back, the amazing Pit is there still, I love that we now have Daisy –my girl –as a character to play as, and we finally got Ridley –after all this time… Now Sakurai, please put in Takamaru from the Mystery of Muramasa castle as not an assist and I will praise you to the high heavens. Oh yeah and Proto and Base (Bass?) are in Megaman’s smash now. (Proto as an echo fighter please? Or Zero?)

As for the other games that are coming out to Switch, while they didn’t show them all…here’s the list from E3 2018 of the games that are coming:

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

Bomber Crew

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy –Rumors are going around that Spyro may also be coming too

Dead Cells

Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten DX

Dragon Quest XI –apparently yes it is coming for the switch.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends –tired of this being on your phone…use it on the Switch on the go.

Fallout Shelter

Fate Extella Link –Hey what do you know…the Fate series is now on the Switch

FIFA 19

Freedom Planet

Gal Metal –music game that has an interesting story

Galak-Z: Variant S –You like Gundam? You like arcade games? Well this is right up your alley

Harold Halibut

Just Dance 2019

Kingdom: Two Crowns

LEGO DC Supervillains

Little Dragons Café –What if you could raise dragons in the world of Harvest Moon, same creators

Mario + Rabbids DLC

Mario Tennis Aces –This was kind of interesting to see in the Tree house, making me consider getting it.

Mega Man 11

My Friend Pedro –Yeah the gag game that is coming to PC from Digital Revolver, it’s on the Switch.

My Hero Ones Justice –For those of us who want to smash things with Lord Murder Explosion (Bakugo)

NBA Live 19

Planet Alpha

Raji: An Ancient Epic

Shining Resonance Refrain –Kind of wish this one was shown, but Sega does what Sega does…

Spintires: MudRunner –basically you want to play with all terrain vehicles…then here you go.

State of Mind

Super Meat Boy Forever

Team Sonic Racing

Trials Rising –wish they would have shown some of this

Valkyria Chronicles 4 –Sega….you should have had your own direct…seriously

'V-Rally 4

Wargroove

Arcade Donkey Kong

That’s a lot of games coming out for the Switch…most of these would be fun to play…and that’s not even listing the ones that were already out prior to E3.

Over all, for presentation regarding the use of the Direct, I’d say A- to a B mostly because of the variety. Though I do think that they could have elongated their direct to give more showings of the games that weren’t Smash that were coming to the Switch. 

[starwalker03]

I posted 12,847 times in 2021

56 posts created (0%)

12791 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 228.4 posts.

I added 274 tags in 2021

#dick grayson - 51 posts

#dc comics - 37 posts

#nightwing - 35 posts

#fanfiction - 27 posts

#slade wilson - 25 posts

#whumptober 2021 - 23 posts

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#deathstroke - 22 posts

#young justice - 18 posts

#batman - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#there are two seperate incorrect quotes with din and luke doing the same thing and like wouldn’t it be hilarious if it was done in unison.

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Oh yeah, I was just thinking about the season three yj theme being a ‘sad’ quieter version of the ‘grungey’ higher energy theme of the first two seasons and how that mirrors literally everything in the show and it’s characters and it got me feeling all kinds of bad. Anyway, how was your day?

13 notes • Posted 2021-01-24 07:07:06 GMT

#4

what do I need? not medication, therapy, love, hugs or some fucking water no what i need is a fan fic of the foxes after Neil was taken by his father's men and they have a panic as they look for him and Andrew thinks on Neil's little 'you were amazing' comment thinking Neil finally ran even though he said he wouldn't only for Kevin to have to tell them 'hey I think he's been kidnapped by his father's psychopathic gang members', and they all go crazy on the insanely small amount of information Kevin gives them while they try to stay sane wondering if Neil is even going to be alive by morning, whilst also dealing with the shock of how small the amount of information Kevin gave them was but how massively fucking huge it seems in comparison with everything they know and everything they thought they knew also Wymack must have at least one paternal panic and Allison needs to say something like 'I can't lose another person' because she's realised Neil is her friend now and that seems insane and Matt has Older Brother Worry (TM) and Abby has a galaxy brain moment where she puts two and two together about some of Neil's scars and just-

I need it. I need it a lot.

24 notes • Posted 2021-07-01 13:00:32 GMT

#3

You know what imma say it.

Asajj Ventress deserved a proper, full, thorough redemption, detailed entirely that ended with her living happily and free, making new connections with people and feeling genuinely safe and supported by a new family.

And no I will not elaborate.

29 notes • Posted 2021-04-25 11:59:09 GMT

#2

Thinking about the trans Luke and trans leia headcanons.

I’m just thinking like. These are probably the most chaotic twins in the whole galaxy right? Like. Let’s be honest. They are. They win the title hands down.

So let’s imagine a universe where they’re both trans, and instead of them being ‘Male name that sounds like Leia’ and ‘female name that sounds like luke’ who transition into our space twins, instead they are Luke and Leia. The brunet little boy and the blonde girl. And then they are Luke and Leia. The brunette girl and the blond boy.

They both figure out that, their assigned birth gender? Yeah no they don’t fuck with that. And they transition together and just… swap names. They’re space force twins, they know everything about each other anyway. They just fuckin switch and tell no one except space murder dad.

I don’t know what kind of continuity or AU or whatever this could be set in. Maybe it’s one where they grow up rebels with their mother or one where Vader finds them Both and raises them I don’t know okay. But imagine. IMAGINE.

Like in the former scenario, they’re the rebel heirs. They grow up as rumours and whispers, the children of the rebels most outspoken leader.

But the alternative, they’re the heirs to the empire. And one day someone says something about what Leia did as a kid, accusing Luke of it, and he just has to be like ‘sigh… Leia why were you so dramatic as a child, I’m still paying for it’ meanwhile Leia constantly deals with people being like ‘you were so nice when you were a little girl. What happened?’

And just, yeah, it was an idea. It made me giggle. Imma leave it here.

ALTERNATIVELY gender fluid space twins. Wherein they just switch sometimes a la Fred and George. This would rely on them both being different genders at the same time but like it’s just a thought that made me have a laugh.

54 notes • Posted 2021-06-03 05:36:17 GMT

#1

Do you think when John Mulaney wrote his skit about horses and hospitals and Donald Trump that he had any idea how it would effect the population and his own career.

Because Inauguration Day is trending right alongside John Mulaney because he made one joke and it has become such a big part of humanity’s hive mind that we didn’t even need prompting, we just all turned to the same joke. Billions of people and we all know and make this joke.

That is very fun and sexy of us. Human beings really were like ‘oh we’re not a hive mind? Lemme just make an international connection anyway, just for fun. We call it the internet, because humans should have a little communal thinking, as a treat.’

204 notes • Posted 2021-01-21 00:21:30 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[goddamnitaisha]

Please list your top 5-10 would-bang characters, possibly segmented by gender/sex if it makes sense to, in descending order. I need to know how similar we are. :D

I’m laughing SO HARD because we probably are similar. I mean, @lilly-white​ has such good taste. I will immediately answer this question. 

Usually, if it has silver hair I probably want to bang it. 

Lastly…. Okay, yes, now the list. No actually, I’ll place the list at the top of this answer and then place all the TMI/too-much-information text under a readmore.

.

                                           T H E   L I S T

Iason (Ai no Kusabi) King of all Seme characters. Since this list is just about banging characters, I have to put him on top. 

Sephiroth - (FF7) my interpretation of him post-Nibelheim: a sane, arrogant, brilliant god and wreck of a person.

Lotor -  (Voltron Legendary Defender) See how high he is on my list? I have him in my ‘to cosplay’ list with not his name but with the text: “I HAVE SUCH A TYPE”. There is nothing about him that I don’t love.

Orochimaru (Naruto) His voice, his arrogance, the cheekbones, and the things he could do with that long tongue. 

Uchiha Itachi / Sasuke / Madara (Naruto) I’ve been trying to choose between these three for 10 years now) (I like the artwork interpretation of the Japanese fan-artist ‘Lily’ best.) 

^That is my hard-bargained top 5 in that order.  Now comes the rest. I still love them tons and tons, but not as much as the ones up ^there. 

Kisame (Naruto) (japanse voice actor) Terrifying face/reputation/fighting methods since he has no qualms with sawing someone’s legs off. But he would make the perfect father of a child. He is muscled, chatty, caring, thoughtful, loyal, sweet, protective and reliable. If I could bang him, I would not prick but punch holes in the condoms.

Skulduggery Pleasant (books by Derek Landy) ASREON DONT JUDGE ME. He is funny, powerful, reliable, cuttroat and has this dark edge that I really dig. 

Loki (as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston) Anywhere in the timeline after he arrived on Earth. I like him under Thanos control, as I like him as ‘shit annoying little brother’. I like it when he is smug: “It buuurns, doesn’t it?” (Avengers) and when he is indignant: “We are not doing ‘get help’.” (Thor: Ragnarok) yet still plays along in the end. 

Oikawa (Haikyuu) because his killer volleyball serve is too sexy, as are his mood switches and his I’m gonna fuck you up-grin. He get to me every time. (Kageyama is also somewhat a fave.)

Lord Carden - Bloodlines (Character from my needs-a-rewrite novel series, Bloodlines. Yes, I want to bang an OC, but in my defence, Lilly also once mentioned wanting to bang him. My friend Jack did too. He is a mix between Iason and Kisame: cutthroat and sexy but best dad.)

Embarrassing TMI & disclaimers & characters that didn’t make the list, are all under the cut!

Disclaimers:

The order listed below is from top(best)-down(last) and always subject to change depending on my mood and fandoms. 

These are characters I would want to bang - not the ones I would sign up to spend the rest of my life with (in most cases that’d be an awfully short life).

I may change this list if anyone brings in better suggestions. 

I can’t decide whether I want to sleep with these people, or want to be these people (role models).  

TMI 

I’m still in the process of trying to figure myself out. I have lived my life as a loner or as a quiet follower (because speaking up was often discouraged in my social circles). 

BUT

My younger brother recently pointed out to me that in almost every relationship there is a leader (the person who initiates plans and decides what and how) and a follower-guardian (who protects the leader from doing anything stupid, this person says “that’s not a good idea” and when they put their foot down it’s DOWN and the leader can do nothing but respect it.)

My brother told me that I’m a leader type: the person that initiates wild adventures. Not the follower-guardian. So OKAY, I’m a leader who thinks she is a follower? I don’t know if I’m sub or dom. 

There is this quote I’m trying to remember, said by either a gay guy or a powerful motherly woman who helps the girl-protagonist. An american production. Intonation is kind. Couldn’t find it with google. Goes something like this: 

“People won’t know whether they want to hate(/fight?) you, want to fuck (/sleep with) you or if they want to be you~

That’s the quote I want to put in here. 

What I usually fall for in a character:

Most of the characters I want to bang are calm, self-assured, don’t get worried fast, and are good at what they do. They firmly hold to a certain view of life. They can hold their own in a discussion. They are NEVER lazy, they are hardworking. They never have a nihilistic approach to life, they want to gain all they can get. They have an arrogance that tastes like honey to me. That cheeky, taunting, unimpressed, underhanded, self-assured, i-know-I’m-right, tone is a drug to me. Some examples are: - “Are you sure about that?” and - “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and - “Is that the best you can do, Cloud?” and - “Foolish little brother, you’re not strong enough, ku ku ku…” That degrading tone that puts me on my place and him on a pedestal…! Yes, I find that finger-licking attractive. 

But I can never figure out if those tones appeal so much to me because they are spoken from a leader perspective as if to discipline a pet, or from a follower/guardian perspective that calmly undermines the leader’s bad idea. (”Sure Mr. King if you want to follow that route… but I’ll stay here and wait until you come back”)

My current running theory is that I’m a leader who thinks she’s a follower? I’ve not levelled up enough in life to decide where I am as a sexual partner as sub or dom or switch. I’ve been a service top/service dom to 2/3rds of my partners and in the 1/3rd of the occasions I did enjoy being sub but maybe that’s because I prioritised myself there. Usually I focus on my partner and aaaah I’m rambling RAMBLE RAMBLE. tl:dr; I need to get laaaid and figure this ouuuut with a person I truuuust.

Characters that didn’t make the list, but which I wish I could include somewhere in a top 30 are these listed below. You can tell by the bolded font which names I took out of my top 10.  

Maleficent (Angelina Jolie)

Cersei (Lena from Game of Thones)

Icy (Winx Club season 1)

Wonder Woman (as portrayed by Gal Gadot) because she’s a perfect. Marvel Studios gave me a female hero and a female superhuman but they did not give me a female superhero. DC did. I’m such a fan of her.

Lestat

Mai Valentine (Yu-Gi-Oh. But that says little,  I’ve had crushes on almost the entire cast. Mainly Seto Kaiba and Yami-Yugi.)

Victor (Yuri-on-Ice) when he wasn’t shown as a person with feelings but still had his idol status.

Riddick - but then again, who wouldn’t do Vin Diesel as Riddick? Especially the second movie.

Aranea (FF15) She was wonderful as a character but I am still salty she was a bit of a disappointment in the narrative, I expected she would be more involved in the narrative of the game.

V (from V for Vendetta the movie) - again the humour, dark past, power, reliability. I fall in love with him every time I watch the film. But I don’t know if I would do him with his mask off? I like the grandiose idea of him.

I’m going to risk burn marks and put Azula (Avatar series) on here.

Tahno (Avatar Korra series)

Suitengu (Speed Grapher) LYRA YOU MUST WATCH THIS. LISTEN TO LILLY. AND TO ME. WATCH IIIIIIT.

Rufus Shinra - (FF7 ACC)The smug remarks, power, face, count me in.

Pitch (Rise of the Guardians)Light (Death Note manga)  

I will always love Riku (Kingdom Hearts) But since he’s so dear to me and part of a franchise for children, I don’t want to think about having sex with him but I totally want to. It’s a grey area. I like him especially when he is lost in darkness and arrogant. But honestly, I really like him in all timelines. I was not ready for KH3′s version. I will always love Riku.

Last notes:

To summarize, I like murder + power + strong worldview + smug undermining comments + smirks.

I think it is curious that I only listed male characters in my top 10. It seems that I am not as bisexual as I thought, or that modern media fails in adequate female gender representation. I could not have been offered enough female characters of the Wonder Woman quality. Now I’ll post this answer before something glitches and I lose all I typed. 

Hope you liked this!

[shawnsjames]

Bringing Balance Back to Batman

Over the last 30 years Batman has stopped being Batman.

 How did he stop being Batman? Over the last 30 years comic book writers, editors, artists and fans haven’t applied any objectivity to their craft when the approached or wrote stories for the character. So instead of the character being his own person with his own life, and his own “voice” he’s become a cipher for whatever writers and artists want him to be.

Back in the 1970s when Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams were hired to redefine Batman after the Campy Dick Sprang era and the 1966 Television series, there was a serious effort made to bring Batman back to his roots in the Batman comics. And during that time Batman was presented a balanced person with room in his life as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. During this time Bruce Wayne was considered just as important to a Batman comic as The Dark Knight. And Bruce had time to do things like enjoy his own life. He was driven to fight for justice and protect Gotham City, but he also had time to have a little fun too.

And yes, even Batman cracked a smile or laughed from time to time.

During the O’Neill/Adams Era up until about Knightfall writers understood that Batman was called the Dark Knight. And that there was a place for chivalry, honor and a code of conduct in Batman comics. These were the values that Thomas Wayne instilled in his son and what was core to Who Batman was as a hero.

And those core values that Thomas Wayne instilled in his son was the line between Batman and his rogues. Batman knew where the line between driven and obsession was and stayed right behind it.

Unfortunately over the last 30 years the line between Batman and his rogues has blurred. And the reason why it’s blurred is because many Batman writers and Batman fans have become just as obsessed as Batman’s rogues. We have a lot of Dark in the pages of Batman comics and Batman media. But none of the chivalry and honor of the Knights of medieval lore who were one of his inspirations. 

And thanks to their obsession we don’t see any balance or objectivity to Batman, his rogues or Gotham City.  For them everything is about Batman, not Bruce Wayne, or his life. In their eyes Batman is the real person and Bruce Wayne is the façade. If Bruce Wayne needs to be Batman all the time that’s when Bruce has crossed the line between driven and obsessed.

I remember a Superman animated episode where Clark said if he were Superman all the time it’d make him go crazy. I’d like to think the same would happen to Bruce. Every human being needs downtime away from the job, even Bruce Wayne.

And sadly he can’t have that because these days Batman isn’t his own character. He’s a cipher for whatever fantasies writers have for him. A Gary Stu who knows any and everything, he’s capable of using Green Lantern Rings, understanding Apokoliptan, Kryptonian and Thanagarian tech and is capable of taking on or cosmic level villains like Darkseid all by himself.

Seriously who needs the Justice League anymore when Batman can do everything? And who needs the Justice League When Batman has designed an armor capable of beating his friends?

The way I see it there really needs to be balance brought back to the Batman character. Yes, he cares about Gotham City. Yes, he seeks out justice for those who can’t get it in the dark and the shadows. But there needs to be room for the chivalry, and honor that establishes Batman’s code of conduct. That’s what makes Bruce a Hero, and that’s something that’s been sorely missing from Bat books over the last 30 years.

And it needs to be established that Bruce isn’t perfect. He isn’t always right. And it’s Okay if he needs to ask for help. Batman may be one of the world’s greatest detectives, but he shouldn’t be on the level of Mr. Terrific, the world’s third smartest man, Pieter Cross, one of the world’s foremost experts in medicine or capable of understanding alien tech from Krypton, Thanagar, Atlantis, or New Genesis. What makes the other characters in the DC Universe special if Batman knows just as much as they do?

 A writer needs to work towards drawing the line in the sand that separates Bruce’s character from his bad guys.  And they need to work towards establishing limits for Batman’s abilities in team settings. The other characters in the DC Universe need an opportunity to show what makes them special when they stand at Batman’s side on a team like the Justice League or in a major earth shattering event.

Moreover, a writer needs to re-establish Bruce as a character in the Bat-Books. As I see it, it’s Bruce who controls Batman, not Batman controlling Bruce. Batman is Bruce’s creation and he needs to be shown being in charge of things. Bruce decides when Batman goes into action, not Batman.

And Bruce decides when it’s time for downtime. While Batman took an oath to protect Gotham, he understands he needs to have a balanced life in order to do his job at Wayne Enterprises and patrolling Gotham City effectively. There has to be more to his life than putting on a Batsuit and sitting in the Batcave. As I always saw it Being Batman was only something he did for a couple of hours a couple of nights a week from about 11PM -3 or 4AM regularly when it warranted or when there was a Justice League mission he needed to be on.

But because many comic fans and comic writers don’t understand balance in life they think he’s Batman all the time. And because they don’t understand balance we have Gotham patrolled by about eight or nine people yet the streets are less safer than they were in the 70s when Batman & Robin patrolled Gotham with the occasional assist from Batgril. I find it crazy that Batman who now has a literal army of crimefighters working with him in Gotham including Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Huntress, Spoiler, Azrael, Batwoman, Batwing, Red Hood Red Robin and Catwoman but he has a harder time fighting crime today than he did when it was just him, Robin and Batgirl in the 1970s. With all those people working with him along with Jim Gordon and the Gotham P.D. Gotham should be the safest city in the DC Universe.

That clearly shows how me how out of balance Batman’s world has become. And why it’s so important to bring Balance Back to Batman’s world. Yes, Batman’s world is filled with criminals with psychotic obsessions. But Batman himself is a balanced and sane individual who cares enough about people to go out of his way to protect them from the same types of criminals who murdered his parents. And while he’s driven to fight for justice, he knows where the line is and his limits. Yes, he’s dressed like a Bat when he fights crime. But he’s still a man. I’d like to see Batman go back to being a character with his own personality and his own voice and tell his own stories, not be a cipher for the fantasies of comic fans who want to live vicariously through his cowl.

[thepicturepixie]

Why I hate Batgirl

Okay so this is talking about Barbara Gordon. Not really her more the idea of her...if that makes sense? This is not up for debate either. I may come to like her later but screaming your views of her is not going to change my mind. Half of the reason I don’t like her is because of her fan base. If you like her and want to hear why I don’t, keep reading. Mind that since I DON”T like the character I do not read her comics. What I know is from what I have read or heard about in some cases. 

So 1 She’s not the first. Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, Barbara is not the first batgirl or the first female partner to the batman. That goes to Batwoman. Ms. Kane had a niece Betty Kane who was the first batgirl. She was added to prove Bruce and Dick weren’t gay for each other.  Katherine Kane is gay, so this is funny to me. My point, she’s not the first. That gone we can move on.

She started off as Bruce’s love interest. As she was 25 or so and taught HERSELF how to fight after a run in with Bruce and the Batman. She took it on for fun as her life was boring. 

1 She was using Bruce’s love of rare books so she could keep him close. It makes her seem selfish, as she doesn’t care for HIS welfare only her fun. 

2 I have a hard time here. This is later re-written as her being 18 to robin’s 15 but this needs to be stated. PICK A DAMN AGE. Now she’s 21 maybe? But it ticks my off. When she became Oracle I believed her to be will in her mid 20′s. Even if you count her as being batgirl for 1 year (if she was 18 when she started) She couldn’t have been in the wheelchair for that long as she NOW got back surgery to walk again. I got off track but the age is a factor. 

3 This means she has no real reason to be here. The other batgirls have had hard lives as did all of the robins. She can and has left. She’s not a want to be cop but daddy won’t let her. She’s bored... Or she wants to help people?! you say. No bored. There are many ways to be a hero kids. Dick was a cop and Bruce does open charity work. This is in Dick and others too. But Bruce is shown to be the only person to really handle joker them/ doesn’t like doing it, but feels he most. And Dick was also a cop/spy clearly he likes doing it but also feels he can work with the police and government....Babs? bored. As her father is proof of how she can help within the law.

 Robin had a crush on her but this was not how they started in the comics. They did date and broke up (2000-2004) but DC started on this high-school lovers thing.  Dick’s long time girlfriend was Starfire from the teen titans.... I’m not going to talk about my love for DicKori. But DC treats the pairing poorly to show favor on Dick x Babs. Dick was written to have cheated on Kori with babs making the Dick/Babs pairing extra awful in my book. It’s not romantic. It’s mean spirited. This wasn’t building up it’s newly added.

DC wanted Dick back with Batman and used BG to do it. Adding things were Bruce and Babs talk about him dating Kori and “it not lasting”..... I could talk about this but maybe later the age rant wasn’t needed but it does bug me. She’s written as jealous.... and unwilling to fight for Dick. Babs goes to see Dick but is met with Kori, she runs off and tells Dick later about it.... *sigh* I feel like this is gas-lighting in a way. He’s dating you now, you do NOT need to talk about his ex. Babs does something like this again with Helena (Huntress) when she finds out they (Dick and Helena) had a one night stand six years before they started dating..... She slut shames her (This is in no man’s land) and gets Black Canary to do it too by lying to her. This romance is making her look bad. She lies again to Helena and at this point I’m like “yeah fuck you”. She breaks up with Dick, and some time before? (Oracle when they dated, Batgirl when she says this) tells him to look for someone else... Why not Kori? She helped him through a lot of his issues when they dated....FOR 10 FUCKING YEARS!!! 

The Killing Joke... This is a one shot that was so well loved it become canon. In this she gets shot....I’m not going to lie, I’m numb to this. It’s not sexist that she was shot. The point to the book was to show how 1 bad day can change your life for the worse and staying sane is a lie. Jason was BEATEN TO DEATH. DICK WAS ALSO SHOT BY THE JOKER! No one goes on about gender politics with them. Joker didn’t rape babs either. Alan Moore, the writer has stated this many times. You know who was raped? Dick was raped twice, Jason was stated may have as a child, Tim almost got raped, Bruce was raped and got Damian from it and deadpool but that’s marvel. Never happened to Babs. After this she gets PTSD which many of her fans use when she’s badly written. All of the batfamily should have PTSD in some way. Hell Bruce. The death of his parents left him a such a state that he can’t have real relationships with people, plays mind games with family/friends that could be abusive if you really think about it. And can not live past it or find happiness. This is in no way to make light of people who have gone through this. Any of these things. If you like Babs and find strength in her. I’m happy for you and glad something good came from this. But this does not give her a free pass. It takes away her agency for HER actions. She lied, she was controlling, and selfish. She hurt others people and NEVER said she was sorry for it. (I’m talking about her, Kori and Helena) Dick tried to help her and she pushed him away even when he was hurting. (Dick has gone through a lot) Just because something bad happened to you, it does not give you the right to hurt other. Helena didn’t like being lied on, to and treated the way barbara treated her. 

Even when she’s out of comics EI the cartoons she’s pretty damn awful and in everything. 

People need to let the PTSD thing go. As a character you like? shouldn’t have to live with it forever. There are so many character who have gone though worse. Cassie, Steph, Tim, JASON!!! Dick. Bruce.  They all should have it. But there is so little to her character that people treat it like it’s the only thing. Starfire was a freaking slave who watched her parents die, her sister tried to kill her AND was so upset by the death of her friend and break up with Dick, she left the planet... Tim lost his dad, Bruce and Conner. And let Jason loose to go on a murder spree. All of their lives sucks. All of them her gone through hell. No one pats them on the back.... Shiro from Voltron, Sasuke Uchiha, Katnis.... all characters with PTSD. I don’t hate it in fiction. I hate it being handle poorly or over and over again. OR it becoming the only thing to a character. I’m going in circles.

What I have read/seen doesn’t make me what to read/watch more. These are some of the things she has done and everytime I think of her I go back to some of these things. Dick was wrong for cheating on Kori, Babs knew. I’m not sticking behind “girl power” if she can’t even respect another woman/women... 

It’s the unfair treatment of other characters and way her fan base treat her. Batwoman needs more love and respect. “I’m too smart for grayson” Fuck you, babs~ 

[roxylucas]

Meme, from @fanfoolishness!

Rules: Answer all questions, add one of your own, and tag as many people as there are questions.

Coke or Pepsi: I dunno, coke? I personally don’t drink fizzy drinks really at all so when I do I can’t tell the difference haha

Disney or Dreamworks: hmmm Disney, I’m not a massive fan of modern Disney and Dreamworks is ok but a lot of my childhood faves are Disney films

Coffee or tea: You’re all going to call me unpatriotic here but I actually don’t like tea (!!) I love coffee, specifically MOCHA, I’m a bit of a mocha feind

Books or movies: Books, I love both but books I can REALLY escape into another world when I read and I think books kept me sane while I was a lonely teenager

Windows or Mac: Both for different things! For every day use Macs are much simpler and less faffy to use, Windows have so much stuff going on and pop ups and virus scans and blablabla BUT Windows is far superior for gaming. We have a mac desktop for everyday stuff and last year got ourselves a proper gaming PC, I love it 

DC or Marvel: Again, not a massive fan of either but I’ve enjoyed some marvel films, I just lose count of the amount for each franchise now and I can’t keep up haha

Xbox or PlayStation: Playstation all the way. I never had consoles growing up, just my pocket gameboy (which I still have :D)  and an atari, so didn’t discover console gaming until I met my hubby 8 years ago and he had an xbox 360 which got me massively into gaming. When the xbone vs ps4 war was on he picked the ps4 side and I just went along with it but yeah it’s awesome 

Dragon Age or Mass Effect: Tough question buuuut I will have to say Mass Effect, it was my first Bioware game and one of the first games I played that got me SO involved that I literally felt like I was grieving when it ended haha. I love Dragon Age too but I don’t think it can surpass my first big rpg love 

Night owl or early riser: Night owl for sure. I don’t do mornings at all... I stay up  until about 2/3am most nights, but I don’t have a 9-5 job so I guess I just have the same routine as other people just... moved later on? 

Cards or chess: Hmmm chess

Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate, I’m a total shameless chocoholic

Vans or Converse: Converse, I have one pair but never owned vans so I can’t comment on them! My hubby has a slight converse obsession, especially for neon/brightly coloured ones and I’m sure he’s almost got as many pairs of shoes as I do!

Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar: In general or my ocs? In general I prefer the way Lavellans fit into the story (if we’re talking DAI here anyway) but with ocs I did really love my Adaar, Kata, she did my nightmare run so she was completely badass

Paragon or Renegade: I have to say Renegade is much more fun to play, I always play my first time through games being the ‘good guy’ being nice/kind etc... my 2nd ME play through was renegade though and I had so much fun I’ve never gone back to paragon

Star Wars or Star Trek: Star Wars, I like the movies (mainly the original trilogy, not so much the prequels, but the most recent 2 were good too) not really ever got into Star Trek, I was more of an SG1 and Farscape girl growing up so Star Trek/Star Wars weren’t really on my radar until my 20s

One episode per week or binge watching: Oh binge watching every time if I watch series by myself, if the hubby and I are watching a series we *try* and space them out!

Heroes or Villains: It all depends on how they’re written/portrayed, overall I think I generally prefer villains

Kill Quinn or kiss him: I don’t know who Quinn is?

Gandalf or Obi-Wan: Gandalf all the way, mostly because I’m WAY more of a LOTR nerd than Star Wars

MMO or Single Player? Single Player, I used to play a lot of World of warcraft back in the day but mainly did the single player stuff, never dungeons or raids etc (nerd alert, when hubby and I were first going out we used to sit in his living room on our laptops and play WoW together for hours on end), but once I reached the top level with some characters I ran out of things to do without having to deal with internet twats so I stopped playing (and subscriptions are expensive!), I’m much happier in my own game world haha

Sci-fi or fantasy?  Another tough question... I’d have to say sci fi right now because I’m in that mood and so hyped for Mass Effect and Horizon Zero Dawn, not to mention Prey and the Surge that looks awesomely sci fi too... but give me Skyrim with space ships/aliens and I’d be set up for life...   

My question: Errr.... I’m stuck so I’m going to steal the question that was previously here ;) Cats or Dogs? I love both but it’s always been cats for me. I grew up with cats all my life, my parents always had 2 and when I was about 6 or 7 one of our cats had kittens and we kept two of them so I spent a good 10 years or so growing up with 4 cats in our house, my hubby was the same and his family always had cats so it was only natural for us to have our own little feline family! We have 3! I still want more... as for dogs I used to be pretty scared of them, I got pushed into a pond when I was little by a huge dog and I’ve always been pretty wary of them, I still don’t like dogs that jump up and bark at you but my piano teacher has 2 AWESOME rescue dogs that I’ve got to know over the years and they’re adorable and perfect and I now realise most dogs are pretty cool

PS. sorry for my lack of updates recently, I’ve been having trouble with my back (ah to be 30...) so it’s been pretty uncomfortable to sit at the computer and paint (or do anything really)  hopefully I can get to the chiropractor sooooon and get it sorted

[kitzatara]

Characters I hate

Because I’m a petty salty bitch. I generally hate rip off characters between dc and marvel. So people like Namor, Thanos, Black Cat, Mockingbird, a few others. Some I can accept others are forever tainted. I don’t make the rules.

DC:

Shazam- I hate literally everything about him. There’s not one thing I like. I will not be seeing the movie no matter how how good. I also hate Mary Marvel extra for being a dick to Zatanna.

Joker- we’re not friends, I hate everything he’s done. Eat a bag of dicks and let him die or stay dead. I will never forgive him for what he did to Jason, Harley, Batgirl, and literally everyone else.

Hal Jordan- He’s insufferable. Everything I see about him makes me like him less (except for the new frontier movie and some bits of the green lantern movie).

Damian Wayne- ungrateful vindictive bitch. (He’s gotten better but at the start I just couldn’t stand him and that feeling still lingers).

Booster gold- look nothing personal. I just hate his motives and methods. He’s endearing as a character but I’d rather not.

Talia- I don’t like that she raped Batman and I don’t like her all that much. She’s cool and I like specific versions where she’s a good mother.

Not a big fan of Batman or Superman or their respective fams collectively (the exceptions being Oracle and Supergirl). They bore me and I don’t like that they’re the defaults. but I’ve grown to respect what they represent. So now it’s more just discontent.

Marvel:

Iron man- I hate his ego. Ego has never been appealing or attractive to me in men. And I hate that he had to learn how not to be a bitch to people. Similar to Batman and Superman I’ve come to respect who he’s evolved into and what he represents but I still dislike him.

Stephen Strange- sane kinda deal I hate that he had to learn how to be a good person after having a massive ego. He’s just magic tony stark. Not about it.

Antman and Wasp- I hate both of them individually and I hate them together. They’re stupid bitches with stupid drama. I feel nothing when bad stuff happens to them. I will say their movies are hilarious but I literally like every other character More.

Not a fan of cyclops. It’s nothing personal we just don’t click

Jubilee- just because Jenna Marbles Hated her in a YouTube video forever ago. Then everything I learned about her made me dislike her more.

Quicksilver- he’s an egotistical dick AND a rip off. He never stood a chance.

Magneto- he’s a hypocrite. And I tend to hate hypocrisy a lot. He literally survived World War Two to become mutant hitler. I hate that.

I generally dislike Spider-Man and the spiderfam. But I fluctuate on this.

That’s all. If any of you wish to share hate or anger at characters feel free to. Even if it’s at characters I like xD I’m not the type to get mad if you hate Zee. Additionally if you have counterpoints showing why a character above is not how I’ve described I’d love to see it. A lot of them I’m not set in but I will probably hate Shazam and Ant man until the end of time.

[365footballorg-blog]

Warshaw: Running the rule over Wednesday's MLS action

USA Today Sports

October 18, 20182:03AM EDT

There were three games Wednesday night, all with playoff implications. Here are a couple notes on all six teams to roundup the night:

For United, aside from Wayne Rooney making me write “omfg” to three different friends after his game-winning free kick…

A low-key thing D.C. should feel good about is their flexibility with lineup choices. They can play different types of players within the same formation for different needs. On Wednesday night, Chris Durkin, Zoltan Stieber, and Nick DeLeon started. Sunday, it might be Junior Moreno, Ulises Segura, and Paul Arriola in their spots. Alternate lineups, alternate skill sets, without a drop in overall quality. As a result, the team can maintain its general style and principles while also adjusting for specific opponents.

A small but important variable for DC: the more they give the seemingly meaningless two-yard passes to Acosta, the more dangerous they become with their possession. Keeps ball moving + builds their orchestrator’s confidence.

— Bobby Warshaw (@bwarshaw14) October 18, 2018

We don’t think about possession enough for how it makes players feel. Touching the ball feels good. Every time a player puts his foot on the soccer ball, he feels a spurt of happiness. Sometimes you should pass the ball just to make players feel good; it builds energy and confidence. Even though that individual pass doesn’t matter, the fact that the player feels happy and confident will matter when it’s time to make a more decisive play. One reason Luciano Acosta has been so good over the last couple months (aside from the Rooney fella) is that he’s been getting lots of extra, seemingly needless touches.

For Toronto FC, the biggest difference between the Michael Bradley of 2018 and the Michael Bradley of 2017 appears to be the ability to get his body to do the “hard” things. The hard things on a soccer field aren’t tekkers skills; they are the tasks you have to dig into your heart to complete. Imagine those last three pushups when your arms are shaking and it feels like you can’t possibly push anymore and you have to make a conscious decisions to push through the pain. In soccer, those are acts like defensive transitions, sticking a toe in for a second or third time on a challenge, and moving your feet when someone tries to beat you 1v1.

Watch this foul that Bradley concedes that leads to Rooney’s free kick. He doesn’t move his feet to get a better defensive angle to cut off the passing angle; he doesn’t seem interested to fight with Yamil Asad for the next two yards. He makes the easy decision.

I’ll die on the hill that Bradley has been under-appreciated by US national team fans for years. But he hasn’t been the same in 2018.

Lucas Janson has been a good addition for Toronto. He’s a different type of player for them. For as amazing as they were last year, they didn’t have someone with his change of pace and energy off the bench. He didn’t score on Wednesday, but he stressed out D.C.’s center backs. It’s unclear whether Janson is win-a-Cup-as-a-starter good, but he’s certainly a nice third option behind Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore.

Victor Rodriguez and Handwalla Bwana got the goals tonight for Seattle, so…

Rodriguez is finally showing why the Sounders made a TAM-level investment on him. He’s comfortable on the ball and uses his low center of gravity to glide past defenders. More importantly to this specific Sounders team, he’s makes smart, dangerous runs off the ball. I highlight the word dangerous. Cristian Roldan and Nico Lodeiro have excellent movement, but it’s usually not directly dangerous toward goal. Lodeiro and Roldan often move to find the ball to feet or to make room for teammates, and Rodriguez makes that action into a goal scoring position. Rodriguez offers counter movements to the other players in his line on the field that makes the Sounders more dangerous.

Like Rodriguez, Bwana offers something unique that the Sounders might need in the playoffs. Bwana can change a game; he’s fast, fearless, and unpredictable. He’s not clean enough to be a starter yet, but he has the ability to do game-changing moments. If Seattle need a goal late in a game, Bwana is a nice option to turn to.

Seattle are now three points back of Sporting KC and LAFC, and Seattle have Houston and San Jose left on the schedule. SKC play Dallas and LAFC, while LAFC have Sporting and Vancouver. Considering at least one of SKC or LAFC need to drop points when they play each other, Seattle has a real shot of getting *at least* home field advantage for the Knockout Round.

Orlando scored! It was their first goal in more than five games. And they actually carried the match in the second half and maybe deserved an equalizer.

Matt Doyle sent me a message after Seattle’s first goal, “Dude, Orlando’s defense…” He’s right. I don’t have much to say about Orlando at this point, so let’s break down how that conversation (shouting match) probably went down in the locker room at half time. Here’s the goal to refresh your memory:

It’s Scott Sutter at right back, Shane O’Neill at right center back, Lamine Sane at left center back, and Will Johnson at left back.

O’Neill: “Lamine, where were you going?! Why did you get dragged out so far!?”

Sane: “What do you want me to do?! The guy got beyond Will! If I didn’t slide over, that runner was in on goal! You should have seen that and moved central to cover the space!”

O’Neill: “I couldn’t slide over! I had an attacker to my right! If I had come closer to you, the guy to my right would have been in!”

At which point both center backs should have turned to Sutter to yell “And what were you doing?!!!”

To which Sutter wouldn’t have a good answer. He has no reason to be so far wide on the weak side. The basic rule says the weak-side defender should be inside an imaginary line to the far post on a play like this. If the ball goes to an attacker that far wide, the defense can deal with it. If Sutter is tighter to the middle, he’s closer to the Seattle player that’s pinning O’Neill to his spot, then O’Neill could move central and track Rodriguez’s run down the middle.

We are too critical on professional players for some things. This is something we should be more critical of players for. This is an elementary tactical mistake from Sutter and the Orlando City defense.

At the 60-minute mark, I was thinking to myself, “You know what’s going to doom SKC in the end? They don’t have a player with the little extra skill or quality to make something out of nothing when they don’t look like scoring.” Then Yohan Croizet banged home a one-time curler from 18 out to tie the game. It both negates and accentuates my initial concern. Croizet was brought into this team to be that guy. They have a bunch of very good players, but they don’t have a moment-of-magic guy (think: Carlos Vela, Zlatan, Nico Lodeiro, Diego Valeri, etc). SKC don’t have the artist who sees the things the others don’t. Croizet was supposed to be it. And his goal Wednesday night reminds us of that fact, but also how rarely he does it.

SKC are good at pretty much everything. But they don’t have someone they can reliably lean on when they need it. History says you usually need that guy at some point in the playoffs.

Just when we thought Diego Rubio had won the starting striker position, Khiry Shelton makes a huge play to get Sporting their go-ahead-goal. It was a prototypical Shelton play — not pretty, and more for his teammate than himself. Then he added another assist in garbage time. In just his second appearance in three months, Shelton has possibly reasserted himself into the starting XI conversation.

BONUS: 16-year-old Gianluca Busio got his first MLS goal. He owes Johnny Russell a milkshake.

16-year-old Gianluca Busio scores his first MLS goal to make it 3-1! #VANvSKC https://t.co/GmtKb8dYDC

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 18, 2018

On Vancouver’s side, oof. Talk about opportunity missed. Vancouver controlled their own destiny. Yeah, it was a difficult journey left, with three playoff teams left on the schedule. But a win on Wednesday could have tied them on points for the 6th spot in the West. and they went up 1-0, and they led until the 60th minute. It’s a tough one to stomach. The ‘Caps can still get in, but they need help now.

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Warshaw: Running the rule over Wednesday's MLS action was originally published on 365 Football