#i falls a bit flat? i think it might be that the writers are trying too hard?

[minetowalkonglass]

ooh in 11x11 and then 11x13 they want to build the DeanAmara thing soo badly with Mildred's conversation and the shifter turning into Amara's silhouette but it's so difficult to buy into any of it :/ for ME at least

[wordsinhaled]

so i just opened up netflix and the movie hit man was on the front page and i haven't seen it, but couldn't help thinking the summary sounds like it should be a dreamling AU???

"A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client."

okay, like, maybe the endless family is fuck-off wealthy, so wealthy it's almost inevitable they're doing something illegal but it's just hard to say what because they're good at obfuscating it. hob's initial contract with law enforcement, his singular goal when being hired as a "hit man" by dream is to solicit his murder-for-hire confession, generally speaking, so the family can finally get pinned for something.

but then he spends some actual time with dream, and realizes he likes him. a lot. dream is acerbic and brooding and traumatized and always on the defensive. but he lets hob in, a little bit, because he has to. dream's dearest wish is to be a writer, but his family wants him in the family enterprise. they've stuck him with a useless branch of the corporation as punishment for not being enough aligned with the family's goals, and dream is miserable, trying to do what he loves on the side, and not to mention terribly repressed.

hob finds out dream was kidnapped and held and tortured unspeakably for a year by roderick burgess and his son. dream wants the burgesses taken out so he can finally feel some measure of peace in the world. dream even thinks some of his family were in on his kidnapping, but he doesn't have proof. having been invited to one function, as part of his cover, as dream's "friend," hob has met the family and let's just say wouldn't be surprised if dream's suspicions proved true.

dream lives in an eclectic flat full of paintings and books and ferns. he keeps a raven named matthew as a pet. his fingers are always ink-stained. he looks like he came out of a gothic vampire novel. he is, objectively, weird as fuck, and this is not the kind of case hob ever expected to be on. hob is hopeless about him. and the more he learns about what happened to dream, the more he starts to think all of fawney rig deserves to burn to the ground, with the burgesses inside.

but hob is not a real hit man. he's a fucking medieval history professor! he could tell you all about the history of weaponry, sure, but he's never wielded a weapon to actually hurt someone in his life, he could hardly wield a butter knife, he traps bugs in cups and takes them outside. yeah, hob looks tough, and he could trust himself to win in a barfight or defend the two of them from getting mugged on a street corner, or something. but that's just about it. standard stuff.

and he's been lying to dream, who trusted him, about what he does, what he's here for. if he tells dream the truth now, he's going to lose their tentative connection; betray the confidence of someone who has already been so harmed by the world, wronged by his family, and hurt unimaginably by the evilest dregs of mankind.

can what they have even be called a friendship? it doesn't matter. it might be becoming one. hob wants it to be a real friendship. he wants it to be more. he doesn't want to lie anymore; wants to be able to protect dream—never mind that he doesn't know how to. never mind that that's not what his job is actually to do. never mind that he's probably in danger now himself.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hey there

What do you think of the show pulling a Philip J Fry on Alix as per Thomas’s Twitter? And how season 5 began with “thanks for saving our lives, now get the fuck out of reality”? Personally, I would have made the duo a trio and try to get all hands on deck

I thought it was super weird and didn't really understand the in-universe logic for why Alix needed to run away. I do get the meta logic, but we'll get to that in a bit. For now, let's focus on how the show tried to justify it. This is the dialogue when Alix gets her mission:

Ladybug: Once we have retrieved the Miraculous of time, you won't return it to me. You'll have to continue wearing it in order to protect it, until Monarch is defeated. Alix: Keep it? That means... Ladybug: (crestfallen) You won’t be able to return to this time right away.

Alix keeping the miraculous makes sense, but her not being able to return to her own time doesn't. What are they worried about that doesn't apply to Ladybug and Chat Noir, too? It's not like Alix's identity was outed at any point. The miraculous would have been perfectly safe in her pocket, so that's a terrible reason to send a 15-year-old girl wandering through time with no support system.

This oddness is not helped by Future Alix's presence in both this episode and Chat Blanc. It shows us that Future Alix can mess with the past for some reason, meaning that there's no reason for her past self to go on a solo mission. If things get too bad, then Future Alix can just come back to the past and fix it.

It would have made way more sense if future Alix wasn't a thing and if the rabbit was the one miraculous Monarch didn't get, leading Ladybug to give the rabbit to Alix for safe keeping. Alix would then offer to go back to the past and change things, but Ladybug would refuse and say, "You can't change your own past! But you can protect our future. Now that Monarch is so close to reaching his goal, I need my hero of last resort to make sure he doesn't win." Then Alix could either go off to monitor the time stream or Fluff could say that it was time to start Alix's training so she knew when a situation was dire enough that it was time to interfere, thereby implying that Alix might help, but wouldn't in most cases.

Of course, those fixes fall flat since Monarch does win, but I guess that's fine since neither version of Alix stopped it? Why the wish was fine, but Chat Blanc wasn't is beyond me.

This is the problem with introducing a time traveler to your show and not giving them clear rules that prevent them from helping. It fills the story with plot holes, which is the meta reason why Alix was shipped off. The writers quickly realized that the villain really couldn't have time travel powers, so they got the miraculous back to Ladybug and then removed it from play because they had no idea how to handle time travel given how badly they've mismanaged it so far.

Almost everything that happens in Evolution is there for a similar reason. Nothing about its plot makes sense and it seems obvious to me that the events of this episode are just a sloppily attempt to fix time-travel plot holes and to make season five's plot work even though it goes against established characterization.

For example, this episode sees Gabriel give up saving Emilie because he's too tempted by the idea of beating Ladybug. This makes no sense because Gabriel has never put defeating Ladybug above saving those he loves. He's actually given up potential victories when the cost to his loved ones was too high. It's not like the writers forgot about this trait either because they bring it back to "redeem" him in the final. If he hated Ladybug more than he loved Emilie, then the season couldn't end with him listening to Ladybug and changing his wish, so him choosing fighting Ladybug over saving Emilie at the start of the season makes no sense since his character supposedly gets worse as the season goes on.

This one-off sloppy change to his character was only there so that the writers could give Nathalie an excuse to no longer support Gabriel, which is really dumb because Nathalie doesn't see Gabriel pick Ladybug over Emilie. Given that Ladybug always wins no matter how clever Gabriel's plans are, it's straight up insane for Nathalie to assume that this time was any different. Just look at this dialogue, she has no idea what happened in the burrow! She just randomly assumes the worst after three seasons of blindly following him to the point where she is actively dying because of her blind faith in Gabriel:

Nathalie: (on-call) Gabriel, did it work? Gabriel: No, Ladybug tricked me! She stole the Time Miraculous from me! (Nathalie coughs from her sickness.) You have to help me! Come up with a new plan! Ladybug can’t get away with this! Nathalie: (on-call) You had the Time Miraculous. You could’ve chosen to save Emilie! You could’ve chosen to save me! (coughs) But instead, you chose your obsession with Ladybug and Cat Noir. You're insane, Gabriel! Gabriel: (stuttering and panicking) I-It’s not my fault! It was Ladybug!!

I'd like to take a moment to remind you that one of the times Gabriel gave up winning for the sake of a loved one was when he chose Nathalie over defeating Ladybug! Why is Nathalie so certain that he acted differently here???

Circling back to your terrific trio idea, while I do like the idea of there being a larger team (but not a team of 18), Alix is the last character I'd chose for that team. It's nothing against her character. I like Alix! The problem is that her power set is broken. If she was there, then we'd be asking why she doesn't just undo the events of the season four finale or use her powers to track down Monarch's identity because canon has failed to explain why those aren't options.

To be perfectly honest, I don't think that the time traveler we see should be one of the modern kids. It just introduces too many plot holes. I think Bunnyx should be someone from the past who is watching their own future and interfering based on very clear rules that leave them almost no room to help. I think it's fine if Alix is the holder who will follow this random person from the past, but we should never see future Alix and current Alix should never mess with current affairs. Which basically means that I'd never use the rabbit for an episode focused on Ladybug and Chat Noir. I'd use it for "filler" episodes that are just about Alix learning to use her powers, which is a pretty huge deviation from the show.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Sharon Carter

Sharon is portrayed as a conniving, meddling bitch/villain in fics. Multiple authors flat-out say that they need someone to be the bitch or villain in their fics and they used Sharon. She got so much hatred based on Steve kissing her in Civil War in 2016 that Marvel Studios changed its entire plan for multiple characters. This is despite how Sharon has been Steve's main love interest in the comics since December 9, 1965. Despite being off and on for decades (three of Steve's other love interests were while she was supposedly dead, with at least one writer saying they only created the love interest because Sharon was dead at the time)

When she first appeared she was unfairly treated by fans for "getting in the way" of the Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes ship. A shame because she's a really good character. I'd talk more about how unfairly Sharon, and her actress Emily VanCamp, have been treated by the fanbase and the creators, but that's a different story.

She and Steve Rogers were meant to have a romantic relationship, but the entire fandom and many Stucky fans dislike her because it wasn’t a good ship. I think she isn’t the best but she doesn’t deserve so much hate

Elizabeth Midford

She started as just a cutie fiancée trying her best, turns out she's also a swordfighting genius, very under pressure to perform feminity in the Victorian Rose type of way. Fandom crucifies her bc she's Ciel's fiancée and they want him to be with his butler, Sebastian, the demon he sold his soul to for revenge

anime was a shitty canon divergent adaptation that butchered her character down to her "cutesy silly girly" persona, which obviously made the 2008 anime fans hate her with a passion (nothing wrong w being girly I'm just saying the adaptation made her super one dimensional) anyways fujoshis used to treat her as a villain because she's the fiance of Ciel,, who as u might know already was HEAVILY shipped with his butler, Sebastian back then (now it's kinda looked badly upon, nice tbh that ship sucks ass xD) She's a bit similar to Misa Amane from death note in the way she was treated. (Like an obstacle the yaoi ship must overcome rather than a person)

she's my silly little rabbit! i could gush about her character but i'll keep it short and just say that she's really well written and one of the best characters in the series. anyways she's ciel's fiance and she's like, rightfully annoying as any other 13 yr old girl would be but the fanbase fucking crucified her for even existing. she gets demonized for being 'annoying', but then ciel gets yaoishipped with an even more annoying guy. there is 100% an argument that lizzie/ciel is weird bc they're cousins (i personally don't ship it) but that falls flat when her detractors then ship the 13 yr old ciel with an eons old demon who Canonically looks like his father. the anime also never reached her main character development until years after its peak and that was only in a movie, so she really got the bad end of the stick here. not me though i had a giant crush on her when i was 12

[majorbaby]

Aside from being a Potter hater, I really do think it's a shame we lost Henry because McLean Stevenson was a comedic heavyweight not just as an actor but as a writer, giving us The Trial of Henry Blake and The Army-Navy Game. He was unafraid to commit whole-heartedly to the bit, and while some of Henry's heroism in Trial was probably McLean's positive bias, I think it was nice that we got to see Henry's competence as a doctor shine through despite his incompetence as a CO. On early MASH, this was the sign of a heroic character, so it falls neatly in line with what the narrative was trying to tell us anyway.

"Your boss is not your friend" but Henry didn't want to be anyone's boss and he doesn't appear to be suffering any delusions that he's any good at the job. He wants to hang out with the cool kids, Hawkeye and Trapper and do the things they do: get drunk, fuck around, practice medicine and dream of home. I can't think of a show that's replicated the Henry-Trapper-Hawkeye dynamic.

Any time Henry tries to use his rank, he ends up flat on his ass. Women reject him for it, Hawkeye and Trapper pull fast ones on him, and he never lives up to Burns and Houlihan's expectations anyway.

At one point Henry muses aloud to Hawkeye that he might be getting to do more interesting work as a doctor in the war than he was doing back home. I think this is one time I can actually stand to hear the other side of it. What Henry is expressing here is a disillusionment with comforts of upper-middle-to-upper-class suburban life, a very How did I get here??? moment for him if I may say so. And a pretty normal thing for him to feel.

I like how Larry Gelbart imagined Trapper might've responded to a similar hypothetical:

REPORTER: Do you feel this experience has in any way helped you as a doctor?

TRAPPER JOHN: Let me ask you a question: just how many people you figure’re going to be carried into my office someday with a chunk of shrapnel sticking out of their heads? I don’t know where you live, pal, but where I come from very few folks ever step on a landmine in the middle of trying to cross the street.

Instead of Henry coming to this himself, we have Hawkeye to shoot him down immediately, and good on him for it, but those kinds of initial reflections on the state of one's life are the first step to doing something about one's dissatisfaction. For a character like Henry, who isn't often moved to do anything that pushes him outside of his comfort zone, I like this as some depth for him. And I would've liked to have seen him stay on and be proved wrong, you know, without him dying on the way to his beautiful house, beautiful wife etc.

I also think McLean would've handled the shift from the more comedic to dramatic moments masterfully. We already see pieces of it in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet and Abyssinia Henry.

And most importantly we lost something when the incompetent draftee CO was replaced by the on-my-third-war-ex-cavalry-man-and-damn-proud-of-it guy. There's an assumed 'respect' everyone, even Hawkeye, is expected to afford Potter if not for his rank, then his age. This is the opposite of what was done with Henry, where Hawkeye and Trapper openly flouted the notion that they should respect Henry because of his rank.

Like even if Trapper had stayed on and continued in his unquestioning support of Hawkeye's campaigns, I don't think that would've flown with Potter unless the show was willing to make him the butt of the joke the way that Henry sometimes was and indeed there's not much evidence of it ever happening post season 4. There is that one episode where he gets high and the gang ferry him back and forth to get him to requisition supplies - which was great, and very Henry-like but I can't think of many other examples.

Because MASH was progressive for it's time, it's very interesting to see where it draws the line. It didn't do great with race, it was so-so with women all the way through... but these things seem pretty obvious and to some even forgivable on account of "it's the product of its time". I think another limit for the show was the treatment of the highest-ranking officer on the base in the later years. Henry vs. Potter - Henry who the show had no problem trampling over and Potter who it very politely tip-toed past, resulting in some comparatively lukewarm and dated statements on authority. When it comes to Potter "Your boss is not your friend" is something Hawkeye, BJ, Klinger and Radar all need to hear.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Snowflame

(WARNING! This analysis contains C-C-C-COCAINE!)

Imagine this absurd concept: A supervillain cartel boss whose powers are fueled by him getting high off his own supply. Imagine too that this man wears a ridiculous outfit, and exists to be an anti-drug PSA that fails epically because he makes doing drugs look awesome. Now also imagine that everything about him is played completely straight without a single bit of acknowledgment of how absurd and campy the whole thing is.

That, my friends, is Snowflame.

The New Guardians is a comic series that would have been long forgotten as a crusty relic of the late 80s if not for giving the world the absolute coolest villain ever conceived. Snowflame has amassed a cult following the likes of which would make Jim Jones envious, due to the sheer absurdity of his existence and the pure unadulterated action movie villain charm of his dialogue. He’s perhaps one of the most minor villains out there with only a handful of appearances to his name, but he’s loved more than villains who’ve appeared twenty times as much as him.

I’m here to show you why.

Motivation/Goals: Snowflame is a cartel leader, and so he really wants to peddle drugs. Guess which drug is his forte. Go on, guess. And that’s really all there is to him! I need to reiterate that his threat as a cartel leader is played completely and utterly straight even as he spouts off the hammiest dialogue you’ve ever seen and literally gets a power up by snorting coke. This is the very core of his appeal, in that he is something genuinely terrifying and threatening but presented in a way only a comic book can pull off.

Of course, his true motivation is far, far simpler.

Look at this man. That is the face of a man who exists solely to snort illicit substances up his nose. He lives to be high. That is the extent of his desires, and all else is second to that simple goal. As long as he can ignite and continue to be the instrument of cocaine's will, he is satisfied.

Final Fate: Every single time Snowflame shows up, he dies. In his initial appearance, he apparently blows up, but three decades later, he makes his coke-fueled return to do battle with Catwoman, and despite inhaling enough cocaine to kill an elephant, a feat that should theoretically make him nigh invincible, he fucking dies.

...Or does he? Snowflame returns yet again in Peacemaker Tries Hard! Here he does battle with, you guessed it,

...who puts a poison dart frog in his cocaine and kills him.

Maybe. My theory is that Snowflame is the Kenny of the DC universe, and whenever some bastard kills him his coke-fueled powers just respawn him the next day.

Best Scene: While his fight against Catwoman is unfortunately lackluster as ordained by the writers (Selina is not lasting two seconds against Snowflame and his coke-fueled powers under realistic circumstances), it gave us one of the most gorgeous and badass panels ever made:

Really brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

Best Quote: Yeah, there’s no fucking contest here, it’s this:

Final Thoughts & Score: I think I speak for all of us when I say Snowflame is one of the greatest fucking characters ever conceived.

Everything about him is a towering testament to what makes the medium of comic books great. The best villains tend to be the wildest and most out-there concepts, like a giant alien starfish that mind controls people, or a gay gorilla in love with a brain in a jar, or a giant racist communist egg. And don’t even get me started on the villains the Doom Patrol fights! Snowflame is the epitome of that; he is what would happen if Tony Montana was a DC supervillain by way of Captain Planet. He is absurd, over-the-top, and so goddamn cool.

It’s very obvious they were trying to do an anti-drug PSA here given the time the comic was released, but it absolutely falls flat on its face when the strawman constructed to be defeated so that the lesson might be dispersed is an absolute lunatic who dresses in colorful spandex and spouts off the most epic lines to ever come out of a villain’s mouth. Everything about him is absurd, but unlike something like Egg Fu he’s absurd in a tasteful and cool way rather than a shockingly racist way. Snowflame is just a dude who snorts cocaine to gain superpowers, it’s as simple as that and yet it’s also completely bonkers.

It’s genuinely unsurprising that this guy managed to get such a massive cult following that he spawned a fanmade webcomic and then got to pop up in the comics again over three decades after his supposed death. And it’s said cult following that has allowed him to pop up time and time again, even getting an appearance in the fourth season of Harley Quinn. I’m sure you can guess that I’m part of that massive cult fanbase, and I can only dream of writing a villain as incredible and grandiose as this drug-addled madman. Infinity/10 isn’t a real score, so he’ll have to settle for a 10/10 instead.

...Oh yeah, remember in the Egg Fu review when I said I wasn’t going to review Hemo-Goblin?

Psycho Analysis: Hemo-Goblin

This is gonna be really short, because there is so little to this guy. He is a one-shot, but boy what a fucking shot he is. Hemo-Goblin is a racist vampire created by South African white supremacists to give members of the New Guardians AIDS. You read that right. This is a racist AIDS vampire.

Now, unlike Egg Fu, who was a horrible racist caricature created from topical anti-communist sentiments of the time, Hemo-Goblin was seemingly created with better intentions. But you know what they say about intentions; the road to Hell is paved with good ones. I get wanting to do a commentary on the AIDS crisis, and I don’t think it’s out of the question for a superhero book to handle such a thing, but maybe having an AIDS-powered vampire give HIV to a Jamaican woman and a gay man isn’t the most tasteful and nuanced way to do this.

Oh, and by the end of his only appearance, he dies of AIDS in jail.

I’m not gonna lie, guys: I kinda love this stupid fucking creature. His weird design, the absurdity of his concept, and the awful execution of his premise makes him memorable for all the wrong reasons, but he’s memorable nonetheless. I think if Snowflame didn’t exist and wasn’t the coolest villain ever, more people would talk about the insanity that is Hemo-Goblin, though having a single appearance before dying and never appearing again doesn’t help his case much. Still, he’s just cazy enough to earn himself a 3.5/10, so he’s got that going for him.

[aevallare]

interview with the vampire author!

i was tagged by @pursuitseternal! thank you!!! <3

When did you start writing?

i don't remember a time that i wasn't. i used to carry around a little pink notebook that i was absolutely precious about. i didn't go anywhere without it.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

i don't write much mystery; i love it, but i just don't think i'm clever enough haha.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

someone who hates my pussy once compared me to sarah j maas lmao

i'd love to be compared to barbara kingsolver - she's probably my all-time favorite author. others whose style i chase after while constantly falling flat on my face include gabriel garcía márquez, ursula k. leguin and. well. neil gaiman. but. yeah.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

it is my desk! and it is boring! i have a few knick knacks and trinkets around, but it's also my gaming space. i have a drinky drink. i have a nail file. i have a tube of concealer in case i forgot about a zoom meeting lmao.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

my toxic trait is that trying to muster up a muse is the devil talking. if you want to write and the inspiration isn't there, it's about discipline.

that's not to say i never get inspired. music gets me going in a way that's tough to duplicate. other than that, it's really effective to go back and read what i've already written.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

the transformative (positive and negative) power of love. anger as a coping mechanism. the non-linear nature of healing.

none of these surprise me lmao.

What is your reason for writing?

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

i love them all.

i've had several that are really touching but i can't really think of a common thread that draws them all together.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i want people to think that i work hard and that i really, really, really love to create.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

i think nobody slips into a character's skin like i do.

How do you feel about your own writing?

i think it's good.

i think it's got a long way to go.

i think it's always there for me even when nothing else is.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

i don't write for the masses and i don't write if i think there's no story worth telling, but i do sometimes think "oh. i have a friend who would love this." and then an idea i was lukewarm on can suddenly become very interesting.

sorry this took so long!!! i have no idea who all has been tagged. sorry! @again-please @dwarfsized @deltatime @ghouliar0berts @cosmolis @amoremagnificentbastard @molgars

[itsbubbleteataro]

The Radio Host and the Reporter

Pt 3

Parings; Human!Alastor x Fem!Human!reader

Warnings; drinking, ooc Alastor as he's a little on the drunk side?

1923 - Summer

You and Alastor had been together for a few months now. You've even met his mother, a wonderful woman with thick curly black hair and chestnut skin. A pleasant woman who had just fallen sick. The stress of his mother falling ill had only spurred Alastor to go on more hunts.

Still, the two of you managed to keep your secrets under wraps. However one day he became very close to finding out yours.

Alastor had gone to a speakeasy and you had taken the opportunity to sneak out while he was away. You used your bronzing makeup to look you more look masculine, and had wrapped several bandages around your torso to make you appear flat like a man. You stuffed the toes of your loafers with cotton so they would fit. They were a men's size, so they would naturally be a bit large on you. Second you threw on the dress pants you had borrowed from your brother as well as the dress shirt. You tucked your pen in the shirt pocket as you adjust the suspenders and tighten the belt.

Looking in the mirror you fix your hair to be stuffed in your paperboy cap, adjusting so a few strands are out to make you look masculine. You then open up the window in your room, and jumped out, closing the window behind you after grabbing a small pad of paper that fits in your pocket.

Skipping the parts of land that are prone to leaving foot prints, you make your way down to a speakeasy to gain more information on your next story. Unfortunately for you, it's the same on Alastor is in after a rough day at work.

Walking in your greeted by lighting of the establishment. The sound of smooth Jazz by a subpar band. The smell of drinks fill the room. You look around, eyes landing on a certain familiar form, hunched over a few fingers of rye. His hand in his hair that has long returned to its naturally curly state.

Against your better judgment you go ahead and walk inside, getting a drink yourself. You just hope that Alastor is too lost in his own thoughts to notice you. As you walk past the table you hear a very familiar voice calling to get your attention,

"Hey, newshawk. Prowling for a new story? Come here lend me your ear. I got a story you might wanna hear"

You look confused for a split second before you realize that Alastor is tipsy. That paired with your more masculine appearance made you realize you may be finally be able to ask straight forwards questions to him. Not that you couldn't normally, but you didn't out of fear of your little secret coming out.

Alastor is a smart man, there's no denying that. He had questioned the type writer he had found in your home when he came over for the first time. You struggled to even have a passable excuse, saying it was a gift from your brother.

Now here you sat, next to him, note pad open and a finger of rye infront of the two of you. You click your pen and clear your throat. You had to tread carefully here, if he were to even recognize your voice, you knew it would all be over for you. The cat would be out of the bag.

Recently you have started to cover missing people's reports. You were a bit glad Alastor was willing to answer any questions you may had, it would be much better and easier than breaking into the radio station and looking around for hints yourself.

You took a sip of your rye, and take a deep breath, trying to relax your voice as you spoke,

"Thank you sir. You are Alastor correct? Working at the station in town?"

You smile inwardly at the sound of your voice, now sounding a bit raspy. Alastor nods his head confirming your questions.

"Surely you have then heard that, oh what was his name, Charles Smith? Yeah Charles Smith. He went missing a few days ago."

You watched as his hand tightened on his glass, his knuckles turning white from the strain. You raise an eyebrow and make a note, thinking he was simply just close to the man. You ask a few more questions, watching his reaction carefully as well as his answer.

As the night ticks on, you notice that Alastor seems ready to leave. You take that as a hint and excuse yourself. You quickly make your way home, shedding your disguise, and hiding your notebook.

You dawn a simple looking dress knowing Alastor would be dropping by for dinner. You fixed your hair and went to your kitchen

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

[drdemonprince]

I feel like you've answered a question on this before, so sorry if my search skillz failed me. how do you keep a playful attitude when trying new things? I started a book on wu-wei/'trying not to try' that has made me feel a bit hopeless so far, as I know that approaching things more casually/playfully will help it feel less painful (social situations, job search, dating, etc), but apparently you can't consciously try to be playful?!

Hmmmm this is a tricky question to answer, because it is far easier to describe what the end state feels like than to explain how I got there. But I will try!

I think if you're someone who tends to be quite skeptical and cynical about things, your first instinct during difficult situations might be to turn that skepticism toward yourself. You watch yourself trying to complete the new activity, or talk to the unfamiliar person, and all you can see is the flaws, and you tell yourself, "yeah, nice try bozo, you're never going to be good enough at this / it's never going to be worth it" and what do you know, you are crestfallen and unmotivated. And now that you're judging yourself and feeling shitty, it's even more difficult to complete the task.

but, in my experience in graduate school, developing as a creative writer, and just fumbling my way through social mores, there comes a time when you stop turning that skepticism on yourself all the time, and instead direct it outward, and begin to notice just how fucking confused and fucked up everybody else's attempts are. and if you're lucky, you might even notice other people's foibles and missteps with a sense of affection, rather than cruelty.

the more you step outside of yourself and observe others, the more you notice all the awkward things people say, the strange moments of crossed wires and missed signals, the jokes that fall flat, and just how much people really do not care about all of that so long as you keep engaged and keep your energy open and keep trying.

i have never seen a neurotypical socialize flawlessly. they say rude weird ass things and bump into other people all the fucking time! but they just keep going. often they don't even realize they've done anything wrong. and maybe they haven't even done anything wrong really. perfection isn't really what is expected. the energy is what matters more than the execution, and so if they move around with an open, receptive quality to themselves, and keep learning, they can get by being a little awkward or confused just fine.

and once you recognize how much people are fucking up all the time and that it doesnt really matter, and nobody really cares, for me it gets a lot easier to saunter around being my own level of messy and loose too. i used to judge how inept and oblivious everybody was -- at work, in school, during the hangout, on the train. and at some point i realized it was actually beautiful and something i could feel affectionate about.

it turns out you do not need to worry about everyone behind you in line at the grocery store hating you for taking too long putting your change away. AND you dont have to be mad at the guy in front of you who takes five minutes to put his change away either. because YOU are HIM and HE is YOU and we all suck and that's great.

it's fucking funny how silly and sloppy and dazed a lot of people really are. everybody fucks up constantly and is fucking weird. so who cares! i dont need to evacuate the space because i forgot myself and started picking my nose in public for a second. i can just rub my hand on my pant leg and move on. i dont need to give up going to the comic book club because me and one other guy there got into a small argument. i can come back the next month and make a joke about it with him. that's just normal messy human stuff.

the writer david cain talks about coping with social anxiety by imagining other human beings as kittens that have been dumped out from a basket into the room. they roam around, falling over themselves, exploring and sniffing and doing kitteny things, and none of them are a threat to you ever, and their actions dont mean all that much and certainly aren't all that menacing, they're just silly little animals fumbling around.

and i like to think of humans that way. we goof off, we devote an entire supposedly very serious work meeting to discussing something only tangentially relevant but far more emotionally compelling, we make up all kinds of games to play and weird rules for those games, and then we break the rules of those games and forget them. none of this shit is like, real. and the people who recognize what a goofy joke it is are often the most powerful.

not taking anything too seriously makes me feel powerful. im cynical and skeptical about everything that i get told is an airtight social or procedural rule, and i experiment around the boundaries of it, to see where it bends. but whereas i used to do that in a very bitter and entitled way, trying to find my way "out" of a system I had disdain for, now i can sometimes play with these boundaries and laugh at myself for tripping over them at times and just keep on moving, because that's what everybody does.

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

if you click the unrebloggable red catboy haterade readmore it's your own damn fault

i am so tired of people trying to defend g'raha's writing in ew

"they're capable of subtlety" switching between being a manipulative asshole and the writer's most perfect prince who can never do wrong and is the wol's bestest friend 5ever (don't look at shb) and never allowing the player/other characters to say "dude wtf" at the former is not "subtle writing", it's complete lack of awareness that the character is being an asshole

like it was bad enough that the writers forced you to be buddy-buddy with him in shb with only a token option of expressing mild distaste , doing that and also making it very clear that he's still a manipulative shithead (because if he was meant to trying to put on a brave face they would have had a "dude wtf" line where he would have apologized in the post-credits, not acted like the promise made under duress was still valid) is just bad fucking writing given that on the other side of the corridor is zenos, who they constantly deny even acknowledgement of his humanity

you can try to compare it to urianger's writing but uri's writing never flinches away from the fact that he's being a fucker when he's being a fucker even when played for comedy, and they still have this gaping gap of not touching the fact that urianger functionally killed thancred's foster daughter/little sister onscreen (while they probably would have realistically hashed it out over like 3 years, you really don't get to see any of that at all so it's very strained; even having thancred still kind of mad before he gets snatched and having the more cordial relationship we normally see during shb would have communicated that better).

idk. so much of ew is just written really damn poorly (even parts that, in isolation, i find acceptable to actively enjoyable (ie the 6.0 zenos cutscenes) end up falling flat in context) because of external factors forcing the sardine treatment for plot points and i'm tired of seeing people pretend that it's not. i can't exactly compare the gameplay side well given i started in 6.0, but i can break down the writing just fine and ew's fucking dire even if you consider how heavily i weigh 4.2-4.3 against stb.

i really hope they sideline the scions besides krile (or tataru, but i think she's probably going to live in side content for a while and krile has been badly neglected for so long). i don't want to interact with g'raha again anytime soon but especially not if his writing remains this bad. either acknowledge that he can be an asshole and let me be colder to him or stop bringing him up, i'm fine hating major recurring characters if they're actually well written (asahi, varis, thordan) and the catboy isn't at this point, and even when he was better-written there was still the major problem of "let me call him a dick or at least untrustworthy you pricks".

"what about estinien don't you like him" if they just have him being a weird hungry vagrant that only shows up sometimes to be deeply strange and get mobbed by baby mamool ja that is ideal, actually, i love when he's a bit of a freak. or they could have him get adopted by another fancy prince, having him repeatedly reel in powerful fancy prince types with the power of

dragon autism

would be the funniest shit on the planet.

but like. i want a break from even the scions i like, barring maybe the twins, and the twins are best when i don't have to refer to them as a unit, yknow? i want new people to take center stage. i'm not going to get that given the trailer, but god. please. make this the erenville-and-wuk lamat show with cameos by the scions and not the other way around. they can come back in 8.0.

(plus, doing that might mean we don't have the fifth expansion straight of y'shtola death fakeouts (i counted: arr/hw (given timing it's hard for me to define where catgirl blunt best belongs), stb (vs Zenos), shb (sailor moon catgirl), ew (ultima thule)). i am so fucking tired of her fakeouts. do literally anything else with her as a character i BEG OF YOU. we all know you aren't killing Miss Final Fantasy 14. her fans would flay you. the merch sales would plummet.)

[scenetocause]

For the director's cut thing: At the end of Climb up to your lips, you implied Max F and Logan might be A Thing, and I'd love to hear more about that if you want to share ❤️

idk if i'll ever actually finish the logan perspective thing i started writing midway through the main story bc actually when i looked back at it i was like these are really just my own background notes what do you think you are jrr tolk himself you don't have to publish stuff you wrote for your own reference. but hey if there ever was a medium for all your stupid lore and self-fanfic then it surely is a o three dot org (note to old men fantasy writers etc) so maybe i will.

basically the thesis is that logan, like oscar at the start, is lonely and can't get what he wants, which is a boyfriend. both him and oscar have resigned themselves to never being able to reconcile their ambitions in f1 with anything that fulfils them in that way and sort of let their friendship settle as a pseudo-standin where they can hang out and be each other's person to take to things, go to dinner with, whatever and just live in suspended animation until something (???) happens and they get disney prince rescued.

something does happen for girloscar which is that she isn't so much disney prince rescued as like, dragged into a bath by a wet cat. and she can't believe this is happening because she's fancied lando for ages, used to pine at him from the alpine pit wall so much she got caught by otmar once, who mistook it for trying to steal secrets off mclaren and she had to make something up about the front wing.

she's so excited to be teammates with him but also so, so mortified and trying really hard to be normal about it. logan's thrilled to be in f1 at all but also realising that deal he had for fucking about a little bit with some of the f2 guys was just fucking about for them when their girlfriends weren't on the travel budget and definitely won't survive being in different paddocks.

oscar gets lando and logan gets lonelier. at the same time, his season's falling apart and everyone's announcing his career dead before it feels like it's had a chance to start. he has to rely on benny and james and benny starts to, gently, put distance between them to keep it professional, manage logan's expectations. so he clings to james, at the same time as knowing this is probably the worst possible way to try and keep his seat and that it's going nowhere, the team principle not a viable fuckbuddy, let alone anything more.

enter jenson button. hot dad, sympathetic ear, special advisor to williams. whiskey supplier. a man who's there to help you celebrate your first f1 point and certainly isn't going to argue if that involves a bit of fucking your brains out. lovely, sweet, gentle, funny jenson who makes logan feel special and loved and sweeps him up from his flat in london in fancy cars to go to fancier restaurants as though he deserves the champagne.

and then goes home to his wife and kids.

somewhere along the way, hurting during the 2024 season, logan has to break it off. he wants what oscar and lando have, not this. it was glamorous and exciting and giving him the confidence he was part of this world he's fighting to stay in, for awhile but then it starts making him realise he'll only ever be the number two in that situation, forever out of contention for the real prize. it's all a bit on the nose.

so he stubbornly struggles through 2024, single as fuck and finding himself taking rather than giving advice to oscar about things to stick up your arse, which feels lonelier than ever before. in miami the combination of his and oscar's shit weekend and lando's good one leads to him coming out for a few drinks and ending up fucking one of the mclaren pr guys. he has a meltdown when he sees the papaya shirt on the floor the next morning.

pr guy's very discreet about it, although he keeps smiling at logan every time they cross paths and logan's about 85% sure there isn't actually a need for him to follow oscar so closely, actually. logan's shaky position makes someone being so into him about as comfortable on his skin as sweaty fireproofs but that doesn't stop him being desperate enough to fall into bed with the guy again once he has something to celebrate. once he realises he's charlie-from-marketing's jenson figure.

he's not an asshole so he does take the guy on a few dates, try and romance him a bit. maybe he, too, can find love with a mclaren twink, it worked for oscar after all. but it just doesn't click, the guy doesn't really understand him, too in awe of the fact he's getting screwed by an f1 driver to notice the bedsheets are ikea and one of the pillows is pretty badly tearstained. that logan's barely clinging to his ride, feels like he is what they're saying; one of the worst ever, not even brave enough with the car to crash as spectacularly as latifi.

logan doesn't exactly break it off but says he needs them to take a break while he's negotiating his contract, can't risk anything. it's not a huge surprise when a few week's later it's obvious the guy's moved on with ollie bearman. like his last relationship, it's all a bit on the nose.

2025 gives him time to work out what he really wants. f1 might not be it, life might be better somewhere else. he starts talking to formula e teams, wondering if a life in papaya might not be that bad after all provided he didn't have to see oscar and lando mooning over each other. and that's not even fair because oscar asks him to be her best man and he's stoked, especially because lando's is max and they've stayed in touch, still hang out. max is doing a few bits racing gts, initially as a quadrant thing but then it turned out he was more than good enough to be in demand as the pro to a gentleman driver who was so eager to get back in a race car he didn't really negotiate on price, even.

logan avoids asking him about it but max is fucking hype about how mint the 24 hours of spa is. fucking mental, mate. you're throwing it up eau rouge with a bunch of blokes who wear suits, like proper suits not race suits, all week in the pitch dark and it's shitting it down with rain and you think: i shouldn't be enjoying this, should i? should really be driving into the pits and saying no thanks, that's absolutely mad, can't be doing that sort of business. but then when it's happening you're like, properly into it, aren't you? got a podium in misano, mate, it was mad. blowie off one of the mechanics, that didn't happen in f3 did it haha mind you guess they would've been a bit of a nonce back then wouldn't they. you should come to a race i'll get you vip, they'll go mental for an f1 driver being there mate, they went mad when bob dropped into brands and he was only there five minutes.

logan doesn't say that he thinks he has a lot less star power than lando but they do give him vip anyway. he's never been to magny cours before, it feels weighted with that type of european history the classic race tracks do, like another thing that might find out who he is and reject him.

even if the circuit isn't embracing him, max does. complains about logan being so fucking tall, mate, it's annoying, i swear you were smaller than me once. he wasn't but max can pretend that, if it helps. max is jangling with nerves, rushing between trying to sort things out with the team - because it's not like, you know, f3 and that, you have to set the car up so the other bloke can drive it the best he can and then you just sort of have to cope with how it is. actually, that's quite like f3 innit? do you remember in fucking silversto- nah, let's not think about that right now.

it's nice. it's nothing to do with f1. even with the quadrant logos, that's max's thing, no weird haunting of lando around and it's not like logan dislikes the guy, at all, it's just that it's nice that this is all theirs. logan can breathe out, relax, laugh properly for what feels like the first time in ages because no one's scrutinising his every move and max gives him a headset and tells him to listen out for when he's boxing, put the fucking kettle on, yeah?

logan falls asleep on max's hotel bed, listening to him recount the whole story of a race he just watched. max tucks him in, rather than the trophy and if they wake up hugging that's no one's business but theirs. didn't used to do blowies in f3, either but when there's something to celebrate and max really is so small, so cute, so unselfconscious about everything because it's just them, yeah. doesn't have to be a massive fuss like bob and oscar, do you want a lift back to the uk? i've got space since bob moved his fucking golf clubs out the boot finally.

oscar and lando get married a week later and it's very oscar and lando. logan didn't have a date to bring, didn't even think about it before he saw george's girlfriend and kelly and the sharp stab of whoever lewis' guy is. logan knows there's no point being jealous on that scale; he couldn't be lewis, on any level but everyone wants, don't they?

max doesn't have a date either. probably doesn't need to hold logan's hand while they're waiting for lando and oscar to do their vows and max is crying and maybe logan's crying too. they have to stay behind to clear up the flower petals, getting tutted at in french while max rolls his eyes and says they should try being told off at Viry, fucking hell.

if they're later to the reception than is strictly necessary because as they were leaving max turned round and said "do you think, mate. you know, we could - one day" and logan decided to stop living on borrowed time and properly make out with him against the harbour wall. have to stop because they're getting dangerously close to third base and max is breathy and gasping and telling logan he can have this. they always were equals, each others' biggest rivals, maybe they're meant to be here, bright eyed and hair disarrayed and grinning at each other, not the places they've been struggling.

oscar's definitely onto them, makes some really crude comments about it being traditional for the best man and head bridesmaid to fuck, innit and logan has to tell her to fuck off and bother her husband. they are properly cute, though, aren't they? never thought bob would be able to hold a relationship together but she's properly straightened him out, who knew he just had to get pegged- fuck, pretend i didn't say that. oh, how did you know, too?

logan and max normally stay with lando and oscar when they're in monaco. but there's only one spare room and this doesn't feel the moment to drop that announcement, as well as they do not want to hear what those two pervs are doing to each other tonight. so they're in different hotels but everything in monte carlo's pretty much the same place, pick logan's on the basis it's nearer the casino and they can go for a late night, last drink once they've got oscar and lando's very drunk dads into a cab.

kissing when they're in fancy suits is hot. fucking when they're out of them is hotter. when logan slides home into max's body and sees him gasp, feels his hands curl on logan's shoulders as they both moan and if it's too much like lovemaking then, well. maybe that's what they're doing. creating something, between them. something that's all theirs and they can choose without anyone else's decisions or approval. no need to wait in limbo or have to guess what happens next, which is that they come on each other and then curl up together, max sprawled on logan's chest all happy and sated and real.

he doesn't wait for the f1 decision, to make plans. racing drivers aren't patient and he finally feels like one again, especially every time his boy brings home a trophy like it's theirs. logan starts adding to the collection, too. both of them get to push, at last. they've always been good at doing that for each other.

[blade-that-was-broken]

I genuinely dont know how you can make me go insane with literally all your fics.... like how are all of them so good?????? I literally want to bash my head open and scream into the sky so god can hear how much a love your stories

Anyways, I know you already have like a million wips and on-going fics but the Jd and "hallucination" Clay one is amazing and I need more to survive the winter (also anamnestic Jd and half-life, but again, million wips so I wont actually ask u to write more about them bcs actively upgrading all of this should be genuinely inhumane). The point is..... uhm, love your work youre a genius and I want to affectionately eat your work like a wild dog keep writing 😺👍

Not me almost busting into tears and falling flat on my face. Pffftttt that can’t be me. It has been months and several people and I just cannot for the life of me wrap my head around the fact that people really, actually, like my writing.

I know it's fanfic and the characters aren't mine (I'm really sad I can write fanfic but cannot for the life of me work out a plot for my original characters) but it blows my mind! I'm so freaking glad you like it. It makes me so happy ya'll literally have no idea. Warms this lonely friendless soul LOL (no need to bash ur head and scream, God can hear you just fine haha)

I didn't want to have a million wips but I shouldn't be surprised. The list of original characters I have... the wips are pretty on par with me in terms of numbers haha

When my brain allows, I try to write some Clay and JD stuff cause that just ajdshjsbdejw I love (when it’s not them on opposite sides, that’s not my jam) and it’s just….. hmmm yeah.

Things We Lost has amnesiac JD AND Clay xD lol it’s just a one shot but I went through a bit of an amnesia JD phase for a second there.

Divided Frame of Mind has JD and hallucinations - or rather, JD thinking he does. That’s a reunion one shot fic.

And as much as I shriek about John and Spruce in Half Life… John and Clay are just oooooofffff yes. I’m a bit scared to finish a drawing of them but one of these days I’d like to. Or some kind of drawing. Idk.

As for Something to Remember, I had something written up - just a bit - for them meeting up with Bruce but someone suggested something about Bruce and Clay finding out together so I'll probably scrap it. But I also might throw the snippets out here into the internet void, depending on how I feel.

But I love, love, love answering questions so honestly, if you have a question about anything, feel free. If I feel like it's too big of a spoiler - I'll just put warnings and under a reading break. But like for real, I'm an open book.

Thank you so much though. I am so freaking happy that you like my writing. I was friends with an aspiring author for a really long time and I never really thought of myself as much of a writer. We wrote stuff, of course, and eventually I wrote fanfic (started off in Star Wars. It was a hard hitter haha) but I never really considered myself much you know, writer-y so it's truly crazy to me seeing people like my stuff.

[soleminisanction]

This might seem a bit out of the blue to you, but I just wanted to say your old posts about Stephanie Brown changed my mind on her quite a bit, even if I still don't feel quite as strongly about it as you seem to haha. Overall she's a character with some interesting potential to her backstory, but she's been written awfully over the years. Your points are all really well-argued, even though for me it's hard to look past the Doylist context of the choices made with her character; from plain poor writing to mysoginy to editorial mandates and whatnot, so it's tough for me to outright *hate* her, but when I put the Watsonian glasses on... yeah, she does kinda suck, and Batgirl 2009 is pretty darn shallow. And honestly, TimSteph shippers outright baffled me--well, no they didn't, a lot of their outrage at the breakup was just pure biphobia, but if I were giving people the benefit of the doubt and assuming they genuinely liked the relationship as presented from Rebirth onwards it's like... why tho. They're such a boring couple, leaving aside the toxicity of Post-Crisis because I don't know much about it and just ick. Idk what I'm even saying here. Just expressing appreciation for the effort put into your posts even if I don't agree with absolutely every interpretation, I guess. Keep on keeping on

Thank you. I appreciate you saying all that.

It's not like I'm unaware of the Doylist reasons behind all the events that happen in-comics, I just don't agree with the idea that the way to fix that is to brush huge swaths of a character's history under a rug. That's just not how you do it if you're trying to reclaim a character who's been sexistly victimized, not if you're doing it well -- they didn't do it with Barbara after Killing Joke, or Carol Danvers after Avengers #200, or Gwen Stacy when creating Spider-Gwen, or with Harley when transitioning her into anti-hero, and those all resulted in great stories.

And male characters have to deal with the aftermath of bad shit they pulled under other writers all the time. Wally West only just put a final capstone on the events of Heroes in Crisis last month. Over in Batman, Bruce is catching the brunt of fall-out from both the Babel Protocol and the Batman of Zur-en-arrh. Hank Pym got labeled an infamous wife beater because one artist misinterpreted a script direction. Roy Harper has only just recently gotten back everything that Cry for Justice took from him.

So yeah, I think it's only fair to do the same with Stephanie, and that it does the character a major disservice not to. More than that, it's lazy. The least amount of effort needed to get people on the internet to stop yelling at them.

Killing her off for Bruce's manpain and having her around, alive, but presented as a flat, perfect little Princess Badass with a bland "quirky" personality and no interests outside the immediate needs of the plot are both examples of sexist writing. If you want to engage with her as a character you need to embrace the fact that she can be kind of an asshole, that she's got negative emotions and bad opinions and shitty ideas and things that she just plain sucks at. Of course she does! She's human!

That's all feminist writing really means. Treating women like they're human instead of just a plot convenience. It should not be that hard.

[angelst4re]

hiii ur my fav writer !!!! would u be comfortable writing a jamie x trans boyfriend where he’s comforting them when they’re feeling insecure? it’d mean so much to me :( 🫶

hii!!! of course!!! thank you so much omg :') this means so much to me, and i hope you like it!! there were so many different ways i planned this, but this was the version i wrote! i've also never written for trans reader before so i was so happy to see this request ahhh!!!

Perfect- Jamie Campbell Bower x FTM Reader

summary: you're feeling a bit insecure about how you look, but jamie's there to comfort you :)

warnings: negative feelings??

note: there needs to be more gender neutral, male and trans reader jamie fics :( also i don't really like how i wrote this :( i hope it's okay, i think i should've gone with my original idea!! ALSO i was supposed to be taking a break but i got tonsilitis so here i am <3

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“Are you almost ready?” Jamie’s voice called from the other side of the bedroom door, although you didn’t hear him.

You were going out to meet his friends for the first time today, and you had spent the last 20 minutes going through every item of clothing you own, trying to find something you actually felt comfortable in, but nothing was working. Every nice t-shirt you owned showed your chest in a way you wished it wouldn’t, your only pair of jeans felt too tight, like they were a second skin. The only option you had left were a pair of joggers and a hoodie, but you wanted to wear something nice. You wanted to make a good impression.

But it was taking too long. You have gone through everything you own.

You gave up. In a wave of anger, you pulled the t-shirt over your head and threw it to the floor, staring frustrated into the mirror. Your eyes scanned over every part of your body that you wished you could change, that you wished could be different. You were so caught up in the moment that you didn’t notice Jamie had been in the room with you.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, gently.

“How long have you been here?!” You gasped, jumping back from the mirror, covering up your chest with your arms. Although you wore your binder, you still didn’t want him seeing anything.

“I’ve only just come in… why are you covering yourself up, are you okay, love?” He asked, genuinely worried about you.

You shook your head, slowly letting your arms fall to your sides as you looked back into the mirror.

“I think I might just stay here today, I’m sorry, Jamie. Nothing looks right and it’s making me feel like shit. I don't want to go anywhere.” You huffed, sitting down on the bed, burying your face in your hands.

“Hey,” Jamie pouted, coming to sit next to you, “I'm sorry you feel like that, love. My friends are really looking forward to meeting you, they’ve been asking to meet my boyfriend for the longest time. What’s wrong with the way you look?”

“My chest doesn’t look flat enough. No matter what I wear or what I do, you can still fucking see it.” You told him, feeling yourself becoming overwhelmed from the frustration, you felt your eyes begin to well up with tears. “I fucking hate how I look! When they see me, they’ll think-”

“Hey, hey, don’t say that.” Jamie intervened, taking your hands into his, attempting to calm you down, “you are perfect, okay? You are perfect. Every inch of you. You're the most beautiful person I've ever met. Inside and out, darling. There’s no need to worry about what they’ll think, they’ll think you’re amazing, just like I do!” You rest your head on his shoulder and he starts to play with your hair as he continues to tell you how much he loves you, how he adores you- you used to struggle believing him in the beginning, in the early days when he had first asked you to be his boyfriend, but he had proved it, he reminded you every day, he would never let you forget how amazing you are and how much he truly loves you.

You felt Jamie’s arm snake around your back, holding you close to him as he rubbed your back comfortingly.

“You’re the most important person in my life, y/n. I love you so much, if this is really overwhelming you then it’s okay, we can stay here. I just don’t want to see you upset, my love.” He says, kissing your forehead.

“No, it’s okay, I’ll still go.” You say, pulling away from Jamie, eyeing up his hoodie. He’s given you that one to wear before and it was really comfortable, and you loved how it smelt like him.

“Oh, I see what you want,” he chuckled as he stood up, playfully sighing as he pulled the hoodie over his head- allowing you to catch a glimpse of his v-line. He placed it on your lap with a smile, “it’s always looked better on you anyway.”

You slipped the hoodie over your head, a small smile creeping on to your lips as you realised it still smelt like him.

[spectre-writes]

Okay, so… Trigun Stampede thoughts. All 3.3k of them. Goes without saying this will include stampede spoilers, but there will also be some spoilers for trimax and the og anime too. And there will be some critique, but understand that’s coming from a place of love (because I do love the show), but if you’re someone who just can’t deal with people critiquing things you like then uh maybe pass?

I’ll preface this by saying that I never watched the og anime back in the day. I think I tried to watch the first episode a few years back because everyone went on about it being a classic, but I just didn’t vibe with it so I gave up. So for me, there was never any nostalgia involved in my perspective on the show and on stampede as an adaptation. I watched stampede first… well, the episodes that were out at the time, and for some reason my brain just latched onto it. I then watched the og anime in its entirety, read the whole manga, and then watched the remaining stampede episodes as they came out.

Visually, stampede is stunning. I know a lot of people are ‘eh’ about CG but it was pulled off really well, the action is so fluid and the characters are still very expressive. The og anime was a product of its time - it felt very static by comparison, and the fight scenes just weren’t as intense. Some of the wacky faces and things were cool but overall I feel like stampede was a glow up in the visual department.

The tone is definitely darker than the og anime, but I think it’s still not as dark as the manga gets… whether that will change in season 2 we’ll have to see. It did strike me as odd that stampede seems to pulls its punches in some places? Like when Knives makes his grand appearance, at the end of that episode we get a shot where Gofsef and his dad are both bandaged and alive, which was weird? Because Nebraska was screaming about how EG killed his son? Like… did he just never bother to go check? Narratively it’s a strange choice considering they’ve both served their purpose by the end of episode and it feels like the writers both want to punish Vash emotionally for those he failed to save, but also leave them alive?

Same goes for Tonis to a degree… it would have been even more heart wrenching if they had died (especially for Meryl), and it’s not like the show doesn’t do horrible things to children at other points… Knives was just cutting a lot of arms off that episode I guess. But overall, the darker tone works for me - I like that sort of thing, though I get why fans of the old show might miss many of the more lighthearted elements. 

There are quite a few changes from the manga/og anime to stampede, some of which I really like, some I’m less sure about. Guess I'll use bulletpoints for this.

Removing the whole 'Vash creeping on women' thing was absolutely needed, that trope can go die, thank you.

I love how they really leaned into the whole ‘millions knives’ thing and just… gave him a million knives. Made him feel so much more threatening as a villain than he did in the og anime, and fits with the abilities he shows off later in the manga. 

Changing his original name from Knives to Nai (Kni?) makes way more sense than calling a child Knives too.

I’m personally fine with them changing Merly to a reporter and adding Roberto - the insurance girl thing seems a bit silly for the tone they’re going for in stampede, and as it’s also a prequel it gives her room to grow into the character she is after the events of July. And since we know we’re getting Milly in season two I don’t consider ‘no Milly’ a valid complaint.

I don’t mind the changes to Elendira, it’s a way to explain her powers and I think with the timeskip there’s a very real chance we’ll see her more like her manga counterpart in season 2, and I appreciate what they’re trying to do with the whole plant experimentation thing. Like… Knives wanting to wipe out all humans and start a paradise kind of falls flat on its face as a concept when you consider that he and Vash are the only independent plants, and also no one seems to know how to make new plants. Like… their sisters are still going to have to live in containers and as a species they’re a dead end. Him and Conrad looking into solutions to this (for different reasons since Conrad thinks it’s possibly a way for humans to continue as hybrids and Knives only cares about plants) gives the impression that he’s thought things through a bit harder. 

I think some of the changes to Vash and Knives’s relationship are good - I love how in this version, Knives cuts his arm off not just because he’s angry and being a dick about it, but because Vash opened his gate with no control and could accidentally kill them all. He’s trying to save him. You get a real sense that he still cares about Vash… you can see the pain on his face when Vash points his gun at him. 

The choice to split them up earlier too rather than have Vash follow him around for years before they split allows them time to build up their own lives, and when they clash it’s because they have both been pulled in different directions. 

I’m fine with them giving Vash and Knives more distinct personalities as children, with Knives being more quiet and withdrawn and Vash being more outgoing and boisterous… but I do wish they’d left in stuff about how Knives was initially just as hopeful about humanity as Vash was? Like… in the manga, at least, he really wanted humans to be their friends, he wanted to be loved and accepted by them too… part of the tragedy of him is that he wasn’t always the way he is. So it would have been cool to see that.

As for ship 3… I think them first picking up Vash works fine, as again, it gives him a chance to grow apart from Knives and see something good worth protecting again. I’m less sure about Brad and Luida being there? And then also being there 150 years later? Like I get that they want to give Vash a sense of family, but I think what stood out to me about ship 3 was that Vash’s attachment to it isn’t just because of two parental figures… Vash is old. He’s not human. He’s watched generations of these people grow old and die, and he’s loved and cared for their children, and their children’s children. They’re this big community that he loves, and he knows all their names and remembers them all, but he’s never… quite one of them in the same way. Which is kind of the tragedy of being Vash. I would have loved if after the sand steamer episodes, when Vash wakes up there’s a couple of people who look like Brad and Luida there to greet him… but no one mentions their names, and there’s something just… a little off about it, little quirks that aren’t the same… and then it clicks. We get dropped the truth - that that’s not Brad and Luida, that’s their grandchildren. Vash outlived them. He’s 150 years old, he’s always going to outlive humans and that’s just something he has to accept.  It also would have been nice to see more of the other people living on ship 3, especially to set up a part from the manga/og anime which I really, really hope will be adapted. Like… Vash has to see these people that he loves so much just… fall apart in his arms. Families, adults he’s watched grow from infancy, children, everyone… For stampede they now either have the option of killing Brad and Luida that way, or trying to squeeze in some time with the ship 3 peeps in the second season so that their deaths have an impact, when they could have just done the leg work in this season. But hey that’s probably a problem with the limited number of episodes.

Back to other changes… I think introducing Livio that early was a good call, so he doesn’t come out of nowhere later. 

But I do feel like we should have seen more of Legato given the big part he’s supposed to play later (if they follow the manga). He kinda just disappeared after the sand steamer episodes.

I’m… still not sure how I feel about them revealing the whole SEEDs ship thing and Knives part in the crash so early on. I think it was done with intent - stampede (the first season at least) only has 12 episodes to make things happen, so they need to cover stuff fast. For me… while maintaining the mystery for longer was cool, the og anime was too slow. There was a lot of filler and stuff before we even got to the main plot points and honestly if I hadn’t seen stampede I would have given up on it. I think what I would have liked would be some kind of middle ground? Like… something between the two which lets you uncover the mystery but still feeds you enough that you know there’s something there and can begin piecing it together.

Getting to see the July incident as it happens was obviously a change, and I’m on the side about that one too… like… Vash kind of knowing that he completely destroyed a city but having no memory of it and trying to figure out what happened and that being part of his journey? I feel like we won’t get that, because Meryl and Wolfwood can just tell him what happened. It’s not going to hang over him in the same way. 

And on that subject, I think they really, really needed to dedicate some time to just… showing people living in July? In the manga, when Vash regains his memory of destroying July, part of why it’s so traumatic is because he spent several days living there, talking to the people there… seeing their kindness, glimpsing that community, getting to be a part of that briefly… and he just erases all those smiling faces in the blink of an eye. In stampede we only see some military police who shot Vash and tried to capture him, and one noodle seller who none of the main gang interacts with. I just… think July would have so much more impact if we’d had an episode dedicated to them spending time there first… This also means we probably won’t get Vash accidentally mindblasting the event into Meryl’s brain (because she was there anyway and Vash never connected with the people in the city), which personally I think is a shame…

Last change that stands out to me is that Vash's use of the angel arm is fully intentional in this adaptation. I’m on the fence on this? On one hand, it’s needed, because Vash has been fairly passive for a lot of this show, and horrible things just happen to him, so for him to have some agency and sort of win a fight makes for a more satisfying climax? On the other hand, the horror of Kives forcing him to manifest the arm against his will and him not being able to control that part of himself is sort of gone? We do still get the creepy sort-of-rape buisness with Knives making him uhh… do that to the other plants and go all black and viney, but it’s different? It’s… yeah, I dunno. Makes me wonder if they’re going to do anything with the 5th moon incident and all that, seeing as it’s strange for Vash to seemingly have so much more control over his abilities and still get made to basically cause the same catastrophe twice… It would feel less satisfying happening a second time around if he just does the same thing we saw during July and tries to blast the energy into space? So on one hand I like it and on the other hand I don’t, if that makes sense?

Moving on from changes, I think the show could have also benefited from some stuff that was skipped/missing. Some of this would have resulted in better pacing, better characterisation, or fill a few plot holes that go ignored. I guess the best way for me to cover this is to go in order of episodes?

So, I’m fine with the start, but maybe there should have been one more episode between Wolfwood’s introduction and the sand steamer episodes. We get the one with Rollo, but I think one more to cement his place in the group would have been nice. I also think the sand steamer event should have had one more episode. A lot of the two we get is filled with flashbacks, and while I love those (and the style they’re done in) it means that there’s less time to cover events happening in the present. The badlads gang just… kind of shows up, gets punched down by Vash, and disappears again… they don’t serve much of a purpose. Having an extra episode for them to be more of a threat, and Vash (and maybe Roberto and Meryl) having to deal with that would be more satisfying (for me at least). And if we want to stick a little closer to the source material, then Vash dealing with the badlad’s gang leader could result in him helping them (maybe with the canon this time? Because two people pushing it up is silly, not gonna lie I had to suspend my disbelief for that). So yeah, that would be my first major change.

Then I still have an issue with how it’s never explained how Vash gets from the plant room on the sand steamer to ship 3. Did he call them? Do they have some kind of ‘Vash is in danger’ sensor that alerted them he was in trouble? How did they convince Meryl and Wolfwood and Roberto to let them take him?

I would, if I could, add another episode after the flashback one which shows Vash getting picked up, and then gives us a little more time on ship 3. Time to see the people there, get a sense of the community that lives there… I also think we could have actually seen Meryl and Roberto getting kidnapped, because that happening offscreen was weird. 

As I mentioned before, another episode to better flesh out July is needed. And I think I would maybe add another episode so that we could have some more time on flashbacks… specifically, there’s events from the manga that I feel were too briefly touched upon in stampede to have their full effect. 

I am, of course, talking mostly about Tesla… In a lot of ways, she’s the turning point for the twins. Before then, they were both hopeful about humanity and wanted to be accepted by them. But after Tesla… they break down. 

Following the manga, Knives and Vash lock themselves away for days. When Rem finally gets to them, Knives ends up in a coma. Vash wakes up first, and faced with the reality of what humans did to his older sister… he tries to kill himself. Just grabs the knife and goes for it. Rem stops him by grabbing the blade, and Vash ends up stabbing her. And there’s this moment… a brief moment, when Vash seems happy with what he’s done… before it all comes crashing down and he realizes what he’s done, how that’s not what he wants, and he drops the knife and patches Rem up.

When she wakes up again, they have a conversation. She tells him about her depression following her partner’s death, and how she had a dream where she was handed a blank train ticket. And she was happy because it could take her anywhere. And after that, she joined the SEEDS project, which led her to meeting Vash and Knives. She tells Vash that everyone deserves that blank ticket.

This is a really important moment for him, because I think that’s where he solidifies his ideals. The idea that people all deserve the chance to start fresh. The idea that killing isn’t okay because it robs people of that chance, and also dying isn’t okay because of his promise to her… 

Stampede touches on it briefly with Vash telling Luida and Brad that he wanted them to leave him there to die, but I think the manga touches on it much more closely. Vash has… tried to kill himself as a child. And I think, at times, he would quite like to die as an adult too (because he goes through so much suffering). But he doesn’t, because he has so much to do and people to protect and he promised Rem… and ugh, it hurts, but he still has that blank ticket. And sometimes, he still finds joy in the world, and those little moments mean a lot…

And we’ve seen that Vash is capable of lashing out too. He stabbed Rem. But in the same way that Knives used to be as loving of humanity as Vash, Vash had the same capacity to strike as his brother… 

Now, Knives… when he wakes up, he says he remembers nothing (idk if that’s actually true it’s very possible he was lying). They tell him about Tesla. He pretends everything is fine, but he quietly plots to take down the ships, and we get a panel of him biting at his hand while he works… you get an idea that he’s super anxious. He’s afraid. He’s so afraid of what humans could do to him and his brother, and that’s what motivates him. Not just hate or betrayal, but a deep, visceral fear he won’t admit to. I feel like stampede didn’t quite hit the mark there… 

We might get a closer look at the events around Tesla in a season 2… it’s implied (?) in stampede that Knives might have absorbed what was left of her (which is a departure from the source, but also sets up/hints at later major plot points). But we’ll see.

On the whole I think the pacing of the very last episode was fine. And they’ve set some stuff up for season two (Milly confirmed)!

Moving into season two there’s going to be changes to the source again, but I am super glad we’ll be getting to stuff that the og anime never had a chance to adapt. One thing I am curious about is Wolfwood… seeing as in stampede, he’s already betrayed Vash and handed him over to Knives and cut his ties (?) to the Eye of Michael. So, this time around, I’m guessing his motive for tracking down Vash is going to be either personal, or he is invested in stopping Knives or the Eye of Michael and wants to find Vash because Vash could help… 

I also wonder how much of his memory Vash has lost… and are we going to get the darkening hair effect? Please say we still get the 5th moon incident? Can we have more body horror pretty please? Are they aiming for a different ending from the manga or are they going to play that the same? I… kind of, really want a scene of Vash and Knives actually reconciling this time and maybe playing piano together… 

So yeah… that’s… kind of my thoughts for the moment, as best I can put them. I really enjoyed stampede! I think it has some flaws but I’m so glad to have been pulled into the Trigun universe and experience these characters and I am very excited for what comes next. 

[herehavesomeheadcanons]

hello 👋🏻 i love your ons writing so far and now I'm here to request some kissing/cuddling headcanons for Urd and Ky please.

Crash! Bang! Thudthudthudthudthud! Sounds of a 5’2 midget desperate for validation falling down the stairs. A cat screeches in the distance. I skid into the room with a cartoony sound effect, before tripping over my own two feet and falling flat on my face.

A NEW?? REQUEST?? Absolutely! I actually like writing Urd a lot more than originally I thought I would. There will come a day when I get tired of getting asks... But today is not that day!!

Urd Geales

Image my lazy ass found on google- ^

💡 kisses and cuddles are strictly an in-private thing. He has a reputation to maintain! Even when it's just the two of you, he's still unlikely to initiate. Don’t try to initiate in public, he will push you away.

💡 Very slow, tender kisses. He's such a gentleman! He would never do anything that isn't ok with you. Despite not having a lot of experience, he's surprisingly well-read. His lips are very soft, even if they’re as cold as ice! They’ll warm up the more you kiss, don’t worry! (contrary to what most writers seem to think, vampires don’t radiate cold. They’re just ectothermic. Like reptiles.)

💡 His favorite kisses are quick pecks on the lips. Greeting kisses, goodbye kisses, good morning kisses, good night kisses; quick and simple is what he likes. A kiss on the cheek or forehead is also acceptable.

💡 Urd actually likes cuddles a lot more than he lets on. It's very relaxing, and heaven knows this poor vampire needs a bit of relaxing after work. He's quite literally got the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it's very fortunate that he has you to remind his workaholic ass to take it slow and rest.

💡 He doesn't really have a preference for big or little spoon, either is fine. He does, however, like when you lay on him. It doesn’t hurt him, especially if you’re tiny, it’s just like a weighted blanket. And if you’re human (which honestly is pretty unlikely with how uptight he is), he gets the added bonus of you being warm.

Ky Luc

🔹🤎 Unlike Mr. High-And-Mighty Vampire King, Ky has absolutely no opposition to PDA. He'll probably give you surprise kisses or random hugs absolutely anywhere. I've said before that Ky is like a diluted Ferid.

🔹🤎 Very excited, sloppy kisses. He has no idea what he's doing, but by gosh is he trying his bestest. Definitely not as much of a gentleman as Urd, and he will let his hands wander all over your body while you kiss. You might have to slap him because he touched you somewhere you didn't want to be touched. No worries though, he won't do it again once he knows you don't like it.

🔹🤎 Did somebody say ‘The Pocky Game’?? Even though his technically-dead body can’t digest pocky, he still loves the game. And he will play it with more than just pocky. Anything decently long (or not) that has two ends for people to eat from is fair game. Spaghetti? Sure! Gummy worms? Absolutely! Twizzlers? Definitely! Literally anything will work.

🔹🤎 His favorite kisses are neck kisses. I bet you thought that would be Ferid's thing, huh? It is, but it's also Ky's thing. Ky is second only to Ferid Bathory himself when it comes to teasing, and he loves to fluster you. He'll sneak up behind you, grab you, and attack your neck with kisses. He might nibble a bit, but not full-on bite. It’s against the rules to drink directly from a human, after all, and he doesn’t want to disappoint lord Geales!

🔹🤎 Ky is the cuddliest little fuck out there. He's usually the big spoon, but he isn't opposed to being held and fussed over. He loves to just smother you with his body and wrap his arms (and legs, if he can) around you. He loves to have you on his lap, too. You won’t escape his grip. This is your fate now. You’re stuck with just letting him snuggle you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.