#i fixate on one movie/series easily

[umbrellime]

did anyone else notice that extra that’s consistently running the same way in like three different scenes at the beginning of doctor strange: mom?

idk how to make a gifset of it but basically at the start of the tentacle monster event, there’s a guy running past stephen with a briefcase with papers flying out of it. he is seen at least three different times running the same way repeatedly in different shots when stephen is using his magic to get america out of the bus

has no one else noticed that???

[gen-is-gone]

Doctor Who and 2 for the fandom meme?

2. My three favorite characters and why I love them so much.

Hello hi would you like to hear about the best TARDIS team you've never heard of, right as I've fallen back hard into special interest fixation on them :D :D :D

So there's this book series.

After The Enemy Within, aka Doctor Who the TV Movie, premiered to an astounding lack of enthusiasm in 1996, BBC books decided to steal Virgin Publishing's idea to write novels about dr who, and promptly yoinked the license so they could cut out the middleman and do just that, this time starring Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor instead of Sylvester McCoy's Seventh. This novel series was called, aptly enough, The Eighth Doctor Adventures. So entirely skipping over almost three decades' worth of entertaining intrafandom drama and also how nu!who shamelessly stole basically every good idea the EDAs ever had (the biggest being of course the Time War, tho tragically nowhere near as well done), my favorite TARDIS crew:

The Eighth Doctor (as you may have guessed), Fitz Kreiner, and Anji Kapoor.

I love them, I adore them, they're my best friends. All three of them are amazing in their own right, but they're absolutely phenomenal as a team.

Eight, and the EDA version of them specifically, is my favorite doctor bar none. They're flighty and giddy and tactile and deeply affectionate, they're extremely weird and have a number hyperfixations and special interests and other very relatable neurodivergent tendencies. They are very prone to amnesia in a way which starts off as kind of a running gag and ends up being a huge plot point for the entire second half of the series. They're easily the most genderfluid the Doctor ever gets before textually being played by a woman and going by she/her, which is a big part of why I like using they/them pronouns for the Doctor generally. They kiss people often and canonically date people of multiple genders. Being played by (or at least written in reference to) Paul McGann, they are extremely pretty. They also go through the absolute fucking wringer, both in the sense that their arc plots are really dramatic and complicated and dark, and also in the sense that some of the folks writing for the series are pretty unapologetic whump fans lol. Best Doctor. No notes.

Next up is My BoyTM. The ur-blorbo himself, Fitzgerald Michael Kreiner. He's the best and I hate him. He's the worst and I love him. He's a musician from 1963 with appalling fashion sense and truly awful luck. He's canonically bi and in love with the Doctor (and their kiss in the novel Dominion in 1998 was the first kiss between the Doctor and a man in the history of Dr Who). He's a clone of himself because Eight lost the original Fitz 600 years in the future and then he joined cult of shitty time traveling mall goths. The original Fitz lived 2000 years and was filled with hate and wanted to kill the Doctor for abandoning him but never actually stopped loving them. He's a massive idiot. He's genuinely embarrassing so often but also despite thinking of himself as a coward and an asshole he's very brave despite his constant terror and very kind despite his pretending that he's only out for himself. He is such astoundingly perfect tumblr bait it's not even funny. He's one of the longest running companions in the franchise by number of consecutive stories.

Last of my darlings is the myth, the legend herself, Anji Kapoor. The first Asian companion in the history of Doctor Who, she's a stock futures trader from 2001 and to this day the only example I can think of off the top of my head of a woman of color having her white boyfriend get fridged for the sake of her emotional pain and character development. On the surface, she's the one with braincell, but she's so much more than just the white boy babysitter stereotype. She's a massive closet nerd who loves Star Trek but won't admit it, she's got a very weird thought process that makes her jump to the most absolutely batshit decisions while justifying them to herself as being perfectly reasonable and logical and not at all insane, she thinks of Fitz as a brother and the Doctor as a sister, she once called the Doctor a useless otterfucker, literally what can't she do (other than get back to her own time and planet rip).

The three of them have such a wonderful dynamic together. They're best friends and close family despite them being thrown together entirely by chance. They banter and joke and snark together, they riff off each other and enjoy each other's company, all three of them would catch a bullet for each other and all three of them more or less have. They're in a run of I think 25 books, which is a pretty significant time to spend together, and while there are some clunkers in their run ngl, they've also got some truly amazing books together, including one of my favorite books not just in the EDAs or Dr Who, but as a whole, The Year of Intelligent Tigers. I love them so so much I can't even.

I'm... not sure how accessible anything to do with the EDAs is give I fell off the DW deep end solidly a decade ago and at this point I just have to admit I'm in for life, but I have observed that most people who do read the EDAs tend to put 8&fitz&anji in at least their top five TARDIS teams, if not their first pick. Anyway, I love them, thank you so much for letting me gush about the best TARDIS team in all of Dr Who :D

[dappydaffer]

i am asking you about your special interests. rant about all of them to me if you wish. go off my friend :)

Holy shit, you are now my new favorite person-

A lot of my special interests right now mainly center around Will Wood, ROTTMNT, and human behavior as a whole.

With Will Wood's music, whether he intends it to be or not, is just so profound and well made and really makes me happy. The symbolism, the seemingly needless, lengthy words, and the themes he explores overall are just ground-breaking to me and I could analyze his stuff for days on end with a burning passion. And the way his music (both old and new) sounds?? LIKE WHAT??

I swear, no two songs of his sound the same, and I mean it in the best way possible. The pacing, the instrumental choice, really everything just feels uniquely respective to its own song and I am drooling over it.

Will Wood is easily one of the best musicians I have ever had the pleasure of discovering. When I found his stuff, I hadn't had a musical hyperfixation in actual years, but boy did listening to the normal album change that.

Like I said, the lyrics, the sounds of the music, and (what I believe is) the continued theme of normalcy while each song still tells its own theme/story?? It's just perfection to me, really-

As for ROTTMNT? Don't even get me started!

The animation is lively, colorful, and has a delightful, anime-ish style to it that just makes the whole show eye candy to me. The boxy(?) movement in certain scenes, the shading (especially in the movie), and the character designs?? Omg the character designs-

I love how Rise broke what I feel was the "copy-and-paste" style of design for the turtles, unlike the previous series (I'm not saying other TMNT shows were bad, but good lord the designs (looking at you, 2012) were...awful-). Each design feels respective to its own character and the diversity in appearance really helps the turtle's personalities, fighting style, and expression shine through.

And the turtles themselves? I simply just adore what the show did with their personalities and how they gave them more depth and really humanized them. Especially with Raph and Donnie. Especially Raph and Donnie.

Raph always came off as just "the angry one," and there was seemingly no reason for why and there was nothing else to him, when I tried getting into older series, and at times, it made me dislike him as a character. But in Rise? They made him into a gentle giant with different likes, dislikes, interests, strength, weaknesses, and gave him reason to be angry in certain scenarios, rather than feeding us the usual "pissed off all the time" Raph. In Rise, he just comes off as a reasonably tired, realistic older brother that cares about his family and just wants the best for everyone, even if there are times he comes off in the wrong way.

And I could go off about Donnie for days

But to keep it as short as I can; Donnie is to die for in Rise. He is more than just the "tech guy." He is shown to indulge in different interests and hobbies, he has vulnerable moments, he's sarcastically witty and deadpan, just everything I could want in a character like him.

And the way they handled autistic representation with Donnie?

*chef's kiss* 11/10 👌

He comes off a realistic, neurodivergent person that isn't weakened by his condition, and is instead just accepted as he is and plays a vital role to the brother's chemistry, unlike in most shows where the autistic character feels like an inconvenience, a man-child, an un-empathetic asshole, and/or too indulged in their hyperfixation to be useful, or that's all there is to them as a person.

Rise just got so many things right and I adore the show for it!

And lastly; with human behavior? It's certainly not as strong as the last two fixations, but I still find it rather interesting.

Everything we have been taught since birth feels black and white, especially with people's intentions and emotions. But, I don't think that's the case at all (in 95% of cases). People each have their own thoughts, feelings, and reasonings for why they do x, y, z, and I may not know everything about it, but Jesus Christ, it intrigues me so much.

Thank you so much for asking about my special interests =)

I apologize it took a while to answer, I've been busy with school, my job, and trying to finish the first part of the Black Box Warrior analysis (which I should hopefully have posted in the next day or two-)

[psithurista]

approach shift pt. seven

pairing: Peter Parker x f!reader (TASM/Andrew Garfield version)  length: 4.1k  rating: explicit 18+  warnings: Angst, brief mention of death

Peter Parker is a weirdo. A hot, distracting, irritating weirdo. And you can’t afford distractions right now. So there’s only one thing to do.

series masterlist

Bear points her spoon at you, her eyes narrowed. “That fucker.”

You wince. You need to leave if you don’t want to miss your train, but the sooner you get off the stool at the bench, the sooner you have to go outside, and it’s sleeting miserably out there.

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have brought it up again.”

“It’s been over a month. Why are you still thinking about him at all? Guy turned out to be a piece of shit. It happens to the best of us.”

You run your tongue over your teeth. Dirty dishes are cluttered in the sink, and the sight makes your skin itchy, especially with the knowledge of the recent cockroach plague that had befallen the building, but you’re out of time to do anything about it now. “I know you’re going to tell me I’m being an idiot, but I just. I can’t stop thinking he wasn’t lying about everything, at least. I mean, if he was fucking around with someone else, why not just say so? I left that door way open for him, you know?”

She speaks around her full mouth, looking down at her phone. “You’re right.”

“I am?”

“I’m going to tell you you’re being an idiot. What’s the big deal with Parker anyway?” She checks off on her fingers. “So he’s tall. He’s got those stupid fucking big brown baby cow eyes. He’s nice.” She injects so much sarcastic venom into the word that you’re surprised it doesn’t slither right out and across the table. “Like you couldn’t find fifty other tall, pretty, nice guys on this block alone willing to rock your shit any night of the week.”

Easy for her to say, you think, glumly.

You’re painfully, tragically fixated on him. You’ve been trying to convince yourself that, logically, most of it’s probably just to do with how much is still unresolved. You don’t have any answers, not even shitty ones.

Of course you’d be stuck on it. Who wouldn’t be?

But despite the occasional waves of fury-tinged sorrow when you let yourself think about it for longer than a few minutes, you just…

You really, really miss him.

You miss the way his eyebrows draw up and together while listening to you talk, and the way he’d always nudge against you when something dumb happened in a movie until you nudged back in acknowledgement, and his terrible one-liners.  

You miss how easily he blushes, and how creased his eyes get when he smiles really big.

It’s a disorienting feeling. You’ve been fantasising in equal measure about throwing everything in your fridge at him, and pressing your face to his neck to breathe in the smell of his skin.

You’d get deeper into it, if Bear wasn’t already over talking about it. “I just can’t believe he hasn’t even messaged,” you settle on instead, the small-sound of your voice irritating even to yourself.

She slurps another mouthful of cereal. “Oh shit, they’re remaking Jaws.”

“I gotta go,” you say, throwing back the last tepid third of bitter instant coffee in your mug. “I’ll be home after six if you still wanna have that thing with Chris.”

“Proud of you,” she says, not looking up. “Go cure cancer.”

You wrap your jacket around your lowered head, your shoes clopping loud on the tiles as you rush down the subway stairs and into the dry.

You’ve been trying to make a habit of setting a positive tone for the day on the way to work; a piece of advice you’d gleaned from Googling “get over breakup” one particularly pathetic Sunday morning a couple of weeks back.

The suggestions were embarrassingly self-helpy, and if Bear caught you she’d probably toss your phone out the window.

Now, safely ignored by every other occupant of the train car, you surreptitiously scroll down to tap start on the podcast you’ve been listening to, slipping your earbuds in.

“…it’s important to remember that it’s okay to fall down, as long as we get back up.”

You lean your head back, gently rocking with the rattle of the train. Everything smells like damp ashtray and hotdog water.

There’s a young man sitting opposite you, his legs stretched out into the aisle, reading a paperback. He’s wearing sage brogues with no socks and pants just short enough to bare his crossed-over ankles. You catch a glimpse of the spine: Calvino.

“…each of us has the same dirty geode inside of us, and we just need to polish it until it shines. Your geode is precious and rare, and it is in your hands, women warriors.”

You cringe so hard it’s almost audible, scrunching your face as you hit pause. Maybe you should let Bear throw your phone away.

You look back up in time to see the man across from you quickly averting his eyes back to his book, smiling slightly.   

His haircut looks expensive, and you imagine that he’s the kind of guy who’d buy thirty-dollar jars of asparagus and artisan coffee beans for his elaborate cold drip set up. The kind of guy who would probably have an unironic opinion about regatta season.

You’re being unfair, but you can’t help it.

As though he can feel your attention, he looks back up. He smiles again, this time a little more pointedly, tilting his head to one side in a curious, open gesture, as if he’s inviting you to let him in on the joke; whatever it is you’re wincing about.

You lower your face to your phone screen, shy. He’s attractive, and the direction of his smile feels nice, if you’re being honest. But it only lasts a second, and then you’re thinking about a messier haircut, less well-cut jeans, ratty Vans.

You grit your teeth to creaking. You don’t look back up until you reach your stop, slipping quickly past, not slowing until you’re back out under the open, grey air.

Oscorp’s research centre dominates the entire corner of the block. The gardens around the entrance are filled, as always, with visitors taking pictures.

As far as image rebrands go, the garden had been an inspired move. While the tower itself remains staunchly brutalist, the arches of whimsically sculpted greenery bunched around the base soften the lines of cement and glass spearing into the sky.

You hurry up to the main entrance, digging blindly around the clutter in your bag for your ID. You’re not late yet, but by the time you make it through security and up to the lab, you will be.

Nobody looks up from their screens as you finally slip inside the twelfth-floor workroom, letting the heavy door sink soundlessly shut behind you. Doctor Brant’s office door is closed, but considering the entire wall is made of glass, it doesn’t really help your situation.

In an insane stroke of luck, however, he seems to be preoccupied on the phone. His head is slightly bowed, elbow braced on his desk.

You wince, performing a strange tiptoe-dash in your effort to make it across to the other side of the room before you’re noticed.

“I’m so sorry,” you murmur, plopping into your seat.

Your desk-neighbour Gary looks up. “Did you say something?”

His skin is the same reddish-pale shade as his moustache and thinning hair. From a distance, it looks like he has an unnatural protuberance of skin growing between his nose and upper lip.

“Oh, I just meant, I’m sorry I’m late.”

He looks at you blankly. “Okay.” He turns back to his screen, where he’s entering observation notes into the record template.

“Okay,” you mouth to yourself.

The research program Doctor Brant heads is one of Oscorp’s longest-running, and the position within it had been highly coveted among the intake of new graduates. You’d heard the wistful envy in the voices of other assistants during corporate orientation, and you’d felt secretly proud.

The thing about respectable, coveted, long-running programs however, is that day-to-day, for the most part, they’re excruciatingly boring.

On today’s agenda: heading into the lab for observations, ordering the saline from ops you forgot to order yesterday, printing fresh labels for your third-round samples, having a wrestling match with the machine when it prints your labels wrong, more observations.

You’re frowning down at a page filled with confusing readouts when Doctor Brant’s office door flies open. He stalks out, a folder under his arm. “This is how we start haemorrhaging funds again,” he’s saying into his cell phone, looking harangued. “How many times will they audit before they believe us? This time, it really isn’t us doing whatever this is.”

You glance around to see if anyone else is paying attention. They aren’t.

“I’m coming up there myself. Hold on,” he adds, quickly, furiously, hanging up. He spots you staring and veers toward you.

You only have to panic for a moment about being busted eavesdropping, then he’s pushing the folder into your hands.

“Legal wants this. Can you scan it through? I’ll be out the rest of the afternoon so shred it when you’re done.”

You look down at it in bewilderment. It’s stamped CLASSIFIED, and there is an edge of slightly-curled continuous printer paper sticking out one side, blue-lined and hole-punched.

He’s squinting impatiently at you, so you snap your attention back and try your hardest to look capable and trustworthy.

“Absolutely. Of course. I got this, no problem,” you say, adding a quick, “thank you,” for good measure.

You wait until he’s gone before flipping the folder open.

At first, it doesn’t make sense. Just rows of digital printed timestamps and letters.

Then you realise you’re looking at observation notes. From an earlier incarnation of this program? You can’t tell.

You sit down, leafing through. The title pages are missing, and you recognise none of the non-standard abbreviations. It’s almost as though it’s written in code.

There’s a string of names at the bottom of the last page, but only one jumps out: PARKER, R., pale-faded but clear as day.

You hunch in your seat.

Of course.

Parker, you are quickly learning, is an irritatingly common surname. You can add ‘old research notes’ to your list of things that are now ruined, right under Sex and the City and jazz.

You spend a few more minutes flipping through the readouts, feeling increasingly deflated as the secret meaning fails to present itself to you.

Someone has signed off in black pen at the bottom of each page; just two letters, N.O., again and again, as though taunting you. If you’d been hoping for some kind of excitement to break up your day, here is your answer: no, no, no.

You feed each freshly-scanned page into the shredder, already bored again, ready for lunch.

People crowd ahead of you as you make your way down to the Wellness Centre.


Part of Oscorp’s public image overhaul had been to re-establish itself as a forward-thinking, people-focused company. As though renaming the cafeteria and offering pilates and handing out filtered glass water bottles could erase the lingering spectre of accidental death and injury left by the last several decades of Oscorp’s operations.

“What‘s going on today?” you ask the woman typing an email on her phone beside you.

Her eyes flick up for a second before returning to the message. “Free plants, I think.”

You decide dealing with the crowd isn’t worth whatever food is on offer. Turning, you weave your way back toward the elevators and spend the entire trip down fighting the urge to dig your phone out of your bag.

It’s stopped drizzling, though the sky’s still grey. You head toward the cafe on the next corner down, right opposite the park, your bag bouncing against your hip with each stride.

You’re almost there when you realise your phone has somehow leapt into your hand without your permission, and you’re refreshing your messages.

There are a handful of new notifications from a group chat comprised of people from school, one from one of your old co-workers, and a link to a video from Bear.

You hold the door open for a girl carrying a tray of coffees, and she slips past, murmuring her thanks.

It’s busy and warm inside, and everything smells like toasted bread. You order in a daze, stepping to the side to wait, your attention back on your screen.

Peter was last active twenty-five minutes ago. You refresh it again, your thumb hovering over the screen, rewarded with the same thing you’ve seen the last thousand times you’ve checked.

i’ll come by to pick you up at 5ish for dinner tonight. may said she’s really looking fw to meeting you :)

It wouldn’t hurt just to make sure he’s doing okay. Just a quick message, to ask whether he’s been sleeping, and to check that he hasn’t got another black eye or broken any bones since the last time you saw him.

You picture him getting home to his empty, dark apartment at two in the morning. Dripping a little water onto the aloe plant that lives on his bathroom counter. Curling up in his bed.

It would be harmless.

Wouldn’t it?

Your head snaps up at the sound of your name being called. You’re scooping up your coffee and paper-wrapped bagel when you hear it again, behind you this time.

“I thought that was you!” May’s smile lights up her entire face, almost as bright as the floral scrubs she’s wearing.

You gape wordlessly for an uncomfortably protracted moment before you manage to reconfigure your face into what you hope passes for a smile. “May! Hi! Oh, my God! What are you doing here?”

“Hospital cafeteria coffee is a special kind of awful,” she says, lifting her hand to show you the coffee she’s holding. It’s in a vacuum-type cup; pink and insulated.

You try to angle your body so your own coffee in its non-reusable cardboard is a little less visible. “Oh, right! Yeah! Of course!” You need to calm the fuck down. Your voice is about three octaves higher than usual.

She pauses. “Is everything okay?”

You open your mouth to respond and find that you can’t. You’re still emotionally snagged on the barbed thought of Peter watching old sci-fi movies in bed alone. Having May in front of you is making you feel hot and trapped.

May’s brows crease. “Oh, dear.”

You laugh, embarrassed, touching your fingertip to the inner corner of your eye. “Shit, sorry. This is. Um. Yes, yeah, I’m okay. Sorry.” You laugh again, and it comes out like static.

She purses her lips. “Come on. Let’s go sit in the park.”

Her tone brooks no argument, and you find yourself glad to obey, your brain happily soggy and freed from decision-making. She leads you to a quiet spot by the fountain, on the stone steps.

A toddler with a chaff-coloured cowlick blowing in the wind is chasing the pigeons and shrieking with delight. You watch his parents smiling at each other as they follow close behind.

May digs a tube out of her bag and deposits a dime-sized amount of citrus-smelling lotion into her palms before smoothing her hands together. “Peter always tells me I should stop trying to get involved in things that are none of my business, but then, he really shouldn’t talk.”

You swallow a mouthful of coffee. “We kind of broke up. I think.”

She makes a pained noise, but doesn’t seem surprised.

You feel the need to defend him from the disappointed look on her face. “It’s my fault. I misinterpreted the whole thing. I tried to make it more serious than we agreed. Peter didn’t do anything wrong.”

She does look surprised at this. “I thought it was already serious. Peter’s never brought anybody around to meet me before. And from how he’d been talking…”

Your throat tightens. You look down at your knees and find there’s a ladder forming in your tights, right below the hem of your skirt. “I thought so too. Or hoped, at least.”

She doesn’t push the conversation further, which is nice of her, but it means you’re left with an expanse of expectant silence. A mouse-brown sparrow flits past your head and dives into the row of bushes surrounding the fountain.

“He never told me how he was feeling.” You wonder if this is a mistake. It’s probably weird of you to be having this conversation with his aunt, without his knowledge, when you aren’t even together anymore. If you were ever together. “But I could tell things were just…off. Sometimes.”

She nods. “The whole Oscorp thing couldn’t have been easy.”

“Yeah,” you agree, before you realise what she’s said. “Wait, what?”

“Well, it’s…it’s just probably bringing up some painful memories for him having you there, that’s all. After what happened, you know, with Harry, and everything else.”

“What? You mean Harry Osborn? Like the old CEO’s son?” You’d heard he suffered some kind of semi-public breakdown not long after his father’s death, smashed up one of the labs and lost all of his remaining shares before disappearing into a hospital somewhere, but you can’t imagine how any of this connects with Peter. “I’m sorry, I’m really lost. What are we talking about here?”

The sparrow emerges victorious from the greenery, a doomed grass spider wriggling in the pinch of its tiny beak. May’s eyes dart searchingly between yours, her expression growing cold. “He hasn’t told you.”

You gnaw the inside of your cheek. You feel very stupid. “Hasn’t told me what?”

She looks terribly sad. She gently lays her hand over yours, her plain wedding band cold against your skin. The gesture feels like the application of a balm, preempting pain. You imagine then that she must be a very, very good nurse. “Oh, sweetheart. Her name was Gwen.”

——————

Bear clomps through the apartment, all the way from one side to the other and back again. Her footfalls sound heavy. She must be wearing her oil-slick rainbow Docs, you muse. Her door was shut when you got in, so this is only a guess, but you can practically see her through the walls.

More clomping, then a pause, coming to a halt right outside your bedroom door. “You nearly ready to go?” she yells.

If she’s wearing those boots, then you’d be willing to bet she’s also wearing shorts. Maybe those green high-waisted ones. You really like those shorts. Maybe you’ll ask where she got them.

“Can I come in? Are you naked?”

Then again, she probably found them in a thrift store. She has a weird talent for finding cool stuff wherever she goes; one you sadly do not share.

Your door opens and she stands silhouetted against the light, looking down at you sitting on your bed, in the dark, in your pajamas for a long moment. “Do you want me to cancel with Chris?”

“No. You go without me. I kinda wanna be alone.”

She cracks the knuckles of her index and middle fingers absent-mindedly. “O kay, but you’ve been alone. Most nights this week.”

“It’s okay.” Your voice sounds strangely flat. “Just tired.”

She cracks her thumb; a single loud, thoughtful pop. Then she walks away, leaving your door open.

You contemplate climbing into the shower fully-dressed. You’re sure it’d feel nice, sitting under the warm spray. It’s only the thought of then having to peel the cold, clinging skin of your pajamas off after the fact that convinces you not to.

Bear reappears sans jacket, now silent on socked feet, the spare blanket from the sofa in one hand and her laptop in the other. She shuffles into your room. “You wanna watch The Thing?”

Your sinuses tingle and you almost cry with affection for her. “Yeah,” you say, your voice tiny. “Yeah, I wanna watch The Thing.”

“The old one,” she qualifies haughtily as she plops onto the bed beside you. “I don’t give a fuck how sad you are; we’re not watching the remake.”

“Obviously,” you say, scooting over to make room for her.

As you settle in, you catch a glimpse of her thumbs moving swiftly over a message, making an excuse to Chris, something about you both eating bad leftovers. She could’ve just blamed you, but she doesn’t. 

You aren’t really seeing the movie. It’s all just colours and shapes and noises. Your eyes follow the splashes of red across the screen as you speak, quiet.

“His girlfriend died.”

You can see her looking at you from your periphery, but she doesn’t say anything.

“It happened right before college. It’s why he took a year off and started late. His aunt told me it was an accident, but he saw it happen, and he couldn’t stop it, and he blames himself.” As though to drive it deeper into your own guts, you say it again. “She died. In front of him.”

There’s a long silence, broken only by the voices of the actors onscreen.

“Shit,” Bear finally says.

“Yeah.”

May hadn’t shared many details. Just that she— Gwen —had interned at Oscorp, and that Peter had been friends with Harry Osborn since they were children. The dual losses had been near-simultaneous. Peter hadn’t recovered. Not completely. Not really.

“He never seemed to talk to anyone. Except for his aunt. It’s why I didn’t think he was seeing anyone else, even with all the weird shit going on. He was totally isolated from everyone. Like, I had to be the one to approach him the first time we… anyway.”

Bear nods. “Is he in therapy?”

“I don’t think so.”

Her next words come out very carefully, as though she’s trying to be tactful. “Do you think…maybe, you don’t really miss being with him? Are you sure you don’t just feel sorry for him? Or like you need to save him?”

You think about one of the last times you’d gone over to see him. He’d stopped to hold the stairwell door open for one of his neighbours; a sour-faced old man with arms full of groceries. The man had given no thanks, or even acknowledgement, but Peter had still followed a careful distance behind, darting forward to hold the door again when he’d reached his floor. He hadn’t even said anything. Because, you now know intimately, that’s simply the type of person Peter Parker is. 

You think about the clean-laundry smell of his hoodies and the awkward way he folds his frame into too-small chairs and how carefully he ran his hands up the length of your throat while he was buried inside you.

“I miss him.”

She sighs. “I knew you were gonna say that.”

You both sink into silence, watching the characters in the movie play out their inevitable ends. Despite the gore, this feels safe. Like model trains with nowhere to go but to the ends of their assigned tracks.

You nudge her foot with yours. “Sorry for fucking up your night. You’re a good egg.”

She pats the top of your head, then quickly yanks her arm away to stifle a sneeze in the crook of her elbow. “Yeah, I know.”

You fall asleep curled softly into the warm space left by Bear’s body.

It’s pouring so heavily you can barely keep your umbrella over your head. Your arms shake with the effort, water sloshing and sucking at your feet.

“It’s coming down pretty hard,” you shout.

“What?” May shouts back. You’re standing together in her kitchen. The floorboards have liquefied to mud, the drops pinging metallic off the benches and light fixtures.

“I said it’s raining really hard!”

“It’s okay,” she yells. “Peter’s fixing it.” Her face is a washed-out blur in the distance. The dimensions of the room are off; she’s at least twenty yards away, the house stretched to surreal proportions, and in the gloaming you can barely tell which direction to turn your body.

“Peter’s here?” You spin around, squinting into the dark. “Peter?”

You grope groggily out of the blankets for your phone, still beside you on the bed. It’s just after four in the morning.

He was last active two minutes ago.

you should be asleep, you type, squinting, and then swiftly delete. 

i hope you’re okay, you try again, backspacing the characters as fast as you write them.

Is he alone right now? Is he warm enough? Is he safe?

i’m really sorry.

The message glows at you, unsent.

You turn over and sleep again, dreamless this time.

[autisticempathydaemon]

Hii, could I please have a matchup ☺️💕 thank you!!

* What song are you fixated on at the moment? What lyric or verse, and why?

Million Dollar Houses by PTV!! My fav verse has to be “maybe we’re meant to lose the ones we love but I’ll fight for you till then”. I feel this way a lot wether it’s for something I’m doing or towards someone I’m dating yk, I think it portrays that feeling rlly well

* What is your Enneagram type?

Type 9

* Do you love gargantuan Youtube video essays, and if so, which is your favorite and why?

YES OMG I watch sooo many but my fav has to be “learn to be bored” by Farah. It’s just so interesting and her way of explaining things is so calming I love all her stuff

* Tell me about your childhood imaginary friend.

I remember I had this fish tank in my room, so I’d pretend they could hear me and just yap away to these poor fish lmao, I think that’s the closest to imaginary friend I had

* What is your go-to way to fall asleep?

Tbh I fall asleep anywhere and anytime easily but on the rare occasion I can’t I just put on some music and it seems to help

* If you had to change your name, what would it be, and why? (In tandem, if you have changed your name, why did you pick that one?)

I’d probably change it to Amada. It’s one of my old relative’s name and she’s somebody I look up to and hope to be like, so I’d love to be named after her tbh. Family is def something that’s important to me so it fits

* What is your favorite of Redacted's audios, and why?

One that’s up there for me is deeefinitely that David audio where he catches you with his hoodie. I always go back to one of his audios if I need to relax and that’s fs one of them (side note, I remember after listening to that audio I knew immediately that he was gonna propose for the next one ommmg)

* What Redacted boy holds no appeal to you, and why? Like, not the one you hate but the one who you don't get the hype for. (I won't judge, I promise.)

Tbh anything with Marcus or James I know nothing abt. Nothing against them yk but I’ve never rlly bothered to listen to any of the audios in that series

* Tell me about that one book/movie/tv show you know all the words to.

Guardians of the Galaxy, both movies but tbh more of the second one. I could recite majority of the movie and I know ALL of Rocket’s lines by heart I’ve watched it countless times by now. Might rewatch today tbh I love them

* Which Redacted boy are you platonically attracted to? Like- forget dating, which dude do you want to be your best friend?

I’d love to be friends w Damien. My best friend is similar to him and I feel like he’d bring out the best in somebody, I could see myself working rlly well with him esp with school and stuff

* Do you have a go-to thing you ramble about when you're tired, and if so, what is it? (For example, my boyfriend knows l'm ready to sleep when I start talking about space.)

Hmm I don’t really ramble but if I’m tired I love to listen to somebody talk. I’m more of a listener in general but when I get sleepy I’ll call one of my friends and have them just rant until I’m actually ready to sleep

* Tell me your go-to gas station and drink combo.

Ironically, 711. I dont get the slushees though, I just get a strawberry milk with those fruit bowls. Idk what it is but it’s like routine atp

* Tell me about your favorite playlist at the moment.

My fav playlist rn is my main one- It’s pretty much just rock and like grunge w a little bit of metal, I listen to all genres but I mainly listen to that. Lots of Radiohead, pierce the veil, Red Hot Chili Peppers yk

* What's your guilty pleasure media, and why?

Any anime ever but esp Ouran. I can’t help but rewatch yk 😞

I hope I’m not too biased as a fellow type nine when I say this, but you’re a family-oriented type nine who’d get along with Damien. Who would be a better match for you than Huxley?

Type Nines are the peacemakers, the mediators of the Enneagram, always listening and taking care of people, watching the mood. This combined with family being important to you and Damien reminding you of your best friend leads me to believe that you’d have so much in common with Huxley as all these things describe him too, you know? He’d see a kindred spirit in you and would know you’d be a good fit with his life, loved ones, and values. Apropos of your enneagram type, this would build a very peaceful life together.

That’s not to say it’s not a fun or romantic life, of course. This is Huxley, we’re talking about; he is a total sweetheart to be with. He watches all your anime with you, even though it’s totally new to him, and he watches OHSHC as many times as you’d like, jamming to the theme song. (My headcanon is he’s totally in love with the shoujo genre and would love A Sign of Affection and Kimi No Todoke best.) For your next gift-giving holiday, he gives you a life-size Rocket Raccoon. When you’re sleepy, he lays you down, holds you close to his chest, and rambles about socks or some such until you fall asleep. It’s a perfect life, honestly.

Song:

I don't want this moment to ever end/ Where everything's nothing without you/ I want you to know/ With everything, I won't let this go/ These words are my heart and soul (I'll hold on)/ I'll hold on to this moment, you know/ As I bleed my heart out to show/ And I won't let go

Finding a balance between your rock/grunge music and what I headcanon Huxley to listen to was very interesting, but I think the Sum 41 song I picked is a good fit. This song would have come out when Huxley was a kid, and the nostalgia of it combined with having someone to listen to it with would just make him overjoyed.

Runner-ups:

Guy would be a really fun runner-up, because if you like falling asleep to the sound of a loved one talking? Is there a better possible match in that respect? Geordi, I like for you because he’s one of the few boys who I think would be an anime fan, especially OHSHC. (Asher is the other anime fan, I think, but he’s more a fan of shounen.)

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

Favorite writing song/artist/album of this year and a fic you didn’t expect to write this year from the list you reblogged?

End Of The Year Fanfic Asks (send me some???)

oooh yay!!! thank you for sending me some (even if I am a bit late answering them)

13. Favourite writing song/artist/album of this year?

So - I am going to assume that this means music that you enjoyed listening to while writing or music that inspired your fics?

I don't usually listen to music while writing fics, because I like to clear my head of all distractions during the actual writing process. But usually while I am thinking of ideas or getting in the mood to write a specific fic, then I will definitely curate songs for it. Or sometimes, if I am just listening to a random playlist, then a song that comes on will give me an idea for a fic and inspire me.

And like 80% of my fics are titled after songs, so I love using song lyrics as inspiration and using song motifs and imagery when writing fics.

This year, the album The Jaws of Life by Pierce The Veil was literally top notch for me.

I also really loved So Much (For) Stardust by Fall Out Boy, but surprisingly - The Jaws of Life inspired way more fics for me. It came out in February of 2023 and actually - while I did have the middle school emo phase and the emo trinity has always been sacred to me, I didn't start listening to Pierce The Veil actively until I was in my 20s. Which is fucking wild.

But upon hearing the single from this album, Emergency Contact, I fucking fell in love with it - and it was one of the main inspirations for this Jason Todd fic, which I think is one of the greatest fics I have ever written. And the sequel is going to be titled The Jaws of Life - which is another song off the album and I am so excited about how both song titles suit the fics so well.

And there is several other fics I have named after songs off this album (I could have easily named a fic after each song off the album cause I love it so much, but I was trying to use restraint) - Shared Trauma (Gar Logan x Reader), and Damn The Man, Save The Empire (Vanessa Shelly x Reader). And because I was listening to more Pierce The Veil in general, this fic got its title - King For A Day.

I highly, highly recommend the album if you are looking for some fanfic inspiration - or just something good to listen to.

14. A fic you didn't expect to write:

Okay so - this could have a few different answers. Because I absolutely was not expecting to randomly get back into Harry Potter, have another hardcore fixation with it, and end up writing fics for it in the year 2023.

But something I absolutely did not expect - to be writing Spencer Reid fanfiction. Writing the Lessons For A Genius oneshot (and it's follow up, especially so quickly) - I was shocked with myself, because I thought that the first CM fic I ever wrote would be my last.

Idk how many of the people reading this were following me in 2021, but I wrote and posted my first ever Criminal Minds fanfic back then - and mentally, as an artist, it was one of the wildest fanfiction experiences I have ever had.

Burn The Witch - my feelings about it are almost indescribable.

I often have these fics that I call 'mutated oneshots'. Fics that started out as a oneshot, that were always intended to be a oneshot (around 20k) that end up having these mutations and growths - some scenes need more shading in, the emotional arcs of the characters need more time to be fully informed, and while in my head, it is still fully a oneshot, it's now at 40k and I know nobody is going to read that in one sitting in a digestable way. So I have to break it up into parts and I hate doing that because it was never intended to be a series.

It's more like a movie that is getting commercial breaks when you put it on TV (and I think of a writing a series like an episode style TV show).

Some examples of these mutated oneshots are - You Shook Me All Night Long (intended to be one short part, ended up as four parts with a bonus blurb series). No Place Like Home is a huge one - meant to be a oneshot, then in my head it turned into a three shot - ended up as seven fucking parts and currently it's the longest thing I have written, sitting at 90k. I'm Still Standing is another good example.

And it gets even worse, because when I split things up into parts, I'm like "I can add a bit more to this chapter, because maybe I want the mood of the chapter to be a certain way, or I wanna frame the ending of the chapter a certain way so the audience is left with something cool" - and then that adds on like 5k more in a hot minute.

So - how does this affect my feelings about Burn The Witch and Criminal Minds fanfics overall?

Burn The Witch was supposed to be a short, smutty oneshot. That is it. But in the finished version, the sex scene and the smutty themes fall so far into the background - because this turned into an emotional casefic. This fic got so far away from me, and I drove myself insane while writing it, because I wanted to 'hold back', but then I couldn't. And I thought the dark and gory elements were some of the best things I have ever written - but it was received as a flop when I first posted it.

And when I posted it on Tumblr, the chapter with the smut scene in it was the one that always consistently got the most likes - even though it's a chapter in the middle of the story. So I could tell that even though I slaved over making the whole fic consistently very good, as a whole, well-rounded story, a lot of people were only reading one chapter in the middle of it for smut, and that's it. And that made me really upset.

(Like if you want a oneshot for smut, just go find one. It made me regret even labelling it as 'the smut chapter'.)

And just the pure mental and emotional exhaustion I went through to get such little return from the readers - I vowed that I was probably never going to write a Criminal Minds fic ever again.

And I have so many ideas for a sequel to Burn The Witch, but I think if I actually try plotting it all out and writing it and make it how I envision it - it will put me in a mental asylum, because it will end up being like 100k and I don't know if I can write it how I envision it being. Or if I will go crazy in the process.

So generally, I have such a love/hate relationship with writing Criminal Minds fanfics. I think they're fun and I think they can turn out so good, but the readers can be so picky and demanding in that fandom specifically. So I often like to steer clear unless a particular idea is just haunting me. Which is why I am surprised that I ended up writing more for CM this year.

[24-guy]

Omg wait no talk to me more about horror that’s so cool how dare you hide that all in the tags

-🧶

Horror has literally been my special interest for over 5 years now. It's my biggest percentage in both dvds and books and Halloween brings me the most joy of all the holidays or annual celebrations.

Like. I have fixated so much on this genre. I love all of it so much. I love the old Alfred Hitchcock movies I've seen. Funnily enough I watched the Birds before Psycho, but I did see the original Psycho in theatres thanks to a showing they were doing for its anniversary close to two years ago. (Though I'll never watch it again thanks to something that happened after seeing it.)

I love 80s movies like halloween and slashers like that. I've only seen the first sleep away camp but that was my second thought when you sent the ask before this. Because that movie is filled with those sorts of outfits.

I hate Friday the 13th because it's boring. But I love Halloween because it's also boring.

CHUCKY IS THE BEST FRANCHISE. I love that little shit and his mini empire filled with returning cast and writers and directors and prop teams, puppeteers, special effects departments. I love the families that have grown with the series. I love queer horror. Full, unabashed, campy queer horror. And that's what he turns into. And now we have the dramatic horror with teen angst and Devon Sawa's presence every season. I'm so??? AAAAA.

And then you have one off movies, like trick r Treat and Killer Klowns!! Trick r Treat has such a soft spot in my heart and I love Sam as a character. I love the intertwined stories with him at the center of all of them. I LOVE KILLER KLOWNS. It's so bad it's good! And the intro is amazing!

I love modern gore horror! I love terrifier and Saw and I love gore for the sake of gore! I love practical effects! I love watching Art the Clown torture somebody just because he finds it funny. I love the hypocrisy of John Kramer and his devoted disciples, each with their own reasoning for following in his footsteps.

I love modern horror by Jordan Peele! Every horror movie he's made has been in my favourite movies from the year I watched it in. I loved nope last year. I loved get out and us. I love every inch of detail.

I LOVE SHAUN OF THE DEAD AND PARODIES. They're always so much fun!

I love office horror. With the belko experiment and mayhem. They were both fun watches!

I LOVE EXPERIMENTAL HORROR LIKE SKINAMARINK!!!! God I loved that movie so much. It made me genuinely uncomfortable.

I love easy going horror. I love horror comedy. I love how broad horror is. I love every subgenre of horror.

Now I'm just waxing poetic about horror movies but yeah. I could probably easily give over 50 horror movie recommendations and I'd be holding back.

[queenaryastark]

The Marvels wasn't as bad as the reviews made it seem. There was a lot good about it, in my opinion. Just a few things:

Carol as a character was far more complex and interesting in this than she was in Captain Marvel. She was more of a grey character who made mistakes and even darker choices. I just wish we had seen her make her darkest choices, which led to her destroying the living conditions for an entire planet, in more than just a couple flashbacks.

Kamala and the actress who played her, Iman Vellani, were flawless. She was completely believable as a teen superhero with hyper-fixations. This type of character can easily be annoying, but she never got close to it for me. She was consistently adorable and realistic. Vellani's acting choices when it came to reactions were so authentic. She played Kamala's responses the way a real person would respond in these scenarios. Now I have to watch her Disney+ show.

I loved everything about Monica, which built perfectly off of the character's appearances in both Captain Marvel and Wanda Vision. She was incredibly intelligent, with "mommy" issues regarding Carol that also allowed her to be very human and vulnerable. Her choices at the end of the movie created the best cliffhanger I've seen with Marvel in a very long time. I went in not caring about the movie one way or the other and left wanting more specifically because of Monica.

The dynamic between Carol, Kamala, and Monica was perfect. I could have watched a TV series of them having adventures. Their contrasting personalities worked well together and the way their connected powers kept making them swap places was so unique. I will say that the Carol/Monica dynamic felt more like a mother-daughter relationship than an aunt-niece one.

Kamala's family was so lovable and realistic. Getting more of them is my main reason for checking out Miss Marvel.

So, for me, there was a lot to enjoy in this move. What weakened the story were two incredibly silly moments that should have been cut and the lack of time spent developing the main villain, Dar-Benn. She could have been a lot more interesting had we really seen all the harm Carol did to her people. Had we gotten a Captain Marvel 2 where Carol made her darkest choices, which in turn caused her to harm her relationship with Monica and gave Dar-Benn her villain backstory, this film would have been a lot stronger. As is, I don't think the movie was that bad.

[galaxygermdraws]

K so like I Don’t tend to make posts about the daily goings in my life but today is special and I am not going to shut up about anything ever so. Mario Movie. Today. Clearly. And yours truly is going to see it not once but twice this week. And he is going to ascend

For context, I have been fixating heavily (to the point where, if it turns out I am autistic [i am not allowed to be diagnosed], it could easily be a special interest) on Super Mario since i was 7. I am 20. This has been well over half my life. And Ive seen both the OVA(The Great Mission to Reacue Princess Peach), as well as the 1993 live action film. Ive seen all the cartoons, and I have read the Nintendo Power comics. I have seen my guys adapted so many times but this one truly excites me? Like I was d r e a d i n g the first trailer. Then. I watched it and lowkey ascended. Rewatched it so much. I am…too excited for this film. Sure I. Have my one qualm with it but At this point I don’t care. It’s gonna be fun. And im gonna be trying not to scream in a theater.

i realize I am probably not? Seen as a Mario blog but deep down that’s what I am. This is my favorite franchise in any piece of media. Over my favorite cartoons, over my favorite youtube series, Mario is my #1. So in the upcoming days I’m gon be screaming. Not gon apologize for the person I become due to this movie.

and yes. I will tag spoilers

[anobjectshowguy]

Here’s your excuse too rant about your favorite character for as long as you want.

Go crazy bitch!

Haha, you don’t know how stupid this is going to be. I have extreme brain rot for my favs and ADHD so it’s like hyper fixation x 10 lol

MePhone X (II): All of the MePhones are so interesting to me and I would go absolutely feral if they all come back and get a spinoff series or something, but the one I have the most love for at the moment is MePhone X and it actually infuriates me LMAO.

He has had no screen time, no personality, and no actual relevance yet but my asshole ADHD brain won’t let me stop thinking about him! It’s mostly just headcanons on how he will act/operate and ideas for plot lines with MePhone 4 and the cast that circulate in my mind but they make me kinda happy (idk). I really want to make art and write about him more but then I have to remind myself that he hasn’t come out yet. I always think of him as the MePhone that’s built to be a weapon but might actually be really sweet. If he dies expect me to cry and make 1000+ fix-it-fics about him lol (unless he’s like super evil or something).

Bot (II): They’re so silly and I love their character arc. Their design is also really cool and they’re so fun to draw. They really flourished after they were able to be themselves and while I know many people don’t like their arc, I think it was good. I hope we get to see them go back with MePhone 4 and live at Hotel OJ with Fan and Test Tub.

Moonstone (EEE): She is literally me, nervous, gets flustered easily, and shy. I would LOVE it if she could get a fraction of screen time like the others do and if her powers were actually utilized but whatever I guess.

Diary (EEE): She is my number one favorite, I mean, did you see what she did to that Dino in E3! That was cool! Like with Moonstone, I wish she got more screen time but I also, for some reason, want to know her backstory. She’s a journalist who works for Poison in a large city, that sounds interesting to me. Her fic (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11407809/1/Moonthery) shows that she’s a huge asshole but I’m still really curious.

Toney (Earthbound/Mother2): Again with the characters that have no plot relevance T-T

I don’t really have an explanation on why he was a favorite character of mine but I guess it would have to be because of the little bit of personality we see from him and his interactions with Jeff.

GLaDOS (Portal 1/2): GLaDOS’s story is really interesting and dark and has set the standard for AI in my mind. When I learned about what she’s gone through all that hatred I had for her melted away and I felt like she was forced into a situation she had no choice in being in. A long time ago I heard this audio clip of Caroline pleading with the Aperture scientists that she didn’t want to become GLaDOS and it made my heart sink. If I ever find it I’ll share it but it was a while ago.

Auto (Walk-E): My first ever encounter with an AI character and what set me on the path of absolutely loving robots! I think it would be cool to see how he’s doing now with the humans all leaving him but for the love of everything Pixar should not touch this movie or characters with a thousand-foot pole. I would actually die if they made a sequel, just leave old films alone!

Anyways, thanks for giving me the excuse to yap about my favorite characters.

[cantsayidont]

Movies movies movies:

THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976): Disquieting, bloody psychological drama, directed by Matt Cimber (later the founder of G.L.O.W., and the basis for the "Sam Sylvia" character played by Marc Maron on the 2017–2019 G.L.O.W. TV series), about a disturbed young woman named Molly (Millie Perkins, wife of screenwriter Robert Thorn), whose horrifying history of childhood abuse causes her to sublimate sexual attraction into dissociative homicidal fits, when she isn't doting on her two young nephews or drinking herself into a haze. Vibes like an exploitation movie, but too arty and surreal to really qualify as one, and it doesn't ever feel quite like a horror movie despite the lurid subject matter; probably the closest comparison is Abel Ferrara's MS.45, with which it would make an apt double bill. Demands strong CWs for CSA and suicide, both of which are pretty rough, but it definitely makes an impression, perhaps most strikingly in the later scenes where Molly's seedy boss (Lonny Chapman) and bitchy coworker (Peggy Feury) begin to grasp how unhinged Molly has really become, leading to a disturbing finale. Too unsettling to easily recommend, hard to forget.

ALICE GOODBODY (1974): Lightweight, smutty exploitation movie, written, produced, and directed by Tom Scheuer, starring Sharon Kelly as a starstruck Hollywood waitress who loves old movies and movie stars (most of whom the people she meets in the industry have barely even heard of) and who is determined to get a small part in a new musical about Julius Caesar, even though it means sleeping with almost everyone in town. A kind of cheerful low-stakes sex comedy they don't make anymore: The situation is obviously sleazy, but not in any way that ever puts Alice in any particular jeopardy (she's in far more danger on set, where she keeps suffering different workplace accidents). The movie's central running joke is that the men whose favor she's supposed to be cultivating are at least as fixated on their own weird obsessions and neuroses as on sex, something Alice just has to sort of work around as best she can, which ends up making her sympathetic and even relatable. More likable than you'd think.

SPICE WORLD (1997): Delightfully dopey Girl Power homage to Richard Lester's A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, starring the Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant at his Richard E. Grantiest, and a cast of thousands. (Just picking out all the cameos and guest stars is half the fun.) This is what I think the Greta Gerwig BARBIE movie was going for: obviously a commercial product, and making no apologies for its mercantile ambitions, but self-aware enough and full of enough sly piss-taking to be thoroughly enjoyable even if you aren't in (or never had) a Spice Girls phase. Goes on a bit too long, but Grant's outfits alone are worth sticking it out for, and the bridge-jumping climax is very funny.

KALIFORNIA (1993): Mordant thriller starring a disconcertingly young-looking David Duchovny as Brian Kessler, a young writer who blows his advance for a new book about serial killers on an old convertible for him and his horny art photographer girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes, with disconcerting bangs) to drive across the country, photographing famous murder sites. Along the way, they pick up a couple of hitchhiking hicks, Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and Adele Comers (Juliette Lewis), to help pay for gas, not realizing that Early is a paroled convict who's just murdered someone and has no qualms about dropping more bodies along the way. Tim Metcalfe's script (with obligatory '90s voiceover narration) scores some points early on in its depiction of Brian and Carrie's obvious classism and brittle middle-class hipster intellectualism, but the story ends up validating their prejudices rather than questioning them, which keeps the film from being entirely satisfying despite its effectiveness as a thriller. The cast is very good, with Pitt and Forbes the real standouts — Pitt plays Early as a man who draws no line between aw-shucks Southern congeniality and murderous rage, while Forbes makes Carrie's mix of ambition, appetite, and roiling intensity so vivid that you come away wondering what she's doing with Brian, who Duchovny plays as a somewhat gormless jackass. As for Lewis, suffice to say this would make an interesting double bill with NATURAL BORN KILLERS, released about a year later, where she plays a variation on the same damaged theme.

[theteapotofdoom]

If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Oh, anon you have NO IDEA how happy this ask makes me, because there's probably nothing I love more on this earth than talking about the things I like!!! Nothing brings me more serotonin than sharing my favourite stories with other people!!! Let's go!!!

It's also a hard question because I just ... like things very easily. I have my favourites for sure, but there are A LOT of stories that I love and that made me who I am today. I also tend to hyper-fixate a lot so I will be completely obsessed with a piece of media for a few months and then it will go dormant for a year and then it comes back and so on ...

So with this list, I'm trying to narrow it down to the big ones, the stories that I return to the most and that had a real impact on me. It's also very hard for me to mix all the media together because I don't necessarily expect the same thing from an anime as from a movie so it's hard for me to compare them. But I'll do my best!

The list is under the cut because I'm gonna ramble a lot about all things and it's gonna be a really long post.

EDIT: Okay so I've been struggling with this list for weeks now because every few days I think of new things that I like and that I want to add to this list ... so to keep it as a top 10 and not a top 100, I've decided to not include any movie in this list, except for franchises (when the story is a continuation told through at least two or three movies). Basically, with this ranking, I focused on long-form stories.

My reasoning is that since I already have a really hard time ranking my favourite movies without including other types of media, it's easier to separate them and make another top ten of my favourite movies later down the line if anyone is interested. (Also not to sound like an insane person, but I feel like I have a completely different set of criteria for liking a stand-alone movie than for liking any other type of media so it's better this way)

1 - The Lord Of The Rings (movie trilogy) - Yes, I said no movies, but this trilogy is a mini-series to me. This one is just so deeply personal to me. I first watched the trilogy on DVD (extended edition) when I was 9 and it just blew my tiny mind and shaped my creativity for so many years. I read the books when I was a little older and I cherish them dearly, but the movies are so much more personal to me. I mean, what can I say that hasn't been said already? Everyone adores this trilogy. Just like many people all over the world, I consider these three movies comfort movies. I've watched them a thousand times and I will watch them I thousand more. No matter where I'm at in my life, I can just put on The Fellowship Of The Rings, The Two Towers or The Return Of The King and I will cry and laugh as if I'm watching them for the first time. Like ... my best friend and I were so obsessed with these movies as kids that we started calling each other Merry and Pippin and we still use the nicknames TO THIS DAY as adults. She is still saved on my phone as Merry and I'm still saved on her phone as Pippin. And it's not just the movies, it's the making of, the behind-the-scenes, the cast, just ... the pure love and optimism and dedication that went into this project ... the sheer honesty of the story ... no dark subversion, no sarcastic wink at the camera ... just love. If you haven't watched these movies yet, treat yourself! Get your hands on the extended edition, and watch it as mini mini-series rather than a proper trilogy of movies. You'll love it!

2 - Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)/Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (anime) - I'm kind of cheating here by lumping the manga and the anime together but this is a short list so I'm doing the best I can! Again, what can I say that hasn't already been said about FMA? Everyone knows it's great, everyone knows it's the best anime of all time, everyone says it ... AND YET I still feel like it's super underrated. It's not, but I can't help but feel like it is. In my humble opinion, Fullmetal Alchemist is not just the best manga/anime of all time, it's simply the best story of all time. I'm still more emotionally attached to the LOTR trilogy, but FMA is just perfect in my eyes. The themes, the characters, the story ... I had never been so satisfied by a story before and I haven't been since. Every character arc is masterfully handled, and the story doesn't shy away from insanely dark and realistic topics while still maintaining a sense of hope and optimism. The magic system is one of the best I've ever seen. The story is so layered that every time I rewatch it (which is a lot) I notice new details. The world is incredibly rich but the plot always knows how to stay focused on the things that matter and we are never lost. Every single day I'm closer and closer to starting a YouTube channel just to talk about FMA nonstop. Long live Arakawa our queen!

3 - Les Misérables (book and musical) - Okay we're getting a little more specific here. I don't know if this one is surprising or not because if you've been following me for a really long time (like ... six or seven years) then you MUST remember when I was a Les Mis blog. I wasn't creating content or anything, but I was so deeply obsessed with Les Misérabled back then, it was the only thing blogged about for two or three years I'd say. Although I don't talk about it as much these days I still love this story so deeply. I will still cry if I think about Jean Valjean for a little too long, I will go feral if I see Enjoltaire art on my dash, and I will still re-read part of the book and listen to the songs. Basically what happened is: for my 18th birthday, my parents took me to London to see the show on West End, and much like the LOTR trilogy ten years before that, it ROCKED MY WORLD AND BLEW MY MIND! I bought the live recording of the show, did a deep dive into the fandom on Tumblr and I was hooked. I even watched the 2012 movie but we don't talk about it because it wasn't great (except for George Blagden doing THE MOST of all times with the little screen time he was given and carrying the Enjoltaire ship on his back like a king). After that, I read the book and it made me love the story even more. The novel is so rich and deep and such a delight at every turn, I adore it as much as the musical. It probably sounds obvious to a lot of people since Victor Hugo is literally one of the most famous writers in the whole world but like ... the character writing in Les Misérables is beyond anything I've ever seen. I can only ever dream of writing characters as good as these.

4 - My Hero Academia (manga) - Here were are ladies and gentlemen ... the one that everyone was waiting for! I think it's fair to say that MHA is the story that most people associate this blog with. I'm specifically talking about the manga here because although I still have a lot of fondness and affection for the anime (especially the early seasons) I can't help but feel like Studio Bones dropped the ball a few times these past few years (with the way they rearranged the MVA arc, the censorship of some of the most impactful scenes, and the whole Blue Sky debacle). Besides, I wholeheartedly believe that Horikoshi is currently the most talented manga artist in the industry and his illustrations always have ten times more impact than what we get in the anime. Once again, what can I say about MHA that I haven't said already? This blog is just one big essay about MHA and Shigaraki at this point. And yet, my relationship with MHA is a lot more complicated than with the other entries on this list. I don't think that MHA is a perfect story, FAR from it. I think that there are a lot of missed opportunities and wasted developments, and it also suffers from a lot of classic shonen tropes when it comes to some of its female characters. But when it hits? It really really REALLY fucking hits. When MHA is at its worst it's just kind of mid, but when it's at its best, it's just transcendant! The MVA arc, the AFO/All Might fight, the Deku retrieval arc ... it has so many iconic moments that I will think about for years. And of course, the man, the myth, the legend: Shigaraki Motherfucking Tomura. Best fucking character of all time, a success in every single way, a tragic figure, a threatening villain, a likeable antihero to root for, a chaotic gremlin and a sexy babygirl ... the man can do it all. No matter how MHA ends, I will always be grateful for Shigaraki (and for many other great characters like Deku, All Might, Iida, Toga, Ochako and so on). MHA was also the first fandom I ever created content for and it deadass changed the trajectory of my life. So yeah :)

5 - LOST (tv show) - I feel like almost everyone on Tumblr has a special attachment to an early 2000's live-action TV show with hundreds of episodes ... LOST is mine! As I'm writing this list, I'm realising that I have a similar relationship with LOST than with MHA: I don't think that LOST is a perfect show, it dropped the ball a few times and I understand a lot of the criticism against it ... but when LOST hits IT REALLY FUCKING HITS so I will always defend it. And just like MHA, LOST has a lot of detractors who never properly watched the show and throw a lot of bad-faith criticisms at it. Like I said, I fully admit that the show has problems, but some of the complaints I hear sometimes are just ... straight up not true and very easy to debunk. This show can be messy at times, but if you get into it, it will literally stay with you forever. The plot has issues but the character writing is pretty fucking stellar 99% of the time, I can definitely nitpick about some things, but it's honestly absurd how compelling everyone in the cast is. Pretty much everyone in the main cast (of like ... 15 people!) can be your favourite character and I wouldn't be surprised. At its core, LOST is just a very human show. The story of a group of strangers forced to live together on an island after a plane crash, forming relationships, overcoming their past traumas, and slowly being wrapped in a plot that's bigger than all of them. I go crazy if I think about it for too long. One day I will make a video essay about LOST and you will all see.

6 - Les Légendaires (comics) - Are you all ready for some niche content??? Honestly, I don't even know how to properly get into this one because I highly doubt that anyone reading this even knows what Les Légendaires is (except if you're French). Les Légendaires is kind of a funny story because pretty much unknown all around the world, but it is absolutely HUGE in France, probably one of the popular young adult comic series of all time. The series has been ongoing for 20 years and has sold millions of copies. Like, I cannot stress it enough, it's an absolute juggernaut with many spin-offs and sequels and a large fanbase. From age 11 to 16 I was OBSESSED with it. It's your classical fantasy story with a group of adventurers going on many different quests and forming bonds and relationships and fighting evil, but it's so perfectly executed, that it's kind of insane. The author is very open about taking inspiration from many stories (mostly mangas and animes) that he grew up with, so it's a wonderful mix of many different styles and genres of fantasy. The five main characters all start as classical fantasy tropes, but every single one of them is developed and challenged throughout the story. Everyone gets just enough focus and attention to be a main character in its own right. Just like with LOST, every single one could be your favourite character and I wouldn't be surprised! The series also did a wonderful job growing up with its audience, the first four volumes are more whimsical and child-friendly, but the series gets darker and more mature through the years (all the way up to the "Cycle d'Anathos" arc which is SO BRUTAL but also one of favourite story arc in a comics/manga ever, it's a masterclass). I kind of grew out of it now (mostly because the main story is over and we are now in spin-offs and sequels territory) but I still casually keep up with the evolution of the story from afar. Looking back on it, it definitely has a lot of flaws that I ignored when I was a teen, but I cannot understate the impact that it had on me growing up. I'm still very fond of it!

7 - Critical Role Campaign 2 (D&D podcast) - Honestly, I didn't think I would bring up CR in this list, but as kept thinking about the stories that had a real lasting impact on me ... The Mighty Nein saga just kept popping up in my head again and again. So here they are :) Critical Role was such a surprise for me, something that I never expected to impact me the way it did. I had heard of it, I knew what it was and that it was popular ... but when I watched the first episode of campaign 2 on a whim one afternoon (mistaking it for the first episode of campaign one, but the best mistake of my life honestly) I was just IMMEDIATELY sold and into it. I fell hard and fast for this group of chaotic friends. It's hard to compare CR2 to the other entries on this list because it's a story but also it's a D&D game with a lot of improv and impulsive player decisions, so it feels weird to compare it with like ... a fully produced anime or TV show. It's hours and hours of content, and I don't adore all of it, to be honest. But the characters? GOD the characters!!! The dynamics!!! The relationships! The developments!!! The appeal of this very very very long format is that you truly get to see the main characters evolving in a way that feels more organic than anything I've ever seen. I will think about the relationship between Caleb and Beau FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE and it's only one facet of everything that this campaign has in store. I've tried getting into Campaign 1 but it just doesn't hit the same for me (although I do love the animated series!!). Campaign 3 is also great, probably my second favourite so far, but the characters of campaign 2 all hit perfectly for me. CR2 had a HUGE impact on the way I think about characters whenever I'm writing these days and I will always be grateful for that.

8 - A Series Of Unfortunate Events (book series) - This book series will always have a special place in my heart, even if I don't talk about it as much these days. When I was a child, A Bad Begining was the first novel that I read on my own from beginning to end. No one else in my family was reading it, it was something that was my own special interest. To this day I still remember how engrossed I was in the mystery behind these books, with the secrets behind Lemony Snicket, Beatrice, VFD, The Great Unknown, and the Bombinating Beast ... it was just so thrilling to follow the Baudelaires in each new adventure while slowing realising that there was an even bigger mystery behind everything happening to them. I honestly believe that these books don't get enough credit as mystery novels for kids, each volume is its own stand-alone story with its own setting and colourful characters, while also giving the reader a new piece of the bigger puzzle. The tone was also so unique, it was funny and thrilling, but also creepy, unsettling and profoundly sad most of the time. Even beyond the terrible things that happened to the Baudelaires, there was also a deep feeling of nostalgia and melancholy in the narration and it made the reading experience unique. And of course, the playful writing style is so memorable! A full page with just the word "never", the deep black pages when it's dark all around, and sentences written twice when we're told that Klaus is so tired that he just read the same sentence twice. I loved these books as a kid and I still love them as an adult, their creativity of style and unique world-building inspire me to this day.

9 - Undertale (video game) - You know, even with all the crazy memes and fandom drama and AUs that came with it ... Undertale is such a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful story. I vividly remember every single thing I felt when I experienced it for the first time (I'm kind of cheating here because I didn't play the game first, I watched the Jacksepticeye let's play in almost one sitting, cried my eyes out, and went to buy the game and play it after that). It's such a unique yet universal story, so charming, so clever and so moving. The way it uses the most basic game mechanics as a narrative tool is honestly inspiring. It's the story that confirmed to me that, narratively, choosing kindness and compassion over violence will (almost) always be much more satisfying and compelling to me as a resolution. Like ... that scene at the end of the neutral ending when you defeat Flowey and you're given the choice to kill him or spare him? When Flowey practically begs you to kill him because he simply doesn't understand how you could possibly not do it? When you are given this choice at least five times in a row because Flowey DESPERATELY needs you to confirm his idea that in this world it's "kill or be killed"? When he just says "I don't understand" again and again when you keep sparing him? That shit is engraved in me forever. This is part of my identity. And I'm not even gonna get into the absolute masterclass that is the final fight of the Good Ending when you get to save Asriel and your friends because I will cry. Love that funky little game. Love my best boy Papyrus.

10 - Night In The Woods (video game) / Bojack Horseman (TV show) - YES I KNOW I'M CHEATING! But listen, I told myself that I would only do a top-ten and I deadass could not choose between the two, so here we are. I also figured that it would be a good duo to end on because NITW and BH actually have a lot of similarities. Depressed cartoon animals desperately trying to become better people while also hurting all their close friends ... yeah. Beyond that, NITW and BH are also very different stories with different tones, different mediums and different themes of course. NITW is a 9 hours indie game and BH is a six-season Netflix show (with therefore a lot more time to explore the issues it chooses to deal with). But both of these stories have had an incredible impact on me. And another thing that they have in common is that ... well, it's still hard for me to properly explain why they mean so much to me. I mean, it's kind of obvious in a way! These are stories about trauma, grief, depression, addiction, loneliness, growing up, moving on ... things everyone deals with at some point in their life. These two stories are acclaimed and beloved by a lot of people and I'm just one of them. As I said, I can't properly explain in what way I relate to these stories, but it's here and it's with me forever.

HERE WE ARE WE DID IT! God, there were so many other things I wanted to talk about ... Shinsekai Yori, Watchmen, Mystic River, Sherlock Holmes (the novels thank you very much), all of the Hercule Poirot stories ... and of course all the many movies that I wanted to talk about.

If you read this post all the way through, you are braver than the Marines, but also: what are your favorite stories? Feel free to share your preferences as well! :D

[icemankazansky]

Hey! first off thank you for the post on the casket wings. I'm working my way through your Storm series (late to the party I know).

I was wondering since you've shipped Icemav pre-TGM, how the new movie changed or confirmed your Icemav head canons.

I never really shipped them before TGM except as a passing thought of "they should have kissed" after TG86 but now I'm on the bullet train lol.

You're welcome.

Also, you're the second person this week to say "sorry I'm late" re: Storm, and I have two thoughts about that:

Stories are forever. There's no right time to read them for the first, second, or hundredth time. That's the beauty of them.

I was late to my own damn party. I think a lot of people new to the fandom since TGM do not realize this, but I took an eight year break between writing Storm 1 and 2 and writing Storm 3 and 4.

Oooookay, this is going to be a long one, buckle up.

When I first heard they were making a sequel to Top Gun, I was not excited. I kind of dreaded it, actually. I'm going to give you a little backstory, because it explains a lot of things.

I started my Val Kilmer fixation and my relationship with his work, including Top Gun, right about the same time I started grad school. I was further away from home than I had ever been before—no safety net. And I lost my health insurance because I stopped working to go to school. I have suffered from a little mental illness cocktail since about seventh grade, primarily depression-heavy bipolar II, and when I moved to Savannah, I had to go off all my meds. I did not have any sort of mental health care. So here I am unmedicated, untreated, completely on my own, and going through this rigorous program.

I needed something to hold onto. I needed a distraction; I needed a way to self-soothe.

I got Val Kilmer.

It became a hyperfixation, I guess. I watched dozens of his movies; I started creating fan content for those movies, first Thunderheart, primarily, a few smaller things for other films, and then Top Gun and Icemav specifically not long after. I deep dove this shit. I ended up writing my MFA thesis on Val Kilmer movies, okay? That's how important this became to me. I am not being hyperbolic when I say: He saved my life.

And even after I graduated and got back into treatment, these movies and these characters and these ships were incredibly important to me. I had a personal, emotional connection to them, and I was really afraid, when I heard they were making TGM, that the movie would damage Ice or Maverick or—and this was my specific fear more than anything—Icemav for me. And I needed them. Storm is basically my preferred canon post-Top Gun OG, and it supposes a lot of things that I was sure an action film by a major studio would never give me. I knew they were not going to end up happily married, okay? Like, I knew I wasn't going to get that. That didn't mean I didn't want it, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was just afraid that the movie would do more than that, and, like, definitively say in some way or another that their relationship was not important, or that it was absolutely not romantic, that they didn't love each other the way I knew they did, etc.

I saw Top Gun: Maverick on Top Gun Tuesday, a special showing on the Tuesday before the movie opened everywhere. As I've said, I was already very emotionally invested in what happened in this film, and you know, I have a mood disorder, and I'm also an empath and I cry pretty easily when I'm experiencing media, especially if it's a visual media like television or film. I know this about myself. I can't help it. I packed tissues in my purse on Top Gun Tuesday because I fully expected to cry a lot.

And I didn't. I loved the movie, and I thought what they had done with Icemav was the best that we were ever going to get from an action movie made by a major studio. It was evident that the relationship was integral to both characters, that it pretty much started in 1986 and never stopped, was a continuous presence throughout both their lives for 36 years. It showed deep affection between Ice and Maverick and incredible respect without losing the playfulness that their competitiveness would have mellowed into over that time. And it was open-ended, mostly. It's suggested that Ice got married, but it's never stated (Sarah could be his sister), and the nature of the relationship is never defined. I'm currently running on a Sarah is aroace and Ice is gay and in love with Maverick and Ice and Sarah have a platonic marriage and maybe even children, but it has not in any way stopped Ice and Maverick from having a romantic and sexual relationship for 30+ years model, and it's not exactly what I hoped for, but it's enough room for me to retcon it, to fit the pieces together so I can keep Icemav, because it's important to me and I need it.

I did eventually break down and cry about it about three days later. I was heartbroken over Ice, and it was really hard for me to watch Ice die of the same thing that had made Val so sick, and it was really hard for me that Ice dies—depending upon when you decide the movie takes place—before he's 60 years old, or just north of 60, and it was really hard for me to not get a happily ever after for Icemav.

I have been working on a fic that kind of explains how 1986 - 2022 worked for Icemav within the frame given to us by TGM, but I've been working on it since May 24th (incidentally the same day I saw the movie for the first time), so I don't know when it'll be complete. It's just shy of 25,000 words at the moment, and it's helping me work through some of the feelings that Icemav in TGM gave me, but for me, it's just going to be one version of what could have happened. I don't ... I don't see Storm as any less valid because of TGM, and I'm not going to stop loving that version of things and I'm not going to stop writing for it, and I'm not going to stop thinking of other endings for them, and other middles, because I love them and they deserve happily ever afters, and so do I.

I hope that answers your question. I know this was a lot, but it's been 12 years for me, and a lot has gone into my relationship with Icemav, so there's a lot to say.

[shellsweet]

Hi there!!! I just wanna say that since I got back into TMNT your art is literally some of the best I’ve seen, especially your recent anniversary piece for the 2003 show!! 😁 it’s beautifully done!!

I wanted to ask how you got into the series, and do you have a favorite or least favorite character?

Thank you, and have a good evening! 😁

Oh wow. That’s a huge compliment! I sincerely appreciate that and I’m so glad you enjoy my art so much! I love drawing these goofy turtles so it means a lot that you guys enjoy it!

Honestly, being the little cartoon lover gremlin that I was and still am I had to see what the fox box was about and since the premiere of the first episode of the 2003 TMNT series, I was instantly hooked! My brain immediately clicked to consume everything and anything about this franchise at a young age. The fixation has not stopped after 20 years and I just recently turned 31. 😂

I’m extremely grateful that my parents were pretty supportive about it, they bought me the first 2 live action movies on vhs pretty soon after I got obsessed and they let me buy TMNT figures and comics!

I couldn’t get enough. I looked forward to those Saturdays and miss them very much!

My favorite character from 2k3 is easily Donnie. He’s still the best version to me, he’s such a sweetie! My least favorite character? Hmmm…not that he ruins the show or anything, but if I had to pick, it would probably be Dr. Chaplin. I just find him very unnecessary in comparison to Dr. Stockman. You can’t replace him! He’s one of the best villains and way more entertaining!

[jagged1]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Tagged by @fandork

Three Ships Any, ever, what- HELP. Uhhhh, here's a roulette.

Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn - from Batman Nathan Stark/Jack Carter - from Eureka (TV series) Zebra x Komatsu - from Toriko First Ever Ship Hiei x Kurama - from Yu Yu Hakusho

Last Song This Is It - Oh The Larceny

Last Movie Oh hell, something my partner put on, it was either The Rundown or Sahara, I'm pretty sure.

Currently Reading A lot of manga/webtoons. I honestly couldn't tell you the last "proper" book I've picked up. My biggest fixation is probably Second Life Ranker, but the OG King is One Piece.

Currently Watching Leverage Redemption. Currently Consuming Water

Currently Craving Boba tea. Which is odd because I used to really not enjoy it.

Tagging: Oh, I definitely can't think of 9 people easily, here just take this. No pressure to do it and anyone who just wants to, feel free.

@foxieflower @gluskincasual @churchgrim @scissorbritches @rivercityrabbitsbro

[jumping-joey1104]

hello, i was wondering if i could get a creepypasta matchup? Sorry for sending another when you’ve already got a few, so you don’t have to answer this.

I use he and it pronouns, I stim openly a lot and think I might have haphephobia.

I tend to be pretty distant or in-my-own-head in everyday life. I’ll often get really attached to specific people or things. my interests jump around a lot, but generally, I always like writing and video games, particularly slightly old RPGs. including, the Persona series, especially persona 3 as of now, plus citizen sleeper. I like reading comics and manga (I’m a bit of a kid in personality honestly), doodle, and listen to music a lot. I have fun with flashy characters, theatrical themes and I could ramble for a long time about some of mine.

I don’t like certain tastes, like orange, I’m kinda picky. I can get big mood swings and feel really shitty and force myself to find an outlet, like drawing on my arms, and then feel super hopeful later in the day. Like I said, I get really fixated on stuff quickly, so I’ll get really stuck on one person sometimes. Ironically, my love languages are physical touch (i get really clingy on some occasions) and secondarily gift giving.

I can accidentally say or show people really extreme things, as I can tell they're severe, just not what kind of effect saying that will have. so, people who I have to tone down what I say to in that regard, I guess, I don't get on well with. (sorry if that's weird to say...)

and…that’s all I can think of. thanks if you do do it

Sorry for the late answer Anon, but I would love to answer any asks you send in!! Speaking of asks I have chosen a matchup for you!!!

Liu/Sully

Friendship

Since Liu and Sully share the same body, you kinda get one with the other soooo

Being friends with Liu and Sully is a wild ride from start to finish, Liu is shy unlike his younger brother Jeff. But Sully is a force to be reckoned with

You and Sully could be hanging out and all of a sudden you're at a McDonald's drive thru wearing Halloween wigs and more than likely three redbulls deep

Sully is the epitome of a wild and sarcastic college guy that for some reason never lays a hand on his friends

He becomes like a mean older brother to his friends but always respects boundaries. If you say you don't like him doing something to you he'll never do it again

If you like having debates over video games and characters Sully is the best one to talk to, he absolutely loves just sitting and talking. Makes him happy to be listened to and having responses back

Liu on the other hand is very recluse and quiet, it takes a bit to warm up to him versus Sully. He'll come off as cold very easily but is a sweetheart once

I headcanon Liu being in cheer/theater during high school, so if you play any music with a good beat he'll probably dance with you and make tiktok dances if you ask him

If you like drawing on yourself please draw on him too, he absolutely loves it when he's covered in colors and doodles. Probably would do that one thing where you share a sketchbook between friends

Dude has insomnia bad, so being friends with him means lots of late nights with music and playing videogames/ watching movies. Like his room has different posters of movies and Broadway shows Hamilton fan unironically

Liu is also very touchy and doesn't like being touched without asking, he's very much the opposite of Sully in that way. Even if you've been friends for a while you'll be lucky to get a hug from him

Relationship

Sully in a relationship means he has someone to protect other than Liu, so he becomes very attentive to your needs. You know that meme "He asked for no pickles"? Yeah, he's like that

He'll become very cuddly while you're dating, just having you nearby makes both him and Liu happier than anyone could make them. You give him a little smooch? Mans a puddle on the floor

Constant check ins from him, although he gives off a cocky attitude he's still scared that his attitude will scare you off. You could be together for years and he'll still ask before giving you a smooch or hug

Please PLEASE doodle on him! He knows that you don't like being touched so he's not going to leave hickeys on you (even though he wants to) so if you draw on him he'll be constantly flaunting it

He'll love to show you things he's done and found just like you like showing him extreme stuff. It takes a lot to scare this man...

Liu is way more open when you two start dating, he'll constantly want to stay by your side and unlike Sully would actually want to draw on you a bit.

Liu isn't as affectionate as Sully but is much more talkative when in a relationship. His love language is just letting you speak about whatever you want and gifts

Lots of gifts, he'll give you his sweaters and buy you your favorite snacks and movies. You look twice at something when shopping with him it's going in the cart. No questions

He'll play a lot more music around you and PLEASE watch some of his favorite musicals with him!! This man literally knows all of Hamilton and like 90% of the dances

Such a musical guy, he'll burn CDs of your favorite video game music and buy you a CD player so you can listen to music together, he has a secret Walkman that he still uses and will share it with you!!