#i got the little monkey! may post later

[bucketnspade]

Saw many jellycats!!!!

[veryhopefulromantic]

a sleepover with johnny cade: hcs☆ fem!reader

☆hii! so fair warning this is my first time posting something i've written- and i usually just write for me but i figured someone else might enjoy it too this timeƪ(˘⌣ ˘)ʃ hope someone reading this does!☆

genre: fluff

age range/context: teenagers, your parents are mentioned a lot, and it's implied you've got smth smth goin on, but not explicitly stated so you could just be real close besties(〃￣︶￣)人(￣︶￣〃)

warnings: one mention of cigarettes, one mention of bad parents, really very mild it's fluffy

"Johnny?" You whisper into the dark, the only illumination of the room being a blue tone from the moon. it seeps in from the window.

"Mmh?" He replied from the couch beside you. He was sleeping over in your house tonight for the first time, your parents were happy to have him after you explained his parents didn't really want him home.

so you two were allowed to share a room, as long as you each had a couch and there was, quote from your mom "no monkey business involved".

Of course at this you rolled your eyes and assured her that was ridiculous, but deep down of course you may have been hoping to start some…

"I'm cold" You turn over to face him and pout. "Wouldja come over and help me warm up?"

"y/n.." He looks at you with those big brown eyes of his. "your dad'll kill me.."

You giggle at this. "He wouldn't dare. 's a peaceful man. Plus, for what? sittin with me?" You pat the space next to you, and maybe bat your eyelashes a little extra.

He sighs and chuckles softly before pushing himself to a sitting position with his hands, and swinging his legs so his feet hit the floor.

You notice how awfully cute he looks with his hair ruffled, sitting in his oversized tshirt and red and black pajama pants.

"You're lucky you're cute" he mumbles, moving to lay next to you. He faces you and wraps his arms around your shoulders, rubbing circles to try and create some friction to warm you up.

You reach out and wrap your arms around his middle too, pulling yourself closer to tuck your face into his chest. His shirt smells slightly of cigarette smoke, but it's relaxing in a way.

He tightens his hold on you when you come closer, and places a kiss on the top of your head.

It's all just so sweet and you're both so sleepy

In his arms is the only place you'd want to be.

The next morning~

You two fall asleep like that, and stay wrapped up in each other until in the morning you startle awake to footsteps approaching

You tap his shoulder rapidly but gently, trying to wake him up and he groans, his eyes fluttering.

"People are wakin up Johnny" You whisper

He responds to this, by (half asleep and a bit disoriented) going to sit up, and ending up rolling off the couch and thumping on the floor.

You look down concerned and yelp but he's just rubbing his eyes.

CUTECUTECUTECUTE dude

Your mom comes out a little later and is just like "you guys sleep well?( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)" all giggly

She definitely saw you two.

But she'll never bring it up.

Just be very giggly and keep bringing Johnny up asking when he'll come over againnn if he wants dinner-

All considered it was a wonderful sleepover

if you enjoyed pls leave a like so i know!(´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

[yawnzzznnn]

lmao i'm sorry i'm talking so much today 😭 but can i request for riize's anton with the 'let's go to the convenience store' prompt with wanna be yours of artic monkeys and/or anton bf headcanons?

anyways remember to take care of yourself and stay hydrated

ly

𖤐Our Song - Anton𖤐

Special thanks to: @eumppappasgrippers , Riize

Note: I was gonna post this earlier today but I didn't realize it was Friday and it took a minute to write this because for some reason I'm dissociating more than normal (like every two seconds), but thank you for requesting I hope your also taking care of youself and keeping hydrated, lyt

TW: Yn being classic Yn : fluff : shy Anton : mentions of a creepy man : mentions of food and snacks : mentions of being in a food coma :

Words: 1009

Prompt: "Let's go to the convenience store" & "I Wanna Be Yours - Artic Monkeys"

8-18-23

It was around 2:30am when Anton brought up the idea of going to the convenience store. When you arrived at Riize's dorms earlier that day it was warm outside so you didn't bring a jacket not thinking of the temperature later in the night, thankfully Anton lended one of his hoodies to you. The scent on the hoodie smelt like a mixture of masculine and sweet, the hoodie was long on you as it went passed your pajama shorts Anton tried to convince you to either wear the pants you brought or borrow one of his.

But instead of doing what he asked you made the 'its not that cold' argument knowing very well how cold it was "Yn please just put on pants" Anton asked "it's not that cold outside Anton, I'll be fine" you replied putting your phone and Anton's phone in yours(his) hoodie pocket in response Anton sighed before lowering his hand holding the clothing item "it is that cold" he tried to convince you albeit you weren't listing "ok but what if some creepy man comes along and you look like your not wearing pants" he said

"You'll be there you can protect me" you said walking towards the door to leave his room "c'mon before the sun rises" you said walking out. Anton sighed and put the pants on his bed before following you "wait" you said causing Anton to turn and look at you "neither of us can drive-" you continued "yeah that's why I tried to get you to wear pants" he responded in a soft tone you shook your head "that's not what I mean" you paused "how far away is the convenience store from here" you asked "about a 10-20 minute walk depending on how fast you walk 5 if you run" he responded

You sighed before grabbing his hand and dragging him out the door "you got our phones right" he asked griping your hand tighter you nodded your head "may I see mine" he said holding his hand out in response you moved the pocket closer to his hand "grab it" you said, he hesitated for a minute before reaching his hand in your pocket pulling out a random phone "oh-" he said once he looked at the phone "this is yours" he said looking at you before moving to put it back "your fine you can use it for whatever unless you were going to text someone I don't have the number of" you said looking at the ground beneath your

He softly nodded his head and typed in your password you peeked over at your phone to see what he was doing "what song you wanna listen too?" He asked his head turning to you "whatever you choose I'm just going along for the ride" you commented hopping a little Anton giggled at your antics before looking back down at your phone pulling your hand closer in order to put both hands on the phone pulling out a pare of Bluetooth earphones from his pocket he handed you one, you gave him a questioning look taking the other ear phone out his hand "I grabbed them while you were looking through my closet for a hoodie" he said pressing play on the music

"I wanna be yours" by artic money's filled the comfortable silence you giggled and looked at Anton "..what" he smiled "you know what you did" you giggled "your right I do know what I did" he softly said pulling you Infront of him before you could quistion why let go of your hand and pulled you infrony of him you felt his arms wrap around your waist and push you forward to continue the path of the sidewalk "isn't it uncomfortable to waddle like that" you asked him you felt his head nod from your shoulder "yeah but your shivering and I can't have my girlfriend cold" he said the pout on his face evident in his tone

You smiled and shook your head the to of you listened to music and made jokes the whole way to the convenience store "aaannd were here" he whispered in your ear "finally!" You breathed out "my legs hurt" you finished walking into the store "oh calm yourself the walk wasn't that bad" Anton said you didn't respond instead you rushed Anton to the chip isle. Once the two of you picked out what you wanted to eat you headed to the cash register "oh my god Anton!" You said as you turned to him the look on his face held worry as he ran his eyes over your figure looking for an injury

"We forgot our cards in your room" you said he shook his head "no mines on my phone, apple pay" he said "yeah cool mines not" you said as you looked at the ground "no one said I was gonna let you pay anyway" Anton said grabbing your hand leading you to the register. No matter how many times you protested he didn't listen instead payed with apple pay "I'll pay you back" you said before you could ask for his Venmo he cut you off "I don't want your money but you could pay me back in cuddles and kisses" he said knowing he won't take no for an answer you sighed "fine" you said grabbing his hand that didn't have the bags

The two of you made it back to the dorm and put all your stuff in his room piled around the both you, you still in Anton's hoodie as you deemed it too comfortable to take off. You guys put on a random movie half way through your snacks (and Anton's) put you into a food coma as you were drifting in and out of sleep you heard Anton softly whisper sing in your ear "I wanna be yours~"

[quitealotofsodapop]

Hey Mac, we thought you were dead;

Sequel to this post on Macaque being back in the "Century Stone Egg Au".

After the pregnant Monkey King breaks his shock, he'd run to embrace Macaque, even if he'd just been super close to clawing his eye out (again) and that they're last meeting was a huge fight. He only holds back because he's honestly a little scared/worried how and why Macaque is there. Wukong is immediately trying to apolgise for his violent reaction, but Macaque just laughes out; "Nah, it's my fault. Should've asked first." It's only with the shadow monkeys' breathy, almost *fond* laughter that Wukong realises that Mac is truly there for peace. Mac's interaction with PIF further confirms this.

The reincarnation gang + the dragon couple are super sketched out though. Pigsy is the one to loudly ask "How do you know it's him and not some weird copycat?", mostly cus he's legit worried for Wukong in this moment. Somebody's dead partner don't just show up one day!

Wukong responds with his Gold Vision + its hard to fake the way Mac smells. The gang still refuse to leave the two alone together until they recieve a decent explaination.

The fact that Macaque literally looks like he crawled out of the grave quickly gives everybody a bad feeling, and they def force Mac to sit down and explain how tf he came back to life before he's even allowed smell Wukong.

Macaque: "I may have agreed to do something... kinda stupid in hindsight." Wukong, : "Mac... look at me. What did you do?" Macaque: "...ok don't be mad." Wukong: "I'm preemptively seething." Macaque: "I accepted a deal from the White Bone Spirit." Wukong: "I'M FURIOUS!!!" *starts throwing whatever's closest at Mac* Macaque, dodges a pillow: "Pfff! Calm down, it's not like I'm actually gonna do it! She brought me back to life to release her from a tomb or something and I chucked the key away the second I got back." The whole Room: "..." Wukong: "Mihou... thats the stupidiest thing you could have done!" *summons hair clones to throw stuff at Mac* Macaque, now failing to dodge fruit: "OW! Why are you upset!? We both know nothing good will come of letting that demon free!" PIF: "Mihou, if this Bone Demon was able to bring you back from the dead, then she has the power to track you down and recind her offer." Macaque: "...so you're saying that I have to fufill her deal, or I might get dragged back to Diyu?" Wukong and PIF, at the same time: "YES!!!" Macaque: "Shit." The Whole Room: *covering Red and Mei's ears* "LANGUAGE!!" Tang: "You should work on that before the baby gets here.

Oh you better believe Mac's in the doghouse until they can figure out how to resolve the LBD business deal. PIF calls up her lawyer to go over the exact terms and conditions.

Fire Star: "Ok, I've got good news and bad news." Macaque: "Bad news first." Fire Star: "The Lady Bone Demon's geas is airtight. You will have to open her tomb *slash* free her spirit in order to keep your place in this mortal realm - less you be recalled at a later date for a task of similar value or until she makes you redundant." Pigsy: "Translate for the non-lawyers please." Fire Star: "Either he does it, or she makes him do it, or she just takes his soul." Macaque: "Shit." Wukong & PIF: *glaring daggers at Mac* Macaque: "So what's the good news?" Fire Star, slyly: "Those are the only conditions to the geas. There's a reason you need lawyers for these kind of things nowadays. She didn't stipulate say... where to release her. Or whom would be present to greet her when her tomb opens." Everyone: *shares similar delighted/scheming looks* (*a few hours + a few calls to a worried Nezha later*) Macaque: *unlocks LBD's tomb* LBD: "Freedom! Freedom! Fr-" All of Wukong's allies in the Heavenly Army + Diyu officials:

LBD: "Oh bother."

As the Bone Demon gets carted away for conspiracy to destroy the world, she gets yelled at by all of the Underworld/Diyu officials that now have to deal with the fallout of her actions.

King Yama: "Do you understand how much paperwork I have to do to mark this monkey as alive!? He doesn't have a death date! It's been blotted out! I'll be correcting his files for months!!" Macaque: *high fives Fire Star for the solid lawyer-ing*

As far as Hell/Diyu is concerned, Macaque performed a service and was paid upfront. They don't want the headache of trying to take him back if his mate (someone who's trashed Hell before) wants to keep him.

Wukong is still super-mad at Mac for a variety of reasons, don't get hom wrong. But he's atleast glad in the moment to have his mate back. And glad that LBD is gone for the forseeable future.

[pamgkrthwrites]

Hi i saw your request are Open.

I think this is my Frist ever ask I am asking you I am really excited

Can I request a yandere playtonic Macaqa Monkey King Nezha and pigsy x toddler female daughter reader

Like the reader is there daughter from a one night stand and The find out about them on accident. And they see the reader is a runt to

But a really sweet bean and Carry her stuff dog with her and is waiting for her mama. Even though her mother treats her bad the reader still loves her mama cuz she don't know her daddy. but when the fathers find out about her they take her away and give her a better life.

I hope you have a great day

Everyone, move aside. Time for some true fluff content.

Support me here

The character(s) depicted within this post are over the age of 20.

Wukong

He finds out about her after visiting MK and sees the woman again holding the hand of her young daughter.

He puts the pieces together quickly and is not pleased to say the least.

He doesn't want to reveal what he knows yet and just watches over his daughter. He may not like the idea of you but you are still his daughter.

He watches you as a bug most of the time, and his heart slowly warms up when he sees how sweet you are.

His heart aches when he sees you being left home alone, sitting close to the front door holding your puppy plush waiting for your mother. Who doesn't even love you.

It was when you are around 5 years old when he decides to step in after you answered the door and had an interaction with someone who would've harmed you if your neighbour wasn't leaving her apartment at that same moment.

He makes it known to your mother he knows, he angry with how shes raised you, and will be taking you himself.

Your mother acts mad but is happy she doesn't have to care for you anymore.

So Wukong takes you to his cave and takes care of you from that point on.

He didn't realise how much he wanted to be a father until that moment.

Macaque

Macaque and your mother met via one of his classes. One night stand and he never sees her again.

Well until she walks into his place 2 years later holding you in his arms.

Your mutant ears clearly indicate you're his.

She hands you over that second and tells him she doesn't want to raise his mutant offspring.

Macaque isn't happy that 1, a child is being dropped on him and 2, you are being referred to as a mutant.

He's a reluctant parent at first and gets rather annoyed at you at times.

But he learns to love you.

When your 4, he's surprised you still wait at the door with your puppy plush in your arms waiting for your mother.

You don't remember her, but you know the plush is the only thing in the home that she gave you and it's now a habit of yours to wait by the door for her.

Even if it looks like Macaque doesn't love you, he gets you everything you ask and is willing to kill for you if anyone even lays a finger on your pretty little head.

Nezha

Is pissed as all hell when they learn they got a mere mortal pregnant.

Nezha is probably the only one who knows off the bat, keeping an eye one the woman during the whole pregnancy.

Nezha doesn't want a daughter, but you are still theirs and therefore, they have to look out for you.

Then Nezha forgets for a few years.

When Nezha decided to remember and looks back over to see you waiting by the door late at night, waiting for your mother to return from a late night out.

They're pissed.

Nezha visits you when your mother is home and by the age of 7, you've learned Nezha is your father.

Nezha offers to take you to their home and you agree, happily.

Nezha doesn't inform your mother, just takes you while you were out partying.

You don't have to know your mother ends up being arrested for child neglect and the police believe she killed you. All you have to know is that Daddy came and took you to a beautiful lotus palace were you'll be raised for the rest of your life.

Pigsy

Pigsy is the only one who learns when you are around 10 years old.

Your mother just happened to walk into his noodle shop, holding your hand. You were still in school uniform, your mother just wanted to pick up some easy dinner.

Pigsy acts kindly to you, but he connects the dots on who your father is(it's him).

So when your mother wants a break from you, she drops you off at Pigsy's.

Tang and MK grow to love you, but Pigsy feels annoyed he has to be around you now.

It's only you who come to him unpromoted and give him something you have made.

He's prepared for it to taste gross but is surprised it tastes good.

Tang says "It must run in the family." and that's how you learn Pigsy is your father.

Like Macaque, Pigsy just acts as if he doesn't love you but soon enough he does. He seems how much you just want to be love and he can't deny how that makes him feel.

Soon enough, Pigsy gets full custody of you. Now you have two days, an older brother, and a free baby sister(Sandy or Mei considering the time of day).

[glorious-blackout]

Milex/TLSP/AM Fic Recs 💖

I was inspired by @puzzlebeanficrecs' recent posts to share some of my all-time favourite fics in this wonderful fandom. This is by no means an exhaustive list as the sheer number of amazing works I've read by incredible writers over the past couple of years is too many to count, but here are some fics that I keep going back to time and time again 🥰

1) Somewhere Darker by @elorianna

Alex hasn't slept properly for weeks. His days are plagued with writer's block, and his nights are haunted by strange and frightening dreams. Progress on the second Puppets album has all but ground to a halt.

Miles is haunted too, by the nights that he and Alex have shared, and the boundaries that they've crossed. Now, he's caught in a game of pretence which neither one of them seems destined to win.

But all is not as it appears, and when a working break away from LA turns into a strange misadventure, Alex and Miles must each decide where their real priorities lie, and how much they're willing to risk in order to attain their hearts' desires.

Will they find a way to repair their fragmented relationship? Or will they remain trapped in a nightmare from which neither one of them can ever wake up...?

One of my favourite fics ever and I cannot recommend the sequel 'Baby, He Can Find You' highly enough if you haven't read it yet!

2) All's Well That Ends Well (To End Up With You) by @yellowloid

Asking Miles to marry him is something Alex has been wanting to do for far too long now. After months of meticulous planning, the day has finally come ‒ and yes, maybe he's a bit nervous, but he's firm in his decision, and he can't wait to just get down on one knee and pop the question. Nothing ‒ nothing ‒ is going to get in his way.

The universe begs to differ.

This entire series is so beautifully written, but this particular fic owns my heart. Such a perfect balance between angst and warm fluff.

3) under these lights you look beautiful by @alexturne

Miles got completely lost in his voice. There was a faraway quality to it, like he belonged somewhere else entirely, but somehow had decided to grace them with his presence and Miles felt blessed to be near him if even for a short while. The subtle elegance hidden in his slender figure, the mannerisms of his fingers wrapped around the corners of his notebook. His words were spoken softly, quietly, but without any hesitation or faltering.

Alex is an elusive poet, who has a way with words and Miles is a bartender, who is completely mesmerized.

The queen of beautiful, heartfelt AUs! Every story of hers is like an escape into a warm hug, but this may be her magnum opus.

4) you cannot turn away (but nice try) by @kisameanslight

Alex Turner thought he got over the love of his life, but then they run into each other again a decade later. Whether they’ll be able to let the past go or not, only time will tell.

I have such fond memories of following this story as it came out and being kept on the edge of my seat with each new update. Her Vampire AU 'c'est horrifique!' is equally incredible 💖

5) The 'Amerlie' Series by @lanatural-books

Welcome to the universe of Amerlie.

All parts intertwine and should take you on an interesting adventure.

I can't begin to pick a favourite entry in this series so I'll simply recommend the whole thing. Such an exquisitely written, cosy love story between our favourite two idiots.

6) Joie de Vivre by @gasdancer

"Two young men decamp to rural France to make an album together. It ~is like love."

Possibly the best Baby Puppets fic/series ever written (and there's a lot of competition for that title). I have such a weakness for stories set in France during the recording of TAOTU so of course this series owns my heart.

7) Last night, what we talked about... by @rock-n-roll-fantasy

... it made so much sense... This little story came into being because of three obvious prerequisites: 1. Baby Monkeys were the cutest band in the world 2. Especially Baby Alex 3. Indie bands get drunk from time to time -> Conclusion: At least once, Baby Alex must have got too tipsy to walk back to the tourbus, so his equally tipsy friends had to take care of him. Further conclusion: It must have been very adorable :)

Not Milex, but just pure Baby Monkeys sweetness distilled into one adorably written fic. I'm in love 🥰

There are so many more fics that I love and wish I could mention but I'd probably be here all day. Feel free to add your own fic recs and share your favourite works in the fandom - I'd love to hear about them 💖

[purble-turble]

Sooooo…. How do you think the camel ridge trio would work out in Demon King Red? 👀👀👀

This is a really interesting idea, because the presence of Demon King Red would definitely change a lot about how those three interact with everyone else.. I did make this post about it previously, but I have some further ideas about them now too.

If they don't play much of a role in the events, and we assume that all of them are not trapped in the memory scroll in this version of things, then they certainly could just be background characters who send him supplies and later show up at DKR's wedding. However, if they were to have a larger role, and if we assume that Peng and Elephant are still trapped in the memory scroll, then things get more interesting. In that case, Azure would probably take the place of Macaque.

First of all, Azure Lion would probably show up to meet a freshly coronated Demon King Red. He would have received word that the Demon Bull family's heir is asking old allies for help and came immediately. Obviously he first offers his deepest condolences for the loss of the Demon Bull King, you know they were sworn brothers, and to learn that he was murdered at the hands of Sun Wukong. You know, he always hoped that Sun Wukong would come around and see the error of his ways and perhaps they could all be friendly again, but seeing what he's done this time... well, he can't be left t ohis own devices anymore, he's ruining too many lives. And he can't be killed, so obviously he needs to be controlled.

He manages to win over Red with sweet words of how he completely understands how he feels over the loss of MK. He shares his own story and uses it to relate to his own pain and says that he knows they can both get what they want. All they have to do is work together.

Now, he convinces DKR that instead of revealing himself and this beautiful court he's built up to the rest of the world (and MK), instead what Azure will do is set a trap using the memory scrolls. All they need to do is release that curse when MK and Sun Wukong are together, and then Azure will handle the rest. Once MK and all his little friends are trapped in the scroll and the curse within it defeated, Azure can pull MK out, but leave behind Sun Wukong and all his little friends.

The whole plot of season 4 plays out pretty precisely from there, and only diverges after MK is freed from the scroll. He does not emerge back in Camel Ridge like he does in canon. Nope. Instead, he finds himself in a gold and red throne room and the fire demon who captured and tortured him for six months, the one he thought he had mercifully seen the last of, is there waiting for him. And Azure just hands him right over.

Obviously MK is devastated by this betrayal and extremely confused and hurt (and maybe even glitching into monkey form at this point if we want to keep that fun bit of canon).. Azure does feel a twinge of guilt at seeing how scared MK looks as he's being embraced by Demon King Red, but he only offers excuses and no help. He's sure that MK will grow to love Red again, just as he has hopes that Wukong will once again return his affection once his grand plan is complete.

With Peng and Elephant now free as well, Azure goes to complete that mission. This time he's also aided by the army that Red has promised him for returning his darling MK to him, so that combined with the now tamed curse of the memory scroll, it's an even easier fight up in Heaven to take down the Jade Emperor.

Honestly, everything seems to be going very well for DKR and Azure in this version of things... but there's just one problem.

Azure took somebody's place in this AU. So what's Macaque up to?

Well... he's also got his eye on Sun Wukong and is looking to win him over. Seeing him trapped in that scroll by Azure (his bitter rival for Wukong's affection) is kind of inconvenient.. Although, with the little successor getting kidnapped by the Demon Bull's brat, there may be an opportunity here. Azure is definitely underestimating how angry Wukong will be once he lets him out of that scroll... if Macaque can get to the kid and free him, then surely Wukong will be grateful.

It's so easy to snatch him away. All he has to do is open a up a teeny little shadow portal under MK the second Red stops hugging him and the kid falls right into his lap.

Now he just needs to explain that he's Monkey King's old friend (no NOT like Azure, kid, that guy sucks) and offer to help him save the Monkey King.

[16woodsequ]

I live for your very angsty and meta posts 👀

Hehehe, so I believe this is related to this post about Steve's educational videos he makes that Peter Parker watches. And I alluded I had some angsty headcanons about it.

Okay! So a lot of people have pointed out how ridiculous these PSAs are considering how they talk about following the rules and eating healthily when Steve Rogers is notorious for going against rules for the greater good and also got his body pumped full of serum before he was healthy.

As amusing as these PSAs are to watch (and I do find them fun) it's easy to see how out of character they are for Steve!

One of Steve's arcs in CA:TFA is trying to stop being a 'dancing monkey'. He feels trapped and stifled in his USO role and he does everything he can to distance himself from it when he gets the chance so he can be taken seriously and be a greater use for the war effort. (As I point out in this post he even blows off a Senator and doesn't show up for an award ceremony because of how much he's done with the press circuit.)

I think Steve is very sensitive to being used as a propaganda piece, and while he understands why the propaganda machine exists during the war and why everyone is so insistent on getting him on camera and using him as a prop piece, I don't think he enjoyed it.

So what's the deal with these PSAs?

I headcanon that these happened very soon after Steve came out of the ice. (I already headcanon that Avengers happened soon after the ice, not a year later.) Steve is wearing his horrible SHIELD suit from Avengers (I have opinions about this suit, he looks like a dancing USO monkey again, it doesn't even have shoulder straps for his shield.) I think that suit represents a lot of how Steve is viewed in the 21st century when he wakes up. He's a propaganda piece again. He's being viewed through 70 years of American nationalism, and it shows.

Since he's wearing that suit, I think these PSAs were organised very soon after the Avengers. At these point in time, Steve is very vulnerable. He's trying to adjust to 70 years of change, to the fact that all his friends are dead, to a battle with aliens he just had, to the fact that every plan he'd had for after the war is gone, (to the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad cabin SHIELD put him in), and to Bucky's death that is still very fresh.

I have no doubt that Steve was very lost and adrift during this time. What is he supposed to do with his life now? What jobs can he work? What life skills does he have that will apply 70 years later? How is he supposed to pay for things now when they cost so much? How is he supposed to learn everything he missed when he doesn't even know how much he doesn't know?

Then along comes SHIELD (after they may or may not have purposely destabilised him with the cabin) and they tell him Captain America is still needed, he has a role and and a purpose.

I think he's still skeptical of this. We see in Avengers Steve isn't so sure when he talks to Coulson:

The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?

With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned

I don't believe Steve planned to be, or wanted to be Captain America after the war. Captain America was a show name he had to take on before he was taken seriously, and then he had to keep it because of how powerful the name became. But I fully believe he intended to be Steve after the war.

But now no one knows Steve, and it seems as thought the only real use and purpose he can have in the future is being this propaganda piece, this symbol.

So he dons the USO styled Captain America suit again and becomes that symbol again while he fights aliens shortly after waking up to find his whole world changed.

And this is when I think SHIELD comes to him with the idea for these PSAs. Picture Steve still lost and adrift after fighting aliens and trying to figure out what to do with himself and SHIELD comes and says:

"The public needs to get to know Captain America. They have a lot of questions. We need to introduce him to the world beyond some blurry videos of him fighting in New York. We need to show the world you're real."

And SHIELD has this great plan to film these PSA videos. It introduces him to children, it spreads good messages, it makes him seem familiar and authoritative, but approachable. What could be better than that?

But the videos are scripted for the propaganda piece, Captain America. They aren't for Steve at all. They are the product of 70 years of propaganda. They're as bad as the old USO films, if not worse because no one watching them will know who he really is under that cowl.

I think Steve does those videos because SHIELD convinces him it will be a good idea for his image and to help introduce him to the world, but I think the instant he starts filming he dies inside.

He's drowning in propaganda. He can tell he's being used to spread the polished perfect all-America Captain America narrative. He's not naive, and he's been through the propaganda circuit before, he can tell he's being used.

And I headcanon that after those PSAs Steve firmly told SHIELD he was never doing anything like that ever again.

So as much as I enjoy laughing at the PSAs I can't help imagining Steve cringing every time he sees them. And not just because they're awkward and out of character, but because it represents a time where he was vulnerable and taken advantage off to spread a narrative about Captain America and America as a whole, when no one saw him as Steve and he was so lost and just trying to hang on.

Anyways, I think those PSAs really embarrass Steve because he let SHIELD talk him into them and use him as this propaganda piece (not that it's his fault, he was incredibly vulnerable at the time) and he regrets doing them and probably hates any time they are brought up.

But on a lighter note, Steve would hate them just as much as Peter and would be fully on board tearing them to shreds, probably much to the delight of Peter and his friends.

[galacticsand]

Movelang #001 - Phonology and Sound System

Nophhurra, and hello again everyone! It's time for another post showing off my experimental conlang, Movelang! This time around, I'll be going over Movelang's sound system: the consonants and vowels used, along with a currently loosely-defined syllable structure, as well as allophony!

Admittedly, the Phonology has been one of the aspects of Movelang which has been altered several times over, and has gone through several iterations before reaching the point at which it exists in the present. Since the emphasis for this conlang was moreso on grammar than on the phonoaesthetic, I had largely loosely defined it at the start, with only a vague idea of what Movelang would sound like. At the start, I took a lot of inspiration from the Coptic Language, as well as several African and Caucasian Languages. Later on as I began being more deterministic about the phonetic inventory of the language, it did change from this original vision in several ways, but I ended up ultimately with something I really like!

(My charts tend to prioritize neatness over exactness, so if there's a sound somewhere that doesn't exactly describe it completely correctly, please don't fight me 😭)

Phonemically, the consonant inventory consists of 2 nasals, 15 plosives, 4 fricatives, 2 liquids, and 1 tap. The plosives are split three ways by mode of articulation, where 5 stops are unaspirated: /p t t͡ɕ k q/, 5 stops are aspirated: /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/, and 5 are voiced: /b d d͡ʑ g ɢ/. Each mode of articulations contains a labial, dento-alveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular stop respectively. This was a choice inspired by both Ancient Greek, as well as the Coptic and Caucasian influence I mentioned earlier, and in an earlier version of the phonology, the palatal affricates were instead alveolar affricates: /t͡s t͡sʰ d͡z/. Accompanying the stops are 4 fricatives that roughly match 4/5 of the same manners of articulation: /s ɕ x ħ/. These were selected mainly for that reason, that they lie in the same POA as their stop counterparts, but I decided to throw in an oddball for the fricative furthest towards the back of the mouth. Originally, this was /h/ phonemically, but I was intrigued by Maltese's presence of /ħ/ as the sole voiceless fricative closest to the back of the mouth, so I decided to do this for Movelang, and I do love how it sounds! I personally think /x/ and /ħ/ pair nicely with each other! The Approximants and Nasals then weren't that hard to reckon, I simply filled in the gaps in the chart respectively. When I got to my /l/ sound though, I decided to make this a little bit different as well, and follow the lead of Mongolian, and make it /ɮ/ instead. I also made the decision to omit /w/ or any similar sound, since I have a habit of using this sound a lot whenever I make new sound systems, as a bit of a monkey-wrench to try and make myself work with.

For Allophony, most of this deals with the pronunciation of consonants. There are 3 major rules that come into effect when pronouncing consonants in particular places within a word. First, the nasals, /m n/, devoice to /m̥ n̥/ whenever they are preceded by a syllable that has an aspirated plosive in the coda, any of /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/. Secondly, /ɮ/ may devoice to /ɬ/ when next to any voiceless sound: a voiceless plosive or fricative. Finally, the alveolar tap /ɾ/ becomes trilled /r/ when it is geminated. These rules as you'll notice mostly depend on a sound's locale within a syllable, which I'll explain in greater detail when discussing syllable structure...

As for the vowels, these are quite simple. Movelang consists of seven phonemic vowels, which compliment the front and the back of the mouth. Movelang contains no phonemic length, tone, nasality, or anything else that would affect vowel quality in this way, at least phonemically, and only has these 7 plain oral vowels. There are 3 front vowels: /ɛ e i/, all of which are unrounded, and 4 back vowels: /ɑ ɔ o u/, all of which are rounded, except for the open back vowel.

In terms of vowel allophony, nothing really major happens to vowels. The only major rule which takes place with vowels, is that /ɑ/ goes to /a/ when near a palatal sound.

Additionally, the syllable shape in Movelang is pretty straightforward, it's pretty much CVC, but with a few additional caveats. The main difference, is that /j/ cannot be a coda consonant, which is reflected by the use of D for the coda consonant in my syllable shape notation, and additionally, only 6 consonants can end a word: /m t k q s r/, which is reflected by the use of K for a word-final coda consonant.

In addition to these tactical features, hiatus is permitted in Movelang, meaning that the onset consonant in syllables is optional even word-internally, and when this happens, the parallel vowels flow together smoothly, rather than having some epenthetic consonant placed between them, like a glottal stop. Gemination also happens quite frequently in Movelang, especially in compounds, and it is under these circumstances when /j/ technically can appear in the coda of a syllable, but only as a part of a geminate /j:/.

=-=-=-=

Alright! Well, that's pretty much it for phonology, at this point I'm going to try and stick to this phonology and not impulsively change it again, but knowing me, I can't make any promises XD. I hope you all enjoyed this look at the sound system! I look forward to posting some lexical samples in the next post, with these sounds intact, where I'll be showing you Movelang's class system in action! More on that later of course... Until then, I look forward to it, and I hope you all enjoyed this post! If you all have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment, or an ask!

[skelleste]

2023 Art Summary

Some of the many things I worked on over the past 365 days. More details below.

Happy New Year!

Just like last year, 2023 was full of even more character art, including a brand spanking new OC. You haven't seen much of the comic yet, because it's not done, but there's been progress on that in the background as well. I also started commissions last March. None are featured in this post so I could focus more on original art, but I wanted to give a special thank-you to all my past commissioners. Not a single one of you were a customer service nightmare, in fact it was quite the opposite. I appreciate everyone who's been kind enough to give me work and treat me well.

The rest of this post is going to be some of my favorite pieces by month, and a little about them. I usually spare my followers from most details in my posts, because there's often not much of interest to the public to say, so this is mostly self indulgent.

January

I decided to revisit Tom and Maudlin, as I hadn't drawn them much since creating them. Whenever I make a new character of importance, I try to go out of my way to put them in varied poses and expressions so that I am able to understand how their bodies work by the time I need them for a real project. It's also a great way to explore their personalities, although I feel that I'll have to push Tom's emotional side more in the future.

February

Props for the comic! It sucks to have to design things on the fly, so it helps to have notable objects designed beforehand. Especially if it's important to the plot. Some of these appear in more panels than others, but it smooths out the comic process nevertheless to have ample references on hand.

March

More character designs to spare me from designing mid-comic production. If they don't have lines in the comic, then I ask random people to assign names to them to make it fun, and because it's easier to keep straight who's who when they're not named Man 1 and Man 2. Left to right, they are Johnifer (you can already see why I name the ones with dialogue myself), Wanda, Jean Vincent, Booker, Charles, Maribelle, and Gertrude.

April

It'd be silly of me to pretend as if 90% of my output isn't shitposts. When you dedicate most of your art time to a project, then you're not going to end up making any other art unless you satisfy primitive monkey brain somehow. In my case, that's usually addressed by drawing funny shit. Early this year is when I discovered how easy it is to crack jokes with Scatterbrain. This goofiness is now embedded into her personality permanently. Expect more of this.

May

April-June is when I do my Art Fight preppin', which usually consists of me making a list of my most neglected OCs and giving them some attention. I also try to get around to eventually making all of them a reference sheet in this style, just so they have something standardized between them. This year, Walla Walla had her turn. She's a shitpost character, so I won't be drawing her much again, but she's a good excuse to draw some J-fashion doodles. My interests outside of cartoon stupidity don't really make it into my art often, so she's a minor outlet for some of it.

June

I've made even more character designs this year than last year, but they were all background characters, making Raoul the only new important one. He's been officially-unofficially written into the story since 2022, but it's very hard for me to make OCs that are written before they are designed. Everyone else was designed first and assigned a role in the plot later, so he got put off for a good while. I finally got around to it though, after I killed some darlings. He is now an all-new species, and I modified the chain design to something less clunky compared to what would be historically accurate.

July

July is, of course, Art Fight month. All other art is put on pause. This year, my favorite attack was a drawing of Enchanted Bones for my friend Bugles. I drew the character independently from the background, which is why the lighting situation is as unfortunate as it is, but we don't talk about that. Thank you to everyone who attacked me and made awesome art, I'll revenge you maybe in a few years. Sorry for the wait, but the backlog is mighty long.

August

Stanson got a slight redesign in the last year, so he can fit with the style of the comic better. He's actually the oldest character out of the bunch. I had no purpose for Scott when I made him and threw them together in the same folder. I had a few one-off designs that I figured I'd keep around in case I ever did an OCT, but these two got yoinked out of it when I started getting story ideas for the them. Stanson is a cowboy (not really), so it became a western setting to make sense of it. I plan on giving him the same sketchpage treatment the other characters have gotten, but I've been putting it off purposely for a while. You'll just have to wait.

September

And there it is, the inevitable page of Raoul getting into various mischief (and subsequently getting his ass beat half of the time). He has a very abrasive personality that gets him into trouble. I don't want the comic to be heavily action-based, but he naturally lands himself in these positions and it lets me draw characters in new situations. His introduction to the story is still a long way off at this point, but I can't wait to pit him against Scott in some slapstick shenanigans.

October

Spooky month is incredibly busy for me in real life, so there isn't as much time for art as I'd like there to be. That's why I dedicated all my time that month to trying to get Halloween art done in time. I've been a fan of Homestar Runner since childhood, and as soon as I thought that Raoul would pull off a Jigen Daisuke look, I knew I wanted to do a full Homestar-esque set of costumes. The other ideas quickly fell into place. My version came out way more detailed than theirs usually are though. The spirit of Halloween possessed me.

November

I started going full gear on the comic around this time (I think 28 hours in one week when I stayed home), so there's an absence of polished personal art here. Scatterbrain eating some spaghetti is my placeholder art for "I worked on a website a bunch instead". It's far from done, but I've made major strides since then.

December

A secret santa gift for my friend, Toby! I continued doing mostly comic work, but I also made room for a secret santa and scheduled a bunch of art trades to complete between December and March. The rest still have to be completed, so you'll see that throughout 2024. Anyway, Toby's OC, Thomas, is based on the state of Michigan. I plastered him on a postcard in front of a highway sign with some Robins because they're the state bird.

There were many more drawings of course, and you can find them scrolling through my Tumblr, or on my DeviantART (I switched to Tumblr as my main site in late August). I hope the new year brings many improvements and happiness for everyone. Last year my goal was simply to start on the comic, which I did, but it was also to get it uploadable, which I didn't. I'm gonna have to aim for the same goal again. Life things were largely fine but still tumultuous enough to throw me off-course, but now my most dangerous family member has moved out and it should be somewhat safer to live here. Not 100% safe though. It never will be. I generally avoid talking about the comic extensively as I won't have a solid release date for some time, so this is the last you'll hear of it for now outside of the rare WIP screenshot. Wish me luck and have a wonderful new year!

[princesscolumbia]

Author Thoughts

I'm approaching the end of my third full novel I've written in my life.

One was supposed to be a licensed work but then that license holder got bought by another company that cancelled the IP that book was based on, so now sits on my hard drive. I go back and read it every few years or so, mostly to see how far I've progressed as an author since my early twenties.

The second was pure catharsis, a fanfic about trauma and homelessness and found family and dealing with pain and loss. You can find it on FiMFiction.net and AO3 if you're interested.

My most recent will not be appearing here due to the Dead Dove content (Explanation for those who needed this defined like I did: "Dead Dove" fics are those that have clear tagging, especially on AO3, that there's "problematic" content in the work but people who are triggered by the clearly tagged problematic stuff read it anyway and get upset. Based on the "Dead Dove" meme where the guy looks in the bag clearly marked, "Dead Dove, do not eat" and looks inside and finds, sure enough, a dead dove), but has been some of the most interesting, challenging writing I've ever done where I'm allowing my creative brain to intentionally think, "What's the bad ending and how do I make it interesting?"

When I was writing my first novel, I got to a point about 3/4's through and my writing slowed down significantly. It took two years for me to write it, nine months of that was just on the last 1/4 of the book. It wasn't any more lengthy or challenging than the rest, just I suddenly felt like I was running out of steam and couldn't keep going, even though I'd plotted out pretty much ever plot point and story beat down to specific timing for the climax chapter.

When I was working on my second (completed, I've started a few dozen since my first) work, I got to about 3/4's through...and slowed down. It took over a year to write and, just like my first book, the last 1/4 took the lion's share of that time.

My current book I've been hammering on since early December 2023 (if you're reading this later than the posting date, the first chapter is currently only about a month old by this point), and I actually wrote a full outline complete with copious notes so I wouldn't forget anything I wanted to do with the fic. I'm on Chapter 9 of 11 chapters and an epilogia (Epilogia - n. - collection of epliogues. See also, "Prologia" and "Blame Brandon Sanderson") and sure enough, as I put some paragraph marks between "Chapter 9" and my notes, suddenly I started slowing down. I took an entire day off, thinking I was just burning out, but no, I only didn't want to write as I sat down to actually do the writing.

I've been pondering this for the last week-ish, and I believe it has to do with the project being just about done. This has taken pretty much my entire free time since I started and is a tremendous source of dopamine, and now that I'm getting closer to the end, my idiot monkey brain is seeing the end of the dopamine and is trying to delay the end, hoping that'll keep the dopamine rolling in.

Something that I've been working on may be a solution. I've been dropping little Easter Eggs into my fics so fans of one body of work can be pleasantly surprised when they see something from that work turn up in an apparently unrelated project. A character from My Empire of Dirt might appear in Deviation, an epilog on another project will be a big reveal about a character based on the sudden and unexpected intersection with Lost in the Dark. Sunset Shimmer from Redhead/Redhead winds up meeting with Ranma "Sailor Moon" Saotome from Fission. That sort of thing.

Basically, I'm going to convince my monkey brain that it's ALL just one, massive, ongoing "novel" and the dopamine will flow forever so long as the writing does, too.

Will it work? We'll see if it did based on how quickly I can get Ch. 9 out. 😋

[kollector-of-stims]

Do you think you could do a tour of your stim toys and where you got them from? :D

This sounded super fun, so YES! I just finished taking all the pictures and I'm ready to start! Here is all I'm going through, and for the tour itself begins....under the cut!😁🙌

In each image is labeled the place I got them from for all that I can remember. Also, I categorized them to the best of my ability!

First, we have: Various Absentminded Toys

A few of my favorite tools are here! And we even have cheap cat toys...Anyway, the favorites are definitely my precious infinity cube from Walmart, fidget cube from an old and now hard-to-find (or deleted) $5 and under stim toy post, and articulated octopus from Books A Million! Also some shots other than this one have stuff from Stimtastic...you will be missed 😣

Next category: Stretchy Toys!

The good ol' monkey noodles, funky caterpillars, other stretchy critters, and wiggly fruits and vegetables. The super realistic banana is from the tiktoker Mrs. Bench and I was mainly tempted to get one because of the YouTuber NerdECrafter 😂 Oh and also, the sand-filled carrot does NOT feel as good as the sand-filled banana, and I feel like that may be consistent.

Next category is: Articulated Fidgets!

Ok first off, I forgot to put the two from Cracker Barrel together, and same for the two from Books A Million. So, arrows. Second, I coulda put the octopus here in the first place but gathered this category later and had already taken the other picture, so I simply put it in here again! This is one of my favorite categories overall, as not only is the feel of these articulated animals good, their sound is too~ The small ones are SUPER handy since they're easier to take around!

Next up: Fidget Spinners!

Classics. Varying prongs and weights. The five pronged green one is one of the most satisfying to spin, along with the black one. The simple dimple one would honestly probably appeal more to me if simple dimples didn't hurt my fingers often (I bite my nails so, soreness). But the colors are still nice to see spin!

Next in line: Fun Textures!

(I forgot to label the tiny hedgehog- it came from a quarter machine in an asian restaurant)

Quiet and nice to rub my fingers across (or hold tightly as is the case with the alien). The purple piece up there with the green textures may look kinda weird, and its because it's a piece of a larger toy, an asmr fidget cube. It was my favorite side, so I separated it from the entire thing🤣. Also, the rainbow textured strip has suction cups along the bottom.

Next group: Putties!

I definitely favor putties over slime, mostly cause of texture and less mess. Simple silly putty eggs serve their purpose well, and so does crazy arins, but those can be hard to get out of their containers, and as a result, my super scarab putty is in a small jar instead!

Next: Visual Water Toys!

ERROR: THE SHARK CAME FROM FIVE BELOW, NOT BOOKS A MILLION)

The shark....Oooooh the shark...And the hourglass came from a cheap fidget toy box with like a pack of 30 (like some in previous images as well) but unfortunately due to little use, it's been growing mold or something inside of it, and I'm afraid that I cant fix that..so that's a downside😭.

Next, another small category: Noise Makers!

Cool and fun pop tubes and the clicker (that honestly makes my small weak hands a bit sore after a while). The pink one was a freebie with the realistic banana, and the small one...I for the life of me can't remember where I got it. I just put Walmart cause it sounds kind of familiar.

Next and last of the small categories: Wacky Tracks and Similar!

The one from Stimtastic is my ultimate favorite of them all, and while the twittle turned out to not be as pleasing as I planned, I also noticed another kind that looked similar but had slightly different shaped joints and I'm honestly tempted to try that one too. The big one came from one of my cousins who gave it to me after I asked who's it was, and it's not bad! The cheaper ones however can be harder to clack and are more prone to pinching.

Next: Pop-its!

I guess this is a smaller category, but the toys definitely have a big impact. Another favorite of mine, especially the smaller ones! The cow is a cheaper one that came from walmart as opposed to ordered from a better brand I've seen, so its front poppers don't work, but the back ones do (The suction cups on the bottom of it are AWESOME regardless though). And the unicorn pop it ball meant a lot to me not only cause it came from the Stuckey's store my aunt is a manager of, but also because its the first pop-it ball I ever tried that I was able to pop in all poppers on!

Next category, Squishable Toys!

(Not shown are my squishy owl and penguin cause I forgot them, but they stay with me often in my handbag! I also have tons of squishies but many enough to be considered their own collection)

Stress balls of various kinds one could say. The little sticky wall-climbing balls near the top are in a plastic bag to keep them sticky, and they remind me of the larger versions I had as a kid! Splat balls are a favorite of mine that I honestly dont use enough, partially cause I dont wanna pop them, but the shark is my favorite out of this entire category as it feels like the "dehydrated" dna ball from walmart, but with that soft cover.

Second to last: Fidget Brand Toys!

Basically in my mind "toys either made by fidget specific companies or have fidget in the name" I guess. Also common fidget toys you may see specifically in the fidget toy isle in Walmart. For some reason I cant recall any of those common fidget brands right now, but I do know how they have their own exclusive section in our Walmart nearby. Then the squirkies all came from books a million, in a smaller section they had. Love them!

And lastly: Plushies!

I have TONS of plushies obviously, but the ones I'd say I "fidget" with are the cats vs pickles and my one aurora palm pal cat! Small and soft and weighted with beans fits every single one of these, and the weight, crunch, and feel are just so nice! I feel as if they're good to collect for me, and once dragon kitty comes out, I plan to find it, and I also kind of want another palm pal sometime too!

🎉AND THAT CONCLUDES MY STIM TOY TOUR!🎉

It was fun to put together, and I love showing my toys as much as I love seeing others', but if you still have questions (or anyone does), feel free to ask about anything here!

[incarnateirony]

*Dips glasses in Corporate Oil and looks around*

Alright guys. Let's do this, let's talk about where we really are, developmentally. With the WB, CW, The Winchesters and Gotham Knights (this piece will admittedly focus most heavily on Winchesters, as I know more about its actual development than GK, but the corporate elements of WB will apply to it).

All of it. Because you guys have come to realize there's a lot behind the veil.

Has anyone been watching the Snydercut battle in DC? This seems like a random place to start with for Supernatural, but I promise you, it's critical in understanding what's happened, where we've been, where we've traveled and where we can possibly head from here.

So how is it DC ended up here, and how is it relevant to Supernatural?

Everyone's entitled to their own view of media within reason, depending on their aggression about it proportionately in relation to the actual content and what it is beyond what it's fought about. Personally, I always found Snyder's stuff reductive to characters and just mindlessly operating on rule of cool, but some dudes liked it. So when the first hollering started, I thought, good for you, voice what you believe.

But they never shut up. Instead, they amplified, they got more shrill, all points were taken to the seventeenth degree, VERY bizarre and lowkey threatening videos were made. On and on and on and on and on.

And now they're acting surprised that after literal years of it, the new CEO wants them to shut the fuck up and considers it all a mistake. Gee, I wonder what gave him that fucking idea.

OK. Cool. So anyway, remember the S12 market testing? The stuff I was posting about in S12, that everyone from Patrick to Mary Manchin argued with me about until years later we figured out how to safely clear the receipts without anybody getting blown off the planet with lawsuits?

2016 was leaning closer to modern TV. Closer to the representation demands the younger teen audience generally sets and demands, assuming it will be present on all products. We were leaning that way. So why would, say, Dean and Cas need market testing?

Well, perhaps, it's because in season 9, shortly after Carver recovered the property from near cancellation into being CW's #1 hit above all, the Destiel fandom decided to monkey climb some oblivious business suit without any context of the development chain leading Destiel to where it was at that point. They harassed him until he deleted twitter, they ran multiple articles trying to burn the property down as queerbait, then when the S10 packets dropped with a new sexuality section declaring everybody straight, and everything hit lockdown, they made fucking confused noises and called it Victim Blaming to point out any sort of liability in the dramatic lockdown.

But listen, Chad Kennedy does not fucking care what you think is fair or equitable. He cares about money, his properties, and NOT being torn apart by little shitheads on twitter. For god's sake, his name is fucking Chad, how did you guys expect a Corporate Chad to react.

Less stupid fans had put together books of stats, demographics, and LGBTQ or general audience testimony to package off to elite names in that same S9 year, only for one to survive and move into the room, and be shared by a new showrunner named Dabb, at the same time market testing coincidentally began.

It was already a contentious topic. Turning around a 2005 behemoth that is distinctly not packaged as LGBTQ ware is harder than turning around the titanic and even what berens accomplished was impressive in perspective. I hate market segregation as much as anybody, but it's a reality.

You know what else is a reality?

That the Winchesters is branded as an LGBTQ property out of the gate, as is the developing studio running it, with permission to use the IP, and the potential namesake character there may be reservations over is played by that same studio owner, with 15 years of history.

Zaslav just completely wiped out the upper ranks at WB. Roth had already left and Zaslav called him back personally. Roth, Jensen's mentor, is directly advising Zaslav on properties. So genuinely speaking, who is more qualified than the managing production house owner with 15 years experience with this content and particularly this character to make decisions on what to do with that character, if Roth tells Zaslav to just let Jensen do what he do.

This is a real potential in the air. Other corporate shakeups in the past have sort of been [rolls the dice] "maybe they're not dicks???? no????" but this time there is actually a path through the woods.

Beyond even the queerness of it, the entire structure of the Winchesters is very revealing of how much Roth warned Jensen.

For all the chicken little nonsense about Nexstar aging up, they're actually taking the alternative path I had implied other media outlets were missing, which is instead diversifying the age bracket of content while rotating in things closer to pre-merger CW like (hopefully black) sitcoms. Their new statement is "give us the new, but also give us what we would have had old". They've stated they intend to stay on genre TV but the age restriction isn't just for kids, the content and budget will be more targeted.

Congrats, we're getting something not just mass produced swill, but things WB is banking its entire network TV future on.

Depending on the response to what properties they chose to order, this is them fighting for their rights to timeslot on Nexstar before Nexstar reappraises 2023-2024 content from other sources being brought in. This is why, for example, Misha commented on the size of GK's budget compared to normal, or why Winchesters had enough time, and budget, to reshoot, which SPN never ever fucking had.

Roth warned Jensen. Because for all the confused noises fandom made about "Why John Mary?" it's actually simple if you think about the world beyond yourself. If you go "maybe other people are different than me?" well.

The 70s. A fanciful, whimsical time. the 50+ audience will live for it. And even with shit like Carlos because they remember the 70s they'll remember their gay friend carlos too. But the cast is young and vibrant and queer to bring in new blood and generations, and Dean (and the eventual others) will be there for the older, middle-aged if you will fans that grew with the series.

Roth warned Jensen. Because Jensen built the perfect product to survive the diversification demands of CW/Nexstar. And made the next potential packaged truly viral product to match its forebearer. And all in a time that Zaslav is searching for strong franchises.

Don't know how far, exactly, we'll get to go but we've never had such a clear path there before. There's a possible path through the woods and we're on it with Dean, looking through the haze to see what light is at the end of the road.

Gotham is also getting the benefit of this to some extent, but Gotham is not itself the launch of a franchise as much as a safe bubble in which to use an existing franchise during a tumult. Both are important in different ways, and both are WB's future stake in TV network share or full collapse into digital by 2025.

"We must see the bigger picture. Even in the darkest hour, our light is waiting to guide us."

-- Supernatural 15x15, Gimme Shelter

[biolizardboils]

Underpanniversary mont September is almost over, so here’s one last headcanon dump for the road

General

The entire book series takes place in a single school year. The following is my vain attempt at cramming everything into that timeframe in a way that makes sense

The football game in Book 1 was the kickoff and happened in early August. The 4-to-6 weeks before the Ring arrived was really just 4 weeks, minimizing the Boys' slave labor and placing Captain's first day on duty in early September (not exactly the 1st but close enough)

Book 6 canonically happens during the cold and flu season (so late autumn), making it the halfway point of the school year and the series. (I just realized that it’s never shown snowing in modern-day Piqua? Maybe it only happened while the Boys were on winter break)

In Book 11, Krupp mentions there’s 7 weeks of school left. Summer break usually starts in mid-to-late May; subtracting 7 weeks from that places Book 11 in early-to-mid April

Book 12 happens in May. The Rid-O-Kid incident and sudden lack of gym teacher forced the school to close for damage control, then hold a half-day to do the yay-you’re-moving-up-a-grade stuff. (And yes, this means Captain Underpants Pizza Party didn’t happen and is merely a wistful fantasy 😔)

Also said school year is 1997-1998 (except for when I bring up any media that came out after that) because this is my post and I make the anachronisms

The Boys

Harold raises Sea Monkeys as snacks for his and George's pets

Speaking of their pets, they are NOT to be put in the same room together. George's are cats, Harold's are fish. Can I make it any more obvious

George had to stay home sick for a whole week once. when he finally came back to school, he walked in with this blasting on this boombox

George's fave computer game is Star Wars: Behind the Magic, Harold's is Insaniquarium (first the browser version, then Deluxe way later), and they both love Backyard Baseball

George's fave Disney film is A Goofy Movie. Harold didn’t have a favorite until middle school when Treasure Planet came out

The boys took Captain to see Hercules in theaters. He declared it the greatest movie of all time, so they bought it on VHS and played it in the treehouse whenever he asked. The boys kept it long after 4th grade and watched it whenever they missed him

They used to think boy bands were weird and girls were weird for liking them... until Heidi got into the Backstreet Boys. Harold caught The Fever from hearing her play their songs in the house, and George caught it from him. Their favorite song is Answer To Our Life

Harold would later joke that him catching The Fever should’ve been his wake-up call lol

The Old!Boys

In college they held a dorm party and made Jungle Juice in a (fully sanitized!!!) toilet so they could flush away the evidence after. And also just for laffs

Their kids go to Stubinville Elementary. It’s farther away and they have to take a bus, but it’s got generally better teachers than Jerome Horwitz. Go Stinkbugs

They wrote a letter to Krupp about what they did to him in 4th grade, but never sent it

Other

The Boys' parents didnt realize their families had blended together for years. It finally hit them when they asked Grandma and Grandpa to synchronize their visits. They were like "....Huh." and then went right back to setting the table

Other things both families do together: bills, carpooling, cooking, movie nights, fishing, picnics, holiday card photos at the mall

The Beards have a record player and a vinyl collection of every funk and R&B hit from 1968 to 1989. They always have one playing as background noise in the mornings and evenings. (The Hutchins like to play MTV instead)

Heidi goes to a preschool halfway across town. Robbie Hoskins (the little boy whose mom never believes him) goes there too

The Boys plan on being Heidi’s bodyguards when she starts kindergarten at Jerome Horwitz. No one’s gonna give her trouble, student or teacher, if they can help it

She can’t get in the Treehouse—not cus the Boys won’t let her, but cus she’s too small to safely climb the ladder 😔 Some day she'll get in there and eat all the hidden junk food, but not yet

I diagnose Melvin with EXTREME Gifted Kid Burnout post-canon lmao. He ends up going to the same community college as the Boys and they finally bury the hatchet there

Switching to paragraphs for this last one:

Long ago, when Krupp first started out as a principal, him and all the staff fell victim to an impossibly elaborate prank. He was excited to write his first detention slip and grilled the whole student body to find the culprit. 

After threatening to hold them hostage past the last bell, a dirty blonde boy in 2nd grade came up to him and claimed responsibility. Krupp locked him in the detention room and looked for his parents' number in the school directory, but couldn't find anything under his last name. 

Just then, he heard the kid make this noise. He stormed back to the detention room and opened it to yell at him... but the kid had vanished. The only sign he’d been there was his slip on the floor.

Krupp framed it in his office to preserve a milestone in his career, and vowed to crush that kid's spirit the next day.

But he never appeared at the school again.

[quitealotofsodapop]

With Mei and MK they adapt to the monkey shenanigans easily. At this point in time they've known Wukong a year or more and know that A) the Monkey King may be an awesome legendary figure but he's still jsut a pregnant monkey and an otherwise regular guy who hides a lot of mental issues under a front, and B) monkey just gotta monkey sometimes. This isn't the first time he's started grooming either of them unconsciously. They're just mainly surprised his feral monkey brain defaults to thinking they're his cubs.

Bai He? Oh boy... she is freaking the fuck out. She's. Sweetheart but that doesn't change the fact that this adorable little girl, a normal little girl, was kidnapped, possessed for several weeks by an ice spirit, fought agaisnt a Sun Wukong who wasn't holding back whole being possessed (somethign that internally hurt Wukongmore than you can imagine since his instincts are definitely screaming at him for attacking a CUB), and when she woke up she found herself surrounded by a strangers, mostly a group made of demons, a dragon, and three legendary immortals.

Oh and one of those immortals is Sun Wukong himself who is not only pregnant but his mate (the Monkey King is married!? Divirced!? When asked MK just says its complicated) seems to think she's his cub!?!?

referencing this post about Mac's instincts declaring Bai He his cub.

Yeah, Bai He is like a main character who literally just got introduced in a later season. Everybody's got the lore and characters down and she's just wondering how she's supposed to heal and move on from being possessed by an ancient demoness that likely damaged her body.

Poor girl has had and is having a Time.

The only human around is ultimately Tang, so Bai He is surrounded by demons, a dragon, and some immortals. She isn't really sure who to approach with help on things.

Then suddenly the darker furred monkey (the Macaque she thinks he's called?) seems to sense her distress and brings her to the van for some reason, and hoists her into the Monkey King's bunk. Before she can ask whats going on, Bai He suddenly feels a pair of soft hands combing through her hair comfortingly.

Wukong: "Hi kiddo. Sorry about grumpy-pants over there, his instincts are acting up cus of me and the baby." Macaque: "Hmph. She's sad." Bai He: *is too surprised to answer* Wukong: "I'm sorry if I hurt you when I fought the demon. I really didn't want to." Bai He, quietly: "is ok." Wukong, softly: "I know it wasn't fun being posessed like that. It felt like something cold and slimy was under my skin - and I'm indestructible! I can't imagine how it must have felt for you to carry her for all that time. You're so strong." Bai He: *gets really quiet and turns to bury her face in the monkey's fluff to hide her tears* Both monkeys: *coo comfortingly as a parent would to a sad cub, and continue to comb through her long hair* Bai He: *is far too in need of a hug to protest*

It is a little awkward when the topic of where Bai He's original home us brought up - I hc that she's a foster kid, or her parents died/went missing when DBK was possesed by LBD. She's not in a good place either way.

There is legitimate talk amongst the fam to keep Bai He (adopted by any of the adults), as most prospective human parents wouldn't understand how she's feeling rn or know how to handle her physical recovery.

[anangelcalledinquisitor]

Hello! Your super secret santa here! Was looking through some of your tags to decide what to draw for you and wanted to ask some questions if that's okay ❤️

1.) For galaxies, do you have a ref of their full bodies and what the base might look like for Y/N? And perhaps what Y/N in the story might look like? I'm very interested in it as a subnautica fan myself haha!

2.) For eventide, are there any particular outfits you have for them that you prefer them in? And what kind of jobs they might handle? I don't know much about them but I would love to hear what info you do have to offer!

(Gosh I really hope this goes through as anon)

These are excellent questions! (I'm practically BUZZING with excitement already, omg)

Galaxies: Okay, so I do have a full-body one for Sun, and I'm going to post it here because at this point I don't know when the coloring book is getting released to everyone? Or if it already did? Anyway, so here's that, I've been a bit of a mess since May so I haven't even gotten around to finishing coloring this piece (it's my own coloring page, I recognize the irony). So, Fish-Sun in flats (with Sea Monkey babies):

(I absolutely love Subnautica and Below Zero!!!!)

Now, Moon didn't get finished because a lot of really awful things happened all at once at the end of May and beginning of June, I got repeatedly sick, and so I didn't get around to finishing Moon's coloring page yet. It'll be done eventually, but for now, I'll show you what I did do.

(it actually breaks my heart a little, because I had so many plans for this one, aaaahhhhhhh) So Moon's form in general is pretty similar to Sun's design (long, almost eel-like). He was supposed to have more spines that you can kinda see in the original sketch of Moon in the ref pic, and his design was going to be very inspired by a lionfish, spines down the back and at the "hips".

The end of his tail was actually inspired by an axolotl, I just really liked drawing the little fin on my original sketch (which is long gone) and was like "Yeah, don't care that it looks odd, he's an alien". I do have plans to add more sub-sections of the story later (piratespiratespiratespirates) and I'll probably have to design baby Sun and Moon eventually, but I imagine both will be similar to axolotls, since they're supposed to be related species.

Eventide: Actually yes, I did draw up a buncha outfits! I couldn't tell what was too many refs and what would be wanted, so I cut a bunch of doodles of Eventide that I've got.

So, Eventide is a child unit built by my YN with Sun and Moon's help. She starts as a small child (5-6 years old) and "grows up" (through physical upgrades and hardware updates as her AI learns and grows) with her mum, two dads, and two human sisters. Story-wise, I have the plot for her to get up to about 15-16 (not because she dies, just because I haven't planned beyond that), and she wants to do all sorts of things. Legally, she is the property of YN and not Fazzbear Entertainment, and I'm not sure how to address the whole "can she legally have a job?" thing because I also don't know how to address the whole "Robots are people too, but how do I give them rights", so mostly it's the typical teenage/child level of "I want to be a ballerina and a doctor and a scientist and also I want to do what Mom does (officially, a handler for Sun and Moon and considered an expert in certain kinds of AI and human interactions that go into having a complicated family situation (two robot partners, two human children, one robot child)) and also she wants to do what Sun and Moon do (they will eventually be "retired", this is an agreement YN has with Fazzbear after a disastrous situation at another location, and they will be released permanently into YN's care at that point, but again, that's further down the line). At this time, her "job", as YN states (eventually, when I get there in the story), is to "be a kid and find out what all that means". (As for what she will probably do, I'm leaning towards a baker/barista, a marine biologist, or an artist of some sort.)