#i was originally gonna have the whole thing play out the same as canon where they were born n raised in nj

[flwrkisses]

boyfriend! sunoo.

idk if you guys know this but i love sunoo with my whole heart so writing this made me so so sooo happy :)

request: sunoo bf canons? 💐 - @smouches !!

genre: fluff. established relationship. headcannon.

warnings: mentions of arguments, skinship and kissing.

❀˖° heeseung jay jake sunghoon sunoo jungwon ni-ki ..

- sunoo is the definition of friends to lovers. he's so just so out going and he loves to talk to people that, he would automatically become your friend first. even if thst wasn't his original intention.

- he spends so much time with you, accompanying you everywhere. and frankly just loves the fact that you trust him in the way you do. so when he randomly confesses his feelings over coffee. you have no idea how to react.

- at first he was confident but your hesitation to respond made him a bit nervous. he would hate to lose a friend over something like this. however, when you confessed back he couldn't help but smile.

- something he always does, is bring you snacks or sweet treats. he always picks something up before seeing you incase you havent eaten or have a craving.

- he's just so unbelievably caring. he'd always put your comfort over his. and makes an effort to write down things like your favorite foods, colors, flavors, scents. in order to get you things or make sure you're comfortable at all times.

- one thing he loves to do is spoil you, if you go shopping with him he wouldn't let you touch your wallet even once. everything is on him.

- while on the topic of shopping dates, sunoo loves shopping with you because you can both give eachother honest opinions on items. he trusts your judgement 100% just like you trust his.

- even if he says couple items are a little cheesy, he would go out and happily buy matching couple outfits or try to cordinate his outfit with yours before going on dates.

- you guys would 100% have matching earbud cases. and it would be the cutest thing. he might even convince you to get matching phone cases too.

- his love language is sharing his food. he also expects you to share as well. it's a two way street in his eyes. to the point where he probably wouldn't even ask before taking a bite. he argues that you guys are partners and partners share everything.

- sometimes you both go out on snack dates where you go to the local convience store and pick out snacks you've never heard of before and try them together. it always makes him laugh when you make a funny face and he knows the snack isnt good.

- you must praise him. he loves hearing pretty things about himself it makes him feel so loved. bonus points if each compliment is said between kisses. he might get a little shy inbetween but seeing him blush is so worth it.

- he lets you squish his cheeks, something only reserved for you. especially if you're gonna call him cute while doing it. he lives for it.

- sunoo loves nights where you both just stay in and play a cheesy movie in the background just to gossip over each other's friends. he listens to all your tea and even gives his own opinions on it. even if he's never met the people you're talking about he's interested in the story you're telling and their situation.

- sometimes he begs you to let him do your make up, he watched a couple tiktoks and swears he knows what he's doing.

- the same goes for cutting your hair, sunoo actually really likes styling and cutting hair so if you let him he'd cut your bangs for you after they've grown out a bit too much. its one of the ways he shows he loves you, he's not bad at it at all.

- he also takes the best pictures of you, his camera roll is full of cute pictures of you they almost out number his own selfies.

- you share clothes with eachother. just like before he claims "partners share everything." so one day you could be wearing his sweater and another day he's wearing one of your oversized shirts. might as well just share a closet at that point.

- when ever you're upset or not doing well, he makes it his mission to make you feel better. no matter what. bringing you snacks, making cute faces, sending you heartfelt messages, just simply loving you so much he knows you wouldn't be able to resist a smile.

- he gets so cutely clingy and is not ashamed to tell you when he just wants to lay and cuddle with you all day.

- the words "i love you." would slip out of his mouth so easily. he would probably be the first one to say it, however it would somewhat bother him if you didn't say it back.

- he's not exactly extemely jealous or possessive but, he knows how to set proper boundaries. he's okay with most things however, would prefer you have a conversation with him first to see how you both feel about what ever situation you might get into with someone else like a friend or stranger.

- expect sunoo to say things like "would you still love me if i was a worm?" and he would be dramatic if you said no.

- your phone is never safe. sometimes he grabs your phone and downloads the same game he has on your phone just so he can help himself out with your account. because of this he teaches you how to play his mobile games and you guys end up playing together all the time.

- as expected mint choco dates. he says he wants someone who likes mint choco but he also lowkey realized that if you don't like mint choco it means he doesnt have to share his ice cream. so it works either way.

- if anyone were to ask him what the best part of his days are. it's being able to unwind with you at the end of the day. when you both are doing your skin care in the bathroom and wearing cute head bands. just overall relaxing and getting ready for bed. he loves it.

- he would probably beg for you to let him do your skincare sometimes. sunoo would also be so excited to show you the new skin care he bought and wants you to try it right away.

- you'll unforunately be the victim of the sassy man apocalypse. this man is saaaaasssy and he would expect to get his way in the end 100% no matter what.

- fights are rare considering sunoo would prefer to be with someone similar to him. he talks a lot and enjoys having conversations so if theres any disagreements or misunderstandings he would simply talk it out with you.

- he also enjoys laying in bed and talking all night with you. one time you guys talked for a really long time about so many different things. that the sun came up and surprised you both.

- expect texts from him all the time! he loves texting and probably connects with you the most through text. he asks you how your day is, what you're up to. he also sends you lots of selfies.

- while on tour he whines about missing you a lot especially when something doesnt go his way or he's being beyond pouty. it gets to the point where the others call you and tell you that your boyfriend's pouting again.

- surpisingly, you are the only person aloud to play with uis hair. he only lets you put pig tails in it or add clips or even losely braid his short hair. he loves the feeling of your hands in his hair.

- if you're someone who is shyer or just more quiet. he would speak for you in public because he knows you don't like it. like when you're ordering food or asking for something st a store. he does it for you to make sure you're comfortable.

- because of his pre existing lung problems he does fall ill very often and you're always there to help him. he feels like a burden and most times apologizes to you for it however, you always comfort him and tell him not to speak of himself that way. you're a partnership meaning you're there for eachother regardless. and he lives by that.

- you get this warm feeling when ever he's around. even if he's not physically next to you, hearing him in the kitchen singing a random song or hearing his laugh from the living room makes the space so warm.

- both of you value laughing and not being too serious in your relationship. so the vibes are always perfect even if theres slight teasing.

- sunoo would assign you an animal so everytime he sees that animal, or a plush/toy of that animal he thinks of you. it's created a bit of a problem because now he has a collection of that animal in the corner of his room and no one would understand why except for you.

- communication between you guys is so effortlessly well. you both understand eachother and seem to always be on the same level. it's gotten to the point where you guys can communicate with looks. no words needed.

- overall, the relationship is very sweet. sunoo is such a caring and loving boyfriend. don't we all wish to have a sunoo? sigh.

©flwrkisses ; please do not copy, translate, repost and/or reuse my work without my permission. (2023)

masterlist. — requests are open!

[cressidagrey]

Romance is not dead if you keep it just yours- Chapter 3: Eris Vanserra, Heir to the Autumn Court

Summary:

5 Times Cassian thought that Azriel had feelings for somebody and then 1 time he finally met the girl his brother was in love with.

Warnings:

Rhys Bashing

Notes:

I put a lot of world building into this. If you don't recognise it from canon, I probably invented. Or I forgot that canon existed.

(thanks to @firefly-graphics for the super pretty dividers!)

Sadly, trying to find out who Azriel’s secret lover was…turned out to be a bit of an impossible feat. 

There wasn’t anywhere Cassian could follow along to that Azriel wouldn’t find out about. There was nothing that Azriel was doing that was making it obvious who he was seeing. 

It was so annoying that Cassian had no clue what he was supposed to be doing anymore. Why couldn’t it just be easier?

But he wasn’t the General of the Night Court Armies to give up that easily. He was not. 

Cassian was going to figure this out. 

One way or another. 

First things first: Badger Azriel about the stupid Siphons. 

“So can I have the name of the blacksmith that you are using?” he asked Azriel without preamble, watching him attentively. Maybe that was gonna give him a hint of what was going on with his brother. Maybe that would be helpful…

“I am not using a blacksmith,” Azriel answered, after a moment. Cassian took in the way the shadows seemed to swirl around him more like they were telling him something and how his hands tightened nearly imperceptively. Azriel didn’t have many tells, but Cassian could see them. He knew him for long enough to know him that well. 

So that was the truth. He wasn’t using a blacksmith. But it wasn’t the whole truth. Of course, it wasn’t. 

“Then who else did the whole thing with the siphons for you?” he asked curiously. If it wasn’t a blacksmith…though he had snuck a peek of the mechanism that held the siphons in place. It seemed too delicate for a simple blacksmith. More something a goldsmith would use. Definitely not Illyrian by origin. 

But where would Azriel have found a goldsmith…

“A friend,” Azriel answered, looking decisively shifty. Interesting. 

“The same friend who made Nesta’s hairpins?” A stab in the dark but a good one. Azriel looked less than pleased about it…maybe his friend had something to do with whoever he was seeing… “Where did you meet that friend?” Cassian kept pushing. 

“Since when do you care how I spend my time?” Azriel gave back with a sigh. 

“Since you got new toys to play with and aren’t sharing,” Cassian shot back immediately. 

“I gave Nesta the hairpins, didn’t I?” Azriel defended himself. 

He had. Hair pins that Nesta absolutely adored and wore nearly every day these days. Azriel had come through with another set after the first, that one set with moonstones of all things. Nesta loved them just as much as the first set. 

“You aren’t answering the question,” Cassian pointed out and Azriel gave him a very pointed look that seemingly told him, Oh really? 

“You aren’t going  to, are you?” Cassian said with a sigh before he grinned.  “Worried he’ll like me more than you?”

The flinch was the last thing he had expected. Yeah, he had hit the bullseye. Unintended though.

“No. Just that I won’t get any more new toys,” Azriel gave back, crossing his arms. 

So whoever that friend was…he was important to Azriel. Very important. 

“Fine, keep your secrets,” Cassian agreed, even when he was already plotting his next steps. “But I want first dibs whenever he figures out something really cool.”

Next step: Once again get on Rhys’ nerves. Maybe Azriel had told him more than he had told Cassian. 

“Do you happen to know the friend that made the siphons for Az? ” he asked Rhy at the next family dinner. Even Lucien and Elain had come over from Day Court, with Elain happy to catch up with her sisters, the Archeron sisters secluded in one corner, milling about before they would all sit down for dinner. 

“A friend?” Rhys asked him curiously. 

“Not a blacksmith apparently. But with the siphons he got new toys to play with and I don’t get any. So I wanna know,” Cassian admitted easily. 

“Well, if Az doesn’t want to share…” Rhys gave back with a shrug. Well, that was helpful. Cassian looked around the room, the inner circles dotted around, but no glimpse of Az. 

“Is he coming to dinner?” he wondered. 

“He is.” Rhys sounded so sure when he said that. 

“Are you sure?” Cassian asked, doubtful. These days, Azriel didn’t come to all of them. Not even half. Sometimes he went but then didn’t stay for dessert or one of his shadows whispered something in his ear and off he went to do something . 

It was just another thing in a long line of them that had changed through the years. 

Cassian never said anything, because to be the only one in a room full of people that were in happy relationships while he wasn’t probably wasn’t very fun to Azriel. 

And then there was that ELeain and Lucien were coming and…putting Azriel in the same room as the female he had been in love with and her mate, just seemed especially cruel. 

“He didn’t want to but I changed his mind,” Rhys said evenly. 

Oh for cauldron’s sake. 

“Do I want to know how you did that?”  Cassian asked, holding back a grimace. 

He didn’t know what exactly had gone down between Azriel and Rhys…but ever since that one solstice…something had changed. He had never dared to ask, because neither of his brothers had seemed inclined to not rip off his head for daring to voice his thoughts. 

So he had hope that it would go away with time. Well, three years on…and it didn’t seem like that was the case. 

Azriel came to some family dinners, took part in the annual snowball flights, played with Nyx, treated Rhys with all the respect benefiting a High Lord…and also seemingly turned even quieter. He did his job just as well as he always had, Cassian didn’t doubt it but…there was a distance there that hadn’t been there before. 

“I told him that moping around his house didn’t count as plans,” Rhys quipped. “He was not amused.”

Right. 

Maybe Az had just wanted to get out of seeing Elain and Lucien. 

“Maybe he wasn’t moping around,” Cassian offered. Maybe Azriel had somebody else to spend time with. Somebody that he loved and wanted to court and…

“Ah yes. His secret lover,” Rhys said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Nesta was complaining to Feyre about how that’s all you were talking about,” he answered Cassian’s unspoken question. 

“You don’t believe it?” Cassian wondered. 

“You think he would be able to keep it a secret from me ?” Rhys asked him, arrogance seeping into his tone. “Besides, he needs to get over himself eventually. I think he can sit through a single dinner.” 

Cassian held back a grimace. 

Did he think that Azriel would be able to keep a secret from Rhys? 

If Azriel thought he had a very good reason for it? Yes. Absolutely. Cassian didn’t even doubt that for a second . 

Azriel would go to the end of the world if he thought he could protect somebody he loved. 

Cassian just wondered why his brother thought he needed to protect them from Rhys of all people. Why he didn’t tell his family about what was going on?

Cassian would be happy for him. If Azriel showed up tomorrow and told him that he had found somebody he loved and who treated him like he deserved to be treated, Cassian would be happy for him. He wouldn’t fucking care who it was. As long as Azriel was happy, he was happy. 

Azriel did show up finally. Quiet and withdrawn, sitting down next to him and more playing with his food than actually eating, but he did show up. 

Sitting through that dinner, doing what Rhys demanded of him. Not voicing a word of protest. 

What’s he thinking about? Cassian asked Rhys, curious at how Azriel seemed far, far away, lost in thoughts.

Table linens, Rhys gave back. 

Tell me that’s a joke.

No. Azriel is thinking about table linens.

Table linens? What was that about now? 

The plot thickened. 

The table linens didn’t stay the most interesting thing though. That was the sharp repartee Lucien provided while Azriel tried not to be anything but helpful. 

Cassian was one more pointed comment away from interfering. 

All that Azriel had been doing was trying to help, for cauldron’s sake. 

He kept calm for longer than Cassian had thought he would. And then he came around the corner with: “I also know that you are related to one.” Meaning an enchanter and Lucien seemed not happy at all about this. 

Lucien’s knife hit his plate, the sound loud in the suddenly quiet room. “How do you even know that?” he hissed. 

“I am the spymaster of the Night Court,” Azriel said, his voice quiet but even.  

“So what, you care about gossip from 3 centuries ago?” Lucien demanded. “Do you have nothing better to do?” 

Cassian opened his mouth but Elain laid a hand on her mate’s. “Luce,” she said, her voice soft, calming him. 

“If it’s useful, yes ,” Azriel said, voice quiet.  

“How could it possibly be useful to you? Also, he’s dead. Has been dead, for over a century,” Lucien snapped. Azriel stayed quiet. “That didn’t show up in your research, did it?” Lucien sneered. 

This was unlike Azriel. If Azriel used something like that, then he would have already known that whoever he had meant was no longer living. This was just…weird. 

This was weird. 

But what seemingly wasn’t these days? 

One of Azriel’s shadows came darting a few moments later, doing that weird thing they sometimes did, where they became nearly bodily for a moment or two and left something for the shadowsinger. 

Even after over 500 years of being around Azriel, the shadows were still a mystery to Cassian. 

They left a simple note for Azriel, dropping it next to his plate. He reached out to open it without hesitation. 

Cassian was curious enough to try and sneak a peek. The only thing he could read was absolute gibberish. 

That didn’t seem to be the case for Azriel though. He removed a second sealed note, placed it on the table and then without hesitation put his own note in his empty water glass.

Seconds later, it burst into fire with a bright flame. 

Cassian just stared at it. 

He had seen that a few times. It was how the Autumn Court sends correspondence, making sure that nobody else but the intended recipient could read it. Destroying the evidence, after it had been seen. 

And suddenly…it all made sense!

The reason why Azriel kept a secret from Rhys because it wasn’t just some random female that he had met in Velaris that he was seeing. 

It wasn’t a female at all! 

It was Eris Vanserra. 

That it must be. That would give Azriel a reason to keep the relationship quiet, away from every single one of them, because all of them would have tried to talk him out of that. 

Him, Rhys, Mor…

“By the cauldron, you are seeing Eris!” His mouth moved on his own accord, the words leaving his body without his input. It was the pure shock of that realisation that made him spit out the words. 

“Cassian!” Nesta complained, long sufferingly, rubbing a hand over her forehead.  He could feel her annoyance over the mating bond but he couldn’t help himself. 

“The letter just went up in flames! That’s how the Autumn Court sends correspondence!” Cassian defended himself. “You are seeing Eris!” he accused Azriel wide-eyed, who sat frozen in place, still staring at his water glass. 

How could Azriel even…How? When had that happened? How had that happened? What had happened? 

Cassian had so many questions.

“And because of that, you are now thinking that Azriel has a love affair with Lucien’s half-brother?” Feyre asked haltingly. 

“Yes!” It made perfect sense! It did!

Azriel was in love and didn’t want to admit to it! And he was in love with Eris Vanserra.

“No.” Azriel’s voice put a halt to his speculation. It was icy. 

“But…” Cassian started, but he didn’t even get out more than the first word because Azriel cut him off. 

Azriel could have cut glass with how sharp his voice was. 

“Cassian, I have absolutely no idea what makes you think that I am in some kind of romantic relationship with Eris Vanserra but I’ll gladly swear to you on my own life, that that is not happening in a million years. And Eris was not the one writing me.” 

Oh. 

“Who was writing to you then?” Rhys asked, curiously. “Must be somebody from Autumn.” 

True. Maybe it was Eris after all!

“I know somebody that knows somebody,�� Azriel repeated, picking up the other note and handing it to Cassian with a glance at Lucien. Cassian handed it over. The handwriting was elegant and loopy, the note closed with a wax seal, showing a stylised O surrounded by…something that he couldn’t place. “An enchantress is willing to meet you tomorrow. Bright and Early,” Azriel explained to Lucien.

That wasn’t what Cassian had expected. It was the exact opposite, to be honest. 

No secret relationship with Eris after all? Just some message from Azriel to get Lucien the enchantress he needed? 

After how snippy Lucien had been with Azriel, Cassian was surprised that Az had even bothered to do that. It would suit Lucien fine if Az didn’t even bother helping him. He could just keep his whirring eye. 

Especially when Azriel had never even done anything . He had been nothing but supportive of Lucien and Elain’s relationship. Hadn’t said a single thing against it. Done nothing. Attended their wedding quietly and then left as soon as it was polite to do so. 

Whatever Lucien’s problem with him was these days…Azriel had done nothing to deserve his ire. 

Lucien hesitated at taking the note. Cassian wanted to roll his eyes. Like Azriel would curse it. 

“If I wanted you dead, the plan would be a lot less convoluted. Just for your information,” Azriel pointed out, his tone even. 

Lucien finally took the note, glanced at it, and Cassian watched him swallow. 

“Where did you meet her?” he demanded, his voice hoarse. 

“I know somebody that knows somebody,” Azriel repeated. “That’s my job. And that reminds me, I have to go.” And there he was, already standing up, not even having eaten half a plate. 

“So soon?” Feyre asked, sounding surprised. 

“I have plans,” Azriel didn’t seem willing to share more than that. Still, Feyre watched him, curiosity painting her gentle features. 

“What kind of plans?” She asked. Feyre and Nesta were probably the only two who could ask him a question like that and not get their head bitten off. 

“The kind of plans that I am not willing to change.” 

He had never heard Azriel’s voice quite like that. There was no use to argue with him. Not when he sounded like that. 

And off he went, disappearing again. 

The mystery was still unsolved. 

“ Eris ? Really, Cassian?” Rhys asked with a sigh.

“Excuse me, it made perfect sense!” Cassian defended himself. It did! It made sense! 

“It did not,” Nesta snorted, for once agreeing with her brother-in-law. “Why, Cassian?”

He pouted.  

“What enchantress did he find for you?” Rhys asked Lucien curiously. 

“My cousin,” Lucien answered with a sigh. “She has been living around here for…a hundred years, I think. Give or take a few.” He turned to Cassian. “Though I still wonder how did you come up with Azriel seeing my brother?”

“Cassian thinks that Azriel has a secret lover,” Nesta answered the question. “Eris is the latest of his theories. Disproven once again.”

He glared at his made. 

“I’ll figure it out,” he said tightly. 

He would. 

So it wasn’t Eris Vanserra. It must be something or somebody else. The question was just who.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Sometimes being in the SW Fandom is about diving into the annals of the internet researching the most obscure tidbit of batshit insane Canon or EU Lore imaginable to man (which is honestly my favorite thing to do because people have done some pretty insanely funny things with this universe and characters). But for the majority of the time, being in the SW Fandom is also watching people repeat a cycle of asinine arguments that make an absolute ass out of them for the worst possible reasons.

So here's a quick reminder of past arguments to be mindful of and always consider, when you see something in the tags that makes you wrinkle your nose at:

Everyone has something they like or dislike about the overall universe and story. Be it the Original Trilogy, the Prequels, the Sequels, the Animated series, the Live-Action series, EU stuff, Novels, etc. No one is above or below anyone else just because they don't love the entirety of the universe and/or the direction the current writers are taking it.

Canon can be a good baseline for your own creative purposes. You don't have to love it (because yes the whole thing can be inconsistent as hell), but don't get to a point in your fanfic/AU world-building where you vehemently deny that canon is an actual thing. This goes hand in hand with your personal depiction of characters vs someone else's depictions. Reading comprehension and the creative process depend on perspective and how you process the information you're given, so it's only normal that no two person's idea of a character is the same. But saying that your headcanons are how the characters should be written by everyone is not gonna do you any favors in the long run, because it's not up to you to decide on that. Don't forget Blorbo's actual roots and what it took to get him where you took him, but don't try to force someone else to accept the journey you orchestrated for them!

No one's OC should be put on a pedestal. It's good that people feel comfortable enough to play Barbies with each other's OCs in roleplay sessions, or even add a cameo in a fic to a character of a friend and/or artist/writer they admire from a distance. Hell, the fact many people are passionate about someone else's little fella/s is great! But the moment someone's OC becomes an object of obsession within a Fandom community, things can go a little wrong... It stops being fun to be in that kind of space that goes from welcoming OC discussions to suddenly shunning new people in favor of someone's Ultimate Blorbo who now has a Cult Following and should be written into every fanfic ever.

No one is evil for lacking knowledge or self-awareness of certain grievances that people rightfully have with the source material. The SW Fandom has always had a long-standing issue with racial stereotyping, whitewashing, cultural appropriation, sexism and many other equally serious topics that have been more eloquently explained in posts made by people much more eloquent and qualified than I am or ever will be. However, one must recognize that not everyone who joins the Fandom is immediately aware of these things. Especially the younger generations that have either not been exposed to these concepts due to one reason or another (upbringing, biased educational curriculum, etc), or because they were simply never in a position where they could delve into these topics with someone knowledgeable on them (some experiences simply aren't universal, especially if you come from a more privileged family). For the most part, SW is just a silly sci-fi universe that is nothing more than a simple means of escapism or dumb fun. Not everyone is going to study it under a microscope or go through it with a fine comb. That said, another important thing to remember is to listen to those who know their stuff and that have had personal grievances with any of the topics above. You can be excused for lack of knowledge, but you cannot be excused for purposefully ignoring the voices of those who provide you said knowledge for free if you go searching.

This is kinda returning to the second and previous topics, but I really need to put emphasis on this: If you're going to cling to certain design choices with an iron first and incorporate them into your personal ideas/headcanons, please always consider how it SOUNDS when you say characters that are written with basis on real POC people/communities are much better/superior if they have phenotypical trait expressions that are not present (or considered rare/atypical) in their real world basis. This is a CONSISTENT problem I have seen crop up specifically within the Clone Wars and Bad Batch sides of the fandom, especially when talking about Rex (who is a blond) and Clone Force 99 (who do not look like standard clones). Always remember: The problem isn't that Rex can't be naturally blond (genetics can be unpredictable and we really don't have an extensive look into the cloning process), the problem is the way some people think he'd be inferior in some way if he were a bottle blond who chose to distinguish himself (almost as if having darker skin, darker hair and darker eyes is somehow worse than having lighter skin, lighter hair or lighter eyes.. How curious isn't it?). Needless to say, I don't think I need to elaborate further on why CF99's "desirable mutations" giving them considerably lighter skin and less ethnic features, while also making their most POC presenting member look and sometimes act like a moronic brute (something which this Fandom pushes further by infantilizing him relentlessly), is a bit of a red flag...

Star Wars has always been political. It is literally in the name and in the meat of the writing. The entire thing is basically a political and social critique presented in a sci-fi/fantasy wrapper, with colorful plasma swords, cool spaceships, and kickass explosion bow on top. You cannot separate the political conversation from the universe's overall lore, and trying to do so makes you look foolish. Disney may have taken creative liberties with some of its shows, but at the end of the day they can't ever eliminate what the Original Trilogies and even the Prequels tried to tell us about. With that said, complaining about how some of the new shows are "too Woke" or PC is the equivalent of saying you read Romeo and Juliet and that the story is relationship goals. You might need to revisit the original material.

For the love of god if you don't like something, don't go after someone who does, it's not worth it. Sometimes the best thing you can do is either filter something you actively dislike/that makes you feel uncomfortable, or simply unfollow/block whoever is repeatedly bringing it onto your doorstep. And you also have no real obligation to explain your decision to block someone, especially if they hound you for questions. Rule of thumb: Don't like something? That's perfectly fine and valid. Take the steps to make yourself comfortable then, but don't go out of your way to be a royal asshole to someone else just because they themselves enjoy it. This encompasses things from anti-jedi demonization, actual ethnic cleansing in canon, siding with personifications of alt-right extremists, proshipping apologism, etc. The block button was added to this hellsite for a reason. Use it.

Sometimes you can't change someone else's opinions on a matter and that is perfectly fine. Just don't start a feud. People come and go, and their opinions vary (we're all individuals with out own perspectives and unique experiences after all), but getting up in arms every time someone either refuses to yield in a long-winded argument, or continuously tries to shove their unsolicited opinions/advice onto you, or even makes incredibly uncomfortable/forward/gross comments that they definitely shouldn't be saying to a complete stranger on the internet, is kind of pointless and will drain you of energy faster than you can say Death Star. You're not the lesser person for walking away from a lost cause. It's ultimately not your job or responsibility to fix/better someone else. Especially if they don't want to change.

[retellingthehobbit]

Your retelling, will it be implying a Thorin/Bilbo attraction?

I ask because I just discovered that ship and when I looked it up on tumblr, it led me to your work lolol

Every time someone asks me this I feel more like I'm making a Real Adaptation! I love the idea of people following this webcomic for years while analyzing the gay subtext as if they're waiting to see if Supernatural will make Destiel canon. a powerful feeling. The short answer is yes! The long answer is that it's complicated, and that if you're not a Bilbo/Thorin Person you should still stick around because I'm going to handle it in a very funky way that is not what you're expecting (also at the rate I draw, it won't be "canon" in the comic for approximately 2039482289798334534534534534 years.) Generally Thorin's role in my version of the story is that he's a living embodiment of The Quest, and Bilbo's feelings for Thorin mirror his feelings for the Adventure. When Thorin first arrives at Bag End, Bilbo is overwhelmed and annoyed and confused-- he finds him both fascinating and horribly frustrating at turns, and has no idea how to feel about Thorin in the same way he has no idea whether he'll join the adventure. As the story continues, Bilbo's feelings on the Quest will shift, and his feelings about Thorin will shift as well. I just really love the general idea of a new take on Thorin where he has a bit more pathos and a deeper relationship with Bilbo. I also think the way LOTR retroactively reframes The Hobbit as a story written by 'unreliable narrator Bilbo Baggins' adds to the possibilities a lot! there's a lot of queer subtext in Lord of the Rings, and it's fun to bring more of that subtext into the Hobbit. Tolkien often refers to hobbit adventures as "queerness,' and makes "queerness" the name for the thing that bigoted hobbits are afraid of; the fact that Bilbo has been repressing the "queer" part of himself that he inherited from his mother is, canonically, the thing he's struggling with in the beginning of the story.

I really enjoy the bit in the Unfinished Tales where Gandalf describes Bilbo like this:

And now I found that he was 'unattached' - to jump on again for of course I did not know all this until I went back to the Shire. I learned that he had never married. I thought that odd though I guessed why it was; and the reason that I guessed was not that most of the Hobbits gave me: that he had early been left very well off and his own master. No, I guessed that he wanted to remain 'unattached' for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself - or would not acknowledge, for it alarmed him.

That feeling of not being "out to yourself" and not knowing what it is that you want out of life is just!!! It's just very compelling to me.

Thorin's still gonna die though. Don't you hate it when you have this whole elaborate coming-out-to-yourself story but then your first gay crush is so Problematic he kiiiinda nearly starts a war so you betray him by stealing the Heart of his Mountain in order to prevent that war, but then the war happens anyway and he dies horribly :/. A universal gay experience.

Thorin is also an interesting character to play with, especially because I'm diverging more from the book (compared to Bilbo or Gandalf.) The way I'm planning to handle him is that he's a character we see only "from the outside," from the perspective of other characters, and no character sees every side of him. The dwarves portray him as a noble king; the elves portray him as a haughty arrogant joke, to the point where it affects Tolkien's own "translation" of the story; Bilbo has his own complicated feelings about Thorin, but even his portrayal of Thorin is heavily biased and he never gets to see the full picture.

But yeah-- the Hobbit is originally a very lighthearted story, but I do think there are lot of darker and deeper emotions you could explore in it if you wanted to, particularly if you bring in the metatext of how it's reframed in Lord of the Rings. And I do want to explore those darker emotions! So I am XD. There already was an extremely book-accurate comic adaptation of the Hobbit that came out in the late nineties (though it's super short and the pages are cramped to fit in all the prose)-- so I don't really see the point of being obsessively close to the original novel, since an obsessively close comic adaptation already exists. This comic is for the Weird Queer Overly Emotional Metatextual Reframing of The Hobbit!! Anyway, it's fun.

[ckret2]

I always figured that if Bill had any Henchmaniacs that looked like they were from Euclidia, like Kryptos, then they were just from neighboring 2D dimensions. You know, like how there are a billion alternate dimensions similar enough to Earth that Ford could find an alternate universe where Stanley agreed to hide the journal where Ford basically worked everything out somehow and had his dream life afterwards, that he wrote about in Journal 3. But anyway, I think it kind of loses impact if Bill has whole Henchmaniacs from his home dimension. I think it’s more likely they came from neighboring dimensions he might’ve gone to that were similar to his in the millennia after he destroyed his own. That that one speck and his own memories really are the only things he can hold on to from his home dimension now. And even if Kryptos and whoever else have similar memories and experiences, it’s not the same. They don’t know the same world he does.

To continue my last ask (I’m the one that suggested Kryptos and any other flat shape looking Henchmaniac didn’t actually come from The Euclidia but just a similar flat 2d dimension, making Bill the only one from his actual dimension)I know it might sound unlikely for Bill to visit other flat dimensions since he seems to equate whatever oppressiveness he faced in that society with the fact that it was 2-dimensional as well, like they’re part of the same thing (“flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams”) and also he might at first want to go somewhere that doesn’t remind him too much of home, after destroying it, but in all that time he had, I do think there was a chance he drifted back to similar dimensions.

(You didn't SAY you're referring to ideas for my fic, but I'm assuming you are because that's the only context in which I've brought up the issue of the shape Henchmaniacs' origins; if you're solely just sharing your own thoughts on canon then my apologies for going "but what about my fanfiction that you aren't talking about???" at it.)

"It would ruin the emotional impact of Bill being all alone if there's other survivors" is one of the biggest problems I'm grappling with in deciding how to deal with the shape Henchmaniacs post-TBOB, and "maybe they're from another flat dimension" is the first way I considered dealing with it.

(Hell, it's an idea I played with when first deciding what I was gonna headcanon for their backstory; before I deciding that no, in spite of the Oracle's comments, it was worth it to flex canon a bit to make them from Bill's dimension.)

The problem is, them not being from his dimension would ruin the emotional impact of the plot I have planned.

That's the issue here. Coming up with a canon compatible solution is easy, I could pull ten canon compatible solutions out of my ass in five minutes. Coming up with a canon compatible solution that works with my plans is harder.

For the plot I have planned Bill needs to give a shit about Kryptos, Hectorgon, and Amorphous Shape the way he doesn't give a shit about anyone else. He needs to give a shit about them as if they're the last remainder of his long-lost home.

He'd never give that kind of a shit about outsiders.

[ilivingonmyway]

The "Jay is Lloyd older brother Au" that I created, it's got three different versions but I gonna with the original one:

So, Jay is Lloyd's older brother, they have a difference of more or less 5 and a half years old and they are both adopted by Ed and Edna (Jay is the only one of the two who knows that the Walkers are not their biological parents).

Unlike Canon, Jay is not one of the ninjas (he still receives training but he never reached his True Pontential and no one but Master Wu knows that he "is" a ninja). He's been there at Spinjutzo Monastery since the beginning but not as a frontline hero, he "works" there for Master Wu as a kind of assistant and resident mechanical engineer (this is just a facade. Wu want to keep an eye on his nephew the Master of Lightning and Jay wants to practice his powers so he doesn't run the risk of hurting anyone or being discover) Nya has been in "his" place, being the fourth ninja on the team since she was rescued from Garmadon (she ends up unlocking her true potential much earlier in the story).

No one but Master Wu know's where's the Lightning Elemental is, Wu says that they have been "missing" since the previous Lightning Elemental, Libber, passed her powers.

And Lloyd is there, but not as the little boy from Darkleys who wants to follow in the footsteps of his dad a villain, but as a boy who wants to make his parents and older brother proud. So one day, as Jay is leaving his monthly visit to his parents, Lloyd follows Jay to the Monastery, intending to receive the same fighting lessons as the ninjas. And everyone's like "Who the hell is this kid? He broke into the Monastery and wants to play ninja." And Kai, being Kai, does the same thing as Canon: leaves Lloyd on the roof of someone's house, unaware that Lloyd is Jay's younger brother. As a result, Lloyd is angry as hell with the ninjas, and somehow does the same stupid thing as in canon, freeing the Serpentines.

Lloyd almost immediately realizes what a screw-up he's done and sets out to find Jay, but is captured and held hostage. Meanwhile, at the Monastery, Jay discovers that Lloyd was there but Kai left him on the roof of some house (??) and becomes furious with the fire ninja, to the point of yelling at him. Master Wu hears the commotion and learns that his nephew Jay's little brother was there and that he wanted to train to be a ninja, and being the "wise Master" that he is, Wu tells them to go after Lloyd and bring him to the Monastery he doesn't miss the angry look Jay gave him during this part.

And then they come across the whole Serpentine situation, with Lloyd as a hostage, they try to fight but fail due to being unprepared for battle. The Cobras end up escaping with Lloyd in tow, screaming desperately because he wants his older brother and Jay panics because he wants to help his little brother but he can't do something without ending up revealing his powers Jay has extremely high morals here, he had made a promise that he would never use his powers, much less be a ninja, due to his... Family situation.

They end up losing the fight and losing Lloyd.

Jay is completely devastated.

And then the whole shit starts.

Welcome to StaticEnergy Brothers AU.

Please says it looks so cool like I want to look.

(maybe I'll do other posts about the other two versions of this, but... It's just a "maybe")

[forallnumbersosc]

If dividing algebrelians by zero makes them die does that mean that if you where to leave a half finished math problem out it would accidentally kill them?(Gaty don’t try this out please!)

Oh oh-- gosh no I would never try something that would risk anyone that I'm conducting research on! That being said, I do have confirmation where if an equation with an algebralien is unfinished, the operation simply doesn't occur! It's only the moment an equation becomes valid that anything actually happens!

Also, I don't think dividing by zero would cause an algebralien to die, but at the same time I don't really have a clue what happens to them in those cases... I tried asking the zeroes about it, but they only told me it's something they really don't do often unless absolutely necessary...

[using this ask as an excuse to talk as mod because it made me realize i had a bit of a story error with my post on operations and i wanna try and fix the plot-hole there--

Lets consider this... operations part two?]

[On the original post, Gaty talked about the story Pie told her about her encounter with Pi and the other irrationals... Pie told her that Pi was multiplied by zero, when in fact, in the actual Pi Day Massacre video, Pi was indeed divided by zero instead.... To fix this, I'm gonna say that canonically Pie mis-spoke when recounting the story to Gaty, stating that Pi was simply multiplied by a zero and trapped within them...

So then... what did happen?

Well, Pi was indeed divided by zero, but that doesn't mean that he died, perse...

In algebra, when a number is divided by zero, it doesn't just disappear like its commonly thought to be... It's a bit hard to explain, but essentially it gets into a state where it tries to approach zero, but can't! So it's referred to approaching infinitely. It has a lot to do with the math world of limits, which is a whole thing, which is why its easiest to just say it's undefined!

Take a look at the graph 1/X; you can make X as small as you possibly can, but it will never be able to cross those lines at zero!

So then what happened to Pi?

Well...

He approached Infinity! ;D]

[pi is okay, by the way... it's a bit like your teacher calling your parents for misbehaving. They just needed to talk some sense into him and let him play somewhere else <3]

[deweyduck]

hey what’s your opinion of rise of red?

THANK YOU FOR ASKING COMPLETELY UNPROMPTED I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY

spoilers under the cut

first of all i need to make it clear i liked the movie my biggest issue is just with the ending. it didn't feel like a descendants movie but i liked the characters and the plot wasn't as convoluted as it could have been and if you just ignore the things that don't make sense with the descendants canon it's fun and cute and harmless (nothing ever makes sense in descendants canon anyway).

my issue with the ending is that there wasn't one. it felt like a whole entire act was missing. they just go back to the future and everything is fine and the movie ends. any other movie would have had them go back either nothing changed but red understands her mother better now from seeing her past or they changed everything and that turns out to be a bad thing and they have to go back and make sure the prank was pulled and started a chain of events that lead them to where they were. i also feel like it sends a bad message that if you have nice parents everything is fine which kind of negates the message of the original movies.

BUT i have theories as to why it had such a rushed ending. i think they did film a lot more for the movie but it was rewritten and reshot either due to run time constraints OR because they're gonna use what they shot in something else like another movie or a show and they cut it up so they could make more money. lots of things point to this for me.

we didn't see crowncoming or the prank which were made out to be major plot points and then just dropped

they announced the character zellie with the official casting announcement posts and made it seem like she was an important character when in the movie she literally just stands in the background and laughs. she could have just been any extra. the actress who played her replied to a comment on her instagram asking if she had more scenes that were cut with the eyes emoji. also in the credits she's listed as meadow instead of zellie for some reason as if they were trying to make me forget zellie existed (i didn't)

the original announcement for the movie (when it was still called the pocketwatch) mentioned the fact that ben and mal were having a baby and yet there was no baby

chloe/malia's wig was constantly changing as if they had to go back and shoot more things and they didn't have the same wig or stylists anymore.

the song shuffle of love seems like it should have been used in a big dance number at the crowncoming but instead we just got one small scene with bridget dancing to it alone in her room

there was no proper finale song which is something that is such a staple to the descendants franchise

other movies get cut in half (deathly hallows, breaking dawn, mockingjay) but they never make it seem like everything is wrapped up at the end of the first part. and those examples always knew they were going to be 2 movies when they were written and filmed and not a last minute decision.

they could have hinted at everything not being all right in the end in some way but they didn't other than the "you didn't think this was the end of the story" line.

like i said i did like the movie but i was left so unsatisfied with the ending that that's all i'm ever gonna associate with it.

[starseneyes]

Chenford - Lucy Chen / Tim Bradford - The Rookie - Season 5 - Ep 22

"Under Siege" AKA "Who in the Writer's Room Likes Horror?"

It's a bizarre day. If you love Chenford, then you need to know what's going on with the WGA - Writers Guild of America. They are striking for a fair wage and basic protections.

WGA members craft this ship and show we love so much, so please show solidarity for them as they fight for not only their future, but for future generations of writers.

SPOILER ALERT: If you want to remain spoiler free, I have no bloody clue why you're here. I can only assume a friend told you to check this out as a cruel joke. First off, dump that friend. Second, buckle up. It's about to get spoilery!

All good? Great! I can't wait to dive in.

Arrest Me... but make it SCARY

A bit of a different vibe for our opening tonight. No, this isn't Chenford-direct. But, it's important to know the vibe of this episode going in.

If any of you are Avengers: Infinity War fans, you might recall the Wanda / Vision relationship, and their whole sequence where they were ambushed. Originally, it was a lot longer, and had more of a horror movie vibe.

I loved that they went outside the box on that to play with genre throughout the movie.

I feel like The Rookie is playing with that a bit. It's been a while since my heart pounded during an episode.

In all honesty, it was probably Day of Death that last had me on the edge of my seat... and I watched that after I started Season 5 with near-canon Chenford.

Yes, I'm spoiled. Yes, I think OG Chenford fans deserve medals for their patience.

Speaking of which, your patience with me is likely wearing thin... let's get to the Chenford.

"Hey I heard it was Thornson."

Tim and Lucy show up together, and I'm having flashbacks to the two of them bailing out her UC buddy in the dead of night. These two know how to get moving when it matters.

Tim and Lucy immediately separate on their separate missions. That didn't work out too well for Celina and Aaron, but it looks like Chenford survive the night.

Look, I have a lot of ship trauma. "Leaf on the wind" anyone? Yeah, I've got ship trauma.

"A blood drive has been set up at the hospital. If you can do so, please volunteer at the end of shift."

I'm reminded of the fact that Tim Bradford regularly gives blood, so I'm heart-warmed that he's the one who gets to deliver the news to the team.

"Those are not store-bought Halloween masks."

It struck me immediately that Lucy is sitting front row like a Rookie.

Yes, I know that they are packed in there, so somebody has to sit up front... but it's Lucy, so it feels symbolic. As though she is sitting in the Rookie spot in Celina's honor.

"Hey. We heard the good news about Aaron. Unfortunately, none of our CIs have heard anything about a gang targeting the cops."

I know it's a little detail, but I love Tim and Lucy showing up together everywhere.

Of course, someone on Twitter called out the 4x01 parallel to them showing up at Wesley's together after I initially watched the episode. And they're so right. It's another parallel among many in this episode tonight!

"I hate to say it, but this is not gonna break tonight."

This one I spotted immediately the first time through—it's another night where he's sending everyone home because there's nothing more to be done... just like when they lost Jackson.

And I have to wonder if the intentionality of these parallels is to confirm or subvert expectation.

Like, are we supposed to see this similar sequence of events as an omen of doom? Or are we drawing these parallels with the intent of intensifying the torture before the cathartic release of Aaron's survival?

I guess we'll find out together in Season 6.

"I can't lose another."

Oh, Grey. Poor Grey. I guess I wasn't the only one having flashbacks.

Tim and Lucy Embrace

Tim knows Lucy is having that same flashback. There are too many similarities, too many things tying them all back to Jackson and the loss they all endured.

Angela about to give birth. Someone targeting them. An ambush and a shooting.

Yes, Aaron has a chance at making it. But the weight of this moment is not lost on this team who has suffered too much loss before.

Lucy and Tim step into the apartment, and they barely make it past the door before they're in one another's arms.

It's wordless. Tim motions to Lucy, and it reminds me of the hand motions when he offered to carry the War Bags after their last ride together.

Tim and Lucy no longer need a shorthand... they don't even need words.

He knows what she needs without her asking, and she knows what he's offering without a word spoken.

Back in Season 4 Episode 1, Tim asked what she needed. She asked for the hug. Now he knows what she needs in this moment as easily as he knows his own—some semblance of comfort in the horror of history repeating.

QUICK EDIT: Upon rewatch, I find I didn't imagine his "Come here" the first time (another call back), so technically he did use words... but they weren't needed.

Tim holds Lucy in his arms—so similar to their positioning in 4x01—but that's where the similarities end. Because Tim and Lucy of Season 4 no longer exist.

Everything has deepened between them since then. And while, yes, the hanky panky is fun... the trust is what they both need here.

They can't trust that everything will be okay. But they trust that with one another they are truly safe. And right now, they both need that comfort.

"It's okay," he whispers as he holds her, wishing it were true.

Tim kisses Lucy's forehead as he holds her, rubs her arms, and tries to offer some comfort as she leans against him, sobs overtaking her... like the first time he held her in Day of Death.

I know that we're going for the 4x01 parallels with how this is shot and staged, but I see the DOD ones, too. This is where they are safe when nowhere else feels safe.

Tim's hand cradles her head as he holds her. And much as this hurts like hell, this moment is important.

Tim and Lucy are one another's safe place. With each other, there are no pretenses or pretending, anymore. They no longer hide from one another or themselves.

They've embraced the beauty of who they are together, and while there will be many moments of joy... the sorrow is a part of the journey.

Tim and Lucy have had their share of it, true. But this is the first time they've traversed it as boyfriend and girlfriend. And the impact of enduring possibly losing another officer and friend to an ambush is too much.

Does being together make it easier? Hell, no. Is there a slight comfort in knowing you're not enduring it alone? Oh, yes.

"No we know. We ran your prints ... you don't get out of bed for less than 20K a day. Who hired you?"

Tim and Lucy are very good at what they do, and I love how they are supporting one another and building upon each other.

I miss them riding together, but we see what makes them great—they both think on their feet and they are sensational at the "yes, and".

I love getting to see the professional side still fires so beautifully between them. It's a feat I feared fumbled, but I'm freakin' psyched it fared fine.

Oh my goodness, that's way too much alliteration. But, I'm leaving it. It's ridiculous and it makes me smile!

The Trip Wire

Another commonality with Season 4 Episode 1. Gee wiz, we're going for lots of references with this one, and that leaves me curious about the intention... and whether there's a common thread that we're somehow missing that leads all the way back.

Or, I'm reading too much into it because I'm weird. I can roll with that, too.

Tim joins up with Lucy outside the house where she asks him for clarity that none of them have. What the hell is going on!?

"We should move on." "What? No."

Love that Lucy still stands up to Tim at work.

Look, even when he was her TO and then her supervisor, Lucy never shied away from speaking her mind. In this case, she sees something they're missing. And she's not going to let them miss out on an important piece of the puzzle.

"You think it's personal?" "I mean, look, if I was gonna go to the extreme of targeting police officers, why not take out some of my enemies along the way?"

And with that, Lucy BadAss Chen cracks the case. No, I don't know if that's her legal middle name. But it should be.

My brain immediately goes back to Tim accusing her of a social media obsession that happened to crack a case back during one of the Documentary episodes.

There's no skirting around this one—it was all Chen.

"I'll take Moran." "You're not going by yourself." "I'll go with her."

Alright, Fierce Protector. You do you.

"You should be out kicking doors with Metro." "I'm good." "I don't need you protecting me."

Well, damn, I thought it was just me! I thought I was gonna be the only one in this Meta calling out Tim in the Protector role, but I guess my on-screen bestie had to chime in, too.

Also, bringing back "Good" in this scene, which truly feels like their word, and I love it.

Tim will always have Lucy's back. He knows that she is capable and strong, but he's also her boyfriend and spent a lot of time as her TO and then Supervisor. Worrying about her was a part of his job, and now it's an ingrained part of his life.

He's not trying to undermine her independence or capability. He simply wants to be close because then he knows she is safe and doesn't have to hold his breath wondering.

"So, clearly what you're saying is you need me protecting you." "Clearly. You know me so well."

It was pinging my brain, and I couldn't figure out why until someone pulled out the DOD GIF on Twitter and I started slow-clapping like a sports movie.

Yes, of course! When Lucy woke up in the hospital to find Tim by her side... as he is, now.

I kept seeing DOD parallels in this episode, and I'm strangely comforted that others did, too.

Plus, a return of "Clearly", which has been another of Tim and Lucy's words. "Clearly, Ashley's gotta go." "Clearly this isn't working out."

"I'm happy it's you at my six." "Back at you."

Major "We protect each other" vibes, and I bloody approve. Look, we know that Tim is a Fierce Protector. But he also knows that his girlfriend is a kick-ass bad-ass.

Now, we enter into a fight scene that is a bloody masterpiece.

Yes, I wondered why they emptied their clips at the Riot Shields, but I'm not a cop, so I don't know if there's some logic behind it I don't possess. Other than that... this fucking rocked.

Like, literally. I couldn't have been the only Xennial rocking out when Janes Addiction started playing! Someone go hug the Music Supervisor, Music Coordinator, Screenwriter, Director, or whoever threw that track out there, because it's bloody brilliant.

Tim and Lucy are working together, talking it out as they go. And we see all that time they've put into building their communication is really on display, even in a bloody battle.

"We stand a chance, but only together."

Hell, yeah, Lucy! I've been saying that all season. No, not in terms of having the high ground (rest in pieces, Anikan Skywalker's limbs), but in terms of getting through this thing called life.

Tim and Lucy stand a chance of surviving as Chenford through end of show only if they work together.

And on-the-screen in this particular moment, the same holds true.

"Pull not push, copy that."

Love. Them. Look at Tim taking the word of his capable wife and putting it into practice.

Tim and Lucy are literally fighting for their lives, here, and they are fighting together. When one's on the brink of being overwhelmed, the other is there.

Lucy delivers a strike to free up Tim. He takes on several at once, and she goes for the shield. I was screaming, "Hell, yeah, baby girl!" like the big sister I am to my on-screen bestie because she was crushing.

Tim is the master of pepper spray, I swear. He's used it in many creative ways, but super smart to go straight for the eye-holes on the masks to try to penetrate.

Lucy's close to losing consciousness when Tim rips the guy off of her, repaying the earlier favor of her freeing him up. It's a literal give-and-take... in a fight for their lives. This is bloody brilliant.

Nolan finally makes it up there, and Tim helps Lucy through the door to the stairwell, literally shielding her with his body.

Once inside, Tim has his hand on one of his favorite places—Lucy's leg. But this isn't a sexy-time touch. This is the, "Thank God you're alive" touch. If they hadn't worked together, that could have ended very differently.

"I have Bradford and Chen secured upstairs."

Chen and Bradford, sir. It's Chenford. Not Braden.

"You should be on your way to the hospital." "We'll go after."

At least Tim is saying he'll go. Like, seriously, this guy is the king of avoiding medical attention. And too often when he's gone in, he did so knowing nobody was waiting for him on the other side.

Now, not only is he willingly going to go in with his girlfriend, he knows that they'll leave together. Look how far our boy has come.

A Glance

Our last moment of Tim and Lucy is just a glance... a subtle glance between the two of them where that wordless communication comes in.

They've always have this layer to their relationship—communicating without a word. But it's so much deeper, now.

And as we reflect on the end of a season, I have to say it's been incredible to witness their growth alongside y'all in real-time.

This season has been an absolute roller coaster, and my first with all y'all! I started with 5x01, had to catch up, and have loved this whole journey.

Thank you all for being so welcoming to a late-comer like me. And thank you for reading!

Remember, love one another. Give yourself grace. Don't worry about "perfect" because it doesn't bloody exist. Go after your dreams. Fuck Fear. And believe in yourself, always.

And if you're not ready to believe in yourself... know that I believe in you. And I'm always rooting for good things to come your way. You've got this.

[myaoiboy]

Can you try explain what you mean about Ocelot looking like a drag king in mgsv? I feel like your boyfriend in that I just. Don't see it? I'm trying to understand why Ocelot would even have that applied when he's always been just A Guy™

Okay so I'm going to try to do this without getting into Grad-Level 5D Queer Theory Media Criticism, but I also fully realize that in doing that, a lot of this is going to sound very much like I'm saying "Source: Just Trust Me Bro".

(anon i am SO sorry that you happen to be the first person to directly adress me about gender in MGS)

I also wanna be straight up front here and say that I'm not trying to imply that Ocelot is anything other than a guy, he's just also a guy who's playing a million roles (this is important) and lying to damn near everyone, including himself. He has some of the worst identity issues I've ever seen in a character, and that comes to a head in 4 where he literally isn't even *Ocelot* until the final moments of his life. So yes, for the sake of not writing War and Peace, I'm going to assume Ocelot is "just a guy" and come at this from a pure queer theory/media analysis standpoint, not a headcanon one.

So first it's really important to point out the order in which we see Ocelot through the series. In the timeline, the last time we see Ocelot before V is 3 (or PO which I haven't played due to its placement in canon-limbo, but Ocelot looks basically the same). So we see him go from A to B here.

I am going to say something potentially controversial: even before saw V ocelot, I thought 3 Ocelot looked like he was wearing drag *queen* makeup. I don't know whether it's intentional, or an attempt to circumvent the lower poly models and lower definition textures of the PS2, but the first image looks like someone who is going for a highly exaggerated, feminine cheek contour. Here's a few drag queens who, imo, do a very similar contour look:

Whether the color filter or the texturing of the PS2 or something else, the MGS3 version of Ocelot also has a look of mascara and frosted lipgloss (frosted lips being much more popular at the time of MGS3's original release than today, but alas).

So from that I was already very much primed to look for femininity in Ocelot's whole vibe. It was actually kind of jarring how much more rugged he is in V than in any of the previous games, to the extent that it sent up alarm bells in my head that something was going on.

I don't remember the moment that I went "hey, wait a minute," but it was certainly pretty early on. As someone who's been on tumblr a hella long time and remembers when we used to swap passing tips, the specific combination of facial features remind me of a very specific genre of "ftm makeup tutorials" that were also pretty contemporarily popular on tumblr. A very quick summary being mascara on the eyelashes and specific peach fuzz to give the impression of a squarer jaw and having more facial hair, as well as specific contouring to give a "masculine cheekbone." Most of these tips basically came directly from drag king makeup.

Gonna include some drag kings as well, some things to notice include the tendency towards using stubble as contouring and vice versa, the shaping of cheek contouring, and the tendency to accentuate mustache and sideburns.

I'm pretty bad at wording descriptions of hair and makeup so you'll have to forgive me for not going ham on explaining the similarities bc now we actually get to the interesting part which is: so fucking what? If this is true, if you take my word for it, what does it say about the text? If I want to make this argument to someone else, what can I say that will convince them that, even if it's not *intentional,* it's a valid and meaningful view of his character?

Like, you can make a character based on anything you want, but why does it matter whether Ocelot is based on drag either direction?

Ocelot's "drag"iness is multipurpose. One: he's queer. Like, I grant that he never comes out and says "I love 'Big "Naked 'John' Snake" Boss'" but we get a hell of a lot more confirmation that he's gay than we get straight confirmation for a lot of presumed-straight characters. I feel comfortable saying he's canon queer.

Two: it's a visual metaphor for being a double/triple agent. While he's literally performing several roles (KGB/GRU/CIA, or MSF/Real BB/US, or US/Patriots/BB, or anything in between), he's also visually playing two (or more) gender roles, a feminine man, a mannish woman, something neither or in-between. The implication of drag specifically is pretending to be something that he isn't (which he literally always is, holy shit, again, does he even know who he realiy is?).

And before anyone says "Well, if it's so important to his character, why did they wait until 3 to start doing it?" They didn't!!

This is THE most classically masculine that Ocelot ever looks. But there's still precious polygons invested into giving him long hair and a flowing coat. Working with sprites and low-poly models means having to very carefully select traits that you want to display on your character, and Ocelot's go into making him a cringefail cowboy.

The fact that he's a cowboy in itself is also pretty important to the whole gender/sexuality situation. I mean, Brokeback Mountain might not have been out yet, but the male-to-female ratio in the west meant a lot of men cozied up together on the frontier. Hell, hankey code comes from cowboy culture, with men wearing certain colors to announce who would take the "man" or "woman" role while square dancing.

I could go a lot into gender and how it works on a social/societal level in general and why that matters, but OOPS I have been writing this for a WHILE.

I was actually going to go a lot more into queer theory and gender in MGS in general but ngl, I could write a whole doctoral thesis on gender and how different characters perform or subvert gender. Because holy shit when you start peeling back the very thin macho facade of Kojima's work to do a feminist reading of it, boy howdy do you get. A whole lot to talk about. (ask me about death stranding sometime i dare you)

Basically what I'm trying to get across is that Ocelot has a lot of roles that he's playing and NOT playing, and more than a few of those are gender roles, which is very much visually symbolic of his character.

I am so sorry anon I have been thinking about him nonstop for a full year </3 I hope at least the first part of this answered your question about what features I see that scream drag to me.

[operahousebookworm]

I need to geek out about the end of Nier: Automata. By which I mean ending E, the (presumably) canon ending.

Okay, so the setup of the game: there are two classes of synthetic lifeforms, androids and machines, playing out an endless proxy war between their absent creators. Over the course of the game, you discover tons of machines who have developed personalities and free will, which for most of them has meant forming family groups. Androids have kept more in line, but some of them too have started to stray and to dream of family.

But there's a third class of synthetic intelligence: the pods.

Initially, 042 and 153 connect with each other just to optimize the mission, since they work so closely together. But as the game progresses, it becomes clear that they care about their assigned androids, and about each other.

In the end, the protagonists all lie dead, trapped by the cycle of violence and revenge. It's not they but the pods (specifically 042) who decide that this is not acceptable. Though they never spoke of it as such, the three androids and two pods comprise their own little family unit, and 042 is not going to let it slip away when something can be done.

So they turn to the player for help with recovery. And this is where it turns from just a lovely story to one of the most powerful experiences I've had in gaming.

Data recovery consists of the same kind of bullet-hell hacking game you've been playing throughout. But it's not just abstract nodes you're fighting--you're being attacked by the credits themselves. Not a wholly original mechanic, but in the context, it means that every single person who worked on this game is trying to stop you from changing the ending.

And they are ruthless about it. Even if you're very good at these kind of games, you're gonna die a lot. Each time you die, you're confronted with a question asking you if this is pointless and if you should just give up. You have to keep saying "no" and choosing to press on, with encouraging messages from other players popping up in the background.

Eventually, an offer of help will come in from another player. Accept it and now you have a little squadron raining some bullet hell of your own. Every time you get hit, you get a message that someone's data has been deleted.

(Yes, because the way this works is that another player somewhere in the world offered up their actual save file to be part of this support squad.)

Oh, and not only this, but the lovely vocal solo that's been playing the whole time is now joined by a chorus of voices backing her up.

I swear I get goosebumps and cry every time.

And then, after you've survived that, there's a final scene with the pods gathering up the parts to repair their androids. They muse that the cycle might just repeat itself, but there's a chance it might not. And that chance is worth all the risk.

Automata is a harrowing, heartwrenching game where you constantly have to make painful choices. But ending E is where you get the game's ultimate message: there's a chance things could be different next time, but only if you connect with others. Only if you make a family.

This game is a goddamn masterpiece.

[spiralinghours]

“Fading Out” (continuation/installment of “Filth”)

Fandom/media: Saw franchise

Rating: R/18+

Pairing: Mark Hoffman x Peter Strahm

Tags/content/warnings: humiliation/degradation, teasing, name-calling, feeding kink, weight gain… a lot of the same from the previous fic

Summary: A canon-divergent continuation where Strahm is alive and well (and didn’t get put in the cube), but does know Hoffman’s identity. Hoffman, meanwhile, is done with the Jigsaw business, too confused by whatever he has going on with Strahm. Low key teasing continues to happen during work hours, which culminates in Mark experimenting on his own at home.

Author’s note: I was gonna add more to this, but it felt long enough and I got impatient haha. I’m not great at long form/chapters because I get bored by the idea, so there’s no set length, but just know this installment is a filler before I churn out the next part.

Enjoy. Or don’t. Make your choice.

So things hadn’t gone as planned, but they seemed to work out. For the time being.

Strahm had strolled—intently stamped, more like—his way out of the meat plant on the night of those simultaneous games, looking the victor, as he gave the exact story he promised he would (blah blah, came in alone, everyone dead but Hoffman, helped him out of the trap, blah blah blah) and reported that Jigsaw, finally, was dead. That was that.

Jigsaw was dead, in more ways than one. Mark had anticipated carrying out the last couple games as John’s dying wish, taking out anyone who put even a slightly inconvenient kink in the grand scheme of it all. But, the blunt truth was John was gone. Amanda was gone. Jill, while probably wanting to respect John’s will, did not have the heart to play murder games. (And this Logan fella… he was never coming back. He had a whole life. Who cared?) Mark didn’t want to associate with anyone left alive in John’s legacy—his fucked up family.

And with Peter knowing the whole smoking truth of it all with some sick fixation and the potential for blackmail, there was no point for Mark to dig his hole deeper. He would tie up the loose ends and move on.

On a formal, procedural, surface level, tying loose ends also entailed wrapping things up with the feds. It was a whole parade of paperwork, exchanging identical manila folders, making the same public statements to major media outlets, and staying caffeinated into the ungodly hours of the morning to make sure all the stories on record were solid.

It meant Peter was still around, digging through the inner sanctum of the precinct like a mite. He was always lurking, and actually focused on his job, to be sure. But at moments when Mark thought he’d look up and make eye contact, or see him walk through his office door, there was nothing.

It was jarring, in fact, how removed Strahm seemed, given the immense tension and lingering promise of their last interaction. Perhaps it was best left that way. But if anything, despite all else—the wet dreams and fleeting, empty want—Hoffman felt the need to confirm some kind of arrangement given what Strahm knew of his identity.

Yeah, that was all it was. Just business, in that sense.

In a completely random occurrence, in the middle of one of the many days hazing into the next, Mark spotted Peter, alone in what was his and Lindsey’s makeshift office watching something on the old TV. It was the tape from when Mark originally interrogated Jill from however long ago—the one Rigg wracked his brain on, watching it on repeat.

Mark could only assume Peter was looping it for completely different reasons, but he let his crass curiosity get the better of him.

“Hard at work?” Mark sort of muttered as he entered the space, cringing at how stupid and generic it came out.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, not even turning to look. It was as bland an answer as if he’d been offered a cup of coffee.

“My tape with Jill have something we missed?” Mark probed on, tilting his head at how Peter rewound the part where he passed in front of the camera, backside in full view. (‘Jesus, I look like that back there?’)

“Just enjoying the view,” Peter replied, tone unchanged.

What a stone cold prick.

He made an obvious point of pausing the spot where Mark had twisted his torso just enough as he leaned over the table, showing at just the right angle the way his belly hung over his belt, past his generous chest. The blue hue of the tape made even his fuzzy visage look very shapely.

“You’re a sick fuck.” Mark was going for a threatening, undercutting slant to his words, but it fell short into something on edge.

“I’m not doing anything sick, stupid,” Peter finally turned around, looking annoyed for barely any reason.

“Enjoying the view? Yeah?” Mark mocked. “You’re a creep, lookin’ at me like that.”

“Who said I was looking at you? Ms. Tuck is pretty gorgeous.”

Mark was well aware that one of the many skills he possessed was passively getting on people’s nerves until he got something out of the situation. But Peter had out-obnoxioused him somehow. Mark shook his head, lips fixing into a dumb pucker, and started to turn away.

“You look fucking fat in this tape.” Peter’s cold voice trailed behind Mark, smacking him and reeling him back in.

“Excuse me? Fuck you.”

Strahm stood up abruptly and got into Hoffman’s face, his eyes drifting momentarily to the open door to make sure Lindsey or Erickson or even some subordinate didn’t pass by. “Why are you taking that as an insult? Looks good on you, big boy. Say ‘thank you’ when you’re complimented.” A rare, menacing smile cracked across his face. “I like having something to hold onto.” He swatted at Mark’s lower belly, just out there, pushing prominently over his belt buckle and badge.

The TV clicked off and Strahm exited the room without another word. He was frequent with sudden, callous departures like that. It left Hoffman standing there, gears visibly turning behind his eyes and a hand reflexively cupping his stomach where he was just touched.

What the fuck?

—

For the most part, Mark had little awareness of his own body and his overall perception. Outside of his hair and his face, he didn’t pay mind to much. He was just there, just a guy. And, over time, he cared less, living a lifestyle where there was so much stimulation, too much to focus on, too much worry, death and dying at every corner…

He never stopped and realized that people looked at him and just saw a “big guy”, let alone found it attractive. That was the part that alluded him. Like the general public, he assumed the stereotypical thing people wanted to rub their hands over were rock-hard abs and sharp jawlines or whatever. All that to say, Mark felt like Strahm was ogling him for the weirdest reasons.

Late into the night, hours after the little tiff about the tape, Mark was still mulling over what had been said. He knew he was thinking too much on it, but that type of interaction was just too specific and new.

He breathed a bored, unfocused sigh and traced around his house, debating on if he was hungry or just frazzled enough to go to sleep. But a weird impulse seeped into his mind as he leaned towards the former.

In a bit of an autopilot state, lightheaded with a tingle up his back, Mark trudged from one side of the kitchen to the next, alternating between grabbing items from the fridge and the two cabinets. Each “dish” (if the senseless piles could even be called that) merited another garnish or more to add to the taste profile. The remaining four slices of pizza needed more protein, so the egg and sausage leftover from the morning were topped on. But then it needed a dipping sauce, so he had to throw a little ranch in there. But all that became too salty-savory, so Mark made a side salad (which ended up being a mixing bowl’s worth) stacked with croutons, cheese shreds, and chips (because they were spicy, and the whole deal could use a little spice). But then after that, a little sweetness made sense to cut through all the cheese, meat, and sauce, so ice cream came next. But it was too frostbitten to dig a spoon in, so he microwaved the pint… maybe a bit too long, as it ended up mostly melted. But hey, that was just a milkshake, right? So into a glass it went, with some extra milk to thin it out.

He was incredibly hungry, sure—more than he realized—but there was a ping, some kind of creeping inspirational spark that kept him going. There was the idea of Strahm watching him eat this way, maybe even pushing him through it with nasty little remarks the whole time. The condescending “Oink oink” Peter demanded of him from that night in the plant echoed in his head, like an obsession, over and over, unfurling a blackout sort of feeling.

It was over as quickly as it started, leaving Mark in a haze, a little confused at what he just put himself through. He didn’t come—didn’t touch himself or get off or even get super hard—but it felt like he was experiencing “post nut clarity” all the same. There was a hint of shame to it, as Mark recognized how secret and foul gorging himself felt, and how it would be a struggle to hide the results if it kept happening, shifting around slowly with a likely angry and wobbling gut fighting against his pants button.

Peter would be around, and he would see. Would he? Hoffman was curious to know what he would say, how his sharp, dour expression would shift. What catty comments would Peter let burrow into Mark’s dumb, eager brain?

As itch-inducing as the mental image was, Mark’s energy would be reserved for that at a later time. Down for the night, he had slumped into the corner of his small burgundy couch, hyper aware of the way his white undershirt stretched and smoothed out across the expanse of his belly, creasing only at his sides, above his love handles. Every breath was a chore, the shallowest inhales and exhales making him slosh, which eventually set off a chain of hiccups that made his gut bounce uncomfortably.

Letting a hand creep under the tight fabric, Mark ended the night absentmindedly scratching the side if his stomach while some previously-aired episodes of The Girls Next Door droned on his meager TV.

“Guess I’m a pervert too,” Mark mumbled to no one in particular.

[daz4i]

yknow what i have nothing to do and need to distract myself from *gestures vaguely* and i mentioned it a few times in the last few days so i may as well talk abt that one theory i like

first of all let me say. it's not my own original theory lol i can't remember where i saw it first but it's p common so it'd be a bit hard to trace who was the first to bring it up

second. i know it contradicts some themes or at least some messages bsd is going for. which is why i don't think it's too likely (on the other hand some elements in the story can def allow a plot point of that sort to happen without being contradictory asdfhg matter of perspective ig)

ANYWAY the actual theory:

dazai knows he's in a story and aware that he is a character

backup for that theory:

honestly not much. a minor fourth wall break for laughs (the "wow~" scene. you know the one) isn't really proof, but if it was true it'd add some depth to that scene i think!

the main thing i think is cool abt this theory is how it recontextualizes a lot of things about him;

the thing that made me think abt making this post is that collection of dazai saying "you can't kill me" at various points of the story. most of them have context for each scene (atsushi can't kill him bc nlh will nullify the tiger, fyodor can't kill him bc he has the power of friendship, etc), but the fact the same line repeats multiple times makes it stand out to me

so consider this: dazai is confident that he won't die because he knows he can't die before the story is over, bc that's what the narrative decided. that's why none of his suicide attempts ever work (tho you already know my opinion on why that is, in the context of the story itself). he keeps trying tho bc man. it's tiring to be aware

that being said! well. we know he's been suicidal from a very young age. he sees no meaning in the act of living. and, being a character in a story, knowing that your life is all fake, can certainly make one's life feel meaningless, huh.

and ofc, alienation from those around him, since he seems to be the only one aware of the story. he is quite literally separate from the human experience bc of this

also some more angst :) i do firmly believe dazai feels a lot of guilt, more for meta reasons than him really showing it. guilt is a very big repeating element in no longer human and its protag yozo, whom i think dazai is obviously very inspired by. soooooo now consider this :) guilt over odasaku's death. in the context of the story, there is no reason for him to feel that, more or less. maybe nothing beyond "if only i called ango out earlier" "if only i got there in time and got him help", he didn't actually cause oda's death, not more than mori did for example, and he did the best he could too.

buuuuuuut what if he's a character in a story. he doesn't know if the story is about him yet, but given how other people around him don't seem to notice they're characters, it must be, right? the narrative depends on him. and, in that narrative, odasaku ends up dying. if he didn't exist, odasaku could live (really interesting to think abt that in the context of beast, too)

actually since i brought it up. beastzai definitely seems to know he's a character. he knows his existence doesn't mean much, i mean his whole universe is just an offshoot of the main one, literally an au of canon. that's even more meaninglessness on top of canonzai's meaninglessness, and he experienced both of them at once. no wonder he ended up killing himself damn 😩 (sorry this is a joke. ik he killed himself for some noble reason. but also i bet this made it easier)

an awareness of this level can explain some things like how dazai knows things are gonna play out in certain ways - he knows he's in a story, so he knows the narrative has to end in some satisfying way. the main characters have to win, so the doa have to lose. fyodor can't kill him. and we're back to the start

problem with this theory:

that thing i mentioned abt themes and messages in bsd. a lot of the story seems to tell us dazai is HUMAN. having him aware of everything on a meta level, imo, may cheapen that message, bc that quite literally makes him More than others in the universe.

then again the story (and asagiri in interviews lol) also seems to show again and again that he is exceptional and knows best so eh. like i said, matter of perspective

how i think it might work:

no longer human lmao

yknow how it was said The Book was created by an ability (and that's probably why it caused a singularity when beastzai touched it). well. what if the whole narrative we're following, in a way, in the universe of bsd, can count as an ability too. like a combination of The Book and poe's ability, kinda. (i've seen some theories in the past abt how asagiri is gonna be the final boss of bsd lol and that he would indeed have an ability that's just. *gestures at everything* this)

sooooo while nlh can't take him out of the story physically, it nullifies his ignorance to the situation. in a way, he's out of the story because he sort of watches it from an angle others can't

ok i officially ran out of brain power. i might add more in a reblog at some other point but for now these are the only thoughts i have. if you subscribe to that theory as well, or even just thing it's cool, i would love to hear some of your ideas - what other parts of dazai and his story do you think this changes? what does it mean about his relationships with other characters? please share if you have any thoughts on the matter!!! :)

[fahbev]

More shit for my dpxdc merfolk au!

No I’m not censoring boobs. I have Opinions TM on this matter, don’t get me started. Basically: If mermen don’t get their nipples censored by unnecessary clothing, neither do mermaids.

I’m trying to have some diversity with body types in these designs, for no reason other than wanting some variety.

For Cass [Sting Ray] I can’t really decide on a body type I like for her. I’ve drawn her before with the “conventionally attractive girl body type” (bc that was my reference pic and I turned it into Cass lol) and I liked it bc she’s fine like that. But I also love her being more bulky/muscular like she is in WFA. But for this design, I am spreading my Chubby Cass Propaganda TM. Okay, she’s not that chubby, but I like the idea of her moving past her whole living-weapon thing and gaining some weight bc she’s not training 24/7 anymore. Obviously she’s still very physically fit ofc; she’s the best fighter in the world.

Steph I kept exactly how she is in canon bc she’s already perfect just the way she is. Though I am considering making her a bit more muscular.

Dick’s also pretty similar to canon, but I made him a bit slimmer. I always imagined him as more of a lean muscle kind of guy but dc loves giving all of it’s characters of the same gender the same exact body type.

Duke I made more square. He’s based on an eel so the rectangle body just made sense to me.

Jason’s just huge and Damian’s just small.

Next up is Babs. Then comes Bruce and Tim. Danny’s last bc I haven’t figured out what fish he’s gonna be yet lol. The rest of the fentons are human so I don’t really need to redesign them so much besides maybe different clothes.

FURTHER RAMBLING UNDER THE CUT bc i put a lot of thought into these

Steph is a betta fish. Ik that doesn’t make much sense bc they’re tropical (i think?) and domestic and like super aggressive and only the male ones have those pretty fins— but suspend your disbelief! She a mermaid. I’m using some real science but some of it’s just me playing with fish like dolls. ANYWAY! The reason she got fired in this au was bc her long, beautiful fins were way too fragile and Bruce stopped it bc she got hurt too easily. Nowadays she binds her fins close to her body and attaches fake ones for swimming as Spoiler. Either that or they’re not vigilantes at all in this au, I’m still deciding. I also based her hair on her Robin look.

Dick is a flying fish, bc of COURSE he’s a flying fish. What else would he be, huh? I have visions about him jumping out of the water and sailing over or onto the Fentons’ boat. The transition on his waist is supposed to mimic the nightwing symbol if you can’t tell. That’s another design element I’m trying to vary— fish to flesh transitions.

Cass is a Sting Ray. She was originally gonna be a manta ray, but when i looked it up, sting rays were the ones with the more round shape i wanted. Mantas had much bigger wings, which were absolutely not gonna fit on this paper. But sting rays are cool! They’re super friendly, some aquariums have little “petting zoos” where you can pet the sting rays! And also, yk, stinging. I’m betting the ones at the aquarium didn’t have stingers that can affect humans tho. I may have to do further sting ray research. Yes that bigass thing is attached to her back everywhere except for her neck and the base of here head (bc i love drawing hair too much). Her arms are, ofc, not attached to it. I made her a ray in the first place bc they have very good camouflage at the bottom of the ocean. I saw this picture of a ray blending in but it was ominous af. It felt perfect for her.

[irkimatsu]

I don't think I made a single OC during my time in Matsu fandom, but Hazbin's gotten my furry wheels spinning, god damn you. I'm gonna ramble under the cut to try to get my thoughts straight.

-Almaz (Nina Sinclair), squirrel, non-binary. An 80's one-hit-wonder who died in their 30's after self-destructing and overdosing on drugs, is in love with Husk. I've posted plenty about them before.

-Richard Brenning (hell name still undecided), white rabbit, died in his 50's, pansexual male. An 80's star like Almaz, but unlike Mazzie he got more than fifteen minutes of fame as a singer, reality star, and general tabloid menace. The "controversies and scandals" section of his Wikipedia page is longer than Mazzie's entire page. Absolutely covered in sparkles. I know his outfit includes a sparkly purple vest with nothing underneath, and I keep wanting to give him a hat, but Husk already has a top hat so I don't know what to do there just yet. An egotistical little shitheel at first, possibly an Overlord? Almaz looks up to him but he's a bit insensitive about the whole "one-hit-wonder who self-destructed, don't they all" thing. He'll chill out with some character development and eventually settle down with Angel Dust therefore freeing Husk for Almaz to pursue

-Clara? Originally made her to fill a request but I think I'm keeping her. Still need a last name for her, she keeps her birth name in hell. A small black bear, looks more like a teddy bear than a wild animal. Mainly dresses in floral print. Grew up with Alastor and knows he enjoys hunting, but is willfully ignoring the nastier aspects of her "big brother in spirit" in an attempt to preserve her happy childhood memories of him. Was born after Alastor but also died later than he did, in her 60's, I think? If that request stays canon to my OC's then she has a thing for Husk, but Husk is immediately bitter of her connection with Alastor, so that's not going anywhere. Still no idea what landed her in hell. Is "willful ignorance of the fact that your best friend is a serial killer" a sin?

And Husk's family, all of whom I still need to name:

-Husk's ex-wife was a black woman who lived in the middle of nowhere with nothing but her dreams. She moved to a rapidly growing Las Vegas in the 30's to chase those dreams, and started singing songs she wrote in the same bar where Husk would play saxophone with various bands. The two hit it off beautifully and had a wonderful marriage, with Husk spoiling her with gifts and trips and encouraging her singing and poetry... until everything fell apart because Husk just couldn't get his addictions under control, no matter how hard he tried. It's not his fault, exactly... it just sucks for everyone involved. Don't know what would have landed her in Hell, but I do want her to see Husk again so they can try to get some closure. ...and the pronoun use here is a bit strange because I think she'd realize she's transmasc while in hell? I want something where Husk's spouse thought they were a cishet woman in life, but due to Husk's own experience with the Las Vegas queer scene he always had his doubts about that... but he couldn't risk outing himself, so he never said anything while they were alive. They'll meet again, Husk will take their new gender identity in stride and finally get to come out to them as pansexual, maybe they'll try to rekindle their romance but the spark is fully dead on the spouse's side, Husk desperately needs this closure before he can pursue anyone else. He doesn't expect his spouse to forgive him, he just wants them to understand he never wanted to hurt his family...

-Husk's older daughters, twin girls. Still highly undeveloped, except that they stay close for their whole lives and Husk utterly spoiled them as much as he could while he was still able to see them. Husk has participated in princess teddy bear tea parties, I will die on that hill. They were preteens/early teens when their parents divorced, and a year or two after that their mother stopped letting Husk see them because he's a drunk deadbeat piece of shit. I'm so sorry, Husk. They started families of their own, Husk has grandkids, but he has no idea because his daughters never tried to re-establish contact with him in adulthood. They have their fond memories of him, but also some really shitty ones, especially after an event I'll be talking about in a moment. It's complicated.

-Husk's younger daughter, who I want to flesh out for one horrible reason... the idea of Husk losing his daughter in an accident, blaming himself for it for the rest of his life regardless of what he could have done to save her, and sinking further than ever into the addictions that would ruin his marriage in short order. I'm so sorry for doing this to you, everyone who's involved. She's in Heaven now, and if Husk ever ascends there will be tearful reunions god damn it please

I haven't decided on species for Husk's family, but none of them are cats; the cat thing is specific to him for his manner of life and death, figuratively drowning in alcohol before literally drowning in a lake. Cats hate water, after all. The others don't have that connection to cats. I'll figure them out eventually.

[rayofmisfortune]

*confused crying*

Rayyyyy they're being mean to the British baby againnn

Moon's going on a killing spree based on WORD OF MOUTH IMPLICATIONS from A VILLAIN who would FIND ENJOYMENT IN WATCHING HIM RUN AROUND IN LITTLE CIRCLES. THEY HAVE ZERO EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM ASIDE FROM CIRCUMSTANCIAL AND HIM BEING A QUIRKY LIL MAN

Poor Sun trying to talk him down, too- @ikamigami was right (at least I think it was them) Moon is paranoid and going off the deep end

I'm on the verge of making a "the canon is not real if I do not look at it" AU so I can pretend the AU is canon and my babies can be happy

Blorbos confiscated. If they can't play nice with their own characters, then they can't play with them anymore :(

(insert free invitation to rant at me)

I WILL GLADLY TAKE THAT RAJT INVITATION MY DEAR FRIEND (oh my gosh I haven't followed you hsve I 😭 AAAAAH GONNA FIX THAT IM SKRRY AH)

This'll be a little long so, the whole rant and ramble is under cut hehe

MY ROSE TINTED GLASSES HAVE BEEN SHATTERED DUDE 😭

I refuse to accept canon as canon so- *drags over RJ AU Ruin Eclipse* THEY ARE THE CANON RUIN NOW I DON'T MAKE THE RULES

BUT TO BE FAIR... I've noticed a few things that should've been a glaring red flag to Ruin still being a little off the rails I guess-

It's a thing we love about them and it makes then unique i guess... but.. but THEIR ACCEPT STAYING THE SAME SHOULD'VE BEEN A GIVEAWAY THE MOMENT THEY CAME BACK ONLINE AFTER REBOOTING

We've HEARD the actuals Ruin Eclipse before on.. very few occasions.. BUT WE HAVE HEARD THEM! (In the episode where Ruin rescued Foxy and the first Interview with Jigsaw) it wasn't for a long time but... the ACTUAL Ruin Eclipse had talked through Ruin on few occasions.

Linking them below here

With this ^ one, I think that when they start chanting "save me" it was already Jigsaw back in full control.

BUT WHAT I MEANT! Do we hear a poor british accent in any of these instances? NO WE DO NOT!

With this one v

I'm not sure what this one meant. When the video first came out I thought we were hearing Ruin Sun and Moon talking through Ruin who was going on and on about needing to get back to connection and internet..

I mean.. from the Ruin DLC, we know they can probably seperate and talk for themselves?? As seen with Sun who thanked Cassie after being rebooted into Eclipse. (Yes I'm dragging the canon dca into this, Ruin WAS based on that DCA itteration after all..)

And what do we hear when Ruin gets rebooted?

RUIN'S BRITISH ACCENT! I'm probably looking too deep into just how their voice sounded at first vs now... by all means they could've changed their voice over time (as was seen with Puppet). But... I dunno... if they really were just playing everyone a fool this whole time.. I don't think the voice is something we should overlook.

Granted... I believe a lot of things with Ruin may have been retconned or rewritten after the DLC came out. (As canon Eclipse acte nothing like the teams Ruin at the time)

ANYWHO WHY DID I DRAG THIS BEAN OVER HERE YOU ASK? *gestures to RJ AU Ruin Eclipse* well!

Because of a little theory and hc of mine I've slapped onto them! The antivirus DID NOT get rid of the virus as a whole. RJ Ruin Clipsy over here needs to take periodical dosages of the cure to keep the virus at bay and chip away at it to finally be rid of it!

That... that's what I'm gonna hold onto as the reasoning behind how Ruin acts. The actual Eclipse (and even Sun and Moon) is still somewhere in there. As seen in the clips listed above.

Just- PLEASE I NEED THEM HERE W/ ME