#i'm doing separate ones for them later but here's a couple version

[ofswordsandpens]

just finished episode 6…. truly don’t know how to feel about these changes. would love to know your thoughts bc i’m just kinda baffled by some changes tbh

Mixed feelings as always:

Percy's dream slapped. I loved Kronos's actor. It felt perfectly eery. No notes.

No percabeth late night convo on the truck. This doesn't surprise me given we sort of did that on the train already, but now there's just another iconic book moment that we'll get bits and pieces of, but never actually get to see in its entirety/original setting.

I did vibe with the glass prism tool for the iris message and it was pretty cool. The Percy + Annabeth argument was great but I'm gonna be honest, Luke being like "you're arguing like an old married couple" was laying it on a tad thick to me idk idk. I know I'll probably be in the minority there lol but I think it would have liked the line better if Percy and Annabeth got more embarrassed to his statement but they both reacted to it like :/ so it just felt heavy handed on the show runners part more than anything

Lotus Hotel vibes? Lackluster. Uninspired. It just didn't capture that outrageous paradise for kids feeling from the book because they turned it into Hermes' hangout so there's a whole bunch more adults than kids. Basically felt like if you took the movie's version and turned down the energy of it by a mile lmao. (Which is also ironic given RR's post about it today).

And of course the kids immediately know what's happening so like. No fun mystery. No Percy figuring it out. Just them being like "omg we need to be careful" and then immediately separating from Grover lmao.

Okay. LMM's Hermes.... it wasn't bad. Thankfully there was no singing. He was fine. It's more or less that turning the Lotus story line into a Hermes' storyline was like an "okay, I guess we're doing this" thing. I mean I guess we finally introduced something for the non-book reader's to pick up on that Luke might not have the best relationship with his dad (and consequently the gods). But like, nothing about this storyline is something that isn't introduced later on in the books. Nor was it better or more interesting than the original lotus storyline in the books.

Again, its the constant replacement of everything fun and silly and absurd in the book and turning it into a very serious moment, is just like, killing the energy. Seriousness is good. Silliness is also good. The book balanced it greatly. The show struggles here.

Glad we got a Pan mention tho!! Finally!

But um 4 pearls, so no dilemma about who to save. A part of me is relieved because the show's created like 3 other sacrifice convo scenarios so its gotten bit reductive, but Sally being a part of the equation is an entirely different dynamic and now that dilemma is theoretically gone. (unless he loses one of the pearls?)

And Percy's missed the deadline?? Right?? So like? I really don't know what we're doing anymore. In the book the deadline was pretty strict lol. Here I guess the deadline was like, a loose suggestion? Percy's walking into the middle of the god's battle field with master bolt in his hand? Idk.

Overall things in the show feel messy and way less cohesive. They seem to know that certain things from the book are important but not necessarily why, or they'll introduce events or plot points strangely late or way too early.

[lil-tachyon]

For the last couple weeks I've been drawing logos / designs for local-ish (mostly NJ, some PA and NY) bands as warmups in the morning. Here's what I've come up with! Massive post below the break explaining each logo + where to find each band and listen to their music.

Teenage Halloween- a staple of New Jersey basements for probably about a decade now and finally getting wider recognition in the last couple years. Pop punk / power pop with a killer horn section. First time I saw them was in New Brunswick playing with Walter Etc. and Blowout. They played a killer cover "Build Me Up Buttercup" and my wife got a black eye in the pit. Recommended tracks: "Brain Song," "666," "Clarity." Their first EP is on a separate bandcamp page btw, check it out here it's great.

Sweet Pill - They will call themselves a Philly band but in my heart they'll always be from Glassboro. Definitely one of the more recognizable names on this list. Emo revival - early stuff is more twinkly, more recent stuff is heavier. All of it's great. Recommended tracks "Nephew," "High Hopes."

Shark Club - Central Jersey's finest. I'm very biased because I actually know these dudes and they did the music for my wedding. Some of the best pop punk you'll hear and the nicest people you'll meet. Recommended tracks: "Game Theory," "Bill Murray," "Heavens to Betsy."

Rest Ashore - My favorite band for the last (oh God I'm old now) eight years. From gut-wrenching emo ballads to virtuoso math-rock instrumentals they do it all. One time I got to sing vocals on "Lucy's Theme" at a house show- thank you Erica! Recommended tracks: "Hjarta," "Chinese Opera," "Devotion," "Soyuz Sweetheart." Too many bangers to name honestly, just deep dive their discography.

Morus Alba - First band I ever went to see at a house show and still one of my absolute favorites. Their music feels like the bridge between the best pitchfork, /mu/ alt rock bands and high energy basement emo. I mean that as a compliment and I hope it comes off as one lol. I should note that since 2019 Morus Alba has morphed from a band into an experimental hip-hop project so later releases sound radically different and basically disconnected from the earlier stuff. Also my favorite release from them, Live at Isabelle's, has been scrubbed from the internet but if you'd like the files just email me. Recommended tracks: "Skyscraper," "Human Resources," "The Goodnight Waltz."

Have a Good Season - another Jersey mainstay that's still going strong. Emo revival in their earlier releases, now with more 70s power pop influences in their newer stuff. See them live, they put on a fantastic show and usually play some great covers in addition to their original music. HaGS guys if you're reading this, please put your version of "Since You've Been Gone" online, I'm begging you. Recommended tracks: "Joseph / Shel Silverstein," (you have to listen to them together for the drop, so good) , "Gum, "Gleaux / Scab." Also, frontman Nic Palermo interviewed me once.

Elephant Jake - If you see any of these bands live make it EJ, they put on such a damn good show. Electrifying indie punk from the Empire State. Recommended tracks: "F.D.C." "Sarah Moyer," "Goodness to Honest," and of course you gotta learn "Sebastien Bauer" for the singalongs.

Blind Lion - Sadly one of the greats that we lost along the way. Defunct since about 2017. I only got to see them once but it was a great performance. Alongside their own stuff they played some killer covers of "Bad Moon Rising" and "Moonage Daydream." I had trouble doing a logo design for them because I actually really like the composition, if not the "Ed Hardy-ness," of their existing logo so what you see here are two separate attempts, neither of which feels entirely satisfying to me. Frontperson Larry Flately currently plays in Nematode and also handled production of Bradley Gardens joke hiphop group The Breakfast Boiz under the moniker "DJ Ova EZ." Recommended tracks: "Brumous," "Dinner."

Fighting Seasons - A band that I sadly found out about too late (via a sticker under the bridge in my town which has since been painted over). 2010s pop punk that packs a helluva punch, especially considering that I'm pretty sure the members were high schoolers for most of the band's existence. I think some members may have gone on to form Sawce (FFO Chon, Polyphia, that type of music) but I can't remember where I read/heard that so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Recommended tracks: "Fighting Seasons," "Oil on Canvas"

Milkmen- Another fallen giant, officially disbanded in 2019. Like Morus Alba, they played the very first house show I attended and their few releases remain on constant rotation in my home. Used to put on a great show and were one of the bands I always thought would make it big until suddenly they weren't around anymore. Frontman Ben Thieberger contributed guitar and vocals to Covid quarantine project Kin if you're looking for a bit of an extra fix but beyond that I don't know what these guys are up to these days, sadly. Recommended tracks: "Ramus," "Johnny Dangerously," "how sieves catch breeze," "K.O.T.H."

Stand and Wave - New York (now Philly) pop punkers delivering instant dopamine hits with every track. Another great live act, see them with EJ if you can! They often play shows together. Recommended tracks: "Convos," "Mrs. Dash," "Splashton Kutcher," "Michael Collins."

My Chemical Romance - You know who they are. While I was drawing all these other logos I ran a poll on Patreon to decide which famous New Jersey band should also be graced with a drawing from me. MCR won the poll by a hefty margin so unfortunately you won't get to see me do an illegible black metal take on Hoboken's Yo La Tengo. I ended up doing two versions: the one with the halo is the first, the one with the bats was the second. I tried to do something kind of thin and elegant with the first one and I don't think it's terrible but I also wasn't quite satisfied with it. For the 2nd attempt I tried to lean into the kind of pulpy, almost horror punk aesthetic of early MCR and I think that one looks better even if it's less original.

Anyway if you took the time to read through all this, thank you very much! And please support these bands! Also If any of the links aren't working please let me know.

-Logan

[takitafulily]

Misadventures of the MCs #04

Taking the Besties home pt2.1: (OG)OB!MC

OB!MC: You got a lot of options: you can squeeze in my room, go pick a room in HoL, go crash in Purgatory Hall or go sleep at the castle. Take your pick.

TWST!Yuu: ...I'm staying with you. because you're my pseudo-sibling

WHB!MC: Same here, I still need to get used to your demons and I will not tolerate the awkward silence if I happen to be alone with them.

OB!MC: Purgatory Hall don't have demons.

WHB!MC: ...I'll stay here thanks *slightly traumatised of angels*

MM!MC: Your room looks nice, I'll stay with you.

LTD!MC: I don't mind where I go but if everyone is in OB!MC's room then I don't want to get lonely.

OB!MC: ...I'll go grab the sleeping bags then.

LTD!MC: Yay! MC slumber party!

OB!MC: Ok so just a couple things. Everyone's usually in their rooms with the exception of Asmodeus and Mammon who's usually out and Beel who's either in the kitchen or the gym. You need a secret password to Levi's room and don't touch anything in Satan's room, practically everything in there is cursed. Belphie can practically sleep through the end of the world unless it's me or Beel who wakes him up. Any questions?

TWST!Yuu: Who do I go to for video games?

OB!MC: That would be Levi. I'm not giving you the password but just tell him I sent you.

MM!MC: Are we allowed outside?

OB!MC: Hm, try to keep inside the house or have someone here with you to go out. The demon's here don't really appreciate humans. Diavolo's working on it.

WHB!MC: Where can I kick some angel ass?

OB!MC: ...No, we're trying to be at harmony with everyone.... but you're free to kick Michael's ass anytime.

WHB!MC: Sweet.

LTD!MC: Is there somewhere quiet where I can work?

OB!MC: ...I can grab some noise-proof headphones for you from Levi. Quiet isn't really a thing when anything go wrong at any second-

(Some time later)

OB!MC: ...

OB!MC: WHAT IN THE FUCKING UNIVERSE HAPPENED IN HERE????

(The room is on fire. LTD!MC is at Mammon's throat with a discarded laptop bag on the floor, WHB!MC cheering them on while Simeon is trying to separate the two. TWST!Yuu and Levi is having a screaming match whilst each holding a demondo [demon version of nintendo] controller with Solomon hijacking the game with magic. Lucifer's passed out on the floor with Diavolo slapping him to try wake him whilst Asmo is recording the entire thing like a reality tv show. Luke is crying. Belphie is hanging from the ceiling by one leg, somehow sleeping through the noise whilst Satan is sat on the floor looking at a book for ways to get Belphie down and MM!MC & Beel is sharing a popcorn bucket in the corner. Barbatos is nowhere to be seen.)

MM!MC: ...You left us for 5 minutes. Barbatos left at the 1 minutes mark.

[platinumrosetail]

New idea I hope I'm not annoying you so can you please do a romantic Apollo, Poseidon x fem shinra reader (separately) so basically the reader is a female version of shinra she has all his ability and power's shinra is from fire force if your wondering here's a bit more information shinra can make fire come out of his feet and that allows him to fly he can also kick so hard that he sent the moon back to space Shira is also really fast he can easily break the sound barrier and that not mentioning his shinrabanshōman form he basically rewrote the laws of reality to save everyone also when shinra is nervous he tends to smile so yeah the reader is a female version of shinra and is op and not matter what she will always be on humanity side

Oh yea I remember seeing some things about him and fire force in the past, sure I think I can do this though it might turn out short seeing as I never really watched fire force yet (it’s in my watchlist but like many others I haven’t gotten around to watching it plus I have many things to watch so yea lol 😅), also you’re not annoying me don’t worry just as long as you don’t keep requesting for record of ragnarok as I don’t want to get burned out and close the ror request 😅.

Warning: noob author, female reader, ooc?, and others.

Characters: Apollo, Poseidon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apollo:

You two met by you accidentally bumping into him when you were exploring Valhalla as you recently had died on earth and was considered a warrior so you ended up in Valhalla, you nervously smiled out of habit as you hoped you didn’t die again as you heard that some gods and goddesses don’t take too kindly to humans so you hope that he wasn’t one of those gods that hate humans.

He was a bit freaked out about your smile as he was expecting you to grovel and plead for your life to be spared for bumping into a god but you had only smiled and apologized. He questioned why you were smiling and you toppled him of your habit when you get nervous before you took your cue and quickly left.

He was curios about you and wanted to know more about you, he wonders multiple times if you’re to his standard of beauty or not and he hopes that you are as you’re very interesting to human surprisingly more than he thought yo’d be.

You were thankful to not have died on the spot in front by apollo killing you as you wanted to explore more of Valhalla and you couldn’t do that if you were dead.

You can’t help but think that he was very attractive but you stopped quickly after that thought entered your head as Apollo might be more powerful than you which mans if he should ever have the desire to kill you he might so just in case you begin thinking of a plan to protect yourself and any possible passerby should it ever happen that he wants to kill you.

Apparently he didn’t want to kill you you found out later after he surprised ambushed you as you were avoiding him just in case, in fact you apparently was to his approval of beauty which you were surprised to hear about. You two later go together which shocked many and made many god/goddesses and nymphs mad and jealous but you two ignored them. You two like to spare together, he was shocked to see how strong you were, but what he didn’t know was that you were holding back immensely so as to not destroy anything or anybody.

When ragnarok happened you sided with humanity which wasn’t really shocking but Apollo tried getting you on the gods side but that proved to be useless as you didn’t think it was fair how the gods were just destroying humanity even though it was their jobs as gods to guide humanity and that if Apollo loved you then he would do what was right as you will fight for humanity; you knew that you’d most likely win considering you’re half god and half human and a very powerful one at that, but Apollo didn’t so he decided to fight for humanity as well so in case you both win you two can celebrate like couples and if not and you both die you two could be together for eternity.

Poseidon:

He kept on seeing you wherever he went and naturally thought you were following him which annoyed him as he didn’t want what he calls; you in his eyes at the moment, filth following, you of course was just exploring Valhalla and wasn’t trying to follow Poseidon around but Poseidon definitely thought you were.

He decided to confront you about it, you were nervous as you heard from many that Poseidon is a very dangerous person that you shouldn’t annoy or anger and how he sees humans as filth as he would dice you with his trident, so you nervously smiled out of habit and explained that you werewn’t following him on purpose but it’s because you were exploring Valhalla as you’re new here, thankfully he didn’t notice your nervous smiling habit, at least you thought he didn’t but he was able to see your nervous smile in his peripheral vision even though he was looking at the floor away from you like he’d always do when in the presence of those he deemed filth.

Your nervous smiling habit stayed in his mind later after that no matter what he was doing or whatever it was he was thinking, even if it didn’t involved you he still thought about your nervous smile that he couldn’t get out of his head no matter how much hew tried to get you out.

He later started searching for you as he wanted to see if this wasn’t part of your power as he can feel himself getting comfortable thinking about you even though he doesn’t want to, at least that’s what he keeps telling himself, his brothers on the other hands sees it differently, it’s mostly Zeus who tease Poseidon about it which he almost gets screwed each time by Poseidon if it weren’t for their older brother; hades, who stopped them before one of them gets killed by the other.

You were defiantly in for a shock when you found yourself in front of Poseidon again once more, at first you thought you are now going to be dead for accidentally unintentionally following him again but he surprised you by asking you what ‘spell’ did you cast on him to think about you so much no matter how many times he tried to get you out of his heads.

He left soon after you told him that you didn’t put a ‘spell’ on him or anything of the sorts, you knew you were powerful but you didn’t know that you could make such a stoic and cold man like him think about you all the time. You found him attractive but knew that he very well might kill you when your paths cross again. You were shocked to find out that he did not kill you the next time you two cross p[aths in fact he wanted to get to know you. Soon after you two became a couple after getting to know each other and after some courting which flabbergasted every one sept for those that knew well enough.

When ragnarok started you knew he would side with the gods so you left a note explaining that your would be siding with the humans as you thought it was unfair how the gods treated the humans even though the gods were mostly at fault for not doing their jobs to guide the humans to a right path and you would happily die trying if it meant getting your point across and set the gods on doing their jobs finally, he wasn’t happy at the thought of your death and he knew you were right so as a god he decided to join the humans side which very much shocked the other gods as usually he would think of humans as filth but it seemed that your got through to him and so now he sides with the humans survival.

(A/n: hope y’all like it!!! I tried my best to keep the two in character so I’m sorry if it turns out that they were more ooc than I thought they would be 😅 same with the reader seeing as how she’s based off of shinra from fire force, also the requester said that the reader was half god and half human; demigod, and a very large powerful at that so I tried incorporating that into it the best I can so I hope I did ok on it, and sorry if I didn’t 😅, like I said before just make sure to not overdue it on requesting for record of ragnarok as I don’t want to have to close it like I did with the others because I was burned out of it alright? Thank you. Anyway I believe that’s it and hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[rebouks]

Custom Rig / SimRipper Tutorial

Hi hello, welcome to todays lecture! Nah it's real simple even if it doesn't look it, I promise! I'm gonna go ahead and assume you have some basic knowledge of Blender/pose making for this tutorial, so I won't be going over how to set up your rigs or anything. Feel free to ask me any questions though! My previous pose tutorial is here if that's what you're looking for.

Disclaimer: I use this process to rip sims for posing only, idk if it's different for making renders 'cause that I ain't my jam. Although I assume it's pretty similar.

You're gonna need Blender (I use 2.79b but I'm pretty sure the newer version works okay for posing too) and SimRipper which you can get here...

Blender (2.79b) SimRipper

First things first, you're gonna wanna dress your sims! Just go in game like you usually would and once you're done dressing 'em you can save and exit. Hint: SimRipper will load up your sim wearing the outfit they're dressed in when you exit the game. I usually make sure they're wearing the right outfit before I quit. You can load up other ones later but it can take a while so it just saves some time.

Okay! Once your simmies are dressed and you've downloaded the SimRipper/extracted the file, double click on the .exe to open the application. You'll be greeted with this:

Click "Retry" to set up the correct paths then hit save. (I only needed to set up the first one so I'll assume you do too! If not just let it know where everything's installed)

Once you've hit save the application will open! Hit "Select" on the right and choose the correct save file, like so:

Hint: SimRipper is slow so don't worry if it says Not Responding or seems to take a while, it's pretty normal. The less sims/outfits there are in a save file, the quicker it'll work. You can make a blank save to make it faster but I don't bother; it doesn't take too long and I can't be arsed. You'll be greeted with a long list of all the sims in that save file. Find and click on the sim you wanna rip:

Once your sim has loaded up there's a couple of things we wanna change:

Change the top drop down menu to "Solid and glass meshes and textures" - this'll make it easier to get rid of eyelashes etc later (we don't really need those for posing and they get in the way of the eyes)

Click HQ - it'll look better, trust me!

You can change their outfit here too if they're not wearing the right one - though it'll take a while to load up again.

I like to hit the "Tanned" option, especially for paler sims, since blender seems to really wash them out and it hurts my eyes 😂 - personal preference though!

Once everything's set you'll need to click on "DAE" near the top right, this'll save your sim as a .dae file ready for blender. Again, it might take a while! Once you're done, you should have these files:

Okie doke! Now we're off to Blender. Open up your rig and click the little plus to the left of it to extend the menu. You're gonna right click on each of these body parts like "bottom" "feet" etc etc and hit delete until they're all gone.

Once you've deleted every body part, you'll be left with an empty rig like this:

Now that our rig is empty, we can import our .dae file! Go to "File" -> "Import" -> "Collada (Default) (.dae) like so:

Find your .dae file and double click on it to import it. Hint: I like to make a separate folder for my .dae files and I regularly delete 'em once I've saved my rig. I like tidy files!

Hi Oscar! I'mma go ahead and right click on this extra lamp that was imported and hit delete 'cause I don't need it! You can keep it if your eyes aren't sensitive little babies like mine, it doesn't matter much.

Okay.. so now we should have a "rig" and a "rig.001"! Click the little plus signs to the left again so you can see what's in the hierarchy of each one, and then:

Click the upside down orange triangle of your sim from the "rig.001" rig and drag it up to the first one, then drop it on top of "rig"

A box should come up like the one below and you wanna click on "Object"

All we've done here is move Oscar (or whoever) from the extra imported rig to the original. We don't need that extra rig or the glass textures (the eyelashes etc) anymore so get rid of it by right clicking it and hitting "Delete Hierarchy" like so: Hint: "Delete Hierarchy" is different from "Delete" and gets rid of the whole hierarchy (shocker) at once!

I like to rename my rigs, it can get complicated when you start posing more than one sim so naming them just makes it easier. Double click on where it says "rig" then rename it:

Now we need to attach your sim to the rig, as below!

Left click on the sim (aka "OscarFinch" in this case)

Head to the toolbar just below and click on the little wrench/spanner.

A little further down, click on the box beneath "Object:" and choose your sim/rig

In this case it's called "OSCAR", but if you didn't rename your rig it'll still be called "rig".

And that's it, you now have a custom rig 👍 Just make sure you save it!

You can go ahead and click on the little plus/minus to hide the drop down/extra info of the rig and start posing! \o/

Once you've done this a couple of times you won't even have to think about it anymore! I do it almost everyday and I had to really pay attention to what I was doing for this tutorial 'cause I was like ??? when I tried to think how I do it lmao.

They're so much more fun to work with than the base rigs, no more clipping, better facial expressions, poses with clothes in mind?! Amazing 😌

Extra Hint! If you rip a sim who's dressed with a pose accessory assigned to a stigmata joint, it'll still move as if you imported that accessory via blender. I randomly found this out by accident but it might save you some time!

I hope you found this easy enough to follow, but lmk if you have any questions! I think this is one of those things everyone kinda does a bit differently. Like.. one tut I saw you had to add the textures in separately n' shit? Idk that one confused me so this is how I do it and it works, so I hope it does for you too! ❤

Happy SimRipping! (sounds kinda painful, doesn't it? ouch)

[bcbdrums]

Mad Angry, Mad Crazy

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

LOL @legendary-guest is that you?? You usually ask off anon though, haha.

(Ask is from this lovely list.)

Okay, so... Only one person knows about this I think but there was in fact...a darker version of this fic. (Some spoilers ahead if you've not read that fic yet, so maybe stop here if you don't want any. It's a dark fic, FYI.)

The majority of changes began in the chapter where Drakken finds Shego on the beach. Originally she's much more paranoid, much more frightened, and far weaker, physically. The fainting situation is more dire... And the hospital visit is FAR more dire. Drakken isn't present as much for the exam/questioning, and Shego is far more dissociated from reality... Unable to process and answer some of the questions due to her own paranoid and fearful thoughts demanding her full attention. It was much more strongly implied that the examining doctor suspected Drakken of various abuses against her. Drakken's part in the exam was different as a result, the questions being more blunt and the doctor more angry, when he was later present. It seemed pretty clear by the end of that scene that Shego was mentally unfit to make decisions for herself. That chapter was going to end with her practically being coerced into admitting herself to a psych ward. Which then would have set off another dozen chapters that were only partially planned in my head, but never written. Oh, and the water rescue scene before the time-skip was darker as well, with Drakken being less obviously there to help her and Shego being far more afraid of him/his actions, to the point of almost not accepting rescue; I kept his motivations and his thoughts far more obscure in that scene.

Why did I soften the entire thing and not go the darker route? A friend/beta advised me that it was too dark, and that the entire story felt anti-shippy. And in fact it was this very fic that caused that person to stop reading fics other than their own, except for rare exceptions.

Heh, and the published fic as it is today apparently is still so dark it caused people to form a chat "support group" to deal with how severely the fic impacted them, and nearly every person in that group couldn't even finish reading it, it was that bad. I'm glad the story has a couple of strong fans to reassure me of its worth.

No, the darker version doesn't exist anymore. Rather than save it as a separate file I just deleted and rewrote to severely soften the whole thing from the water rescue onward. And I do mean severely...

I have regrets... I wish I'd saved the darker version. It was the best version of psychosis I've ever written and I wish I had it to study now, for other projects. I don't regret how the story ended; it would have always ended there, even if it had gone through another dozen chapters of anguish on both characters' parts... The journey to get to the end just would have been a lot different and more arduous. And I do regret that this story caused someone to stop reading fanfic.

But I'll never regret what I published. I love writing angst, I love writing suspense. I love writing for that episode because it's what got me thinking about shipping Drakken and Shego in the first place, and I love the finished product.

Thank you truly, anon, for this ask.

[generalluxun]

My TotK experience and how it shaped my TotK shipping.

I'm writing this out because I got static on a random post for mentioning my headcanon, and I figure my own blog is a safe place to write it all down and get my experience in one place for better or worse. I'm a mutishipper by temprement, so you can and should ship what you like. Do not think by outlining my experience and thoughts I am trying to invalidate your own. Totk and BotW are both games with amazing emergent gameplay. The written narrative is only a fraction of the tale as you write your own version of events by what you choose to do and in what order you do it.

My wife is a huge Zelda fan. I enjoy the games, but she is the one who keeps them coming in. She's got a Triforce Engagement Pendant(try putting that on a ring!) we saw the Symphony of the Fates on our wedding night(and our first not-date years before) Zelda is a thing.

So I played BotW, and I played TotK. I enjoyed them both! At the end of BotW I was sure Zelink was a cute sure thing. I was happy! (My wife was frustrated Zelda didn't tell Link how she felt 😆)

Then we played TotK. Six years later, Zelda and Link are spelunking and boom the game yeets Zelda away. Couples-time, we barely knew ye. Now, both my wife and I play our own separate saves. We generally avoid spiling for each other, and we play quite differently. (In BotW I went right for the castle, found the basement, and ended up fighting the Stalnox that protected the Hylean Shield with 4 hearts. In TotK she mapped the entire underground early on)

My TotK experience began with me making a bee-line for Gerudo town after talking to Purrah/Robbie and exploring the castle a little. I liked the Gerudo plotline in BotW and wanted to see what was going down over there these days.

The Gerudo plotline is definitely fun (uh spoilers I guess?) Seeing Riju grown and trying to be a strong leader was awesome. (I have a headcanon she's still short because she met Link. She knew exactly how tall the strongest warrior in all of Hyrule was, and so why get any taller than that?)

I completed the temple, got my first sage power, and now several things converged.

1)Okay, so Riju's crush on Link in her Diary is cute. Not unique, everyone crushes on Link!

2)I decided to explore after completing this quest. Checking out the corners, completing my map, gaining some shrines, etc. This means I spent a lot of time with Riju as my only sage. We crossed Hyrule and back time and time again, checking on people, visiting old haunts, and fighting enemies way past my weapon's abilities thanks to her lighting.

3)Riju is the most interactive of the sage powers. Activate the power, and then you have to actually work with her to trigger it. It's not temperamental like Yunobo's either. Riju will hold ready for you for quite some time. It's also very versatile. Explode enemies, blow up mining points, and one of my favorites- Light the underdark. There's something deeply intimate about being surrounded by darkness with only your partner's power to light the way for you.

It made Riju one heck of a travel companion. Just having someone *anyone* along with Link, him not being alone, felt so good after being alone in BotW. The Warrior of Light and his Sage companion. Little tales wrote themselves, like an epic saga.

Still, Zelink was still a thing, right? Then You run into Link's old home in Hateno. It's changed, definitely. You find Zelda's lab. You find her Diary. -Now, here I know the Japanese version has a very different tone, but I didn't have that version so I only got the English- reading Zelda's words painted a picture of a close bond, but also not a classical 'ship' one. Combine this with some of the other tidbits and memories collected on the journey and it just painted a very different picture for me(and my wife) There may have been dialogs we missed too, it's a vast open world game, and this is a retelling of my playthrough, not a comprehensive thesis based on all the lore available on a wiki.

This Zelda, being Aro/Ace. Or at least if not, being so immersed in her work and duty that something like a traditional relationship isn't on the radar for her. She's got her Science. She's got her Kingdom. She's got her curiosity. These things Matter to her. A romantic relationship? Just didn't feel like it did.

Link is still the most important person in the world to her. He's her Knight. He's reliable, supportive, dedicated, brave. He's as vital to her as her own two hands. A respectful Link could easily be seen accepting this role. Zelda's vital to him too. He cares for her and will always be there. It's his duty, and his passion. The two are inseparable. They're just not a *couple*

So, where does this leave us? Link and Zelda will travel together always. Riju is Queen of the Gerudo and cannot just leave her people. She's also someone who my TotK Link spent time with (in my writer's brain the sage-mirages actually sent impressions back to the Sages in their dreams, and as time went by the link between the two could be two ways, like a form of active astral projection in a crisis)

So a RiLink relationship that is built on respect and trials together, but that understands the duties placed on both just seemed cute. He's still with Zelda, she's still with her people. She'll eventually end up with a hero's child, and the one male ever allowed into Gerudo town will be able to visit his future child and maybe even pave the way for a more open Gerudo society in the long run.

Zelda and Link are still constant companions day-to-day though. She's the Queen(eventually? Still princess?) he's her Knight. Their relationship is still built on respect and shared hardships(much like RiLink) They're just not an 'item'. They're liege and retainer.

I did the 'Wait how old is Riju?' thing as this was starting to come into focus, because she was young in BotW 😅 She's 17... I think? Fantasy setting, it seemed fine to ship. I mean, everyone thinks Mipha crushing on Link is adorable, and she saw him first when he was a little tot! 🤣

So, that's it really just kind of laying out my ship and why I think it's cute. I welcome any and all comments provided they're couched politiely.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Epilogue)

Epilogue: My Adventures with Superman

...Well, holy shit. Just when I was getting worried that nobody would get Superman, along comes one of the best comic-book related products we've seen in years, which delivers me so much of the stuff I wanted in a cinematic version of Superman...and is almost perfect. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but goddamn if this isn't one of my ideal versions of Superman.

Y'know, I've considered doing sort of a sum-up of the different major adaptations of the Superman mythos by bringing together all the points made in my essays, but I felt it was too much. For this, however, I think that makes sense. And yes, I'm doing this after only 4 episodes have aired, and yes, I realize that what just happened in the most recent episode is fucking insane and something I desperately want in a Superman story...but I'll at least cover my personal approach, since this show's kinda hot right now. And rarely do I have the chance to jump on a burgeoning fandom, so FUCK IT!

If you'd like to see my previous and insane essays on my preferred version of the Man of Steel, here's the link! Always. Be. Plugging. But if you'd rather hear my opinion of My Adventures with Superman, then check out the section after the jump. But just know that I like it, with a couple of caveats that you've probably already heard about this show.

Clark Kent: Abnormal Superman

Um...did somebody read my essays before I even thought about them, because this is pretty goddamn close to my ideal Clark Kent. He's a big ol' dork with a heart of god who wants to do the right thing, but is also nowhere near perfect in his everyday life and methods. He's a teensy bit clumsy, but still very well-put together. He wants to help when and how he can, and is willing to go along with shenanigans to do so. He has an actual personality, and most importantly, he feels human.

Yeah, this is a dude from Kansas who also happens to be an alien. And good goddamn, is scaling down his powers and knowledge of his past a great idea. Smallville, of course, did this, but that version of Clark was often too serious and rough around the edges. And maybe most importantly, Tom Welling's Clark never seemed like an outcast. I mean, the dude was handsome as all fuck, and built like a linebacker. And yet, I'm supposed to buy that the guy is a loser and outcast? Yeah, no, not buying it. But this Clark? Yeah, the guy's a massive dork. Handsome and built like a fucking freight train, yeah, but still a dork. And maybe most importantly...I don't buy this dude as Superman.

Yeah. Really. I mean, dude is OBVIOUSLY Superman, because he's built like a tank and super nice, but I get not fully seeing this guy as Superman. Somehow, FUCKING SOMEHOW, they pull this off better than literally any other version I've seen since the Christopher Reeves version. And yeah, that's insanely high praise, because Reeves has some of the best dichotomous acting I've ever seen. But this Superman and this Clark both seem like the same person and separate people at the same time somehow. It's an impressive feat that I can barely explain.

And yet...they're still definitely the same person. Any sane person would be able to figure it out eventually, with enough personal interaction. It's one of the reasons why the glasses joke exists, because it really shouldn't make much sense. But in this series, the glasses actually change the shape of his pace, and slight changes in his posture and voice (by the pretty great Jack Quaid) actually do work as a subtle mask for the character. But will that last forever? Well...more on that later.

I also said this before, but I love the fact that we're learning about Clark and his powers as he's learning about himself. This series is obviously anime-inspired, and it really leans into the shonen angle thematically and visually. When the first art for this show came out, I was intrigued but cautious. Now, though, I'm into it. We'll see how the more anime-esque electrical powers work out, but it actually seems like a reference to the sporadically used bioelectric field manipulation ability that Superman has in the comics. Yeah, he has a field of bioelectricity around his body that provides him (and his costume) with invulnerability, and also occasionally gives him plot-convenience powers. Don't ask questions, OK? It's a comic book thing.

Speaking of that, though, the creators are definitely playing fast and loose with the Superman mythos, and I'm interested to see exactly how that plays out as the series continues. I'm a little cautious for reasons to be addressed later, but I'm still quite interested. So, now that we've covered Superman, whom I think is fantastic in his characterization...let's get to the character who I think is excellently represented in this series.

Lois Lane: Intrepid (Intern) Reporter

Jesus Christ, this is a great Lois. There are a lot of ways you can do a good Lois, and there are a number of great Loises, but MAWS' Lois ranks extremely high on that list. Dogged to the point of recklessness, determined to get the truth at all costs, and desperate to be a great reporter, she has the stuff that makes any great Lois. But what really puts her over the edge for me is her characterization. Alice Lee does a fantastic job as Lois' voice, and gives her a mix of naivete, determination, and...oddly, hope. I dunno, there's something about Lee's portrayal that really works for me.

And a lot of people have pointed out two things. One, she's basically Lux from The Owl House. Yeah. And? Fucking and? Luz is a fantastic character in her own right, and very Lois Lane-esque. Personally, I think that's a great and worthy comparison for any version of Luz. Secondly, she's a tomboy. And I think most people on Tumblr are fine with that, but I also see some criticism for that choice. And for those who don't like that...fuck off a little bit. Not a lot, but a little bit. There's nothing wrong with a slightly more tomboyish Lois, and I actually adore a Lois who isn't a damsel in distress all the time. She literally fights some of the bad guys in this series, and we're only four episodes in! Seriously, I love that. And she is occasionally in distress, but she gets into that shit herself, which is exactly what Lois Lane is supposed to do. Look, I love this Lois. Oh, and another thing!

Is Lois Korean? Holy shit, that's fantastic! I said in my second essay that Lois is one of those characters who isn't racially bound in any way. There, I suggested that she could be played by a Latina, which has been hinted at before in some comics. But honestly, this is a great choice! And I only say Korean because, in the most recent episode, she appears to be wearing the top half of a hanbok, which is a traditionally Korean dress. And yeah, I'm fully here for it. Don't know if she's mixed or not (we'll probably see Sam Lane at a later date), but this is great all on its own.

And then, there's the other thing: Lois' position as Superman's Inevitable Love Interest. The ILE is, of course, a tradition in all things superhero comic, and Lois is arguably the first and most famous of all ILEs. Like Thanos before her, she is truly inevitable, and that seems to be at the center of this series. Oh, and at this point...sort of SPOILERS AHEAD??? I mean, come on, this was obviously gonna happen.

By the end of episode 4, these two are clearly romantically interested in each other. Hell, by the end of episode 1, these two are interested in each other. And can I just say that's they're hands fucking down the most adorable Clark and Lois I've ever fucking seen? I mean it, they're the best version of this couple in live-action media, and I can actually see them becoming the comic book versions of that couple.

As a quick compare and contrast of the most notable versions:

Reeves and Kidder were great, but the movies never actually committed in having them be a couple. They actively made sure it wouldn't happen a couple of times, to much irritation, and their relationship never truly blossomed, which was based on the comics at the time.

Fuck Dean Cain...but Cain and Hatcher were pretty good as a couple, pre-and-post-marriage. Which, again, was a part of comics at the time, so it makes sense. Even then, I wouldn't call them particularly cute, just more of a relatively normal couple.

Don't get me wrong, I love Daly and Durance's animated versions of the two...but they never actually became a couple until the very end of Superman: The Animated Series. And we only saw them as Lois and Superman, not Lois and Clark. So, sadly, they don't rank.

Welling and Durance were...off-and-on. Funnily enough, their appearance as this version of the couple in the Arrowverse crossovers was probably better than any other appearance they had, and their appearances in the 10th season were genuinely quite nice. High up there as the best version, and one of my favorites.

Hoechlin and Tulloch are, in my opinion, the best married version of the characters. They honestly nail it, and their chemistry is pretty much perfect. Their versions of the characters still rank pretty high as some of the best, and they're even better as a couple.

Routh and Bosworth...moving on...

Cavill and Adams...well...I mean...they have some chemistry, and...they've definitely had sex. Um. Yeah. That's it. Whoooooo.

O'Connell and Romjin are a little-remembered animated version of the two, and not the only animated version of the two, either. But honestly, they're really good in The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, and were my favorite animated version of them as a couple...prior to MAWS.

And OK, sure, we've barely seen these two as a couple at this point, but I really like them. They're adorable, they're adorkable, they're supportive of each other, and their chemistry is basically immediate. They're just really cute and fun to watch, and I can't wait to see them progress. Especially because...

OK, I can't stress this enough, but skip the next GIF if you don't want spoilers, and scroll down until you get to Jimmy Olsen. Please. This is a biggie. OK? Got it? Read at your own peril.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU SERIOUS THEY ACTUALLY DID IT

If you've read my Superman essays, you know that I want movie Lois Lane to have found out Clark is Superman on her own, and before the movie starts. And holy shit, they actually did it in MAWS! FUCK YES! Lois is smart and sharp, so she should pick up on the fact that Clark is Superman! I love that they did this, even if her way of finding out was somewhat by accident. She still put the clues together on her own, so I'm satisfied with this ending! And I'm pretty sure they're not going to reverse this! If they do, I'd be pissed off, but I don't think they will. Just...HELL YEAH, BABEEEEEEEEEE

OK...I think the spoiler-free have scrolled past this by know, so...let's move on with the essay, shall we?

Supporting Cast: Jimmy and the Rest

OK, let's talk Jimmy Olsen (played by Ishmael Sahid). Honestly, I love the fact that he's a conspiracy nut with his own YouTube channel, and that he's literal bunkmates with Clark in this series. This is also pretty close to my perfect version of Jimmy Olsen, not gonna lie. His streaming name is even Flamebird, a deepcut comics reference that shows the creators not only know their stuff, but also actively care about Superman comics and history. That's one of the things that one me over in the first episode, for the record. But more on that later.

Jimmy is the third wheel, but one who's usually welcome. We'll see the fallout of the Lois-Clark romance soon, I'm sure, but Jimmy's role has been pretty much perfect. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a black Jimmy Olsen, while welcomed by me...is a little weird when you look at the legion of ginger characters in media that have been replaced by black characters in adaptations. While, again, I don't think Jimmy is racially bound to being ginger, it is a fairly iconic part of his identity. And...yeah, a lot of ginger characters have been translated into black people in recent years, and that's...really weird, not gonna lie. Makes me think even more about my Legion of Super-Heroes essay, honestly. Still, solid-ass Jimmy, and I can't wait for more.

I actually adore Perry White (voiced by Darrell Brown) in this series, and his grumpy boss persona is...well, quintessential Perry White. I'd actually say this is a perfect version of the character, although that's not as difficult to nail as some other versions. Looking forward to seeing more of Perry's life as he supports our bumbling interns.

I was tickled pink to see Cat Grant (Melanie Minichino), Steve Lombard (Vincent Tong), and a genderbent Ronnie Troupe (Kenna Ramsey) in this show, because it once again signals to me that the show creators really care about Superman mythos. And honestly, these guys were transplanted essentially unchanged from the comics, as far as we can see so far. This may change in the future, but I'm very excited to see the rivalry between our three and these reports build and develop during the series. Great job with these guys.

The Kents only make an appearance in one episode thus far, but I think they're pretty good! We see them in the past and in the present, and they're a couple of farmers who love their son. They're also some of the youngest versions of the characters we've seen in adaptations, save for Smallville, and it works well! They also make it apparent that these are Clark's parents, even in the short time we see them. Again, good job so far, and I want to see more!

So, with all of that, I adore this series, and it's perfect! Right? Right?

The Villains: Literal and Figurative Cons

If you've heard anything about this series from Superman fans, then you've probably heard that the villains are...not amazing so far. And that's mostly because the villains are where this series takes the most liberties, while also downsizing most of them pretty severely. I'll go through them briefly here, but just know that the changes made so far are...not my favorite. And if you've read my essays, you know my opinion on villains in superhero media: you gotta nail them.

So, let's start with Livewire, AKA Leslie Willis (voiced by Zehra Fazal). I really love this character (and actually positioned her as a major villain in the second Superman movie of my cinematic universe), so I'm quite invested in Livewire. And this version is a tech-powered villain who kicks off the conflict for the first part of the series. She's a completely different version of the character...and she works? Kinda? Look, as the first villain to face Superman, she's fine, but she's barely Livewire. The end of the second episode hints that she may become more like the original down the line, but she's missing that sass of the original. And yeah, she works without that, but it doesn't feel like Livewire to me. That's nitpicking, though, because we have a much worse set of adaptations to cover.

Intergang is so much of a non-entity in this show, they have no GIFS on Tumblr. Understand, this community has made GIFs of every other character except these guys. In total, they are Silver Banshee AKA Siobhan MacDougal (played by Catherine Taber), Mist AKA Kyle Nimbus (played by Lucas Grabeel), and Rough House AKA Albert (played by Vincent Tong). And they've been changed from:

A cursed Scottish-Irish woman, empowered by magic and a major threat to the Man of Steel, having nearly killed him multiple times...and is currently dating Jimmy Olsen, which I kinda love?

A scientist who invented a process to turn himself into gaseous form, and used his powers to fight the hero Starman; this rivalry was passed on to the next generation, on the side of both hero and villain.

And the clone of a gangster endowed with super-strength, serving beneath Boss Moxie of Intergang, and the forces of the dark world of Apokolips above him.

...into a group of loser who got technology they couldn't handle. Yeah, it's a major downgrade, and two of those guys weren't even that notable in the first place. Siobhan gets completely fucking shafted here, and I think it's a genuine failure of this series. Harsh, I know, but seeing Silver Banshee get fucked over that hard really sucked for me.

Oh, and yeah, Intergang was a major villainous group for the Superman film in my cinematic universe, so removing their Apokoliptian ties...bums me the fuck out, too. Also, it looks like Flash villain Heat Wave is an upcoming member, which is...weird as fuck, honestly. We'll see how this pans out, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it.

And then there's Anthony Ivo (played by Jake Green), who's been repurposed into a tech bro entrepeneur in the vein of Elon Musk, in charge of AmazoTech, which is obviously a reference to the comic book version. And this was an...interesting set of choices, honestly. Some spoilers here, but Ivo's version of AMAZO is an armor that drains the power of Superman and redirects it against him. And yes, that makes Ivo also this universe's version of...Parasite. ANOTHER villain that I put in the second movie of my cinematic universe, and one of my absolute favorite Superman villains.

I don't hate the reinvention, but that's only because of what happens to Ivo at the end of the episode. I won't spoil it here, but he definitely turns into a more proper version of the character, so we'll see what happens there. As for his assistant, Alex (played by...somebody), well, he's interesting, isn't he? At first, I thought he was Alex Allston, one of the Parasite twins from the 2000s. But a number of people seem to think he might be another familiar red-headed Superman villain named Alexander, if you know what I mean. Let's just say, there's a possibility that he'll steal forty cakes at some point. And that's terrible.

And finally, there's...wait, is that Deathstroke AKA Slade WIlson (played by Chris Parnell)? Why is he young...and hot? Why is Slade young and hot? And two-eyed? I mean, yeah, sure, that's not the worst thing in the world, but...goddamn, that's some whiplash. Interestingly, he appears to be affiliated with Task Force X, which is name dropped in episode 2. Plus, Amanda Waller is clearly in the background, so a much wider plan is in play. And yeah, while it's weird to see young hot Deathstroke, I'll give it a chance.

Other villains have been hinted at, and allegedly radically reinvented, such as Mr. Mxyzptlk and Brainiac, but we've yet to see what will become of them. Still, this is a divisive start. As long as we get some actual supernatural threats, and not just people in armor, I'll be happy. Time will tell.

Story: Just Getting Started

At this point, it's pretty much impossible to judge the story of this series, since we've only just started. But, with the technology obtained by Livewire from a mysterious source, and then leaked into the criminal underworld, we at least have enough threats to supply tension throughout this first portion of the series. The relationship of our trio is progressing nicely, with Jimmy realizing his third-wheel status, and with the Lois and Clark relationship moving along interestingly and unexpectedly.

There's also a number of hanging plots that look promising, including Clark discovering his powers and origins; Task Force X and Deathstroke, as well as their interest in Superman; the missing Parasite technology after Ivo's fall; the rivalry between the interns and their reporter rivals; and even Lois' relationship with her father (who...might be the guy standing next to Waller in Task Force X? No clue, that's just a guess). So, we have some stuff to look forward to! And maybe, just maybe, the villains will also steadily improve. I think Silver Banshee's a lost cause at this point, but I have hope for Livewire and Parasite, at least. But again, time will tell.

I also can't wait to see what the creators have up their sleeves. They're obviously ans of Superman and his mythos. I didn't even mention what won me over on this show in the first place! Other than Clark and Lois themselves, of course. In the first episode, Lois introduces Jimmy and Clark to her information gatherers: the Newskid Legion. And for those of you who don't know, that's a reference to the Golden Age of Comics, and a group of street-wise kids that would become supporting characters of Superman's during the '90s (through the trendy magic of cloning)! The kids have an adaptation in this series, and that attention to lore alone made me an instant fan of this show. Sounds like nothing, I know, but it meant a hell of a lot to a Superfan like me. Now GIVE ME MY EVERYMAN BIBBO BIBBOWSKI!

Conclusion: A Hopeful Tomorrow

I'm...scared about Gunn's Superman film. I won't write a whole essay about it, but it sounds ambitious to the point of being bloated. A lot of recent casting news makes me feel like this is more of a set-up to the wider DCU, as less of a Superman film in and of itself. Plus, with rumors that Luthor is being cast, and no sign of a villain announcement yet...I dunno. It has me worried. So thank God for My Adventures with Superman.

This series is a blessing so far. Sure, it could blow for the rest of the season, but call me hopeful. I think this show is fantastic so far, and I'm really thinking it'll stick the landing with the first season. Alongside that, honestly, is the fact that it's trying something new for any Superman adaptation, and there's a bravery in that. I don't know if it'll go down as my preferred Superman adaptation (Superman: The Animated Series is a hard one to beat for me), but it's got a good start. And a brave series that inspires hope in the face of fear and impossible odds? Man, that's what Superman is all about.

And now that that's said and done (for now, anyway)...

I believe I have another essay series to finally finish.

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

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

[zalrb]

we already talked a bit about this in private, but now that you had some time to think about it, i think you might be able to give a more detailed response so here's my question - do you think bojack losing diane was enough of a consequence for him? how do you feel about his dynamic with diane vs pc?

1. This will be long and all over the place since I'm writing my thoughts in real time. Because of the 30-image limit, I'll probably answer this in two posts.

2. OK so, as you know, I'm not in the Bojack fandom, I just watched the series for the first time and finished it a couple of days ago and we've been talking about my impressions and you've been sharing trivia with me so my view feels like it's probably an unpopular opinion especially because what you indicate

is certainly meant to be illustrated. I'm not saying that it's narratively untrue because it isn't, I just don't believe it the way that I should because while I was watching the show, I was like Diane's relationship to Bojack is like a 2.0 version of his relationship with PC

and so I became interested in what it would've meant if the person he "lost" at the end of the series was PC because I do think that would've been an appropriate and big enough emotional consequence for him and his actions and I do think it would've been more narratively resonant. So, you wanted me to expand a bit more on the 2.0/two sides of the same coin thing and why I thought PC and Bojack were more "entwined" than him and Diane -- I'll do this part in another post.

There are just a few things I don't think we can ignore, like the 23-year history between Bojack and PC because, of course, knowing someone for a long time doesn't automatically mean that your relationship with that person means more or is more profound than someone you met later but while I was watching the show, I did draw parallels

or things like

that made me go, I don't think his relationship with Diane is more profound either or that he treats her with more reverence in a genuine way, I just think he knew her for six years

while he knew PC for over two decades

and he's restarting a cycle.

even the way that Bojack would leave drunken, long-winded messages on Diane's voicemail parallels the way that he would drunkenly show up on PC's lawn.

To be fair, I don't think we can ignore the way in which Bojack expects the people in his life, particularly women, in general to emotionally labour for him. PC says it herself, "You want a mommy you can slide your dick in and out of" and we could of course talk about the cyclical nature of his self-hatred which can then create the same type of relationships with other people in general, over and over, and obviously because Diane and PC are different people, their relationships to Bojack aren't exactly the same. There are similarities between them with how they get sucked into Bojack's orbit

but they do respond to him differently, one major difference being that Bojack and Diane never had sex and were never together romantically but that again reinforces to me that they're two sides of the same coin

even the way that Bojack desperately begs Diane to tell him that he's a good person

is just the other side of Bojack lashing out at Princess Carolyn for making him feel like he's a bad person

and both instances sprout from him thinking that they know him too well and while some of the scenes with Princess Carolyn happen after they happen with Diane, they're also contextualized by their long history.

So, for me, while obviously he has two separate relationships with each character and while obviously the Original Relationship(s) Bojack has is with Beatrice (and Butterscotch), which impacts all of the relationships he has afterwards, I ended up looking at his relationship with Diane through the lens of his relationship with Princess Caroyln, which made Princess Carolyn and her relationship with Bojack the more narratively compelling and why I ended up with this as my takeaway

because I actually thought that it had already been established that Diane moved on and coming back to that in the finale felt like an unnecessary rehash but more importantly, what Bojack said about Princess Carolyn was right, I do believe that she was this person in his life and had been for nearly thirty years

“You're the little plastic table they put in pizza boxes to keep the pizza from getting smushed."

and to have that table removed, would've been emotionally resonant and a well-earned consequence that also isn't a punishment, it's just life.

I don't know if any of this makes sense.

[dicknouget]

A Response to Reviews and Certain Objections on Adam's Character Relevance Essay

Normally I like to keep this in PM's, but I'd rather use this as an addendum. I'm collecting responses from both FFNet and Tumblr into one document so I'm not running everywhere. On FFNet it will be added as a sixth chapter to the essay, on Tumblr as a separate post. My username is the same on both websites.

There is a point in one of the objections where it may come across as pro-Russian, I need to clarify I'm a staunch anti-imperialist, and reject all forms of imperialism. Every nation has its right to self determination.

I'm going to put the responses to the objections under a cut.

I want to thank everyone for the kind responses to this essay. This is something that I've worked on since April/May, and I am rather proud of it.

Tumblr Responses:

@fallentitan98:

I already responded to you in the notes of the original essay but I wanted to answer it here so I can centralize my responses.

He's was already enraged because Blake was with Yang. Who he saw her with fundamentally would not have changed the outcome of his fate. I mention this in one of the objections later on, but Adam doesn't add anything new to Weiss' story outside of reminding her what her families done to the faunus. I guess this is more of a subjective criticism, and kudos for acknowledging personal bias. A lot of critics fail to do so.

FF Net Responses:

Cryogony:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm working on my media analytical skills and I wanted to practice on one of my favourite shows

Oldest Guest on Chapter 5 review:

Adam did have potential early on, but he misplaced his anger at the wrong group. I agree with you this makes him a tragic character, and part of why I enjoy his character.

Second oldest guest on Chapter 5 review:

No comments. I agree with you on this. I think a lot of his fans misinterpret him as RWBY's version of Vergil. And while there are similarities, the biggest difference is battle wisdom, and it's painfully obvious that Adam lost a lot of it in Vol 6.

Essiter1987:

I am planning on writing more analytical essays, I have a couple pinned on my tumblr. The next big essay I have in progress is on character relationship growth using WhiteKnight as an example. I will admit that there is a bit of a personal bias to that one, but I try to stay objective to it.

I enjoy Adam's character, but I don't enjoy him as a person. I totally agree with you in terms of the writing and the power scaling issues. Monty was one hell of an animator, but I do agree that Adam's initial impression has led to misinterpretation of his character.

In terms of the Vol 6 fight, I'm also drafting an essay on why it made sense that Adam lost. It wasn't a moment where the story needed him to die, but one that if you pay attention to Blake and Yang's stories in the Mistral Arc, it starts to make sense. Again very early in the works, will probably have that one done before the WK analysis.

Keep reading for a response to Objections found on FFNet reviews.

Objections:

First Objection:

"If Jaune died, they could have avenged Jaune. Jaune dying works in the exact same manner as Pyrrha's death. The part with Pyrrha and Jaune here, comes across as you looking at their characters in a one dimensional view. Story point of view Jaune dying and Pyrrha living makes for a more interesting story."

There are several points within this objection and I’m going to attempt to address all of them.

First is the assertion that Pyrrha living makes for a more interesting story. Does it? Pyrrha was already at the peak of her physical prowess and was a living safety net for RWBY and JNR. 

Even if she did manage to survive and continue on in the story, her heel is permanently damaged and would have to adapt to a new cybernetic limb, which already exists as Yang’s story.

The battle at Haven still would have taken place, the two biggest differences being the fight being ignited by another character and Weiss or another character kicking the bucket, due to the lack of a healing semblance from Jaune.

Then there’s the Vol 6 trip to Argus, which would have likely skipped Brunswick Farms and having a much more difficult time establishing a plan to Atlas once arriving at Argus.

Vol 7 likely would have panned out similarly, as Jaune was more background in that volume.

Vol 8 would have seen the team split on which objective to focus on as it was Jaune who decided the split.

When viewing Pyrrha from a design perspective it made sense that she died. Again referencing her allusion, and more specifically her name.

I am aware of the “JNPR dies theory”, but Pyrrha’s the only one who reached her full potential before the main plot began and her presence so far has been more effective with haunting the narrative.

Second Objection:

"Jaune's chance for growth came all the way back in Season 1 he wasn't interested in changing for the better, in all reality."

Throughout the Beacon Arc we see him move past his crush on Weiss to help her as a friend rather than as a love interest. He trains throughout Beacon alongside Pyrrha and is shown on screen to be training to videos that she recorded for him.

We see him grow into a greater tactician and strategist, first seen in V4 with the Geist and again with the Knucklevee, in vol 6 with the heist and in vol 8 with the 'divide and conquer' plan.

To ignore his growth is to ignore the reality of the show.

Third Objection:

"Adam Rwby's villain. Adam is the only character who can claim to be a villain to all of RWBY as a team."

Cinder Fall, Salem, and Neo apparently don't exist...

Adam has no narrative connection to Ruby outside of 'the guy who sliced off his sisters arm'. While, it you could argue it's a connection, it's not the same intensity as Yang and Adam's, and doesn't add anything new to Ruby's story. Ruby would likely see him as 'another enemy' rather than a personal threat, like she does Cinder.

Adam doesn't add anything new to Weiss' story outside of reminding her what her family has done to the faunus. Something she's already been aware of since meeting Blake back in volume 1, and reminded of when RWBYJNR went on the mission with the Ace Ops in V7.

Out of the main cast, Adam is the antagonist to Blake and Yang alone.

Fourth Objection:

"Adam's actual goal was actually 'change'. He also wanted to be in charge and hold the power but that came from all the abuse he suffered and witnessed."

The change he wanted was an oppressive change not a liberating change, one that required him to be self empowering. His end goal for 'change' required the deaths of civilians, as demonstrated in the Black trailer, the Fall of Beacon, and the Battle for Haven.

There is a quote by Paulo Freire that can summarize Adam's goal of change perfectly:

"The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors."

Rather than striving for liberation and emancipation through armed struggle (i.e. the American Revolution against the British (a historically progressive moment), the Russian Revolutions in 1917, the August revolution in Vietnam, the Haitian revolution and both coup's in Burkina Faso), he chose an oppressive change akin to how several of modern day far right groups in Eastern Europe want to treat Russians living in their country.

Fifth Objection:

"The fact you think Adam is a one dimensional character"

I don't. In the conclusion I literally say he had potential. He isn't a complex character, but there is nuance to him, much like Cinder. He had dimension to his character, but he wastes it by going down his destructive path. If he didn't continue down his path of chauvinism, he likely could have become an anti-hero or anti-villain.

Sixth Objection:

“Adam is just a wasted potential of a character. Conclusion you forgot about Ruby and Weiss.”

Again, Adam was largely irrelevant to Ruby’s story and didn’t add anything new to Weiss’. There was no reason to add them.

[localvoidcat]

PLEASE TELL I NEED MORE OF THIS AU TBH

okay so the basic plotline (at least my version of it). i'm gonna split this into a couple different sections due to the sheer amounts of side plots. for quick reference the main roles are:

thatcher: a lieutenant with a secret identity as the hero firefly ruth: thatcher's coworker and the friend of both of them, who grows suspicious of thatcher's explanations for things. she's definitely not hiding anything of her own

dave: a tech store manager that pretends to be a villain named meowtherboard evelin: dave's coworker, who later joins him as an "evil henchman". she uses this solely to get back at adam murray for fun

sarah: dave's niece. she's the main person that works on a youtube channel dedicated to exposing the identities and news behind heroes in mandela city adam: evelin's ex, and one of the people from said videos. in between trying to film blurry fights and running away from flamethrowers, he ends up learning about his own abilities. jonah: adam's friend, and the other person from these videos. sarah sends the two out into the field to chase after the heroes. it's usually jonah who does the filming while adam runs around shouting.

mark: sarah's older brother, and dave's nephew. he's a college student that visits mandela city during vacations, but tends to stay away due to the sheer chaos of the heroes and villains. cesar: mark's friend. we think. he tends to show up whenever mark does. gabriel: the head of the villain league. his goal is to take over the entirety of mandela city, typical supervillain style. he views himself as a god, due to his religious background. he's seen as the most dangerous due to his powers involving the brain. preacher: a villain working under the league, and a former nun at st gabriel's church. her power is that of separating a person's power from them, manifesting it into a physical form. this form must be caught to regain the missing powers. the faceless lady: another villain. her "name" is that given to her by locals, often her victims seconds before being afflicted. her power, as expected, is the ability to steal peoples faces for a short period of time, during which they are still alive but robbed of all their main senses. nonami: another villain. their power is a useful one, being the ability to shapeshift into any person, albeit in an uncanny way. their tell is the mark across their face that remains in every form. n: another villain. his power is considered strange and somewhat useless, being the ability to teleport into the room of anyone laying down. it's not considered useless later on. six: a villain, formerly a show runner by the name of stanley. his power, presumably gained from a work incident, is the ability to travel through televisions, and bring things through the screens with him.

o'brien: the pastor at st. gabriel's church. unfortunately, his workplace is often invaded by the villain league on every day except sunday. jude: adam's absent father. he briefly attempts to pose as a hero. it doesn't work. he sells cryptocurrency to adam's great dismay.

with the roles written down, here's a plot summary:

thatcher has some kind of accident involving electricity/a lightbulb, probably electrocuting himself in the process. fun fact this scene is inspired by a story i read back in 2020 that got deleted and has never left my mind since

over time he starts realizing. oh shit i can do stuff now. there's only one logical course of action

this logical course of action is to take on the persona of this bug-themed hero named firefly because he's a fucking loser. love him for that. he can't actually fly he can control artificial light and that's it

his main reason for doing this is because of the rampant actions of the villains appearing in the city. i've listed them before but each of them plays a role in the story

as he begins looking for information, he encounters his first foe: a cat-themed tech wizard that interferes with his missions all of the time. this person - who introduces themself as meowtherboard - claims to be a villain, and firefly/thatcher wholeheartedly believes them. despite them not doing anything malicious. or really doing much aside from cool tech tricks and meowing. but surely, this is some malicious villain that's trying to overthrow him. how vile

all the meanwhile, he's trying to uphold his normal life as a newly promoted lieutenant. ruth begins to notice how tired thatcher is every day, and gets suspicious over time. he also talks to his friend dave, the manager of the tech store, who notices something off as well. he could never tell them about this though. not like they'd respond badly. he just doesn't want to. he thinks it's silly

and here's where dave comes in! he's the one masquerading as the "villain" meowtherboard. he's not associated with the villain league in any way - he doesn't even have powers as a matter of fact - but the opportunity was too fun to pass up. he has no idea who this firefly character is, but it's become habit for him to show up and talk to them.

one day, evelin - still his coworker in this - walks in to find him working on his costume. he frantically tries to explain it to her, but to his surprise she's...oddly chill about it? she offers to help him out and he agrees, giving her the role of his evil henchman. she loves this, half because it's very fun and half because she has an arsenal of makeshift weapons at her disposal to mess with her ex.

speaking of exes, we're introduced to adam, sarah, and jonah. together, they run a youtube channel dedicated to the documentation, exposing, and information of the heroes and villains in mandela city. they are greatly disliked by said superheroes and villains due to their constant appearances at the worst possible times.

firefly views them as a threat, and tries to avoid them as much as possible. he often fails at this.

this is beginning to be much longer than intended so i'll try to explain things + fun information quickly.

firefly and meowtherboard often get stuck in situations together, often involving villains. there's a couple scenarios where they're trapped and have to depend on each other to escape. what starts as a meeting between bickering masked individuals slowly forms into something almost like a friendship, to the point where when meowtherboard gets injured during a fight, firefly rushes over to help them. this is how the reveal happens, and they realize who the other is. this is much later in the au and they don't have much time to discuss this before gabriel lunges to attack again

each villain is encountered separately, aside from a large fight much much later in the au. meowtherboard gets their face stolen for fifteen minutes, and firefly only realizes this when meowtherboard takes off their mask to reveal a completely blank face. this is before the reveal and is mostly played as a quick call. they also have encounters with the preacher, where firefly loses their power momentarily and has to catch a literal firefly, as well as encounters with n, six, nonami (who takes on firefly's appearance but only as thatcher, which shakes him to his core), and finally, gabriel.

adam realizes he has powers later on in the au. this is during a blunt rotation with jonah where the blunt starts levitating and spinning wildly in the air. they chalk up the glowing purple eyes and the magical blunt to the drugs at first, but later they realize it was real. adam tries not to use his power much due to the horrific headaches he gains from them.

there's another hero that firefly and meowtherboard are often shown up by, this being a cowboy-themed hero with the ability to "mark" people with their gun. shortly after the reveal between thatcher and dave, this hero shows up to help them fight against gabriel, and ends up revealing herself as ruth. this leads to even more confusion seconds before the three nearly get their asses kicked by the man with mechanical wings again

mark and cesar show up at some point, often just to remark on the happenings. dave has to balance being a good uncle, along with a good store runner, along with a good villain. or a bad villain. he isn't sure what he is. we get some mark and cesar interactions that explain their dynamic a bit, outside of any hero stuff.

adam and jonah do at multiple points nearly expose the identity of firefly, but it always ends in some unfortunate mishap. a split second shot of their face gets deleted on accident, or an audio recording of the hero's real voice is overtaken by the sound of jonah being attacked by a pigeon, or a piece of fabric from a torn costume flutters away in the wind never to be seen again. they are having a horrible time.

o'brien, being a friend of dave's, is constantly being chased off by the villains. dave tries to comfort him, or help out as his villain persona, but this never works. o'brien isn't sure how he hasn't been fired yet.

as mentioned earlier, jude has a brief arc where he decides being a hero would be super cool. his costume consists of dvds duck taped to a black shirt and pants, and a cape he found in a spirit halloween. he gets booed away by firefly and meowtherboard. he tries to sell his new startup concepts to dave every day and gets chased out with a broom. adam denies any relation with him.

this is all i can think of right now, but any questions are welcome! i'm still working this out, as seen by my ramblings above, but i love this au very very much and hope to make more content for it later

[clairelsonao3]

5 Songs You Actually Listen to Tag Game (Holiday Version) plus a whumpy song bonus!

RULES: When you get this you have to put 5 songs you actually listen to, then tag 10 people!! (Not necessarily holiday songs, I'm just choosing to take it in that direction for this post!)

@thebejeweledwatercat (post here) tagged me in this one, and given the season and my general year-round obsession with music, I decided it made sense to do a holiday version to help narrow it down. And also so I can be totally nerdy and annoying by choosing 5 holiday songs off my dozens of obscure seasonal playlists! (If you HAVE heard of and/or listened to any of these songs, step right up and get your gingerbread cookie!)

I generally use Spotify to link to music, but many of these are so obscure they aren't on Spotify. Many of them originate from growing up with my dad, who in turn was obsessed with obscure Christmas music before I was, and who not only played his mixtapes on car trips to see our relatives in Duluth, Minnesota every year around the holidays, but actually had a seasonal side gig appearing on local radio stations as their seasonal Dr. Demento. And thus the cycle continues.

To all of you there

From all of us here

Capitol sends a bundle of cheer

Capitol is goin' to town!

This is exactly what it sounds like: a very hastily produced 1945 Christmas promo of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" with the lyrics changed courtesy of Johnny Mercer and a group of the label's artists and other random staffers from the Capitol Records office, many of whom get name-checked in the song.

Perhaps part of the reason my dad turned out how he did is because he grew up in the one and only Christmas City of the North (TM): Duluth, Minnesota. The song (another promo, I can't help it!) was originally recorded by Merv Griffin in 1962 for the KBJR Christmas City Parade. I don't know if it actually increased holiday tourism to the city at the time, but it certainly paid off 50 or so years later.

Up on the hilltops pick on an icicle

Chew it while you slide to fun below

Down in midtown people are nicicle

Come this Christmas to the Christmas City I'll go

As some may not know, there's a whole cavalcade of lovable Christmas characters who failed in their attempts to become the next Rudolph or Frosty, from Suzy Snowflake to Santa Mouse to Lil Elfy (the elf who, of all things, was just TOO small) to Lil Klinker ("the pup who woke Santa up").

But none beats Jingle-O the Brownie, the OG Elf on the Shelf, 50 years or so before that was a thing. You can't convince me any different.

Now Jingle-O, he makes a trip each day in his red rocket ship

Around the world to see if you've been being good or bad

He's got a great big magic eye that watches you from in the sky

And when he sees you acting mean poor Jingle-O is sad

I probably could do a whole separate post on whumpy Christmas songs alone. But for now, I'll let you choose: Do you want the one about Baby Jesus killing innocent children for refusing to play with him and then being beaten by Mary with a withy switch as punishment?

So he made a bridge of beams of the sun

And over the river ran he

And after him ran these rich young lords

And drowned they all three

Or do you want the one about the guy who drives drunk, crashes into a cop car, nearly kills himself, gets thrown in jail after apparently receiving no medical treatment whatsoever, then is further tortured by being forced to listen to people happily celebrating the holiday outside of his cell?

Got rocks in my head

Wish I was dead

Ain't gonna drink and drive no more

And BONUS!

OR do you want the one about two Irish ne'er-do-wells who encounter a couple of army recruiters on a Christmas morning walk by the seaside, and instead of entertaining their pro-military-industrial-complex bullshit, choose to beat them half to death with a shillelagh?

I know it says to tag 10 people, but I'm just gonna OPEN TAG it and let people chime in if they want.

Merry Christmas if you do Christmas, and Season's Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

[jackiebrackettt]

JRWI Fic Recs but they're all My Fics

aka a place to put all my fics in one spot -> i've written for riptide, prime defenders, apotheosis, and blood in the bayou

(side note: i'm going to be updating this post whenever i post a new fic so please make sure to check out the original post just in case the version u come across isn't the most recent ^_^)

reblogging this post is welcome and i'd really appreciate any kudos and comments on the fics themselves ^_^ hope you guys enjoy<3

Prime Defenders:

A Million Words Hang Between Us Both: set during season 2 (written before ep 15 was released) this is a series of late night conversations between william and dakota! a snippet from the first one: "So, he’s doing a lot of thinking. And maybe a lot of shoving thoughts into mental boxes with the promise to unpack them later but with the intention of never touching them again, if he can help it. Ideally, he’d like to just fall asleep. But that’s too much to ask, apparently. At least it means he’s already awake when Dakota starts nudging him, though." it has 1 chapter and is 12.8k words long

Failed Successfully: ghostkicks getting together (in a qpr) fic set during season 2! here's a snippet: "William is having a wonderful time not sleeping and totally isolating himself from the rest of the group. Really, he is. He shouldn’t be surprised that someone comes to find him. He shouldn’t be surprised it’s Dakota." fic is 2.3k words and 1 chapter

Our Heart: as the title suggests -> a fic about william getting dakota's heart and kind of acting weirdgirl and hopeless romantic about it! a snippet: "William has Dakota’s heart beating in his chest. Now that all the adrenaline, and shock, and excitement is wearing off it’s starting to actually hit him. Dakota’s heart. Not his original one, of course - but still undeniably his. It’s like something out of a twisted romance movie." fic is 1.5k words long and 1 chapter

Designed to Destroy: villain what-if fic set after the oneshot. mostly focused on a headcanon i have about how william's powers work in this universe aka -> he dies constantly lol here's a snippet: "William knows it’s going to be a bad day as soon as he wakes up. To be honest, he was kind of hoping he’d managed to avoid the consequences of using his powers too much this time around but apparently not!" 2k words and 1 chapter

Prompt Fic 1: "Can I draw on your arm?" With William and Dakota bored at school

Prompt Fic 2: "Let's listen to music together." + "Can I draw on your arm?" with ashe and dakota

gotten kind of long so putting these under the cut now. again, please check original post for updates

Blood in the Bayou:

The Girl In The Diner: two scenes both centred around Rolan and Kian in a diner (kian pov) 1 is set in highschool and the other is set post-canon. here's a snippet: "It’s late. Much later than Rolan would prefer to be up, Kian knows. But he’s sitting across from him anyway, sipping on his milkshake and occasionally grabbing fries from the basket between them." it's 3.4k words and 1 chapter

The Mind Explosion: kian character study! set a couple years pre-canon -> here's a snippet: "Kian Stone wants to keep his work life and his rockstar life separate. No, he needs to keep his work life and his rockstar life separate. It’s a matter of survival." 600words and 1 chapter

Missed Opportunities and Clean Breaks: kian pov fic about his relationship with jesse! here's a snippet: "Kian might’ve made a mistake. Of all the guys in this town he had to have a fling with it had to be Jesse. Jesse, who’s captain of the football team. Jesse, who’s one of the most popular guys in their school. Jesse, with his kind eyes, and his pretty smile that makes Kian’s chest ache--He’s getting off track." 1.6k words and 1 chapter

Becky's Girl: kind of a sequel to missed opportunities but you don't necessarily need to read it first! kian pov fic of rolan and rand trying to find out the nature of his relationship with jesse/why he's been so weird lately. snippet: "Which is when he sees Rolan - frozen by his closet door with Jesse’s football jacket gripped tight in his hands. He feels faint." 2.9k words and 1 chapter

A Drunken Night In Chicago: rolan pov fic of kian showing up to his apartment in chicago! this is like a pre-canon relationship study. here's a snippet: "Kian flew all the way to Chicago just to see him. And Rolan knows he couldn’t have been drunk the entire time, right? Somewhere along the line Kian was in his rational, sober mind and he still committed to this trip." 3.7k words and 1 chapter

A Twisted Serenade For You, My Love: post-canon rand pov getting together fic with kian! leans into kian's trauma wrt his death. here's a snippet: "It’s easier to be vulnerable with Kian than it is to be vulnerable with Rolan. It feels weird to admit that to himself, but it’s true. A holdover from when they were kids, he’s sure. When Kian and him would get high together, and get a little too emotional." 4.2k words and 1 chapter

An Unsent Letter To Kian Stone From Rolan Deep: exactly what it says lol. not sure exactly how many words it is but it's definitely not a long read. set during the 10year Galloway Gap kind of early on comparatively but a good couple years has passed since they left

Riptide:

Ferin Well Eventually: this is a post ep 53 fic from gillion's pov! here's a snippet: "His chest still hurts from the impact of the arrow - the potion healing whatever major damage it could find, but not quite being strong enough to heal all of it. It will most likely leave a scar. He has mixed feelings on that." mostly focused on jay and gillion's dynamic but there's some chip and gillion convo about the whole thing too. it's 2.5k words and 1 chapter

Chip Sexuality Crisis Fic (unfinished): 1.3k words set sometimes after ep 21 lol -> here's a snippet: "Chip is not gay. There are a lot of uncertain things about his life but the one thing he does know is that fact. He likes women. And he’d probably know by now if he likes men too. He is not gay. He is not in love with his best friend. And he is not still thinking about the kiss. And the fact that the latter is definitely a lie probably doesn’t bode well for the others. Whatever."

Apotheosis:

Sweet Dreams: peter pov hurt/comfort fic here's a snippet: "The first thing Peter sees when he wakes is Rumi kneeling over him. And for a second, with the power of Rumi’s magic dulling the pain, he is sure that he’s died and Rumi is the angel welcoming him to heaven." fic is 2.5k words and 1 chapter

The Gamble: rumi pov fic character study of sorts with a specific emphasis on tending to wounds (the way rumi would for peter but wouldn't allow peter to for him) here's a snippet: "The thing about Peter Sqloint is that Rumi’s been dreaming of him for months. Oh sure, he couldn’t remember much of the details - not until he’s glancing around the tavern and his eyes catch on Peter’s face, which is when everything suddenly clicks. When he knows his destiny - everything he’s been waiting for - is mere moments away from starting." fic is 3.8k words and 2 chapters

Healing, Or Something Close To It: peter pov fic set a couple of days after the finale of him and elena sort of.. dealing with/processing everything that happened. here's a snippet: "This is the first inn they’ve seen since they defeated Zuen. It’s a little rundown, not that Peter particularly cares since it’s honestly nicer than his old apartment. It’s a decently sized inn, packed to the brim with people still celebrating the sky’s return." fic is 5.5k words and 1 chapter

[astroboots]

I was in a really strange mood the other day. Not sure what it was exactly - the spring, something in the water, retrograde Mercury...Whatever it was, it set me aflame with the desire for Oscar Isaac. That feeling is not a new one, but the intensity it hit me with was pretty remarkable even for me. So I did what every logical person would've done - got here to get myself some gorgeous gifs of his.

Long story short, a couple of hours and several delicious gifs later, I started to think that maybe it's a good idea to read something. Well, I actually specifically didn't want to read shit, but there were just two many texts coming my way, upon thirst scrolling. So, while I was half-heartedly trying to drive these thoughts away with an imaginary stick, I came upon the "Red Flags." And was met with something I can't fucking resist - long chapters.

I read all sorts of different fanfics for all sorts of different reasons. We all have our own preferences, and I am trying not to concentrate on mine all that often, because it will just result in me reading only specific things, and there is a chance I'll miss something really good.

But I still do have those preferences. And for me, THE most important thing in the story is for the characters to feel like themselves from the original incarnation. Not to a tea, perhaps. Not always, at least. But I want to read something they do and go: "Yeep, that's them. That's exactly how they would've acted. "

I've read a lot of absolutely brilliant stories that I see more like an AU situation. Great storytelling, amazing characters - it's all there. But the characters just don't feel the same to me. It doesn't make the story bad whatsoever. It's just a separate category for me.

And then there are those VERY rare ones that are just making every single thing right in my eyes. Of course, these things are objective. Of course, it's only based on what I personally want to see. But when I find them, I'm treating them like an absolute treasure.

Which leads us to the "Red Flags." The story that got me so invested that I ended up reading it till 3 in the morning because I just couldn't bring myself to separate with these characters.

After the series, Steven got so much love. Which is completely understandable. He is an adorable, goofy, absolutely charming idiot that you just want to be around. But I don't think Marc himself is getting enough appreciation. Which he should.

The way he was written here made my heart ache. He was portrayed so real, I was sometimes sure I could touch him through the screen of my phone. The man was so broken on such a deep level that he had to create a happy version of himself, to be able to cope with trauma. The man, who is denying himself happiness because he doesn't think he deserves it. The man, who is willing to give every single good thing in his life to his alter ego, whom he sees as a pure and sweet person.

One of the most realistic main heroines I've seen in fan fiction - just like her, I wanted to grab him, shake him up, and scream that he deserves love, deserves to be cared for, deserves being looked after and to be able to just be himself around a person, who loves him. To let someone love him. He doesn't deserve to be shout at, though. Doesn't matter if it comes from a place of genuine care. I'd kill for this man. Got every last bit of patience out of me to help him see how much he is loved and needed. How beautiful, how kind, and caring he actually is. How empathetic he is. How, no matter what little he thinks of himself, he is a whole world.

It's not even just the romance, but how he treats Steven, too. It's just beyond words. I never thought about it that way, but it was so heartbreaking to see that he went far and beyond with writing Steven cards from their mom. He did not have to do it, but he wanted Steven to feel loved. Something that he never got himself. The man, who grew up abused and hated by his own mother, who drew so many walls around himself, still remained a kind soul behind it all.

I want you to know that by now, I've read it twice over, and I'll be absolutely doing it again. Alongside all the one shots. No idea if it was intended that way or not, but they absolutely do read like a continuation of the main story.

I don't really have the words to describe how much I loved it and how I fell in love with every aspect of it. But I just need to thank you and your wonderful co-writer for giving us (well, me, personally😇) the privilege to read something that extraordinary🥰💙🥂

Hello lovely!!!!!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer this. When I received this ask this week my face and soul lit up. It's so kind and sweet of you to take the time to write this and send it. I really appreciate you so much.

I'm so glad that you felt that the characters read like they were in their original MCU universes. It's something that I completely owe @thirstworldproblemss too she has an insane knack for storytelling and character voices that blows me away everytime. Between the two of us i'm the one living in London and yet I have a Transatlantic accent and I don't ever use British slang, and she was the one who had to britishify Steven and she did it with such skills I'm in awe of her always.

But also the characterisation of Marc, once again I owe so much to her, because she's the one who broke down the character and made me appreciate all the beautiful, heartbreaking layers of his character.

Red Flags has been such an absolute beast to write and taught me so much about long-form story telling and it has an incredibly special place in my heart and to know that people are still reading it, and that you had such a strong reaction to it fills me with immense joy. Thank you so much once again for reaching out! I adore you.

[ddwcaph-game]

Four New Traits!

Update: I've received some feedback and decided to reconsider adding the new traits. Check out this post for more information!

I'm not completely sure yet how these traits will work, but since this'll probably be the last ones I'll add in Volume 1, I've decided to add them in the next update and get some feedback sooner rather than later. They are:

💫 [Easily Distractable]

⚡ [Hyperactive!]

😳 [Socially Awkward]

🎒 [Super Organized]

A couple of years ago, someone pointed out to me that some of the MC's choices/thoughts have elements of anxiety/autism/ADHD and asked if this was the case. This was mostly unintentional on my part, and since it's an unfamiliar and sensitive subject, I thought it'd be best to not have an explicit choice for it, but fine if people wanted to headcanon it.

I wanted to give it a shot just like I did with the gender stuff (which was enlightening for both me and my characters), especially because having a young MC gives me a unique point of view to explore them. So I thought about it some more, and I think I found a way to make it work without adding a lot of extra workload.

I know that it's a spectrum and there's no strict definition or a single correct way of presenting them, so instead I separated it into different traits that doesn't directly state that the MC is neurodivergent. Writing in first person makes it hard to account for in every variation in every choice, so I'm keeping it somewhat vague and hopefully this gives the flexibility that MC may be either undiagnosed, or just has those traits.

This is a bit long, so I'll go a little bit into detail how I plan to implement the traits below:

⚡ [Hyperactive!]: (+20% Silly, Doubles [Well-Rested] Stat Bonuses)

You can select this trait at the beginning of Chapter 1, where you choose how to react to the bell ringing. The choice is:

Finally! Sitting inside the classroom for hours is torture. Some people say I'm hyperactive—but I don't understand how some people can just sit around all day.

This will probably restrict most passive choices where you decide not to do anything, and add new flavor text when the MC isn't doing much.

💫 [Easily Distractable]: (+10% Bonus EXP, -10% Knowledge)

You can select this trait when looking at the Top 10 Students list while cleaning the classroom. The choice is:

It'd be nice to see my name up there with Wayne sometime. Understanding the lessons isn't that hard, but focusing on exams, assignments, studying—that's what's really hard. Wayne also struggles with not getting distracted, but he always knows how to keep me engaged when there's something more interesting than what we're studying.

This is a permanent version of the [Needs Improvement] Passive, with Wayne being MC's study buddy instead of JM. I hope the comparison with Wayne here is okay—I want to frame it in a positive light but I'm not sure if this is the best way. (The text after the choice mentions that if Wayne can do it, then MC can do it as well.)

In addition, the trait will also provide some unique flavor text and variations in certain scenes (especially long conversations).

😳 [Socially Awkward]: (+30% Introvert, +30% Reserved)

You can select this trait during Roselyna's introduction after she first hugs you. The choice is:

I stutter. What if I say something wrong? What if I misunderstood what she's saying—or she misunderstands me? Am I overthinking again? I don't wanna repeat myself over and over trying to explain.

MC's mostly comfortable around their friends, so I imagine this will mostly manifest in emotional scenes, when you meet a new person, when you discover a secret, interacting with B, or when MC has the choice of not being sure what to say (excluding their twin), and automatically default to that choice (with slightly different dialogue) if it makes sense. It would be exhausting to read if this affected every conversation.

🎒 [Super Organized]

You can select this trait along with the other organizational traits when packing your bag in Chapter 1. The choice is:

...and meticulously arrange my belongings/stuff by proper label and color. My bag is super organized, and it helps me focus this way.

Not much to say here, it's just a slightly different version of the [Organized] Trait.

***

This is very much new to me, so please let me know your thoughts, or if you have any concerns with the trait names, the wording of the choices, or something else. I'm not entirely sure I'm making sense here either. 😅

Anyway, I hope the start of the new year is treating you all nicely!

[you-show-me-love]

21 maybe? 👀

21. movie night in shambles after cuddling incident

When Debbie dropped Franny off at Ian and Mickey's their niece was laden with a heavy looking tote bag.

"Thought you were picking her up at ten?" Ian asked, thinking she had packed an overnight bag.

"I am." Debbie confirmed for her brother. "Franny wanted to bring over some stuff."

Ian nodded, a bit perplexed. Their apartment was full of toys and games for their niece and nephews. Did Franny think she'd be bored or something? Debbie said her goodbyes and Ian turned his attention to his niece.

"What did you bring Franny?"

The young redhead smiled and overturned her bag, careless of the contents hitting the floor. It was piles upon piles of dvds.

"We're having a movie night!" She exclaimed excitedly.

Ian picked up the case on the top of the pile.

"Alien vs Predator? Fran, where the hell did you get this?"

"Alien vs Predator? Fuck yeah!" Ian turned to glare at his husband coming through the door with a fresh pizza.

"No Mick, she's too young for that." Ian settled cross legged on the floor to sort through the pile. "Okay, let's see what we can work with here."

Fifteen minutes later the trio was sitting in front of the tv eating pizza as the opening of The Princess Diaries played. Franny, at an age where sitting still was impossible, was wiggling on the floor in front of them between bites of pizza.

"So uh, any idea where she got like twenty dvds?" Mickey whispered after he finished his pizza and leaned against his husband's shoulder.

"No idea and I'm afraid to ask at this rate."

The couple shared a look of amusement, thinking back to their own youth as smiles grew soft and sentimental. Ian got a flash of a young, dirty, spiky-haired Mickey throwing stolen dip and pissing Ian off.

"Come here." Ian voiced low and sultry, lifting his arm to accept the older, cleaner, softer version Mickey had grown into. Mickey went gladly, tilting his chin up to receive a kiss.

Their lips locked and the world narrowed down to only them and the love they shared. That is until something came between them.

"No no no." Franny shouted, sticking knees and elbows into stomachs and chests as she crawled between her uncles. Finally between them she crossed her arms and took a moment to glare at each of them.

"No cuddling. Watch the movie."

So Ian and Mickey watched the movie separated by a stubborn eight year old. To Ian the runtime of The Princess Diaries was worse than prison. At least in prison he could look at Mickey, but with Franny on patrol he didn't dare glance away from the screen.

The credits rolled on The Princess Diaries and Franny used her uncles as leverage to get off the couch. Once her feet landed on the floor she turned to them with a firm expression.

"Don't move a muscle."

They watched her watch them and move to the pile of movies, picking one out without even glancing at the cover. She struggled to insert the disk without seeing what she was doing and the quick turns of her head to complete her task while still watching the couple made Mickey snort in amusement. Ian casually stretched his arm along the back of the couch the next time his niece looked away. The time after that Mickey's hand joined him at the back of the couch, tangling their fingers together.

Once the disk was retreating into the dvd player Franny all but ran back to claim the space between her uncles.

"Fuck yeah! Nice choice Little Red." Mickey exclaimed as Alien vs Predator began to play. She smiled proudly up at him and leaned into his side a bit more.

"She asleep?" Ian mouthed an hour later, tilting his head toward the still and silent girl between him and the love of his life.

Mickey nodded and scooped Franny further onto his lap. She went willingly, sleeping the deep sleep of a Gallagher. With the space between them free Ian finally closed the gap that separated him from Mickey.

Mickey allowed Ian to kiss him once, then twice, before he pulled away.

"I'm watching the movie, man."

With twenty minutes left in the film Debbie let herself into her brother's apartment. On the couch she found the trio cuddled up, her daughter sound asleep as the tv emitted sounds of violence.

"What the hell is this?" She asked.

"Alien vs Predator." Ian answered at full volume. Now with Franny about to go home he didn't feel bad about waking her up to find them cuddling again.

"Why the fuck are you letting my child watch this?" Came Debbie's shrill response, also seeming not to care if she woke Franny up

"She's the one who brought it!"

"What? Where did she even get it?"

Both men shrugged, though Mickey did it dramatically enough to jostle Franny from her nap. Upon gaining her bearings Franny scrambled to wedge herself back between Ian and Mickey.

"No use Little Red." Mickey teased as he pushed her gently off the couch, "Your mom's here and you can't tell us what to do anymore."

Franny pouted as she collected her dvds back into her bag, the adults in the room exchanging amused looks. Once she was done she joined Debbie at the door.

"Say goodbye to Uncle Ian and Uncle Mickey baby." Debbie urged. Franny instead rolled her eyes at the men still cuddled close on the couch and exited their apartment, pulling her mother out behind her.

"Think we ruined movie night, Mick."

"Eh, she'll get over it." Mickey sighed as he settled deeper into his husband's open arms to finish the movie.