#idk I'm spitballing

[starsnores]

gamzee as. a personification of decay.

[degrees-of-lili]

Y'know if PC wasn't an orphan; it'd make Bailey's story less weird. They could have been someone from another [country] who came to DoLland to go to university (to keep the school aspect), maybe you needed a visa and couldn't get one so you go to Bailey but now Bailey expects you to work for them or they'll ship you off (but not back home obvs.). Except Bailey's "work" is running around town fucking, stealing, and maybe working a semi-normal job. Like some aspects are questionable like Whitney, but Whitney is a parody of an actual bully. Like, the shit Whitney does (and to the level they do it) isn't something that'd anyone would reasonably get away with. Also, how the school works from a gameplay point of view because college you usually pick and choose your classes are.

[paradoxlemonade]

Goddammit I just realized I didn't cosplay Eret before I cut my hair for the summer >:(

Eret and I have about the same hair color and texture so I was going to dress up as them for the funsies (I already had most of the pieces from other costumes), but now I'll have to get a wig or wait for my hair to grow back

Anyways who should I cosplay next

[abelllia]

Constantly fluctuating between "oh jon's just like me fr fr" and "oh i'm in love with jon fr fr"

[hachinohachi]

Hmm Taliesin may have had a point though, when he said that before Ashton had been just angry at everything but now they'd found that there were specific things to be angry at. Maybe I should choose one or two things only to be angry at and ignore the rest?

[identitty-dickruption]

I'm playing around with the idea that constantly not being able to be productive is a sign of needing rest in the same way that constantly thinking about food is a sign of being hungry. as someone who sucks at interpreting my body's signals (and as someone who has a lot of difficulty around feeling lazy all the time!) it can be really hard to know what "tired enough to take a break" looks like. and I think if my brain keeps wandering towards restful activities instead of "productive" activities, that might be a pretty big signal that I need to take a rest

when I first started following the rule that thinking about food = hunger, I felt like I was eating way too much food all the time, and that I maybe shouldn't be listening to my body, but that's evened out over time. it turns out I was just starving myself for a really long time, and my body needed a lot of food!

and I wonder if the same could be true with rest. it feels like I need an absurd amount of rest at the moment, and it's been really really difficult to convince myself that I actually need the rest, and that I'm not just some kind of lazy slob. but you know what? maybe I NEED that rest! maybe I've been working myself to the bone lately, and maybe it'll take a while before I can be Properly Productive again. and that's something I'll just have to be okay with while I figure out what resting enough looks like for me

[sentientsky]

i know this has been discussed ad nauseam, but i'm doing research for a meta, and i'm slowly realizing that i will never ever be over the Good Omens Lockdown dialogue. especially that line towards the end (begins at the 02:50 minute mark):

Crowley: [...] You know, I could hunker down at your place; slither over and watch you eat cake. I could bring a bottle—a case—of something...drinkable?

first, the unabashed expression of a desire to be near Aziraphale is so rarely evident (i mean, we have 1967 and other instances, but in the case of '67, an outsider could more easily—i guess??—interpret offering him a lift home as an expression of gratitude for the holy water). so, to witness his clear, unveiled desire for comfort and closeness (and to literally just watch Aziraphale eat cake) demonstrates the interpersonal progress made in the time after Armageddon't; he's not concealing the offer behind some flimsily-constructed reason (e.g., "I just didn't want to see you embarrass yourself"). in fact, he's implying that they'd be spending long lengths of time together ("hunker down", "a case of something drinkable"). and then Aziraphale's response is also really interesting, and kind of exists as a microcosm of their whole push-and-pull dynamic that has existed for literally thousands of years (begins at the 02:59 minute mark):

Aziraphale: No, I—I—I—I’m afraid that would be breaking all the rules! Out of the question! I’ll see you… when… this is over?

i'm sorry, but the sheer nervousness???? the grasping for excuses??? they're gay disasters, ur honour. breaks my fucking heart </3 i love them both, but also OUGH. azi, why?!?

[rogueddie]

steve ending up a single dad to a little girl but it's from one of his dads affairs and he gives steve this sob story about how her mom can't afford her or care for her but steve is so good with kids... and at first, steve is thrilled and guilty about feeling thrilled. but it's a baby. and he's still trying to take care of the kids. and he has work. and he needs time for himself. and he's trying to do it on his own.

cue wayne munson, bc eddie doesn't do well with kids- but wayne does. he takes the little girl in for mornings, sometimes babysitting her well into the evenning, so steve isn't so stressed. they split the time up between them and, with eddie keeping steve distracted when she's with wayne, steve starts to relax. he starts to enjoy parenting. especially with how she seems to hate eddie for no reason.

[thedogofchristmaspast]

thinking a lil bit on the religious subtext in dialtown. hm. callum being said to "play god better than me" by god himself. gingi being referred to as a "green messiah". their clear connections in their similar heads. something something them paralleling jesus (god among men) and gingi being the resurrection of sorts (even if not super literally). perhaps the player being the holy spirit, the guide, that resurrects the son (allows gingi to go through each route) since god does point us out once:

and the world acknowledges the video game aspects.

what's also interesting i think in that same conversation god admits he doesn't actually remember creating the universe, and is just saying that because it's easier, and that while he could have and just forgotten it also could have been something else. i don't think there's enough information yet to say exactly who Else it could have been but. it's fascinating. and there are possible suspects

[iris-drawing-stuff]

Ahhhhhh they are so cute! I've seen the theory that the way they hold the flowers in some way represents their victims and I think it's quite interesting.

Amane just straight up dropped the flowers on the ground. I love the disrespect.

Haruka... is certainly holding them. Somehow, it hasn't fallen apart yet. You'd think that more would fall out, but no, apparently not.

Mikoto is the only one who seems to hold the flowers normally, which ironically makes him seem abnormal. He looks stiff and detached compared to the others, like he's attending the funeral of a someone he barely knows. Maybe it's because he doesn't know who's dead, and thus feels detached from the idea of being their murderer. Maybe it's because he had a more professional relationship with them (coworker perhaps?)

[marc--chilton]

house md pokemon teams, as meticulously picked out by someone who's been into pokemon since birth:

house - cyclizar, audino, gothitelle, mabosstiff, toxtricity amped mode, hisuian zoroark

wilson - blissey, morgrem, male meowstic, cinccino, absol, zoroark

cuddy - kangaskhan, leavanny, male pyroar, jynx, lucario, hatterene

foreman - alakazam, noctowl, ferrothorn, luxray, midday lycanroc, malamar

chase - yamper, komala, liepard, klefki, alolan raichu, lurantis

cameron - sensu oricorio, froslass, crobat, mimikyu, female indeedee, sylveon

taub - alolan persian, glameow, snubbull, starmie, swanna, male oinkologne

thirteen - houndoom, drifblim, gardevoir, sneasler, armarouge, cloyster

kutner - goodra, seel, aipom, quagsire, mr mime, pawmot

notes

people tend to assume that house's ace is one of his 'cooler' pokemon - zoroark, toxtricity - but it's really audino. can mega evolve and everything. he loves throwing people off by bringing him out when running diagnostics (audino have excellent hearing; his can detect heart issues typically only found through invasive testing)

cuddy's hatterene HATES house. and he knows it. if threats of clinic duty doesn't get him to leave her alone when he's bothering her, she'll threaten to get hatty out, and hatty has NO qualms about beating the fuck out of him

wilson doesn't bring absol out at work. with his profession and the species' reputation as doombringers, it wouldn't exactly be a comforting sight. he doesn't even really remember how he acquired her, nor does he know that she's not concerned about his cancer patients but for him.

taub hardly trains his pokemon, making him the most unready for battle of everyone listed.

kutner and his pawmot get into many defibrillator adventures (accidents)!!! quagsire, being water/ground, is unaffected and therefore happily takes up the task of putting out fires when needed :DD

[hanakou-often]

I got a headcanon that after the young exorcist arc Hanako began to see Kou as super cool and more attractive than he gave him credit because despite Nene explicitly saying Kou is not her type, Hanako abruptly gets WAY MORE wary if they are, like he is scared she'll notice he is 'objectively' boyfriend material and fall in love (too).

Honestly Hanako finding Kou more attractive immediately after the young exorcist arc is pretty plausible. I mean. The inherent romantism of taking a bullet of lightning for your enemy, the kindness expressed in the willingness to vouch for someone you once deemed evil, the bravery in it all…yeah I’d be a wary too if Kou was willing to do all of that for Hanako then you can only imagine what he'd do for Nene. This gave me an idea that Hanako at some point probably couldn't tell who he was more jealous of. Was it Kou for supposedly being the better potential boyfriend material that Nene deserves? Or was it Nene for being able to connect to Kou in a way that Hanako couldn't? They're both humans, plus he was a boy and she was a girl, could I make it anymore obvious? There's plenty room for them to develop feelings and if Nene chose to pursue Kou, Hanako couldn't say he didn't see it coming. It's only natural that someone as strong, sweet and relentlessly giving as Kou would be bound to attract someone as equally sweet as Nene.

Still, there's something he can't shake off about the jealousy. It's something more complicated than Kou possibly stealing Nene away from him. It's something much more indigestible that sits underneath the fluttery feelings he gets when Kou laughs or smiles. It's something that he won't ever allow himself to explore because of his internalized homophobia. It's envy. Envy of Nene who has the right to be boy crazy all she wants because it's what's expected of a teenage girl. It's envy of her being able to explore her options, namely Kou, in a way that Hanako cannot since he's 1. Not a girl, and 2. A ghost. It's an agonizing realization to dissect so Hanako will stay ignorant to it, hoping that if he pretends hard enough it'll just go away on its own.

[knightwhoisni]

concept: unromanced eleanor as drifter's romantic advisor and wingwoman. how successful she actually is at this depends on how serious she's feeling.

[ofallthingsnasty]

Honestly, dark(ish)/obsessive Nami is an interesting concept to me. Oda memes on her and Zeus' relationship a lot (well, to be fair, he kind of memes on Nami in general) - but try to remove all those comedic elements, just for a little bit. She's so genuinely warm with women, makes friends so effortlessly. I always think about what she said about Tashigi here:

And she just strikes me as someone who'd go for a girlfriend who's a little older, unintentionally. Just think about it - first she was an orphan, then Bell-mère took her and Nojiko in and they didn't exactly have an easy life - until all of that got absolutely destroyed by Arlong. She never had it easy and it all just got... worse, actually, until she joined the Straw Hats. So, we know this. And we've seen how much she bares herself to the various girls and women of the story - Vivi, Lola, Shirahoshi, Wanda (and, of course, Robin)... I think someone who's not as aloof as Robin, who is warm and oozes comfort, who lets her in and lets her be herself, in all her entirety - that's someone she'd fall for. A sprinkle of mommy issues, a pinch of traumatizing childhood and you have the perfect requirements for a partner who can get weirdly clingy, quickly dependent. And if you let her 'run free' with her little gang of rascals, just provide a safe base to come back home to, unwavering affection and love - she'll never want to say goodbye. She might not realize it herself, but she needs that stability. Comfort. Warmth. It won't take her long to feel like she can't go on without you, without the way you make her feel. Sure, her feelings for the Straw Hats are grand, but you... you're just a touch... closer to her, feed that need to be loved and cherished a little better, a bit more intimately. Nami doesn't look the part, but I think she'd be fiercely protective over you and she's incredibly scared of losing you, ultimately. To you, she's probably nothing but gentle, almost pouty when you're saying goodbye for whatever reason, but to others, she's so different. That calculating, knife-sharp girl, who knows how to use everything she has to get an advantage.

[rileys-battlecats]

If you haven’t already answered this yet, can I ask why MicaClan chose the territory they currently live in? It seems like an interesting decision to choose such a different area to try to survive in. Although the more lush area probably means less droughts and higher elevation could possibly mean less flood risks, avoiding the two major issues that caused them to move in the first place. They still have to relearn everything though in such a different area. Or was there less thought behind it and it was more just get to higher ground to avoid the water and then they got tired of traveling and decided to stop once they were sufficiently high up?

Also can I ask what kind of border threats they faced when establishing their new territory? Were there other groups of cats? Was it mostly predators and dangerous animals? Did dogs or twolegs pose a challenge to their borders?

Sorry I kinda have a lot of questions haha I just really like your story and characters and settings and everything and wanna know all I can about them and get a deeper knowledge of everything

I AM SO HAPPY TO RECEIVE THIS QUESTION

You're right that there were material aspects as to why they chose to settle where they did; the mountain seemed like a good place to avoid any more catastrophic floods with the high elevation, the spring-fed stream that runs through the territory also seemed like a guarantee against any future droughts, and the area had plenty of prey to feed the clan. But the real deciding factor was the soil!

The idea was basically that they found a place where the very ground seemed to be blessed by Starclan. I've written about this on the blog before, but it was wayyy way back and I haven't mentioned it again since then HAHA, but I based Micaclan's territory on a place I used to hike every now and again. The area used to be the location of a mica mine, and the ground there still sparkles with all the tiny shards of minerals in the ground (which is actually why they're called Micaclan; I gave them the name before I'd fully decided on the clan not being from the area originally lol). So they basically were like "if this isn't a sign from Starclan then I don't know what is" and set up camp! It ended up being the right choice in the end, because they found the Moonmirror in the abandoned mine on their territory, which gave them much needed access to Starclan (even if they can't use it outside of emergencies).

For border threats, I imagine them dealing with all sorts of things, especially in the beginning when they were just establishing their borders. I think of micaclan's territory being far enough from human civilization that they don't have to worry about construction or cars or anything, but close enough that they have a human hiking trail acting as one of their borders, or at least having a hiking trail close enough that they have to deal with the occasional stray dog or human. In addition to this, predators like black bears or coyotes would make trouble for the clan, and maybe a mountain lion drifted through the territory at one point (which would have been a harrowing time indeed).

As for rogues or other groups of cats, I think they might've brought that trouble with them! It's hard to conceal a big group of cats traveling in search of a new territory, and I think they drew some unwanted attention on their way up to the mountain. Maybe other groups noted them, and decided to let the strangers do the hard work of staking out a good territory before swooping in to take their place? I don't think there were any other cats living where Micaclan ends up, so they wouldn't be contesting land with any other resident cats. Those that threatened their new borders were usually looking to try to take their place. Basically they were like "so the weirdos you pegged as 'death within the month' 5 moons ago are actually now thriving and looking well-fed and healthy living on the mountain? I guess it can't be THAT dangerous, why don't we live up there instead? they can find somewhere else again, they're obviously good at finding nice territories."

the general gossip on micaclan as a group through the years basically goes like this: I heard there was a big group (a clan?) passing through looking to set up a new territory, hope they don't settle here -> apparently that big clan that passed through a few moons back is living further up the mountain? wonder how long it'll be before they're eaten by bears -> there's a big group of cats living further up the mountain, maybe the mountain makes for a good territory after all... -> there's a weird cat cult up the mountain and if you step on their turf they will Kick Your Ass

[flibbertygigget]

Ok so I'm fiddling around with a version of Company in my head that's like,,, still set in the 70s (at the very least implicitly, a la 2006 Company), but one of the girlfriends is a boyfriend. Like, I think it could work.

There's a huge amount of emotional distance between Bobby and the couples in the text - so much of Bobby's arc is wrapped up in his desire for the intimacy that a committed relationship would bring while at the same time he doesn't want the risk that that level of emotional intimacy would bring. "Being Alive" is the resolution of this, obviously - "too close" and "too deep" goes from something to fear to something to want (while still fearing, always fearing, but the fear doesn't overwhelm the want). His friendships and romantic relationships are all surface level - he keeps himself at a distance, an amused observer in his own life to keep from risking the potential hurt that intimacy could bring.

Which, if he's closeted to varying degrees with different friends (and this could easily be shown just through giving a fake name for the boyfriend in some circumstances and not in others), really works well with his arc. Of course he keeps himself at an implicit distance - he's always on the knife's edge of being rejected, both by his friends for his queerness or his partners for his bisexuality. Just watching and asking questions and never talking about himself beyond quips and safe anecdotes is easier and safer, even though it's killing him emotionally.

The boyfriend being Marta or April would work in different ways with the text. Marta because it would be an easy switch - Marty to Marta - that could have him slip with the fake name in ways that the audience would catch but the couples realistically wouldn't. Plus the idea of the one boyfriend being this fun younger twink really Tracks - he finds partners who allow him to put a wall up between him and the idea of commitment: Kathy because what they want out of life is so fundamentally different, April because of her job, and Marta/Marty because they're at fundamentally different stages of life.

April would be a good switch-to-boyfriend because a) the scene where he questions her/him about the roommate would get instantly funnier and more serious all at the same time and b) April is the most serious potential partner during the "present" of Company, which would be an interesting wrinkle considering the time period and Bobby's arc.

And, obviously, the various degrees of closetedness would make act 2 really hit. First with the "homosexual experience scene" - in my head Bobby would be implied to be the most closeted with Peter and Susan, so the fact that Peter's implied to have discussed his gayness with Susan and stayed partners-in-some-respects after the divorce would be wild in terms of Bobby's perception of his friendships with not just them but all the couples. The idea that he might be able to be more emotionally open with all his friends due to the rapidly changing attitudes of the time period and his own misreading of his friends is both devastating, because maybe he didn't have to feel so "alone, not alive" this whole time, but also liberating. Bobby admitting that he has Had A Homosexual Experience goes from kind of a gag to one of the linchpins of his arc.

In my head the Joanne scene after "Ladies Who Lunch" would combine both the OG (better) version of that scene and the 2020 Cuck Me version of that scene. Like,,, if he's been implied to be the most out to Joanne and Larry, combining the two would work - hell, rejig it to be a "hey, want to be poly with us?" kind of thing if that suits your vibe. If the Homosexual Experience scene is a breakthrough in regards to platonic intimacy in this version, the Taking Care scene can be a breakthrough in regards to romantic intimacy, where Bobby finally discovers what he wants in a committed romantic relationship, finally less afraid of what opening up would mean in all aspects of his life. And then he sings "Being Alive".

Idk, I'd have to really work on it irl to figure out exactly how it would work, but I think it would be interesting.