#it's been so long since i've posted an actual Thing (TM) that i don't remember how to tag anything LOL

[nohaijiachi]

Why I Think The Fandom Has Been Doing Aziraphale Dirty Ever Since Season 1 And It's Only Gotten Worse With Season 2 And It's Killing Me Inside

Before we get into the subject matter of the title let me preface a couple of things:

1- All that will follow is, big surprise, my opinion and my interpretation of this character. Do I think I am The One And Only Who Gets The Blorbo Right and that my ideas are 100% the way the author(s) intended to convey the character? No.

More likely than not the way I see Aziraphale could be intensely different from the way Authorman sees him, or Actorman sees him, and I don't think that my interpretation is necessarily any more correct than anybody's else.

That said, if I also did not think that I am, in fact, correct on a certain level, I wouldn't have bothered forming such a thought out opinion of Aziraphale in the first place, nor would be sitting here, writing this post that I can already tell is going to be entirely too long and might probably ruffle some feathers.

So I'll be writing the rest of this post with the caveat that I while I do think my interpretation correct, I'm also not trying to change anybody's mind nor to discredit anybody's else interpretation of Aziraphale. We can sit here in the sandpit and hold different opinions and still be able to build sandcastles together, it really isn't that deep at the end of the day; I can assure you, I'm not here to fight nor cause fights with this one.

2- With the above point, comes also the fact that I won't bother continuously saying "In my opinion" for the rest of this post. You already know that. So, if something will come across as a bit caustic, do know that it is very much tongue in cheek and I am poking a bit of fun at general fannish habits that I am also very much quote-unquoute 'guilty' of having partaken into, and will partake into again plenty of times in the future, I'm sure.

So, with that: Here's Why I Think The Fandom Has Been Doing Aziraphale Dirty Ever Since Season 1 And It's Only Gotten Worse With Season 2 And It's Killing Me Inside

A large part of the people comprising this fandom prefers Crowley. There, I said it.

This fandom's preference blatantly skews toward Crowley. Can we admit that openly? Let's admit that openly.

To be clear, this isn't meant to be an accusation or recrimination or any other -ation you can think of, I am merely stating matter-of-factly a phenomena I've observed in the last four years.

It is also not a wrong nor bad thing in any way, shape or form. I adore Crowley myself. I love them both so much it's unreal.

But I started with that because I think it is very much a symptom of the fact that a lot of people don't get Aziraphale.

I remember back with S1 there had been plenty of times when I found myself reading discussions and opinion exchanges about Aziraphale and Crowley, their dynamics, all the things that went unsaid behind the things that were said, and found myself genuinely surprised by seeing how some people interpreted certain moments wildly different from how I personally saw them.

I look back at that and I think "Oh, sweet summer child". Nothing could have prepared me from the onslaught of takes about Aziraphale that make me go "Good lord, what???" in the wake of S2, and the infamous Last Fifteen.

Now because I don't want to be pointing fingers at specific things and risk upsetting somebody more than I already am by being open in admitting that, guys, yes, some of the takes y'all have been sharing make me go "Yikes(tm)", I'll move on the interesting part and what I would actually love to discuss, aka cracking Aziraphale's head open and see what that actual fuck is going on in there.

Another preface: Because this duo is intrinsically linked and woven together it is downright impossible to only focus on Aziraphale without also mentioning Crowley, so... Let me circle back to our fav demon bae for a sec, here.

I think the reason why it seems that a larger part of the fandom favors Crowley is because I feel like Crowley is a much easier character to grasp. He is very open in his thoughts and feelings, at any given moment us, the audience, have a much easier time watching a scene and sort of ruminating in the back of our heads about Crowley's motivations for saying the things he says and doing the things he does.

That isn't to say Crowley is a less complex character than Aziraphale. They are very much equally complex and multifaceted individuals with their strengths and weaknesses, their issues and the way they each cope with them, how differently they approach their existence and so on and so forth.

But whereas Crowley as a character presents itself with a certain dynamism and a far more outward openness about his complexity, Aziraphale does the exact opposite; we can say Aziraphale is downright hermetic about it.

For us, the audience, he presents a challenge that requires a good deal of thought being put into him to see over the facade he presents at a more superficial level; he requires time and effort to fully dismantle him in our minds to try and see what makes him thick (other than his thighs), and thus I think it is entirely natural that more people latch on the far easier to identify-with, and relate-to, Crowley.

And that is the inevitable consequence of everything that makes Aziraphale... Well, Aziraphale.

So, where to start? Let's try and jot down what Aziraphale truly is at his core.

He is a contradiction.

This man-shaped being is a walking contradiction, constantly existing in a state of being coated in three thousand layers of misdirection and obfuscation and double thinking.

Why is that? Well. He's an angel.

Aziraphale loves being an angel. It is a tenet of his entire existence and something he cherishes. He wants, so very much, to be his ideal of what a good angel is: An entity who is kind and loving and understanding and forgiving.

Of course us, the audience, know that is utter bullshit, because we know angels can be individuals just as complex as the humans Aziraphale loves so much, with all their inherent flaws and capability for cruelty. And, on a certain level, Aziraphale knows that too.

So there we have it, one element of contradiction: Aziraphale wants to think that angels are always Good and Righteous and Never Wrong; Aziraphale knows that angels aren't, in fact, always Good and Righteous and, by god, can they make plenty of mistakes, too.

What else? How about Aziraphale sitting there, being in love with a demon, fully knowing that at the end of the day demons really ain't that different from angels, and also desperately hanging onto the concept of Good vs Bad.

And he sits there, existing with these two contrasting idea equally taking space in his mind, neither side ever capable of taking over the other.

What else do we have? Aziraphale loves God and wants so hard to believe in Her love for humanity and Her ineffable plan, and Aziraphale also time and again does things that very blatantly go against Her will, lies to Her face, and Doubts. He Doubts, a lot, and that requires the capital letter because those Doubts are what spur him in going against everything he's ever told to believe in order to do the right thing.

Aziraphale's very existence is a constant push-and-pull of things he wants to believe and things he knows are real; things he's told to do and things he wants to do. That's how we get "My side" and "there's a bit of good in you" and "you are the bad guys".

And nothing he's lived through has managed to break him out of this unhealthy way of existing quite yet; that's why he acts the way we see him act in the Edinburgh flashback in S2, or at the start of S1 when Crowley has to ease Aziraphale into the idea of trying to stop Armageddon with the usual song and dance of "temptation" and "plausible deniability" and "you'd be thwarting me", even though from the start we can tell there's a little part of Aziraphale who is clearly not at ease with the idea of the end of the world, and once he's been given 'permission' by Crowley nudging him, he is all the way in with the whole saving the world business, not take-backsies.

Both the moments I mentioned here are very important for different reasons, but of the two is very much the Edinburgh flashback that gets a lot more flack by the fandom and is blatantly misunderstood, which I think is the inevitable consequence of that minisode immediately following the glorious, beautiful, heartbreaking piece of art that is the "A companion to owls" minisode.

I've seen a lot of people lamenting that Aziraphale acts obnoxiously in the Edinburgh flashback and, yeah. He does. But I feel like the fact that we are seeing this after watching Aziraphale struggle his way through saving Job's children, even being willing to go to Hell for it, is a though act to follow and probably soured Edinburgh-Aziraphale for a lot of people, made them think that the character had regressed instead of progressing.

But, see, the way he acts is wholly congruous with who Aziraphale is and has always been and keeps being up to the very end of S2. Yes, even after what he does for Job's children.

If you get down to it, Aziraphale had been ready to give up and let the children die, in episode 2. For a brief moment, after Crowley told him he 'longed to destroy the blameless children', Aziraphale was walking away, having tried all he thought he could try to do to stop this senseless act. That was until Crowley tested him by making the crows bleat, cuing Aziraphale to the fact that his impression of Crowley wasn't wrong, and the he could count on him to do the right thing.

To be clear, I don't want to undermine Aziraphale's action by only giving the credit to Crowley but... It is, also, only thanks to Crowley cajoling him and giving him the right excuses, that Aziraphale feels safe in doing what he's always wanted to do all along.

He'd wanted to save Job's children, and thought he couldn't until Crowley threw him that hell of a lifesaver. He wanted to save the world and thought he couldn't until Crowley nudged him on the path of plausible deniability.

He wanted to save Elspeth's eternal soul, blinding himself to the hardships she'd have to endure in her not-eternal life, and was smacked right in the face by the reality of human suffering multiple times.

The way Aziraphale acts in that flashback can't be a regression, because there never was a progression in the first place: He'd always walked the line between Heaven's and God's will and his own, personal morality and sense of justice.

By all means, if we look at Uz-Aziraphale and modern-day-Aziraphale at the start of S1, his reticence about the whole saving the world business should, by all means, appear as a regression as well. You mean to tell me that he'd been ready to become a demon for the sake of three mortal children, and then suddenly a handful of thousands years later when faced with the prospect of the whole world going up in flames he'd just be all like "Heaven will triumph over Hell and it will be all rather lovely"? Like, fuck off, Aziraphale, you lying double-thinker, you (/pos)

Aziraphale constantly exist while being at war with himself. Circumstances have allowed him to rebel the will of Heaven and God more or less safely time and again, but he never quite managed to break free entirely. He'd always ended up being reeled back in, being fed the party lines, being made to feel shame for his independent thinking, until it all becomes too much and he is forced to step back from that freedom he'd been inches away from grasping.

Back and forth, back and forth, never stopping.

And all of this, all of what he is, makes it so hard for us, the audience, to truly see him. To truly grasp him. To truly watch any given scene with him and figure out what he might be thinking or feeling.

To understand Aziraphale is to understand what he is not saying when he says something, which is a good deal harder to do than it is to understand and relate to a character like Crowley, who very much revel in saying exactly whatever the heck he thinks whenever he damn well pleases.

All those layers of obfuscation and misdirection and double thinking that Aziraphale coats himself in are as much an armor that makes it harder for the audience to understand him as they are his very own downfall because, good lord, if you exist like that, if you exist forced to keep things hidden from yourself, well... It's inevitable that at some point you are going to stumble into pitfalls of your own making.

And I love him for it.

So, there? I hope I managed to explain something with this post, and that it wasn't just the rambling of someone who spends way too much time thinking about her blorbos. To be clear, I don't think people who haven't spent as much time as me trying to dissect and better understand Aziraphale's character are like, dumber than me or anything. It's just that this pair of angelic-demonic blorbos take too much real estate in my mind, lol.

Feel free to let me know your opinion and if you think I am wildly off mark and my Take Is Bad. I might answer, I might not, it all depends on time and my mood ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜

[lancrewizzard]

Please tell me you’re not a gaiman fan because it seems like you have issues with him and goddd me too

Okay this is a complicated question to answer and has got both more and less so in the last couple of weeks. Since there's still information coming out about the sexual assault allegations, I don't want to say too much now and then have to backtrack hugely, but even the very best case scenario makes his behaviour scummy as all hell. And I don't believe it will turn out to have been the best case scenario. So we'll just bundle the whole thing up with "yikes" and move on to things I've had a long enough time to think about and put proper thoughts around.

A month ago I'd have said that he seems like a decent bloke, but seems to have real trouble understanding experiences he can't relate to. The foreword to his short story collection Trigger Warning is a great example of this. He spent a while wittering on about his misgivings about trigger warnings as a concept, then remembered he knew someone with a severe phobia of tentacles and conceded that they had their place. He then proceeded to give a very dumb non-warning which completely failed to mention how something like one in three of the collected stories involved sexual violence. Great job Neil.

I already mentioned in the tags of that previous post my issues with his obvious lies to TV Omens fans who don't know any better. It's just annoying and stupid to lie about something that unimportant, unless it was actually an attempt to get disillusioned Book Omens fans back on side (in which case, wow that failed spectacularly).

And now I realise that everything else is about specific works of his, so I've stuck it under a cut if you don't want to see me bitch about Good Omens adaptational changes changes for the umpteenth time or go on a short heartfelt ramble about what was almost a perfectly crafted short story.

I'll be blunt, I only saw S1 of Good Omens, and while I enjoyed it, it was an incompetent adaptation. The fucking radio play managed to tell the same story with greater faithfulness and more elegance without a 3rd person narrator (and had the brilliant idea of having the opening and closing credits performed by Agnes Nutter's voice actress). Compare and contrast the show making God the 3rd person narrator and exposition dump, and how that changes the whole story from a humanist tale where people are all people and whose choices matter, where God's grand plan night not even exist, to a story where everything implicitly or explicitly is going to God's plan under God's watchful eye.

And I will never comprehend how Gaiman successfully argued to have a whole set built to film Agnes Nutter's death, but then said that for practical reasons they couldn't have Crowley revive the dove. The angel accidentally killed a dove and the demon intentionally revived it! It's so thematically important! Neil why are you like this? Do you understand your own works or was Pterry the only one of you who put actual thought into things' meanings?! HOW DO YOU FUCK THIS UP NEIL? I UNDERSTOOD ITS IMPORTANCE WHEN I WAS 15 NEIL!

Ahem. Moving on.

Neverwhere is the most recent Gaiman book I've read and it's a good showcase of all the issues I have with his writing. The protagonists are dragged along by the plot, they're Special TM by birth or fate, not by the choices they make. The world they inhabit is wonderful, detailed, and vibrant, but I found that far more interesting than the protagonists inhabiting it. We got a random rape backstory for a girl whose main role was to die so the male protagonist feels bad. The way Gaiman described every female character bar one in terms of their attractiveness made me unsure if it was him or the protagonist who was weird about women (although I guess I have the answer to that now). Funny how Gaiman didn't shy away from things and people smelling bad right up until a hot woman who had been fighting, running, and falling over in a swamp apparently smelled not of sweat and stagnant water, but "musk". Really normal, that. There were wonderful descriptions and great moments, but after that first SA moment I couldn't relax and enjoy the ride because I was always on edge waiting for the next time Neil felt the need to be Like That.

Then there's my beloved, hated The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains. It's almost the perfect neat fairy-fable where every little detail is paid off later. It's a story of grief and vengeance and greed. It's about the price of fairy magic. And it has a pointless scene stuck in of marital rape. It has no purpose. It does nothing for the pacing or themes or characters. It never comes up again. I hate it.

Stuff can be horny or harrowing or both, I don't care, but Gaiman just drops SA into things for no clear reason as a generic Bad Thing Happen, Make Tone Dark. It's distasteful and inelegant. It cheapens the rest of the writing by its presence.

The simple truth is that Neil Gaiman seems to have a near pathological urge to shove sexual violence into places it has no need or right to be. It's disgusting but sadly not shocking that this apparently includes his personal life.

[lunaechaos]

Agatha All Along spoilers and the /possible/ identity of The Ouija Board (tm) spirit

(i've never done a theory post before so cut me so slack)

hello Agatha lovers! hope we're all good and frying our brains to come up with theories and analysis for the show, aren't we?

in light of the two episodes and the new teasers/tv spots that came out after them introducing Alice's mother as an actual character, i think we can assume she is the spirit the coven tries to contact via the ouija board. but why?

first, Alice's mother was revealed since the very beginning, which is very funny because i could swear this was Alice. this is literally from the first teaser trailer ever released for Agatha All Along, the new teaser and the ending credits of the show:

Lorna Wu to you guys.

we know for a fact from the 2nd episode that Alice's mother is lost inside the road and probably trapped in it, so Alice's wish must presumably be related to finding her. this is the part where things get a little blurry for me, because i have a few ideas as to how the mother-daughter reunion could happen:

while Alice finds her mother in her own trial, the disco inferno one, i don't think her appearance is the result of it being successfully completed, considering everything that also happens in it (remember the red demon-thing everyone?).

i'm also not sure it's just Lorna's spirit manifesting for them as i've seen some people suggest, because this would mean she is already dead. all that we know about her is that she is missing and lost inside the witches' road, not deceased.

if she really is helping Alice on her trial, then i believe something goes wrong (who could've imagined it) and she perhaps sacrifice herself to protect Alice? there were early theories that pointed out that the red demon could be Alice, but now i'm tending to believe it is actually Lorna.

there was a theory that Alice would die in this episode, which doesn't hold true at all. many sources who have watched the first four episodes have confirmed that the disco scene (aka Alice's trial) takes place in the 4th episode, and reliable leakers say that the ouija one is in the 5th. while we know Alice isn't with the rest of the coven in the scene where they're need-for-speed-ing on their broomsticks, we can only assume she's either gotten off of the road or died somewhere during episode 5.

now, let's talk about the ouija scene, shall we?

admittedly, i don't have much to work with this time except a bit of the lyrics of the ballad's sacred chant version. i'm sure most of us are streaming this song to the point it might get a bb hot100 entry, but after hearing Jac say that the entire show is based upon the ballad's lyrics, it's obvious that it contains copious amounts of foreshadowing. now:

"if one be gone, we carry on spirit as our guide"

this bit intrigued me because it clearly implies that the coven can be guided by the spirits of dead witches who walked the road. would it be the spirits of only the witches of the current coven doing the road? the spirits of all the witches who have died on it? both? i don't really know.

what i do know is that contacting Alice's mother, a witch who's been trapped on the road for god knows how long and probably knows quite a lot about it, who's composed the most famous version of the ballad and who's just died, does make sense. it might rely on a lot of things happening? yes, but i do believe it makes more sense than the theories that they're contacting Sharon/Mrs. Hart, Evanora or even Wanda (as much as i love de idea of Wanda giving Agatha hell even spiritually).

it's really either that (them contacting a specific person, which is usually how you do in ouija) or a random spirit.

anyway, this is valid as long as Marvel doesn't release another bunch of revealing teasers because my god, they're not slowing down at all. or as long as the episodes come out and i'm not proven miserably wrong. some final considerations without any particular order that are related to this post:

if Alice really dies, then she either dies at the ouija board house or by the hands of the Salem Seven. i'm inclined to believe it's the latter.

if Alice doesn't die, then she really has had enough of Agatha's ass and the murderous road and just peaces off of the road (which i think is unlikely considering the protective nature of her magic and character).

we know that the 3rd episode is Jennifer's trial, 4th is Alice's, 6th is Lilia's and 7th or 8th is Agatha's. 9th is the special, which i'm not sure if it's at all related to the story of the show.

which makes me wonder: where is Billy's trial? i'm actually tending to believe the 5th episode is where his trial takes place. Rio doesn't have a trial because of her status as green witch, and the ouija house is the only one not elemental-coded (and that weird Hydra-like facility, but i think this one is related to Agatha somehow). Jennifer's trial is related to water as we can see from the scenes where she's being drowned, Alice's trial is related to fire because of obvious reasons, and Lilia's trial is related to air (everyone flying and falling around, yeah?). which leaves this particular trial, and i do think it's a trial because of the outfits and the house and all, quite out of place. so yeah, my bet is on the possibility of this actually being Billy's trial.

Jac Schaeffer please let me take you to lunch i need to know what goes on inside your brain.

thank you for getting to the bottom of this long-ass post and i hope it's at least intelligible for y'all!

[fourseasonsfigs]

Don't Go to Work, I'll Take Care of You

I have been waiting and waiting for this fig set, which is funny, because I almost didn't buy it.

Gentle figthusiast, let's take a trip back in time - back to the days of yore, before October 15, 2022. Yes, that far back. It seems both like yesterday, and like ten years ago, in this strange warping of time that has occurred since the pandemic hit back in 2020. These figs went up for sale early September 2022, and I had hemmed and hawed over them for a while. If you've been reading for a while, you know I really don't prefer teary-eyed figs, and I knew nothing about either Zhang Min (Zhehan's character from Everyone Wants to Meet You) or Zhao Fanzhou (Gong Jun's character from The Love Equations). These looked like fairly plain figs, and while the name of them was super cute, I thought I could probably live without them.

At the time, I was at one of those inflection points (I've had a couple) where my heart wanted to collect all the figs, and my brain was aghast at the absolute pure insanity. My brain was trying to bargain with my heart by telling it that it could have all the figs that were Special, and Important, and had Meaning, and hey, maybe we didn't need ones we didn't necessarily know anything/care about.

But, thankfully, I had been down That Path before, and I knew where it led. It led to me finding out just how Special, and Important, and Meaningful those figs were that I didn't buy (via the story, or a Twitter post, or a picture) after sales had already closed, and me suffering paroxysms of regret. So I told myself, no, there's a story here, and I just haven't had a chance to watch the show and I don't want to Regret It (tm), so I bought them. But that being said, I promptly forgot about them, because I just didn't find them that interesting and I really wished Zhang Min was not so unhappy.

And then October 15, 2022 hit, and 61K words of the most incredibly perfect Zhoumin story landed at Ao3:

Cross Contamination: an Inadvertent Transfer of Materials and Affections

If I do nothing else with this blog but convince someone to read this story, it will be well worth it. I'm absolutely tempted to re-read it for the nth time (I don't dare put the actual number on the grounds it may incriminate me for how I'm obsessed with this story).

It may amuse you to know that as I was reading this and nearing the end, I actually was thinking about this fig set, how perfect it was, and congratulating myself on listening to my heart and buying them! I would have been crushed logging onto Xianyu immediately after finishing and buying it, no question, at whatever price, scalpers be damned.

I still have not watched either show, and I'm totally ok with that (I will eventually!), because frankly all I need is this story in my life. In brief, Zhang Min is a harried hotel CEO, and Fanzhou is a forensics college student. I won't spoil anything, but Zhang Min does seem to have had a tough run of things, and definitely could stand to not go to work and let Fanzhou take care of him. (Sometimes I think we could all stand to not go to work and let Fanzhou take care of us, but moving on!)

Let's have a few pics before we get started - and kick it off with Zhehan/Zhang Min:

And of course, the inspiration for the fig:

Mostly I know Everyone Wants to Meet You as the show where Zhang Zhehan looks exceptionally fine wearing suits and sporting a buzzcut. You know I am a proud member of Team Long-Hair Zhehan, but I have eyes.

And now Gong Jun/Fanzhou:

I don't remember college seniors looking like this, I'm just gonna say.

Here we have our favorite hotel magnate having a tough day, and here we also have our favorite big eyed, sweet-faced college senior. I must say the fig maker absolutely nailed Zhehan's teary pout! Poor guy!

That's right, Fanzhou, patiently listening when someone's had a hard day is always welcome.

I never like the side shots where they're facing away from each other! Maybe sometimes difficult secrets can only be said when someone isn't looking directly at you.

There we go, sometimes secrets are best told to walls with someone patiently and calmly sitting next to you. I see the fig maker decided to keep to the theme of Zhang Min's form fitting, slim-cut suit.

I'm trying out doing three-quarter angles on these fig photos now, I feel like we get some nice views this way.

We definitely do! I'll try to be consistent with this from here on out.

These figs sit decently well, but for all that you might think they'd be solidly stable, they're not tremendously so. Like they won't spontaneously fall over or anything, but it's one of those things where if you bumped the table or cabinet (hard) they might. I put them on fig stands and feel much better about it.

Hehe, Zhehan's buzz cut in fig form is always so funny to me!

I was so busy narrating the tale of my purchase of these figs that I neglected to put their packaging pic up first. These little guys came very securely wrapped and arrived perfectly in their plain white box.

Here's the box card - it's so cute! We have the cat and the tears on Zhang Min's side, and the puppy and hearts on Fanzhou's size. They're safe and cozy together!

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 225

Scene Count: 18

Rating: Husbands take care of each other!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[caswellseyes]

fic writer asks: 3, 4, 19, & 30!

hii ty for these!!

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

hmm probably not any specific fics, but the fandom in general, definitely! just in terms of headcanons and stuff, i definitely like to combine canon things + fanon things + whatever i think of on my own. i'm terrible at remembering which things are canon and which are widely accepted headcanons though lol

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

oh god i'm so far behind on fics but yes okay here we go

All my senses screaming at me (I'm not reading the signs wrong, am I?) by @michelangelinden - i'm only halfway through bc busy but i love love love this so far and i can't wait to finish it so i can scream about it properly

it's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes by @a-tomb-with-a-view and @chickwiththepurpleguitar - which is wonderful and i haven't stopped thinking about that scene at the end of chapter five since i first read it. still haven't fully processed it tbh but you know what so worth it

new instincts by halfwheeze (whose tumblr i don't know whoops) - i've been on a peterpatter kick recently and this one is just so cute. also, dragon!reggie my beloved

19. Do you edit your fics after you write them, or do you prefer to just hit post and run (because it’s someone else’s problem now)?

for oneshots, i don't edit at all till i'm in the ao3 post screen and my grammarly extension thingy pops up. i mostly just delete random spaces after italicised words, but sometimes i catch a typo or something so that's neat. for longer fics, i go through each chapter before posting just to make sure there aren't too many loose ends. generally, though, i don't edit much, as i find that just stresses me out and that's not fun. as long as it's (mostly) legible, it's done!

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

ohh okay this is from my christmas project (tm). it's from the first chapter of a boggie fic, from a scene set during reggie's first christmas in evergreen, where christmas is not so much a holiday as it is a state of mind:

While Reggie has gotten a good taste of Evergreen and its eternal holiday cheer at this point, he hasn’t actually celebrated Christmas here yet. Last year, he moved right after the holiday season. He’d been able to get a good room in the local B&B - which was named Blizten’s Bed & Breakfast, the first sign they took holidays seriously here - for his first few weeks, then moved into the small apartment he still calls home, but by the time he was settled, the Christmas trees had disappeared. Well. Some of the Christmas trees had disappeared. Evergreen still had a reputation to uphold, after all. There were plenty of trees and decorations scattered around year-round.

send me some asks from this fic writer ask game!

[lovebird17]

I posted 10,274 times in 2022

That's 2,686 more posts than 2021!

8 posts created (0%)

10,266 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@i-am-an-adult-i-swear

@birdburrito

@silverjirachi

@myliobatiste

I tagged 162 of my posts in 2022

#adhd - 7 posts

#like wtf - 3 posts

#add - 3 posts

#the netherlands - 3 posts

#excellent sponsored post op - 3 posts

#neurodivergent - 3 posts

#ah yes - 2 posts

#no - 2 posts

#ofmd - 2 posts

#like real people do - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#incidentally my mum and i finally got along once she divorced my dad and i started living with her full time in my late teens

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I am loving this function of being able to see all the tags people have added to posts. Prev tags? Sure, lemme check the notes.

5 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

#4

A post here reminded me of how much I love Hannah Gadsby.

[Angry white men] are like the canaries in the mine, aren't they? If they're having a tough time, the rest of us are goners.

9 notes - Posted January 19, 2022

#3

Me: oh, lovely, they're doing a fun thing with English lit, nice! Unfortunately I don't have time for it, I would have loved to partake. I have never actually read Dracula. I really should do that at some point.

Also me: finds the Dracula book I bought for my 19th century lit course and suddenly remembers the essay I wrote on the feminisation of Johnathan Harker.

Ah, yes, thank you, brain

40 notes - Posted July 9, 2022

#2

@xiaq my book arrived!!! I was kinda worried I wouldn't be able to find it here in the Netherlands, but my favourite bookstore came through and was able to order it for me 😁😁

Can't wait to read it and see how it's changed!

47 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So for all you people with executive dysfunction, specifically you ADHD folk, there's a trick I've been using for a while now to get out of it that I call the Lift-A-Finger™ (except, y'know, not actually TM, because in this economy???)

But what, Birdy, is the Lift-A-Finger™? I hear you ask. Well! You remember those times when you sat down and you tried to do something? You had a whole list of plans, you knew which order they had to go in, but your executive dysfunction simply made it impossible to actually do it? If you are anything like me, you might be suffering from this right now, as you are reading this.

And while your body refuses to cooperate, your mind is screaming bloody murder and demanding you lift a finger once in your goddamn life, you (insert one of the many things people have said about you which were wrong that you have since internalised)!!!

So, instead of doing any of the tasks that seem so incredibly insurmountable and impossible, instead I want you to take a moment, do as your brain demands and literally lift a finger.

That's it. You stop your doomscrolling, your binge watching, your game replays for a second, and you consciously lift a finger.

This is not an impossible task, it is not even a hard task, or a long task, or a boring one. It literally takes a second and then you can continue what you're doing. Except. Now you've done A Thing. You get to cross off one of your to-dos (of which you probably have many) and this makes it so much easier to get up to do another thing.

It is also an incredibly effective tool at recognising your mental state. I have had moments where lifting a finger took me minutes. Actually acknowledging that yes, tasks are hard, made it easier for me to relax my load a bit and do the few things I could do. But I've also had moments where I thought of it, did it immediately and nothing changed. That's okay, too. I just had to grab a different tool to get up and do what I needed to do.

TL;DR executive dysfunction? Stop for a second and literally lift a finger with Lift-A-Finger™!

272 notes - Posted October 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[willowser]

you feel like home (you're like a dream come true)—

bakugou x reader

wc: 3k+

tags: SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 359+, explicit language, angst, this is trash garbage but it's how i'm coping

Dynamight wins the For-All Selfless Service Award.

A wet, cement-like dread fills your belly at the sound of his name echoing across the atrium, thunderous and so powerful that, for a split-second, you fear it will shatter the glass ceiling.

It's like the awakening of an old God, one that wanted to be left well enough alone; summoning him is a swarm of night-black clouds, filled with ample rain to drown all those that dared disturb his slumber. Not a breath is spared as you all wait for the downfall.

Beside you, Masaru shifts, turning in his chair to peer out over the sea of well-dressed tables and shining Heroes, as if he's lost his own. It's not until Red Riot shuffles sheepishly across the lit stage, waving shyly as he accepts the golden FA Best Jeanist is cradling gently in his hands.

There's a hint of hesitation before the retired Pro relinquishes it, a small exchange that's lost to the low blooming chatter across the ballroom. Kirishima beams a signature smile as he takes it and has to lean down into the mic, like the gentle giant he is.

Almost in unison, the room heaves a collective sigh; disaster avoided.

"I know Dynamight is so honored to receive this…honor,"

It's been a long time since you've seen him.

"So on his behalf, I want to thank everyone that has supported him all these years—"

Been a long time since anyone has.

Bakugou's been out-stationed for a half-decade, maybe more, but you can still remember the tension lining his face in the flat light of the train station. In public, with his parents and friends and their ready goodbyes.

All he'd given you was an insincere glare, half a hug, and a gritted demand to call him later, once he'd arrived at his new agency. It seemed a silly request; he's always been terrible about voicing how he feels, maybe a little smoother on the phone and out of sight, but just as stilted and unsure as ever.

On the high definition screens above the stage, photos of him shuffle, too reminiscent of a memorial to settle your upset. Stills from recorded footage of his takedowns and captures, of his rescues. The same ID picture on his Hero profile, from when he was 22, and his graduation photo. A smile haunts your face; he's never been one for cameras.

Masaru settles back into his seat, straightens his tie and shrugs at the team, who are all watching him with crest-fallen faces. You try to stay neutral, avoiding all their gazes as you fiddle with an eloquently folded napkin on the table.

Like a child, some giddy part of you hoped to see him take the stage, accept the award in all his glory. Unashamed and confident as ever, not so disheartened by his loss, because that's always been Bakugou.

But a small part of you is relieved; he's not a stage monkey and it wouldn't be Bakugou either, to give a rehearsed speech of false thanks. Blowing it off, a fuck you to what remains of the Comission—that's more like it. You want to believe it means some things haven't changed.

The show plays on without another hitch, something that bothers you, and when your coworker leans in to whisper a harmless "I wonder where he's at", you are up and abandoning the table, set on a mission of unknown expectation. The wants in your body are all coalescing into one another—to find him, to never see him again, to come clean about how you feel, whatever that may be—becoming a resounding overlap of voices that set you to autopilot.

You heard his voice last nearly six months ago, when Masaru called his number on speakerphone so the team could sing him a happy birthday. It was met with ill-tempered complaint, irritated at his father blowin' up my phone for nothin', but Masaru was smiley as ever, unaffected.

How jealous you were; if only the tone of his voice could mean so little to you.

It's something you remembered often in the middle of the night, when you would turn to the empty space of your bed and recall how pliable he was, whenever he worked up the courage to stay with you. Bakugou would let you kiss his cheeks or poke at his stomach or hold his hand—little affections he was too resistant to in the daytime. He would always claim to be half-asleep and unaware, but you'll never forget the red gleam of his eyes as he watched you through his long, dark lashes.

When you come into the open lobby of the hotel, you find it astonishing to see his solid figure at the bar-top, suit jacket haphazardly draped over the chair he's in; it's rare that he drinks, only on few occasions with Masaru and the requisite glass of champagne at events such as these—though he doesn't attend many. After everything that's happened, all that's been said in his wake, to see him now is—

Not Godly. Just a man.

You sit to his left, without a word. Maybe if you were a better person, you could say that it was for his benefit, that you're offering the space for him to reveal himself at his own choice—and while those things aren't untrue, the matter of the fact is that you don't think you're ready to see it just yet.

There's only a half-empty glass of water in front of him, and he's drawing lazy, mindless doodles into the frost with his left hand. His right arm is still entirely bandaged, wrapped up in a sling he's keeping close to his chest.

If he recognizes you at all when you sit down, he acknowledges nothing, minutely raising a shoulder as if to curl further into himself. The bartender takes your request for a glass of water, too, and at the sound of your timid voice, Bakugou stills completely.

For a long time, you've thought about this moment. What you would say upon seeing him again. There's a script somewhere in the ridges of your mind that's been perfected, one you've poured over and over again on sleepless nights, when you felt alone and angry and hated him.

The last full conversation the two of you had was set up similarly; chock-full of tension, trying to hide from the obvious as it made space between you. How unfair it felt, to be mad over something that hadn't gotten the chance to blossom just yet.

No point in tryin'. Gonna be gone for, shit, I don't know. Should just find someone else.

You felt ashamed for loving him so badly. For wanting him more than anything and being unwilling to voice it.

All you care to say now is, "It's so good to see you again."

It directs him to you immediately, though when you dare to look up, he turns, ducking his chin on his right side. The very notion of it makes you sick; not the wreckage itself, but what it's done to him, how it must make him feel if he can't even look at you.

To be so afraid of it initially wells a guilt the size of his tight fist in your chest. How selfish. How vain.

Bakugou tries to speak, but has to clear his throat once. "You—got some weird thing with my dad, or what?"

You let out a sudden spark of laughter, bewildered at the question. You make a face, considering, and take a sip of water. "I mean, he is pretty handsome."

"You're disgusting."

A balloon of relief airs in your lungs as you laugh again; some things never change. From the corner of his eye, the sound draws his attention again, gaze jumping from your face to your dress and back to the safety of his glass.

"No," you tell him, "I'm on his team designing costumes, and stuff."

A wave of embarrassment washes over you that he didn't even know about your career. With as much time as your work squad spends with the Bakugou family, you would think that you would have been mentioned, at least once.

In fact, you're certain it must have been brought up; Masaru cares too much. Buys you special edition mugs on your birthday and brings coffee for everyone on those early mornings, is the last to leave some days. On the news that morning, when they'd broadcasted the battle—Dynamight's Downfall?—you were the first person he'd looked at before rushing off to find his wife.

Either Bakugou never wanted to hear about it, you, or he's just scrounging for conversation.

Silence settles as you ponder. When you come back to the here and now, you take in what you can of him; the smooth plane that he allows you of his face, the few faint scars that have appeared in the time since you last were together; his hair is a little shorter now, albeit just as ashen and wild, not tamed in the slightest; the top two open buttons of his shirt, and the tie that barely hangs around his neck. You're surprised he even put it on.

It dawns on you how much he must have changed over the years, even before all this. How much you've missed. Traitorous tears sting the backs of your eyes and you have to sniff to keep a handle on your composure, and not a second of it goes unnoticed by Bakugou; you become aware of the anxious jerk of his leg as he bounces it, how he shifts and curls and clears his throat.

Begrudgingly, he murmurs, "'m not takin' that damn award."

You hum with assent, leaning forward to cross your arms on the bar, prop your chin in your palm. "I don't blame you, it's like," you shake your head, thinking, "'Thank you for your service. Sorry you almost died.'"

He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head as he takes a drink of water. "For fucking real."

You'd said it carelessly as a joke to ease the tension, settle the nerves bubbling in your stomach, but now that the words are out, the mention has you feeling ill again.

It's all anyone has been talking about for days: Bakugou’s damage, how much he must have suffered, how he'll never be the same again. To hear it, and then to speak of the calamity to the man himself—it adds weight, that slow-drying cement.

Selfishly, you think of him before, when you were both young and standing at the precipice of something neither of you knew how to handle. If you'd known what you know now, you wouldn't have let him walk away. You wouldn't have agreed quietly, broke your own heart because you were afraid.

Another wave of emotions swallows you, and no matter how fast you blink or how far back you tilt your head, the tears rise and fall.

If you speak any louder than a whisper, you'll crack. "I was with your dad that day, we all were, because he always leaves the news on, you know? Keeps it—keeps it muted in the workshop, and when he—when the volume went up and we all looked and—" you frown, hard and dissolving, and hate how it must make you look. "And all I could think about was all the things I never said to you that I—"

In a flash, Bakugou shoves away from the bar, grabbing his jacket as he rounds the chair and mutters, "I can't listen to this right now."

You have to slap a hand over your mouth to hold back the sob that threatens to ruin you, but the fissures run deep, echo down to your bones.

Some things never change; he's always had one foot out the door with you, ready to run at the first sign of that all-encompassing feeling he didn't know how to escape. On the rare nights he allowed himself to spend with you—even then he wore a deep frown, tucked his face into the crook of your neck as if he wanted to stay buried there. Held you tightly, enough to leave little reminders long after he was gone.

The first time he'd kissed you, he shouldn't have and you both knew that. After graduation, waning in the shadow of his looming departure. The shitty studio apartment you rented, that cost more than it was worth; Kirishima and Bakugou agreed to help move what few things you had at the dorms, what was left over at your parent's house. It wasn't much, but the process went much smoother with the two of them.

You'd spent most of the summer together, by chance, and all of your efforts went into diverting the feelings that threatened to grow under your surface. Most everyone that you knew was quick to issue a warning: Bakugou wasn't interested. In all the time they'd known him in school, very little of his attention went to girls and dating, and setting your sights on him was a doomed task.

At that point, you'd refused to acknowledge that's what you'd done; Bakugou made sure everyone got home safely and not just you; he got lunch with Kiri and Mina just as often as you two did; he didn't look at you in the dark any special way, so close on the couch as a movie danced on the TV screen.

It must have been an accident—that's what you tried to tell yourself for a long time.

After the boxes were moved in and Kirishima was gone, he stood in your tiny kitchen and claimed to hate it. Opened the cabinets and poked at your oven and tested the temperature of your freezer, looked through the narrow window that offered a view of—nothing: the back of a small pharmacy.

You asked him what was wrong and his face twisted up, like he was going to be sick or cry and then he grabbed you. Hands trembling against your face and tangling in your hair, lips clumsy and harsh, furious like always. Like it was his last chance.

Half a decade later, more than, and you still swell at the thought of him.

You wipe a hand under your eyes gingerly, wary of your airbrushed makeup, before sliding off the chair. The rest of the team has probably conjured up all manner of conspiracies as to where you are, and perhaps you should tell Masaru of his son's state.

When you turn to retreat, however, Bakugou is standing there. Not ten feet from you, like he meant to run before thinking better of it. Fully open. Bare.

Human.

The right half of his face is still tender, shiny and raw, and his eye is ringed in red. It's jarring; Bakugou has always been a pretty boy, despite his animosity towards the label, and the tabloids stay littered with mentions of him and his dangerously good looks.

There's been nothing but speculation about how he's come out and you'd been admittedly nervous, because you were afraid to find that you were more vain than you'd ever known, unable to look upon what remains of the boy you knew.

But to see it so blatant; the untouched side of his face in comparison to what's been war-torn.

All you can think is—

"I'm so glad you're still here."

You don't miss the shine that waters his left eye or how hard he swallows, averting his gaze even further. When you step up to him, he doesn't resist you, only lets out a breath you feel as you run your hands across the marble of his chest.

Despite everything, you waver with a watery laugh that captures him again, because you mean it. All the years and anger and hope and terror and silence and waiting—it holds no candle to him, here and alive and looking at you as he did in your kitchen that day.

Carefully as you can, you wind yourself up in him, around his sling and neck and pressed as close as you can be, and it's not until you nose against his throat that he wraps his arm around you. Tight, like it might be his last chance.

"You," he murmurs, and you can feel how hard he's clenching his jaw from the way it digs into your cheek. "And the shit you didn't say?" Bakugou breathes in sharply, unaware of how deep his fingers dig into the skin your dress exposes. "All I could think about is what I did say, how fuckin' stupid—"

I'm leavin', so don't—I can't—just, don't expect anything from me.

All the long nights and dropped calls and heartbreak and distance—it holds no candle to him, here and alive and looking down at you through his dark, wet lashes.

You slip up onto your toes and kiss him as you've wanted to for years, as you were too afraid to; fingers gentle against his cheek, thumbing the edge of his jaw, passing all that you've kept from him through slow and purposeful lips.

It takes him off guard, which you expected, but only a moment passes before he's gripping you with intent, melding into you as his trembling hand goes to your neck. You can't help the smile you curl into, one he feels, and Bakugou huffs, annoyed, before slanting his head, parting your lips with his own as he dissolves.

It's foreign now, to what it was years ago. Unhurried, no longer afraid, giving instead of taking all that he could hold in both hands. Half a decade later, maybe more, and you swell at the promise of him, the thud of his still-beating heart as it echoes in your chest.

And then there's a loud roar of applause from down in the award show room and you freeze, suddenly put back into place as the sound of glasses clinking and heels on the tile and murmured conversation surrounds you.

"Sorry," you gasp, trying—and failing—to pull away as his hold tightens. Insistent, like it will never slacken again. "We're in public."

"Don't care," Bakugou rasps, gently butting his forehead against your own as he sighs, great and lax and slow. Just before he goes to kiss you again, he says, "'m just glad I'm still here."

[wavedream]

"why are you even doing this", an Explanation TM

Here on this sideblog you will find a project I have been threatening to do on various social media platforms since 2019. Absolutely nobody asked for this, but you're getting it anyway!

As to what said project actually is, this is going to be an issue-by-issue reread of and retrospective on the 2002-2004 Transformers G1 comic series published by now-defunct publisher Dreamwave Productions. There's two main motivations behind this project: the first is simply that it's been over a decade now since I so much as glanced at any of these comics, and when I did initially take a look way back in 2009 and 2010, I didn't pay much attention to them at all. I'm extremely curious as to how they read in 2021, and that's simple enough.

For a more detailed explanation as to why I thought this very excessive project was inexplicably a good idea, as well as some details on how I'm going about it, check below the read more.

The second reason I wanted to do this is that since I got into Transformers all those years ago, the recognizability of Dreamwave as a part of Transformers fandom history has really decreased. When I got into the franchise it was around five years since Dreamwave had gone under as a comics publisher. I learned about it as a bit of very recent fandom drama pretty much immediately. Dreamwave's extremely ignoble end was a matter of absolute infamy in the fandom, and brought up pretty regularly. People made a lot of Pat Lee jokes and expected you to know what they meant without explanation.

Since the mid-2010s, however, I've noticed that's changed a lot; partly because it's much older news now than it used to be, of course, but also because the combined success of IDW, Bayverse, Transformers Animated and Transformers: Prime at bringing in completely new fans since then means a lot of people around these days just never heard those years-long injokes about That One Trashfire TM, and since these comics can't be re-printed these days, that means there's not really a lot of awareness of them. And since there are some places where Dreamwave has wound up being surprisingly influential, I think it's worth at least one re-visit.

There are a couple of things to answer before I get started on the actual project, so here's a quick list of them:

+ No, I'm not doing the Armada tie in comics that Dreamwave also did alongside their original take on G1. This is mostly just because I haven't done an Armada rewatch in a decade either and would need to do that first, I think. I actually own some of those though, like physical copies, so maybe one day. But for this, we're just doing their G1 comics, starting with the miniseries and then going into the short-lived ongoing.

+ I don't remember the actual content of these comics very well at all. I didn't much care about them when I first took a look back in the day. I just have vague recollections of the odd plot point and a general sense they were at times quite... strange. We can all (re)discover this together.

+ I am not going to give a schedule for this blog. I will post whenever I feel like it. Promising otherwise would end in hubris and disaster.

+ This blog is being run by me, @decepti-thots! If somehow you found this blog and not that one rather than the other way around... uhhh, now you know, I guess!

With that out of the way:

Before we get into the actual retrospectives, I'm going to write up a brief overview of pertinent stuff about Dreamwave as a publisher and their history with Transformers comics. It's not going to be a comprehensive overview, for the simple reason that there are already places you can go for that, and there's no point in me doing that instead of just linking you to TF Wiki's page on the topic. But we'll take a look at the basic context of where TF was at when these comics launched and what Dreamwave actually was before we get into the comic itself.

So keep an eye out for that! <3

[doorbloggr]

Sunday 25/9/21 - Media Recommendations #19

Contents:

Twilight Princess (Manga)

Dr Stone (manga/anime)

Lately, I have had a lot I want to write about on this blog, but lack that activation energy to actually start writing an article. Ideally I will at least word vomit more onto the blog in the coming week or so, because I have the topics in mind, just unsure how to start any of it.

Media Consumption has also slowed to a crawl, but I'm getting back into it. This week I wanna discuss a manga series I've been reading slowly as it has released, and an anime I have long been reading the manga for.

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Manga)

Akira Himekawa

Zelda fans have a unique schism between their fans that many other longer running series may not experience. Because most games star a relatively unique cast of characters, a unique spin on the world, gameplay, and even artistic style, what your favourite in the series is will throw you into a hard debate against fans of other games. There's this post i saw somewhere(?) once where it was said your favourite Zelda game is the one that came out when you were 12, presumably because this is the one you experience first, or at least earlier in your Zelda journey, and I can completely relate to that.

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game I played, and it has been my number 1 or 2 in the series consistently. Compared to the games that came before it, it was darker, had a richer world, and just a grander scope. But today I'm not here to explain the game, I'm here to talk about the manga.

Akira Himekawa is a pseudonym for a pair of female manga artists that have been writing manga together since the early 90s, and I know them well for their Legend of Zelda adaptations. They have covered most of the main games everyone knows, Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask, A Link to the Past, and even a couple volumes of Four Swords Adventures. Their most recent work has also been the most long and in depth adaptation, my first Zelda game, Twilight Princess.

Like all of their Zelda adaptations, Akira Himekawa's Twilight Princess follows all the same plot beats as the main games. The order places are visited, the main characters Link encounters, the dungeons and their bosses, but the mangaka add... more to the world. Link has a deeper back story explaining what led to the start of the adventure. What in the games are essentially blank slate NPCs become characters in their own rights with personalities and arcs and motivations. The Twilight Realm, which is essentially just a dungeon in the game, is fleshed out as its entire world, with society, and lore.

In the game, Link is cool, and a bit of a himbo, but the manga's take on him is so much more interesting. He's a brooding edge lord, with a damaged past. He's a do-gooder, but he's also flawed and suffers from caring too much. Link is a character full of regrets who constantly bounces between "become a hero to prevent the atrocities of the past coming back" and "give up so that you don't make things worse". I understand that the games leave Link as a blank slate so that players can fill in their own ideals, but seeing Link as a fully fleshed character with his own motivations is cool as hell.

The supporting cast is similarly fleshed out compared to the game's take. Zelda, Illia, and Midna have complex motivations and evolving personalities. Midna was already a great character, but the manga truly does not skip out on making her deep and interesting. The "Resistance", for those who've played the game, are all multilayered characters now, all with arcs that are actively explored as they actually go help Link on his adventures, instead of just telling him info and leaving him to it. The dungeons do not take nearly as much plot time as they do in the games, essentially minimal theme building and then boss, but this works better for the format in my opinion.

If you like high fantasy manga, or are just a Zelda fan, I highly recommend this series. I haven't finished reading it, but Book 9, which I think is the final in the series, has recently been released in English. Obviously playing the game first is a good background, but I think you could 100% enjoy the series without it.

Edit: Finished book 9 and there's definitely at least one more book to go.

Dr Stone (anime/manga)

Inagaki, Boichi; TMS Entertainment

Ok so must I remember wrong because I thought I recommended this one, but apparently I never talked about Dr Stone before, which is a complete travesty. But now I am both up to date with the manga and most of a season deep into the anime, and I have A LOT to talk about.

As those who have also read my dinosaur blogposts will understand, I am a big science nerd. Biology, palaeontology, space, chemistry, it's all so interesting, and sometimes I struggle to understand how a passion for science is not a universal human experience. I share that in common with the main character of a manga I've been reading for maybe a year now, Dr Stone.

In Dr Stone, the world of 21st Century humanity is brought crashing to a halt when a bright wave of mysterious light blankets the entire planet, and everywhere on the entire globe, humans have been turned to stone. 3700 years later, a young man who has kept his mind active within the stone forces himself awake and breaks out. Around him, nature has reclaimed the Earth and millennia of human progress has been all but buried.

Senku is a young man of science, and spent years obsessing over every scientific domain he could comprehend in order to one day travel to space. In this stone world, armed with this wealth of science progress in his mind, Senku begins efforts to restart the scientific age, and free every single person frozen in stone. He starts with a mysterious acid that breaks down the stone. Then he develops tools, machinery, electricity, and eventually, he wants to push humanity back to the space age within his lifetime. Senku may be a know it all, but knowledge only gets you so far. Thanks to the allies he makes, a wealth of expertise will be harnessed to bring his dream to fruition.

Dr Stone is a must read for anyone who enjoys Scifi. Although the rate at which progress is made seems absurd, every single scientific process the kingdom of science works on is real science. Although post apocalyptic themes establish the base for the story and the supernatural force that turned humanity to stone is the main adversary, Dr Stone is a very scientific story based on real Earth and its just... exhilarating!

The scope of the story begins on the small scale in primitive villages, but the story eventually reaches a global scale. There are adversaries at each step, those who wish to rule the Stone World with might, free of the tyranny science had in our age, and there are also those who wish to use science as its own form of might, but Senku and his allies want to use science for the benefit of everyone. So that one day, all of humanity will be restored, and that eventually, he will get to moon.

I will refrain from speaking any further on story specifics because you really should experience the plot for yourself. So I will end with the presentation itself. The art and format of the manga are beautiful. Character designs are rugged, stylised, and exciting, it's very easy to determine what a character is all about just by their unique appearance.

In the last week, I have begun watching the anime, as it has been long enough since I started reading that I can experience parts of the plot anew. The anime is very beautifully made, the world is lush and beautiful, and characters move in such a fun and interesting way. I'm watching the English dub, and characters sound exactly like the voices I had for them in my head.

If you have even an inkling of interest in Dr Stone after reading what I've said today, you should definitely experience the story for yourself, 1 billion percent.

[telemna-hyelle]

hi ❤️

TM has Thoughts about the Sonic Cenimatic Universe part 2

So rings in the movies have a very different purpose than rings than in the games (duh) and I've been wondering how that difference might be handled regarding these two (bc. wearing them.)

The bigger elephant in the room is Shadow imo since those rings preserve his power, and it calls into question the origins and uses of rings in the movie verse. Sure, they could be his normal inhibitor rings, but I want to see the movies continue to shake things up. Do rings have more uses than just fast travel? Was a part of Project Shadow testing the rings for multiple uses? Imbuing the Ultimate Lifeform with the item's power to track how said power manifests in a living creature? Heck, if Shadow can teleport without a Chaos Emerald then the writers can easily say that he uses power from the LITERAL PORTALS he wears on his wrists (and maybe ankles). And of course, regarding what I've said, it's possible that the rings Shadow wears are the source of his power instead of a limiter, and him taking them off would make him tired for the opposite reason than what's normally portrayed.

Note that in the last paragraph I said "Chaos Emerald" and not "Chaos Control" in regards to Shadow's teleportation. I, personally, think it's possible that normal rings have either been imbued with Chaos energy or ARE pieces of solid Chaos energy, making them single-use Chaos Control items. This circles back to the question of "can the movie verse rings do more than just serve as portals," but that's a question that we really don't have an answer to.

It wouldn't be a stretch if it was possible to draw power from the the rings though.

Now. Amy. If the rings can do more than send the user over long distances, then that could explain how she stores her hammer. But like I said, I want to imagine that the movies will take this a little further. There's one post I reblogged that imagines Amy as someone who creates these rings, and I honestly love that a LOT. But for ideas independent of that? Maybe she's actually well versed in all these different ways to utilize rings, and by extension, Chaos energy.

To take this even further, we know that Amy is the reason Shadow remember's Maria's true final words in SA2, so I think it would be neat if there was a parallel between them; the power and how it relates to the rings they wear could be a good place to start. Perhaps both can be working to utilize their rings to their maximum potential... or at least Shadow was before the incident on the space colony. But the thing is, Shadow had to learn about Chaos energy through what the ppl on the a.r.k. told him with some trial and error, while Amy could've been taken under a Mobian's wing, so she has a better grasp on its limits and etc. Amy becomes a natural with Chaos. Shadow, on the other hand, had a somewhat unreliable source of information, and his ocean of power leaves him a potential danger to everything around him since he's not 100% sure What's Up. Especially if his memories were altered for the revenge route instead of just straight up amnesia like in that one game.

And uh. Amy could mentor him on how to control his power.

This started as a "how can the SCU rings relate to Shadow's and Amy's character designs" essay but it accidentally became "these two might meet and become mentor and mente to friends." Funny how that works.

Because like. In my vision of SCU Shadow, Gerald and his team of scientists are very much using Project Shadow to study Chaos energy, but the one who actually has that energy has no clue how to use it because the people around him have no clue either. He has to figure things out as he goes. The a.r.k. incident goes down, 50 years pass, stuff happens, and then Amy teleports to a battle (accidentally) and Gets Shadow Out Of There because he's outnumbered. Over the course of the movie they grow closer (which is possible even in the revenge route because Amy's no human) and Shadow becomes more.... for lack of better word, tame, over the course of them training together. Anything after that I need to think on more.

There's a lot of holes in this and I realize rereading that that Amy could take Rouge's place in that script, and that's not what I want to happen. I just think that it would be a disservice to Amy to come into the cenimatic universe in any movie later than 3 since she predates Shadow.

This was a mess, I'll get out of your inbox now ogxofzotxltx

Ooooh, these are very interesting thoughts! I especially like your thoughts on Amy, it'd be wonderful to see her better utilized, like she was in the comics. And the thought of Shadow having to figure out his powers as he goes... yes yes good stuff

Technically, though, the rings do have the same purpose as they do in the games... sorta. Because when you throw them they get big--that's based on the end-of-stage giant ring that appears. They did shrink them though, and my guess that form was taken from the rings you collect in-stage.

[agent-yolk-writes]

Fanfiction Year in Review Meme

Figure I'd do something different for 2021. Hopefully I can remember what I did this year. Technically I'm supposed to be tagged and tag someone else, but alas I got no one to tag

What is your total word count for the year?

I made a lot of WIPs that I'm sure counted for a lot of words, but in terms of actual posting via AO3 I calculated that my post word count is just a little over 19k.

What fandoms did you write in this year?

A lot of Obey Me as well as Pokemon SwSh (for a zine piece), ITSV/Venom, Fate (obviously), a tiny thing for Godzilla S.P., and Jojo (both fic update and zine piece). I've been messing around with a few crossover ideas for Obey Me, one included a tokusatsu/superhero au (think Ultraman, maybe?) and another that included nightmare on elm street. I'm confident to post at least the first chapter(?) of the NoES.

I, uh, got into horror movies these year...mostly slashers set in the DbD universe despite never playing it. Maybe that's how I got that Nightmare idea? Idk. Maybe because Dead Meat remade their Friday the 13th kill counts this year I grew fond of Jason. Let's see if I can churn out something I like. Oh! I also began drafting an idea for a Jujutsu Kaisen/Chainsaw Man idea that's both reader insert and...smut. It might be a while before that comes out.

Did you write more, less, or roughly about what you expected?

I'm surprised I wrote a lot this year. I managed to bring out my first long fic out of temporary stasis and if it wasn't for my shitty ass job wasting most of my time and the fact I don't have access to my go to writing place (aka my college library, which is far away), I'd have more chapters of that.

But my ITSV/Venom fic requires less brain cells as it's honestly good dumb fun. People have been really enjoying it and vocalize how excited they are for the next chapter. Oooh, I have such big plans but not enough time for that fic.

What’s your own favorite story of this year?

Friends Like You and Us, definitely. As I mentioned, it's good dumb fun for everyone involved. It mashed my two favorite hyperfixations together as my love for MCU practically diminishes. But I always had a soft spot for Spider-Man and Venom so they can stay for as long as they like.

What is your most underappreciated story of the year?

I Think My Sister is Up to Something. Despite all the enabling and feedback from my friends when I was throwing around ideas, I don't really get that much engagement and I'm really sad about that. Having Rin did silly hijinks, revealing the reroll roster chapter by chapter, dropping clues as to who or what Sakura is with...I'm essentially talking to a wall as I am every day. I did, however, commission something to draw Suzuka in the FSN school uniform, so I'm taking that as a W

What’s your most appreciated story of 2021?

In terms of fan engagement outside of ITSV/Venom, definitely, You're My Dad! Boogie Woogie Woogie! Probably because of the Diavolo simps lol. I do have a Type(tm) and Diavolo definitely is that, and yet I made a 180 turn and projected my ideals onto him. Whoopsie. But hey, if the other OM stans enjoyed it than it worked out just fine.

Biggest fanfic related disappointment of 2021?

I Think My Sister is Up To Something. For obvious reasons. Maybe my SwSh zine piece for lack of engagement as well.

Biggest fanfic related surprise of 2021?

Definitely the Diavolo fic since I got a notification that someone put it in their private collection of Feel Good fics when they're down. That warmed my heart.

Something you are looking forward to working on in 2022?

Doing more writing, doing more posting, maybe start doing headcanons again. I hope in the future I can get accepted into more zines as a writer, maybe even a guest writer. I also want to do a fic collab with a friend, it's been a long time since I've done that kind of thing. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll remember to participate in NaNoWriMo

[palaugranetes]

🔵BLAUGRANETS🔴

22 OCTOBER 2020

Riqui: Well I guess there is no other choice than doing this..

Pedri: Do what?

Riqui Added Arnau

Riqui: Well we have another one here. At this rate, we might as well just include the whole squad. BUT Welcome to this adult free mess bro!

Iñaki: 💙❤💙❤💙❤

Carlitos: Benvingut nanu!

Ronald: MANITO!!!!

Ronald: Look at you using those braincells @Riqui

Riqui: Nothing new

Ansu: BRO!!!! @Arnau 💙❤

Arnau: What even is this?

Frenkie: Adult Free Space.

Frenkie: WELCOME!! ❤💙

Arnau: Why is this even?

Francisco: Well I really am not quite sure of that yet.. But welcome!!!

Carlitos: This exists because we are sick and tired of the grown-ups.

Arnau: Who are the grown-ups? Aren't we all technically grown-ups?

Arnau: Well beside Ansu and Pedri.

Ansu: BOY DO NOT.

JC: 😂😂😂😂😂

Dembz: 😂😂😂😂😂

Ansu: 😒😒😒

JC:"Dembz: 😂😂😂😂😂"

Dembz: 🤜🏿

Ansu: I hate both of you so much.

Frenkie: It's only a week.. Just hang in there🤭🤭

Ansu: 😒😒

Pedri: 🙄🙄🙄

23 OCTOBER 2020

Carlitos: Anyways.. What I meant is that we are sick and tired of the ones in charge, their incompetence and their stupidity.

Riqui: Here here 🍻

Ronald: Thought popcorn was your TM

Riqui: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

Riqui: Happy Now?

Ronald: Elated!

Arnau: Ahhh I get it now. I see your point.

Arnau: So how long has this been going on?

Pedri: Like a month or so

Francisco: We still don't know what is happening here most of the times

Sergiño: Hey dude!! Another newbie here!! Welcome @Arnau

Arnau: 🤗🤗🤗

Ansu: What we do know is that El Clasico is tomorrow and I am about to jump out of my skin!

Riqui: I mean...

Carlitos: What do you guys think?

JC: Well what version of FCB is going to show up.. It depends on that.

Arnau: I really cannot sit through another Getafe type match... there aren't enough hugs in the world.

Iñaki: I feel ya bro.. pure torture.

Ronald: Look we tried..

Riqui: No Ronald.. You did.

Carlitos: And now that Jordi is back .. Y'all need to try harder.

Carlitos: I mean I love the guy but he needs to remember how to football.

Riqui: You say y'all as if any of us not named Frenkie Ansu and Sergiño is going to start.. Don't drag all of us into that mess..

Ansu: 🙄🙄

Carlitos: Oh no no Nanu I am happy for you.

Riqui: We'd be dead were it not for you kiddo.

Sergiño: I am just glad I'll be back to the right flank tbh

Sergiño: Like I'll play wherever I'm asked but...

Pedri: Exactly.. Imagine me playing on the left.. I'll do it sure of course, I'll try my best but it is not my favorite.

Francisco: Well I think it's natural.

Riqui: Ever since Antoine spoke he has been benched 🤭

Carlitos: Are we sure that is the only reason?

Riqui: Jeez

Dembz: 😐😐😐😐

Carlitos: Sorry.. But I only say this because I know what he can do..

Dembz: I guess we are all rusty...

Riqui: I wouldn't know.. I've played all of 10 minutes..

Carlitos: 🙄

JC: Well y'all better not make me watch for nothing.

Riqui: Again.. Can't help you there bro.

JC: WHOEVER IT IS. DO NOT.

Riqui: Sometimes I wish Puyi is here just to like make them focus.

Carlitos: Remember when he yelled at Geri? 😂😂

Riqui: Which time 😂😂

Carlitos: All of them 😂

Ansu: OMG GUYS!!

Ansu: We should ask for his help.

Francisco: To come and make 'us' focus??

Pedri: It doesn't work that way dude.

Ansu: NO! With Geri

JC: I'm listening

Dembz: Are we really going to go ask for help from Carles Puyol?! Ansumane are you nuts!?

Ansu: GOT ANY BETTER IDEAS OUSMANE!?

Dembz: No..

Dembz: And stop yelling @Iñaki is probably asleep.

Frenkie: We all should be ...

Ansu: BUT my Puyi idea.

Ronald: Can wait till after El Clasico.

Ronald: Go to sleep now

Ansu: 😒

24 OCTOBER 2020

JC: 4 OUT OF 11!!!

JC: Oh for fuck sake😒

JC: ANSU YOU BRILLIANT GENIUS I COULD KISS YOU!!!

..........

JC: I AM GOING TO KICK HIM! PHIL WHAT!!!!?!?!?!?!?!

JC: What the fuck was that shit....

JC: But it wasn't...

JC: I give up.. Screw this..

...........

Arnau: This blows.

Iñaki: Once again.. pure torture.

Arnau: No but we were doing actually okay..

Iñaki: I mean.. relatively so-so.. we could have had it...

Arnau: What even was that 2nd ..

Iñaki: Bro.. Let it go..

Arnau: 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

Iñaki: 😐

Ansu: I hate us so much.

Pedri: I should not have said anything the other day..

Pedri: I jinxed myself.

Francisco: That was horrible

Sergiño: Truly awful

Riqui: I am going to keep my comments to myself.

Riqui: Because if I speak, I will get in trouble.

Carlitos: Okay José.

Riqui: HOW DARE YOU.

Carlitos: It was a José move.

Ansu: I just... WHY TAKE ME OUT SO EARLY!

Dembz: A Mess.

Frenkie: So we are just going to get a penalty every time we breathe next to a player!?

JC: BS. Just that.. BS.

Ansu: Siempre igual.

Frenkie: I hate this.

Riqui: We all do.

25 OCTOBER 2020

Ronald: On the bright side..

Riqui: There is not one bright side in this

Ronald: There is.

Ronald: The fact that it's over.

Riqui: Okay one bright side to this. And now we have Juventus next.

Riqui: Without Gerard

Riqui: Which means he will have time...

Riqui: Which means we are screwed.

Carlitos: I would like to go back to the match please.

Riqui: So I was right.. There is no bright side.

Dembz: Dammit.

Riqui: Good night.

Pedri: Night!

JC: See ya later

Carlitos: Nanit!

Sergiño: ✌🏽

26 OCTOBER 2020

Frenkie: They did not just say that.. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Frenkie: As if we needed more backlash...

Carlitos: WHY WOULD THEY EVEN SPEAK!??

Carlitos: WHEN HAS THAT EVER HELPED ANYONE?!

Riqui: Just leave already for the love of everything good...

Riqui: We are a meme Club I swear...

Riqui: When has complaining ever benefited us ever?!

Carlitos: As if they don't know

Ansu: Did he really say that or did I hallucinate it!?

Riqui: They did kiddo

Carlitos: They did kiddo.

JC: Yikes

Francisco: What is the point?

Arnau: What is the point of their existence really

Iñaki: They have so many problems coming their way, the guys say they are taking action against them

Arnau: Well they should have let them finish the season and not just send them off like that.. They deserved to play the play-offs.

Iñaki: Don't remind me.

Arnau: Can the president just issue an arrest warrant against them already?!

Riqui: I wish

Carlitos: THE AUDACITY OF THEM TRYING TO POSTPONE THE REFERENDUM. THE AUDACITY.

Riqui: I hope they end up in Jail. Or like exiled.. whichever can happen quicker..

Ansu: We cannot have one day of peace in this place.

Riqui: How else will the time pass..

Ansu: I rather not have it pass in stress.

Carlitos: Well.. tough.

Riqui: And another one tomorrow.

Riqui: AND FOR WHAT... JUST LEAVE

Sergiño: I am having such a dèjà-vu..

Riqui: About?

Sergiño: Tr*mp..

Riqui: Well.. Kinda.. sorta..

Riqui: Like.. take away the mania and psychopathic behavior and total lack of human empathy and decency... yeah it could be him

Sergiño: I meant the desperate need for him to just leave.

Riqui: Oh well yes that... spot on.

Carlitos: we have to wait more I guess.... But now Juve.

Frenkie: Exactly. Juve.

Ansu: Ronald's big moment. Hope he doesn't screw it up.

Ronald: Appreciate the vote of confidence.. really. So sweet.

Ansu: Anytime broski Anytime.

Pedri: Did you really just say broski?

Ansu: And what about it?

Pedri: Nothing..

Ansu: Mhm...

27 OCTOBER 2020

JC: Another meeting today?

Riqui: Yep

JC: Evening?

Riqui: Yep

JC: You think he will?

Riqui: Who the hell knows.. He might be coming out to announce a new sponsor for all I know

Carlitos: I hear he will

Ansu: Will he though?

Carlitos: Well I'm not his babysitter but I hope so.

Ansu: We shall see.

Frenkie: Ready to take off to Torino?

Pedri: YES!!

Francisco: Cannot wait tbh

Francisco: I saw Gerard today and he was being very suspicious.

Riqui: I do not need this now

Sergiño: I hung out with him during training this morning.. He seemed normal

Dembz: So what is the truth...

Ronald: All I know is he has time now.

Ronald: And I feel sorry for you guys..

Ronald: Not you @Riqui 💙 and Sergi would agree

Riqui: 😒 I hate you 💙

...............

Arnau: HOLY CRAP HE DID IT!!!

Arnau: WE ARE FREE!!!!!!

Carlitos: I cannot believe it. Someone slap me.

Carlitos: I DID NOT MEAN IT LITERALLY RONALD!

Ronald: You asked.

Riqui: I JUST... I WOULD LIKE TO SAY....

Riqui: 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Carlitos: WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE! WHAT DO YOU MEAN A EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE.. BRO!!

Ansu: Like I said.. We cannot have not 1 moment of peace.

Riqui: Is he really playing a victim?!

Carlitos: Great... more games for us not to play😒

Ansu: But things are changing.. so

Frenkie: Oh wow.. oh wow.. OH WOW

Francisco: What even is the point of a Super league?!

Francisco: It's like the Nations' League.. What is the point of that

Pedri: Money.

Pedri: 🤷🏻‍♂️

Francisco: Fair point.

Iñaki: Isn't everything?

Francisco: Yep.

Dembz: So now what guys?...

Riqui: Now we are free. We wait for the new President.

Riqui: And maybe a new coach 🙄

Dembz: I dig that.

Pedri: How do you guys think Leo is feeling??

Ansu: I wonder what the adults gc is like right now.

Ansu: Dammit Carles when are you going to be useful!

Carlitos: RUDE MUCH

Ansu: We need to know

Riqui: 😂

Frenkie: So now that he is gone.. What are we going to complain about in this Club.

Riqui: It's us.. We always have something. But enjoy this Win bro

Frenkie: I am.

Sergiño: I hope we can enjoy more wins

Francisco: Leo must be very happy.

Riqui: I wanna post something.. but I don't know if I should.

Dembz: Do it subtly.

Arnau: Have you met him? He doesn't know subtlety.

Riqui: I brought you here to back me up dude not join them😒