#its all connected and in the same universe yes it makes things easy no this isnt good for me

[multidimensionalguidance]

🌫️🌷Venus Observations #2 🌷🌫️

Venus and Neptune have a really interesting interaction when in aspect to each other, particularly with the conjunction, opposition, and square. It’s not that sextiles and trines are not important, but since they are softer, the energies tend to flow with more ease and therefore, less difficulties.

Venus is exalted in Pisces, so it would bring no surprise that individuals with this planetary aspect would display similar traits to the sign, if not maybe even stronger.

Natives with the strong aspects (preferably less that 6 orbs) are perceived as distinctively beautiful in some way. Not necessarily in a conventional way, but more so in their aura field, which then translates to the physical on some level. When Venus makes a strong aspect to the angles (specially ASC or MC) the native can be seen as classic beauties or it simply just draws a lot of judgment from others when it comes to their appearance or mannerisms. Venus with any other planet in general enhances and beautifies it. Pleasure becomes associated with the traits of the planet that its touching it.

When Venus meets Neptune, the planet that represents inspiration, spirituality, illusions, healing, and loss it causes the same effect but much stronger.

Therefore, these natives can find joy, pleasure or become enamored with the Neptunian topics mentioned above. Since Venus thrives the most in relationships that are inherently spiritual, “rose-colored”, or somewhat obscured from the public it encourages to only feel that inner harmony when love comes from a source that isn’t material or seen at all.

In essence we understand love to be a non-physical experience, even if we’re used to being brainwashed by the notion of pursuing this experience through physical or material experiences. The media tries to lead us to filling a void, that simply cannot ever feel complete without spiritual consciousness.

Venus in Pisces or Venus-Neptune natives despite being seen as those who foolishly and innocently love others almost to a detrimental level, understand this the most. They feel as if love can only be found in the moments that are filled with emotions and spiritual connections. A moment where the love they feel seems to be connected with everything, which it is, since the universe thrives when its in energetic harmony.

Does it mean these placements have an easy time simply because of its exaltation? Yes and no. They are given the blessing of finding beauty in everything, but that is exactly the same reason why they are prone to looking for love and beauty in all the “wrong” places. To them, there’s no such thing as an experience that can’t be filled with love and beauty. They will romanticize and beautify absolutely everything, including those who only wish to use them for their own benefit.

For example, if Neptune squares or opposes Venus, the person might choose the wrong partners in life and will tend to idealize them/not see them for who they really are.

At their most difficult moments they become victims of a lot of traumatic experience in love and struggle with understanding feminine energy (which is not exclusively related to gender), which can only be restored by recognizing that love truly lies within them, and in that which is the most connected to the universe, like nature. Many who have a harsh time with recognizing this can end up trying to transform themselves into a version they’ll love or others will, without noticing that they already embody that beautiful version they so desperately seek. They forget that their beauty truly comes from their own inner world and the amazing gifts that lie in there. They are creative geniuses, in every sense of the word. Similarly to Venus-Ketu/South Node natives.

I’ve personally noticed they tend to succumb to enhancing their bodies wether permanently or temporarily, as they initially may try to pursue their best outward self. They crave for others to see them, as they feel within.

It is advised for these natives to be extra careful when involved in romantic scenarios and with the uses of substances that can make them feel more connected to their inner world or the spiritual realm. You are already tied to the universe’s waves by nature, and without much effort. Instead of pouring the oceans of love you have to others all the time, do it instead consciously towards your passion, creativity, and those who are truly interested in your well being.

Note: Venus in the 12th house can also apply to this post to a certain extend.

[ranger-ribbons]

General Ranger Headcanons

Ranger Teams are protective of their youngest members and their Reds. Sometimes, this does coincide, but for the most part, the youngest and the Red are separate people

Red Rangers generally have zero self-preservation instincts, either because of trauma or daredevil personalities

Blue Rangers can be the 'tech wiz', but generally, they're just extremely intelligent

Rangers all have a pretty solid relationship with gender and pronouns. Mostly because they see and fight aliens literally every day and have decided they have Bigger Things to worry about

Reds, Yellows, and Blues are usually always there on the Ranger teams, so it's common for them to be close

Rangers have a list that they pass down to the younger teams. This list details little things like how to help give each other strength to what pain medications can help the aches and pains go away fastest, because yes the suits take most of the blows, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt later

Some Rangers have PTSD, some have anxiety, some have depression. There are, in fact, numbers of former-Ranger therapists that the Rangers all know by heart

Teams don't really drift apart, they stick together because who else is gonna understand what it's like to witness the people you hang around daily almost die every other week?

Rangers drift toward other Rangers. It's due to the Morphin' Grid power they've been imbued with and the Morphin' Grid's pull to itself

There's a point in every Ranger's fight that shift-sleeping becomes the norm amongst teams. It's to stop nightmares, but also because of the paranoia that strikes when you're in fight or flight mode too long

Rangers from space or space-adjacent stick together

Rangers in general stick together, always. Where one Ranger is, another is typically not far behind. Some teams go so far as to get houses together, others just in the same neighborhood or town. Never far from each other, and never away for too long

The Power will never, can never abandon its chosen people. Once it makes its choices, it will not deviate. It doesn't stop looking out for its chosen ones either. Once you've bonded to the Morphin' Grid, you're stuck for life, regardless of being active or not

In Universe, people write fanfiction about the Rangers. Yes, they read it, sometimes they even like it. (Megaforce and down in particular find it hilarious)

The scone the Rangers find out about their Super Sentai counterpart shows, it's on. Some find them hilarious, some find them uncomfortable, but it's all in good fun for all of them

A list of common triggers is passed around to the Ranger teams, including but not limited to: loud noises, bugs, fog, robotic voices/static

Some of the Rangers (especially those who've been fighting for years) get therapy animals

Rangers have problems connecting to people who aren't Rangers or don't know about Rangers. Similar to military or police or doctors, Rangers are never truly off unless they're inactive and even then, it's a roll of the dice as to if they'll be pulled back in. Most of them have been doing this since they were teens, so they never truly got a chance. Preston Tien, Ninja Steel Blue, once described the experience as "playing with a half-deck whilst the other decks are rigged against you" and most of the other Rangers agreed

Every Ranger knows the pain of Nightmares, which is a big part of the reason shift-sleeping became so common amongst teams. Sleeping disorders are also common, which is not easy for the Rangers to deal with. When you're trained from a young age to be fighters and saviors of the planet, you don't walk away without trauma

Rangers who've gone Evil (or started Evil) and come back to the side of Good have each other's direct lines, Tommy Oliver, Karone, Trent Fernandez-Mercer, etc, all of them share a similar fear of suddenly turning evil again

Rangers do not like Zordon for his express need to put teenagers into a war that isn't even their's

[horizon-verizon]

I'm still on my self-imposed Tumblr writing break but I had to share this comedy gold mine where Condal tells us all about "impostor syndrome" before I'm overtaken by the urge to write an essay on it instead. I have no time to cook. Fortunately, we've been served a meal on a silver platter.

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/house-of-the-dragon-ryan-condal/

House of the Dragon, which premiered in 2022, might have continued that [Game of Thrones] trend. Instead, the show proved a return to form, offering the same Shakespearean dialogue and political intrigue that made people fall in love with Martin’s fictional universe back in 2011. The second season is just as good, if not better.

I can see that this is going to be a very fair assessment of Condal and his work.

“Every day,” Condal confesses when asked if he suffers from imposter syndrome. “For me, though, it was less the scale and scope of House of the Dragon and more its visibility that intimidated me."

😭😭😭 It's okay! He wasn't worried about whether he'd do a good job! He was just worried about how visible his ingenious work would be.

Appointed for his encyclopedic knowledge of Martin’s oeuvre, Condal has — in his own words — “played with fire” without getting burned. In the following interview, he demonstrates his mastery of Westerosi lore and explains why all history – real or imagined – ultimately amounts to propaganda.

The business major is about to tell us about historiography. The question is, does he understand historiography? Or does he think he's inventing a new concept?

Condal is a relative newcomer to television. In his previous life, he graduated from Villanova University with an accounting degree and spent eight years working in pharmaceutical advertising — quite different from working as a Hollywood showrunner, but not entirely unrelated.

Yes, we know. It's actually very related. Especially the way Condal does it. I'll also point out here that his university was a private Catholic institution. I don't feel the need to connect those dots right now.

"I also learned to compromise, adapting your writing to clients who aren’t always going to love your brilliant, avant-garde choices. That’s the talent-studio relationship, right there."

I... this tells us two things about the writing process and attitude behind it. Two things we already knew. But... it's sure telling.

"I was able to navigate challenges that some of my colleagues with filmmaking and art history degrees maybe weren’t prepped for."

In theory, nothing wrong with this^ statement. But in context...

While some criticism is valuable, too much can lead to creative paralysis. “I tend more towards the negative than the positive, so I made a conscious decision to stay away from social media when I got this job,” Condal says. If anything, he believes the healthy distance he maintains between himself and his audience has improved the show: “Audiences think they know what they want, but sometimes, they have to be given what they need instead."

I repeat my prior sentiment.

Ultimately, Condal’s own passion for Martin’s writing outweighed any doubt he had about his own. “I’m trying to make the type of show I would enjoy as a fan, which I am. And while I realize my ideal fan show will be different from someone else’s, I still think that it’s a good true north heading on my compass. Actually, I think that’s why HBO hired me in the first place.”

Oh, we know.

“It was hugely intimidating, moving to a new country [the U.K.] and working with a new but also hugely talented crew that I had to — not tell them what to do, exactly, but lead them; collaborate with them. I definitely had to earn my place, but think that — because I came in with a clear vision of what I wanted for the show — those relationships were easy to establish.”

Make it stop.

The most important part of making a successful fantasy show isn’t the sets, costumes, or special effects, but lore. Fictional places like Westeros have their own unique cultures, customs, and social institutions, all of which help create the illusion that this fantasy world is as real and complex as our own. To transfer that illusion from page to screen, the writers must know Martin’s work as thoroughly as Martin himself. “It’s not just me,” Condal says. “We are all deeply entrenched fans of George. One of our writers has worked with him for many years. If I’m a graduate in Westeros studies, she’s an archmaester,” referring to the order of academics sworn to advise and educate Westeros’ nobility.

Well that explains why they're worse than Gyldayn.

Condal: “Textual references are best done in light touches to remind people that this is a fully realized society with hundreds of years of mapped-out history to it. And you don’t need an entire scene to do that. Instead of writing, you can communicate details environmentally through props like heraldry. For the fans, these little touches tell them they are in good hands. Better yet, they know the details are there just for them, the hardcore fans. For everyone else, the casual viewers, this stuff is flying by 100 miles an hour, and they probably won’t notice it. But it’s there.”

Again, there's nothing wrong with this^ in theory. In. Theory.

“I’m definitely an architect,” says Condal, “and I think I have to be as a screenwriter, because our life is so deadline-driven. The literal definition of a playwright, W-R-I-G-H-T, is ‘one who builds plays.’ A dramatic writer is almost by necessity a structuralist, and I very much fall into that camp.”

Now wait for it... wait for it... Keep in mind these are Brinkhof's (article author) words. But wait for it.

Martin, by contrast, identifies as a gardener. While this writing style — with its many unexpected twists, turns, and deaths — helps explain what made Game of Thrones so successful, it may also have been responsible for the show’s eventual downfall. Sticking to Martin’s analogy, “gardening stories” grow like trees, their narratives branching out in an exponential number of paths, making them difficult to finish. As of today, Martin has spent more than 14 years on the next installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series, his prolonged bout of writer’s block forcing Weiss and Benioff to come up with their own ending.

No words. Now back to Condal.

“The advantage we have over them is that we’re dealing with a finished text, where they were working with an unfinished, living work,” Condal says. “Where the Game of Thrones team had to trim down 5,000 pages into a few dozen scripts, we’re challenged in the opposite direction, turning around 100 pages into a multi-season arc of television, and that requires a lot of invention.”

Oh? So... you do know where it's going. Which means your "inventions" should... probably lead there?

Condal treats Fire & Blood like a real-world historian might treat a manuscript from the Middle Ages. “These three writers all had personal agendas which, to me, seem to reflect one of the main themes of our show: powerful women living in an unbreakable patriarchy. The writers, particularly the priest, appear to blame the war on the squabbling between Rhaenyra and Alicent.”

No comment for now. No... comment...

House of the Dragon pretends to show the real history that Fire & Blood recorded and distorted. Some events happen the way the one of the three authors describe it, while others contain elements of all three conflicting accounts. Others still indicate that none of them got it right. As a rule, every character in the show is far more complex than the jester, maester, and priest made them out to be.

I... I... I... I... I...

“Alicent can be the stereotypical evil stepmother at times,” says Condal, “just as King Viserys, played by Paddy Considine in season 1, can come across at weak. However, the thing that in-universe historians don’t get about Viserys is that he was carrying the burden of a prophecy passed down through generations and couldn’t tell anybody about it. A lot of his supposedly weak decision-making was actually in service of this secret prophecy. We were trying to show that there was more to him, that multiple things about him could be true at the same time.”

Must... Resist... Urge... To... Write... Essay...

“We have to arrive at the same endpoint as the book,” he reminds himself. “Whoever George said becomes king must become king at the end of the war. Hopefully, though, we have a bit of latitude leading up to that, to show how history has been interpreted differently at different times by different historians. I realize I’m playing with fire, but it does excite and fascinate me — to be able to comment on how history is made, not just this fictional history, but all history. It’s all propaganda to some degree.”

😭 The clownery.

Historiographers weep.

@rhaenin-time, you must be stopped. Ryan should be , too, but you have decided to bring me in close proximity to this nonsense. I am sitting here, eating chewy ChipsAhoy, and you came in here like a wrecking ball with this news....I hate you. [read, this is a joke]

I don't think I'll be able to address every thing I want to address in this. I want to be done with this show, I have been tired since the 6th epi of the last season.

Condal is a relative newcomer to television. In his previous life, he graduated from Villanova University with an accounting degree and spent eight years working in pharmaceutical advertising — quite different from working as a Hollywood showrunner, but not entirely unrelated. [...]

I also learned to compromise, adapting your writing to clients who aren’t always going to love your brilliant, avant-garde choices. That’s the talent-studio relationship, right there. [...] Audiences think they know what they want, but sometimes, they have to be given what they need instead."

Who tf does this man think he is?!!! Yes, I needed mother-son coochie eating. I needed to have a brown girl erased for a rapist to become a family man with a sick child. I needed Cole fucking Alicent at least 3 times instead of a brown haired Targ make instrumental alliances with more people to add to his stepfather's armies in the Riverlands. I needed to see nonexistent and sterile parallels. I needed to see a black woman be burned alive when she actually died at least surrounded by family, her ignored by her husband so his later marriage to a white girl be that much more special. I needed to see a disabled man jerk it over a queen's bare feet like she's in OnlyFans and doesn't know where her next meal is. I needed to see a pretten prince jerk it over a window and barely even tell what his brother was doing later with Vhagar instead of another preteen girl bond with the most powerful dragon of the then living ones. I needed to see a woman so much more hypocritical than her book counterpart be framed as one of the wisest women to exist while she praises Jaehaerys I of all people for having a peaceful reign as if his decision to have that council have no bearing on the burgeouning war coming up right now.

He can't even properly write character ACRTION as opposed to REACTION (Seth Abramson's article on substack):

Appointed for his encyclopedic knowledge of Martin’s oeuvre, Condal has — in his own words — “played with fire” without getting burned. In the following interview, he demonstrates his mastery of Westerosi lore and explains why all history – real or imagined – ultimately amounts to propaganda.

And yet Daemon dislikes his daughter or grow impatient with her bec she doesn't have a dragon....while he only claimed one at 16 or a bit younger with Caraxes AND Targs don't actually bond with dragons in the cradle that often, actually usually doing it in preteens to teens AND Aegon I definitely had to bond later in life as well. And said that Aegon I lived/was alive when Old Valyria still existed. Allowed Criston Cole to be called Dornish both by Alicent and the fans without giving us any explanation or exploration of that identity esp when canonically he came from the Stormlander part of the Dornish Marches. "Encyclopedic" my nonexistent ballsack! He has no authority to claim that F&B is so unreliable that he can't tell truth form agenda-motivated fiction and then claim himself intelligent or "brilliant" at the same time!

"avant-garde"...yes bc it's so revoluntionary and creative to have a man lick his former home from his own mother in a "vision". As if making a woman her son's character tool wasn't something HBO already did with its female characters and perform male gaze....okay...As if he's special and different from other male writers and it not just keeping with ASoIaF adaptation tradition. It added so much to the story other than the sick eroticism of something already cleared up last season.

I definitely had to earn my place, but think that — because I came in with a clear vision of what I wanted for the show

No you didn't. If you did, you wouldn't have had a such a problem with the pacing, the numerous inconsistencies, plotholes, the [if true] possible merge of Rhaena and Nettles and many episodes would't contradict each other as if one writer disagreed and vetoed another. And you'd see why/how show!Rhaena's purpose must be kept more or less the exact same as her in the bk for the post-Dance environment. We'd have Maelor. We'd have Daeron mentioned and described much earlier, not as some sort of random ass surprise that is bound to thrown so many locals off when he does appear.

If I’m a graduate in Westeros studies, she’s an archmaester,” referring to the order of academics sworn to advise and educate Westeros’ nobility.

....what the fuck does this even mean?! There are no fucking graduates of anything in Westeros and there are no archmaesters of real life bc the set ups in education of EU medieval history vs Westeros are so different it's not even funny. there are no universities for one to even imagine there are Westerosi "graduates", and there is no way you can tell if a graduate would be more or less educated than a grandmaester, bc we don't have rules of "graduation" or gradations of maestership. the modern school system can never be properly equalized in structure or depth or habits to Westerosi maestership, the instituton.

Therefore trying to create some sort of analogy as if grads exist in Westeros by immediately using "grandmaester" for another you're aligning yourself with is just so stupid. worst part is, I know exactly what he's trying to say, but his use of this device is so wrong, that I'm mad and ure people will just take this at face value instead of see how inept this man is with literature analysis and thus creative writing. Reminds me, ironically, of his saying he's inspired by PARADISE LOST in writing S2...if you don't sit yourself down to hell, sir!

Martin, by contrast, identifies as a gardener. While this writing style — with its many unexpected twists, turns, and deaths — helps explain what made Game of Thrones so successful, it may also have been responsible for the show’s eventual downfall.

And there it is, Ryan is prepping to use the ole fan excuse of "not much story left" excuse people had for D&D, and it makes sense how he would considering how F&B is considered to unreliable to adapt even the clearest events and characterizations as they are given....

[maraudersshit]

Remus & the Pack Meet

-this is a story i add to whenever Im trying to go to sleep and cant. its just a bunch of bits and pieces of a bigger universe. (if you see this also posted by an account called oscarthegrouch, thats also me I just accidentally posted to it and now cant delete it)-

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“By Merlin, this is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. James, tell him he’s an idiot.” Sirius paced the sitting room, arms folded, then flailing, and folded once more. James was looking up and over his glasses from his desk chair, a pile of parchment stacked high in front of him,

“He’s right, Moony. This isn’t a very thought out plan.”

“How can it be!?” Remus threw his arms into the air, “we’ve no clue what Greyback is intending to do at the Pack meet. Who better to find out then,” he gestured to himself wildly, “a bloody werewolf!?”

“He’s right, Pads,” Peter chimed in, “We really should find out more, Greyback has always been a slippery one, and if we’re to chip away at You-Know-Who’s forces, it could help to start with one of his ‘Generals’, as we might put it.”

Remus sighed, “Thank you, Pete, I appreciate your support.”

“It’s still a stupid plan, though.” 

“Pete!” Remus groaned, “Like I said, there can’t be a plan. We don’t know enough, first of all, and second of all, I have to act as natural as possible. I have to play as an open-minded recruit. Easy as pie.”

“That’s not the point!” Sirius interjected, stepping to the center of the room. 

James cleared his throat, “We also don’t know what intel he has on you. They could very well know you're part of the order and have a trap set in place to get to the rest of us.” he added, “our lives have been connected for years now, they most definitely have all of that on us.”

“Yes, but they don’t know that you all know I’m a werewolf.”

“Bingo.” Pete sang,

“Except for Snape, that weasel.” Sirius huffed.

“And whose fault is that?” Remus muttered under his breath. Sirius whipped around, but the other man was looking pointedly away and no one else seemed to hear. Pete added on, “And he’s most definitely a death eater by now.” Quiet noises of agreement filled the stale air,

“We could just play it off as you all being prejudiced towards werewolves and I’d had enough, so I joined the pack.” Remus attempted the resolve, finally looking at Sirius with arms extended towards his biggest objector,

“You will not go about telling people we’re racists!” Sirius placed a hand on his chest in shock.

“You would be the most believed, Padfoot. You know, with your family background and all…” Peter mumbled the last bit, but Sirius had heard all the same. His mouth, agape, closed and opened multiple times with intent to make an argument, but it was no use. He had nothing in response, so he sat angrily on the settee, arms crossed and pouting.

“So, its settled th-“

“It is NOT settled!” Sirius cut Remus off,

“Yes, it is.” James followed with a sigh, “We all know there's no stopping him. He’ll go whether we support the decision or not.”

“Well, he should take into consideration what his best mates suggest, which is staying the fuck away from Greyback!”

“He is standing right here,” Remus interjected loudly, silencing the others before they could argue with him anymore, “and knows that you all are just trying to keep him safe. But I am capable of this mission.”

Sirius chewed at his cheek, arms still crossed. Remus looked to him, but Sirius avoided his gaze, instead choosing a snagged length of string on the rug to analyze.

“I leave tomorrow at dawn, but I'll make sure to write up as much information on my whereabouts before I go, just in case things head south. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to collect my things.” Remus headed towards the large oak door of the sitting room,

“Need any help?” Peter asked, looking up from his book,

“No, thanks. I should be able to handle it.” He turned the knob and exited, closing the door gently behind him. The room was quiet for a moment, the only sound being James shuffling parchment and the now distant steps of Remus upstairs,

“Bloody fucking werewolves. The lot of them.” Sirius spat, “he's going to get himself killed.”

“He’ll be fine, he always is.” Peter sighed.

“Until he isnt,” Sirius mumbled, and them much louder argued, “he's not invincible! I mean, he cried in year three when you told him the seafood chowder was made from the Giant Squid. Remember, James?” James blew air through his nose in humour,

“Merlin, the guilt after almost ate me alive. It was horrendous. But we aren't thirteen anymore, Pads. We all want to do our part in this war, and he feels this is his.” James looked over the parchment in his hand once more before levitating it to where Peter was sat, “look over this for me, will you?” Peter huffed in annoyance, “if this is the menu for next week's dinner again, I swear on Merlins beard-“ the parchment stopped mid-air, then slowly started to float back to James, who was looking down sheepishly.

[staring-at-a-blank-pagee]

binary star: a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to each other, both orbiting around the same point in space. for each of the stars, its companion is the center of the universe.

It was a beautiful day to be in outer space. The stars twinkled brightly from where they hung surrounded by countless others of their kind, by swirling nebulae and idyllic planets orbiting brilliant stars of their own. In the midst of all this wonder floated a small Waddle Dee, who was perfectly content to just drift, the shine of excitement in their eyes rivaling even that of the stars that they were so fascinated with. Occasionally they would flick their tail, and with a jolt of electricity, would go flying forwards again to explore new areas and to see new sights.

It was here, among the stars, that Starry Dee felt the most at home. Yes, they loved Dreamland, but amidst the marvels of deep space they felt truly connected with everything, abuzz with magic and energy that sent their heart singing with joy.

Without realizing, he had drifted further than usual. But the sky was still bright with stardust, and all worldly things are meaningless when you are such a close part of a galaxy, so he flicked his tail again and let himself float even further from home. And these celestial bodies that he had known all his life, growing familiar with them over long nights spent looking up and countless hours in the skies just like this; speaking to them softly or just staring and taking in their beauty... they were incredible, but he could not deny the thrill of new discoveries, either.

A strange figure in the distance caught his eye when it glinted off the light of a nearby star, almost as if it were metal. Starry Dee squinted at it as it flashed, confused. After only a moment's hesitation, they started to move towards it, and as the object got closer it became increasingly clear that it was not a ship at all. Then what could it.....?

Starry squealed with happiness, too excited to make any other sound for a moment. "Oh my Nova. Oh my literal Nova." He said out loud without fully realizing it, flapping his arms excitedly as he drew closer and the distinctive features of the Galactic Nova became even more clear. In what felt like no time at all, they were right in front of it, their whole being quivering with pure happiness.

"READY. >" It said in a mechanical, toneless voice. Its purple eyes that seemed to hold millions of starts within them stared unblinkingly at the small Dee, glowing brightly.

"Oh my Nova, you're actually real!!! Wait, can I say that to you? Is that weird?" Starry rambled, his tail waving back and forth behind him as he talked. "I mean, I've looked for you my whole life, even though everyone said you were just a legend I always believed you existed!! And now you're really here!! It's such an honor to meet you, really, you're so awesome!!! Does all that stuff on you work right, like the piano or the clock? I have so many questions!! Oh, and of course I have a wish-"

The Nova, which had up until then been listening silently to Starry's rambling, cut him off. "READY. >" It repeated, as emotionlessly as ever.

Staring into the Nova's face made the words of their wish stop just short of coming out. I want to stay here with you, forever. It should have been so easy to say. But there was something about the way that rust collected on the edges of the Nova's otherwise pristine surface, something about the way that light of a different kind flickered deeply within its great galaxies of eyes when they had appeared, something about the terribly lonely idea of being trapped here forever, unable to move or explore, that made them pause.

He imagined- hundreds, maybe thousands of people coming to the Nova to get their wishes granted. The only interaction at all in its life being other people's greed. Living here, anchored and cursed to give everything to everyone but itself until all the stars winked out and it was the sole one left with nobody at all, all alone in the dark for eternity... Or until its machinery succumbed to time's allure at last, failing, never having known anything but what was in its line of sight. And maybe then, such a failure would have been a mercy.

Some people - most people - would have said that machines have no souls. No sense of self, no being. But Starry saw souls in every star and every leaf on every tree. He talked to the morning dew like it was an old friend and told the moon stories when it was full in the sky. He kept his many stickers safe and knew all of their hearts, apologizing to them when they ripped and laughing with them when they shone in the sun and everything was warm. He took a deep breath and faced the Galactic Nova.

"I wish that you could be free."

"... OK. > 3.... 2.... 1.... GO! >"

a wild nova appears!

they are always floating, and appear in a puffball form. they are adjusting... slowly to this new life after centuries of stagnancy, and still act very mechanical. as of right now, their existence is being kept a secret from the star allies/etc until they get more used to life on dreamland. side note! since the original nova plot was undefined, i had it set in the far future and was the "end" of starry dee's story. now, however, due to the rewrite it has already happened. as such, nova will be with starry dee for the remainder of the tournament. they can still grant wishes in theory, but would need to enter a long coma afterwards to "recharge". while they are a biological lifeform now thanks to the wish and not a mechanical one, they still have certain strange properties - like how their body shines like metal still.

.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

The stars were "wonderful tonight", according to Starry Dee. Nova didn't understand that, though. They looked the same as they always did, and the Dee always said that the stars were "wonderful". According to the knowledge their databases had left them, wonderful was defined as ˈwʌn.də.fl̩, adj: inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous. Looking up, they did not feel any of that, as far as they could tell. They had spent many eons looking at the stars, and failed to recognize what Starry loved so much about them. They did not find anything wonderful, not after so long.

They were drawn out of their thoughts by the stirring of the Dee by their side. Nova floated close to the ground where Starry was fast asleep, curled up against part of their side despite his earlier proclamation that "I'm awake for the whole night all the time, it'll be fine!". As they watched, he mumbled something indecipherable in his sleep, though luckily it seemed to be a good dream by the way that his face was scrunched up in what they had come to know as the Waddle Dee version of a smile.

Slowly, they extended a paw. It was the first thing that they had done of their own will without Starry prompting them first ever since they had been freed and come to Dreamland. Somewhat awkwardly, they pet the Dee's head, causing his antenna to twitch. After a brief pause to ensure that wasn't a bad thing, they resumed the motion, which strangely.. became more natural, with time.

And... looking at Starry Dee now, with their newfound freedom all around them, maybe... Maybe Nova could understand how stars were so wonderful, after all.

fin.

(@kirbyoctournament)

[fnaffancontentbutmostlyglamrocks]

Predictions for the DLC in HW2

So it's pretty apparent a "certain" alligator is missing. He's not the only one to be absent.

Tangle and Gregory are also missing. Plus, we never got the answer to how Gregory became GGY in the first place, nor how he escaped. The DLC will answer that question. Now, how will it go about it? I'm still determining. It would be cool if the DLC had a new hub like Curse of Dreadbear.

One thing I noticed in playing HW2 is when the mask is on and you are playing the minigames. You are playing in these locations that shouldn't be operational. I don't mean post Security Breach. I mean during the time when the Pizzaplex was open.

We see a Bonnie Bowl game using what appears to be Bonnie Bowl's original layout for the lanes. Before it was remodeled. We ride the Foxy Log Flume ride even though the ride is defunct. There's the Merry-Go-Round that doesn't appear in SB or Ruin. We aren't transported to the past. The ceiling on Bonnie Bowl is the floor in Ruin. The player is being shown what the Pizzaplex was in the past, but the location still limits the mask.

The HUB with the mask on is the Pizzeria from FNAF6. The games we play related to that are things we did when that place was open. This game is a midquel between Security Breach and Ruin. It still shows us things from the past.

The DLC will have Monty, Bonnie, Molten Freddy/Tangle, and Gregory as the main focus, taking place AFTER Ruin. How would this work? Well, it is similar to HW2 in its base game. We will be playing minigames set in the past. Why is Monty not in HW2 right now? Unlike Chica and Roxy, whose bodies aren't all dissimilar to their original forms. Allowing them to have the same game. Monty is just a torso. Which would make it hard to give him a similar easy and "hard" mode.

That's why this DLC will take place after Ruin. Think about it, what other time would make sense to fix Monty? You might even have to fix Monty to unlock his minigame. His minigame's goal will be to improve his mind by returning to the past. See everything that happened. What really happened between him and Bonnie. Then, see who you think is the true culprit.

Surprisingly enough, the Gondola ride tells the truth. Monty really did look up to Bonnie, and they later left on amicable terms. There is actually evidence that the two co-existed WHILE Monty was a Glamrock. The first clue I found is where Bonnie is hidden. You can find Monty Bowling balls on shelves. This couldn't have happened if Monty wasn't a Glamrock before Bonnie was attacked.

Yes, I'm aware of the "evidence" that Monty killed Bonnie. Think about it. Has anything indeed been concrete? It's been stuff in the in-universe rides and attractions. Here's the thing. Going by the books and his games in the universe. Monty plays the villain. It's even stated he is meant to be destructive to a degree. This wouldn't be the first time Fazbear has used a rumor in its marketing to try as a way to dismiss it.

The ONLY thing that could directly connect Monty is that it isn't symbolism or anything else of that nature. It is the green substance on Bonnie's chest. Which I need help believing is paint. Part of that is if Monty was wet with paint. Why is it only there? Not on any other part of Bonnie. Despite the fact we see this, the rabbit took a beating everywhere else. My counter was Monty, who had used the water in Monty Golf to wash the paint off. Okay, so why not the chest, too? Let's say it is paint. It makes more sense to have paint off their fingers, and it is known to slash. The jumpscare in Ruin and HW2 shows this is their primary method to kill the player. I thought about it as a joke, but now I'm more sure.

Moon is our true culprit.

This is why he is a threat in Bonnie Bowl on the roof in the HW2 mini game. It was a hint at his involvement.

Sun is crafty and likely would have wet paint on his fingers when turning into Moon. Would still stay on there. Whether or not Moon used green paint to incriminate Monty is unknown.

Also, in the Daycare attendant's room. You will find Staff bots beat up and torn apart. This is similar to Monty's room and Roxy's Salon. That's not what's unusual. What's notable is that there are Glamrock Endos in this room. Torn apart.

That, and while Freddy is friendly to everyone. Even Monty is considered a friend. He refers to the Daycare attendant as "it." Then also, why would Cassie's dad not tell her what happened? Daycare attendant was one of her favorites. She enjoyed being around them. Even the Moon part. Besides being told to hide it from the company. Imagine how devastating it would be to hear that the kind Daycare attendant killed Glamrock Bonnie.

Also, Bonnie's statue in HW2 is looking up and scared. The Glamrocks are all roughly the same height. They even use that same base endo. So if Bonnie was frightened of something to be arched back and looking up. It would have to be something taller than him or forced him to look up.

Moon would be the candidate that could and would attack from above. It's how he can kill you in Ruin.

Part of this DLC will be that. Showing who really attacked Bonnie. Explains how Gregory became GGY and escaped. Finally, Giving Monty more characterization.

With that being said. I also would be OK with a redemption arc. It would be interesting if the Gondola ride was still true. Monty did look up to Bonnie. Then, he adored the fame. At first. He was just the understudy. Only there when Bonnie required repair. Than he had an idea. If Bonnie had an "accident" he could be on stage longer. Adored by fans. Now he goes to the catwalks and stares at the giant bucket. Bonnie trusted him enough to stand around and wait. Monty didn't mean for Bonnie to be gone, he just wanted the chance to be the big star. Well, look where that got him.

It would be immaculate to have a character arc with Monty. As we see him trying to fix what he did. Here's where I'm conflicted. On one hand. I do want to see Glamrock Bonnie in action. On the other. The idea is that Monty can't undo what he did and can only learn from it and improve. Make it a traggic lesson on actions having consequences. Would be leagues better as character development and complexity than if he would fix Bonnie and act like nothing happened.

[lix88888]

Eldritchtale: The Beginning (of Everything)

Before there was time, before there was anything, there was nothing. And before there was nothing

there were Monsters.

They were not monsters in the sense that they were evil, but do not let that fool you into thinking they are good or misunderstood; they are called Monsters in the oldest sense of the word, and you might think that means that these beings are strange, unnatural, grotesque, and you would be right and you would also be wrong.

Look it up, a Monster, in it's most archaic definition

is a warning.

These particular Monsters are other, they are horrifying, almost sublime in a way, something that you can never know or bear to know. In a word, Eldritch.

The Monsters lived (for a definition of lived that applies to them) in the place between worlds, both outside of them and in their innermost core, and for an eternity they were all that was there.

Until, one day, someone came.

The poor man (for a definition of the world "man" that might have meaning in The Place Where The Horrors Dwell) was a scientist, that used to be called W. D. Gaster, and who had fallen into his creation and had become scattered across time and space.

He had, somehow, ended up here, or a part of himself did (it wasn't clear which), and this had allowed the Monsters to examine and observe this other monster (note the dinstiction between the two), and the world which he came from, both his real world and the Real World, (the one home to his Creator).

Most Monsters quickly lost interest in him, mainly because the miserable scientist had lost his mind during his first contact with the Monsters and now mostly spend his time alternating between screaming, whimpering and muttering, but there was one Monster who was still fascinated by him.

His name was ̷̰͙͉̮͎̐̋̑̚͠ ̸̹̹̮̳̰͂̊̀̍̇ ̶͎͙̜̣͓̍͆̄̈͠ ̷̧̘̞̗͌͑̉̃̕͜ (not easy to pronounce, I know), and they were so very intrigued by both worlds, and how they were joined by the most tenuous connection, which nonetheless allowed for it to generate such strong emotions and creations. It was so fascinating!

Some of the other Monsters mocked his interest in such insignificant, inconsequential things, but he ignored them and persisted, eventually deciding on doing as Gaster's Creator had done, and they themselves Created.

At first, the Monster had wanted to make something similar to what the other Creator had done, but that was not enough! They wanted more! More excitement, more new things, and he had so many ideas, more more more!

And so, they made a whole Multiverse out of it, making a single universe with ideas that fit together, and moving onto a new one when he started to notice contradictions, again and again (W. D.'s mind was very helpful with that, providing all sorts of informations about physics, and biology, and society and morality and all those nifty little things that made sure that the Monster was making something that wouldn't break mortal minds too much).

He mostly used Gaster's universe as a template (it was complex, but simple at the same time, and the universe of the Creator was much too removed from him to examine with the same level of care and scrutiny, at least for now), but sometimes he got an idea that was just! so! good! and so made something completely different from all the other Alternate Universes inside his fledgling Multiverse.

At the same time, he didn't make everything that was inside his Multiverse, but instead decided to simply add the concept of multiple timelines to it, and then let things evolve naturally from there. After all, surprise is the key to all art! At least, that's what Gaster had once read in a book, but the Monster was inclined to agree!

And then, when his Multiverse was almost done, when the Monster was about to release it from its stasis, they suddenly had the most amazing idea of all.

He could be there.

He could be part of it!

Oh, that would be delightful!

Being there, in the middle of the action, yes, it would be wondrous!

But of course, the Monster couldn't be there as themselves, no no no, that would break the fragile and beautiful Multiverse he had worked so hard to make (and this was also something that made them add a Barrier to his Multiverse, so that other Monsters like them couldn't enter without his permission. He wouldn't let the others destroy his new toy!), it would be such a waste!

And so, the Monster crafted himself a new identity, something that would fit in his beautiful creation; he made it so that it wasn't as powerful as he really was, but couldn't resist and made itself as a bit of a protagonist anyway (hey, what was the point of being in the middle of things if they couldn't... be in the middle of things?), he created a backstory vague enough that wouldn't be too hard to remember, and he also made himself a body, taking care to make it all pretty and linear and bound by the rules of physics (well, mostly).

At last, everything was ready.

The Monster donned his new body and jumped inside his Multiverse, which was still frozen and dead (but not for long!), landing in the place that would become their home away from home.

The Monster was delighted by the feeling of being corporeal and physical, of all the mass and energy present within him; instictively, he smiled with his brand new mouth (oh, what a nice feeling!) as they looked at their body: he wiggled his ten fingers and ten toes, moved their brand new legs and arms (two of each!), ran their fingers through his tattooed ribcage, marveled at the soft feeling of his new wide pants brushing his calves, nuzzled his cheek in their fluffy scarf.

Ah, everything was perfet!

"Alright!" Ink said, trying out their new voice as he clapped his hands together with a smile "Let's get this Multiverse rolling!"

Next

============

Alright, this is the start of my AU, Eldritchtale! I want to write more fanfictions for it, but I'm also open to questions and asks about it, I have a lot of ideas! Please please ask, I'm bursting at the seams with this!

[foibles-fables]

There are SO many other things I should be doing on this last day of my long weekend, but instead I'm sitting here thing about....Nora mate blessing rituals...how I'd imagine they'd look...how the ceremony might go...HRRNGGh

(yes this is absolutely for the Hawk and Thrush Extended Kiddo Universe bear with me and let me be. I totally believe Aloy would do it in honor/memory of Rost, even if it took her while to come to that decision.)

Seriously though, the Nora mate blessing concept is some of my favorite Horizon lore. No concept of marriage for them, just a bond (and an easily-dissolvable one at that) stricken prior to the potential conception of a child. And it's not easy to obtain one of these blessings--so much so that we know Proving winners sometimes ask for a mate blessing as their boon (and we know through ambient dialogue that Bast was going to, if he had won!). It's the Nora's primary way of making sure their limited resources aren't stretched too thin, and a way to keep the idea of motherhood revered.

So what are my preliminary thoughts?

Once the hopeful parents-to-be receive approval from [one or more] Matriarchs, there's a ceremony, since we know the Nora love that. Probably public. (I'm assuming the naming ceremonies usually are, too, as a part of their communal customs--but we didn't get to see that with Aloy and Rost.) The ceremony would involve traditional and matriarch-led vows spoken not to one another, but by both of them to the future child. There are likely separate vows spoken to them the mother and the father--though for my purposes, both mothers would speak the former in tandem.

Then there's the paint! We know that Nora facepaint is somehow familial. Sona, Varl, and Vala all have the same facepaint, and so do the other Nora siblings we know (Nakoa and Yan, Olara and Brom). But, so do Thok and Arana, as father and daughter. So does the father then wear their mate's family facepaint until the mate blessing might be dissolved? Potentially. I'm not as sold on that one, since connection to one's own mother is held in the highest regard to the Nora. This I'm still lukewarm about on the idea of an exchange of facepaint being a part of the ceremony, but--

Totally, 100% behind and feral over the idea of the mother (carrying parent, in my case) having her belly and breasts painted with traditional fertility markings. I mean, their symbol is a uterus, so. It's done either by the matriarch or the mate (preferably the latter), after the vows, while the matriarch invokes the blessing. Then they are faced to the community, which also speaks its blessing on the hopeful new parents.

Then they uhhhh head off and get started on trying to make it happen. something something the paint stays on during--

Thank y'all for bearing with me, my brain is made of worms, actually

[purplekoop]

So I was digging around in my old art to look for a design that inspired one of my newer characters, and ended up finding something I definitely remember, but not to its full extent.

I had some Overwatch OCs, all the way back in 2018, within the first year I actually had the game. Not just any OCs, but OCs meant to be full hero concepts of course! And fortunately enough, I gave one of them a full kit breakdown, complete with stats! I think I must've been inspired by Master Ian Gamer, an OW youtuber who at the time occasionally made his own concepts in a similar style, both for canon NPCs and his own original characters.

So, for historical sake (and because I think it'd be cute), let me present to you:

Prisma- Hero Concept

(For readability's sake, I'll type out my old notes verbatim as normal text, with any new comments in parenthesis afterwards like this.)

Story: "I shall protect Earth's beauty."

(The larger box left open for the story itself was blank. From what I can remember/assume, she's an Omnic environmentalist with either some kind of crystal-forming power or hard light tech.)

Support 50 HP, 150 Shields Speed: Slow Difficulty: (2.5/3 Stars)

(The health numbers are the same as Zenyatta had back then, which knowing me might've been implying a connection. The "speed" stat is meaningless, most OW characters share the same base movement speed, with Tracer and Genji moving 10% faster. It may also be implying her lack of movement abilities. Also does OW2 even give heroes difficulty stars anymore? So much changes so fast it might not even be a useful rating to give anymore)

M1 (Primary Fire): Gemstone Daggers. Prisma throws a sharp gemstone from her waist to attack. Damage/shot: 50 Shots/clip: 8 Reload: 2 sec Headshot: Yes Shots/sec: 2 Airspeed: Slow Gravity: Yes

(Ah, poor young me, using PC input notation instead of the universally correct terms. This'll bother me more later. The main thing I gotta note here is how similar this concept is to Kiriko's knives, but with some notable differences. For one, the base damage is 50, presumably meaning that headshots do 100, just barely enough to two-shot most heroes at the time! I guess Zen could always do that with discord orb too. But apparently to balance it out, 8 ammo and a two second reload, which is atrocious. For reference, iirc most OW heroes have a 1.5 second reload animation, with animations longer than that being rare exceptions like old Orisa and sentry Bastion being longer, but they had massive ammo pools to chew through before that. Hitting your shots doesn't sound easy either, with the dubious "slow" projectile speed and the confirmation of gravity making me imagine something like Torbjorn's primary fire. The shots per second of "2" actually isn't too bad, assuming it means a fire rate of 0.5 seconds then that's only slightly worse than Zenyatta. Still overall a pretty weak-sounding weapon, with okay max potential DPS held back by a lot of slow reloading and a hard to land projectile.)

M2 (Secondary fire): Regenerative Crystals. Places a large gem on the ground that heals nearby allies. Gem HP: 150 Healing Radius: 10 meters Max at a time: 3 Cooldown: 15 seconds

(Wow, speaking of familiar concepts in retrospect, healing turrets! I think. Frustratingly there's no healing per second rates or specification whether they're an AOE like Soldier's field or single target like the healing turret that finally happened in-game via Illari. Aside from that ambiguity, the biggest difference between Healing Pylon and this ability is the fact you could place a whopping three at once. I don't know if it had a three-charge cooldown like Symmetra's turrets do or if each one has a full cooldown and you just have the ability to place up to 3 if it recharges while one is already active. Either way it adds to what'll be a theme of Prisma adding a lot more clutter than she has to onto the field. This is her only means of healing though, so it might actually be warranted)

E (Ability 2): Refractive Wall. Reflects all projectiles (even beams) back at the enemy team. Wall HP: 1000 Height: 2.5 meters Width: 5 meters Projectile damage: 1/4x Duration: 8 seconds Cooldown: 16 seconds

(Alright to cut myself slack, knowing that the shift ability is internally "ability 1" and the E ability is "ability 2" is the kind of thing I wouldn't have learned without Workshop, which was a year away at this point iirc. Still, this one being first pains me. Anyways, a reflective barrier is a neat idea I've heard at least a couple times. It felt very fitting for the crystal theme, with the added perk of reflecting beams likely being there so you could reflect things like Zarya's laser in a logical way. Actually, an important distinction left out is whether this is a barrier or a physical object like Mei's wall. If the former, it's essentially just Ramattra's barrier with a higher cooldown, but much longer duration. Considering it's made of rocks though, I imagine it'd be more likely like a Mei wall you can't stand on, and also made of only one object rather than 5 pillars. The "1/4x damage" stat seemingly implies that unlike Genji, the projectiles reflected by this would deal significantly reduced damage, to the point where it hardly seems worth the extra coding hassle it would take to add that mechanic to make it work.)

L Shift (Ability 1): Refractive Armor Prisma coats an ally in gemstones, reducing damage and preventing stun/cc. Damage taken: 1/2. Duration: 5 seconds Cooldown: 18 seconds

(Oh okay this is just Fortify but given to an ally. I think that was a deliberate goal, considering this might've been intended as a counterplay option into Brig's notorious stun at the time, but I don't exactly remember whether she was added at this point or not. Still though, between the temporary stationary cover on E and the fortify on shift, this is sounding a lot like a support version of Orisa. What a funny concept that'd be, huh.)

Q (Ultimate): Diamond Guardian Places a diamond turret that fires a laser at any targets in range. HP: 400 DPS: 25 Range: 30 meters Ult Charge: Slow Call-out: "Fear the earth's power!"

(So... if I understand it right, this is an entirely damage-oriented ult. Not even high damage, and not even from a bulky target like B.O.B., and not even from a fast-charging ult. The only redeeming quality seems to be the insane range. For reference, Ramattra's ultimate has only a 13 meter range. You are NOT outranging this thing, but it doesn't exactly seem like much of an issue. Utterly bizarre ult design, I have no idea why she has a damage-dealing ult at all, let alone such a bad one. Though neat detail, the crystal standing next to her in the art seems to be the ult, based on the icon. Very big "hit this to progress in a Zelda dungeon" energy.)

Playstyle Synopsis: Prisma is a mix of defensive, protective, and supportive abilities, which combine to form a hero who can strongly hold an objective. However, she falls short on the attack, with a tricky M1 and low-damaging ult.

(Why did I think "defensive, protective, and supportive" were three usefully distinct descriptors. To give myself credit though, it seems the bad damage and ult were deliberate weaknesses to balance out a support based primarily around defense and area control. She very much feels like a hero made by someone who liked defending on 2CP maps and wanted a healer to pair with stally fortress comps like Orisa, Bastion, Torbjorn, and Symmetra. Yeah... I was that kind of freak back then. I'm only slightly sorry. She very much feels like a product of her time though, which makes it all the more shocking how many abilities sound so familiar to newer additions to the game. Her art even implies she'd float to move around like Echo. There's nitpicks I could make with rebalancing this hero, but that's for another time perhaps.)

As a closing thought, I should mention how important it is to my creative history to remember when I first made a geomancer named Prisma! See, after this, I took the name and basic crystal powers concept, and gave them to an alien lady in a suit for a short-lived space story. Later on, I took that version of the character yet again and made her a human woman with crystal powers, keeping the suit and the name Prisma. This time she was made for a major RPG project called City of Desos, which I've mentioned before is the origin of War Bots star Wilderoad. Unlike the gunslinging bot, Prisma is still planned to be part of Desos, so even after all this time the legacy of this Overwatch OC lives on!

Anyways hope somebody finds this neat. I did have a couple more designs, but very few kit details if any, so I may share them separately. This is fun, despite some stuff in this folder making me wince. It's neat being able to look back on your art, not just to see where you are now, but also to know you might've been onto something for longer than you thought. The kit design and layout here isn't that far removed from the likes of my notes Role Requeue or War Bots, just limited to what I could do on notebook paper while I should be paying attention to class.

[mdhwrites]

Is The Owl House Timeless?

So this morning I made a blog about how the main thing required for something to be timeless is for it to be at least decently enough written to connect with an audience and that it had to have an emotion that the audience could connect with. A universal feeling that could cross race, gender, religion or even, yes, time. I used It’s a Wonderful Life as my example then.

I bet a lot of you who read it though were waiting for me to talk about TOH though because I know a LOT of people in the fandom at one point expected TOH to not only be timeless but a classic. The new Avatar the Last Airbender or the new Harry Potter (especially in what people wanted for its popularity with the latter). Both of those works are indeed timeless, as much as I am loath to compliment Harry Potter.

Is The Owl House? Individually, I think one could argue specific episodes and maybe the first season but the real reason I wanted to do this follow up blog is that satire and comedy almost always ages the worst. As worldviews change, what was mocked might not seem like it was in such good taste. How many 80s/90s college comedies like Animal House now feel kind of tacky when viewed from a modern lens? Or at least kind of misogynistic with their treatment of women?

I don’t think there are many element in TOH that are going to be as yikes as stuff like that someday but I think there’s already been a turn against it. It claimed to be progressive but in the end gave few real answers to that which it wanted to claim it was better than and even fell into many of the same holes as other works like it fell into. Its comedy is often stale and rooted in needing to be in its exact same mindset in order to be able to enjoy it.

Frankly, the style of satire, comedy and social commentary kind of makes me think of the spoof movie craze in the mid 2000s. You know, stuff like the constant sequels to Scary Movie, or Action Movie, etc. like that. TOH NEVER gets as bad as those, don’t get me wrong, but they’re both taking the same approach to their writing of these elements.

Rather than tackling it with a human emotion, something anyone can latch onto, they’re looking for buzzwords, specific gripes and incredibly specific tropes/references. Then they nail it to a board so they can hammer away until it’s damn near unrecognizable and whatever point was there is lost because they’re using a blunt object when a scalpel is required.

A LOT of people way better at this than me have talked about how a lot of things that want to be ‘satirical’ or ‘subversive’ are nowhere near as good as Mel Brooks but rather than talk about why his subversion is allowed while so many people fuck it up, I just want to talk about why they’re so often still timeless.

Blazing Saddles is the easy one. Human stupidity, greed and hate is always going to exist so rooting your comedy in both a genre and time period known for being exceptionally stupid, greedy and hateful, all while it normally tries to pretend it’s not, is just brilliant. Frankly, the main change from some Westerns to Blazing Saddles is that it’s willing to recognize bigotry and state it as bigotry, rather than try to justify it as a noble crusade or the like.

How about Space Balls though? One line tells you that they know what makes Star Wars both good and also exceptionally silly: “Evil will always win... Because good is dumb.” You want to criticize the fantasy genre as a whole? THAT is how you do it because we’ve all gotten fed up by meat headed heroes who walk into an obvious trap instead of thinking for literally five seconds but we also still like seeing those same meat heads win! It also plays into the ego in most fantasy villains as well as their hubris, as such working as just a general villain line but with the bluntness and delivery needed for it to be a joke instead.

TOH never really has this. Honestly, the best moment it comes to it is probably when the crackpot human curator seems so close to the truth before going off the deep end into conspiracy theories. I’ve literally had a friend do that to me once where I thought they were sane and rational until one night they told me, and I quote “You could have a catgirl girlfriend, it’s just that no one’s willing to admit that they’re real.” It’s a genuinely good subversion away from there being a mastermind villain and instead he’s just some loon who managed to be about 20% right in this case and that’s enough to make them dangerous. And mocking that level of insanity, of someone who has just lost themselves entirely in a rabbit hole that everyone else knows is unhealthy, is a common thread for many, especially in the modern age. It’s not like people in Ancient Greece never had to deal with some loon who thought the end of days was coming though.

Most of the time though? Most of the time it’s stuff like the Golden Snitch reference where it’s not even referencing a common trope in fantasy writing but specifically calling out a very singular thing. Where if you don’t know Harry Potter, or even worse LIKE QUIDDITCH, then you have nothing to connect to there. Maybe Luz’s outrage over losing due to a technicality but it’s not even a technicality. It’s just being outplayed and so the closest to a more universal feeling is betrayal but the joke spends so much time on rage at the literal trope, instead of even what Boscha did, that the thread at bare minimum gets lost.

And that’s much of TOH’s elements like these. They have a theoretical point to them but along the way, they lose their point or focus, or are so focused that they miss the universal element that’s right there. Take The First Day. Luz is someone who has struggled in school because of being bullied and an oddball. This was a great chance to really connect with every child who feels left behind by the school system because they won’t cater to them.

Except... It doesn’t work here. Her complaint isn’t that she can’t learn, that how things are being taught don’t work for her either because she learns differently or her brain processes things differently, etc. like that. Instead, it’s that she COULD learn whatever single subject she is stuck on but that’s not what she WANTS to learn.

Even the detention kids are the same way. Viney in S2 is established as one of the best healers in the school despite her multi-classing but it’s got nothing to do with her multi-classing. As such, strict healing magic is something she learns just fine. It’s just that she’s not being allowed to be creative with it.

And THAT is an interesting topic to discuss, schools stifling creativity or needing to give opportunities for it, but the narrative context stops that. They never say it because it would get in the way of their point but the school should say they allow single tracks because it’s literally illegal for them to do otherwise. That can allow a theme of how industry and government too often dictate the priorities of our schooling and how that’s a bad thing. That would even fit within the themes of TOH where the individual is crushed by the monopoly. By the ‘normal’.

 But they don’t do that because they have a different goal in mind. And this is why being well written is part of my criteria for being timeless. Again, not perfect, but an invested audience in TOH should also have that nagging question of why the coven system isn’t getting brought up in this episode. The EC is brought up as the basilisk disguises themselves as an inspector, but never that the Emperor would potentially close the school entirely if they were to allow mixed classes because that goes against both the coven system and the Titan.

It instead just never comes up so while it has a theoretical point it’s trying to make, the resonance is lost as a reasonable question, a genuine plot hole, grows wider and wider with every passing minute until the moment an audience should cheer for creativity winning out, for the need for flexible thinkers to be shown, is still met with some amount of confusion as people wonder why the show still hasn’t said ANYTHING about the coven system properly in this entire episode, even as now Hexide does frankly the biggest act of rebellion in perhaps the entire show.

And that is when TOH is GOOD. The later TOH goes on, the more and more a disconnect can be felt between the theme or resonance the writers are going for and what they’ve actually setup until S3 is pulling things out of its ass left and right because it can’t even do an identity arc with a clone, a sci fi staple to put it mildly, right because it literally can’t focus on anything long enough to make it function. Or its actions are too contradictory to keep you invested, like in Reaching Out where Luz is willing to at least tell 75% of her problem to Eda and King but then acts like she literally cannot, lest she die instantly on the spot, tell Amity or even think about it for all of five seconds.

As I concluded my last blog: Resonance should be something that all writers as a base element of writing should strive for. Bare minimum, it should resonate with the writer and that will help it resonate with others. How well you can make your writing be able to resonate beyond yourself though is the real test for a good story and a good writer.

And while obviously the fandom for TOH proves it resonated with many, myself even at one point, I wonder how many it still resonates with today? And especially as time wears on and tests the claim of it truly being transcendent of the moment it was created, or if it will just look like a relic to be left behind.

[nothing0fnothing]

Hey! So I have some lived experience in being poor and mentally ill I had to learn the hard way in my adulthood after growing up with abusive neglectful narcissistic parents. Maybe it will help someone else.

1. Instant pot. Crock pot. Rice cooker. You only need one, but all 3 are versatile, can use very little electricity to run, and are perfect to dump ingredients into and come back later to a healthy, cooked dinner.

You can research which is best for you by looking up "crock pot recipes" "rice cooker meals" to get a feel for what types of meals you can prepare in each and how it's purposes can best fit your cooking style.

2. Get your electronics secondhand. Phone companies make so much off of poor people bc they contract us into pay plans that mean that by the time our phones are needing replacing, we've paid for it 2 or more times over. Consider going Sim only and getting your phone secondhand.

Websites like backmarket and envirophone sell refurbished phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, TVs, consoles, headphones, all sorts like new and for a fraction of the price point you'd usually get them at. I've not bought an electronic new since 2015 and the products I get refurbished last just as long as if I'd bought them new. Plus it's better for the environment. Even if I had money I don't think I'd go back to buying new honestly.

3. Static charger. If you're Autistic and can't sit still, like me you might be finding that the first thing to go on your electronics is your charge port. It's really annoying because it's not a cheap fix and I have had to replace phones early when they won't charge any more.

Last year my girlfriend and I got static chargers. It's an adapter that sits in your phone/tablets charger slot that magnetically connects to a universal charger. Its great for us because now everything rechargeable (phones/tablets, but also headphones, game controllers, keyboards/mouses) takes the same cable. It's really handy, but for me the best part is that the adapter doesn't move. So even if I'm fidgeting with my phone on charge it won't wear down the charger pins over time. We paid £20 for 3 and it's paid for itself because I've not had to take my phone for it's yearly fix since I got it.

4. Make a cozy space outside of bed. As a bedrotting girlie I know the allure of just saying "fuck it" and curling up in bed is so strong. I also know that when I do it for days at a time my sleep quality gets worse, my days blur together and my mental health gets so much worse. Especially if I'm working, watching TV, eating all my meals and doing my hobbies all from my bed.

One thing that helps me break up the bedrotting and at least helps me get some decent sleep so I might wake up feeling better tomorrow, is having a cozy spot that isn't in bed I can spend at least some of my day in.

For me, it's the couch in my living room. I've furnished it with pillows, blankets, and a little coffee table I can rest my stuff on so I can feel as comfy as I do in bed, but not actually be in bed most of the day. For You it could be a book nook, or a floor bed, or a desk with a chair in your bedroom.

5. Giant water bottle. This one is really simple. We need 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy and hydrated. Basically nobody depressed has the energy to fill up a glass of water 8 times a day. If you can get a water bottle that holds 2 litres (65oz) of water, now you only need to fill one drinking vessel once a day to be healthy and hydrated.

It's really simple and sill but it honestly saved my life. I buy those drink flavor packets because I drink more when it tastes nice. Is it as healthy as plain water? No. Is it healthier than no water? Yes. Easy peasy.

My bottle is from Meoky, its the 64oz stainless steel camping bottle with a flip straw I got for under £20. I like it because it keeps my water cold and I'd rather walk on hot coals than take a sip without a straw, but I've bought same size BPA free plastic bottles for like £3 and they have lasted me 2-3 years too so the budget options are absolutely worth it too.

6. Reconsider what's worth getting second hand. Generally when thinking about buying secondhand we mean clothes at the thrift, and that's great, but buying pre loved can be anything, and you can buy some high ticket items at an affordable price point that way.

If I ever want an appliance I always look second hand first. My rice cooker is secondhand and it is my favourite appliance. I've also bought a popcorn maker for a fraction of the price I'd buy it new, and I'm looking for a Kitchen Aid mixer for no more than a third the price they usually sell at. My vanity houses my shark air styler, I got it refurbished second hand and it was like new when I bought it. I use it every day and it still has so much wear in it.

Generally, the bigger and heavier something is, the closer to free you can get it, because the people getting rid of it just want it gone. If you ever need a washing machine or some furniture, look on gumtree or local no buy groups first. Type "free ___" followed by where you live into Google to get an idea whats available. If you're furnishing a space it's very likely you can get everything you need for the cost of the van you hired to collect it all.

7. Frozen vegetables. Fresh produce is getting more expensive and because we neurodivergent and mentally ill people can have a habit of letting fresh produce rot in the fridge, wasting money and making more mess to clean up, it's usually not worth it. The thing is, frozen produce is cheaper because it is picked in season, healther because it is frozen at optimum ripeness, and can be safely stored in your freezer for months, it's so worth doing.

They're usually pre-cut and can generally just be chucked into your dish frozen to defrost while cooking, making them easy and accessible. You can buy mixed vegetable packs (in the UK the most common is sweetcorn/peas/carrots and broccoli/cauliflower/) for some variety too, which I like to just dump a portion into soups or broths for some added vitamins.

8. Medication delivery. I've been medicated for mental illness for years, and a regular problem I used to have was I would neglect going to pick up my meds because I was depressed, then I'd run out and be unable to collect them because the lack of meds was making me more depressed.

Now however, I'm signed up with an online pharmacy. They processes my prescriptions exactly the same way any other pharmacy would and dispense them through the post in a box that fits through my letterbox. I never have to leave the house for meds again which is actually a lifesaver, the shipping is super cheap, like free for 3 day delivery and £2.99 for next day, and it's all processed through a super simple app that I only have to use like one a month when I request my refill.

It's so worth it and if you struggle to get out like me I absolutely recommend it. In the UK it's called Lloyd's Direct Pharmacy, but I'm sure it's a service you can find in other places of the world too.

9. Laundry separation is a lie. Which isn't a big deal for people who don't care about throwing money away on extra loads or people who have the spoons to faff around separating their clothes arbitrarily, but for poor neurodivergent people, it is.

So here's the thing, the rules of separating laundry by colour came about when clothes were made of all natural materials that would stick to each other when agitated and natural dyes that would run in water. Nowadays, clothes are made of synthetic or blended materials that can handle the friction of a modern machine and synthetic dyes that hold up to basically anything. 99% of clothes on the market, and therefore probably 99% of your wardrobe, is polycotton or some other poly-blend. So generally, everything you have can just all go in together on a warm wash.

Now, if you have woolen, linen or cashmere pieces, you should be separating them and following the care instructions on the label, but everything else, just shove it in mate, nothing bad will happen.

10. Protein powder. Protein powder is cheap, it's stored dry to it basically never goes bad, it's obviously protein so it's a really good addition to your diet, it tastes of whatever flavour you buy it in so it's a good meal substitute if you're depressed and your appetite is low, and it comes together really easily.

I usually get it in big tubs because they're cheaper per gram that way and I just add them to my coffee/hot chocolate for a boost or stir it into some Greek yogurt for a quick healthy snack. Thats actually my favourite way to get protein in because it's like 2 minutes and it covers up that sour taste yogurt has. I've also stirred it into milk for my cereal to varying success but it's good because the fat in the milk and the carbs and fortified vitamins in the cereal make it basically a meal. If I'm struggling for breakfast I usually add a scoop or two to an instant porridge pot and I have a ready to eat nutritional meal ready in the time it takes to boil the kettle.

[ralexsol]

Okay, so I just rewatched S1 of Loki. And since the last time I watched, so many opinions of mine have changed. Instead of focusing all on Lokius and their character arcs, I went into this viewing instead looking at Sylvie, completely throwing my initial dislike of her out the window to be unbiased.

And MAN, am I glad I did that. Because I connected to Sylvie on a WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL.

In my eyes, I see her as a trans allegory. Lokis are usually genderfluid, right? I mean, that's the impression I get - our main 2012 Loki, who's only difference from the Sacred Timeline was escaping with the Tesseract, is classified as genderfluid. And that makes perfect sense, he's a shapeshifter and all that, yadda yadda stuff that's already been said, love it.

But here's the thing. The thing that made Sylvie a Variant, to our knowledge, was that "she is a woman!" So, let's think about this for a second. She's different because she's STRICTLY a woman. Not genderfluid. She/her in her bio. And it finally clicked for me that she's... trans. Literally trans. AND THATS WHAT GETS HER ARRESTED BY THE TVA! She wasn't the right gender, she dared to do something nobody wanted her to. She was different, unexpected... a Variant. And she had to be annihilated because of that.

I know, I know, I'm just stating what all of us already know, we KNOW thats why she was arrested. But you have to actually think past the annoying "oohhh she's the only girl Loki great original idea Marvel" in order to sympathize with her character, because she is VERY sympathizable.

She's literally just a kid, living as her truest self. She's ripped from her family by essentially the government of the universe. She's taken to a trial that nobody walks away from innocent. But Sylvie is different. Lokis are the definition of chaos, the unexpected, defiance. And she's the most defiant of all, because she defied even the preset she was given as a physical person. Nah, she didn't want to be a man or even nonbinary. She was a woman, and they wouldn't let her be. That wasn't allowed. They would hunt her down just for fucking existing in a way that didn't match up with their perception of Lokis.

Her entire life was fighting against a system that wanted her dead. They would rather have order and their precious little clean, easy system (that in reality is harder to maintain than letting people be free) than to let her just fucking exist as she wanted to.

The resentment grows. Of course you want to take down the entire system. Of course you want to burn it all down. Because not only did the government hunt you down, they had already hunted down an infinite number of people just like you. People who didn't find happiness in what was force-fed to them. People who didn't want to tread down the only path provided.

Isn't that what all of us people in the LGBTQ+ community want? To tear the system to pieces, to start over anew? I mean, that's what I want. Because it's flawed right to the very core - at least, where I'm from (the USA), it is. It was made to keep rich, white cishet men in power. A system built from discrimination and power-hoarding cannot be reformed. And even if you tried, it would take too long. It HAS taken too long, and it's cost countless innocents their lives.

You can't undo all that trauma instantaneously. Of course Sylvie would burn it all down. Of course she would kill He Who Remains. Of course she wouldn't want the TVA to keep existing. Yes, there are people in the TVA now that want to change it for the better. Yes, she needs to open her heart and realize burning it down doesn't fix everything. Because you can't rip everything to shreds and not create something new in its place. Fighting tyranny doesn't just end with kicking the dictator out of power - you have to set fair rules to prevent the same thing or worse happening again.

I understand why she didn't want to come back. She had fulfilled what she thought was her only purpose, and finally settled down into the life she utterly deserves. But her story isn't over yet. She can be at peace with having created a new world in which the tyranny is over. In which everyone makes their own choices. In which she can be a woman and never fear time itself imploding. It's just hard to let go of something you've been holding onto for so long. You've been fighting to keep yourself alive and true, and it's hard to accept when maybe... you are winning.

You are not a Loki because you are Sylvie. You broke your guidelines so deeply that you are your own person. There is nobody like you because deep in your very soul, you are the truest Loki to ever exist. You defy. You survive. You and your glorious purpose, to smile and know you are a woman and nobody can tell you any differently. You are exactly whatever you choose to be.

THATS NOT EVEN ALL OF IT THOUGH. THERE'S MORE. And yes, it's about our main Loki and Sylvie's relationship.

I'll come right out of the gate: I've been a Lokius shipper since literal day 1, and nothing will ever change that. I don't ship Sylki and I never will, end of story. I don't see them as romantic at all. What I DO see, however, is looking yourself in the mirror and feeling love for yourself, having survived everything and still more. Let me explain what I mean.

The whole first season, Loki gets to know Sylvie and more of her backstory. And obviously they have the fun dynamic of being two "Lokis" (I hesitate calling Sylvie a Loki anymore) because they're both insanely arrogant and backstabby, yadda yadda. But Loki becomes fonder of Sylvie. Why?

Because they see this other version of themself that went through something so similar yet so incredibly different than them. They are still genderfluid - and bisexual - and they went through that journey of self discovery. They realized they didn't exactly fit the mold, classic trans story. But the difference is that while their family came to accept that and they got to live their life as themself, they see this distorted mirror of what could've been. They see a life where Odin and Frigga didn't accept them. They see the life they were lucky to escape, a life of hardship and a battle they never had to fight.

Sylvie was so brave. But she's been broken time and time again, and she's lonely, and she's never had anyone to care about her. It's you. She's alone and you've just been told by an old friend that you will be alone until the end of time. That you are unlovable. You are the same. You feel so much empathy and you realize something important.

You're looking at this beautiful person. A person who has endured so much pain, and she is beautiful because she is herself. She fought so hard to exist and she has never had a win and she's never had anyone who ever truly understood her. She is you but not you because she is herself.

It's a similar feeling to looking into a mirror and seeing yourseld as a child. Different but the same. Your lives as a whole are completely different. But you still face the same issues. You look in the mirror and the other you is broken. The other you, just like you, thinks they are unlovable.

But you know what they are going through. And you love them more than anyone ever could. You understand more than anyone ever could.

As someone who is on the aroace spectrum and struggles to parse if I'm feeling romantic or platonic feelings (I won't even get into that), I see the Sylki kiss as a complicated but understandable action. The idea of feeling romantic feelings towards yourself is something unfathomable as nothing really can equate to it in our world. I won't get into the morality of it, because honestly, the answer to that is completely based on subjective opinion, since it's an abstract concept. Anyways, my point.

My POINT is that Loki has a lot of feelings and doesn't really know how to express them. Also, like, I'm pretty sure Sylvie only kissed him because she wanted to trick him into letting his guard down to kick him back to the TVA lollll.

As for the end of S2? Well, after the incredible mind-boggling Ep4, I have no idea what way the plot will turn from here. But as for character arcs, I think Sylvie will come to realize that this new TVA can be a force for good. With a new code for keeping the timeline safe from multiverse jumpers who wish the conquer multiple planes - AHEM Kang or others -, and NO PRUNING INNOCENT TIMELINES, why not keep it around? It's a whole different system at that point. It's no longer forcing people to be exactly as intended. It let's them live out their lives however they want to, safe from existential threats.

Sylvie can sit in the back of her truck looking up at the stars in her McDonald's uniform, breathing in fresh air, and thinking about how good it is to be no longer the only one like her.

[ken-kozu]

Are we still friends..

As time passes the memories replayed in their minds.

The happy moments, sad ones, and the ones where they felt most connected. It's like they were drawn to each other destined to be more than friends but they couldn't.

As much as they wanted to be more they had to fight it. If they were to ever become more than that it would ruin everything they had established but the one question remained.

“Are we still friends?” she asked him, it brought him back to the time they became friends from a similar question, “Can we be friends?” the girl asked while smiling. He could tell she had a bubbly personality by the way she dressed, the way she walked and talked, the way she was so carefree but she brought him back to the present by repeating the question “Are we still friends?”

There he stood contemplating the question that should be easy to answer, to anyone it would be a simple yes or no answer but no not to him. This would make or break the relationship they had established. Were they still friends? Memories came flooding back in taking over the poor boy's mind making him wonder what they were.

Though the girl was different, in this situation she just stood there putting on a simple face with the same heartwarming smile she always had but her eyes told a different story, any random human being wouldn’t think nothing of it but he knew how much this answer meant to her, as much time they’ve spent together you would think he would already have the answer right away.

Time feels like it's stopped and everyone disappears with just the two looking at each other getting lost in the presence of one another, she searched his eyes for an answer that she had already got…hoping it wasn’t true she continued to search for more trying to cling on to the small hope that the answer would be yes but instead he just gave her a look, one only she knows about. With this being said, time begins again and everything starts going at its normal pace.

He watches her walk away holding back the urge to run after her, he wanted to make her happy he needed to. The girl he wanted was gone, was it forever? No, of course not but for the time being this chapter had to come to an end. They didn’t want this but they both knew what they signed up for and continued on with their lives. Time goes on and it never stops for no one but in that one moment it did, the universe stopped for them and them only. They didn’t know how to feel or what to do so they went on. They’ll meet again maybe in another life or in a few months, it won’t be guaranteed that things will be different but if it's meant to be it will be.

This is when memories start to flood minds. When the one person you love or loved disappears out of your life. You start to think about what could’ve been if you had said something, spoke up in that one small moment you shared. Things could have been different. Would you guys be together? Would you still only be friends and carry on with the thought of being more than that?

The places you both would escape to will now collect dust. Nobody setting foot there. No laughter ringing through the area. No more memories made, everything gone because in that one second, that one moment, that small little interaction changed the whole course of everything. Do you regret it? Can you change it? Could you go back and redo it all over again?

[amageish]

Posting MCU-adjacent speculation on this blog feels like a dangerous precedent to set, but I gotta get this off my chest: Is Season 2 of What If? setting up, of all things, a MCU-ified take on the Captain Britain Corps?

So, we got a new trailer today and apparently Captain Carter and the Watcher are going to have some sort of unique bond in this season. Watcher is talking about there still being threats to the multiverse itself, he seems worried about that, and Carter and him even have this neat shot of them, together, watching the logo... It seems like it will be the Watcher and Carter specifically leading this charge to same the multiverse or the fabric of reality itself or whatever...

This British-themed-superhero trying to protect the world from multiversal threats reminds me of something...

In the comics, the Captain Britain Corps are a team of Captain Britains from across the multiverse who protect its integrity from universe-ending threats. Their debut in Alan Moore's Brian Braddock Captain Britain run established a lot of basic things that are taken for granted about the Marvel universe now - notably the concept of a Marvel multiverse where every universe has an assigned reality number. Yes, this very important idea comes from a Captain Britain comic of all places... Here's Spider-UK making a joke about it in End of the Spiderverse.

If some rando British dude named Brian getting to number the entire multiverse sounds kind of imperialist to you, then that's partially the point? Alan Moore is a satirist and his cape comics are often varying degrees of autocriticism - most famously with Watchmen, but his feelings about superhero media are kind of embodied in a lot of his work... This probably is a factor in why Brian's sister Betsy has taken the mantle more recently in the comics.

She is a Captain Britain rejected by the nation-state of Britain itself, with her role as a queer mutant woman Captain Britain being used for modern political commentary about how nationalistic symbols are weaponized by fascistic movements. Conservatives in Britain do not like Betsy, a queer female mutant, becoming Captain Britain because she is less easy to use as a fascistic rallying cry then the white British man who saves the multiverse. It's very meta, but well-done IMHO!

Now, Captain Carter is not a member of the Corps in the comics, but she did appear in Betsy's solo series earlier this year where she was briefly mind-controlled and Betsy had to break her out of it... They are still friendly with each other though.

In the MCU, if the Watcher is worried about threats to the multiverse and is going to be working with Carter specifically to solve them... I feel like it isn't too much of a stretch to say that she will be assembling a Captain-Britain-Corps-esque entity that consists of heroes from across the multiverse - though probably not specifically variants of Captain Britain like in the comics books, attempting to side-step the original comic's commentary on imperialism by making the team more diverse from the start.

I also think this could be how X-Men '97 is theoretically in the MCU Multiverse without annoying X-Men fans and disrupting that show's ability to operate as its own nostalgic throwback. What If? Season 2 could end with Captain Carter pitching the Corps to X-Men '97's Captain Britain (whether it is Betsy or Brian - it was Brian in the original show, but there's been a timeskip so I can see Betsy having taken the mantle over) in a cool artstyle-fusion sequence... and then multiverse business can just be a background thing that doesn't have to derail the main story X-Men '97 is wanting to tell. It's comic book accurate to have Captain Britain show up, be like "Sorry, love, I was dealing with multiverse stuff, what exactly is going on here?" and it'd get '97 easy MCU connection points (if being connected to the MCU is something that is good for the reputation of media at this point).

I don't know if any of this would be a good idea, but hey. It's a thought I had, I wanted to write it down to get it out of my head, and I figured I'd say it here in case it was interesting to anyone else... I'll close this post out with Betsy and her girlfriend Rachel... They are very cute.

[cloudcryptid]

HI HELLOso this is a very out of the blue question but if u feel ok sharing how did u go about making ur whf ocs into their own original universe?? a close pal of mine and i have been into whf for years and we still love it but want to separate the ocs we made for it into our own universe w some of the same general themes, so i guess what im asking is, do u have any advice from ur own experience of doing that? u dont have to answer this if u dont want to btw no pressure :3

so i've been thinking on how to answer this one, since i struggle to put concepts into understandable words and honestly i would consider asking @theshiaxartist about it as well as he's the one i did this with, he's usually better at explaining things in my opinion, plus multiple perspectives always helps :>

but also i didn't really?

so me n shiax looked at our ocs and the relations we'd built between them and decided we didn't want to change that, so we just kinda, transplanted it over

are we using whf itself? no, but we are using a lot of the concepts that play major parts in it: -completely isolated island -major mood changing and manipulating drugs -it was supposed to be a better place and ended in dystopia and destruction -etc etc

we took this concept and moved it over to a technically premade world (in actuality it was just bits n pieces of worlds that we'd both made but no longer has use for and so just slapped them all together, we're still constantly adding and developing to it, friend's connected universes are real)

i suppose why it seems like they're no longer fan ocs now is that we're not currently in that portion of the timeline, we've moved on

for us, the events of the isle (our stand in for whf) happened, it is a very important part of the oc's backstory and character development, without it they'd be completely different people but canonly, where we are in the timeline of things is roughly 2-5 years after they escaped and the isle essentially had a nuclear meltdown

we made them our own sorta, think kinda like how aus take the base content and shift it slightly to the left (yes they can shift further out but for the sake of things here, just a little for now)

its a simple and easy option and i think people are a little afraid of ideas being too similar but being heavily inspired is better than being stuck

worlds are large and ocs are fictional have fun

i suppose for tips tho:

-figure out what really makes the ocs, well them, what major events and relations are required for them to stay as they are, keep those or find something similar enough to get the right outcome

-building a whole new world for them can be fun, but it can also get you stuck up in minute details or floundering to have everything explained, it's ok for characters to exist in a void until you can fill it with something (you should also ask shiax about this, his world building is always really fun and he's great for like, looking at how things actually work together, ie. if there's 2 moons, how does that impact things)

-frankly, don't be scared to just rehaul as well, some ideas simply won't work in certain contexts and you'll have to figure something else out

-you are free to play around, nothing is set in stone, make as many different possible worlds and lands and settings until you find the one that sticks people get stuck on making it right the first time and this applies to oc creation too

i know this doesn't really like, set you in a definite direction, but creation is fickle and whimsical like that

[mylittleredgirl]

dear fluff exchange author

thank you so much for writing for me! i hope you will have fun with this match. i'm very easy to please as a reader and love being surprised. in addition to my requested tags, please feel free to write to any of my likes below, or to similar tropes as long as you avoid my DNWs.

please click the read more for all my thoughts and feelings!

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🥰 general fluff notes: i enjoy the whole spectrum of human connection: deep friendship, ensemble-as-family, and romance across the full pre-ship to established relationship spectrum. i have a special love for the early stages of a new relationship, where characters are just figuring out how the other person likes to be loved. complications and challenges, especially those that tie into the characters' canon lives and character flaws are delightful. i find fluff most rewarding when it's still tied into the canon setting/genre, but within that, i love what-if canon divergence (especially when it sidesteps character death or keeps the ensemble together). angst, hurt/comfort, etc as fluff fuel is welcome!

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💕 i love: canon divergence | complications (e.g. working together while in a relationship, emotional baggage, canon happenings, etc) | episode-related fics | fix-its | friends to lovers | happy/hopeful endings | healing through connection | hurt/comfort | “it’s just casual” to lovers | keeping the family together | meaningful friendships | new just-figuring-it-out relationships | other canon characters included in the fic | pining | 5-times | all ratings are welcome | treats are welcome too!

🔥 kinks enjoyed: aliens made them do it (or local canon dubcon equivalent) | blow jobs | body worship (especially related to body changes like aging, scars, weight gain, etc) | edging | hand jobs | masturbation | non-penetrative sex (not that i’m opposed to penetrative sex, just another thing i enjoy!) | overindulgence (food, drinks, sex, etc) | soft dom/sub (bondage and praise yes, pain and shame no) | telepathy | watching/voyeurism | sweet i-love-you sex works for me too!!

⛔️ DNWs: alternate-setting AUs (law office, coffee-shop, etc; large and small canon divergences are welcome though!) | bashing of other characters or past canon relationships | cannibalism | crossovers (except between series in the same universe, like star trek) | hurt no comfort | non-canon nicknames | non-con between requested characters (dubcon ok) | non-sexual bodily fluids in sex scenes | permanent character death | spelling out accents (for human characters) | unplanned pregnancy | zombies or blood-sucking vampires (other canon-typical aliens and cryptids are welcome!).

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⛑ M*A*S*H ⛑

this is my latest fandom and i'm obsessed! margaret is my favorite disaster at the moment, but i love them all soooo much and want to study them in a terrarium.

by the time of reveals, i will likely have seen up through season 6, so i prefer stories using that canon knowledge (it's a preference, not a dnw, so please don't stress if you can't remember when something happened!).

special pairing notes: for hawkeye & margaret, but pre-ship/heading toward romantic is totally allowed as long as it's mostly focused on the friendship stage. to my questionable shame, i really enjoy the kiss slap kiss frank/margaret ship -- it's not a pairing i requested, but it's fine to include their canon relationship in any fic.

extra prompts and thoughts:

it has been the longest day, week, or year of their lives...

[relationship] are trapped away from camp for 24 hours and have an unexpectedly great and/or terrible time

[relationship] are away from camp for 24 hours on purpose (a pass, meeting with the brass somewhere, etc) and have a great and/or terrible time

i have such a soft spot for the developing surrogate father/daughter relationship between colonel potter and margaret, and would weep happy tears for anything that brings them closer together

i nominated the "one canon change makes everything fluffier" tag specifically because i had just seen the episode "kim." if that adoption had ultimately gone through, how would it change the relationships in camp if they had this kind of shared child back in the states? (and maybe, how would it change their return home after the war?)

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👽 Stargate SG-1 👽

clone sam/jack are my highly specific pairing darlings! i love the mixed blessing and curse of having the chance to live their lives over. the "growing old together" tag can be interpreted as "growing up together" (or if you wanted to do a flash-forward to the traditional meaning, go for it!).

dnw notes: please don't have sam & jack change their first names. i usually dnw unexpected pregnancy, but it's ok for this pairing.

prompts:

one of them gets injured or is somehow in danger -- they used to deal with far worse every week, so why does this feel different?

a field trip (school-sanctioned or one of their own)

when/how does this life start to feel like their own?

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🌃 Stargate Atlantis 🌃

sheppard/weir is my bulletproof otp. it's hard to go wrong! i love the early stages of their professional relationship and friendship when they're figuring each other out, and how john immediately becomes ride-or-die as soon as she defends him on earth. i'm fine with any way you choose to deal or not deal with the replicator arc as long as she survives and comes home and at her core she's still elizabeth.

prompts:

john and the challenge of giving/receiving affection (and Having A Feeling in general) is always fun to play with...

getting stuck off-world for 24 hours and having an unexpectedly great and/or terrible time

sexual healing by mapping each other's scars

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🛸 The X-Files 🛸

this show was one of my first loves, and season nine inspired me to join online fandom for the first time! i love the season nine relationships between the agents, with all the growing friendship, trust, and potential romance. when it comes to fluff, i started thinking about all the tragic children and how things might have gone if one or more of them had stayed alive/stayed around... especially if the rest of the harsh backdrop of the x-files universe doesn't change.

i love (appropriate familial and friendship) adult & child relationships, especially when it leads to some healing for the adult! that said, i have a strong preference for canon children rather than OCs.

prompts:

season nine agents get snowed in overnight with ghosts (dealer's choice if they're paranormal ghosts or the metaphorical ghosts they're all carrying around...) and it brings them closer together

emily lives!! (either healthy or still ill) how does that unexpected new challenge/blessing impact both scully and mulder?

monica's dedication to loving people on purpose is one of the reasons i love her so much... how do doggett and/or scully return the favor?

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🍄 Star Trek: Discovery 🍄

discoveryyyyyyy. the final frontier of feelings. i love them so much!!! if you choose to write about pike or spock, classic trek and strange new worlds canon are fair game. relationship info going into the bullet points below:

pike/vina... a childhood ship came back in a huge way in the discovery episode "if memory serves." i would LOVE really anything about them, but i think all the time about how perhaps she might show up in his dreams via illusion powers, or what if she left with him after "the cage" or especially after "if memory serves" now that he has grown and changed himself...

pike & the crew of discovery: una, who knows him quite well, called him entirely unsentimental... but in the last episode of season 2, in pike's goodbye to the crew, he calls them "family" (and i cried about it). how did that happen?

michael and spock!!!! oh god i have so much love for them, and how spock must continue to think about her. that tag about "leaving notes in books" when they're children, and perhaps later in his autobiography or another message he hopes will reach the future...

michael feeling loved and accepted by her adopted family as a child and her crew as an adult in any form that might take <3

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whew!! i hope something here was inspiring! i look forward to reading and loving whatever you write.