#just haven't gotten very far in figuring how it would go other than the basics oops

[oc-place]

send me a 🔀 and a pairing, and i’ll shuffle my playlist and make an au based on the first song that comes up

@jennathearcher Thanks lovely, this was fun to think about! <3

The Chase - Basixx

Sounds kind of like a classic getaway car (in the traditional meaning, rather than the Taylor song meaning pfft) kind of AU? So maybe something like the lab/army follow up on their threats (I know they were more of a thing in S1 and 2 but still) after everything has been saved? Because lbr it's not as if they can do it oops

Like the gang would have to split up and run away, going incognito until they can meet up somewhere safe to try and formulate a plan? So naturally Steve and Jen would be part of the same small group (bonus if in this AU they're either in the early stages of a relationship instead) and the adrenaline etc in regards to being on the run probably intensifies, well everything, but especially their feelings/relationship I guess? (sorry to anyone else who is potentially in their small group adfgjk) Just, yeah, the danger (because obviously there's not enough of that normally pfft), passion, and keep having to find secret spots for safety? Fun times :P

[eccentricgrace]

juice jam || IronDad

summary: peter and tony go out for smoothies, they get interrupted by some annoying paps.

tags: fluff, protective tony stark, banter, paparazzi, tony stark acting as peter parker's father figure

wc: 2,563

cross-posted to wattpad under the same name!

"Your pick is fine, I'm not saying it's not!" Peter argued back quickly, his eyes wide. On his own tongue, the cold icy fractals of his far more delicious Pink Starburst smoothie. "I'm just saying it's not the best one on the entire menu, that's all."

Tony held the foam cup of his Chocolate Moo'd in a protective vice grip— which is basically blended chocolate frozen yogurt —and screwed up his face. He lowered his shades with an inelegant poise and a good serving of disgruntlement. "Pete, you're drinking a smoothie that is literally called 'candy in a cup'. I think I'll take my own advice and hold off from the type two diabetes diagnosis for a few more years."

"Okay," Peter said. "Okay. Okay. But you haven't even tried it. I bet you'll admit mine is better if you try it. Ned did. He didn't believe me at first either, he refused to say anything was as good as the strawberry banana one."

"I'm inclined to agree with him just to tick you off."

Peter huffed and put the half-guzzled cup on the table. He pushed it towards Tony. "Just try it. You're so grumpy, Mr. Stark. For no reason."

"'No reason,' he says," Tony mumbled, reaching for the bright pink smoothie. "As if you didn't come into my smoothie haven, my church of juice, and begin spewing— spewing blasphemy."

Peter hid back his smile.

Tony had picked him up from school today. Plans were to have sitcom-takeout night with May, but as they were getting into the car, Peter had gotten a message about her having to work late. With their plans changed, and both of them damp with the autumnal rain that was nasty and cold the way New York rain usually was: of course the best way to waste time and beat the cold was even colder smoothies.

They were at the Jamba Juice at Rockefeller Plaza, which in itself was a feat considering the company he was in. Tony was wearing his "disguise", which really only consisted of his shades, a hat, jeans, and a hoodie pulled over his head. Nobody had noticed them yet.

Peter couldn't help but wonder what people saw when they looked at them in the corner of the store. The way they bantered sometimes, the ease of which they moved in each other's company— they'd been referred to as "father and son" more than once by cashiers and waiters alike. It was a nice compliment, to be seen that close to someone he looked up to. He could keep it tucked very secretly under his sleeve, for no other purpose than to keep him warm.

(And maybe sometimes he wondered how Tony felt whenever someone said something like that. The casual "I'll get a table for you and your son" or "you and your son look so alike!")

Tony took a sip of the pink smoothie, staring blankly ahead of him. Peter watched expectantly for something dramatic— his eyes to light up, his brows to raise, his hands to be thrown in the air with the angry astonishment of being proven dead wrong.

Instead, Tony sighed, put the cup down. Indignantly went to his own drink, furiously sipping at the straw. Peter's smile grew.

Then, finally:

"Fine."

"Yes!" Peter burst with victorious laughter, reaching over the table and taking his smoothie back. "I told you! I told you so. I would never lie about this. It's too important."

"Oh, so this is too important for you to lie, but when you had that little injury the other day, it wasn't?" Tony asked, a dry smile plastered on his face. "Is that what you're saying to me right now? Your poor old man?"

Peter's grin turned guilty, and he quickly went back to finishing the second half of his smoothie.

"Geez," Tony commented with amusement. "Ease up on that straw, you're gonna go into one of your spider-hibernation things. The middle of a Jamba Juice is not the time or place, kid."

"I think it's the perfect time and place, actually. Really truly. I can feel myself getting sleepy just thinking about it."

"Har har. What a comedian you are," Tony said, sliding out of the booth. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket. "You ready to go?"

"Yep!"

Peter wiped his hands of the sticky, watered-down juice that had dribbled down the side of the cup, and stood.

As he did so, the back of his spine began to buzz. He heard a series of shuddering clicks, and he narrowed his eyes to look around the small space.

"What's going on?" Tony asked casually, but there was an undertone of something distinctive in its quality for fixing things. He had clearly taken notice of whatever changed in Peter's face, because this was the voice he only used when they were dealing with Spidey extracurriculars.

Peter forced his shoulders to relax. He scratched at his face, half-covering his mouth, and lowered his voice to say: "Dunno. Someone's watching us."

Tony hummed impassively, but Peter saw his eyes sharpen, he saw the way the heads-up display of his glasses lit up faintly from behind the dark lense. He subtly scanned over the joint, like Peter did, and finally landed on something outside the window.

"Paparazzi," Tony said simply. He sighed deeply and began to shuck off his hoodie and hat. "Alright, kid. Pop quiz, listening? Trade."

"Uh," Peter helplessly let the trash in his hands be taken, and instead grabbed hold of the hoodie that was tossed into his hands. "I guess?"

"Put those on." Tony walked over and threw both of their cups and napkins in the trash. He walked back and smoothed over the wrinkles on his dress shirt. "Do you smile at the camera people?"

"Yes?" Peter guessed, his voice muffling through the fabric of the thick hoodie he was wrestling over his head. (Funnily enough, Tony's old clothes were all slowly becoming his size. It's crazy what a growth spurt and benching the equivalent of like, forty trains on a daily basis can do to a physique.)

"Wrong. Never smile at the paps," Tony shoved the hat over Peter's head, a baseball cap of the Yankees, which he as a proud Queens born-and-raised local would pretend not to be personally offended by. "They're gonna ask you a bunch of questions, are you gonna answer them?"

"No," Peter said, more sure of his answer this time.

"Good job." Tony reached over and fit the hood snuggly down on his head, drawing the strings in a little. "Are you gonna look at them?"

"No—" Peter squirmed as Tony started to mess with the hat to further cover his head. "Mr. Stark, is all this really necessary? I mean, they already got a picture of my face earlier!"

"Believe me, they're not gonna have that picture by the end of the day, and I don't intend to give them anymore." Tony patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, you're all set. Listen, this part is important: stay close to me, don't get lost in the crowd, and absolutely don't listen to anything they say. They're gonna try to provoke a reaction from you. Don't buy into it."

"Okay," Peter gave a smile, while a weak, uncomfortable laugh bubbled out from his chest. "I think I got it. I still don't get why you think they'd care about who I am, though. I'm not the celebrity, you are. They're not gonna care about some—"

"Spider-baby-asking-questions time is over," Tony said, raising his eyebrows. "The more we stand here, the more cameras there's gonna be when we finally get out on the street. Time to go."

"I—" Peter blubbered for a second, and then followed Tony quickly as he turned to the door. Stay close.

Peter learned quickly that Tony walked very fast when paparazzi were involved. He also learned quickly that paparazzi were the closest human equivalent to mosquitos in the summer heat. They swarmed, an entire bloodthirsty group that materialized out of seemingly nowhere, and they were so loud, all buzzy and everything.

He clumsily dodged through bright flashes of the most cameras he'd ever seen, never less than two feet from Tony at all times. If he wanted to, he could count maybe seven different people shouting questions at him, even more shouting at Tony.

"Kid! Look here! Hey! Hey, over here— Hey! Give me a smile! Can you smile for us? Hey, Tony!"

"Mr. Stark! Few questions for the record? What are you doing with a kid?"

"Hey, look over here! I've got a few questions for— Can you spare a minute of your time?"

Tony was valiant as he weaved through the mob, only glancing back every few seconds to make sure Peter was behind him and in sight. The occasional sarcastic comment that brought Peter back to watching YouTube interview compilations way before all of this.

Anyways, he made it look so easy, all of it practiced and seamless, which made sense after Peter remembered that his mentor practically grew up in all of... this. He wondered if Tony would tell him any horror stories of dodging this when he was a kid— he wondered if he even wanted to know.

"Tony, just a second! What happened with the Accords? Have you heard from Captain America?"

"Look over here! Here! Mr. Stark, who is that?"

"Kid, what's your name? Look here for us! Hey!"

He and Tony had almost made it to the car, and Peter was following all the rules. It was harder to not smile than he thought, solely because this whole thing had rapidly become increasingly intolerable, and Peter had a habit of smiling when he was nervous, but he was doing well so far.

In fact, it helped a lot to focus on how miserable it all was, really. When he felt a nervous smile coming on, he just redirected his attention to the cacophony of camera shudders that were assaulting his very sensitive eardrums, or the people yelling over each other, or even the general sound of several shoe pairs scraping over asphalt and concrete. Sensory hell. Don't even get him started on the flashing lights.

"Hey kid, get his attention for us!"

Peter's whole body buzzed loudly, and then he was yanked back by the wrist.

He was fine. Obviously he was fine. Maybe shaken, maybe even the tiniest bit impressed by the audacity, but he was Spider-Man, and he was capable of simply jerking his arm back— which he did.

The facts above apparently didn't matter in the slightest to Tony, because when Peter met his gaze again in the crowd, there was something in it so angry that his lungs went tight with alarm.

"Did you just grab him?" Tony said dangerously, staring at the offender with a blazing fury in his eyes. "Did you fucking grab him? You do that again you're getting amputated by the fucking limb, you hear me?"

He pushed back through the crowd and took hold of Peter's sleeve. Cameras flashed. Peter's face was a bright, embarrassed, cherry red. Tony was breaking his own rule, mortifyingly, just because of him. Oops.

"I'm sorry," came the voice of a man who absolutely didn't sound sorry. "I apologize sir, I just wanted a few lines for an article—"

"Oh, yeah, you wanted a few lines? I'll give you a few lines, buddy. What's your name? What company do you work for? Huh?"

Tony was yelling. Yelling like Peter had never seen him yell before, and the cameras continued to rattle and blind his peripheral vision. He tried tugging at his arm down to get Tony's attention, because the grip Tony had on his sleeve was firm enough to make his knuckles white and he'd surely notice the slightest movement.

"Mr. Stark, we gotta go," Peter tried. "C'mon."

Tony, his face still snarled up like the protective thorn of a blackberry bush, hesitated then. He schooled his expression into something tight-lipped and lock-jawed, and then steamrolled forward to the car.

As soon as they got in, Tony quickly locked their doors, and Peter let out the breath he'd been holding. He reached up and pulled the hood off, then tossed the hat to the backseat.

"Wow. That was—"

"Are you okay?" Tony asked, the stiffness never leaving his posture.

His eyes were darting all over Peter for any other signs of injury or distress. They lingering especially on his wrist for a moment, then Tony reached for his arm gently and scanned over the area with stressed meticulousness. His eyebrows furrowed, his trembling thumb trailing lightly over the skin.

"I'm all good," Peter promised, his eyes wide. "Really, I'm totally okay, no bruises, no breaks."

Tony looked... bad.

His eyes shot back up to Peter's, and there was a lot of guilt in the way they narrowed. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Tony even looked misty. Admittedly, that was horrifying; like it always was watching a trusted adult break down a little.

He always hated it when May cried, but she did cry— after a bad shift, or a sad movie, or one of those pet commercials on television, Peter always heard the tell-tale sniffle at his side, and the way she always would look up as if it would stop the tears. (It never did.)

But that was May, and Tony was not May. This just was different. Tony Stark didn't cry. Tony Stark was Iron Man, he was invincible, surely he wouldn't shed a tear just because some stranger grabbed his wrist a bit too tight.

Peter frowned. "Mr—"

Tony let go of his arm, then turned the key into the engine. He sniffed once, and didn't look back at Peter. "FRIDAY, I want all those articles and photos deleted as soon as they hit the web. Kid, seatbelt on."

"Yes, sir."

The car went silent, except for the anxious drumming of Tony's hands against the steering wheel. After a few long moments, even that had subsided. Tony seemed calm enough now that Peter's curiosity sparked up again.

"You looked at them," Peter spoke up. He looked at Tony through the corner of his eye. "You, uh... talked back to them too. Kinda broke your own rules."

"Yeah." Tony shrugged. "Well, rules kind of mean jack to me if I think you're in danger. Part of the job."

"The job?"

"Taking care of you. Making sure you're safe, protected, happy, healthy, learned, and whatever," Tony said, one hand coming off the wheel to make aimless gestures as he spoke. "You know, the job."

Peter's definitely heard of all of those responsibilities. The thing is, he heard them in some health class lesson, listed as the job description for a parent.

"The job," Peter repeated quietly.

Tony shrugged again. He turned at an intersection. "Yeah. Whatever, I read mentoring books. I'm a good student."

"Right."

"You sure you're okay?" Tony asked again, glancing over, giving him a quick scan. "Adrenaline should be worn off by now, huh? Still nothing hurts?"

"No," Peter said, feeling like he was in some kind of accidental-pseudo-father-acquisition daze. He blinked a few times at the sudden alarm in Tony's expression. "I mean—No, nothing hurts. I'm all good."

The relief again, palpable in the air as Tony relaxed in his seat. He nodded quickly and finally turned onto the Queensborough bridge. "Good. That's good. Alright. Great. This was fun, kid, huh? You had fun?"

"Yeah, definitely," Peter agreed easily. He let himself smile. He felt light. "It was a lot of fun."

"Good," Tony returned his smile. "Let's get you home to Aunt May, then."

"Yeah," Peter sat back in his seat. He turned the radio on and smiled comfortably. "Okay."

[yakool-foolio]

Out of all of the Amaterasu employees that we see in the game, if you had to list them from most morally good to least, how would you list them?

Obviously, they are all terrible people in multiple ways, but I'm just curious

Hmm, interesting! I haven't even really considered how much they'd be weighed on a scale for their morality. I like contemplating new ways to 'rank' characters though, and the peacekeeper higher-ups, other than Yomi (and Hitman Zilch since they basically come in a package deal in my brain), do deserve some more attention from me, so I'll give it a go! I'll just stick with ranking the higher-ups since we have the most info on what we see of them in canon, so sorry Huesca, your judgement day will have to come another time (not to mention we don't have enough info on the specifics of how bad he really was other than him 'sacrificing others for his own research' and conspiring to kill Yakou's wife, but honestly that should be enough to send him into the murky depths of the river Styx). This list will go from least morally corrupt to most morally corrupt, but I think we can already tell who's at the top.

First off, it's our lil sickly guy Seth! Poor guy honestly did the least things wrong, probably couldn't even hurt a fly if he really tried. While he did threaten to sink the sub and arrest the detectives on scene, he did give them a time limit to investigate and find the culprit. It was a very restrictive time limit, but still a chance to save themselves nonetheless. He was just doing as he was ordered to by Yomi in regards to taking money from the church, who knows what would've happened to him if he disobeyed. Guess we'll never know, sorry Seth.

Next up is Martina. I've been debating on where to put her, but honestly compared to the others, she somehow manages to scrape by as the second least morally corrupt. Most of my reasoning is due to her actively realizing that Yomi was an awful influence and resigning as a peacekeeper. No peacekeeper other than Seth had that kind of hindsight of their actions being the cause of Yomi being Yomi. Martina's above Seth on the moral corruption list cause she still actively threatened to shoot two young detectives and definitely would've pulled the trigger had she not been stopped.

Swank takes a spot right smack dab in the middle on the Amaterasu morality scale. This dude is greedy af and worked alongside Hitman Zilch to frame Yuma for the massacre on the train. And he would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling chief! As soon as Yakou stepped into the scene, Swank's disposition took a surprising turn. He surrendered Yuma over to Yakou when he could've easily still arrested Yuma and moved on with his day. And yet, all it really took was for Yakou to say 'I'll tell WDO about your bad behavior and they'd be so mad at you >:T' and Swank took the hint and backed off. MAN DIDN'T EVEN GET BRIBED WITH MONEY! HE JUST TOOK THE L AND LEFT! That's the power of the charismatic blue father figure for ya. Honestly, Swank could've been ranked lower than Martina, but as far as we know, he never got that same sense of hindsight, so he could still be a money-grubbing, mass-murder framer to this day.

And now we move up to Guillaume and Dominic. These two are inseparable, so they shall be treated as such. I think its safe to say these guys like the thrill of hunting down Yuma and want to beat him and his allies to a pulp despite his pleas for mercy. They punch first and ask questions later. Not to mention they view all citizens as slaves, easily manipulated the power of Amaterasu. At least they gave up on harming Yuma when they were given the actual culprits, but Yuma would've easily been turned to paste if not for the detectives' intervention.

And finally, earning the top spot for most morally fucked by a landslide is Yomi! Do I even really need to go into the specifics about why this guy is so damn horrendous? Well, let's do a lightning round! Yomi hired a hitman to kill anyone who criticized or went against him (such as Yakou's wife), violently abused and almost had his 'girlfriend' killed, planned the Amaterasu Express Massacres, physically punished many of his coworkers, manipulated Yakou into killing Huesca, kicked down a dying Yakou, threatened to kill the detectives multiple times, and attempted to leak info about a militaristic experiment to create immortal soldiers to other facilities for some cash. Fuckin' bitch.

[trashpandacraft]

wip wednesday: project shaming edition

i finally remembered wip wednesday, and it's even still wednesday! great job, me, very proud of you.

first, the good. i have yet to spin the second bobbin of my first pipy project, but that's fine—treadle wheels are mostly a weekend thing for me, and i felt crappy last weekend and barely got out of bed. i feel like it'll get done this weekend, no worries. and i'm going to ignore that realistically, i'm going to start spinning up the polwarth i dyed basically as soon as i can, because i'm greedy. surely the limit is one active spinning project per wheel, right?

anyhow, starting 'as soon as i can' is, basically, after i finish this set of socks.

are these socks exciting? no. am i enjoying knitting them? they're fine, i guess. i'm not sure that i love hobbii's sock yarn, and it wants desperately to spiral, for some reason. but the socks will serve their purpose, and that's why i knit socks with novelty yarn, so whatever. i'm getting a lot of very important youtube videos watched.

unfortunately, that's it for the good, and next up we have this hideously orange jumper. it's so orange that neither my phone nor my computer can figure out what to do with it. when it looks right on one, it looks red on the other; when it looks right on the other, it looks like bizarre orange that's both too bright and too dull. this picture looks equivalently bad on both devices, so it's what i'm using.

it's just a mindless no-pattern raglan with hobbii unicorn solids. it looks small, but it's just squished on the needles—it's adult sized, and the body will be something like 470 stitches around. this isn't really sparking joy, though it is, again, good television knitting, and i think that it will be well loved when i'm finished. which might be 2025.

and then the...mixed emotions. i spun this yarn. i'm knitting it into a shawl for my wife. i love both the yarn and the wife. but i'm a little wary of the project itself, because it's not great for mindless knitting (or at least isn't great yet), and also, frankly, i'm so aware that it's silly, you know? will anyone ever wear this shawl? i honestly have no idea. but here's the yarn.

that second picture is one strand of the yarn, one of sewing thread. the yarn is one ply of handspun rambouillet and one of commercial silk, plied loosely together. i went with this because while this is by no stretch of the imagination an orenburg shawl, galina khmeleva says that this is how they're traditionally done: loosely plied, one ply cashmere, one ply commercial silk. i figure if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me—and also, ok, easier than spinning another 1200 metres of singles for this.

i've started the very beginning of the shawl, and have every intention of finishing it, but haven't gotten far. you can just see the lace on the outer panels starting to form.

i love this shawl. i'm going to finish this shawl. now that i'm thinking about it, though, it might be more of a summer knitting project than a winter one. i'm putting off starting a cowl, which would be a little more practical in the immediate future. i'll see how i feel when i'm done the socks, i guess.

[iamvegorott]

Meeting A Magical Man Pt. 5

Part 1: Link Prev: Link Next: Link

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Henrik texted Chase and Marvin before peeking into his home office and seeing Robbie curled up on the couch, sleeping soundly. He would need to figure out better sleeping arrangements for Robbie soon if this kept up the way it was. 

“He down?” Marvin asked, appearing right behind him. 

“Yes.” Henrik had gotten used to Marvin just popping up. He gently closed the door and used his head to gesture for Marvin to follow him. 

“So, the story with the kid?” Marvin asked when they were in the kitchen. 

“I will wait till Chase is here so I do not have to repeat myself,” Henrik said. “But, while we are waiting, I have some questions for you.” The smile he made caused Marvin to groan, knowing precisely what was about to happen. “How was your date?” 

“It was just dinner. Can’t fuck on an empty stomach.” Marvin crossed his arms. 

“So you do not want Chase around anymore?” Henrik asked. 

“He’d be a good friend, a great friend with benefits, but nothing more than that,” Marvin stated, eyes going to the door in the other room to make sure Chase didn’t walk in while they were talking about him. He didn’t know how far away Chase lived from Henrik’s place.

“Are you really going to say you only want sex from this?” 

“And friendship.” 

“You do not have to have sex with all your friends.”

“We haven't had sex, but if you’d want, I can change that~?” 

“No.” Henrik flicked Marvin’s nose and caused his mask to shift from it. “You need to stop using sexual innuendos and actions to hide from your feelings.” 

“I don’t do that,” Marvin muttered. He took his mask off and shook his hair, the shift causing some of his bangs to get caught under it.

“You hide your feelings like your mask hides your face.” Henrik adjusted his glasses. 

“Low blow.” Marvin blew a raspberry. 

“Oh, you know what I mean. It is a metaphor.” 

“Yeah, yeah. And I’m not hiding. I’m very loud and proud of everything.” Marvin used his thumb to clean off a smudge from his mask. 

“Loud, yes. Prideful, yes. But fully honest? Not so much.” Henrik said, and the two paused when they heard the door opening. Marvin quickly put his mask back on and decided to use this to turn attention away from himself. 

“Like how honest you are about Edward?” Marvin had the biggest grin, knowing Chase could hear him as he followed his voice to the kitchen. 

“Edward? Isn’t that the other doctor you work with a lot?” Chase asked. 

“Yes, he is. That is all he is.” Henrik’s voice was a warning to Marvin. 

“Really? Then why are you blushing, darling?” Marvin leaned back against the counter, now comfortable with being the one teasing and prodding. 

“I am not!” Henrik protested. 

“You are a little red, Hen.” Chase chuckled. 

“That is enough. Do you want to hear about Robbie or not?” Henrik huffed. 

“Alright, alright, I’ll be nice. For now.” Marvin giggled, hoisting himself up to sit on the counter. “Spill.” Chase sat at the small kitchen table as Henrik did the same. 

“I am going to be fairly blunt about this and say that Robbie is technically half-dead,” Henrik said. 

“He’s what?” Marvin asked. 

“Robbie…he was abandoned. He was left outside of the hospital terribly ill and dying. The other doctors just wanted to ensure his passing was peaceful, as painless as possible, but I refused. I wanted him to survive.” Henrik took his glasses off and rubbed his face. “I do not know why, but I was determined to keep him with us, and I…well…I went into the…” He couldn’t say it, but the look he gave Marvin clued him in. 

“Holy shit, you actually did it? You got into that?” Marvin’s eyes went wide. 

“Got into what?” Chase asked.

“He combined magic and science and basically did necromancy,” Marvin explained. “It’s something no one should do, like, even I don’t fuck with it, and I stopped caring about magic user rules forever ago.” 

“Necromancy is the-”

“I know what it is.” Chase cut Henrik off, and there was this pause shared between them. Marvin could feel this weird tension and wanted to know what was happening. There was clearly a secret, and Marvin didn’t like being left out. 

“Sorry,” Henrik’s apology was soft, and then he returned to his regular volume. “While I am far from an actual magic user, I used what little magical residue left in my office at the hospital and here in my home from Marvin’s visits to channel it into my devices and restart Robbie’s heart…but it didn’t continue pumping. He does not have a heartbeat, but his brain is active. His body is changing rapidly, and I do not know how far or long it will last. He may only live a few years, but it will be a few years of a full life, and I have taken it upon myself to be a guardian since I caused this.” 

“Wait, no heart but a brain? Wouldn’t that make him like a zombie?” Chase scratched at his cheek. “Is that why he has the big teeth? So he can eat people?” 

“I’m sorry, Henrik, but if that kid tries to take a chunk of my leg, I will punt him,” Marvin said. 

“When I said he does not want blood, that goes for flesh, too. He eats like you and me, although he eats a lot more, likely due to the enhanced metabolism from the rapid growth. Perhaps the constant hunger will stop when the growing does.” Henrik said.

“Do you have enough clothes for him?” Chase’s voice was something Marvin also couldn’t place. There was a weird…familiarity to it? Like he understood something about what Henrik was going through. Well, that was something to try to figure out. 

“If he remains this size for a while, I do not. I was buying new clothing daily since his spurts of growth occurred overnight, but he did not change last night, and I am unsure if he will again tonight.” Henrik placed his glasses back on. 

“I’ll bring some over in the morning.” Chase gave a small smile. Marvin made a face to himself. Why would Chase have clothes? Maybe he was offering to go out and buy some. He didn’t like being excluded anymore. 

“Well, that answers my questions…almost. I’m sure more will come later. But at this moment-” Marvin reached into his pocket and tossed Chase a little vial. “Try that tonight. It’s not meant to knock you out but should help you relax. If you can’t sleep, you’ll at least be able to rest mentally and emotionally.” 

“Thanks, Marv,” Chase said after fumble-catching the vial. 

“I’m going to head back to my place. Text me in the morning about how you’re feeling. Hen, do you mind giving him my number? Bye~” Marvin sang and was gone before he got a response. 

“I’m guessing I just drink this?” Chase held up the vial. 

“Appears to be one of his potions, so yes. He’s pretty good about having the taste be either tolerable or even sometimes tasty, so you’ll be fine.” Henrik said. “Now, I have a question for you.” 

“Yeah?”

“How did the date go?” 

“It didn’t go bad, or he wouldn’t have anything to do with me.” Chase chuckled. “It also ended…good.” 

“I am more than aware that you two had sex. There is no need to be embarrassed. I am your doctor, after all. Did it all go well?” Henrik had his ‘work voice’ on. 

“Put Dr. Schneeplestein away.” Chase groaned. “It was fine. Everything worked how it should.” 

“There was no struggle to get ere-”

“Hen!” Chase reached across the table and put his hands over his mouth. “If I needed my doctor, I would have paged him. I’d like my friend, please.” He waited until Henrik nodded before removing his hands. 

“Would you want to go on another date with Marvin?” Henik’s tone was no longer his work one. 

“I mean…I guess?” Chase shrugged. “I just…I think it’s too soon before getting into that stuff again.” 

“Too soon? It’s been years.” 

“I know. Maybe…maybe I need something casual at first. Maybe something stress-free, fun, and no strings attached. Marvin’s really cool and seems more than okay with going that route.” Chase started scratching at a stain on the table. 

“If that is what you think is best,” Henrik put a hand on top of Chase’s to get him to stop. “I support you. Always feel free to come to me with questions. Be it from Dr. Schneeplestein or Henrik. Okay?” 

“You’re the best, Hen.” Chase smiled. “And, if you need help with your new little guy, feel free to get me, too.” 

“Does that mean you would like to be the godfather?” Henrik asked. 

“Absolutely!”

----------

Tags: @brokentimewatch @bookwormscififan @d-structive

[gillianthecat]

Between Us - episode one an intrepid reporter watches, without having seen UWMA

Going in, I know next to nothing about this show. I have the tag filtered, and I haven't read the summary or seen the trailer. I did see part of the first episode of Until We Meet Again, but as far as I remember these characters weren't in it. The only information that has made it through the cone of silence is that either the characters or the actors are named Win and Team, one of them is blond, and they did a bunch of product placement in UWMA, possibly with Lay's chips. And I'm not very positive about any of that being true.

summary after watching: For me, this show is holding up on its own. It turns out I did remember more about the beginning of UWMA than I thought, but I feel like Between Us would work even if I didn't know UWMA's basic premise. Yes, Pharm's flashbacks would be confusing, but they're also confusing for him so I don't think that would make the episode too confusing overall. There are a lot of things I still don't know, but it feels like normal episode one information still to uncover, not plot holes because the show is assuming I already know the story. And, up to a point, I would rather have less information than too much, so I appreciate the mystery. I was surprised by how prominent Dean & Pharm's story has been so far. I expected it to be more background. I wonder if its going to stay this prominent, or if it's more to set the stage. Overall the show feels very professional and... not expensive, but adequately funded. The production values all feel pretty high - lighting, sets, editing, soundtrack, cinematography - and the acting is very good. It all makes me trust these storytellers know what they're doing. So yes, I am hooked. I can see why y'all have been so excited about this show. I will definitely keep watching.

Below are my notes as I watched. I took a lot so they're beneath the cut.

So. Diving in.*

*pun unintentional at the time, but appreciated now post-viewing

- I like this parallel morning opening. Blondie with the tattoos is hot, pushing back his hair to the rock soundtrack. Actually they're both cute. I like the alarm clock cliche, although Mamoru from Kabe Koji wins with his 20 plus clocks, and Wah from Why You... Y Me? still beats this guy with his paltry single alarm clock.

- The cool kid and the chaos boy? That's my first impression.

- Hmm. Swimming pools may be important? based on the opening credits.

- Aw. A crash-into-you with an adorable het couple. Including whats-her-name (Sammy?) from those other shows I can't recall. Were they in UWMA too? (Don't answer that.) Interesting that they get to meet each other first, before our main couple.

- ooh... A one sided pining situation? or love crush at first sight? I can't tell yet.

- And here comes That Fucking House 2.0. I guess I knew four things about this show- I'd heard she was in it too. (Do you think there is stock footage of the exterior that all these shows are using, or do they each shoot their own?)

- Wait, is that Santa?! He looks so different, I mostly recognized him by voice. I'm still not sure, I haven't gotten a good view of his face yet.

- Ah. Team at least is a swimmer. That makes sense with the pool footage. And now I've figured out their names.

- I like Team's dorky new friend group! I don't always like the comic relief characters but so far A, Bee and Sea seem fun. (Also love the names joke.)

- I feel like I just saw this pool in something but I can't remember what show.

- I think I like Win's friend group dynamic as well. Whew, that's a relief. I also like Win's slight mysterious brooding air. And the way he looks at Team, with the heavenly music on the soundtrack. (so I guess it is crush at first sight? rather than long term pining?)

- so far I've gathered Team is a first year and Win seems to be a sophomore or a junior, but my instinct is junior. (I don't know if the U.S. terms apply in Thailand.)

- Team seems like a sweetheart so far. Is Win making this announcement about scholarship students not being guaranteed a spot in a "I like you. Get out of my school" kind of way, or is it just a coincidence? Either way, its stressful. Athletic scholarships are a fucked up system in general.

- Oh Pharm! He's the main guy from UWMA! I recognize him. I (obviously) have no idea where we are in his story.

- My guess is that Pharm and Manow were his friends in UWMA, but A, Bee and Sea are new for this series.

- Win looks so cool, even his sauntering walk. I totally would have had a crush on him in college.

- Oh! I was about to get excited about their first real interaction but they were just teasing us.

- Is Win basically raising his brothers? He acts like it.

- It is Santa. He seems so different here somehow.

- Tul looks vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure from what.

- Hmm, what is going on with Team? Why is he being mopey?

- I continue to really like the way Win looks at Team, and how they show Team as totally oblivious.

- oh. That's why this whole thing with Manow is familiar? I think I did watch this part of UWMA where they watch the swim tryouts. So I guess Pharm's love interest is one of the other guys on the swim team? I honestly can't remember what he looks like, or how they met. Ah, I guess this must be him staring love struck. It's slowly coming back to me. (Are these scenes reshot? or are they using footage from UWMA?) Ah Dean, that's right. I did know his name at some point. So far I'm finding him more intriguing here than I did in the little bit of UWMA that I watched.

- oh yes, I remember that Pharm was in the cooking club too. It's slowly coming back. Maybe I did watch a little more then I thought.

- These hints of Dean and Pharm's story are working for me. Perhaps they're just there as a treat for UWMA fans, but I'm enjoying them as well. But I do know the basic premise of UWMA, I suspect I would be more confused if I didn't know the whole second life thing.

- Also, I was not expecting this much of their story. It really feels like a side couple, rather than a couple whose story is over and done with. Which perhaps makes me expect that the makers intend this story to stand on its own - that Between US and UWMA are supposed to be parallel pieces, rather than a main show and its companion.

- There is a lot more attention to Pharm & Dean's story than I was expecting though. Which isn't a problem, I was just expecting them to be more background characters. And this is making me want to watch UWMA more than seeing the beginning of that show did.

- Aw, what a good friend Team is. And Win thinks so too. Yet again, I like the way Win looks at him.

- So far I have No Idea what Win & Team's story is going to be - what their conflict or obstacles will be. But I don't mind, I'm still intrigued.

- Is Tul played by the same actor who played the horny roommate in Love By Chance? If so, he's certainly been typecast, poor guy. I did like him in LBC though.

- They finally interact! I love how Win is always tracking Team with his eyes, while Team remains basically oblivious to existence. Ignoring him, not in a mean way, just in a only aware of him as a generic swim team leader way.

- Ouch. The make up artists here are good.

- Win. What is your deal? You obviously have a crush, why are you so mean to Team to his face? I am Intrigued.

- Dean comes across as such a weirdo, omg.

- Interesting that it feels like In learning more about the setup of Dean and Pharm's relationship than about Team & Win's. I admit that I'm getting a bit impatient with it. Part of the reason I dropped UWMA is that I didn't find Dean's actor that compelling and I still don't (so far, that could change).

- Ah, some insight into Team: "You never let anything be important to you!" I do like his and Dean's friendship.

- Um, WHAT is Team's friend (I can't remember if he's A, Bee or Sea) wearing as a pendent? It looks like a piece of fried chicken.

- oof this porn watching scene is so awkward. Poor Team. It does all feel realistically adolescent though.

- Ok, wow, I was not expecting THAT. I like it though.

- on shit, and Team's following him!

- oh I really like this sex scene. See BL, consent is sexy. The way that Win, keeping tight rein on his very obvious desire and arousal, makes sure that Team wants this, that he knows what he's doing. It is Very Hot. And their chemistry is fire. I also like how cool kid Win has his post-shower fluffy unstyled hair, making him feel much more vulnerable.

- I don't know if it's intentional, but I like the contrast between Pharm and Dean's literally destined love, and this thing between Team and Win, which feels like it could be any college hook up. Yes, Win has had his eye on Team for a while, but as far as I can tell, Team took little notice of Win until his porn induced horniness drove him into Win's arms. And Team I really don't think was planning this, he just got aroused by win's arousal and gave in to temptation. I just like the arbitrary feeling of it against the backdrop of the heaviness of fate.

- I still don't know what their story is going to be. And honestly, if I wasn't being an intrepid reporter I probably wouldn't even try to figure it out, I'm just intrigued by them and their dynamic and content to see where it goes. But since I am doing these reports, my first guess is that they're going to continue to hook up in secret, outside the bedroom Win is going to pretend Team doesn't matter to him, and Team will slowly fall in love and get hurt by this. I'm not very attached to this theory, but it's the best I've got so far.

- Thinking about it, so far I actually know very little about Win and Team as characters. But the actors have made them both compelling enough that I'm intrigued, and want to know them. I feel like my initial impression of Win as "cool kid" is probably correct, but I'm not so sure about Team as "chaos boy." He seems a little more organized than that, a bit innocent but not too naive, kind but not saccharine. He seems a bit of an average everyman in fact, but not in a boring way.

Ok! That's it for now. I probably should go to bed, but I want to watch episode two instead. The nice thing about starting a few weeks behind is I don't have to wait.

[fordp1nes]

my brain has been overloaded with a lot of different emotions in a lot of intensities that i'm Not Used To and it's been extremely. deeply. unpleasant. (yo uhh long ventpost under the cut. reader beware you're in for deeply suppressed emotions)

it's like. how does this kind of fucking thing keep happening? beyond the obvious exceptions (you guys) it feels like my friends hate me. i've been getting into like. EXTREMELY incandescent rages at the worst ones. they last like hours sometimes. and then a moment later my mood switches entirely and i feel like i'm about to cry. but at the same time, i never let myself actually say how i feel, because that would Cause Problems and i have a history of even worse things happening to me because i said how i felt in a way that was harmful. but this is hurting me RIGHT NOW. y'know?

the crying thing is really bizarre especially. yesterday i felt like i was about to cry at every single point in the school day. the entire goddamn time. but i didn't. there was a REALLY close call but i didn't. and thats because i (and Another Guy (You Know Who You Are (Hey Man (How's it going)))) have had an issue with a guy Literally Stalking Us. but its also because of other things but the guy who is quite literally stalking me is NOT fucking helping. the entire day yesterday i felt like he would come in at any fucking moment. i'm talking full hypervigilance mode. i haven't had to be like that in a while but oh my god. it's so much worse than it was online .

another thing that happened yesterday was people switching in at very strange times. we were dicking around with a friend during some free time in one of my classes and they took a picture of me (which i was okay with/encouraged). whoever was fronting (i don't even fucking KNOW who it could have been) put their head in their hands and then someone IMMEDIATELY popped right in and had to figure out wtf had just happened.

things have been very weird and emotionally skewed recently. it is fucking with us A Lot. hey uhh if you've gotten this far a) Sorry and b) give us a little leeway if we seem off or snappy or short with you. a lot of emotions have been Happening and i have basically uhh. zero outlet for them.

but like?? the bullying and shit has gone up by a factor of 5 and i have no IDEA why. last year practically nothing happened and this year Something Has Happened for pretty much every day in a given week. even excluding the stalker guy. people have been pricks before but it's never felt like my life/safety was actually IN DANGER until now. not to mention this kind of thing happening in classes where i SHOULD be safe. people are talking LITERALLY RIGHT BEHIND my back in my drama class. i don't know what they're saying because my brain is bad at processing words when i can't see who's talking. but i can tell when it's about me, and that scares the living shit out of me. someone who i KNOW is transphobic got moved into my drama class and it's extremely hard to function as an actor and AS A PERSON when i know they're sitting there. watching me. and this isnt even getting into the stress i feel as a transgender person for the 2024 election

the election is in november. i think it's nov 5 2024 if i remember right. i *just barely* miss the cutoff to vote for president. by a little over a month. and i've been upset over this for Literally 8 years at this point, but i've never been SCARED over it until now. there is hate speech against people like me and myself everywhere. i know (or i guess knew. now. that's a different story) multiple trans people living in different states where their existence is being deemed illegal. but i'm the only person IRL who acts like i'm fucking scared. i'm terrified! WE SHOULD ALL BE TERRIFIED! if ANY republican gets elected, in a little over a year my entire life will be turned upside down. i'll have to move out of the country. i've never even BEEN out of the country before. i don't own a passport. if someone gets elected that won't tolerate people like me, i'll have a little under 2 months to pack my things and leave. i won't be able to join my graduating class, because i'm a fucking tranny and i'm not safe here.

LIKE I FEEL LIKE I'M GOING FUCKING INSANE! LITERALLY! i've had minor psychotic issues in the past but this is causing me to doubt fucking everything i've been experiencing because a) nobody else is scared, b) nobody else besides me (and the Other Person) is getting bullied as intensely (I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M EVEN DOING WRONG????), and c) i can't confide in most of my friends on account of the whole I Think They Might Hate Me issue. i have had such bad luck with friends. especially in the last 4 years. i genuinely think i don't know how a real friendship is supposed to look or function, i've been mistreated and burned so many times. i already have issues opening up to people because of Past Happenings, but all of this is making stuff so much worse and i feel trapped and stuck. it's fucking terrifying. why am i the only one who is scared? why am i the only one who is being rejected?

THE FUCKING REJECTION! that's maybe the worst part!!! i'll wave at people and SAY THEIR NAMES IN THE HALL and they'll just breeze on by???? WHAT DID I FUCKING DO? NOBODY WILL TELL ME IF I'M DOING ANYTHING WRONG! they just breeze on by. it's like i'm fucking invisible. am i? AM I? WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING WRONG? seriously! it's WORSE THAN A 50/50 that a given person i say hi to by their entire ass NAME will actually acknowledge me back in any way. this fucking sucks man. okay i need to cut this off NOW before i never finish this. i'll probably delete this when one of us gets self conscious enough to. good lird man.

[crazysodomite]

--

sigh... i basically never attended a full week of school. at a certain point i only attended a few days a week and maybe showed up for 1 class in the middle of the day and went home. its a miracle i even made it to 9th grade before dropping out. i never did any homework unless i was forced to. i would fake being sick as much as possible just to not go to school. i was only in school for 9 years but changed over 10 schools. i was always bullied in every one of those schools with varying severity. i was even bullied by upperclassmen for reasons i still don't understand. when you get bullied by high schoolers as an elementary/middle schooler it does things to you. i always hated my fucking teachers and they hated me. all i ever wanted from them is to leave me alone. i was the quiet kid in the back of the class who would draw and not pay attention and it made my teachers really fucking mad. and it was always perplexing to me. i don't want to be there just as much as you don't want me to be there. you're a fucking grown adult getting mad at a middle schooler who gets bullied to the point of being scared to go into the hall to get into other classrooms. my teachers were evil to me. i became very jaded very early on in my life. i did well enough in a few classes just so i could pass into the next year. my teachers probably just wanted me to gtfo as soon as possible which i'm thankful for. i never got high enough grades in anything to get into university or anywhere really. it still has an effect in my life because i technically haven't gotten a full education yet. i did get into college for a few years (college here is not what it usually means in english. here college is where you go if you didn't complete school or where you go Before university. its basically school with specialization). i dropped out again because once again life got in the way and somehow i was still getting bullied by my now adult peers which was crazy. i can't catch a break. i never made any friends irl for this reason. i had a few brief friendships that were just bullied kids sticking together lol. i think my life is really well illustrated by one anecdote. a teacher really hated my guts for not paying attention. and one time i couldn't get home so i went back to school and that one teacher happened to be there and decided to try to get me home and they saw what my home situation was like. and then they left me the fuck alone and didn't bother me anymore. isn't it crazy how teachers treat you like a blight on their existence without even knowing what you go through as a CHILD? i never had any mentor figures or adults in my life who made me excited about anything in life so i grew up very apathetic and im still dealing with that to this day. there was never anything good in my life growing up and there still isn't anything. i was pretty much depressed as soon as i had a conscious mind. it's also really telling how people treat poor/unfortunate kids who fall into addiction or crime. theres no empathy for us just scorn. we are treated like scum and lesser than by everyone. after all you go through as a child you enter the world realizing how far behind you are after everyone else and you don't really know how to catch up! dropping out is stigmatized, not going to uni is stigmatized, going to college is stigmatized, being bullied is stigmatized, not having a subject you're especially good in is stigmatized, falling into drugs or alcohol or crime is stigmatized to the point you shouldn't dare speak of it. people don't even try to sugarcoat the fact they see people who fell behind as lesser but at least they're honest. oops

[novelmonger]

🦈🌻🍬🚦

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Lol, the last time I answered a question like this, I was accused of being racist for saying that Sam Wilson is funny and emotionally stable XD

But as I think about it now, I suppose the real answer is that the toughest characters for me to write are snarky geniuses. The main ones I've had occasion to write would be Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark. For one thing, they're much more intelligent than I am, so that's hard to write, and also their areas of expertise are very far removed from my own. Then, at least in Tony's case, I always feel the need to reference pop culture in some way - but not the nerdy stuff I would actually know about. Tony's always dropping references to movies I haven't seen or bands I don't listen to or something, so it takes a lot of effort to figure out what to make him say, and both he and Sherlock have this mocking way of talking a lot of the time that doesn't come naturally to me. I don't feel like I've ever really gotten either of their voices quite right.

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

Less than I used to, I think. These days, I usually only read my own stuff when someone comments, "I love how you did XYZ!" And then I'm like, "Wait, I did XYZ?" and of course I have to go read it to see what they're talking about :P By the way, I'm not counting reading back over earlier portions of whatever WIP I'm in the middle of. That's just part of the writing process.

🍬 Do you write for multiple fandoms? If yes, what is your favorite fic of yours for each fandom?

From my FFNet profile:

So yes, I would say so XD

I only have one fic apiece for Wolf's Rain, Castle in the Sky, Death Note, Prince of Persia, Oddworld, Lovely Complex, Tsubasa Chronicle, Professor Layton, Supernatural, Star Wars, WordGirl, Daredevil, Avengers, and Dororo, so that goes without saying. Here are the others:

Final Fantasy X - Someday the Dream Will End My novelization of the game. Please note the date this was published and realize I was sixteen the last time I touched this thing ^^' It is very far beneath my current standards, but it's what got me into writing fanfiction in the first place, and it taught me so much about how stories work, how to write novel-length works, and also a lot of my preferences when it comes to writing and posting fanfic, specifically.

Harry Potter - Change I don't actually like any of my HP fics very much, if I'm being honest. I wrote most of them ages and ages ago, so the writing isn't very good, and I don't think I handled the few good ideas I had with the delicacy they required. So I picked this one because I wrote it much later than all the rest, so it's at least fairly competent. It's just a little exploration of a headcanon about how the broken Hogwarts House system could be tweaked to not be quite so divisive and counter-productive.

Full Metal Alchemist - The Ultimate Sacrifice Oh my gosh, I've written so many FMA fics over the years, it's almost impossible to pick x.x Some of them are really old and not very well written, some have really good ideas but my skill at the time is holding them back, some are quite good but...are they my favorite? In the end, I decided to go with this oneshot because it was burning a hole in my brain for years before I finally got it written down, and I think it still holds up okay seven years later. Basically, it's an AU that explores what it would be like if Ed uses his love for Al as the toll to get Al's body back. Super angsty, lots of tears, it's great! :D

ICO - Piaculum My novelization of the game, written after the official one was published in Japan but a good three years before it was ever translated to English, so that's how I justified writing it ^^' I didn't really know what I was doing. Parts of it are still kind of good, and I like how I dealt with certain themes and drew in connections to Shadow of the Colossus. But yeah, if you want a book that contains the story of my favorite game of all time, just go read Castle in the Mist by Miyuki Miyabe instead.

Legend of Zelda - One Hundred Beats A 100 Themes fic centered around the friendship of Link and Navi. I wrote this whole thing during one of the busiest and most exhausting periods of my life, and I'll always be impressed by past-me for doing that. I also really like some of the stories I came up with for it, especially all the AUs. Most importantly of all, brainstorming one chapter led me to the headcanon that healed the pain of what they did (or didn't do) with Navi in the canon, and for that I will always love this fic.

Sherlock - Memento Mori One of my kidlock oneshots, an AU where John and Sherlock met as kids. This one deals with the death of Sherlock's dog Redbeard (needless to say, it's quite different from the canon). Personally, I think this is the best one of my kidlock fics.

Captain America - Make Me Whole Obviously! This is the fic that took over my life and changed me irrevocably. For the first time ever, after so many years of writing just to get the ideas out and because no one else was doing it, this time I had a story where, even if ten other people came out of the woodwork with the exact same concept who were much better writers than me, I wanted to be the one to write it. I really got the sense that God wanted me to write this story, and I've seen the fruit of that over and over again. And, of course, without this fic I wouldn't be writing the mammoth WIP I'm working on now.

🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

You know, I've always said that bittersweet endings are my favorite. Endings like LotR, where the good guys win and evil is defeated, but not without great cost. But as I think through some of the endings I've been most satisfied about in my own writing, I think I need to fine-tune that. I think my favorite kind of ending is a particular brand of bittersweet, where it's not exactly "the Shire has been saved, but not for me." It's more like "we've been hurt, and we're not okay yet, but I think we will be." To me, that's the most realistic kind of ending you can get, because that's the way our lives are. (Not that I don't appreciate a good, completely happy ending where everybody lives happily ever after!)

Fanfic Writer Asks

[vere-flores]

( SHIPPING INFO // ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSE(S) SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG. )

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S)?

That depends on who I'm RPing with. Obviously, I have lots of love for a certain ship, but I love all of Flora's ships and the different people she's gotten to meet/be with. My OTP out of Mandy's (@mandysxmuses) muses will always be Flora and Jemand because of that being our very first ship, and I've seen them develop the most. They've also had ups and downs all through their relationship due to how Jemand used to be and how the Void is. Though, I wouldn't say I have an OTP ship out of every ship Flora has. There are other OTP's I have where I have multiple ships with someone, but Mandy is the one that's probably been seen the most on my blog.

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

I don't really mind, to be honest. Maybe it's because of the fact my mom is 5 years older than my dad, but age gaps haven't really bothered me. I can understand the issue with them, but I don't really mind as long as the ship is between consenting adults.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

Well, I will not post any NSFW on this blog, so if anyone wants to do that, then it would probably be best taken to Discord. But I've also struggled deciding this distinction myself. I haven't figured out how far it is too far for this blog myself, so I just try to avoid it entirely.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Not really. Most people have approached me for ships, which I kinda like. Because I'm the type who gets nervous mentioning about ships and whether someone wants to do that. At least I know that person is interested. The only thing I ask is that they've had some interaction prior so I can have an idea of their chemistry and develop an attachment.

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

Flora has many ships that I absolutely love! Like Dino from Shiro's @cioccolino, Xhilohrnia or Nia from @nascentwaves, Blaise's Kai from @voraxiia, Akihito from @thelazyeditor, and many more! I even have many more ships with @mandysxmuses and @eunciia. Most, if not all of Flora's current ships, are on her relationships doc, so feel free to ask about any of them!

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

Mm, it's not really a requirement or anything. If it happens naturally, that's just as awesome, too. I'm chill with whatever. If you want to establish a ship, let it happen naturally, or do a pre-established kind of thing, then I'm open to whatever you want to do! I might even, rarely, bring up shipping myself!

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?

Don't get me wrong, I looove ships and romantic relationships with Flora, but I wouldn't call myself ship obsessed. I'm just chill with whatever! I love all Flora's ships and am happy to discuss more if that interests people! Just hit me up, don't be afraid!

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?

Yes! Flora is multi-ship! She has multiple ships in different verses at this point!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

I am not in any fandoms atm, ^^ Not that I am, personally, against RPing with canons. I just haven't done it as much these days.

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

Just ask! Especially if you think our two muses could get along really well! Or if it happens naturally, then that's just as awesome, too! I just wouldn't want someone coming into an interaction, basically assuming a ship is gonna happen, especially without mentioning it to me first. It really just depends on the chemistry of the muses, but, honestly, Flora is not a hard person to ship/get along with, imo, ^^

I'm also chill with any sort of ship! Whether that is romantic or otherwise!

Idk if you're supposed to tag people in this so uh... you can steal it, too, like I have from other people on the dash, lol

[marshmallowprotection]

Hi! I would really love to ask for a romantic match up for my oc If that's okay? I just love all the characters so much, I'm struggling to decide who to put her with. She has been my oc for a while, but I wanted to spice things up by putting her in a different universe for fun, and where better than mystic messenger!

Here is her information:

Name: Yume Nijikawa

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her, but she doesn't mind They/Them

Sexuality: Bisexual

Appearance:

- Hair: long, fluffy and wavy pastel purple hair with lighter purple and blue highlights. It's hard to describe but it's very pretty!

- Eyes: they're a purplish blue that fades to pastel yellow. The shape is doe like, but droopy.

- Build: short, and despite her delicate nature, Yume is actually kinda ripped bc she's in a figure skating club at her university and she also weight lifts as a hobby!

- Clothing style: She likes to wear soft clothing, mainly in the color white with some pastel accents or accessories. She will buy anything if it has teddy bear, bunny or ocean/fish designs though.

Occupation: She's a university student, and she studies music! (I haven't gotten this far, but in the future she will probably be a singer or in the entertainment industry in some way.)

Personality:

Yume is soft, sleepy, gentle and kind. She's outgoing and enjoys meeting new friends and people, as well as having lots of adventures. Though she is considered an ambivert, so she also enjoys a good amount of alone time. However, she can be dangerous when angry, and tends to be very overprotective of those she cares about. She can get a little crazy when her loved ones are hurt or threatened, so messing around with her is a terrible idea. (So don't let that soft appearance fool you! She's fiesty!)

She's playful and has a good sense of humor! She's also good with communicating her emotions and feelings, and encourages others to do so. I would call her a mom friend but she's more like a grandma friend, always baking sweets for everyone and spoiling people. Tho she will hound her loved ones to take care of themselves and even take matters into her own hands if they won't.

- Positive traits: Loving/Caring, Reliable, Intelligent, Patient, Humble and Respectful.

- Negative traits: Impulsive, overprotective, unforgiving (she holds grudges for life unless they're her loved ones), emotional, gives up pretty easily if it's something for herself. Selfless, majorly.

- Hobbies: DIY crafts (mainly to gift to others), baking and cooking, figure skating, singing and dancing (ballet, ballroom...she can do hip hop and other styles though), weight lifting. She also likes to write, and paint. But her paintings look...quite terrible. She enjoys them regardless.

- Likes: S'mores, tea, marine life/the ocean, bonfires, being around people/people watching, naps, bunnies, and plushies.

- Dislikes: Fighting, people neglecting themselves, checking emails, bullies, heavy perfumes.

Background:

- her backstory is actually a pretty dark, so I'm going to take out a good chunk of things that could be triggering. Just know I'm scrapping the surface with the summary. Bro has been through some stuff lol.

- summed up though, Yume lived in a very rich but distant family. They provided for her, and they treated her well enough. But they never truly cared for her, or hung out with her or did anything special with her. Not even for holidays or her birthday besides the basic card or cake- which she appreciated of course, but she wanted more of their time, and she felt selfish for this. She was also homeschooled until high school, so she had almost no friends in early childhood. Besides a couple playmates her parents arranged to keep her busy.

- So when she was old enough, she began people watching. She took notes on others, how they interacted and what they did as they passed by. Eventually, she took these notes and started to throw herself out into the world. At first she was awkward, and not a lot of people wanted to speak to her. But even so, she did her best. And when she joined a private high school, she managed to make many good friends, and even more so now that she is in college!

There's a lot more but this is the most important part that shaped her.

Additional Information:

Her voice is airy and soft spoken most of the time as well.

And she has a lot of tattoos, her favorite being a blue jellyfish on her arm. She also has a dolphin, and sting rays and seahorses.  She wants a full sleeve of marine animal tattoos, and also...she has such a high pain tolerance she is unphased when she gets tattoos. Can just hold cheerful conversations like nothing is happening or she has even taken short naps before during them on accident.

She'd probably like dates either with a lot of adventure, or just napping outside where there is a lot of peaceful nature. She would enjoy camping!

Her love languages are gift giving, quality time, and words of affirmation. I couldn't decide on just one for her.

I match you with...

Jumin!

There is something about your soft and unwavering nature that would speak to him on a level that is hard to explain if you don't know him as well as he allows his inner circle to do so. You know how to meet him in the middle which is saying something because not many people can do that. It is your confidence when it comes to making sure that somebody knows how to say something that needs to be said.

Jumin is well-spoken and read. He knows how to navigate a room! But, when it comes to his emotions, it's a different story. It can be hard for him to say the things that are on his mind because his brain is flowing with a million things a minute.

There is just something about you that lets him slow down and think about what he wants to say. He doesn't have to put up a pretense or wear a mask around you. He can be his most genuine self. He can talk about the things he enjoys more than anything without assuming somebody's going to look at him like a chicken with its head cut off. You don't know how long he has yearned for somebody who enjoys talking to him about everything and anything.

You're the kind of person that would get him out of his assumed comfort zone. He will do many things without second-guessing himself, but you're the one that gets to pull out that wild side of him that's just underneath the surface. He will wind up doing things that nobody ever expected him to try with you. There's Something Beautiful about that. It's about trust and understanding. You give him that. He can only pray that he gives you that in return.

[scythegameing]

Conflicting Lives- Update (NOT A CHAPTER)

So obviously this isn't a legitimate or normal chapter by basically any means. I wanted to give a little bit of an update as to the lack of really anything with this story, and some of the reasonings behind it

Why hasn’t anything been happening here on Tumblr, or over on A03 in regards to the story?

When I started writing this story, I was in my senior year of highschool. It was sort of a hyperfixation project, and by the time I started getting into writing chapter 9 (which I have some of, but not at all of), I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to fill the time gap until the big fight with Martian/Martyn. Because of that, I ended up developing major writer's block and just a general creativity block in regards to this story, and haven’t been able to make any progress.

This led to me forgetting about it for a while. That is until recently. I am currently about a month into my first year of college, and one of my classes has sort of reminded me of this forgotten and neglected story with something we were assigned to make. As a result, i went back through my document I have of all of the chapters, and realized that though i like this story, I want to change it and make it a bit more accurate, both to my college life experience thus far, and just to make it a bit more accurate to what I want the story to be itself.

This doesn't mean I will be editing chapters in this project. Hell, I won't even be deleting this story itself in any way, just making a new one that will be more updated. Chapters 1-8 of Conflicting Lives will still be here, and will stay here. Instead, I think I'm going to be making a new story where all the changes will be made.

What changes are going to be made?

As time has passed, it feels odd to me to have one of the closest friends of my main persona, Scythe, being a large content creator. I don't really know how to describe it other than feeling very parasocial, and I've realized that I'm not very comfortable with it, let alone how the CCs would feel themselves if they ever stumbled across this.

Along with Scythe himself, he's recently gotten a major design change, and I want to implement that new design into the story. I had previously had him as a half human and half enderman hybrid, but have recently changed his design (with the help of a friend) to be more enderman focused in terms of physical looks. I haven't quite decided if he’s going to be completely enderman yet, but that's more character lore than it is story lore, so it may not even come into play.

Character designs in general are also going to probably change, as well as how I release them. If you’ve seen the tumblr side of things, you’ll know that I have previously used Gacha Club for showing my designs for each character. While I am still most likely going to do this, I want to try and incorporate a little bit of my own drawing skills back into it to make it feel a bit more mine in a sense. I keep learning more things about drawing and am still very much trying to find my own style, but with the help of others and just general experimentation, I feel a bit more confident in my ability to draw the designs how I see them in my mind. However, please do not get your hopes up at seeing no gacha at all. It is still going to be there, just hopefully not as prominent.

Not only character designs, but the powers, abilities, and species of most characters will also be changing as well. It feels a bit unbalanced right now looking at things, with some characters in my spreadsheet supposedly being super powerful or super weak, but being average or the other extreme. I want to kind of dumb it down a bit and bring it to basic powers as much as I can, just to make it a little bit easier for me when re-writing the story. I don't really plan on changing relationship dynamics much, but I can't guarantee anything. Honestly, go ahead and comment on what your favorite ships are of the characters so far and I can try and keep some of them in, or even add them if they weren't in before. If you do choose to do this though, be reminded that this story uses CCs from Hermitcraft, EmpiresSMP, and the Life Series. Any character you see that is not a CC from any of those servers/fandoms, please do not put into ships; those are the characters of myself and my close friends.

What is the new story going to be called?

I’m honestly not quite sure yet. I like the name Conflicting Lives for the essence of what the story itself is, but at the same time, a new name for a new and revitalized story seems right as well. If anything, I may just rename this one to have “old version” in the title or something similar, but i’ve still not completely decided. 

One thing that i can tell you for certain though is that When i do figure it out and post the first chapter of the re-written story, i will make a new chapter here, and a new post on tumblr with the link to the entire story so you can have that as well. When that will be though, I don't know. Admittedly, I'm still getting used to being at college and managing my time differently, so it’s probably going to be much longer in between chapters on the rewrite than there ever was on this one (not including this update). I will try to make some sort of schedule or dedication to working on the story, but again, I can't confirm anything right now.

I think that's all there is for now. Thank you all for being a part of this story as it is now, and I hope that, if you choose to, you enjoy the re-write or even re-reading this one!

[allylikethecat]

ally! unfortunately real life got in the way and i could not immediately read tuesdays update but i have just finished it and the hurt/comfort was immaculate. you have made me feelso bad for poor fictional!matty and if this is the insight we get into how he’s feeling i CANNOT WAIT till he actually has a proper grown up conversation with fictional!george about their future/past. he’s so emotional and in need of reassurance i just want to wrap him up in a blanket!!!

tbh i totally wasn’t expecting this to be the fic you updated but i was very happy to see it as i think the only person who loves this infection verse and this version of fictional!matty & george more than me is you!

this dynamic between fictional!george and his family is SO interesting and i really enjoy seeing how they interact with each other and with fictional!matty (ngl i’m kinda hoping fictional!george gets to absolutely rip into them at some point — the poor guy has been far too patient with them so far))

btw no apologies r necessary for the length of this fic! i would happily read a christmas fic well into august if it was written by you!

hope all is going well with your new job and that you’re feeling settled and well-rested after your travels<333

yours,

— 💌💌

Hello Dearest 💌 Anon!

I hope you are doing well, NEVER apologize for real life getting in the way, trust me I get it fully! Poor Fictional!Matty is really going through it, emotionally, mentally, physically, he is a sad little bug BUT Fictional!George is also going through it and because they are EQUALS and PARTNERS they will figure it out together! Just have to make them super sad first 😂

I'm so happy that you're continuing to enjoy the Infection Fic Verse as much as I am- I love this version of Fictional!Matty and Fictional!George so much and it makes me so happy that others are also enjoying spending time in their sandbox! I'm also happy the update was (hopefully!) a pleasant surprise! I didn't want to tease it too much in case I didn't get it finished the way I wanted it to be, but I'm so happy I was able to finish it and post it! Hopefully the final two chapters won't take me as long!

Poor Fictional!George is in a tough spot- that is his family and he's not sure if he wants to have a relationship with them or not moving forward, and thus is trying to tread carefully even though they are objectively not great.

Thank you so much for your patience and support!! I truly hope I'm not still working on this one in August but I'm glad that you'll still be willing to read it even if I am 😂

Thank you for the well wishes as well! The new job is going well and even though I had a lot of *fun* on all my trips I am very happy to be home! My body has basically given up on me at this point and I've been sick since before I went to California (I've gone to the doctors and gotten tested multiple times I luckily don't have covid or the flu, apparently it's just a nasty cold I can't shake because I haven't taken the time to rest lol) I was supposed to go out of town again for St. Patrick's day but alas I have cancelled that outing because I'm pretty sure if I got on another airplane at this point my body would actually shut down 😂

Thank you so much for always being so lovely and supportive and the very best! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on future updates and I hope that everything in your life is going well and that you are having the absolute best week!

❤️Ally

[tiglo]

Deathloop slab only Day 4

so I'm not going to go over what I did over the last few sessions of this challenge because other than like 1 thing I had to do differently to actually finish the game (I'll talk about this at the end of this post) I basically just played the game normally. Flicker and Havoc took away all of the challenge, because when I was thinking of doing this I thought that Havoc and Flicker would be helpful but not that helpful. you could probably beat the entire gam with nothing but havoc and have very little issues with anything. but back to my point, I'm just going to talk about some various things I either didn't mention before or things I found interesting about the game, discovered during the playthrough, and other generally interesting stuff about the game that are vaguely related to the challenge.

Random thing #1

Loop stress must buff all drops instead of just dropping rare loot more often. so I got the Sepulchra very early on this time and I found that for whatever reason it hardly did any damage to anyone I shot it with, when in my first casual playthrough it was a guaranteed one-shot headshot on basically everything but the collector. then when I did my final loop I tried to snipe Wenjie from not very far away and she tanked 6 headshots, so either the Sepulchra got nerfed between June and now or loot quality does more than just drop rare stuff more often. I hardly used the Sepulchra because it just couldn't kill anything this time around and I'm wondering if I should have gotten another one to compare before I reset my progress to playthrough another challenge run (which is honestly not really a challenge run and I won't be doing posts about this current one but I plan on it for the next)

Random thing #2

Apparently the Rapier is considered the meta by the community, it's the weapon I've used the least just because it's loud, slow to fire, and I thought it was just too niche to ever justify giving it a loadout slot. But the community disagrees. The actual worst weapon is much harder to figure out, I looked at a bunch of tier lists and a few reddit threads, the only weapon that wasn't ever called the worst in the game was the Strelak Verso which doesn't mean it's the best it's just generic enough that no one actively dislikes it. I saw the Constancy Automatic at the bottom surprisingly often, it's really not a bad weapon it's just very underwhelming for the first unique weapon most people will find; it's really just a Limp-10 with a finicky reload. but the one people called the worst most often was the PT-6 Spiker so the next challenge run will be with just that, even though I like the Spiker more than silenced Tribunal or Limp-10

Random thingy #3

Julianna randomly invading even though I had invasions turned off was a persistent problem throughout the run. I have no clue why but just based on behavior they were all the bots that invade in single player mode. she never dropped anything all that useful so I never really mentioned it except for the first time she invaded after I switched to friends only. I think there are ways you can force the game to have Julianna invade, this theory is mostly from me playing as Julianna and finding that some really good players seemed to be grinding Julianna in Updaam at night. like I would unintentionally invade what appeared to be the same player multiple times and every time he had the safe in Colt's apartment open so maybe reading the note from Julianna always forces one and other locations also have triggers like this, again I haven't tested this at all and the wiki doesn't mention it anywhere

Random Thingy #4

it took me a bit to figure out how I could actually kill Julianna because the dueling pistols are obviously not a slab and all slabs are nullified in the core. eventually I figured out I could open the door, activate Aether, then shoot her from outside the door.

[wri0thesley]

Just read your post on Kaeya being a menace, and not only do I fully agree, but to elucidate on it a tad further: Kaeya is definitely on a personal mission to fuck the reader in as many places in Mondstadt as he possibly can. We can agree on that, right? Basically any accessible place that has a decently-flat surface is free game, but he does have a preference for the riskier spots. Specifically riskier of getting caught. Makes it all the more thrilling, y’know?

a list of places i absolutely think kaeya has fucked reader:

Jean's office. That goes without saying; when he was standing in for her as Acting Grand Master during her illness, he had to take advantage of it somehow - and you were so cute as you looked around it and mumbled about how the two of you were going to get caught, even as he bent you over her desk and pounded you so hard you saw stars. It still counts as working; he occasionally let his eyes wander to the paperwork he was supposed to be reviewing. You were just there to help him . . . concentrate.

The library, when Lisa was on one of her tea breaks - you had to be very quiet as Kaeya pulled you onto his lap and let his hand whisper up your thigh, because there's no telling when she'll appear out of nowhere - and if she heard the noises you usually made? Kaeya's certain he'd be barred from the library for far longer than would be preferable. He needs to do some research sometimes, too!

The Angel's Share. Upstairs, whilst Diluc is behind the bar; when he's gotten you into a dark corner and all of the other patrons are too drunk to notice anything, he's started kissing you and pushed you against a wall and told you not to give the game away. Everyone will think you're getting a little too into the kiss, yes - but they'll never guess that Kaeya's three fingers deep inside you whilst his mouth catches your whimpers.

More alleys than he'd care to expound on; at this point, it's harder to find an alley that you haven't had a little nightly exploration within. You always tease Kaeya that one night the Dark Night Hero is going to find what the two of you are up to and steal you away, punishing him for corrupting a poor innocent of Monstadt - but for some reason, that thought just makes him fuck you a little rougher.

Several abandoned Treasure Hoarder camps, out in the wilderness, that he's been sent to have a look at - Kaeya and the Treasure Hoarders have a kind of agreement, yes, but he still needs to assert that he's the one in charge . . . so when they leave behind maps or books or crates, he figures the best way to do this is to fuck you on every single one of them. Don't question his methods.

Dragonspine, the few times he's had to go there; don't worry, the cold doesn't bother Kaeya at all, and he's willing to warm you up when you need it.

Windrise, far too close to the statue of Barbatos for your own comfort - people come there to pray and reflect, you tell Kaeya, as he bites into the soft flesh of your inner thigh and your hands tangle in his hair. Kaeya raises the eyebrow of his visible eye. "I'm praying too," he tells you, with a cocky grin. "But my altar tastes far better than any statue--"

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" from The Owl House

Wow. They are really pushing it for that secret message, huh?

Anywho--Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

I think it goes without saying at this point that Season Two of The Owl House is setting itself up as a season without filler. Now, filler episodes aren't always bad. Yes, it hurts when a series turns away from the main plot for a week. But at best, they're utilized as a chance for the writers to play around with the characters and developing said characters without it relating to the overarching story. So, some people who see that consider it a bad thing that a series doesn't have that many filler episodes.

I like to call those people: F**king morons.

Don't get me wrong, I see where some of you are coming from. And I'd be willing to agree...if The Owl House was a plot-driven series. Which it's not. It is a character-driven series. Because for every plot thread and narrative that the show presents, they always relate to the characters and develop them further each time these threads get brought up. For example, look at "Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty's Door" (It pains me just to write that). Several narratives move forward, and it’s all done to make the characters grow. And to explain how requires going into spoilers. So keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Hooty: Might as well start with the character that this episode is about.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan when I found out we're getting a Hooty-centered episode. I've grown to love him over time, but he is a comedic character that's best used in small doses. Primarily due to how his voice is grating to me (My ears are still bleeding...). With that said, I do really love his contributions in "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (Seriously, there couldn't have been a less awkward title?). Hooty's antics when trying to help everyone are as hilarious as they are heartwarming. He deeply cares for his friends but just doesn't understand how his plans could do some unintended harm, which is pretty lovable if you ask me. We also get some surprisingly great insight into his character, as he feels insecure about basically being the comic relief who doesn't really do that much other than being funny. Rarely do you get that level of dimension from a comedic character, and it's even more uncommon for that to work out as well as it does here. It once again proves just how competent the writing is in this series to the point where we get an episode about Hooty, and it's funny and heartwarming instead of being annoying. And whoever is responsible for that, you're the best.

Lilith’s Letter to Hooty: I mean it when I say that I love how Lilith kept her word about her and Hooty becoming penpals. Their friendship was something I would have never expected to love, and I'm still shocked that it works so well, so seeing it continue like this just warms me to the bone. Plus, it is pretty sweet that Lilith's kind words are what inspired Hooty to do what he's done in this episode...meaning it's Lilith we should thank here--SON OF A WITCH! Even when she's gone, she's still working her way into my heart!

King going through Puberty: What?! KING IS EVOLVING!

(There, I made a Pokemon reference. Do I get my cookie now?)

Eda Keeping Herself Awake to Train Herself: I'm willing to bet a large sum of money that this has everything to with Raine getting captured last week. If Eda was still the most powerful witch in the Isles, she might have actually saved them. But she isn't, and now the love of her life is in the clutches of a tyrant planning something that could potentially be the end of everything. So I can understand Eda pushing herself to her limit to get back on top again, as I would probably do the same. It's not healthy in any way, and Eda would be doing more harm than good. But when it comes to the people you love, logic doesn't always win out in the end.

Luz Wanting to Make her Way into Amity’s Heart by Making the Echo Mouse Happy: ...That's it. I Just...I just love everything about it, ok?

This was also when I knew that I was wrong to doubt that there would be zero Lumity in this episode. I realize my follies now, and I humbly apologize.

Hooty Teaching King About Demons: This was so funny. So, so funny. Probably doesn't come as a surprise, especially since The Owl House proves itself as a comedy before, but the jokes have never hit as frequently and as hard as they did here. From Hooty getting offended by King's dance to him and Dana's insert wanting a "DNA sample," everything managed to successfully make me lose my s**t. It does come at the expense of King suffering, but I can stomach that much more than if it were Eda or Luz. And, as a bonus, we get lore about how demons work, added with another great joke of King getting in trouble with Hooty for saying he already knows this stuff. Humor isn't always the show's strong suit, but when it works, it f**king works.

King Wanting to Know What he Is: But despite how funny King's vignette was, we still get to see more of his character grow. We learn that he's frustrated now that there's this big question mark over his life now, feeling extra angry that his father "abandoned" him to leave such a present mystery. It shows the hidden resentment he has that Lilith inadvertently brought out, made even worse when King's father hasn't responded to the video yet. King hasn't really gotten that much development until "Echoes of the Past," so it's pretty cool that the writers haven't really slowed down on it. Especially when it leads to these great moments of King venting his frustrations.

King’s Shouting Powers: KING learned FUS RO DAH!

(And now that's a Pokemon reference AND a Skyrim reference. WHERE'S MY GOSH DANG COOKIE!?)

Eda’s Nightmare: If King's vignette hits you hard with the laughs, Eda's will absolutely hit you harder with the feels (never make me say "feels" unironically again). Knowing that Eda's life got thoroughly screwed over by the curse is something we could figure out on her own. But seeing just how much the curse ruined her life and tore apart relationships that mean the world to her really does a swell job at ripping apart the soul. What's even more tragic is, technically speaking, it's all sort of Eda's fault too. She kept hiding the curse, refusing to be a burden to others who would do all they could to help. If she had only been open and honest, things probably wouldn't have changed much, but they most likely would have been better than they are now.

Eda Attacked her Father as the Owl Beast: ...I don't know what I was expecting when "Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances" hinted that there was some possible tension between Eda and her father...but it definitely wasn't this.

The fact that we see blood where his eye used to be doesn't make things any happier, either.

Raine Broke Up with Eda: Before we get into anything else, let's celebrate the fact that it's now confirmed that Eda and Raine really did use to date in the past. Because this show is just f**king phenomenal with its LGBTQA+ representation!

But, seriously, this is a fantastic reveal that goes far beyond just shipping...well, sort of. It shines a new light on Eda and Raine's interactions from last week, revealing that while they're not a couple anymore, they still very much love each other. It helps make their last interaction especially tragic, as they were both on the same page now and could very well be together again. Only for them to be forced apart for the second time in a way that's much worse than the first. And I frickin' adore that this series changes the impact of one episode one week later. Again, it shows just how competent these writers are, and kudos to them for making something so...perfect.

The Moon Person: WHO THE FU--Nope. Nope! We have more than enough mystery bulls**t to deal with through CreepyLuz and Philip Wittebane, so I am PUTTING YOU ON THE BACKBURNER FOR NOW!

(They're probably nothing more than a one-off character, anyway)

The Owl Beast and Eda are Connected: Through visuals alone, we, the audience, can clue into what the curse really means. The Owl Beast doesn't want to be a part of Eda as much as she doesn't want it to be a part of her. Whether they like it or not, and they very much don't, they're stuck together. The thing is, and this is what I love the most, they still decide to make the best of their situation rather than let it ruin their lives even more. This might be the best possible turn Eda's curse could have made. It'll still affect her, and there are probably more negatives than positives, but at least now, it's not the worst thing in the world. And I feel like that's all anyone can ask when in a position like her own.

Eda's “Pretty Dream”: I don't know what emotions are toiling inside me more with this moment. Awe and wonder over how beautiful Eda's dream is, or heartbreak over the implication that she has only had nightmares since getting cursed...I'm gonna say both. Yeah, it's definitely both.

Eda’s Harpie Form: Well, fan artists are gonna have a field day with this...especially the freaks.

(You know who you are. And you're weird!)

Luz Calling Amity a “Cotton-Candy Haired Goddess”: ...Have I ever mentioned how much I love this show?

Hooty Kidnapped Amity: ...Hooty, if your stupidity wasn't charming, I would be more than willing to call the authorities over how you kidnapped a girl in your version of a knapsack and locked her in the basement. For that is going to ring SO MANY alarm bells in people's heads.

Amity and Luz Stuck in a Tunnel of Love: *Smacks lips* Mmm. The adorable awkwardness of this moment is just *chef's kiss* magnifique!

Luz being afraid of getting made fun of:

Amity’s look of hope: I mean...just...f**king--LOOK AT HER:

That is the look of a girl who, while embarrassed as hell, still is ecstatic to learn for a brief moment, everything that she is hoping for has a high chance of being real. Who, in their right mind, wouldn't go "Aw!" at something so pure and innocent?!

Luz Destroying the Tunnel of Love: This is how to effectively utilize dramatic irony. The audience can understand why Luz is tearing the place apart because she explicitly states that she's afraid of Amity rejecting her in the end. They also know that's bogus, thus making it extra painful to watch Amity's heart break more and more with each second (which is perfectly represented through Amity's expressions). You feel bad for both of them, and even worse when you know that it can easily be prevented by the simple art of communication. That's what makes it great dramatic irony. Knowing the point of view of each character results in a scene that evokes emotions in two different ways.

Hooty’s Breakdown: This was...genuinely hard to watch. Not that it was badly written, far from it. It just...hurt seeing how destroyed Hooty was when he realized he failed the people he has such an admiration for. On the upside, a wholesome moment follows soon after as the Owl House gang tries to reassure Hooty that he's done a lot of good that night. It's a pure action that shows even though Hooty gets on their nerves all the time, they still care about him...damn it. I think I'm gonna cry.

Eda’s Advice for Luz: ...Eda...You're the best.

You found out that your surrogate daughter wants to ask a girl out, and not only were you quick to deliver the best possible advice ("Just go for it!"), but you also quickly reassure her that it doesn't need to be perfect.

And you know what? That's it. Eda is the best cartoon mom! She might not technically be Luz's mom, but I don't give a s**t because she is the best!

Luz and Amity Ask Each Other Out: Shh-sh-sh-sh...

Do you hear that?

...

...

...It's the sound of dozens of Lumity fans collectively losing their s**t...and I'm one of them.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!

IT!

IS!

CANON!

AH-HAHAHAHAHA!

HOLY S**T! Holy s**t! Holy s**t...might just be the best way I could possibly describe this! Finally, after all the waiting, speculating, and praying, THESE TWO IDIOTS FINALLY GOT TOGETHER! AND IT WAS PERFECT! I mean, it was awkward as s**t, but that's what makes it perfect! You know why? You wanna--Hey! *snaps fingers*. You want to know why? It's because they're teenagers. Of f**king course, it's going to be awkward! This is their first relationship, so there will be a lot of missteps along the way. And that, in itself, brings me to the best (second best part?) thing about it happening in episode eight of the new seasons. Most endgame couples get together in the climax or even at the end of the series. But to have them get together this early on, means there will be quite a few episodes dedicated to showing them grow as a couple.

And better than that--EVEN F**KING BETTER THAN THAT--dozens of kids are going to see these two, a realistic depiction of young love that just so happens to involve two girls, and are going to learn once and for all that there is nothing wrong with being who they are. That fact alone is f**king incredible. Yes, it sucks that season three got cut short, and we'll have even less time with Luz and Amity, but knowing how many kids have felt seen today almost makes it worth it in the end.

And if I see one mother f**ker saying this was poorly paced, I might just hunt them down for SPORT...Sorry if that was an overreaction. I'M JUST SO HAPPY! Because they're happy! Look at them. Listen to them! It's so...GAH-HAHAHA!

“They’re adorable! And deserve all the happiness!”: You're darn right, Hooty! You're darn right.

King’s Father(?) Shows Up: What the--WHAT?! They're doing this now?! Here?! After everything else?

Oh, man. What could this mean? What dynamic changes will this cause in the main cast? How could the writers fit this in during the next two episodes? And what--

Hooty Eats the Letter: ...Pfffft--HAHAHAHA!

Oh, man...I should be mad, and I wouldn't blame others if they are...but that is too much of a brilliant f**k you that I can't help but appreciate it. Bravo writers. Bravo.

WHAT I DISLIKED

...Dislikes? Dislikes? You would honestly believe that after everything I witnessed in this episode, that I would have the gull to list anything wrong with it?!

HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT I WOULD BE SO CALLUS TO--Actually, I do kind of have an issue with the episode's title. It's just too much of an awkward mouthful for me to get behind. I understand that the writers wanted to sneak the K into the secret message, but were there really no other titles starting with K that they couldn't come up with?

But that's just a personal issue, and in no way do I think anybody else would feel the same way. Especially with how well-written everything else is anyway.

IN CONCLUSION

"Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (title aside) is another A+ episode. It was hilarious, heart-wrenching, and downright adorable while keeping me entertained with every minute. I'm sure there are some issues I was willing to ignore due to how expertly written everything else was, but why bother looking for the chinks in the armor when I could just enjoy a perfect episode for being so...perfect! Some of you might be willing to disagree with me, but to that, I say: Don't knock it till you've tried it.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I'm going to go lie down. It's...It's been a day.)