#like there’s nothing wrong with it obviously but I’m talking more like how tons of ppl only get into a new series for the sole purpose

[tariah23]

I rly don’t see how ppl be 20+ shipping kids anymore tbh… like, it’s so rampant and I don’t see the appeal to it anymore being as tho I’m in my late 20’s.

[bellatrixscurls]

two ghosts | part 1

pov : lily rejects james many times, until he finally gives up. but y/n and sirius are there for him, in more ways than one.

warnings : smut (next part), mentions of ex!bully!james, fluff (it probably sucks cus i only know how to write smut), sub jamie if you squint, pet names, established relationship between reader and sirius. please lmk if there are more! <3

part two

“I’m telling you, sweetheart. It’s nothing your pretty cunt can’t fix” Sirius winks at you, shoving a piece of bread in his mouth, causing you to roll your eyes. He obviously notices, as he is sat across from you, and smirks.

Remus is eyeing you both suspiciously, and clears his throat. “I can think of more situations you,” he looks at you and you blush slightly in embarrassment, “cannot fix. So what is it now?”

Sirius giggles like a little kid, and you shake your head, your cheeks way too red by now. “I think Prongs needs some.. relief. Poor thing is so crabby these days, and it’s all because of that stupid mudblood.”

“Sirius!” you shriek, kicking his foot under the table. “Okay, alright! I was just looking for something bad to say about her.”

Remus rolls his eyes and Peter places his fork down, blue eyes wide as he stares at you, clearly interested. “What do you mean by relief? I mean, he’s been refusing to tell me what’s wrong and yes, he is acting a bit strange, but I can’t think of anything that could help him. Unless you want to get him a date with Evans, which is not an option.”

Peter’s speech leaves all of you speechless. You’ve looked at the situation as more of a joke, not realising how sweet Jamie turned to grumpy, fussy James. “I mean, not that I would want to get him a date with that one” Sirius scoffs, his hands raising in surrender as you and Remus glare at him.

“And why would that be, Sirius?” you find it’s your turn to tease him, to which he scoffs again, giving you an wide-eyed look when he spots James approaching the ton of you.

His head is a mess of curls that bounce furiously as he walks messily, his eyes are bigger than usual and his face seems to scream ‘I’m tired!’. His clothes, surprisingly, are not wrinkled. Well, it’s a surprise to anyone but you, cus you are the one who prepared them for him the night before.

“Morning” his voice is thick with sleep, barely gazing at you as he wraps an arm around your shoulders, squeezing you into his side only for a few seconds. “Thank you for taking care of me” he says softly, obviously referring to his robe, shirt and trousers.

Your eyebrows shoot up, clearly surprised by the little gesture, and the guys seem to be as surprised, if not more than you are. “No bother, Jamie.”

The atmosphere in the common room is tense, and you all can sense it. Even James.

“You can talk to me, you know” he scoffs, slightly annoyed as he looks up for merely a second, eyeing Sirius, and his face somehow softens.

Sirius looks at him sadly. “We are worried about you, we don’t want you to lose yourself just because some red-headed chick doesn’t want you.”

And then, you all know that he screwed up.

James stands up abruptly, and looks down at Sirius, his usually gentle blue eyes now a few shades darker. “She’s not- You don’t know what it feels like, Sirius” he calls him by his first name, not Pads, and not Siri, and you can see Sirius’ face soften and his bottom lip jutting out just slightly. “You’ve found Y/n a long time ago, and even before you didn’t have a problem with girls ever refusing you. You don’t know how it feels.”

You all fall silent, your hand coming up to gently rub at his back, his head leaning into your neck as he nuzzles against your skin. “We just want our Jamie back, honey. I promise you so many other people in this school want you for you.”

“You promise?” he looks at you with those doe eyes that always make you melt.

“I do. And maybe it’s best that you didn’t get with Lily, who knows what would’ve happened. I promise there is someone there for you.”

By the end of your speech, you can only hear James hum softly as you continue to rub his back. A few minutes pass by, and Remus whispers to you, letting you know that James is sleeping. And so you sit more comfortably against the sofa, allowing yourself to rest for a little bit as well.

♥︎

Shifting pulls you from your deep slumber only a few hours later, and you find your arms empty, no trace of James anywhere. You sigh softly as you move to stand up, taking the blanket, that you were not aware was there, with you.

“Sweetheart, you’re awake” Sirius beams when you stand up, and you almost have a heart attack when you hear his voice, being pulled away from your thoughts.

You turn to look at him, lazily dragging yourself and finally throwing yourself into his arms, the boy taking that as a sign to sit down, with you still in his arms. “I missed you” you smile into his chest, engulfed by his intoxicating scent. He smells like he always does, but to you, it’s much more than that.

“Me too, sweetheart” he kisses your forehead, his eyes closing and so do yours.

But little do you know, James is watching the two of you the entire time, and his heart drops and swells at the same time. He wants that, but he is glad that his best friends have it.

♥︎

The next day, you walk with Sirius, hand in hand, towards your Herbology class. He is telling you about his new partner in partner in Potions when you spot James leaning against the wall, talking to Lily.

“Siri, he’s doing it again” you pout, looking up at your boyfriend as he looks in their direction, his eyes darkening at the sight.

“Oh fuck” he swears under his breath, and you frown. “I can’t hear him cry for the entire night again, breaks my heart” he gulps and you brush your hand against his cheek gently, making him look st you.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad. Maybe he is okay now” you try to reason with him and he seems to soften for a moment, not long though, cus James is messily walking away from Lily, his eyes red and lips puffy. You look back at him, his eyes not once leaving yours as he walks away, heading towards the Gryffindor Tower.

“Yeah, he seems pretty content” Sirius scoffs to himself, running one of his hands through his hair as the other holds your waist.

“Bring him to my dorm” you tell him, your eyes widening before you continue. “I- I mean, both of you. We can take care of him, make sure he doesn’t feel alone and maybe forgets what happened for the night.”

Sirius looks at you like you are his Moon, the one who always brightens his path when it gets dark. I mean, he’s told you that before.

“You are a genius!”

♥︎

After classes, you went to find James, but found him in the worst situation you thought possible.

He is with Lily. Meanwhile the red-head is reading her book on the sofa, James is knelt in front of her, gently tugging at her delicate arm, but she pays him no mind. “Lily, I just- please, just a date, just one” he whispers softly, not wanting to disturb her more than he already does.

She rolls her eyes, and sighs. “James, I don’t know how many times to tell you that I’m not interested” she says sadly, and you can see his bottom lip quivering. “I don’t.. you were mean to my friends, James. Mean to me. For a very long time, and even though it was long before you liked me, I can’t” she finally confesses, cupping his cheek with her palm.

Your eyes widen and so do James’.

He lets out a soft ‘oh’ and quickly wipes his tears, baby blue eyes blinking in shock. He didn’t know.

“Oh okay... Okay then, that’s fine” he nods frantically, slowly standing up from his knees and brushing his hands over his robe. “I’m sorry, Lily” you see him pout slightly before he practically runs away.

You wait until Lily stands up and finally follow James upstairs, not wanting to make it seen like you were eavesdropping. You were, but.

Knocking gently on the door, you are met with a muffled and small ‘yes?’

“Jamie, it’s Y/n” you lean your head against the door, your eyes closing as you listen to the shuffling in the room.

Moments later, he opens the door and your shoulders drop when you see his state. He hasn’t been himself for weeks now, but he has never looked this way until now. He looks a mess, and his bed is the same.

“Darling” you frown slightly, not touching him because you don’t know if that’s okay yet. “D’you wanna go to my dorm? You can stay with me tonight, Siri will be there too.”

You try to soothe him, explaining that you will listen to him as much as he needs, but when he hears ‘your dorm’ and ‘Siri’, his ears perk up and he starts nodding fervently, grabbing his blanket and shutting the door behind him.

You give him a small smile before you guide him to your dorm, where your boyfriend is waiting for you. He probably doesn’t expect you to manage to get James to come, so his eyes widen a little bit when he sees him, but he clears his throat and stands up from your couch, greeting you. Sirius’ arms snake around your waist as he gives you a sweet peck on the lips, before he moves to James.

The bespectacled boy’s back is glued to the door, sitting there timidly as he tries not to look at you both, but he fails miserably. “Hi there, Prongsie” Sirius teases him and James smiles a genuine smile, his eyes closing as Sirius brings him into his arms, the long-haired’s boy scent just as intoxicating as it is to you.

“Do you want to talk to us, babe? Tell us what happened?” you quip as you take James’ hand in yours and you usher him to sit on your perfectly made bed, the sheets soft beneath him.

He looks up at you, then at Sirius, and sighs softly. “I used to be a bully” he confesses, as if it is a secret, “And ‘s why she doesn’t like me... Lily.”

Sirius’ grimace is more than present on his face. He remembers those times, up until third year, when he met you. You’ve changed him, and them, for that matter. James has always been a sweet boy, but he used to think that he was superior to the others. Not now, though.

“That was way too long ago, though. We were kids” Sirius whispers defeatedly, he knows that’s not an excuse.

“I was terrible” James says and a sob catches in his throat. Your heart almost breaks and then you understand what Sirius meant when he said that James crying made his own heart break. “I regret that, I don’t want to ever do that again.”

You pout, inching your hand closer to his as you slowly caress it, your eyes moving from him to your boyfriend. “It’s been age, Jamie” Sirius speaks softly, “you have changed, that’s not you anymore. Sure, you cannot erase your past, but you cannot let it define you either. That’s. not. you.”

James looks up at him with hope, and Sirius grins widely. “Look at you, you are the sweetest boy I’ve ever met. So pretty as well” Sirius’ tatted hand cups James’ soft, pale cheek and the younger boy melts against his skin. “Yeah?” he breathes, batting his eyelashes at Sirius, who nods proudly.

But when Sirius notices that James’ hand is moving up his thigh, he removes his hand from his hand from his cheek and stands up, walking towards a smaller chest of drawers, where you keep his clean clothes for when he comes over.

James’ breath hitches and tears start pooling at his eyes. He tries to be quiet, but you are still beside him and hear it. “What is it, sweet boy?” you ask, frowning.

He just shakes his head, burying his face into your soft pillow. “M sorry” he sobs, his tears most definitely soaking your pillow.

“Sorry?” you ask and he hums, still not looking at you. “Tried to touch Siri” he admits, “you have.. you’ve just been so good to me, I-”

“Oh, love, I’m not upset with you. I mean, who wouldn’t want to touch Siri?” you joke and he giggles softly, lifting his head from the pillow.

“Okay I’m back and I got you my shirt and this pair of boxers, I hope they fit you- Hey, why are you crying?”

─

next part will probably be just a little bit of fluff and smut, but i thought i’d share this little thought with you guys. i will write the other fic ideas soon, please bear with me <3.

[luffyandaceswife]

-𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞

WARNINGS!

18+ , Smut, AFAB reader, i am not using y/n so “name“ is used, Vaginal penetration, Pussy eating, blowjob, porn without plot ☠️

𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞

❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎❤︎︎

FIRST NSFW POST ☠️☠️☠️

The rest of the crew was asleep, You lie restless in bed, staring at the ceiling, still tense from the battle earlier, you let out a soft sigh as you turn over to see your boyfriend and captain sleeping soundly, soft snoring noises leaving his lips as he slept, it was adorable and you didn’t feel like waking him up just because you were tense.

You adjusted in your shared bed, leaning your back against the wall, the soft pillows behind your back felt nice, easing that tension a little bit.

You sat closer to the wall and watched over your sleepy captain , Who now was seemingly stirring in sleep, He grumbled trying to find a comfortable position before turning over to face you, he smiled brightly like always and stretched his rubbery arms to pull you closer into his tight and warm embrace. You groaned as his inhumanly strong arms squished you.

“Too tight-!”

he loosened his grip.

“Oopsies!”

Luffy giggled and pulled you onto his lap, his back flat on the mattress and his head propped up on one of the pillows, his hands placed on either side of your waist, causing you to freeze. Luffy obviously didn’t understand why, he’s quite oblivious to anything like that. His grip on your hips tightened as he looked up at you.

“Somthin’ wrong “name?”

he tilted his head in genuine confusion as you took a deep breath.

“No no it’s just the position is kind of… provocative..?”

you blushed, you wanted nothing more but to strip you and his clothes off and fuck until the sun rose but you knew better with him, and you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable so you tried to always ease into the topic, since he can be a little… slow..? at times.

“Eh? You mean like the thing sanji is always talking about?”

You froze.

“Uhm-.. what does sanji talk about Luff..?”

you felt your fists ball, knuckles turning white, of course going unnoticed by the oblivious man under you.

“Uh-.. he says somthin about boobs… and pussy or whatever- ion really pay attention when he talks about that if i’m being honest.”

Luffy shrugged and you let out a sigh of relief, part of you didn’t want your captains innocence being snatched away by that pervert of a cook. But then you had a genuine curiosity.

“Lu, Do you know what sex is?”

you asked with hesitance, a TON of hesitance.

“Eh? sex? No-..? i don’t think so-“

you face palmed, you knew he was inexperienced but the fact he didn’t even know how humans reproduced was insane to you, didn’t normal children get taught that at a young age..?

“Why? is it good? is it a food?”

You almost laughed

“Well it’s not a food but it’s an activity and i would say it is good-“

luffys eyes lit up with excitement

“Fun activity! than let’s do it!”

your eyes almost popped right out of your skull with pure shock.

“Luffy i don’t think you would want to uhm- it has to deal with uh-..”

You tapped on the outline of your captains cock in his jean shorts to try to hint at him what you meant, Obviously it was embarrassing but it was Luffy so that made you feel a little safer.

“What about it-?”

“Do you want me to show you?”

he tilted his head before nodding his head, you took a deep breath since you didn’t expect to end your night like this, but oh well.

You slowly reached down to unbutton the denim shorts he wore, peppering kisses along the side of his neck and jawline.

“Mm..”

Luffy softly groaned out as you nipped at the side of his neck and unzipped the zipper of his shorts, you wiggled them off his hips and threw them to the side, Luffys hands slowly traveled up your back and down again to hold your hips as you gently palmed his now growing erection.

“W-what the-… why’s it-“

his sentence was cut off by a shaky moan, his eyes shut tight. You obviously knew what he was referring to. You couldn’t help but giggle at the little noises he was making.

“It’s normal- Your excited is all..”

You whispered your words an octave lower than normal as you gently kissed his collarbone, your thumb rubbing against the tip of his cock in slow circular motions, his hips bucked against nothing as his grip on your hips tightened, he didn’t say another word since he couldn’t get a coherent sentence out of his mouth, the new overwhelming pleasure soaring through his veins.

“Hahhh… feels s’good..”

He whined out, continuing to buck his hips, you moved one of your hands to push down on his lower stomach, keeping his hips from bucking as you lowered your head towards his pelvis , kissing down his chest and stomach as you made your way to his cock, gently kissing up the sides and planting a kiss to the tip, you were addicted to the way he reacted to every new sensation.

“Feel good?”

You mumbled as he nodded slowly, he was a tough guy, you didn’t expect him to be so sensitive, which only made this all the more fun, your tongue slowly peeked out as you licked a long stripe from the base of his cock all the way to the tip, wrapping your lips around it once you made your way up, he let out a whiny groan as you slowly started to envelop him in the warmness of your mouth, his eyes rolling to the back of his head once you took half of him into your throat, he was above average on the length side, and an average girth, not trimmed whatsoever, but that’s what you had expected from him. You relaxed the muscles in your throat and started to take more of him down your throat, inch by inch until you felt his hairs gently tickle your lips and nose.

“Ah-…Shit!”

He was obviously struggling to control himself as he fought not to buck his hips up into your mouth, somehow he knew if he did that he’d get his ass whooped.

You finally released him from your throat only to take his cock right back into your mouth, setting a slow and steady pace, the sounds he was making were music to your ears. He quickly gripped your hair desperate for something to hold onto, Poor guy had no idea where to put his hands.

“I-.. somthins gunna cm’out…”

You looked up at him and nodded as your began to gently rub his thighs, his eyes were closed tightly and the veins in his forehead were prominent as he reached his peak, spilling his seed deep into your throat. You gagged a little, to which he quickly froze and looked down at you.

“M’fine-… taste S’good..”

He groaned at your words alone, before completely flipping you over and ripped off your shirt.

“I wanna taste too..”

you were shocked when he quickly took one of your nipples into his mouth making you arch your back into the sensation , you had no idea where he was pulling these skills out of but you didn’t mind, his other hand came up to your untouched breast and began to roll your nipple between his fingers causing you to whimper softly at the sensation, Your nipples were quick to harden, and luffy couldn’t seem to get enough of the taste.

“You taste good too yknow… wanna taste more..”

Your eyes widened as he quickly ripped your skirt right in half, making quick work of your soaking panties along with it, he looked down at your pussy, almost examining it.

“Be gentle down there-… It’s sensitiv-“

Before you could even respond Luffy was latched onto your clip, sucking vigorously like it was the last drop of water in the burning hot deserts of alabasta, your eyes rolling back in your head as you moaned out his name, your hands grasping at the sheets as your back arched, shoving your pussy closer to his face as you tried to get yourself off. The pleasure was intense, panging through you like lightning. Luffy stopped for a moment, making you whine out at the loss of friction. Before you could even speak up he quickly licked a stripe up your slit.

“So tasty..”

You gasped out as he shoved his tongue into your hole, directly hitting that little spongy spot inside of you, granting you your orgasm, finishing all over his face. He quickly lapped up all your juices, he sure made quick work of you.

“Luffy-… ah.. fuck..”

He seemed genuinely confused on what to do next, still dazed from the delectable taste of your body.

“Luff, Need you…Lay down f’me..”

He quickly obliged, If it was for more of that pleasurable sensation he would genuinely start crawling up the walls if you asked, you placed your knees onto either side of his hips, hovering above his cock, hard as ever and leaking pre-cum, you reached down and spread the bead of the salty liquid across his tip, causing him to groan softly, his hands making their way to your hips with a needy whine, you took this as a sign and lined up his cock with your entrance, taking a deep breath before slowly sinking down onto his length, your eyes shut tight at the painful stretch, but the white hot pleasure trailing close behind, your mouth parting to let out a moan before luffy pulled your hips down onto his cock, not even giving you time to adjust to his size before he was plowing right into you. You rested your hands on his shoulders and grabbed his infamous straw had from the bedside table and placed it atop your head as you rode him, both of you quickly nearing your peaks as your stared into one another’s eyes

“M- S’comin out-!”

You nodded and both of your orgasms hit like a ton of bricks, you collapsed on top of him, panting and breathing heavily as your sweaty bodies collided, you slowly lifted your hips up and his cock slid out of your pussy. you sighed, the tension in your body from earlier completely relieved.

“Felt good baby…Love you..”

Luffy wrapped an arm around you, hand resting on the small of your back.

“Love ya too… but i’m hungry now- let’s get some meat!”

ty for coming to my ted talk

[billskeis]

im begging make more fluffs anout tom like jealous and sum or idk PLSSSS

ᡣ𐭩 tom is jelly and silly

laughs and cheers filled the room as the five of you attempted to complete the challenges of the game show. partnered with bill, you were tasked to do silly little activities such as cup pong (with water ahem) or darts.

yours and bill’s chemistry were insane!

although not officially apart of the band, you were known to be a close friend of theirs from their childhood. you met the four of them while they were still known as devilish and have been with them ever since.

it never came to mind that you wanted to date any of the members, especially tom.

oh how he was always constantly flirting with you behind closed doors, that being the both of you knew how paparazzi is and how crazy their female fanbase was. it was just too risky to do anything.

not only that but, you just didn’t really like him like that, or you believed so.

you and bill cheered as you successfully completed the task once again, on a winning streak against tom, gustav and georg. gustav and georg moped and whined claiming that the two of you ‘cheated the system,’ but tom was standing there, farther away from the two of them crossing his arms and staring at you.

bill pulled you into a hug which you excitingly reciprocated the embrace, jumping around in joy at how the two of you were just that good during the game show. you got along with bill so well, he was so sweet and pure.

“okay, and now a question for you bill,” the interviewer flipped the postcards to reveal the next question. tokio hotel was scheduled for a talkshow the day after to which you, obviously attended. however not in the interview, you were on the sidelines near the back of the stage, where people still had the ability to see you.

full attention is on the interviewer and bill while the rest of the room remains quiet, “i’m sure we’ve all seen the gameshow yesterday where it featured one of your close friends, y/n, is there something going on between you two? i mean—you seemed awfully close!”

it’s true, ever since that night the media couldn’t get enough of it, it begun trending the night of and the internet is going crazy about it. you begun to get tons of hate, but a good portion of the fandom supported it even though it wasn’t true. it humoured the two of you as you made jokes but really thinking nothing of it. you were friends is all.

everybody giggled and bill just smiled brightly, bringing the mic to his mouth, “nono, nothing’s going on me and—” “yeah actually it’s nothing so can we move on?” the mic was stolen in the middle of bill talking by no other than tom. he started intently at the interviewer to hopefully transition to the next new question wishing to divert to any other topic than this.

whispers filled the room, what was this outburst about? you had so many questions in mind you had nowhere to begin with.

the interview ended and bill was able to ease up the tension and awkwardness that had risen after tom’s intervene. he however had absolutely nothing to say and as soon as everybody said their goodbyes he left the stage without saying anything.

running, you skip towards tom who beelined for the washroom, grabbing his arm, “tom?”

he turned, looking angry almost, but his expression softened upon seeing you. thank god it was you and nobody else or he would’ve lost his shit.

“oh, hey, sorry you had to see that.” he rubbed the back of his neck with his arm, staring off into the distance, you moved your arm that was once on his shoulder to his hand, he intertwines his fingers with yours and swings your arm around playfully.

“is something wrong? you know you didn’t have to do that i don’t care what people say about me—” “but i do! okay?? i do, and it’s pissing me off that the rumours are..” he quiets down, looking at the floor.

you lean down to level your head with his gaze, what’s wrong with him why won’t he finish his sentence? “the rumours are what tom?” “about you and bill!” your eyes widen, this could mean one of so many things and you didn’t know what.

he now grabs your opposite hand and holds both of them, he straightens up his body to be fully directed towards you, looking at you with expectation and need. “i like you, y/n, and seeing you and bill that night drove me NUTS!! this is not how i wanted to confess..”

he holds his breath and waits for your reaction, your mouth was agape, body frozen. THE tom kaulitz likes you!?

“why?” you ask, “why do you like me?” “i-i don’t know! i just do, it feels right, y’know?” he brings one of your hands to his chest to feel his heartbeat. and man, when i tell you the pace it was going was FAST oh it was fast.

you feel your face heat up a bit, this whole confessions thing was new to you and tom was your first. all you could do was smile at him.

“so?” he asks, “so?” you repeat after him, “can we go out?” “like the five of us?” “oh my god y/n no just the two of us please i never get any time with you! “hmmm i don’t knowww me and bill were planning to hang out later,” “y/n! you’re making me crazy!” “so did your flirting!” “saying that you liked it?” “shut up tom!” he uses your hands to pull your body closer to him, hugging you and swaying you side to side.

if this was a start to a new romance, to which you, ahem, did not EVER have, it sure as hell felt good.

“finally! i couldn’t stand to hear him talk about her anymore! like cmon now we couldn’t even fully finish practice with him bringing her up!” georg complains and gustav agrees nodding, “aww don’t be like that i think it’s cute! my little brother who’s so promiscuous finally found the one!” “but you’re younger..” gustav chimed in, “shut up gustav.”

[theshadowrealmitself]

The only kind of “suspicious someone is trying to actively homewreck their relationship” that I can handle is:

A Human who struggles with anxiety and overthinking, and knows they struggle with it, being suspicious that one of their Vulcan partner’s coworkers is trying to get with the Vulcan

And the struggle isn’t about confronting their partner about this, they know that their partner would never cheat on them, they most likely don’t see it being that they’re Vulcan, and if they went up to them and said “your coworker makes me really uncomfortable, I feel like they don’t respect our relationship” etc, then their partner wouldn’t hesitate to cut that coworker off

But they don’t wanna do that, especially if they’re wrong, what if there isn’t any actually flirting from that one person’s side, what if it’s just a mixture of overthinking and confirmation bias, they don’t wanna be that insecure person who has their partner stop talking to people just cause they’re overthinking things again

So instead of some “trying to figure out if their partner is cheating on them and finding out they are or accidentally walking in on a misunderstanding and only thinking their partner is cheating and running off crying before anyone can explain anything” plot line

It’s more of a “tries to grin and bear it while they try and figure if their concern is valid or if they’re overthinking it, which accidentally makes them act oddly, which causes misunderstandings in their partner who’s trying to figure out what’s going on and how to help, who doesn’t even consider that it’s their coworker because they don’t look at them like that in the slightest” plot

(The Vulcan goes to some other coworkers and is like “my partner is Human and upset and I can’t figure out why” and they’re like “did you….forget an anniversary or something? that’s usually why Humans seem to get upset “out of nowhere”” and the Vulcan’s like “I obviously would not forget something important” and other Vulcans are like “hold on now, sometimes Humans place value on really illogical things, maybe they were expecting you to celebrate something while you never even considered it?” and the Vulcan doesn’t wanna upset their partner by being like “whatever you placed a ton of significance on, I found too insignificant to remember, sorry” so they’re just on the hunt to figure out what it could possibly be

It turns into them rushing in one day to like, celebrate the first time they kissed or something, which the Human had not payed attention to, and they just find it so sweet, and it further cements that they have nothing to worry about from their partner, their concern is just if their perception on things is accurate)

(Anything more than this and I’m too much of a wreck who’s like “how are you gonna repair your relationship?? my trust would be completely destroyed!!!”)

[nateconnolly]

I made a Patreon lol.

Here's the free sample post:

THE CREATION MYTH OF KILL 6 BILLION DEMONS

INTRODUCTION

I love fantasy religions. I love it when fictional humans try to understand worlds like Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Tolkein’s Middle Earth through a religious lens—especially because in those books and in many others, the fantasy religions are somewhat true, and somewhat false. It’s really fun to look at a fictional universe through the eyes of a character who might not see things objectively. Religion usually plays a role in that. But, if I’m being honest, a lot of fantasy religions are just Christianity wearing a fun hat. Don’t get me wrong, I am fascinated by Chrisitianity, and I really enjoy a lot of fantasy versions of Christianity. But it’s a great special treat when a fantasy story goes the extra mile and portrays another concept of the divine. That’s one of many reasons that I love the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons. The webcomic’s fictional religion Atru has parallels to Taoism, Gnosticism, Advaita Vedanta, theothanatology, Biblical divine nomenclature, the list goes on. I just threw a lot of big scary words at you, but I promise, this is a beginner level essay. I’ll break everything down into bite-sized pieces. I just wanted to list out some of K6BD’s religious influences to show that they are complicated, and diverse.

This is specifically a essay about the creation narratives. K6BD is an amazing comic—later on, it tackles questions about time, free will, and optimistic nihilism, but I won’t dig into that stuff here. Those things would require their own essays. Here, I’m going to try to explain how the seven-part world came to be. More specifically, I’ll examine the stories that White Chain, Cio, Michael, and the old devil’s tale tell us; then I’ll look at fictional holy texts found in the Concordance.

I’ll also compare and contrast with a lot of real world religion and philosophy. I want to be clear that the creator Abaddon and I have never spoken. I don’t know where he got most of his inspiration. I’m not revealing any information that wasn’t already available, I’m just compiling it and offering my own thoughts. Unless I specifically quote Abaddon, assume that I’m not even talking about his inspirations. I’m drawing parallels because it’s fun, even though it probably won’t give us new insight into how the text was created.

I promise I’m not trying to convert you! I genuinely don’t want to make other people believe the religion that I believe—or any religion at all. I’m just trying to show you how understanding some real world religious and philosophical concepts can deepen your appreciation of K6BD. Obviously, there will be tons of spoilers, so go read the webcomic if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely genius.

Lastly, I want to say I will discuss suicide and murder.

Ok, let’s get started.

PART ONE: THE FIRST AND GREATEST DIVISION

Let There Be No Genesis

White Chain begins the history of the universe with the words, “Let there be no Genesis,” closely echoing the in-universe fictional Psalm I. “For indeed, there was [no Genesis]. God has always existed and has never existed.” As White Chain tells her story, we are shown the god YISUN. This figure is sometimes described with it/its or she/her pronouns, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to follow the example of the fictional Psalm I, and use he/him. I might call him “YISUN” or “God” with a capital G depending on the context.

YISUN was eternal, and the “undisputed master of the entire omniverse.” He predates everything else, and without him, nothing would exist.

YISUN has at least twelve bodies, probably more. Some are smiling, some look mad; some resemble insects or animals; most hold weapons; and all are different colors. The central white body has four arms. Abaddon has said that YISUN’s appearance is directly inspired by the Hindu god Vishvarupa.  Hindu gods are frequently depicted with multiple body parts, an artistic tradition that Doris Srinivasan calls “the multiplicity convention.” She explains some of the religious and artistic reasons that many Indian gods have multiple body parts in her book “Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art.” The tradition of Hinduism is long, and diverse, so the multiple limbs in one text can mean something very different from the multiple limbs elsewhere. Srinivasan closely examines a vast expanse of Indian history, and I don’t have time to present all her ideas. I would like to specifically focus on the interpretation that multiple limbs represent the manifestations of a singular godhead.

Srinivasan writes that “Multiple versions of a myth are facilitated by the idea that there exists multiple aspects or manifestations of a godhead.” Think of the difference between Greek and Hindu goddesses. Bruno Snell suggests “that these four women signalize the four aspects of all womanhood,” but Srinivasan qualifies his interpretation. The Olympian women “are not multiple forms of [one] Divine Woman, as is the case in Hinduism.” Artemis and Athena are different people who are both women, plural. Parvati, Sati, and Uma together are Woman, singular. Zeus, Demeter, and Poseidon are gods, plural. Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna are God, singular. That’s not how all Hindus see things, but it is one Hindu perspective that I find especially comparable to K6BD.

Similarly, the multiple bodies are only manifestations of a single God: YISUN. All of his bodies are a single person. In Hinduism, the plurality of the divine can be seen as empowering and liberating. Multiple body parts signify that the god is a well-rounded entity. But Abaddon makes it look like a curse. He turns the artistic convention around. Using the same symbolism and metaphysics, he tells a radically different story. As White Chain says, “Being was only circular.” “YISUN had no equal… It was a wretched life, without meaning or perception. Imagine infinite stories to tell… and nobody to tell them to.” Perfection is lonely. At this point, YISUN is the only thing that exists, and that can’t be fun. All those arms and heads cannot satisfy YISUN’s need for companionship. It’s fascinating to me that when White Chain says YISUN had no one to whom it could tell its stories, Abaddon chose to illustrate multiple heads right next to each other. Even if those heads told each other stories, the speaker and the listener would still be the same person. Dissatisfaction with isolation is why YISUN created the world.

Although not all Hindus follow the school of Advaita Vedanta, in this case, I think it will be helpful to compare and contrast with Advaita. As Ram Shanker Misra writes in “The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo,” “Brahman [ is] perfect, absolute, infinite, need[s] nothing, [and] desir[es] nothing…” Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that [Brahman] wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible.”

But that’s exactly why YISUN created this world. He wants to gain something that he does not have: companionship.The universe is God’s escape from himself. There was no Genesis, but there was “the first and greatest division: division of self”: “God committed holy suicide.”

2. The Divine Suicide

White Chain’s story is similar to Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous claim that “God is dead,” but Nietzsche did not mean God was a real entity that had literally died. He meant that intellectually, it was impossible to continue believing in God, and that all intellectual achievements founded on belief in Him had to be abandoned. Nietzsche’s claim is a famous example of a philosophical school of thought called death of God theology, also called “theothanatology,” which means “the study of God’s death” in Greek.

“Death” can mean a lot of different things in this context. Sometimes it’s metaphorical, sometimes it’s literal, and usually, it’s a very confusing mixture of both.

Nietzsche proposed the death of God as a social claim about humans. He’s talking about what we can believe, what we should do, and what we need to accept. God never really existed, but as religion loses followers and influence, even the idea of God has begun to “die” because it no longer has power over the real world.

“Death” can also mean God exists, but in a way radically different from what people usually mean when they say “God.” The Rabbi and philosopher Richard L. Rubenstein thought God exists as a “ground of being,” but not as a supernatural entity that made a covenant with Abraham. Rubenstein proposed the death of God as an intellectual change in what humans think the word “God” means.

And, finally, “death” can just literally mean “death.” The Protestant theologian Thomas J.J. Altizer wrote “we shall understand the death of God as an historical event: God has died in our time, in

our history, in our existence.” This isn’t a social claim about humans—it’s a metaphysical claim about God.

Death of God theologians usually mean more than one thing when they say God is dead. Nietzsche wasn’t just trying to convince Christians to become atheists; he was also trying to convince many atheists that they disbelieved in God in the wrong way. Altizer had radical thoughts about what human beings are able to believe.

White Chain means that God is dead in the literal sense. She is proposing a metaphysical belief that God, as a historical figure, chose to actually kill himself. White Chain is not rejecting or critiquing religion—she’s asserting that her religion, in which God has died, is fact.

You can see slight parallels to Nietzsche, Rubenstein, Altizer, Hegel, Zizek, and Blake in White Chain’s version of the fictional religion Atru. But there is no better comparison than the king of sad philosophers Philipp Mainlander.

Mainlander was an atheist—but not in the sense that people usually mean when they say “atheist.” Mainlander believed that there was a God at some time, but that time is now over. There isn’t a God anymore. Mainlander is pretty unique among death of God theologians because he explicitly describes God’s death as a suicide. Whittaker explains that Mainlander thought “[a]ll things have their origin in what may be called… the ‘will’ of the absolute being… to annihilate itself.” Essentially, the cause of the universe is God’s suicidal desires.

God was a “real unity,” but his death caused a “collective unity”—that’s the universe where we live now. God had been a total and undivided One, but now the universe is made of distinct parts. God cut himself apart into the pieces of the universe. God created the world by becoming it, and he became the world by dying.

Mainlander said “the knowledge that life is worthless is the flower of all human knowledge.” He thought suicide was desirable, and ultimately, he put his money where his mouth was. The biggest difference between Mainlander and White Chain is that she doesn’t seem to think ordinary people such as herself should follow God’s suicidal example. Even beyond the views of a specific character, the story of Kill 6 Billion Demons reads as an affirmation of life’s beauty and value.

But the webcomic clearly argues that making a better world is a bloody project. So it should come as no surprise that making the world itself involved bloodshed. First and foremost, the blood of God. What’s so interesting to me is that both White Chain and Mainlander equate God’s suicide to the creation of the world. Our life comes from God’s death. Creation and destruction aren’t opposites—they’re different ways of looking at the same process. At the end of Book 2, Allison destroys Mottom’s evil tree and a lot of her palace—but this destruction is also part of the creation of a more just and free world.

So, what did God’s destruction create? What came after YISUN?

3. The Duality of Un and Yis

The destruction of the total unity creates duality. I know that’s a little confusing because YISUN had many faces, but remember that behind all of those faces was one God, and only one. Not anymore. “From division was birthed duality. White Un, Lord of empty and still places, master of all that is not. Black Yis, infinite mother of the rampant flame. Master of all that is''

I cannot avoid comparing the White and Black gods to the Yin and Yang—a spinning black and white symbol usually associated with the religion Taoism. Yin and Yang represent a cosmic duality. Yin is associated with femininity, darkness, passivity, and even numbers, among other things. Yang is associated with masculinity, light, activity, and odd numbers, among other things. Mainstream Taoist philosophy asserts that the universe can be understood through duality. So, why are these pairs important? And why do things get paired together in the first place?

As is written in the foundational Taoist text the Tao Te Ching, “Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other.” What’s so interesting about the pairs is they “create,” “support,” “define,” and “depend on” each other. Black can’t exist without white, and white cannot exist without black.

As the Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts it, “...yinyang is emblematic of valuational equality rooted in the unified, dynamic, and harmonized structure of the cosmos. As such, it has served as a heuristic mechanism for formulating a coherent view of the world…” Essentially, neither of these opposites are “dominant” or “truer.” Choosing one side won’t help you understand the universe because the universe is their partnership. Their equality gives “structure to the cosmos.” That structure is order, not chaos, but it is differentiated. There are two different things: Yin and Yang. They contradict each other, but at the same time, they make the universe. Yin and Yang are a productive paradox.

I’d like to return to the notion that “being and non-being create each other.” At this stage of creation in K6BD, UN and YIS could not exist without each other. Their very existence is the fact that they are not a unity. If there was only one of them, then there wouldn’t have been a division—and they are nothing more than the product of division. Just like how being and non-being create each other, the Master of All That Is and the Master of All That Is Not create each other. YISUN was characterized by his totality—he was the total sum of the omniverse, there was nothing else. After the division, Un and Yis experience otherness. The first otherness in the omniverse. It’s difficult for them to find balance—in fact, they immediately went to war for seven years. At the end of their seven-year war, Un and Yis made love for seven days.

I want to be very clear that this is not a depiction of actual Taoism. Yin and Yang are not gods with faces and minds. Notably, the Tao Te Ching asserts that yin and yang are “older than God.” so make of that what you will. But I think Taoism is thematically relevant to this era. Two opposites have to come into balance with each other. The whole universe is a duality of interconnected forces.

K6BD repeatedly emphasizes the need for community. As Allison says at the end of King of Swords, “I couldn’t have done this without any of you… We make mistakes. We learn from each other. We all still have so much to learn. Once I saw that as a weakness, now I’m certain it’s not. Someone who lives still thinking like that… struggling to do everything themselves… I can’t help but think how alone they must be.”

YISUN had to do everything all by himself, and we saw that Allison was right—isolation was a struggle, even for God. But the struggle is over, and in its place is duality. Partnership. The first community.

These are the first four parts of a fourteen-part critical essay. You can read the rest here.

Bibliography is on the free Patreon post.

[leviathans-watching]

a starting (& ending)

day 2: argument, bonding experience

includes: mammon & belphie

wc: .7k | rated g | m.list

a/n: lesson 16-20 spoilers, tuesday's post for @ombrotherlylove2023

“Alright, alright,” MC consults the list, divvying out tasks with frightening competency. They were going on a weekend trip, so there was a ton of prep to be done, and Lucifer and MC had decided working together to prepare would make things a lot easier. 

Mammon doesn’t know how he feels about it. Going on the trip, he means. 

It had barely been any time since the incidents following Belphegor’s release from the attic, and while everyone seems content to move on and act like a big happy family again (assuming they ever were one), he’s having a bit of a hard time with that. And look, maybe his brothers hadn’t held the lifeless body of the human they love. Maybe they hadn’t had the same experience as him. But surely, surely they realized there needed to be some, he doesn’t know, figuring out what to do! They can’t just go on and act as if the incident hadn’t occurred!

“Mammon,” MC calls, and he looks up. “Are you good with shopping?” 

Mammon nods. “Yeah, sure.” 

“Better not send him alone,” Satan snorts, and he frowns. “Or else he’ll end up raiding half the store.” 

“Don’t be mean,” MC chides gently. “However, I think it is kind of a big task for one person. We’ve got a lot of groceries and supplies on the list. How about… Belphegor, you can go with him.” 

Mammon’s heart sinks. Belphie’s the last person he wants to be with right now. Especially alone! 

But he doesn’t want to argue, so he swallows his protests with a faint, “Great.” 

Everyone splits apart once tasks are fully distributed, and Mammon shoves his hands in his pockets. Belphie gives him a weak smile, obviously feeling the tension, and a part of Mammon is viciously glad for that.

“Um, should we get going?” 

“Sure, whatever,” Mammon says, starting toward the door without a look back to see if Belphie’s following. “I’ll drive, I guess.” 

The ride to the store is painfully silent, but Mammon resolutely refuses to break. He’s not the one in the wrong here. He didn’t almost, no, actually kill MC for some sick revenge that didn’t even make sense. Belphie did. 

Belphie shifts in his seat, and Mammon watches him out of the corner of his eye. His younger brother is clearly uncomfortable, fingers tapping on his thigh as he looks everywhere but at Mammon. It hurts, a little. To have his brother whom he was separated from for so long be this close. But it hurt more to think about what he did. 

Mammon looks back at the road. 

When he finally, blessedly, gets to the store, Mammon barely gets the truck in park before he’s climbing out, tearing the list MC had given him in half. “Here,” he says gruffly, pushing one half towards Belphie, “I’ll do this half, and you do that half. We’ll meet at the checkout.” 

“Wait!” Belphegor says as Mammon starts to walk away, but he doesn’t turn back. Belphegor races after him, grabbing him by the arm, and Mammon rips out of his grip, disgust rolling up his spine. 

“What do you want?” 

“Can we talk?” 

Mammon rolls his eyes. “We are talking.” 

No,” Belphegor sighs, “I mean, really talk. About what happened.” 

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Mammon grits out. “I have nothing to say to you.” 

That’s a lie. He has so, so much to say. Things like, I hate you. I’m sorry. I love you. How could you do that? How could Lucifer do that?. But none of them will come out. 

Belphegor swallows. “That’s fair. But please, I have some things to say. So you don’t even have to talk, you can just listen. Just listen, that’s all I ask.” 

Mammon really doesn’t want to do that, but he’s always been too soft on his younger brothers. “Fine,” he says unwillingly, hating how Belphie’s eyes light up. “Talk.” 

Belphie begins, the words spilling over one another in his rush to say everything he needs to before Mammon cuts him off. He apologizes, he explains, and he acknowledges. Then apologizes again. 

It’s not enough. 

But, Mammon thinks, as he frees an old napkin from his jacket pocket to give to Belphie, who accepts it gratefully, pressing it to his eyes, it’s a start.

 leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

[luveline]

Hi, Jade!! This is probably not the place for this ask, so please feel free to ignore it. But I'm in need of advice or more like a listening ear and you're the one I thought could help. So at almost 24 years old I've never had a relationship, never even kissed and, to keep it short, I see myself as quite a loser in general, and I just met a guy that seemed like a potential romantic interest and he asked me on a date and my mind started racing anyway and I'm scared shitless of all the things that come with a relationship. I'm afraid if I don't address this, I will sabotage the whole thing, but I don't know how.

I'm sorry if this is tmi or not the place for such thing

hi honey don’t be sorry—

I get messages like this every now and then, of course not the exact same, but usually someone who feels down about themselves because of a lack of romantic experiences who’s worried it’ll reflect poorly on them when they do try to be romantic. I don’t personally think it makes you a loser, and anyone who DOES think you’re a loser is a jerk. I don’t mean to be annoying or bossy or rude to you and im sure you know yourself and im not saying YOU are a jerk, and you could even say there’s nothing bad about being a loser anyways, but also you’re not a loser and it’s no reflection of your heart that you haven’t been in a relationship or kissed someone. I think love is awfully difficult. I mean I think it’s great that you have thought to yourself about how you might sabotage this if you don’t address how you’re feeling. I’m not a therapist but I defo think that self reflection is great and it’s like the first step to your solution. I think that it’s natural to be nervous about stuff you’ve not experienced, like, what if he does want to kiss you, and what if you’re not a very good kisser yet! But I also think that anyone worth kissing won’t mind if you’re not very good at it to begin with, or that you’ve never done it before. The only love worth your time is a patient one, full of understanding (but obviously this doesn’t make it less terrifying!!) there are definitely videos you can watch about this, not just kissing but the intimacies of relationships, there are videos about how to hold hands! There’s no shame in not knowing something!! And every one person or relationship is different so it’s not like you’d be the only one learning, your partner will have to learn about you too

altogether I think you’re right in that panicking about this might sabotage it before it’s even happened, and adding weight to things can make them so scary when they aren’t. Milllions and billions of people have fallen in love before us without a manual and im sure they’ll do it again, but you’re not wrong to be worried either!! Depending on how worried you are, you could talk to a friend, the potential partner, you could even talk to a chat service or helpline. tl;dr — it’s okay to be scared about this, but you aren’t a loser, tons of people don’t know a thing about love at your age and you’ll learn as you go. there will probably be things you don’t like, but im sure there will be double good!!

I hope this helps, and I really hope none of it comes off as though im patronising or condescending you because it isn’t my intent at all. I’m not an expert but just from my own life experience this is what I think of it. I really hope things go well for you and that you make decisions that make you happy!!!!

[crimsonbluuu]

Glow Stars - Batfamily Oneshot

Damian had always had a fascination with stars. Everything ranging from planets to spaceships to comets—anything space-related—interested him, though ever since he moved to Gotham and away from the clear and beautiful skies of Nanda Parabat, his hobby came to a close.

(1,206 word count)

Warnings!

> Grammatical errors

> Somewhat OOC

> Might seemed rushed

read here, or on ao3!

Damian had always had a fascination with stars. Everything ranging from planets to spaceships to comets—anything space-related—interested him, though ever since he moved to Gotham and away from the clear and beautiful skies of Nanda Parabat, his hobby came to a pause.

Gotham, unlike his original home, was dirty, infested not only with dirty criminals but also with dirty air and dirty gas; seemingly anything the city was able to grasp itself onto eventually became dirty or tainted in some way. It certainly didn’t bother Damian as much as it did when he first arrived, but he missed the stars.

He missed quiet nights, missed hearing the buzz of cascades and cricket noises, and he even missed the familiar ivory and spiced scents that always wafted through the air. He missed the stars; he missed looking up at them and studying them.

He missed when his mother would watch with him, stargazing and reciting stories of brave warriors before his time; he even missed the feeling of being broken, bloody, and beaten, yet he was still sitting on the window sill to gaze at the sky.

Here, in this cold, rainy, and gloomy doom of a city, the only thing he could see out of the window at night was a cloudy and foggy sky, with helicopter lights mimicking what should be a starry night. Which, in all honesty, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just wasn’t the same.

“You seem to be doing that a shit ton more lately." Someone interrupted his thought pattern, and his head quickly swiveled towards the noise. The person, Jason, snickered when he walked inside the room, closing the door behind him and walking up to the window where Damian sat at his desk.

“What are you talking about?” Damian asked, raising a brow at the other as he pretended to work on a random drawing that lay unfinished on his desk, picking up a pen. Jason raised a brow back at him as well, as if he were saying, ‘You know exactly what I’m talking about.'

“I haven’t been doing anything in a repetitive pattern lately, so I genuinely do not know what you mean,” Damian deadpanned, a small scowl covering his face. Instead of Damian’s attempt at intimidation, all Jason did was chuckle.

“The window. It seems like every time I see you, you’re looking outside. What’s with that?” Jason asked, and Damian pursed his lips into a thin line, looking back towards the window. He’d been doing that a lot. So much to the point that it became noticeable? That wasn’t good.

“None of your business.” He rudely replied, rolling his eyes. The latter did nothing but scoff, “I’m trying to be what dick boy calls a ‘nice brother’ but I can’t help if you’re just going to be a little asshole." Jason huffed, and Damian tutted, crossing his arms.

“No one is asking for your assistance, especially not me, Todd."

“I never said you were asking; something is just obviously wrong with you."

Damian blinked, narrowing his eyes at the other. The most Jason could probably do if Damian told him about how much he missed home was forget about it. Jason wouldn’t tell anyone, right? He wouldn’t tell Dick, and he especially wouldn’t let Bruce know. Right?

“I miss Nanda Parabat.” Damian nonchalantly says, and Jason slowly nods, opting to sit on the green and gold armchair that rests in the corner of Damian’s room. “And that’s a bad thing because..." The older man asks with a confused look on his face.

“I can’t miss them. I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t miss them or that place. It’s a bad thing.” Damian said, looking down at his lap, his grip tightening on the pen he was holding. He never considered himself to be an anxious person or particularly nervous, but he nearly found himself fidgeting with the pen. Key word: nearly.

“You sayin’ it’s not normal to miss Nanda Parabat over this shithole of a city?” Jason asked, with a twinge of humor at the end of his voice, “Nobody can decide who you can’t and can’t miss; that’s your whole fuckin’ life, all the way there.” He continues, shrugging, “I’d be more surprised if you didn’t miss the place.”

“I don’t particularly miss the place itself. I just miss the atmosphere. The air, the stars.” Damian says, and Jason stays silent for a moment, as if contemplating his next response. Damian understands that if Jason is angry at him for missing Nanda Parabat, he would understand if the other person just left instead of trying to help him.

“And you’re all homesick because the only thing you can see in the sky here at night are city lights and bulls?" Damian didn’t answer, assuming it was a rhetorical question. Instead, he just looked back toward the window.

“I think so." He says, his voice sounding a lot more unsure than he’d rather it be, cringing at the sound of it. Jason nods in the corner of his eyes, standing up. "Have you heard of glow-in-the-dark stars?" Jason hummed, and now it was Damian’s turn to be confused.

“Don’t stars already glow in the dark?" Jason laughed, shaking his head. “No, these are stars you can put on your wall or ceiling, and they shine like an actual star,” he explained, and nearly immediately Damian was enthralled with the idea of stars being in his own room.

“And you can get them anywhere?” Damian asked with a childlike wonder, that would with no hesitation be frowned upon by the League; luckily, at that moment, he didn’t care for the League's beliefs, more focused on the fabled ‘glow in the dark stars.’

And sure enough, later that day, Damian’s ceilings and walls were decorated top to bottom with different

stars, ranging from the common green or white hue to a more pink or yellow color. There weren’t only stars, either. There were a few planets, along with a small solar system, and Damian absolutely adored it.

He nearly spent day and night in his room, the lights off and curtains closed just looking; sure, in most eyes, it could’ve been perceived as childish, but it made Damian happy. And he deserved to be happy, right? Because, of course, everyone deserves happiness, right?

He was at his desk again, his curtains drawn as he drew something in his notebook, bringing a pen over the nude-colored sheets.

“You like the stars, yeah?” A voice interrupted—Jason—leaning against the door to Damian’s room, nearly startling Damian if it weren’t for the fact he was almost suspecting someone to walk inside his room. Damian stopped himself from smiling at the older man, instead opting for his usual scowl.

“They will do. They compare nothing to the skies in Nanda Parabat, but this will suffice.” He said, and again, an eyebrow rose. Jason laughed, narrowing his eyes. “Right, this will suffice.” He chuckled, pushing himself off of the door frame and beginning to walk away.

Though, before he could, Damian called him, and Jason poked his head back into the room.

“Todd?” Damian called, not looking towards the other.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” Damian said, coughing, “For getting me the stars.”

[broken-clover]

damn ur last fic was so sad... good asf though... can you please say into this microphone that bedman and delilah will be together and happy and safe forever

Alright alright yall have broken me, I try to do edgy stuff with sad endings sometimes but I'm really such a massive softie with a weakness for happy endings and every time it takes so much willpower to not immediately do a happy ending followup (looking at you Starman) but I guess sometimes I am simply not tough enough for downer endings and that is just who I as a person.

So you earned yourself a special little treat this time, anon, a special edition Tumblr exclusive. Obsolescence gets an epilogue. Here's Nostalgia Machine.

(Obviously with the release of Delilah in Strive, this isn't canon-compliant, but neither was the first. Let's just operate under our own little canon situation)

-

“I’m the worst.”

“Aww, come on…” The words came out well-meaning, but half-hearted.

“See? You can’t even pretend like I’m wrong. I can’t believe I just…let this happen.”

“Hey, hey-” A comforting hand placed itself on her shoulder, flinching slightly as it started to shake. “C’mon, kiddo, don’t start cryin’.”

“I could have done something. I just left him, I j-j- ju-”

She was ushered to her feet. “You’re gonna give yourself a panic attack with the way you’re breathin’, let’s just go outside a minute.”

The fresh air evened her breathing, but her lip still trembled and her eyes remained wet.

“Little bit better, Delilah?”

“I don’t want to feel better.” She replied bitterly. “I don’t deserve to feel better. This is all my fault.”

“Well, it ain’t no use beating yourself up. Did’ja come all the way out here just to feel bad about yourself?”

“...”

“...Shit, ‘m sorry, that came out way harder than I meant.”

“...You still won’t tell me. How do you know my brother, Mr. Low?”

“Eh…long story. Important part’s that he ‘n I kinda had the same problem. Neither of us were much help to each other, but part ‘a me’s still glad we were able to talk. Kept taklin’ about you. Sounded like he cared about you a whole lot. Dammit, ‘m not helping, am I?

“No, I get it. And you’re right, just wallowing isn’t helping anything. Even if we grow up and end up going our separate ways, he’s still my brother…I can’t just leave him if I know he needs help.” She swallowed, gazing forlornly at the door. “Come on, let’s get you fixed.”

The two re-entered the small shed. Though the walls were deeply rusted and corners cobweb-ridden, it was entirely empty, aside from a jumble of strewn machine parts that occupied the far wall.

Axl heard the girl’s breathing shift, but she didn’t turn away again. She undid the straps on her pack and swung it around to deposit the contents on the ground. He hadn’t been much of a computer geek way back when, and he imagined things had only gotten more complicated. The best he could venture was some kind of screen that vaguely resembled a laptop, but for all he knew, it was for making bread.

“Which one ‘a these is the fancy toy you were tellin’ me about?”

“I didn’t bring it.” Delilah said. “It’s going to be shipped over. I wanted to make sure nothing would break in transit. Iris is helping me put the finishing touches on the current model. Right now we’re on the P5. Not perfect, but it’s built on a system that we can keep adding new features to as needed. The important part is just that there’s enough storage space to fit an entire consciousness in it without overloading the software.”

“Oh. What’s all this, then?”

“Covering the basics.” Delilah replied. “Repair equipment, spare power supplies, methods of communication. Translators are a pain in the ass, took me forever to make one that should be compatible with this system, but I did a ton of practice runs to make sure ahead of time that it’d work.”

Axl wasn’t sure how to help with the delicate electronics, so he chose to stand back and watch. He knew enough to tell that several of the machine’s parts were rusted to near-uselessness, and he was genuinely surprised when Delilah plugged some blocky-looking piece of machinery into an open port and it actually started to hum.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, but the battery is dead- dead.” She took another cable and connected it to something in the chassis. “It’ll be a little bit before it even has enough power to tell you it needs power.” After a few more keystrokes, Delilah sat back on her haunches and sighed. “I can’t guess when the last time was that it had any kind of maintenance.”

“It’ll get there. Just gonna take a bit.” Replied Axl. He tried to think of how to get her somewhat distracted. “So…that P5 you mentioned, how exactly are you gonna move him from this to that? Call me an idiot, but it doesn’t make much sense. Gonna take the head off this thing and slap it on?”

She didn’t reply at first. “More complicated than that. I’m taking his spirit out of this old heap and putting it into something new.”

His face must have shown his confusion obviously enough, because she continued talking as soon as she saw it. “Soul Grafting’s still a touchy legal mess, but I think someone in Illyria took my proposal and passed over the review process. I’ve heard most people wait years for a response, mine came out in a month. Any kind of magic that uses human souls requires a lot of approvals and equipment. I think Anji pulled some strings.”

“You think he’d do that? For something like this?”

He was left without a response again. This time, it stretched on and on, to the point where he wanted to ask, and then it became long enough that it felt too awkward to do so. They both merely waited in silence, unsubtly trying to not stare at the broken machine.

A little electronic ping finally broke the silence, bouncing off the shed walls. Delilah immediately jerked to attention, dragging the console back into her lap.

“‘s it working now?”

“Mmm.” Already too distracted to reply, she immediately threw herself into whatever work had to be done. Axl peered over her shoulder to watch. Windows popped open and flew by, covered in all kinds of symbols he couldn’t read. It finally settled on a blank box, one that quickly started to fill with strings of numbers.

“Wow.” He said. “I have no idea what any of this means.”

“Hold on, it’s set to binary right now. It’ll take a bit of time to switch modes, but I can read binary pretty well. Make sure the cable over there doesn’t unhook itself.”

“Now that, I can do.” It seemed better to give her some space, anyway. The wire in question hadn’t moved since she’d plugged it in, but he still kept an eye on it. “Figured out what the numbers are?”

“It’s…” She squinted. “Nothing. I thought there was some pattern I was missing, but it’s nothing. Only a stream of numbers and letters. Not a message. Completely incoherent.” He watched her adjust her glasses and squint. “The strings are definitely coming from the bed, it has enough power to send out a reply, but none of it follows any sense. None that I can see, anyway. He just isn’t responding. Is something broken?”

Axl knelt down, thumbing at the metal sphere lying in the dirt. “Sounds like something’s wrong. D’ya see anything busted?”

“No. That’s the part I’m confused about. They’re degraded, but all of the essentials still function well enough. This shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe the binary translation is the problem? Maybe I’m remembering my letters wrong…?”

“If it ain’t a problem with the machine, maybe it’s a problem with his head. How long’s he been alone in here?” The look on Delilah’s face immediately made him regret his words, but he continued anyway. “Don’t think the machine’s broken. I think he’s broken.”

She moved to get up. Axl grabbed her arm. “Nah, nah. Not a lost cause yet. ‘cause it means there’s still something there. Just gotta find it.”

He returned his attention to the machine. “Hey, little- uh, guess you’re a lot bigger now, huh? ‘Bedman,’ that’s whatcha called yourself. That’s who you are. You know that much, yeah?”

Silence. And then, a piston began to hiss. The broken remains of a pair of fingers twitched almost imperceptibly.

“Big guy? Delilah’s here, your sister’s here to help you. Dunno if you remember me, but you gotta remember her, right?”

What remained of an arm shuddered and then went still. A faint light started to shine from the pit of its eye socket. It flickered, almost like a blink, but it was impossible to tell if that was what it was meant to be, or if they were just projecting the idea. 

Delilah looked between the frame and her console. Her eyes widened just slightly. “H-hold on. It’s changed. It’s repeating now.” She held it up for him to see.

01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001 01001001

“What’s that mean?”

“It’s just an ‘I’. He’s just repeating the letter. I don’t know why, is it just some simple string it’s stuck on?”

“Hmm…” Axl pivoted on his knees again. “You hear me in there? ‘I.’ Y’know that much. Who’s ‘you,’ then?”

The eye flickered again, settling on a dim shine.

“Huh? Now it’s coming up different…”

01001001 01000001 01001101

01001001 01000001 01001101

01001001 01000001 01001101

01001001 01000001 01001101

“‘I-A-M’, it’s three letters in a row now. He’s…responding?” A hint of life came back into her voice. “He- you actually got a response? He’s talking to you?”

Axl grinned, giving it a friendly pat. “‘I am,’ ‘I am,’ now we’re getting somewhere. I know you can hear me. Lemme hear you. What do you wanna say?”

01001001 01000001 01001101 01000100 01000101 01000001 01000100 00001010

01001001 01000001 01001101 01000100 01000101 01000001 01000100 00001010

01001001 01000001 01001101 01000100 01000101 01000001 01000100 00001010

The girl suddenly faltered. Axl moved closer, but she turned the screen away from him.

“Delilah. Tell me what it says.”

“...’I AM DEAD.’”

“‘Dead?’” Axl parroted. “C’mon, that’s nonsense! You see Delilah here, right? She’s here, so how can you be dead?”

The bedposts shuddered. The fragmented remains of a hand stuttered across the dirt.

01001110 01001111 01010100 01010010 01000101 01000001 01001100

“‘NOT REAL.’”

“But- but she’s right here!”

Delilah shook her head. “It’s not changing. He’s just repeating those two lines over and over.”

“He thinks he’s dead. And he thinks you’re just something he imagined up…like he’s gone crazy enough he can pretend you’re here.”

He stood up and marched towards the exit. “Wh- wait, where are you going?!” Delilah said, reaching out for him. “Don’t leave me alone!”

“‘m not leaving, I’m making a point.” From his back pocket, Axl pulled out a sickle, twirled it, and sank the sharp end into the wall by the door. 

The screech of metal-on-rusted-metal sent her hands clapping over her ears. Delilah looked on in panicked confusion as the man hacked at the wall with reckless abandon. The weapon was not meant for cutting through something so solid, but the walls had rusted to the point where he could saw through with enough pressure. They tore clean through the door hinges and tossed the entire thing into the street, and jagged cuts widened the entrance until nearly the entire wall had been roughly disassembled and scattered along the ground.

“‘Course you can’t convince yourself, nothin’ but a wall to look at.” Axl said, panting from the exertion. “There’s a whole world out there. When’s the last time you got to see it?”

The sun made clouds of dust shine like summer snow. Trees on the other side of the path showed off their vibrant leaves with pride. Distant chatter from further downtown murmured in the wind. When he moved out of the way, Axl watched how the light fell on where Delilah sat, surrounding her in a radiant aura.

“See? There’s the sun, and the trees, and your sister’s right here. It’s all right there. All real.”

The top of the frame craned its neck towards the light. The rest of the body started to teeter as it moved further away

“Shh-shh-shh-” he gave the machine a gentle pat, doubling as a way to keep it from knocking itself over. “It’s alright, big guy. I’ve got you. ‘m not good at this whole ‘comfort’ thing, but I’m here. Delilah ‘n me, we’re here.”

It seemed to turn and face him. Slowly, cautiously, the metal sphere pushed against his hand. Axl let it settle against his arm and slide down into his lap. He pet it again in slow strokes

“See? Just me. You know me. I’ve got you. You’re gonna be alright.”

The bedframe gave a brassy warble. Something opaque and dark oozed from its one eye socket. 

Delilah practically threw aside her monitor to scramble over to her brother's side. She scooped up one of his broken hands and held it to her face, which had already become as wet as his. 

“Romeo…I’m so, so sorry…”

The three sat in tranquil silence. Abandoned on the ground, Delilah’s computer offered one more reply.

01001001 01000110 01001111 01010010 01000111 01001001 01010110 01000101 01011001 01001111 01010101

[saturdaynightghostclub]

hi hello!! honestly so happy to see you on here, I came from tiktok and I’m obsessed with your writing and just your vibe in general??!

So I’m just knee deep into stalking your tumblr and I wanted to ask what you meant by the Ted Lasso-ification of media? It’s the first I’m hearing of it and would love to hear more of your thoughts. Take care 🫶🫶🫶

Oh bestie I am SO happy to talk about the Ted Lasso-ification of Media™

Disclaimer: I don’t mind Ted Lasso at all! I think it’s cute and funny and wholesome, and that’s a lot of folks’ niche so I am in no way shitting on the show or any of its fans—it’s just that I think it pretty much perfectly encapsulates the phenomenon I’m talking about w/r/t the larger entertainment-sphere at the moment. Also, this is super nuanced and there are obviously exceptions, there’s nothing wrong with engaging in entertainment media however you see fit, etc etc. All love to the wholesome media enjoyers, I promise!

Basically I think, in some way, we’ve grown into the mentality that we should never be uncomfortable, and therefore recent entertainment has trended extremely conflict-avoidant. That doesn’t mean there is no conflict, although it certainly can—really I mean that, when there is conflict, or when characters are flawed and make mistakes, or when uncomfortable topics are brought up, everyone seems to have a magical bag of buzzwords from which they can pull the perfect solution by the end of the episode. And while that’s great, it’s unrealistic and unsatisfying.

It’s baffling to me because part of the human experience is discomfort, and when characters enter into conflict it shows their humanity. How they deal with that conflict should, In My Opinion, reflect that humanity. While I don’t hate Ted Lasso or any of the other shows that are dealing with our current social climate in that way, they do get a ton of vitriol and frankly I can understand why. It feels like you’re being lectured at rather than entertained, like an After School Special instead of an adult TV show. Off the top of my head I can think of Ted Lasso, Grown-ish, Sex Education (which I LOVE by the way), Schitt’s Creek, and any other number of shows whose sole goal seems to be to state in very clear terms what is Right and what is Wrong so that we can pat ourselves on the back for agreeing with them. I understand the goal here, but I think there’s a huge discrepancy between the people who need to hear those messages and the people who don’t, and the latter group is the one watching those shows.

I think we need to let go of the idea that being Likable is the primary thing a cast of characters should be, and instead embrace likability in the face of human flaws. If a character screws up and can’t wave a magic wand to fix it in a tight 30 minutes, doesn’t that just make them more interesting? Doesn’t it make them feel real?

There are a ton of “wholesome” shows that I think do this really well:

Pushing Daisies

Northern Exposure

Ugly Betty

Malcolm in the Middle

And a couple of not-so-wholesome ones:

Twin Peaks

Hannibal

Succession

The Bear (could go either way tbh)

Barry

Fleabag

And many, many more!!

Basically my word isn’t law, but speaking as an individual: I want my entertainment to reflect the human experience, good, bad, and ugly, and there are ways to do that without being gross—just write like a human!

If you want to get more into this train of thought, Neil Gaiman’s talked about it a few times (ie “I wasn’t aware that I was making comfort content, I thought I was making thinking and feeling content too” or something along those lines) and there are countless essays and interviews with Ursula K. Le Guin where she makes a similar (albeit entirely more articulate) point!

Also thank you sweet anon, I appreciate your presence here and the fact that you’ve let me rant about my media frustrations haha

[oddygaul]

LAIKA movies

Ira and I visited Seattle at the end of August, and happened upon the Laika exhibit at the Museum of Pop Culture. In the exhibit were tons of the sets, models, armatures, and clothing from all their movies. Seeing it all made me realize that for how much I’ve thought of Laika as an amazing studio and how impressive I thought Coraline and Kubo were… I’d actually only ever seen those two. So we decided to get caught up on the rest together, in release order.

ParaNorman

I felt nothing about this movie

The Boxtrolls

Damn, this one was great. I’m trying to remember why I never watched it; I think I must’ve just read the name and blurb and was uninterested. Clearly I never saw a trailer for it, because the setting and designs are gorgeous and incredibly unique. I love the fucked-up, stupid Cheese England setting, I love all of the costume design, I love the Boxtrolls themselves and how they move (especially the tandem platforming in the intro).

This one did strike me how it felt like a bridge between the more character-focused, close-in shots of Coraline (and ParaNorman) and the wide, sweeping landscape shots featured more heavily in Kubo (and Missing Link). While Coraline certainly had its large setpieces (the house is obviously iconic), it feels like this is the turning point where they started working more on showing off huge vistas to lend a larger sense of place to their worlds. The mountain cave Kubo and his mom live in was my ur-example of this; the lingering establishing shot of Cheesebridge from Boxtrolls now supplants it.

One of the things that stood out to me in the exhibit that I hadn’t considered much before was all the clothing. I guess, somehow, I imagined they were just part of the model, like you’d do in claymation… but in fact each character has separate, fully sewn and handcrafted outfits that are put onto and worn by the armatures. Seeing it in person was pretty incredible; there’s tons of tiny details nearly too small to see, let alone create, and lots of them seemed to be made with custom fabric / textiles to get the exact shades and patterns they wanted. With that fresh and front of mind, watching this movie was honestly pretty staggering. The texturework alone on the outfits of all the nobility and the snatchers…

Deborah Cook is the head costume designer at Laika, which I’m writing down here in hopes that I remember it.

Kubo and the Two Strings

I saw this one when it first came out, actually, and was somewhat disappointed. I think that while I liked the aesthetic, animation and action, I felt let down by the narrative and writing - I remember coming out of the movie thinking that every joke fell flat, all of the dialogue felt slightly off, and the wider narrative didn’t conclude in a way that felt particularly satisfying.*

Holy shit, it hit different seven years later.

I started to crack within the first five minutes, as Kubo tends to his catatonic mother who can’t even feed or clothe herself on her own anymore. Then, as night falls, she becomes alert enough to talk to him again, even if some of the words are wrong, even if she’s forgotten a thing or two, even if she can’t quite finish some of her sentences… and then as quickly as the lucidity came, it goes again, leaving her incommunicable. Why yes, certainly, as someone who in that seven year time gap has spent a lot of time dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s, yes, that scene certainly did have a wholly different connotation to it, and yes, it certainly did immediately make me cry before even establishing much of the story’s premise.

The dialogue landed quite differently to me this time around, as well as the tone of the movie in general. I think my first impression may have just been an expectations issue; obviously animation doesn’t (and shouldn't) have to be aimed solely at younger audiences, but in western productions it almost always is, so I think I went in expecting a certain amount of levity. Instead, the movie is just intentionally pretty god damn serious the whole time. Monkey is grim nearly the whole movie - her introduction scene consists of her giving Kubo a sharp reality check and telling him there’s no more room for fuckups, and any jokes she gets to make are usually at someone else’s expense. Beetle has some great line deliveries that break the tension, but the jokes themselves are never laugh out loud funny.

The thing is, this kinda just makes sense - the leads are in a bad fucking situation and the movie takes it seriously. The movie is about Kubo, a child, who above all else Must Not Go Outside at night because his grandfather ripped his eyeball out and wants to rip out the other one, Going Outside Anyway and getting his entire village destroyed as a result. After spending the entire journey with Monkey and Beetle, he realizes they’re his parents only moments before they are killed in front of his eyes. The movie tries to end on an uplifting note by swelling the music and presenting an uplifting voiceover, but there’s really no getting around the fact that the closing shot is Kubo standing alone next to the ghosts of his two dead parents. What the fuck?

With this in mind, the tone and dialogue really worked for me this time. Monkey is dead serious, because she knows she’s dying and she has one last chance, with the time limit measured in days, to get her only son to safety. With that context, the stern demeanor, slight remove and awkward clip of their interactions fully click into place, and now I mostly just find myself impressed by how serious and genuine they managed to keep this story and still get it distributed.

*Well, and I also remember thinking it was criminal how little shamisen was actually used in the score, given that the main character is literally a goddamn shamisen bard - and despite acknowledging that it managed to be enough to be the reason I want to learn shamisen, I still fully stand by that criticism today. On rewatch, I will at least grant it that the Regina Spektor cover over the credits fucking slaps.)

Missing Link

After loving Boxtrolls and Kubo so much, I was really excited to get to this one and see what the most cutting-edge release of Laika’s had in store. Ultimately… disappointing?

After the absolutely killer opening sequence, I was all-in on the character of Sir Lionel Frost - from the intense Loch Ness Monster setpiece, the vibe I caught was a smarmy, uncaring exterior covering a heart of gold, a man who would fight through hell for his comrades despite his faults. Unfortunately, he then unrelentingly spends the entire rest of the movie being an intolerable piece of shit to every single person he’s around. It feels like a lot was cut from this movie, or it had some issues in the editing stage, because the character arcs felt more like character right angles, and none of the reconciliations or growth moments felt especially earned or natural to me.

Also, I found it odd to release a movie in 2019 about a racist, English colonialist explorer trope character and not really interrogate it much. It felt like they flirted with it a bit, with some of the monologues we get from the Society Chairman indicating he’s even worse than our lead, but the movie making Frost look good by comparison still doesn’t leave him looking especially good. I seriously felt like I was teleported into a movie from the 80s while watching the dinner scene with the yak cookies…yikes.

The action sequence in the tilting boat was great, though.

Unrelated to any specific movie, this was also the first time I really dug into Laika’s past as a studio and how exactly Travis Knight came to be CEO. I was previously aware that Travis Knight kinda forced his way in there via wealth, but figured, hey, he does seem to at least be a decent animator, and I have to applaud one of The Rich using their fortune to keep an incredibly niche artform alive rather than the multitudinous bullshit they usually use it for. After learning Laika was essentially formed from the ashes of the studio of one of claymation’s pioneers in a somewhat forceful takeover, though…

Well, I think the upshot for me is still largely the same, but it definitely does make me feel some sort of way now seeing Travis Knight be the one spotlighted in all the post-credits timelapses and featurettes, that’s for sure.

[insomniactalks]

I’m finally on my summer break (at least till the end of August, when I’ll start classes again) so I’ve got plenty of free time to express my thoughts on the show, starting with this post! The thing I wanna talk specifically about is the very end of the episode (3.01). 

I will not deny that this scene deff looks like foreshadowing for the rest of Portwell’s journey in S3:

First things first, how cute was Ricky in this scene? He rushes to camp to spend the rest of his summer with his friends after his breakup with Lily. And the way he says these two lines? So adorable! 

Given the framing here, and the fact EJ talks about how “nothing is gonna ruin our perfect summer t/g” then shortly after, Ricky enters the scene and stands in the middle of the shot deff makes it seem like Portwell’s perfect summer just might be ruined. I know how it looks. But I just don’t think that’s gonna be Ricky’s intention, nor do I think he’ll completely ruin EJ and Gina’s summer (tho he may temporarily.) I wanna point s/t out before talking more about this moment. We have to keep in mind the scene that immediately precedes the scene above:  

EJ was just handed a shit ton of responsibility for the rest of his summer by Dewey. He’s been promising his girlfriend and the rest of the Wildcats the best/greatest summer ever b/c that was always his intention and he really meant it. EJ had no plans to be the director for a high-stakes musical and take on the role of someone who was doing it for 40 plus yrs. He just wanted to spend a fun-filled summer making memories with his friends and girlfriend, before life threw him for a loop. It’s implied in 3.01 that EJ convinced the Wildcats to go to Camp Shallow Lake by making them promises on what to expect (which he fully meant at the time until the moment above happens). EJ even tries to reason with Dewey on why he shouldn’t direct the musical (I mean, look at the poor boy’s face!) He desperately wants to get outta this situation he’s found himself in to no avail. Dewey’ gotta pin this responsibility on someone, and EJ just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only is EJ a counselor-in-training, which comes with its own set of responsibilities, he now has to shoulder the task of directing Frozen the musical and prove s/t to himself, Dewey, Corbin, his father (Cash), the rest of the campers, and even Disney Plus. All he wanted to do was make this the best summer ever, and now he has to juggle a lot of tasks all at once. This show probably has to be perfect or the best so that EJ can prove to everyone he could do it. That he’s not a failure at this. There may not be time for mistakes or slacking off, which brings me to my next point.

I know the first gif looks like the start of the EJ/Gina/Ricky love triangle for the season, but you have to keep in mind what leads Ricky to camp in the first place. He just broke up with Lily, the person he chose to spend his summer with instead of his friends b/c he thought that would make him “feel free.” Obviously Ricky realizes the error in his ways and rushes off to Camp Shallow Lake to be with the Wildcats. He sings this in “Finally Free” (which is such a good song btw. Been stuck in my head the whole week!):

Ricky really wants a fresh start so that he can feel free, finally. And he states the way for this to happen is to “break away” from the “broken hearts.” Last summer, he broke up with Nini b/c of the relationship drama b/t his parents. Then, he admits to talking to some girls over that time, even if he was talking about Nini to them (1.01 I think?). Nini makes her boundaries clear in 1.04 (I believe), then Ricky has an interest in Gina (1.05-1.07). By the end of S1, he and Nini are back t/g, until they break up in 2.08, and a few weeks later, maybe over a month or so, he calls up Lily by the end of S2. He goes into the summer with a new girlfriend, who ends up betraying him. For 2 seasons straight, Ricky’s dealt with a ton of relationship drama in regards to his own romantic relationships and his parents’ deteriorating one. For the rest of his summer, Ricky wants desperately to “break away from the broken hearts” cuz he’s done with all that drama in his life. He wants to finally feel free and more like himself (outside of his romantic relationships). Which is why his two lines at the end of 3.01 are so telling (and just overall adorable!): he’s seeking comfort in his friends, even if he’s in an unfamiliar environment. Ricky is fresh off a break up with Lily and he decides to drive to camp. Unlike in S1, when Ricky auditions in the first place for Nini, to prove to her he’s not over their relationship, Ricky drives to camp for himself, not for anyone else. It’d be one thing if he showed up to camp for Gina, which would heavily imply the love triangle aspect, but that’s not his intention. He rushes into the scene and says, “Do you have room for one more?” pauses then “Group hug?” Both statements imply the 3 of them having to work t/g as a team this season more than ever. The boy wants to get away from all the girl/relationship drama in his life. It just doesn’t make sense for Ricky to be a part of someone else’s relationship drama now. I’m not saying he won’t play a part in the bumpy road ahead of EJ and Gina this season, I just think it’ll be completely unintentional and accidental. Why escape his own relationship drama this summer to now join in on someone else’s? I don’t think Ricky wants any part in that (he just wants to spend time with his friends, it seems.) He rushes into camp, stumbles across the first 2 ppl he sees, which happen to be fellow Wildcats, and poses 2 adorable questions to them: “Do you have room for one more?” and “Group hug? cuz he’s just happy to see them and be there with the rest of his friends. That just might be his best shot at feeling free, which is what Ricky is after. I love that he poses these questions to both EJ and Gina, cuz he’s happy (and slightly nervous) to see the both of them. He had been spending most of his time with Lily, so seeing some familiar faces was probably comforting for him.    

Breakin' away from the broken hearts

No more mistakes, no more empty starts

I'm finally, finally free, finally, finally 

Last point, I think EJ’s issue with Ricky this season may have more to do with Ricky’s reliability as a performer, not so much Ricky and Gina’s friendship. I’m not saying Gicky spending time t/g won’t play a part, I just think EJ being the director for this musical that has a lot riding on it may fear Ricky won’t be up to the task as a lead. EJ was present for both of Ricky’s auditions in S1 and S2, so he knows that process doesn’t always go well for him. Ricky showed improvement when he finished the whole musical in S2, but EJ and the rest of the Wildcats had to help him along. With Val casting the show, maybe EJ feels a little uneasy with not only Gina and Ricky playing romantic leads, but also with Ricky as the lead in a musical EJ has to direct. The show has to go on without a hitch, and if Ricky doesn’t take it as seriously as the rest of the cast, EJ may take issue with that. Ricky wants a summer of fun which might just clash with EJ’s need to make the musical perfect. If Ricky goofs off too much, or doesn’t take rehearsals seriously/ try hard enough, EJ might feel frustrated with that, with him. That’s where EJ 1.0 might make an appearance, until EJ is reminded of what’s really important (literally like Mitchie and Troy in Camp Rock 2 and HSM2). Remember how their friends reminded them of what’s really important about their summers? Even tho Mitchie and Troy (and EJ!) lost their way for a minute there? Yeah, I see the vision... Totally fine if you disagree with my take on where the season is headed. These are just my thoughts given each of their character arcs and the storytelling aspects of the show.

[neverwritewhatyouknow]

ALEX ISNT MEXICAN IN RWRB ANYMORE!!??!!??

Imagine if Alex was being played by another actor and he wasn’t Mexican anymore. Let’s say… he’s Asian (just an example). But the rest of the cast is !exactly! the same as the characters from the book— the production team made sure

One minority for another. That’s fine right? Him being Hispanic isn’t a major part of his story, so it shouldn’t matter. The focus is on him being bi, and his personality, and his work on the campaign, and his friends. His name is still Alex Claremont-Diaz though, that stays the same. There’s no mention in the movie of him ever having been Mexican, but maybe they’ll show him wearing a flag pin or something during a scene, or having someone wish him a happy Cinco De Mayo (just to cover the bases)

there’s nothing wrong with him being from another ethnic group an Asian Alex is really cool. Much needed representation for the LGBT+ Asian community. Plus its still diverse.

So what if he’s not Mexican anymore? it would be the same Alex. Nobody is allowed to get mad because then it looks like you clearly hate Asian people even though you dont. youre just confused why everyone else got to keep their canon backgrounds/race/ethnicity/religion, but Alex didnt. Maybe it’s because the production doesnt think hispanic people are important enough when the story isnt about them being hispanic (the movie needs to be about them escaping from a super strict drug cartel** or a comedy where they eat tacos**), or they wanted another minority because Mexican people are basically just white people who speak Spanish**

Dont like this? Now look at RWRB and notice how they did this for Nora, but switch Hispanic/Mexican for Jewish. Theres nothing wrong with a black Nora or an asian Alex, but its the message behind the choice thats the issue. When care was taken to ensure diversity, but one certain minority was left off on purpose, dont you want to know why? Nora is Jewish in the book, much like Alex is Mexican, Henry is English, Pez is black, and Amy is trans. Everyone else gets to stay as they were, but not the only Jewish character in the book.

If the movie wanted Nora to be black, there are a ton of black Jews who they could have looked at. Because Jews are not all white (if I ever made it sound that way I didn’t mean to and I’m sorry), Jews are black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, and so much more. But there’s one thing that’s for certain, and it’s that Nora was Jewish and Hollywood didn’t want her to be

if you would be upset about this fake scenario but you’re not upset about the real thing, let’s talk about it. because obvi theres a disconnect when it comes to jewish representation and the pain this choice caused people.

**drug cartel= the shows people think are Jewish rep but it’s just about escaping from orthodox Jewish communities and trauma porn… which applies to like very few people and doesn’t show Jews as just normal human beings not tied to a religion // **tacos= bagels, the iconic Jewish food, which while tasty, puts Jews in a box and makes them stereotypes. Read my blog post for more info about this. OBVIOUSLY i picked extreme Mexican stereotypes to make a point

**People think Jews are just white followers of a religion (Judaism), but actually Jews are a race/ethnicity themselves (in addition to whatever other race they are). PLUS for people who convert in, they can be literally any race at all too even if they arent like biologically jewish. By saying Jews are just followers of a religion, that’s wrong. I (a Jew) havent gone to temple since my bat mitzvsh (Im not religious) but Im still Jewish because it’s my race, ethnicity, and culture

[stories-and-chaos]

Okay I just got into The Owl House and I have a shit ton of thoughts and feelings but right now I wanna talk about Camila. Because I get where she’s coming from.

You know you’re old when you start relating to the parents in cartoons. It’s weeeeeeeeird. I’m not about to say Camila did nothing wrong because she has, but she’s a good parent trying her best imo.

My kiddo is neurodivergent. He’s a smart, sweet six year old on the autism spectrum. I love that he loves monster trucks and marbles and hot wheels cars. He’ll tell everyone about time trial races on his marble run and his favorite version of the GraveDigger truck. Did you ask for that information? Doesn’t matter he’ll tell you. At toddler groups he was in his own world, he had a plan for how playtime was gonna go and he was going to stick to it. I could do a huge post about what we’ve done to help our son but the point is, we knew he needed help to learn how to deal with other kids. We got him that help, from specialists in programs for people like him. He’s in first grade and while things aren’t perfect, he’s got the foundation for coping and interaction with others.

Back to The Owl House. We know Luz marches to her own drum. “Luz has always done things differently,” Camila says. Whether Luz is on the spectrum or not (I’d say she is) she definitely has a learning curve to interacting with her peers. She likely would have benefited from similar social therapy programs when she was young. But with Manny’s illness and death, sadly that probably wasn’t a priority for the Nocedas. And to go out on a speculative limb, if Camila had similar experiences as a child, she may not have realized therapy could have been helpful for Luz. She didn’t have specialists teaching her how to cope and navigate the neurotypical world after all, why would her kid need that?

Until said kid is a teen struggling with high school. And Camila is a single parent who’s still grieving and seeing her baby start to have problems just like she dealt with. She loves Luz and her quirks but she knows most kids don’t use sausage links as theater props. But she doesn’t know how to help her daughter. Camila will call people out on people badmouthing her girl obviously. But how to stop the badmouthing in the first place?

Camila doesn’t know that. She can’t teach her daughter to be “normal” because Camila isn’t “normal.” But here’s someone from the school system (presumably someone with more experience of kids like Luz) offering a solution. A whole group of people experienced in helping similar kids be “normal.” Who better to make sure Luz has an easier time at school than her mom did?

Now, summer camp is not cheap. Average overnight camp cost this year was around $450 PER DAY. And that’s for a “cabin life with activities” sort of camp. A specialty (or behavioral) camp could be more. But it’s worth the cost, right? Maybe. A reputable camp with professionals could very well have helped Luz figure out the tools she needs to deal with neurotypicals. A less reputable one focused on churning out results to justify taking all that money from desperate parents, not so much. Either way, fees have already been paid, non refundable, parent testimonials and staff say this place works, so the kid is gonna go.

Well, a kid goes. Vee attends, makes friends, learns how to act human, comes home. Camila likely sees Luz acting like a mature teenager. She’s not using escapism to cope with her dad’s death anymore. Her interests have changed but kids grow out of things all the time. Her daughter seems collected, stable, and ready to fit in at school. Camila is likely grateful that camp helped and Luz won’t have the same sort of hard time she did now. It was a tough, expensive decision and with life going smoothly she’s not going to question the results. Even in “Yesterday’s Lie” Camila goes along with the “game,” happy that Luz has a productive, social outlet for her creativity.

Except it’s not a game and now Camila knows she messed up. She didn’t realize “Luz’s” change in behavior was her being an entirely different person. Not only is her only child trapped in a different plane of existence, she had the opportunity to come home and chose not to. Having my kid prefer my partner’s company over mine the first time was hard enough. Finding out Luz chose to stay in the Demon Realm probably felt like she was being eviscerated. Another limb on my speculation tree here, but it looks like Camila doesn’t have much of a support system herself. Obviously there’s her staff at the vet clinic but they’re employees. No mention of friends or family nearby. Just Manny and Luz. But her husband’s gone. Of course she’d beg Luz to come back and stay.

When Luz does get back (+4) Camila is determined to be a better parent. She messed up before and thought she probably lost Luz forever. She’s going to get it right this time, from figuring out how to feed otherworldly adolescents to learning everything she can about LGBTQIA youth. She’ll even fight demons with her chancla and bat to bring her daughter’s friends home, like she’s escorting them back after a weekend trip. Mama needs a cocktail, a geeky book club, and some parent friends and I really hope she gets some of that in the Boiling Isles.

[dreaming-of-assclass]

So, um, hi. I've sent in askes before, and usually wouldn't be shy to let you know who I'm am, but I've had a really crappy day (my mom made me legit burst into tears) and my birthday is in two days, so I've decided to cheer myself up.

Do you have any hc for the 3-E boys (specifically underestimated Okajima/ Okajima is more than his flaws?) Thank you!

Aww baby I’m so sorry :( That sounds awful

I hope it gets better, and happy birthday love!! I hope you have a great day! My dms are always open if u wanna talk!!! Wishing you tons of love 💕

Okajima is always in a rush every morning because he has to have long morning showers. No, he’s not forced to but he’s a huge diva and it helps him feel/look his best everyday

And because of that, he’s often doing random things on the way to school or in first period. Like putting lotion on, hair gel, eyebrow tweezing, etc 😭 Everyone clowns on him so much lmao

Mimura has a lot of old collectible film stuff, like Star Wars ship models, stuff like that. He gives away some of the less valuable ones to some of the kids at the school they help in canon.

Sugino and Maehara get into origami together, to prove to the other athletes that they can be “delicate and dexterous and not at all clumsy.” They end up getting addicted and make a million paper animal figures that end up in every corner of the classroom

This tiktok is literally Okajima and Maehara energy (Okajima is the one on the bed lmao)

Itona is always wearing a million layers because he’s used to it :( from when he was homeless and had to conserve warmth somehow

Yada, Kurahashi, and Nakamura film makeup videos for fun, and the most frequent of their victims clients is Okajima. He always volunteers if they need someone, and it’s fun for him. He likes learning about new hacks and how to use it.

Okajima always offers to sharpen any of his seatmate’s pencils if he’s getting up anyways for his own. It’s a little sweet gesture!

Muramatsu, Nagisa and Okajima help each other pick out beanies whenever they do online shopping in class.

Karma texts Isogai at the most random times saying the oddest things just to bother him lmao. But jokes on him bc at this point, nothing fazes Isogai lmaooo

Karma: would you still be friends with me if I were a worm?

Isogai: please leave me alone it’s literally 4am, also the answer is yes

Speaking of texts, Okajima texts like the girls. He uses a lot of “heyyy” and “omggg” and it’s completely unironic. 

Basically I feel like Okajima is a very fluid individual lol. He doesn’t care to conform to gender norms. He has no shame, except for when he does something obviously wrong. But I mean, he’ll crossdress, wear facial masks, try out makeup, etc.

The guys definitely go on a fishing trip in the future, either right after graduation or sometime during college. Actually no, they do it once every summer after graduation. And it’s very chaotic every time 😭

If there is a plan to hang out, you best believe Okajima will invite everybody he can lmao. He cannot keep word down. He always protests that “the more, the merrier!” But really he doesn’t want anyone to ever feel excluded. And if he has to throw himself under the bus for that, then so be it

He also has a really soft spot for nature. He’s always had it, but wasn’t really around people who would encourage it. After getting in 3-E and hanging out more with someone like Kurahashi, he grows to unabashedly adore bunnies and cats and everything.

He also definitely gifts cat-themed stuff to Hayami. He plays it off like his mom bought the wrong ones or something like that, but really he loves seeing Hayami’s face light up.

Okajima’s love language is acts of service, hidden under words of affirmation and big over-the-top gestures.