#love seeing any of the kids with less amount of focus on them getting to react to such a big event like that and have them fleshed out

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Finally got around to getting all of my TPN doujinshi in one pic

List of titles below the cut (ordered from top left → bottom right):

Title 1: The Paradise Never ends Circle: TinyArchange Authors: むらさき (Murasaki), 新川* (Shinkawa*), せんぎり (Sengiri), 荒瀬 (Arase), ると (Ruto), M2ya Ships: Noremma, Norray, Gen Full Score Trio Release Date: 2019-12-28

Title 2: snow Circle: にじぎん (Nijigin) Author: こめ (Kome) Ship: Rayemma Release Date: 2022-6-12

Title 3: シリウスの子 (Eng: Son of Sirius) Circle: にじぎん (Nijigin) Author: こめ (Kome) Ship: Rayemma Release Date: 2023-8-11

Title 4: フルスコアCPアンソロジー【家族以上の君だから】 (Eng: Full Score Coupling Anthology [Because you are more than family]) Circle: マシュマロ工房 (Marshmallow Workshop) Ships: Noremma, Norray Release Date: 2019-5-4

Title 5: beautiful days Circle: にじぎん (Nijigin) Author: こめ (Kome) Ship: Norrayemma Release Date: 2019-7-14

Title 6: さよならの向う側。 (Eng: Other Side of Goodbye.) Circle: にじぎん (Nijigin) Author: こめ (Kome) Ship: Rayemma Release Date: 2021-11-28

Title 7: worried people Circle: ATTAY Author: ふう (Fuu) Ship: Rayemma Release Date: 2019-6-1

Title 8: Play For Corpse (Prey For Corpse? It’s divided into two sections—“Play” and “Prey”—so ?) Circle: BWC Author: まこ (Mako) Ships: Norray, Platonic Norman & Vincent Release Date: 2020-5-22

Title 9: HOLIDAY Circle: 名前はいらない (Don't want a name) Ships: Noremma, Norray, Rayemma, Norrayemma Release Date: 2022-12-18

Title 10: HOLIDAY2 Circle: 名前はいらない (Don't want a name) Ships: Noremma, Norray, Rayemma, Norrayemma Release Date: 2023-7-24

Title 11: 手を伸ばせばそこにあるもの (Eng: What’s There When You Reach Out Your Hand) Circle: にじぎん (Nijigin) Author: こめ (Kome) Ship: Rayemma Release Date: 2019-10-14

Title 12: Dear my・・・ Circle: mugi茶 (Barley Tea) Author: ながつき (Nagatsuki) Ships: Natanna, Marknaila, Platonic Alicia & Jemima & Yvette coping with their dads’ deaths </3 Release Date: 2020-2-23

Title 13: memoria (the 209-page omnibus, the holy grail) Circle: レディビット (ReadyBit) Ships: Noremma, Norray, Norrayemma, Rayemma, Yuucas Release Date: 2019-5-4

[thankskenpenders]

The Knuckles show

The announcement of a live action Knuckles streaming miniseries was surprising, to say the least. I mean, what would such a show even be about in a version of the Sonic universe with no Angel Island and barely any characters from the games around? Is he gonna go treasure hunting with the gang from Montana or something? Would a streaming miniseries have the CGI budget to squeeze in any new game characters, even briefly? Rouge? Amy? At least one member of Team Chaotix? Anyone?

Now the show is finally out, and it turns out what they actually made was a comedy show about bumbling deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, the minor comic relief character played by Adam Pally who you might not even remember all that well from the first two movies, with Knuckles as his sidekick. While, yes, Knuckles does get a decent amount of screentime and opportunities to punch bad guys and do cool moves from the games, large stretches of this show focus on Wade's personal life, to the point that a couple times I almost forgot I was watching a Sonic-related show. If you're judging it purely by the metric of how well it adapts and engages with its source material, this surely must be one of the worst adaptations the Sonic franchise has ever seen.

So then, despite some huge complaints... why do I kinda like it?

(This will contain full spoilers for the Knuckles show.)

A brief summary of what the show is actually about because I know half of you aren't going to watch it

The show picks up not too long after the end of the second movie. Knuckles is now living in Montana with Sonic, Tails, and the Wachowskis out of a sense of debt to them, though he doesn't really see it as his home. He doesn't feel like he belongs on Earth, and his life currently lacks direction. After communing with the ghost of Pachacamac, though, Knuckles is instructed to keep his culture alive by teaching "the ways of the echidna warrior" to a new apprentice: deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, who's currently more concerned about winning a bowling tournament in Reno than anything else.

Things are complicated by the interference of two rogue GUN agents - Agent Willoughby, played by Ellie Taylor in a bad wig, and Agent Mason, played by Kid Cudi. (Yes, the artist behind the second movie's credits song is one of the bad guys in this.) They want to steal Knuckles' power and sell it to a former associate of Robotnik's played by Rory McCann (The Hound from Game of Thrones), who now works as a black market arms dealer. Yes, they're still doing the thing where Sonic and friends' quills radiate some kind of super-energy that the bad guys all want. No, I don't particularly love this element of the Paramount Sonic continuity. Anyway, they go after Knuckles and Wade, complicating their straightforward road trip to Reno. Antics ensue.

The Wade show

So here's the thing. While the first episode focuses largely on Knuckles, the entire rest of the show is very much the story of Wade, and by extension the other original human characters invented for this miniseries.

Episode 2 is about Wade having to rescue Knuckles from captivity after the GUN agents get him. Knuckles spends most of the episode in a cage.

Episode 3 is about introducing Wade's Jewish family, including his slightly overbearing mother and weird sister, so that Knuckles can learn about their family traditions and have Shabbat dinner with them (and then save them from bounty hunters that the GUN agents hired).

Episode 4 only features Knuckles at the very beginning and very end of the episode, probably for less than a minute total. Wade is captured by a bounty hunter he personally knows, and Knuckles decides to let that be a trial for Wade to overcome on his own.

The last two episodes feature the climactic showdowns with the GUN agents and their arms-dealing ally, who comes in with a mech for the obligatory final boss fight. You'd think this would be Knuckles' time to shine, but really, these episodes are mostly about the bowling tournament in Reno where Wade encounters his estranged father, wrapping up his own personal arc. While Knuckles does get some fights, a lot of the finale is spent on lengthy bowling scenes where Knuckles isn't in the room or even mentioned. It frequently feels more like a spiritual successor to '00s sports comedy movies like Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, or Blades of Glory than it does a part of the Sonic franchise, and the presence of ESPN 8: The Ocho commentary in the finale only drives those Dodgeball comparisons home. They get so immersed in the bowling stuff that it's genuinely hilarious when the show suddenly pivots and remembers "oh shit we still need to do the final boss fight"

Throughout all this, Wade is the protagonist. He's the character we spend more time with, he's the character who drives most of the major events, he's the character who gets more of an arc. The emotional core is Wade's journey. Knuckles is still present - sometimes, at least - but he's there as Wade's wingman, and also just as the excuse for there to be some fight scenes.

How much Sonic stuff is actually in this show?

Honestly? Not much.

Sonic and Tails are only in the first episode. Sonic gets some good scenes, but Tails gets a grand total of five lines. I counted. Unsurprisingly, Jim Carrey is absent as Robotnik, though he does get mentioned a fair bit. (For that matter, basically the entire established human cast beyond Wade is absent, even including Tom, though Maddie is there in episode one.)

GUN is involved in the story, which helps it feel slightly more connected to Sonic, but it kind of feels like it's GUN in name only. They don't use any recognizable GUN tech, and they don't call in the military. It's just two agents in suits. They might as well be the Men in Black.

The Master Emerald is mentioned as something Knuckles has to guard, but it's never seen. Angel Island is pictured as a drawing during the show's intro, appearing exactly how it does in Sonic 3, but it's never referenced at all beyond that.

I guess the climax taking place in and around a Reno casino is a reference to Sonic's many casino-themed levels. That's something. I'll give them that.

Oh, and if you're wondering if this is the point where we finally start to get actual music from the games: no, it's not. The soundtrack consists of a lot of '80s needle drops, many of which are generic Hollywood picks like "Holding Out for a Hero" for the billionth time, thought it at least has some slightly less obvious picks than the Mario movie. The theme song is '80s rock song "The Warrior" by Scandal. You'll hear it many times. You'll hear the Adventure era Knuckles raps zero times in this. You'll briefly hear classic A Tribe Called Quest song "Can I Kick It?" before Knuckles takes the question too literally and breaks the radio in Wade's car.

Beyond a handful of surface level references for nerds (one of which is admittedly wild - we'll get to that), this is probably the least an officially licensed adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog has ever tried to actually engage with its source material. I struggle to think of another Sonic adaptation that has less to do with Sonic. For as much shit as I and countless others have given Penders for seemingly ignoring the content of the games in favor of building his own convoluted mythos, his Knuckles comics honestly included way more elements from the games than this show does.

Somehow, the one new(-ish) Sonic character introduced in this is the ghost of Pachacamac of all characters. Not even Tikal! Pachacamac! A very minor character nobody has particularly strong feelings about! You can't even use the excuse that they already had the character model, because they completely redesigned him compared to his cameo in the first movie to better match his Sonic Adventure design. And he's voiced by Christopher Lloyd! Honestly, so many of his lines are strained that it sounds like he's on death's door here, but then he'll surprise you with a more casual line like "just do it, man" and it catches me so off guard that I can't help but laugh.

Pachacamac here has basically nothing to do with the game character he takes his name and appearance from. Where the game character was a cruel warlord who kicked off a 3000 year cycle of violence, Paramount Pachacamac is now just this chill old man who gives Knuckles (and later Wade) advice in two episodes of the show. Hell, he also feels completely disconnected from his established role in the movies, where he's literally the guy who shot Longclaw. The show will not grapple with this contradiction at all. He's just here to be a thing fans like me will recognize from the games. Again, if that's all they wanted, it's kind of baffling that they didn't just use Tikal.

I don't love Knuckles in this

But what about Knuckles himself? Well, he doesn't feel all that much like Knuckles to me. Ironically, he sometimes feels like one of the weaker elements in his own show.

Back when the second movie came out, I noted that Knuckles' characterization seemed to be pulling heavily from MCU Thor as a gallant warrior from an archaic alien culture who doesn't really understand modern day Earth stuff. That worked for me in that movie. It was just there for spice. Just a little extra flavor for the character in what was otherwise a very faithful adaptation of Knuckles' storyline in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Without those familiar elements grounding him and with a much higher reliance on comedy, Idris Elba's Knuckles becomes a pretty one-note character in this.

In damn near every scene with Knuckles, he's going to say something about being a proud, honorable echidna warrior, or brag about his glorious feats of strength, or be confused about some Earth thing and call it sorcery, or act like every other character is also a member of some noble warrior clan. He still has his moments for sure, but this schtick kinda gets old fast, and it just doesn't feel like Knuckles to me. His entire character feels derived from the scene in the diner where Thor smashes the cup on the ground and goes "Another!" Sure, I can picture game Knuckles smashing a radio to turn it off and being a little too gung-ho about busting holes through walls. That's Knuckles behavior. But building a barbarian combat pit in the living room so the Wachowski family dog can fight the mailman? Nope. That's some other guy now. It really does just feel like them taking a broad character archetype from something popular that kinda sorta fits Knuckles and just running with that, rather than trying to actually adapt the character.

Oh, but don't worry, he wears the OVA hat for like two minutes! AND he loves grapes! See, Sonic nerds? We read the wiki! That's his favorite food! Grapes! This is gonna come up like five times!

Knuckles kind of gets an arc here, but not as much as Wade does. I think the stuff about him starting to feel at home on Earth thanks to Wade's mom and the way he connects with their Jewish family traditions is oddly sweet. This arc is kind of let down, though, by the fact that Knuckles' heritage is treated as a complete joke. He's a cartoonish pastiche of various historical warrior cultures stuck together in a blender and used mostly for comedic effect. When Pachacamac's ghost appears, he's reading a newspaper and bemoaning the fact that the Mets lost again. This is not the place for a serious examination of Knuckles' feelings on being the last of his kind.

This is far from the only time the show undercuts itself with its jokes and attempts at self-parody. In the first episode, for instance, Knuckles clashes with GUN Agent Mason and his tech-enhanced punches, leading to an extremely on-the-nose inversion of the "Do I look like I need your power?" scene showcased in the trailer for the second movie. Except this time, Agent Willoughby butts in and points out how stupid that line is in this new context, since they're literally trying to steal Knuckles' power. The fight can't just be cool, they have to get cute with it. A lot of stuff like that happens in this show.

Given all these complaints, the first two episodes left me thinking I'd be fairly negative on this show overall. This seemed like the version of the show from the fandom's collective nightmares, one that undoes all of the progress the movie series seemed to have been making towards faithfulness to the games. Like, just look at these cast posters. Is this what you want out of Sonic? Do these excite you?

But then, something strange happened. Over time, I just kind of let the jokes and shenanigans wash over me and basked in how fucking weird this show is.

And I started to actually enjoy it.

Look. The Wade & Knuckles Show was never going to be peak Sonic. But that sure as hell doesn't mean it can't be entertaining.

This show is so fucking goofy

Here's the thing.

The show is funny.

Unlike a lot of other people, I didn't hate all the wedding stuff in Hawaii in Sonic 2, because I thought a lot of it was funny, both in its actual jokes and in the ways in which they tied everything back to Sonic. Tom looking wistfully at some bodybuilders doing Top Gun shit and spraying each other with beer and being like "I wish Sonic had that" is weirdly funny. The twist that those muscle bros are all agents of the newly formed GUN, who orchestrated the wedding as an elaborate scheme to catch Sonic, is funny. Mr. Olive Garden becoming the fucking GUN Commander is VERY funny. Are any of these elements of my dream Sonic movie? No, of course not. But my dream Sonic movie was never gonna happen in live action.

The Knuckles show follows up on the comedy of the previous films by being probably the funniest live action Sonic release yet. Did every joke land for me? God no. There are some stinkers in there that made me roll my eyes. But enough of them landed that it worked out for me overall. A big part of this is the fact that they've got a good cast of actors and/or comedians here.

Adam Pally is funny as Wade, and I found myself liking him more and more as a character as the show went on. He becomes an oddly endearing loser, with some sweet moments in his personal arc that made me feel for the guy. I like Wade more than Tom now, thanks to this show. I will now be happier to see Wade in Sonic 3 than I would have been previously.

The supporting cast is frequently great, too, many of whom are playing completely cartoonish, over-the-top characters. They took a cue from how exaggerated Carrey's performance was as Robotnik and decided to just abandon all pretense that this is the real world. Stockard Channing as Wade's mom is funny, and carries some of the more sincere parts of the show. Cary Elwes as Wade's very British dad who abandoned him as a child to run off and be the world's most egotistical professional bowler is funny. Edi Patterson as Wade's sister Wanda is... well, she's kinda trying too hard, but she has her moments. The Mighty Boosh co-creator Julian Barratt(!!) as a scenery-chewing bounty hunter, who was also somehow Wade's former best friend and bowling partner, is VERY funny. I love this guy.

(Honestly, they should let more people who were on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace be in Sonic stuff. Where's Matt Berry)

This is kind of a stacked cast for a bunch of stupid side characters in a live action Knuckles show! And honestly, that just makes it funnier to me. Even when they're not funny, the fact that this exists makes it funny. They somehow convinced Paramount to give them a bunch of money to make a spiritual successor to Dodgeball about a schlubby guy who wants to beat his dad at a bowling tournament... except also Knuckles the fucking Echidna is there as his personal life coach. My life is richer for the fact that I can say that sentence. I think about all the little kids who are probably watching this show this weekend, going in expecting a show about Knuckles the Echidna and having to sit through extensive bowling scenes and lore about Wade's family, and sorry kids, but I just have to laugh. Wade isn't even on the poster! The poster is just a picture of Knuckles!! They punked those kids!!!

In a franchise where every single aspect is so carefully micromanaged these days, it feels truly special to get an adaptation this bonkers. It frequently appeals to the same part of me that enjoys the fact that there's an officially licensed Knuckles comic in which Charmy Bee's best friend (also a bee) dies of an accidental LSD overdose from a drug-laced chili dog. Or like, everything about the original 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. Or the fact that they made seven direct-to-DVD sequels to Alpha and Omega, one of which is half a retread of the adventure from the first movie (with more annoying supporting characters in tow this time) and half a literal clip show of the first movie. The sheer absurdity of the fact that these things exist is charming to me. Except, with the Knuckles show, it has the added benefit of frequently being funny on purpose! This is why I'm not sure I'd call it "so bad it's good." Like, it's not amazing, but there were a lot of parts that I enjoyed in the exact way I was supposed to enjoy them.

Look. Here's a list of real lines of dialogue from the Sega-approved Knuckles the Echidna streaming show that they're billing as a pillar of the Paramount+ lineup, to drive this point home. Let these marinate for a minute:

"I only eat grapes, and Cool Ranch Doritos™."

"Annihilate this little girl, Wade. Crush her spirit. Humiliate her so badly her parents won't even look at her again." "Doesn't that seem like we're going a bit far?" "Not far enough."

"So is he Jewish?" "Half, I think."

"I had a friend who when he listened to Alien Ant Farm he could lift a Toyota Corolla over his head."

"I'm in dire financial straits. Due to my lawsuit against an unnamed rainforest-themed restaurant franchise, I don't have two pennies to my name."

"We're here in sunny Reno, Nevada, which is so close to Hell you can smell the sparks."

"You can't threaten me with your Jewish karate chops because I am a federal agent."

"I will say, regardless of how you feel about child abandonment - and I'm against it! - the deals at TJ Maxx can't be beat."

This is a Sonic show in which they got Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel to appear as ESPN 8: The Ocho commentators.

This is a show where Wade's mom insists upon pronouncing "Knuckles" with the throaty Hebrew "ch" sound, and declares that Knuckles is basically Jewish. Later, they watch Pretty Woman together while enjoying a nice slice of key lime pie. Knuckles comments: "I don't understand. This young streetwalker with a heart made of gold, why do the others treat her with such disdain? Is it so wrong to walk the streets?"

This is a show where the fourth episode is directed by one of the guys from The Lonely Island and features a hallucinatory low budget rock opera stage musical put on by the ghost of Pachacamac. It recounts Knuckles' life story, with Wade playing Knuckles and the "evil" Longclaw played by the bounty hunter guy who's played by the Mighty Boosh guy.

Look at this.

And also, Knuckles' singing voice is provided by Michael Bolton, which they proudly announce in the middle of the musical.

And also...

Also...???

IBLIS IS IN IT????????????

Yes, Iblis!

From Sonic '06!!

Knuckles is said to have looked for a mythical power called the "Flames of Disaster" to avenge his clan, which ended up being the power that was within him all along that lets him do fire punches yadda yadda yadda. As part of this, he apparently fought Iblis off-screen at some point, as conveyed with the giant singing papier-mâché Iblis in the musical.

...Then Iblis sings about hitting up Facebook Marketplace

How? How does any of this exist? Why reference '06 of all games? How did Iblis get into the live action Sonic movie universe before Amy and Metal Sonic? Why are they using Iblis and the term "Flames of Disaster" in such a goofy way that completely disregards their original context?

I don't know. I don't know how any of this happened. But I love it. We got a Knuckles miniseries in which Michael Bolton sings the phrase "the Flames of Disaster." The world is a beautiful place sometimes.

Some people will tell you to skip episode four. "Knuckles is barely even in it," they say. "It's dumb and pointless," they say. "They clearly just ran out of special effects budget," they say. These are people whose opinions you should disregard. The episode with the least Knuckles in it is somehow the most entertaining episode of the show. I would, in fact, go as far as to say that if you only decide to watch one episode of the Knuckles show to see what goofy bullshit they get up to, it should be this one.

I cannot be mad at this show. It's so dumb, but it completely owns the fact that it's a dumb and unnecessary spinoff. Inferiority is baked into its very DNA. It's very self-consciously redoing the premise of the first movie, but stupider. It's about The Other Cop from the movies, instead of the competent one. Instead of being into a "cooler" sport, his life revolves around professional bowling. Instead of going to Vegas, he goes to Reno. Even his tragic backstory that shaped his entire life sucks. He was abandoned by his pro bowler dad in a TJ Maxx. Not even a nicer department store. A fucking TJ Maxx. This whole show is a Dril tweet.

They put a ton of effort into making it dumb in an occasionally spectacular way. So much effort was put into that joke rock opera that fans will just write off as stupid filler. They put their whole pussies into it. This is not a poorly made show. This has better production values than half the shit made for Disney+. This was made with love. Maybe not as much love for the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games as we'd like, but it's love nonetheless.

Maybe this show broke me and these are the ramblings of a madwoman. Maybe I'm just really nostalgic for the '90s and '00s comedy movies all the Wade stuff is modeled after. Maybe the Alan Wake fan in me just really loves it when a story pivots to a silly rock opera for no real reason. I won't discount any of these possibilities. This isn't high art. This isn't something I would recommend to anyone with zero interest in Sonic, and it also isn't going to sway Sonic fans who hate the Paramount universe. I really can't blame them for being bewildered by this show. But for a specific type of person, this is the absurd three-star Sonic-adjacent comedy miniseries of your dreams. It's a mid masterpiece.

Again, I just have to step back, realize the fact that this shouldn't exist, and smile. Sega's too afraid to do stupid bullshit with the franchise like this these days. And I can't blame them, after years of Sonic being a treated as a laughingstock. But part of me misses some of the goofy shit. No matter how much I tore some of the Archie comics apart as I was reading them for this blog, I just look back on stuff like Cal and Al or the Many Hands issues and laugh. And that same part of me looks at this show about Knuckles being the sidekick to this fucking guy, and just goes...

"We're so back."

In conclusion, I genuinely think this was a more enjoyable TV show than Sonic Prime.

I wouldn't go back and rewatch Sonic Prime anytime soon, aside from maybe, like, a couple of the Shadow-heavy episodes. Huge stretches of that show bored me to tears. The writers squandered all of that show's potential. But I would rewatch the Knuckles show, which takes a terrible premise and has a lot of fun with it, in a heartbeat. Even the bowling parts. The bowling scenes in the Knuckles show are more engaging than 70% of the fights in Sonic Prime. I am not trolling. I mean that sincerely, with all my heart. Don't @ me.

Stray observations

There is effectively zero meaningful setup for the third movie in this, unless Wade's family or the two GUN agents come back or something. Project Shadow is not mentioned in this. There is no secret post-credits scene with Gerald

The CGI in this is pretty good. Not quite on par with the movies, but pretty good. Sonic's weird forehead wrinkles are distracting in his scenes though. Please fix that

I wouldn't say I liked this as much as the second movie, which obviously gets a ton of points for, you know. The Cool Sonic Shit. But I had more fun with it than the first movie, which I still feel is a painfully generic family movie that was only saved by Tyson's redesign

"Grapes are an interesting choice for someone who doesn't use his individual fingers."

Agent Willoughby was apparently the one at GUN who had to buy the Olive Garden gift cards and set up the fake wedding. Her origin story is that she hated doing shit like that and wanted to go fight aliens

This miniseries contains another Keanu namedrop because Wade's childhood bedroom has a Speed poster on the wall. I swear, if Sonic doesn't say Shadow sounds just like Keanu...

Knuckles is familiar with Paul Blart Mall Cop

Near the end the ESPN 8: The Ocho commentators say that the 1974 Reno bowling championship was also interrupted by an extraterrestrial, and given that was exactly 50 years ago I can't write off the possibility that that was Shadow. Please for the love of god give us a sequel series after the third movie where Wade takes Shadow the Hedgehog bowling. I need this more than I need air

[infamous-if]

we focus so much on the angst (which i love too!!) but can we get some fluffy facts about being in a relationship with the cast pretty please? 💕💕

Yes, I’m sort of ready for some fluff haha

Being in a relationship with

Seven: means a lot of mushiness. Seven is very free with their love. They will stare at you a lot and when you confront them they’ll just shrug and say “sorry you’re just so [insert compliment here].” Seven likes to take a lot of photos and expect songs written about you and many mixtapes. That’s how they communicate everything they feel: through mixtapes and songs. As I mentioned before, seven is also touchy, though it depends on MC’s comfort level, but their default is touching all the time. Always connected, as if permanently linked. Seven will always have at least one finger on you at all times 😭 they’re a clinger, like I said, they sort of act like a needy puppy who wants attention all the time. Pouty. Whining, but in an endearing way.

Orion: means romance in private. Orion is good with all the normal relationship stuff he just tends to cringe more over it LMSJSJS but in private, he is surprisingly romantic and sheepish? He’ll set up a whole five-course date and then play it off like “it was nothing” Orion is also someone who does a lot of things without thinking about it. He’ll buy something for MC and very casually say “this made me think of you so here” and while it may seem like it’s a big deal, it just comes naturally to him. He’s a bit possessive, but not an unhealthy amount? More in a protective way. What you saw in the demo during the interview is what Orion is like with a partner. In public he is a bit less affectionate, but in private there will be a lot of lingering touches, a lot more affection. Orion wouldn’t want to leave MC’s side, even if he doesn’t always vocalize it. He also gets a bit more reckless and loses that sort of “workaholic” habit of his (aka willing to ditch work to stay with MC.)

Victoria: mush, mush, mush. She’s super affectionate and loves PDA and everything that comes with romance. Victoria will shower her partner with constant love and support. She isn’t shy to express how much she misses someone, and will write long letters about how she feels. She wants to shout her love on the rooftops and is a bit clingy like Seven. She wants to be smothered and smothers in return. Hugging constantly; always has herself wrapped around her partner. Random kisses, random gifts. She will take her partner to every event. She does get a bit jealous but nothing too bad, especially considering her experience. She’s a very sweet lover who is proud of her partner.

Seb: Seb can be quite shy. His affection comes with a lot of hesitance and is not as loud, but sweet all the same. He likes to ask permission a lot (‘can I kiss you?’ ‘can I hold your hand?’) and is the type to pick out a flower from the grass and gift it to MC lol I can’t say much about Seb aside from the fact that he does sort of act like a young kid who is in his first stages of love. He questions himself often but there are moments of confidence that are surprising. He’s also protective like Orion, and likes to be entangled all the time (see: hugging from behind.) he’s more of a go-with-whatever-MC-is-doing type. If MC wants to get wild, he’ll get wild. If not, he’s okay with that too.

G: a lot of touching, a lot of kissing. G won’t care about anyone else in the room if you’re around. They won’t even pay any mind to anyone else. G’s love can be sort of intense in the sense that they aren’t shy about sharing how they don’t gaf about anyone else but you. They want to be on top of their partner all the time. Hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. They want to spend all their time together. All their free time goes to them. G will include them in every convo. They won’t want to do anything fun or new without their partner. They’ll talk about them all the time. Ask where they are, look for them constantly. Moan about how they just want to talk to them or see them. G will become insufferable once they are apart. Like some bratty child. G turns into a completely different person when they’re in love.

August: means August is always thinking of their partner’s well-being. Always by their side. August will send them links to songs and videos that remind them of them and casually boast their partner’s accomplishments to anyone who will listen. They kind of lose a bit of their coolness and get a bit dorky around people they like; fumbling over their words, turning clumsy, getting shy. They’ll get real embarrassed to talk about their feelings or get mushy but they’ll do it if it makes their partner happy. They’ll think of them often and just want to chat about everything. August will be an open book with the person they love. Nothing is off limits. They laugh more, become more open and make more jokes. August becomes very free in the presence of the one they like. They’re a very different person (like G.)

[orionsangel86]

Seeing criticism of Good Omens Season 2 on here is a wild ride for me because I generally seem to agree with everything gomens critical people are saying whilst at the same time still absolutely loving gomens S2.

It's like this: Okay so you have written this super popular book revolving around this precocious kid who happens to be the antichrist whose birth kickstarts the apocalypse. The four horseman turn up as well as these other strange human characters one of which is an actual witch whose great great great grandmother wrote an accurate prophecy book which predicts armaggedon. Through a series of somewhat hilarious events, the kid, his friends, and the other weird humans manage to stop the apocalypse.

Also throughout the whole thing there are these angel and demon characters fussing about getting into arguments but not actually doing anything to forward the plot or make any difference to the main storyline. For some reason everyone reading the book finds these characters far more compelling and entertaining and seems to think they are the main characters. But they are not.

Then the book gets adapted into a show and the focus shifts onto the angel and demon characters because obviously they are the popular ones that everyone loves. So what's a writer to do when the fan favourite characters basically don't have any part in the primary plot points? Give them a more coherent side plot steeped in romantic tropes and claim that they are in love. Boom. Instant fandom catnip.

But then you are presented with a problem. The show has become super successful and everyone wants more story. You may have discussed a sequel over the years with your writing partner but it never really came to anything probably because its difficult to plot out a sequel centred around two characters who weren't the protagonist of the first book, and that story is done and dusted. Whats a writer to do?

Lean into the fans thirst for more angel on demon action and write what amounts to high budget fanfiction pulling the love story b plot of season 1 into the main focus for season 2. Of course book purists are gonna hate that!

Any legitimate sequel to Good Omens should have centered around Adam. The former antichrist now coping with everything he went through growing up a normal human whilst still having a creeping sense that its not quite over, that maybe heaven and hell still have a part for you to play in their grand plan. Sure, Crowley and Aziraphale could have been involved, continuing their b plot love story, but at least this way the sequel would have been more consistent with the plot of season 1.

The problem with continuing Adam's story is that, and I mean no disrespect here, no one cares about Adam. Adam and his friends are the weakest elements of season 1. People tune into Good Omens for the Crowley and Aziraphale show, and Neil Gaiman knows this.

The plot of Gomens S2 is weak. The mystery around Gabriel is a bit silly, and is only connected to the season 1 plot in the loosest sense. The fact that he and Beelzebub speedrun an angel/demon romance is bizarre and does come out of left field... like something out of fanfiction. It also does indeed rob some of what made Crowley/Aziraphale so special - the fact that they were unique in their love and respect for each other despite being on opposite sides. Also I wish Maggie and Nina were given more development (and less clunky dialogue).

The only criticism I really don't agree with is the criticism that Aziraphale was written out of character, because quite simply, season 1 never ever resolved the fundamental issue at the center of Crowley and Aziraphales relationship. Throughout season 1 Aziraphale constantly insults and berates Crowley, claiming he's the "bad one" and refusing to accept that they aren't on opposite sides. There have been plenty of metas stating that this was all out of fear and a need to protect Crowley, and sure, you can interpret it that way, but not once in season 1 does Aziraphale actually say "yes we are on our side. Yes we are the same. I was wrong to claim you were bad when you've clearly been showing me how good you are for millennia." Its maybe implied that he has learned, but its never truly confirmed, because season 1 wasn't about Crowley and Aziraphale and their relationship. But season 2 takes its lead from that.

It's just rather amusing to me how the discourse that has built around season 2 seems to be fundamentally forgetting these points. GOS2 isn't really a sequel to Good Omens. It's a spin off. It's a spin off about Crowley and Aziraphale and their silly relationship drama whilst they deal with a silly low stakes mystery regarding Heaven and Hell (also characters that were barely involved in the book if at all!). It doesn't really tie into the first story at all.

In my opinion, all it needed to link it more closely to season 1, was to bring back Frances McDormand as God to do the narration. If that had happened, season 2 would have been just fine. As it stands, it comes across rather like a spin off fanfiction. But I love fanfiction, and I have always only ever watched Good Omens for Aziraphale and Crowley. To me, season 2 is fantastic, its like if Supernatural had a spin off show all about Castiel in which he is the lead character, and part of the main A plot is him getting together with Dean finally - Dean being the love interest in this particular show. Amazing. 10/10 would watch another 15 seasons of just that - but general Supernatural fans who aren't fandom specific would probably HATE IT.

So yeah, I do understand the criticism its receiving, but I find it funny, because ultimately Neil Gaiman gave fans exactly what they wanted, he gave them an Ineffable Husbands fanfiction - M/M Romance, F/F OC Side Pairing, Rated: Teen and Up, #Fluff, #Dancing, #Excessive Jane Austen References, #Crack Treated Seriously, #Surprise Final Pairing (check the end notes for spoilers!), #Miscommunication, #Love Confessions, #First Kiss, #Angst #Hurt/No Comfort, #Cliffhanger Ending.

Can any of us really say we wouldn't immediately click "proceed" on this fic and then stay up til 3am reading it til our eyes bled? Me neither.

[verdantmeadows]

I've been meaning to post this for a bit, but, in the (live action) TV shows I often see in the background that my mom watches (shows like hospital shows, drama shows), the amount of interracial couples, even if the characters are very racially/ethnically diverse, is incredibly small. Not only that, but black characters usually end up with black characters, latine ones with latine ones, white ones with white ones, Asian ones with Asian ones....and honestly not much consideration for people who might not fit into those categories, but, if they are in the show, almost always with each other. If there is an interracial couple, it is usually of people with similar skin tones. Seeing a dark-skinned character with a light-skinned character is very rare. And this makes me so, so sad. Normalization of interracial couples has so far to go. As a kid, I truly thought it wasn't something most people cared about. But as I've grown older, I've learned that most families do care, whether on a small or large level, if their child is in an interracial relationship. Much of many societies do. Within any group or community of any race/ethnicity, it is almost always generally frowned upon or completely acceptable to make jokes about those or directly to those in interracial relationships.

In my experience with ("Western") cartoons, interracial couples are far more common, although still not as common as I think they should or could be. But I am very happy about every year they get more prominent. I do not usually watch live action TV shows, so I don't have as much experience with them, but I think it's often common for cartoons to be more recognizably diverse in their characters, ranging from things like sexuality, gender identity, disability, race/ethnicity, and more (although this still is far from where it should and could be).

That's just a really long amount of text to preface a relationship that means a lot to me that has come about recently, and is canon. In Fionna and Cake, we see a gay M/M couple, which is incredibly rare in cartoons (and if it does occur, usually only happens between gay dads, for meaningless background characters, or is immediately sidelined—I can only think of one gay M/M couple in "Western" cartoons that isn't the first two and is then immediately sidelined). Gay men (as in all MLM) are incredibly underrepresented in cartoons (and in general). All forms of queer people are, but gay men are noticeably represented less in comparison to other queer people, especially in cartoons.

Not only are they a gay M/M couple, they are also an interracial couple and one with a very visible difference with their skin tones. Marshall Lee is inarguably a black person, and Gary is presumably a white person. And their relationship is so, so cute and healing. They are truly loving towards each other. They are supportive. They are incredibly relevant to the plot, not sidelined, and are given their time to shine. We get to see a visible, gay male, interracial couple. One of them is even likely bisexual, and the other commonly and easily relatable to autistic people. They are an on-screen couple. They are relevant. This is the first time the part of me that's MLM has actually felt and been represented in a cartoon that didn't make me feel belittled or frustrated. I'm so, so happy from this.

I have seen very few people talk about how genuinely revolutionary this relationship is for the representation of queer men and queer men of color as well as for interracial and interracial queer relationships. In fact, I've seen many QUEER people be frustrated or upset by it, feeling as if it takes away from other queer people and queer relationships in the particular show/series, which is disheartening.

However, rather than focus on the negatives (although I think it's important to examine why those might come about), I want to focus on the positives. This is genuinely such an amazing push in representation on so many levels that we have. And I am so, so happy about it. I can't even express it in words. I hope that there are other people out there who realize just how big of a deal their relationship was. I am genuinely astounded by it. I don't have much more to say, so I'll just end this post with an image of them.

[loggiepj]

FORBIDDEN

Part 6 | Part 7

Part 8

Winter finally came. Temperature dropped down degrees below zero. The lake solidified in two days; the eerie sound under the waters filled the silent hours of the night as it turned into ice.

Most of the population anywhere in the world would stay indoors at a time like this. But the Avengers' camp wasn't like any other normal village.

The pavilion and other facilities of the camp remained tolerable, even warmer, enchanted by numerous spells to keep the cold away. Most of the campers carried on with their daily tasks as if it was any normal day, as if it wasn't just snowing an hour ago.

Winter would mean less attacks from Deviants. It was as if the two divisions had agreed on a temporary truce, a festival, an occasion even, to celebrate the entire season without touching any weapon, without unnecessarily shedding more blood.

The snow was already ankle deep, yet it didn't stop the children from starting snowball fights against each other. The sun had now begun to set; the night sky more visible like a mirror magnifying a painting of an entire universe. The stars even looked like salt accidentally sprinkled on a dark veil.

The older ones stayed comfortable in their seats, watching the young have the time of their lives while drinking hot cocoa served by Bruce.

"This doesn't even taste that good," Vision said, catching Y/n's attention. She looked at where said witch was sitting, irritatingly close to the beautiful witch who had occupied most of her thoughts.

Y/n's grip around her mug tightened as she witnessed the scene before her, immediately looking down once Vision seemed to chase Wanda's lips with his own, not seeing how Wanda aggressively shoved him away.

Y/n was too stupid to think that whatever was going on between her and Wanda would end up to be something more.

Who wouldn't? Ever since that night the two had shared under the stars, they became fast friends. Y/n entertained the witch with myths, fables and even folklores about the universe every night and Wanda would savor every second of it. The barrier between them was completely broken. Wanda even built Y/n an archway without a door to give the human a grand welcome.

Y/n had taught Wanda some of the constellations she knew and how to find them. Wanda was a good listener. She had never been attentive to any of her classes when she was a kid. But with Y/n as the teacher, it would be impossible to stray her focus away from the human.

"What's your favorite?" Wanda asked in a whisper, face so close to Y/n as they laid on the cool grass. It was still nearing Winter that time, and the perfect weather made the stars more visible like a clear painting in full display.

Wanda had performed a spell around them to keep them both warm. Y/n had never been more grateful, even though she didn’t need warming up. The lack of distance between the two of them was already heating up Y/n's entire body, heart skipping a beat whenever their gazes met. And their gazes would always meet.

"Orion," Y/n answered. She gently pulled and held the witch's hand as she drew the constellations up above. These were the times Wanda love the most. The human's touch ignited a spark within her that no amount of magic could ever explain. "Those three bright stars in the middle are its belt." Y/n held Wanda's fingers, tracing the constellation in the air. "Orion is known as the Hunter, with the way the stars are perfectly aligned like someone ready to attack with a bow and arrow."

Their heads pressed together so their eyes would be looking at the same thing. Wanda's scent infiltrated Y/n's nostrils and she couldn't get enough. Y/n could breathe her in forever.

"Like you," Wanda muttered. A small smile crept unto Y/n's face, blushing.

"I doubt that. I'm not much good of an Avenger compared to anyone here. And my archery skills would be far in comparison to Orion," Y/n replied, putting both of their hands down on the ground where they laid.

Wanda smiled, knowing the human was being modest. "I find that hard to believe. You know, campers here look up to you."

Y/n swallowed a lump in her throat before she gave a nervous laugh.

Before the normie could respond, Wanda went on. "How did Orion end up in the sky?"

"There are stories in Greek mythology, where Orion the Hunter was killed by Artemis, a goddess, daughter of Zeus. Zeus, being the king of all gods, immortalized Orion by putting him in the sky and maybe to honor him. . . ."

Y/n then began to tell a story about the goddess Artemis and other gods she could remember. All the time, Wanda listened. Her eyes focused at the way the color of Y/n's eyes change when her gaze travelled between the witch and the sky.

Wanda suddenly found herself praying the human wouldn't let her hand go, skins molding as one as if Y/n was a part of her. And Y/n didn't let go the entire night they spent together.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into a month.

Both of them, unconscious of what the other was concerned, always looked forward to the end of the day, where they could spend time together talking about the moon and the stars and everything else. Even Pietro grew wary of this sudden change of behavior, wondering what his sister was up to.

And when Y/n thought about seeing Wanda during the day, she'd always stopped on her tracks because of the other man's presence. Vision.

Y/n needed reminding that Wanda wasn't a free soul. She was promised to be married to that awful man Y/n had only encountered seldom times.

Vision never apologized for his behavior. Y/n thought he should had been grateful at least for getting sanctuary when he needed it the most. What Y/n couldn't understand though was what Wanda had ever seen in that man.

Y/n had considered the possibility that Wanda could like a woman like her. But if that possibility didn't exist, she was sure there were other far better men than Vision out there in the world, better and worthy for someone like Wanda.

Most times, Y/n would understand. She'd tell herself that maybe underneath all those arrogance Vision was showing off, was a kindhearted sensible person only Wanda knew.

But one night, Y/n had enough. That night was the time Vision made fun of Bruce's hot cocoa, making the anger in the human's body boil, which brought her back to the present.

"This doesn't even taste that good," Vision said.

The scene made Y/n retire early for the night, not even waiting for supper.

The human was oblivious to Wanda waiting for almost an hour in their spot after dinner, wondering if Y/n forgot about their nightly rituals, if Y/n forgot about how they were going to talk more about Aurora Borealis.

The Aurora Borealis was the most beautiful thing Wanda had ever witnessed in her entire life. It only appeared during Winter. Green strings danced into the night sky, giving light and wonderful aura to everyone looking.

Wanda kept thinking about that night Y/n told her the beauty of it wouldn't compare to the green wonders found in the witch's eyes, making her blush the entire night even as they parted their separate ways.

When Wanda found out some time later, that Y/n had already gone to bed without even telling her, the witch cursed to the silent night and to the ugly sky above. Damn her heart for trusting humans!

 

BACK WERE the days the two had begun ignoring each other. It was only until they were sent to a mission together with Yelena and others, which was to meet with Steve, the leader of a neighboring camp bordering along the town of Wakanda where the latest attacks had happened, when Y/n and Wanda finally spoke a word to each other.

They met at one of the distinct taverns across town, one where Deviants seldom visited. It was a safe place for both normies and witches alike. But witches preferred to hide or pretend, just to avoid any casualties. The place was known to serve the best ale in town. The Avengers conducted some of their meetings in the place, known for its atmosphere of not minding every drinker's own business.

Steve also talked about the recent developments of the weapon they were making. Yelena took note of the chemicals to use. They even exchanged supplies under the table, slipping inside the satchel Yelena had beside her foot.

When the conversations turned to somewhat light, what with the amount of alcohol involved, they began talking about the female witches Steve and his team had rescued and how they were a master of seduction and love spells on certain nights. Yelena laughed at this, asking whether she could visit some time.

Wanda, on the other hand, was fuming, when Steve suggested to bring Y/n along with her too, for Y/n might find the women exhilarating and fun to be around with.

Y/n only shook her head, laughing, before turning to look at Wanda, who had not even touched her pint of ale.

"Do you want to drink something else?" Y/n asked, ignoring the ongoing conversations beside her.

"I'm fine. I don't drink intoxicating liquors," Wanda complained. "Need I also remind you that we shouldn't be even drinking right now."

"Wanda, relax. You deserve to have a little bit of fun. And their ale is the best, aged perfectly well," Y/n retorted. "A bit malty and strong but sweeter than lager—"

"I said I'm fine."

"Oooh, lovers' quarrel?" Yelena asked, hearing their heated exchanges. Y/n and Wanda only glared back at her.

"Did you know that ale is more flavorful than lager?" Y/n went on to convince the witch to start drinking. "They tend to be fruitier and aromatic, whereas lager is just plain and dry."

But the information only sent Wanda into spiral.

"Why can't you stop being a know-it-all?"

Yelena erupted in laughter, while Y/n scoffed. But they abruptly stopped talking when the conversation in front of them became louder.

"It's completely barbaric," the bartender, an old bald man with a protruding belly, said in a low yet noticeable voice. He placed the half-empty pint glass of ale hard on the table. "They capture and burn these innocent witches as if they're nothing. I know they're scum in the earth. But burning them until they turn to ashes is a bit beyond the works of the devil, don't you think?"

The other customers he was talking to in the tavern agreed in murmurs. Y/n turned to look at Wanda beside her, who was trembling in rage.

Wanda couldn't bear to listen anymore to the outrageous cruelty being done by Deviants to her own kind. Burning witches? What did they ever do to them? Why couldn't they accept witches as equals?

The witch's heart thudded so loud in her chest, heated blood surging through her veins as her mind almost lost it. No. She can't get out of control. No.

Her sight began to appear blurry; noises surrounding her echoed inside her head like low pitched maniacal sounds.

And then she could hear the helpless cries and agonies of those hunted, of her own kind, mercilessly tortured by heartless humans.

Help! They cried, children, women and wounded men. Wanda felt she'd explode any moment now as the screams grew louder.

And then it was gone all of a sudden. As if someone blew the flame of a lit candle. Wanda could see clearly again, the voices gone, replaced by the noise inside the tavern.

Wanda wondered what happened, as if someone miraculously performed a magic to calm down the wild beast in her. Then her eyes travelled to her lap, where a hand was enclosed hers. Y/n's hand.

Y/n gave her another squeeze before linking their fingers together. When she looked at Y/n, the human's eyes were filled with concern and sincerity that warmed the witch's heart. Relief flooded into Wanda, hoping it would be enough to keep her uncontrollable power at bay.

Wanda survived the entire night, listening to other updates that she couldn't bear to listen, trying to remember that they're good humans too. Not just the evil Deviants.

It was a hard task.

 

WHEN THEY got back to their camp, Y/n broke the silence. "Are you okay?"

Yelena had already left the two to give some of the supplies she received from Steve to Pepper.

Wanda shrugged her shoulders. "Why wouldn't I be? Witches around the world are being slaughtered every second."

"I'm sorry," Y/n said. She didn't know what to say to make the witch feel better.

"Why can't you save everybody?"

"Wanda—"

"Never mind," Wanda scoffed, walking past the human.

"Look, we're doing the best we can—"

The witch stopped as she turned back to face Y/n. "Well, it's not good enough! We shouldn't be even sleeping peacefully right now if witches out there won't witness another day in their lives."

Wanda broke into a sob. She was trying too hard to stay silent so as not to wake the sleeping campers, but she found it difficult to breathe without making a noise.

Y/n slowly approached her, wrapping her arms around the shivering body. The witch calmed down, letting herself be hugged as she buried her face into her chest.

"We're going to save them, Wanda," Y/n promised. "All of them. Day by day. I swear to you."

Eventually, Wanda's arms slithered around Y/n's body, underneath the coat the latter was wearing, feeling the human's heat as the source of life she needed to breath. The hug tightened. Wanda could hear Y/n's heartbeat, the sound calming the storm brewing inside of her.

"It will be okay," Y/n said. And Wanda believed her.

Taglist:

@bibliophilicbi @swiftie1-0-1 @whitewidowsbite @aliherreraaa @smromanoff @wandanats-goodgirl @supaheroine @eliii1sblog @bananasplits-world

Author's note:

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[dei2dei]

CageBlade love languages: a headcanon

prompted by something that crossed my dash; if you want deets on these or my thoughts on anyone else, hit up the ask box. There are generally 5 love languages: acts of service, physical touch, quality time, gifts, and words of encouragement/affirmation. Johnny's primary language is quality time. It's what he complains about most in MKX with Sonya - she never had time for her family. Not that she didn't do things, or not that she never said anything nice, but that she didn't have time for him, for Cassie, or for their family. That's how he sees love: how much time can I take from my life for you? When you're busy filming, or fighting to save the world, every bit of time matters. He can buy anything he wants (mostly) so gifts are nice but not as important. He's very tactile without thinking about it in some canon; he's an actor, words are nice, but they don't have the same meaning that time does. Time says you are my focus. Time says "out of everything that could happen, I choose to spend this with you". Quality time with a partner when you've fought demons and gods and barely hung on to survive? Time is a precious, precious thing and I want to spend it with you. Sonya's primary language is acts of service. People go away or die; her father, her brother, even Jax. You might only have them for a short amount of time, but time's less important than what you do with it. Acts of service mean sacrificing her time and doing something for the other person, whether they realize it or not. Making a mark, doing a thing that very well could outlast her. Or making the day easier. She spent her marriage and Cassie's lifetime trying to make the world a better place for her husband and her daughter because a safe, protected world is what she can do. They are important enough that working her ass off (and sacrificing her marriage) are worth it - those deeds mean more than any words or presents or anything else ever will. Bonus Cassie would have words of affirmation as hers: her reaction when she talks with Johnny at the end of MKX and then the way she responds when Sonya compliments her show she thrives on words, being *told* the things other people might think are obvious to her but aren't. Her father struggled with alcohol, her mother with scheduling, and she was probably a latchkey kid more than anyone wants to admit. Her father made time for her--but there's a degree of indulged-princess in her where she can get away with everything because of who she is. Real words, real ones from her parents, where her mother praises her and her father tells her how badass she is? Those matter.

[checkmatein3moves]

As we're getting into "big family meal" season, what are the ROs family lives like? Among the rich kids, who's family actually does family-only non-business not-for-clout stuff? Sit down meals, that sort of thing? For the not-rich-as-kids folks, who has/had a good family life? Do they keep in touch or get together with family? How would the ROs feel about getting roped into a significant other's family traditions?

impossible question to answer succinctly. the windhams probably have the most wholesome family dynamic including the most cousins the main branch is actually in contact with, but even out of them, it's rare that every single one ends up home. people are busy, sometimes choose to be with friends, but when it all works out there can be up to 20+ at their place for homely gathering.

the kamyas definitely had comfortable sit down dinners, but since elias died the vibes are not the same. monty and her parents don't have a bad relationship but i don't think she can bear to be around them by herself for a family dinner yet. things probably veer towards business by accident, because of the importance they place on it in regards to bettering the family.

the zus were once tied to the wangs (number 6) through marriage, although none of them were very comfortable with mars. unfortunately he is the kind to have everyone together for unity rather than actual family love, and it was easier to go along with than fight. arguments at the dinner table probably disintegrated that, especially because nobody ever took noir's side, not even his maternal aunts or grandparents, even if they agreed with him and often left him the only one standing up for himself which contributed to his position now. presently, zu family dinners are business affairs with mars, lemon and kai in thin debates, zia and sometimes twenty plus whichever simp might've been lucky enough to get an invite to to get an opportunity from mars.

the vinterens threw elite parties rather than family meals. violeta has obviously never been a big family woman, but the she liked the attention and buzz from guests and the excuse to get absolutely smashed rather than sit around and actually talk to her few relatives left. benz might have put his name on them sometimes but they were probably too indulgent for even him to risk getting his reputation too embroiled with.

the hales would've had nightmarish family dinners back when laurel and ten were children. barely a single night they could be in the same room without laurel and benz fighting, so he would've given up and left them with any of his siblings/cousins/in-laws and their partners that weren't too busy to be there. present day he's doubled down on business even more, so like mars he usually uses dinners as an opportunity to get all his higher ups in one place. since hebe has grown up she's better at diplomacy and sits through them to learn, but they are by no means warm or fun affairs. maybe there was exceptions when MC, hebe and elspeth were kids but maybe they see it through rose coloured glasses.

the sissels are another family that probably ends in arguments at the table, though not out of spite but the sheer amount of stress and pressure they feel from being so new, so to speak, to the lifestyle. otherwise they would probably have a happy family gathering not taken over by gossip and speculation, because their priorities would be different. they do like a spectacle though. fancy desserts and fire tricks and less focus on actually eating the food than being impressive. they do definitely try, though. jelly and pixy are simply too old to keep falling for the facade.

the only lower class character who we (as the MC) can infer anything about is sailor, because honey, jareth and ludo have very obscure family lives. they did have a hodgepodge family that loved them, but when their mother got sick the money problem got exacerbated and the glue of the family disintegrated. all the cracks in the fragile happiness got too large to salvage. they enjoy what they have at the MC's place, even if the MC is the kind of person to expect them to eat with staff instead. the food is better and they have a sustainable way to access it, and they know how to make the most of temporary bonds.

[wellnoe]

hi! I love your art so much?? you’ve really reignited a love for the x-men that I haven’t had since I was a kid <3 I wanted to ask if you had any advice for making comics? have a nice day!!

ah!!! ty!

when i make comics on my own (most of the single page stuff i post on here) i have a different process than when i make comics with other people. i usually start with a couple of strong visuals i have in mind, then i’ll break down what i want to be conveyed by the paneling (basically: what are the main beats i want to hit?), and then i finally do dialogue. i sometimes put in placeholder dialogue to remind me of information that absolutely has to be conveyed in the layouts/pencils stage, but most dialogue only gets added in after a page is completely done, colors and all. this is the most intuitive way to do comics for me, and i think that’s my first piece of advice, which is find a workflow that makes sense for how your brain conceives of scenes. anyway bc thats my process all of my advice is basically about drawing comics.

(this is the 'coming up with visuals' stage for a comic i'm working on currently. you can see that i'm basically just throwing anything at the wall to see if it works, and leaving a couple words/notes for myself so i know whats going on. its not even really a layout, the panels are not arranged how they would be on a final page.)

my other piece of advice is to pick apart paneling and comics you love? don’t just redraw them (though that can help too), but study what the paneling and composition conveys, and how that accentuates the story (which it often does!). i’ve done this w watchmen, a couple of moon knight runs, and some x-stuff, and i find it really helps me learn a lot about pacing, how time works, and how to economically convey information (bc you have a lot less room on a page than you think!). as a part of that: an exercise i think is a lot of fun/really helpful is to take pages/scenes you like and recompose them. use different paneling to convey the same scene and see how the meaning changes! do it intentionally, planning on pulling focus to something the original scene slides by. you can do this with your own stuff too:

(this is me picking apart a redraw i wanted to do of a comic i posted on here a couple of years ago. first i redrew the comic in the left corner so i could see the composition, then i made notes to myself about what the original comic was supposed to be about, and what i wanted to add to it to improve it. sorry for how blurry it is, the pencil smudged.)

here’s some rapid fire stuff i like to keep in mind while making comics: time does not exist in comics the way it exists in movies or in prose. the gutter? anything can happen there. it is potentially literally any amount of time. its up to you to convey via panel content and composition how much time has passed (which can be very little!) same deal with space. things happen in between panels, and people move, but also panels overlap, or squish, or disregard scenery. that said! this has to be done intentionally. how panels are organized, their size, their relationship to one another, all convey information to your reader. my point is the sky's the limit here. so yknow. have fun w it.

finally i think you just need to do it a lot. i have a ton of comic layouts or pencils that i never posted bc they honestly just aren’t that competent, but i learned nevertheless. there’s other stuff that never made it past the layout or sketch stage bc i was just doing it to practice, so there was never any need to ink or color it. making comics like any other drawing is about continuously assessing intention and communication.

hope that was helpful in some way!! i like making comics a lot, and i have a lot of fun thinking about paneling and the like. i hope you have fun making comics too <3

[poorlittleyaoyao]

vines I am staring at your MY canon divergence au and would love to hear more about it!!!

OKAY SO.

This AU exists for two main reasons:

1.) A lot of fix-it fic for JGY seems to focus on him being "saved" from his canon fate via romantic relationship, and that simply doesn't cut it for me. You really want to free him from the destructive weight of his misplaced filial piety in a way that doesn't just handwave it all away? You save his mom. You save his mom and enable them both to know JGS is a lost cause from the get-go and give them the means to forge a different path.

2.) WQ and MY are my faves and I want them to hang out!

As I said, I will almost certainly not write the whole thing out. I did post the inciting portion where MY actually arriving in Qishan and WQ starts treating MS, but as you can see, I did not finish it over the summer as intended, because I am the world's slowest writer. But I think about the ways it could go a lot! It's a little thing--just pushing a canonical event earlier in the timeline and changing the impetus--but it has SUCH impact. Aside from what I mentioned in the tags of that other post:

-MY no longer has any ties to Qinghe. He and NMJ can still clash (since MY is for all intents and purposes a Wen), but it's not personal in quite the same "I lived in your household for a substantial amount of time" sort of way

-WQ has someone she can talk to who's in similar straits! This is all based on CQL canon foremost, and what's striking to me about her is that she never gets to be a kid. Even at Cloud Recesses, while her peers are having a silly goofy time, she's on high alert doing WRH's work. WN's behavior suggests that he knows the vibe is weird, but he doesn't seem to understand exactly how fucked things are, which in turn implies that WQ is deliberately shielding him from it. That's so much stress that she's bottling up! With MY there in the same situation of abetting atrocities to protect beloved family members, at least she has someone to confide in (while their situations are juuuust different enough to conflict).

-MENG SHI REACTS TO: EVERYTHING. Those five sentences of information about her are so interesting. She's clever! She's shrewd! She's also compassionate, I feel, because MY had to get his altruism and his loyalty to those who show him kindness from SOMEWHERE, and he certainly didn't get it from his dad, WRH, or anyone else he grew up with. I have a whole backstory for her that I cannot write because hooo boy the effort required would not be worth the reward, but I want so much to explore how she'd respond to the fucked-up situation of being beholden to the Evil Regime. On the one hand, she knows the Wen clan under WRH are doing horrible things, and I don't think that would sit well with her. On the other hand... MY inherited his survival drive from somewhere, too. What does MS feel she owes to society when that society abused and degraded her?

-MS and WQ would also have some things to talk about on the "making great sacrifices for family" front, I think.

-Less seriously, XY meets MS and probably calls her a slur to be edgy, and she hits him right back but in a way that he finds fun rather than takes personally, and now she's on XY's list of People He'll Murder For On The Slightest Provocation.

-MY and/or MS might know about the core transfer and that sure is a fun piece of information for more people not named Jiang Cheng to possess!

-I think MS gets to date WZL firstly on account of WZL being a total catch who respects smart women going by his ??? with YZY, secondly on account of them both getting a lot of shit from society for their work (though the one who voluntarily disables people for a living is treated more respectfully by far bc this is a horrible garbage world!), and thirdly because MS is going to have to bear witness to Xiyao and Chengqing and she deserves something for herself there.

-I mentioned "what about after the war?" in the tags of that other post, but ahhh the Optimal Outcome here fixes EVERYTHING. JGS offers to legitimize MY. MY kind of wants to tell him to fuck himself, but realizes that his and MS are in a highly unstable position and he needs to go all-out on convincing people He Was A Good Guy All Along. (WQ and WN don't have that luxury with their Wen surname.) He accepts on the condition that prisoners are treated with mercy and MS is also granted security. JGS provides exactly neither of these things, as MS is either shunted off to a prison camp with the Wen remnants or she's isolated within Jinlintai as a means to keep MY compliant. How do we solve this? Unclear! Maybe XY finds out JGS is being a dick to Meng Shi, A Person He Likes, and he impales him about it. Regardless, we have MY and the Jiang sibs (plus Jiang-in-law Zixuan) all conspiring together, and in an ideal scenario, I believe in them.

-There are also a lot of sad messed-up ways this could go, but. I do not want it to this time. At least not for my two faves and MS. Everyone else........ debatable.

Again, I cannot stress enough that this is not ever going to be an actual longfic. I have written one (1) longfic ever and it was three years ago and not even that long. But it has POTENTIAL.

[dynared]

“Characters in search of a plot” is a pretty good way of putting it. And you aren’t wrong about really weak villains. I think a lot of bigotry allegories tend to fall apart if you scratch them a bit but this one is particularly bad. Mostly I think I just don’t like how the war machines get treated with more leniency by the writing than any human it seems.

I’m pretty new to the franchise and was initially really interested in the IDW comics but the more I’ve heard about them the less enthused I am. I mostly gather wonky characterizations, a weirdly BNF-y trend to the fandom and poorly written space politics.

I also… may have spent a decent amount of time in a fandom with a weird amount of imperialism apologia because “well things had to change!” so I get really antsy if I feel any rumblings in that direction. Pity because I love Space Operas, I’m interested in Cybertronian worldbuilding and I’d like less focus on the humans but little of it sounds done well. I may try them at some point to at least form proper opinions but they sound like an incohesive mess, and not in the fun way.

I do hope that the people who enjoy them are having fun though. And despite my reservations and some issues I am quite enjoying the Skybound comics for the most part! Though time will tell if it stays that way.

There's a decent amount here, so let's go through it one step at a time since I don't want to come off as ignoring things:

One could argue that "characters in search of a plot" is probably a better conundrum than a plot where you just don't like the characters. I fully believe some of the Terrans might get another shot at being featured in something, even if it is with modified backstories not connected to the Maltos. Twitch is probably the most likely to get another crack at a big role, although I could see her being portrayed as just a regular Autobot in a subsequent production. Hashtag, despite a name that might make some cringe, actually seems to be the closest the brand has come to a proper Blaster replacement, and Jawbreaker as the Dinobots kid sibling would make a lot of sense and serve to humanize them in a future work. Unfortunately Thrash, who doesn't have much of a personality, and Nightshade, who has become a lightning rod of controversy, I'm less sure about.

That said, bigotry allegories are tough in the best of times. Even in good cases, they're often subject to bad faith readings, and in bad cases, like here? Forget it. It's an awkward, clunky mess that heavily contradicts the rest of the franchise, in particular the comic they're releasing right now where the Cons could not give a damn about anything other than themselves, and whose Starscream is a sadistic bully. But the writers here are clearly fans of the fanfic Cons, so in trying to make them as sympathetic as possible, their cruelty and issues are swept under the rug. It was worse in IDW admittedly since the Autobots were oftentimes just terrible people, so you were often let with no one to root for. For all its problems, the Autobots in Earthspark are more often than not ineffectual, not evil, which is probably because Hasbro pumped the brakes on having cash cows like Optimus Prime be shown as evil without say, brainwashing.

I would not recommend the IDW comics to anyone. The few gems of characterization and concepts cannot make up for the mountains of coal that was most of their run, and IDW2, the prequel that tries to establish a framework for the Great War? The damned thing was so slow and boring that no one mourned IDW losing the license. Not to mention if you're not REALLY familiar with these characters and why you should care about the variances in how they're portrayed, I find most people would just be completely lost, and if you don't like how the portrayals are altered, frustrated. It's simply put, not a fun comic unless you are in the market for a very specific portrayal.

The main issue with the humans (something the very first Transformers comic writer, Bob Budinansky noted was important) was that without that connection, the Transformers could be anything else. They could be humans with power armor, weird bug aliens, or freakish mutants. But it's that relationship and contrast with the humans that makes them special. That's not to say that there are versions of the story that significantly overdo the human element, because there assuredly are, but to have it be completely absent is to cut off part of why we invest in these characters.

Finally, while the Skybound Energon Universe is a little less than a year old, and there are definitely some concerns as well as plot holes that hopefully the narrative will fill in later, I argue that those comics have bought something that seemed to be missing from so much Transformers media as of late, a sense of actual fun. The writers get mecha and what makes them cool. They get the core of why these characters work. I can only hope that the quality stays high, especially with Daniel Warren Johnson, part of why I think the comics have been so good (no one in IDW would dare think of references pro wrestling or the 08th MS Team) phasing out of the book.

[little-alien-duck]

the worlds most nichest post: my thoughts about what different doctor who characters rock climbing styles would be 

okay the point of this is to discuss dr who characters climbing vibes. Climbing is a sport with an INSANE amount of jargon so i’m gonna try to define all of it/explain my thought process but we’ll see how that goes. Also this is written in the order of vibes which is to say that there is no order at all. Also this is not exhaustive as there are characters i don’t have any specific climbing thoughts about (yet)

first category: characters who would primarily be top-ropers

top-roping is what people often think of when they think of climbing. you’re wearing a harness which is attached to the top of the wall via long rope. there is another person on the other end of the rope belaying you (catching you if you fall). this kind of climbing is more technical and endurance based.

-liz shaw would be an EXCELLENT top-roper. super analytical and extremely determined. she would absolutely CRUSH long, technical problems. Specifically i think she’d be really good at problems with crimps (little tiny holds where you’re only using your fingertips, you have to have really good technique for these holds) and slab problems (where the top of the wall is titled back from the bottom, really balanced based and again, super technique driven)

-ian and barbara would top rope together i think. They work together on the problems and it’s very cute. They’re both SO proud when susan sends something

-tbh i think five would really enjoy belaying people. You have to be mentally engaged bc you’re watching the person you’re belaying but it’s also an easy repetitive motion which can be kinda soothing? It’s also just the ultimate Parent activity. He would be so proud of his kids (though tegan would definitely prefer bouldering over top roping. Nyssa would be really into top roping i think. Adric would focus way too much on the grade (how difficult the climb is rated) and would get really frustrated if he could do one 5.10 but then fell on a 5.9 and for this reason would have a lot of trouble actually finishing anything. He knows all the terminology and is extremely pretentious about it but spends all his time commenting on other people’s attempts instead of doing any himself)

-jo: she’s also just like a great climbing buddy. super positive and cares more about having fun than sending anything (more ppl in the gym should have this attitude)  

category two: boulderers

Bouldering (my fav type in full transparency but i’ll try not to be TOO biased) is climbing on lower walls without a harness. The max wall height is generally about 15ft and if you fall, you land on a mat. If you do this outside you bring multiple (!!!) crash pads which are a little smaller than a mattress each and position them under you so if you fall that’s where you land. Outside you ALWAYS have a spotter but inside you rarely do if ever. In bouldering the individual moves are generally harder than in top-roping in that they require more power and are riskier but they’re generally less techy and far less endurance based  

-charley “i’m a champion faller” pollard. self-explanatory.

-ace mcshane bc the lesbian vibes here are off the charts. seven would absolutely try to coach her on like proper technique which she completely ignores. She has the worst footwork in the world which has torn holes in the toes of her shoes bc she’s brute forcing her way through every move. LOVES dynos (short for “dynamic move” essentially it’s just a jump. in a true dyno there is a moment where no part of your body is touching the wall) and is incapable of static climbing (the opposite of dynamic climbing, slow/deliberate movements)

-bill: she isn’t actually bouldering really, she is mostly hanging out in the bouldering area bc there are cute girls here (bouldering is the favorite climbing style of douchey gym bros and women who want to show them up. There are girls doing pull-up competitions here)

-twelve was there at the beginning of bouldering in hueco tanks texas he told me himself :) this was the prime era of climbing being hippie shit so obvs he was there smoking pot with them

-eight: likes the physicality of bouldering. Also he would be doing show-offy moves like campusing (climbing without using your feet so essentially doing pull-ups through the whole climb) and knee-bars (literally jamming your knees into a good hold and using the tension between you knees and feet to keep yourself at rest, in a good knee-bar you can fully let go with your hands and just hang there). would also be really into buddy climbs (boulder problems done by two people working together. you literally have to step on/hang off of your partner and vice versa. They’re risky for obvious reasons and you only ever do them with someone you really trust. eight would love them)  

Category three: lead climbing

Lead climbing is like top-roping in that you have a harness and someone belaying you except that instead of the rope being attached to the top of the wall, there are clips attached to the wall at intervals throughout the climb. As you ascend, you clip yourself in. that means that if you fall while 3ft above your last clip you fall six feet (length of rope above the clip doubled bc you are now dangling below it). Your belayer has to be paying more attention than in top-roping and it is possible to “deck” (hit the ground) if you fall from low enough

-nine and rose would be an ICONIC lead duo (she has to have an anchor when belaying him so she doesn’t go flying if he falls but still can you imagine)

-martha jones would CRUSH lead problems like they’re NOTHING. Super techy problem with little pinches and edges and insane footwork? She eats that for BREAKFAST. Essentially my reasoning here is the same reasoning i gave for liz with top-roping but martha is more of an adrenaline junkie than liz so lead over top-roping

-sarah jane would also be super into lead but would hate climbing with harry bc he’s way over protective (he’s a terrible belayer bc in an effort to make sure he is on top of the job he takes in way too much slack on the rope, accidentally making it harder for sarah to clip in)

-three and delgado!master make a really good lead duo which comes in handy during some contrived circumstance after one of the master’s plans goes awry and they’ve gotta lead climb to save the earth or whatever

cat five: free soloing  

This is like bouldering only stupider (i’m biased). Free soloing is the kind of climbing that other rock climbers refer to as reckless. essentially it’s bouldering except that you climb way higher than that 15 foot ceiling i mentioned earlier. You climb like things that really should be top-rope or lead routes without a harness or any other kind of equipment (sidenote: soloing refers to a lack of safety equipment not whether or not you’re climbing with other people)

-tbh like academy era one would be into this shit. It’s risky as hell and you can be extremely pretentious about it, perfect combo for him

-jack bc he literally can’t die so might as well am i right

Deep water free soloing

This is free soloing but slightly less dangerous bc if you fall, you land in water (any kind of soloing can only be done outside for obvious reasons)

-clara: it’s all of the risk and thrills of free soloing but sexier. self-explanatory.

Speed climbing:

Literally exactly what it sounds like. This kind of climbing only exists for competition and its objective is speed and speed only. It is the only type of climbing where speed is an objective at all and if you saw climbing in the olympics, it was probably this

-ten: noodle man. look at him. he’s perfect for this. long limbs, no body weight, and the hyperactivity of a child with a caffeine addiction.

Other misc. Thoughts:

-Leela would obviously be good at climbing as an activity though i’m not sure about climbing as a sport. She would rainbow (use any holds instead of the ones for the route she was specifically climbing) literally every problem bc “the holds are there, why should I not use them?” just generally would have a difficult time with the rules of climbing as a sport not bc she doesn’t understand them, she just thinks they’re stupid

-missy would never climb as this is obviously beneath her BUT she gives really good climbing advice. She will insult you while doing it tho

-mel rotates between bouldering and top-roping to be more well-rounded (and therefore healthier) and would use the hangboard a lot (like a pull-up bar but designed to mimic small edges on climbing holds)  

[destinygoldenstar]

Little Preview Of A ‘Kai Deserved Better’ Essay

I have a very interesting history with this character in particular. I watched Ninjago all the time as a kid, I jumped on the train about when Rebooted was premiering. (That's CRAZY to think about, that kids who grew up with the show are now in their high school and college years, me and my sister being examples.) (It's even crazier that now of all times is when Ninjago becomes trending for reaction channels on the Internet. I love it, personally.) And I distinctly remember my opinion on Kai back then.

I hated him. I did not like this guy. I thought he was very egotistical and uncaring and unwilling to see the others perspectives and was a detriment to the team. He was one of my least favorite characters in the show as a kid as a result. 

But my classmates in school (who were boys that I didn't approach or let anyone know I was into this show, because 'this show is for babies' and 'you're a girl why are you watching a boys show') had a debate that I didn't participate in about the show and who their favorite ninja was. They all said Kai. (Except for one guy who was a Zane stan, like me. Maybe I'll do a Zane post too.) I did not understand the Kai appeal at all. Like, what was there to enjoy about a character with very blatant flaws and shortcomings and wasn't a neurodivergent cinnamon roll?

And then I fell out of the show because of the Rebooted finale, and then came back two years later where Tournament of Elements and Possession were already out, and I watched them, and I loved them. And what those seasons did with Kai, where he actually got character development, became less of a jerk to the others, and became oh so relatable all of a sudden to me... I understood the appeal. It REALLY won me over on him.

Looking back at it NOW, I seriously question why I even hated him in the first place, because now everything I hated about him is everything I love about him. 

Iconic 🔥 Fire 👑 King

So you can imagine my stance with his character and what he has become now that the show is over. (The main show, I mean) I still love him. But I do think there's a lot of missed potential with what he could've been. And I know I'm not the only one.

Starting in the Pilots of the show, as a newbie to the realm of Elementals and ninja, Kai was an audience surrogate. We are welcomed into this world of Ninjago along with him, watching as he trained in the monastery to harness his fire, befriending his teammates, and routing for him in his journey to save his sister and later become a hero. Kai was the surrogate character that you would experience the journey of throughout the show, see him grow and change, face hardships and victories, become more competent and capable as the story went on, and embrace the destiny casted upon him as the next Master of Fire.

Except you don’t. 

Turns out the Pilots focus character, the session that started it all, and the ninja that's figure is plastered on so much merch, almost as much as Lloyd, was the one that arguably got the least amount of care and huzzah in the show.

Outside of the Pilots, he’s the only ninja to never be the center character of a season. ALL of his supposed focus seasons are more team season related or tied to someone else. While the other ninja grow and develop and expand their heroism and powers, Kai never grows out of his klutz status. He's the only ninja to never defeat a villain. Every villain he does get, someone else defeats them while Kai is basically useless in these fights. He's the only ninja to never get any sort of alternate form. (If you count Jay becoming a snake that one episode) And... the movie version of this character absolutely rubbed off on him post movie, to the point where it's kind of jarring of the difference. And then, as I said jokingly in another post, he gets sidelined in nearly everything he's ever been involved with. This character is given no moments to shine. Every moment he does get is either overshadowed by someone or something else, or his shining moment becomes useless and undone by the plot. 

I wouldn’t have a problem with this if it wasn’t ONLY Kai getting this treatment. 

But then this post wouldn’t be titled what it is. 

And that's a shame. It's also why many fans of the show, and especially Kai stans, want to see Kai take the spotlight (just like the other ninja did). Because whenever the story IS focused on Kai, he becomes the most interesting and compelling character in the room!

And in case you're wondering, NO, I DON'T blame Lloyd for this. Kai was never supposed to be the long term protagonist, and I think Lloyd getting that role instead was a lot better for the show's story in the long run. Kai does not need to be the protagonist of the show to be an awesome character. But if the other ninja can get their focus seasons that are solely about them, and get W's throughout the show, so can Kai. 

He is not a dumb jock who is a klutz with everything he touches. He is a hardworking loving older brother that you do not want to tick off.

That's the Kai in old fans' hearts, anyway. That's OUR Kai. 

So I wanted to take a deep dive into Kai's character, what made him so compelling in the first place, and how I think the later seasons could've done him justice they did not deliver. 

Cause we got 210 episodes of ranting to utilize. 

(Why I Love Kai)

(Arsenal Klutz Status)

(The Lack Of Backstory)

(That One Soot Filled Twist)

(The Fire Chapter (And Ice to a degree))

(Motivation Out The Window)

(What Now?)

So I said I’d write this, and I will deliver. You guys wanted this from a poll I did. I can revive my character analysis posts! (I did one for Petra MCSM) I call myself AnalyzGolden online because I never shut up. So I can’t promise when the full thing is out, cause I have a LOT I want to say, but other POVs definitely help. The GF who has now finished the show mostly agrees with me.

[charlieconwayy]

why jay/leia is the intended endgame: an unnecessarily long post

the very obvious answer to this is the whole legacy argument. who didn't know when the character descriptions dropped that those two would be a couple just for the whole "haha the kelsos are still driving the forman women crazy" joke? (which they haven't even made yet, which also makes me think we have in no way seen the last of them. we are DEFINITELY getting an eric freakout) kelso was a joke character nearly his entire stint on t70s. they never portrayed him as a good bf or caring ab . . . well anything other than sex, and then eventually betsy (trans!jay kelso theory?). jay, however, they make a big point of showing/saying that he is not like his dad. there is an entire episode dedicated to red realizing that jay is a good boy and that is not kelso just bc he is a kelso.

this is the jay defining moment for me. i think if they had cast a lesser actor than mace this could've come off as 'haha jay trying to get into leia's pants' but mace delivered it so genuinely and sincerely that it is very clear to me that leia is not going to be someone that jay gets over easily. he's this "reformed playboy," yet we never see him be anything less than a gentleman to leia. i am pointing out this line in particular bc of it's OBVIOUS parallel to eric saying that he needed to go to africa so that he can deserve donna.

i have trauma from the gmw fandom debating to death who the corpanga was supposed to be (as if that was a good thing lmfao) but there is literally no debate that jay/leia is the new donna/eric. jay is the cool hot love interest who centers the neurotic dorky protagonist. plus, i mean, the car scene within the first three episodes? be so serious here.

the show spent sooooo much time on jay and it would be so weird to me if they suddenly were just like "actually nate is the male lead now!" i think he probably got the least amount of screentime of any of the kids.

i know the showrunner came out and said leia needed to find a ~deep connection not built on lust~ and that's where nate came in. i do agree with that to an extent, but nate/leia is clearly just to throw off the viewers. also, nate is the kelso archetype more than jay is, lbr. (i could do an entirely separate blog post on that). yes, nate and leia connected. they were able to confide in each other about their relationship issues. does that mean there's romantic chemistry there? no. it just means that they were there for each other in an important moment.

is a big proponent of leia/jay's relationship built on lust? i would argue moreso on leia's side than jay's, but also, leia didn't like jay bc of his looks. she liked him because he made her feel special and treated her with respect. she liked the kind, sensitive part of him. it was only once they had that moment where she began to ~lust after him. and for anyone to argue that jay's feelings for leia are lust related is fucking stupid because

like jay could get any girl he wants canonically. he likes leia for leia. he likes her for all of her little quirks and flaws. plus there is ANOTHER episode dedicated to her feeling she needs to put out and him saying he only wants what she is comfortable with. c'mon man.

this is not some lust related fling that was built on nothing but mutual attraction. i'm not gonna act like their convos ever get super deep or anything (mainly because we only got ten episodes in season one), but nate/leia rly didn't either. like. they were both just upset about jay and nikki. and then they almost kissed.

are nate and leia probably going to be a focus in season two? oh, for sure. but the obvious endgame is jay and leia.

like be so for real.

i could also talk about the difference in her expressions here for hours but i'll just leave all of this here.

[cangrellesteponme]

I've thought about it so much I came to the conclusion BOTH Sebastian and Claude are two different types of autistic demons, and maybe it's rare in demons so BOTH these guys are weirdos among their own kind. IT ALL MAKES SENSE.

my autistic ass agrees. so I must elaborate.

(for the sake of this, we're putting aside the fact that this hc is completely incompatible with any and all things canon.)

first, reasons they're autistic:

they're very bad at pretending to be human. you'd think millennia spent observing humans would help them suck a little bit less, but they really don't understand human behaviour at all. (just like me fr)

weird humans special interest.

repeating the same phrases a lot. this one gets two autism points because it's both scripting and a vocal stim. like, I know damn well these hoes just love saying their "yes my lord" "yes your highness" bs and their butler mottos.

butler cosplay.

low empathy. (I know that's a controversial one because it's not as common as allistics think it is, but I'm not about to go on a tangent about undesirable autistic traits and ableism) this one is not enough on its own because... why would a demon feel empathy for a human when that's a whole different species, but some people feel bad for bugs so I'm taking this as these demon butlers presenting yet another autistic trait!

picky eaters. like... seb would rather starve than eat bad food. that is autistic behaviour.

being very specific about phrasing. people never focus on what is said, but rather on what it means... unless they're autistic. (we see hannah be normal about words all the time so we can assume it's really just claude and sebastian who love being way too precise.) also seb did pretend to misinterpret o!ciel's words during the contract negotiation just to force the kid to always be direct and literal with his orders - that is peak autistic behaviour. as for claude... there are so many different instances of this in kuro 2, but him not having a clear contract with alois is another example of "you better be precise or shit will happen to you".

weirdos. pathetic loners. probably got bullied by other demons smh.

I can only think of claude examples for this one but I'm sure there are a few for seb: unmasking and being really fucking weird. think of the knitting, the disney princess shit, the tap dancing, being a weird ass spider, licking blood...

both preferring a much smaller amount of servants than what is socially acceptable.

being naturally fucking terrifying. they are autism creatures in the most horrific sense. we have the spider guy with the long tongue and the dude who's mostly black goop with teeth.

there are plenty of other reasons, but these are the most obvious ones they have in common.

them being autistic in two different ways:

flat affect vs way too dramatic. claude won't be caught dead emoting like a normal person, sebastian constantly looks deeply offended or amused by everything he sees... two very different behaviours. both autistics.

attachment to objects and animals. so, about the empathy thing, plenty of autistic people who would be categorised as low-empathy are the type to love animals and apologise to furniture - that's seb. the rest don't give a single fuck about anyone or anything - that's claude.

visual stimulation is superior vs no thoughts only tactile stim. this is me projecting and saying every autistic bitch with glasses likes wearing them a little too much but I'd say claude clearly cares a lot about colours (constantly changing everything at the trancy manor... I see how it is) while we have sebastian who likes petting cats, cares about the fine fabric of his coat enough to talk about it in the middle of a fight, is horrified when tea is poured on his hands... very stimmy demons.

ANYWAY

they're autistic, your honour.

[stainedglasstruth]

Left And Leaving || Xóchitl & Arden

TIMING: June LOCATION: The Wormhole PARTIES: Xóchitl (@vanishingreyes) & Arden (@stainedglasstruth) SUMMARY: Childhood friends meet at the bar. There's a bit of catching up, and a bit more as well. CONTENT WARNINGS: Alcoholism & child death tw

She’d never been inside a bar in town before she’d returned back “home” – if calling it home made sense. Xóchitl knew that by all technical accounts, it did. After all, she’d been born in Wicked’s Rest, and if not for certain exceedingly unfortunate events, she would have still lived there, all throughout her childhood and beyond. There were very clear reasons why that hadn’t happened, but still. Sometimes she didn’t even like calling the town home, no matter how true it might’ve been.

Still, she’d never been in a bar as a kid, and had somehow avoided it until now (drinking at home was preferable in some ways), but tonight Xóchitl had very explicitly decided to go out, to dress hot or whatever that was, and just not think about anything else, because being at home allowed her to get too much into her head in a way that she certainly didn’t like. It made her feel itchy, like when Mama had gotten her to wear a wool sweater one winter and she’d spent the whole night at the Nutcracker itching at her arms.

She was only half a drink in when she heard someone near her, and she turned to face them - their face familiar, though it was taking Xóchitl slightly longer than she would’ve liked to remember - except then she did and – “Arden!” She grinned. “Guess we’re both old enough to drink now, huh? You look great.”

Arden had a bit of a love/hate relationship with bars. In Boston, she had hit up the bars regularly, looking for drinks or a hookup. The drinks helped her loosen up and get out of her head for a while, and the hookups were a whole other kind of distraction from the mess in her head. She would flirt and mingle, sometimes even get a juicy little bit of information when she hadn’t been looking for any. However, she wasn’t the biggest fan of being surrounded by a lot of people, even less so when they were loud and drunk. But the past several weeks had been a little chaotic for the woman, and she could stand to blow off some steam. 

She was sitting at the bar, and was just about to order a second drink, when she heard her name. Turning her attention to the nearby– beautiful– woman, she did look somewhat familiar. “Hey,” she said cautiously, trying to rack her brain as to where she knew this person from. It took her a little too long to place her, and the ‘I’m sorry, but do I know you’ was halfway out of her mouth when something clicked and Arden’s brows jumped up. “Holy shit, Xóchitl?” A smile was spreading across her face as years old memories flitted past her mind’s eye. “I didn’t know you were back in town. How are you? How have you been? 

“Ha, thank you. You look– I mean, damn.” She laughed it off, not wanting to make the other uncomfortable or anything. But, like, damn, though. Wicked’s Rest was truly going to kill her, if not from the magic and monsters, then from the sheer amount of ridiculously hot people living there. 

“Just since March. I’m well, been well, I’ve got a PhD now, which isn’t too shabby, I don’t think.” Screw it, she was allowed to brag and be proud of herself, wasn’t she? Xóchitl hadn’t seen Arden since she’d left Wicked’s Rest years ago, and though they’d never been as close as she’d been with Mackenzie, they had known each other and had been friends at least to some degree, hadn’t they? So it was simultaneously comforting and alarming to see someone who’d known her when she still wore multi-colored uncoordinated outfits and wasn’t set into a state of panic by playgrounds.

But right now, Arden was complimenting her looks and so she could relish in that, focus on that, all instead of focusing on her past. “I’ll take your damn and turn it right back to you.” Xóchitl smirked. “But thank you very much, I’m glad this outfit highlights my looks.” She tended to dress in a way that would be flattering to her, but her outfits for bars were far different from her outfits for daily life or work. “Can I buy you a drink?”

It was strange and a bit anxiety inducing, seeing one of the very few friends she had had as a child again. Between being more extroverted than she was now, her insatiable curiosity, and the fact that she had still been learning to read and socialize with others, Arden had been kind of annoying on top of being the bookish nerd. Turns out, that wasn’t the best combination of traits if you wanted to make friends. Xóchitl had always been kind, though. She had known they weren’t the best of friends, that title reserved for Mackenzie, whose sudden death had been difficult for her to process at such a young age, and they weren’t very close at all. It had to have been so incredibly difficult for Xó. 

Honestly, her parents’ decision to move away from this town had probably been the best call. Mackenzie had only been the first person Arden had known to be taken by Wicked’s Rest, there had been plenty of others– classmates, parents, siblings, friends, friends of friends. If you lived here long enough, you were likely only two, maybe three degrees of separation away from someone who had died. Unfortunately, it seemed she wasn’t the only one drawn back to the town. She just hoped Xóchitl wouldn’t grow to regret that decision. 

But for now they were in a bar, they were having drinks, and they were reconnecting– her bummer train of thought needed to go. She took a swig of her drink as she focused on the other’s words. “Well, welcome back,” Arden grinned. “Oh, damn, a doctorate? I even might go as far as to say that’s impressive.” The friendly smile curled up, a bit more mischievous, especially as Xó volleyed the damn right back to her. “Only if I can buy you one, as well.”

“I was never one to turn down a drink from a friend, or a pretty woman. Since you happen to be both, I’m pretty positive I’m legally not allowed to say no.” Xóchitl shrugged. “But I’m not any sort of law expert, so if you think differently, I’ll understand…” Because focusing on the fact that Arden had known her (and known her well) as a child was weird and simultaneously deeply uncomfortable and some of the most relaxed she’d felt since arriving. Comfort in uncomfortable situations. Like when she got into her mom’s car and it was so hot that she got cold.

This was kind of like that, except her legs didn’t stick to the seat and she couldn’t daydream without actually being rude.

She didn’t want to be rude to Arden, of all people. Mackenzie had been her first (and best) friend, but Arden had been around a great deal, and she’d always been kind to Xóchitl, even if Xóchitl didn’t always understand what she was talking about. “Still reading like nobody’s business?” She raised one of her eyebrows. “If you can believe it, I like reading now more than I used to.” Just not fantasy stories. That much she loathed. 

She laughed, cheeks reddening slightly at the compliment. “Well, we can’t have you getting into trouble on my account. Besides, I tend to live my life by a similar philosophy.” As some who also liked drinks and women, and flirting with women, Arden certainly wasn’t going to say no. It didn’t have to lead to anything, but, seeing as Xóchitl was back in town, it would be nice to catch up with her. 

“Yes,” she chuckled, running a hand through her hair. “More so for work than pleasure, unfortunately.” That sheepish feeling flared, thinking about how Xó had only seen her at her most uncouth. There wasn’t really anyone else she could say the same about, wasn’t really anyone else she had been close to at such a young age. It was a strange feeling– an embarrassing one, too. But it was fine, they had been kids then, it wasn’t a big deal, she tried to tell herself that. Anyway, it went down a little easier with whiskey. 

“We love to see it,” she grinned. “Have you stopped by Fully Booked in Oldtown yet?” Arden couldn’t help herself; she was proud of Leah for running her own business, and it being a bookstore– a great bookstore– made it that much better. Her friend found a way to make a living off of something she loved, and it warmed her heart to see. It was nice to hear that Xóchitl had done well for herself, as well. It all felt so… adult– in a way that still felt strange sometimes, even more so now that she was back in her hometown. 

“Exactly, can’t have me getting into legal trouble, what a shame that would be.” The grin didn’t leave her face, if anything, it only grew more prominent as they seemed to easily slide into some sort of familiar pattern despite not having seen one another in years - and Xóchitl also had, admittedly, not reached out, but then again, neither had Arden, so she wasn’t about to go throwing blame, but if that were the case, they were equally at fault, here. Except that neither of them were at fault because things changed, and that was that.

“Well, that’s a bummer, and I’m of the belief that pleasure should be chosen whenever possible.” Which, yes, perhaps held a bit more of a double meaning than she maybe had fully intended, but she didn’t really mind too much. Going with the flow seemed to be the right sort of choice for this evening. Or it would have to be, Xóchitl decided. 

“I have.” Even if she didn’t have a lot of free time (though that was more by her own choice than her actual obligations), bookstores were good sorts of places to go. “It’s a wonderful store.” It was, and the woman who ran it looked somewhat familiar though Xóchitl couldn’t quite place her. “What drink do you want?”

”A terrible shame,“ she nodded, breathing out a laugh. ”If worse came to worse, though, you'd have a killer mugshot.“

“Is that so?” Arden asked, cocking an eyebrow. Xóchitl was quite a flirt, and regardless of where the night would take them, they had an easy banter going that she was really enjoying. “Sounds like a good way to live life.” After downing what was left of her whiskey, she turned down the flirty energy a little as she offered up some actual information about herself. “I do love my job, though …you know, generally speaking.“ She decided to only give Xó the highlights for now. There was no need to kill the mood with all of the bummer details. “I got my Masters in journalism here, left town for a few years, and now I'm back and working at the paper– Something Wicked.”

”Isn't it?” Her smile shifted into something slightly more soft as she thought of Leah and the store. “I am definitely biased, being best friends with the owner, but it really is a great little bookshop. Anyway, that's enough of the unintentional plugs,“ she grinned, poking fun at herself. ”I'll take a whiskey on the rocks. What can I get you?“

“Well, at least that’s something.” Xóchitl offered a rue smile. “Though I suppose I’d prefer to be photographed in better lighting than a jail.” The words felt fumbled, to a degree. More awkward than they should have been, when speaking to a friend. Though, she supposed, she couldn’t be faulted given that they hadn’t been in contact in two decades, and Xóchitl was, probably, best known for being Mackenzie’s friend, back then.

“It is so.” This was easier territory, one where she could flirt with abandon, without having to care too much at all. “It does make a nice way to live life, and I suppose it keeps me from ever being bored.” It also just plain kept her distracted, but that was a less fun way of putting things. Xóchitl nodded, “that’s good. It’s good to enjoy your job, and I hope you enjoy your work at the paper. Can’t say I can complain too much about my job.”

Another nod. “I don’t mind you being prideful in things like this, and it’s nice to know about new things in this town.” Xóchitl thought a moment, “tequila on the rocks for me, please. I just like how it goes down.”

“Yeah, I don’t think they’re using any ring lights for those mugshots.” What the fuck was she even saying? That second round couldn’t come soon enough. 

It made her grin, but she did have to wonder if it was purely innuendo or not. In the past few years, she had had her fair share of flings, but Arden couldn’t really say that she had made choices that ultimately lead to a pleasureful life. She had chosen short-term pleasure, sure, but, well, that exactly didn’t last, did it? She certainly hadn’t been bored, but then again, she wasn’t the kind of person who did well with sitting still. Be it work or sex or research, she always felt as if she needed to be doing something, had to keep running. It had just left her lonely and miserable, though. However, Xóchitl wasn’t her and projecting that onto her would be a mistake. 

“I do,” she nodded. Mostly. She didn’t exactly love having to twist the truth in her reporting, but as a Scribe she was in the unique position of having enough knowledge to do it well, being aware of many of the various threats in the town, how dangerous they were, how to hopefully keep people safe, to keep history from repeating itself. And there were a lot of things for her to investigate in Wicked’s Rest. “Even with all the tight deadlines,” she joked, pursing her lips. “What exactly are you doing with that impressive PhD of yours?”

Arden flashed her a slightly sheepish smile. “Noted.” As Xó shared her drink of choice she nodded, motioning to the bartender to add it to her tab. She bit back her smirk, wondering if that was another innuendo or her mind was just in the gutter. “I can definitely appreciate a good tequila myself.”

“Maybe in like, Los Angeles or something, but sure as shit not here.” It didn’t make sense, and Xóchitl knew that, but apparently talking nonsense was her theme of the evening. Which certainly was an interesting first impression on someone she hadn’t seen since they were literal children.

She hadn’t exactly sought real connection with most anyone, recently. In fact, Xóchitl did make almost a concerted sort of effort to not connect, which made flings easier, when things didn’t matter. Not that whomever she slept with didn’t matter, but by having them not become someone close to her, she negated the possibility of losing somebody important. To her, that was. Everyone was important to somebody but the selfish part of her said that maybe, just possibly, things didn’t matter as much if she didn’t feel a personal loss.

Which might have made her a bad person.

“I’m a clinical psychologist, and thank you very much for calling it impressive.” Xóchitl threw Arden another wink. “Though I’d venture to say that being a journalist is perhaps even more impressive. I do suppose that we each work to understand the world around us in our own sort of way, don’t we?”

“You should get one, then.” Xóchitl was flirting, but she wasn’t going to push anything, not if Arden didn’t want – the other woman could take the lead all she wanted, if she wanted. If not, just catching up itself was perfectly ideal.

It was a ridiculous response to her ridiculous statement and it made Arden laugh. She was grateful that Xó could ‘yes and’ her nonsense. It made sense in light of learning she was a psychologist– her old friend was charming, easy to talk to. They were settling into a fun, comfortable sort of banter, and she could imagine how her calm, confident demeanor would translate well into a more professional setting like that. 

She smiled at the attempt to turn the tables on her. “I don’t know, a psychologist, that’s very impressive,” she smirked, quirking an eyebrow at the other. Though her smile melted into something more genuine as she continued, “It’s admirable, helping people like that.” Certainly more admirable than her job felt these days, even if she knew she was doing the right thing. Either way, the doctor’s observation was rather astute. 

“That’s a good way to look at it, yeah.” She often found her writing process was like solving a puzzle. First she gathered all the pieces, and then she arranged them into a coherent narrative. In that way, she supposed it was like trying to understand the news, the world, even, as if it were a book she was trying to analyze. Because it always came back to books for her, didn’t it?

With Xóchitl, though, she supposed the other woman found more sense in trying to understand how the mind worked, or even how other people saw the world. Which definitely sounded like a better, more logical way to go about things. It was certainly more realistic and involved than feeling like an outside observer trying to make sense of things like she was back in one of her old college lit classes. She couldn’t help but think that Xóchitl was the kind of woman Arden’s mother had always wanted her to be. 

And with that thought, some tequila did sound like a great idea, honestly. 

She smiled gratefully at the bartender for their amazing timing, taking a good sip of her whiskey as she shoved any and all thoughts of her mother as far away as humanly possible. Instead, she focused on the gorgeous woman beside her and that mischievous, flirty glint in her eyes. “You know, I think I will.” 

She wasn’t just talking about tequila. 

Arden’s laugh was nice. More than just nice, even, there was something of a relief in it – relief that she didn’t think Xóchitl was too much now, relief that they could still joke even though they’d been children the last time they saw each other, relief that she could still work things the way she wanted. Not that she’d been especially doubtful about the last of those things, she had always had at least something of an easy time working whatever room she found herself thrown into.

“I do what I can.” Xóchitl didn’t especially find herself keen to go into more of the depths behind why she’d ended up doing what she did. Even with Arden, who’d at least casually known Mackenzie, talking about her dead best friend was still a surefire way to kill any mood that might be developing. But she had to admit that being praised certainly wasn’t anything she intended to turn down anytime soon. It did still make her feel very (very) good.

She’d just wanted to know how people worked, to be able to understand the why behind so many things, in a desperate sort of way to at least attempt to solve problems. Namely, her own, and to figure out what had happened to Mackenzie, but figuring out things for other people wasn’t so bad at all. Xóchitl liked when she was able to bring relief to people, to help them. 

For all that she claimed not to care, she knew that she did, in fact, care. Arden did too, that much was clear, even if the other woman wasn’t being so very forthcoming about any of it.

The glint in the other woman’s eyes did feel nice. “I mean, you can also try mine, first, but I do deeply recommend it.” Xóchitl reached and brushed a tiny, hardly noticeable strand of hair away from Arden’s face. “Didn’t want anything to block your view – or my view of you.”

“Hey, that’s all anyone can ask for,” she shot back with an easy smile and a shrug of her shoulders. Though if Xóchitl was going to be practicing in Wicked’s Rest she would probably be facing a lot of weird shit, and quite a lot of heaviness, too. Arden hoped she would be able to handle it. There were certainly a lot of people in town who could use the help of a professional after things they’d witnessed or endured here. She had the potential to do a lot of good here– if the town didn’t scare her off. 

But she also had to wonder how much, if anything, Xó knew about the supernatural. Had she learned anything before they had left? Or had she learned anything after leaving wherever it had been that she had ended up? She was curious to know more about her, about why she had decided to come back after all these years the same way Arden herself had. However, those weren’t the kind of questions you could just spring on someone you hadn’t spoken to in decades. 

Besides, they were definitely flirting and having a nice time, she didn’t want to ruin that.

“In that case, you’re more than welcome to try mine, as well,” she offered. 

They had gradually been shifting closer to one another as their chat progressed, but Arden hadn’t been entirely conscious of how close they were until Xóchitl reached over to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. The move was maybe slightly cliché, but it was one that worked– she knew that from experience. And it was working on her, too, her cheeks warming despite herself. It helped that the view was rather alluring. “How very considerate of you. It is a gorgeous view, I must say. But, not just views, of course, doctor,” she added playfully.

“You make a very good point,” she replied, in turn. She’d never intended to return to town, not specifically at least. Though, Xóchitl supposed, the thought of it all had always rested somewhere in the back of her mind, ever since she’d left. Ever since her moms had packed up their house, a part of her knew she’d have to come back, because Mackenzie deserved that. Heck, she deserved that, to put an end to all the confusion she constantly felt. Not that her confusion had come to much of any sort of an end since she’d returned – if anything, being back around this town had only heightened her confusion. Her feelings of hollowness and loss – 

– which, she supposed, was part of why she found herself at bars more than she’d been in a number of years. Doing something to fill the confusing hollowness that sometimes seemed to be never ending. So flirting and drinking was good and let her take her mind off things, and, not that she felt like she needed it, but the boost of confidence that she got certainly didn’t help. 

Flirting with a former friend was maybe weird, but at the same time, Xóchitl had flirted with current friends before, and she hadn’t seen Arden in decades, either, and since they hadn’t exactly kept in touch, she figured that this was more akin to running into a vaguely familiar stranger. Not in any sort of bad way – if anything, it made everything about Arden just that much more alluring.

“Then I think I might.” She took Arden’s drink from her hand and took a small sip. “Not bad, you’ve got good taste.” Faint remnants of lipstick were on the rim of the glass, and Xóchitl knew how terribly clichéd all of this was, but there was another part of her that relished in the clichés.

“I do believe in getting to know things more intimately. Views rarely do justice to the actual thing.” Xóchitl winked. “And yes, you are quite a gorgeous view, in my highly trained opinion.”

She so did love to hear that. Call her conceited, but Arden loved being right, and hearing others admit to it, to tell her that, it was always a shot of dopamine straight to the brain. She really had thrived in a school environment. 

“I do try,” she grinned. But it was true. Xóchitl could downplay it all she wanted, but working as a psychologist, it was objectively admirable work. She wouldn’t make it weird and make a whole thing about it, but it was… nice knowing that the little girl she’d known had gone on to make this impressive life for herself, that she had, undoubtedly, worked her ass off to dedicate her life to helping others. 

…it also felt a little insane that someone her age was a doctor, that she had such an important, adult job, but that was neither here nor there.

They traded drinks, and Arden tried to be mindful of the fact that she was wearing lipstick as she took a sip from the other’s glass. Still, there were traces of maroon marks left as she handed it back over, the tequila going down rather smoothly. It was good, sweet and somewhat floral. “Mm,” she hummed, “likewise. Tequila’s not my go-to, but maybe I need to start switching it up a bit more.”

She was starting to feel the drinks a little now, a warmth settling in her stomach and spreading through her veins. Though, it wasn’t just the drinks, of course. 

“I couldn’t agree more,” she smirked. And the compliment only served to pull a chuckle out of her. “Oh, I don’t know, doc.” Her eyes flicked over Xóchitl’s form momentarily. “You might want to do a more thorough examination before you jump to any conclusions.” 

“Well, in my obviously unbiased opinion, I think you succeed quite well.” So maybe she liked complimenting people who so clearly enjoyed it. Especially because far too often she came across people who seemed to either not want the compliments, or give off a sense of false modesty around them. Xóchitl found herself far more confused by people not wanting the compliments, but she’d elected to not focus on that too much.

Or, at least, to try to not focus on that too much. Her successes varied based on the day – hell, even based on the hour.

But Arden was taking her compliments and rolling with them and that made the other woman all the more beautiful to Xóchitl. “I think you should try it more. I’d be happy to give you any amount of recommendations that you might want or need…” her voice trailed off as she took another sip of her drink, the way it made her mind feel halfway wavy and made her relax more than welcome.

Not to say that she wasn’t relaxed because of her drinking partner, but more because of… just about everything else in her life. Which was an exceedingly dramatic way to think about it, but screw that thought process, because Xóchitl knew she was allowed to feel whatever sort of way that she wanted to deal.

Arden’s eyes made their way over her body, and Xóchitl’s lips turned up into a properly mischievous grin that time. “I might not be that exact type of doctor, but I’d also be probably, like, totally inattentive if I didn’t. I will say, I’d much prefer to do the examination in private. Specifically my place. I do have more tequila there, too, you know, for extrinsic motivating factors.” Before she could think twice, she’d pressed her lips against Arden’s. “I promise to be very thorough.”

“Well, I very much appreciate it,” Arden smiled, feeling amused and maybe a little too self-satisfied. There was nothing like a compliment from a beautiful, intelligent woman to make you feel more confident in yourself. The drinks also helped, she supposed. 

“Coming from a woman with such good taste, I’ll gladly take any recommendations you might have.” …okay, that one felt like a little too much somehow. She chased the words with another sip of whiskey, and it helped them go down much more easily.  

Maybe the doctor shtick had been low-hanging fruit, but it was right there, she’d had to. “Exactly,” she grinned. She was trying to think of a witty response when Xóchitl closed the distance between them. It obviously wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still managed to catch her off guard slightly. It took her mind a second to catch up, and by then the other woman was starting to pull away. Her lips chased Xó’s, needing to properly kiss her back before they separated, Arden grinning.

“How could I possibly say no to that?”