#meta etcetera

[suzukiblu]

So like . . . if I was the sort of person to write a DC version of Lilo and Stitch . . . like just if I was . . .

Kon is, obviously, the rude and temperamental and poorly-socialized and destructive alien experiment who just crash-landed in Hawaii. Is Tim "weird little stalker child" Drake Lilo? How is that even a question, come on.

(his version of Scrump is almost definitely named either Robin or Spoiler)

Dick is Nani, Babs and Wally can fight it out for who's got fancy enough hair to be David and get swept by Kori, Grand Councilman Kal-El is very stressed about the living weapon that just escaped the Galactic Federation, and professional evil genius Lex Luthor is absolutely exasperated that he's been sicced on his own masterpiece with, of all things, a pair of children as his backup. Cassie and Bart just think he's weird and stupid but whatever, at least they're on a Federation mission, and Earth is cool and full of things!!

Bruce is Cobra Bubbles. That is all.

[solarisgod]

Y'know, if Micah's canon series ever comes to be well known, I can easily imagine that Phobos would be labelled as the " evil alter " or the alter who is " the most flawed " of the Starwake System by majority of the fandom, when, in fact, Philos and Phoebus are not that great either, but their flaws aren't just as obvious as Phobos'.

Given that Phobos is known to be a lot more rough and reactive while it tends to rely on violence than Phoebus and Philos, this fact paints Phobos as it having flaws that are " more prominent " than the two mentioned alters to an individual's eyes, though this is only due to most of its flaws being what can be perceived easier, whereas what Phoebus and Philos have are less noticeable when their flaws are generally more psyche and verbal based than physical. Phobos is an alter with traits prominently taken after various of abusers who Micah had met in their childhood when they moved between foster homes across America, as well as most memories it carry have to do with violence and experiences made by other people that could have gotten Micah harmed or rarely killed.

While DID is generally considered to be a covert condition when most alters would blend with the Host in order to not stand out and place the system in potential dangers, along with Philos in a smaller degree, Phobos is not as overt as the other alters to those outside of the system because it firmly believes that if it keeps its words and actions to itself instead of bringing them to their threats, then the system would most likely be harmed or killed, so, Phobos wants to stand out in order to make people fear it and the system. Of course, going back to what it can recall and the traits it carry from Micah's abusers, being ill-tempered and violent are what it can at least be because it doesn't really know what kindness is supposed to mean and also its belief that the world is so full of cruel people who the system can not trust. Being kind and considerate to alters and those outside the system isn't part of Phobos' responsibilities, nor is it something that it is familiar with.

When it comes to Philos, even though Philos is usually seen to be highly friendly, cheerful, and understanding; they are also extremely pretentious and manipulative while they lie a lot. It's quite difficult to be able to tell if Philos is being genuine or not when they are highly skilled at going along with the flow and coming up with ideas or evidence in sudden / unexpected cases. Created as a social alter, she has to be the one to be proficient at communication in order to get through social events and common settings that emphasize on social interactions, such as a school or a workplace, especially during a long period of time when Micah can not. With this role, she is an expert at reading people and keeping tabs of them with everything from their attributes, skills, background, so forth. She knows best with what can make her the most compatible with the individual she interacts with and how she should say and act to get by a variety of situations, including the uncomfortable and / or dangerous ones.

Though because Philos have to change himself constantly, making from biggest to smallest details, in order to fit in or help him / the system pass a particular incident, he ends up heavily relying on the acts of lying and manipulating. While Philos are RARELY like this to his system associates, doing so mainly because either he doesn't want to be in trouble with any of the alters ( especially Phoebus ) when he hates being scolded at and being (in)directly told he is at the fault, or he's doing it with a genuine intention to try protecting them, he still manipulate and lie a lot more to individuals outside of the system and it's something he will never admit unless he's forced by the other alter(s) to or he's being excessively confronted about it by the individual(s) he manipulate / lie to.

Now with Phoebus, their flaws are a bit more complicated than Philos' and Phobos'. Of course, keep in mind, what ALL of these alters have that may appear fully wrong to the eyes of an individual outside the system when in their own beliefs + mindsets and based on their own experiences + memories, they heavily rely on these unhealthy methods to guide / strengthen / protect the system; a lot of Phoebus' flaws most emphasize on the idea of helping the system. Their overly strictness and protectiveness in the system are what bring harm to not just those outside of the system, but also their system mates as well. Remember, Phoebus was the first alter to be formed a week after Micah became five years ago in order to pull Micah away from their rebellious and self-destructive attitude while helping bear most negative experiences from their abusive foster families, so, while Phoebus would learn and witness so much about the world and people in it by being constantly co-conscious with Micah, they have been with Micah in the majority of their life and they know how life itself goes, more longer and much more than the other alters.

Therefore, Phoebus believe what they do and say for Micah and their system is the most efficient, comparing with Philos' and Phobos'. A therapist would say that Phoebus being the one to front when they are least needed or Phoebus being the one to place their goals and intentions over the other alters', including Micah's, are a few ways of showing that Phoebus holds very little to no trust towards their system mates, which is damaging to the system as a whole when there is lack of trust and communication between the alters. Phoebus is more reserved than and, surprisingly, the most unpredictable comparing with Philos and Phobos. While Philos fight with words and Phobos fight with actions, Phoebus can do so with both just as efficiently, but while they seem more knowledgable and wise, they are not any more stable or " right " than the other two.

Of course, while the original canon timeline proceeds, along with Micah, all of the other system members, especially the three alters in question, will go through their character developments. They will get the professional support they all need and have to get in order to build and strengthen solid and meaningful connections between them; and they will help and love each other through healthier methods and mindsets. With Micah getting the official diagnosis and confirmation that they have DID in the beginning of the original canon, after being misdiagnosed three times and they were harshly told at the final time that DID wasn't real, they will be in denial and attempt to push the other alters away, but they will eventually come to terms with what they have and accept their system mates. This system would go through a lot of hardships from each other, but everyone in the system would make their meaningful personal growths and find better ways of living with each other through harmony in the end.

[funishment-time]

i do love when the minigames and UI get meta. i think Danganronpa excels at that (like it did in DR2 with the glitches etcetera). i will give a thumbs up to the idea that to win the final minigames you must do nothing, that was a good concept

[starmonsterrr]

[ * Ayyyy introduction post i guess??? Erm... Anyway HELLO WORLD ]

[ * With a sudden influx of people following this blog and catching me by surprise, I figured out it would be a good idea to make an intro post about myself. Fun i guess? ]

[ * Anyways, please refer to me as Io! Or Aurum. Either way works... I slightly prefer Io, though.]

[ * Identity things? I guess? ]

[ * My pronouns are it/its and I identify as enby! ]

[ * I am also non-human, though I recognize that (to my dismay) I have the body of one. ]

[ * Further elaborating, I'm otherkin (dragon), therian (silver fox), and fictionkin (well... OCkin. And it's Io! info post link here). ]

[ * (Also tiny fun fact, I do the Undertale text box thing for fun and also as a nod to my source being the UTMV. I may not always do it but oh well, there's a 50 percent chance i may forget to do it and i don't have the guts to go back to it mid-conversation) ]

[ * Hobbies!!!!! ]

[ * The main thing you'll see is drawings. Many drawings. I enjoy drawing a lot! I have been drawing ever since I have memory. I also occasionally compose music and write, but I have yet to post any of that in this blog... ]

[ * And I also animate! Because of the effort it takes, it is quite rare to see me posting animations. But I still do it! I have a YouTube channel dedicated to it, in fact. You can find some of my animations there. ]

[ * Fandoms!!!! ]

[ * UTMV (Undertale Multiverse, also Undertale by extension) (my main thing tbh as in 99% of my blog is that) ]

[ * Deltarune ]

[ * Geometry Dash ]

[ * The Owl House ]

[ * Gravity Falls ]

[ * My Little Pony ]

[ * Creatures Of Sonaria ]

[ * ...More I may be forgetting ]

[ * Honestly I'm inactive in most if not all of these except Deltarune and UTMV ]

[ * Miscellaneous things? (Extra info, tags, links, DNIs, cool looking badge thingies I find online) ]

[ * I'm Ink's wife and girlfriend (in a non-binary way if that makes any sense) for all eternity, and I post about that fairly often. ]

[ * I also enjoy being an astronomical level of cringe... And I refuse to apologize for it. In fact if you dare insult me for it, or for anything really, I will channel the hatred into more cringepower. Cringe culture is dead and I am mauling its corpse :3 (That is an AMAZING quote. Might put it as a blog title eventually) ]

[ * Tags I use (recalling from memory... May miss a few.) ]

#corv reblogs

#corv friend interactions

#corv gets an ask

#corv draws • (usually full drawings)

#corv doodles • (low-quality drawings usually made for silly reasons)

#corv rambles about lore

#corv's io • (posts about Io)

#corv's aurum • (posts about Aurum)

#the starry night (selfship) • (Ink x Io)

#corv doodle request • (doodle requests I draw)

#corv doodle request status • (status updates for when I open and close doodle requests)

[ * Stuff I'm working on ]

OuterRenaissance (Undertale AU, Outertale variant) (has an official blog! @outerrenaissance though I gotta actually get started using it.)

Some info on star-born monsters! I think.

[ * Links for things ]

[ * About Io (UTMV self-insert, sona number 1) ]

[ * About Aurum (UTMV meta ""self-insert""??? lives outside UTMV technically but still interacts with it, also sona number 2) (NEEDS MAJOR-ISH DESIGN UPDATE) ]

[ * About Therian!Ink ]

[ * My Youtube channel ]

[ * Cool looking badges/user boxes!!!!! ]

[ * And lastly... ]

[ * Please, do NOT interact with me if you... ]

Support Israel

Are an anti-furry

Are an anti-therian/anti-otherkin/anti-fictionkin/anti-alterhuman in general really

Are queerphobic in any way (homophobic, transphobic, etcetera)

Support racism

Support cringe culture (as in harassing others over things that are """cringe""")

Support any kind of discrimination towards any group

Support ships involving characters that are minors, have a major age gap, or are closely related (ex. Parent and child, siblings, cousins,), generally ships that involve someone or something that cannot consent. Basically any problematic ship

Support real-world acts of z00ph1lia, p3d0ph1lia or any other p4r4ph1lia that endangers any living being, be that you, an animal, another person regardless of age or any other factor, etcetera.

TLDR for above: if you are a proshipper

Following the above; if you are friends with a proshipper, or overall proship-leaning neutral, you're on very thin ice.

Support AI generated content with the intent of replacing the work of artists, writers, and the like, trained using content from non-consenting creators.

Support any kind of harassment

[ * That's pretty much it! Have a nice day! ]

[hannibal-confessions-nbc]

NBC HANNIBAL CONFESSION BLOG!

ask inbox status: open

vomit in my inbox

GUIDELINES BELOW:

NBC Hannibal content only

Both NSFW + SWF is welcome

Meta is also loved and welcomed

Do not send photos or media

Be respectful of each others opinions, I can see your comments y'all 😭

NO DOG DISCOURSE WE LOVE THEM THERE IS NO ROOM FOR HATING ON THE DOGS .PLEASE

I don't have a tagging system or warnings

I'm not the flash, it might take me a hot minute to post your ask

Anon is enabled so keep yourself anon unless you don't mind a tainted rep.

He/him pronouns. If you're addressing me, just call me OP. (I, too, would not like to taint my rep.)

If I don't post your anon, ever, don't take it personally. pretty please.

I'm Autistic so I might misinterpret your ask. Soz

DO NOT INTERACT: HANNIBAL HATERS (OBVIOUS), CLASSIC DNI (TERFS, RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION, ANTI-LGBTQ+, ABLEIST, RACIST, SEXIST, ETCETERA)

You will get blocked if Im aware you fit into any of the criteria above

Follow @hannibal-confessions-extras for other stuff. find out

I have enabled asks on @hannibal-confessions-extras in case you have any queries & questions about this blog and how it works, or if you need to clarify rules, or something else. I'm aware that some of you seem scared to send things in or feel like the guidelines are unclear or too ambiguous. Do not send confessions on that sideblog, those are strictly for @hannibal-confessions-nbc :)

Queued posts will be under the tag #queuefessional

[beevean]

Honestly, I really do find it a shame that there is NO rhyme or reason to why Lanolin is so bossy and bitchy all of a sudden within the story itself. Like... I just thought this up while eating dinner, but let's say that Lanolin went on her first mission in the field. And it was a grandiose success! By sheer accident she managed to foil Eggman's plan and looked very competent and cool and totally as if she knew what she was doing while that happened, and everybody congratulated her and told he she's clearly got tons of potential and she'll make a fine leader like this.

Except it was an accident and she had no idea what was going on.

It would explain her controlling and bossy behaviours much better imo: suddenly she's got an imago to upkeep! Everybody's got such high expectations of her now, that she could never meet if she really tried to deliver! I would say it's very human of her if she got 'caught up' in pretending she's someone better than she actually is (where there's no shame in not being a good hero on top, even, but she could be the type of person who immediately buckles under the pressure to deliver), and that explains why she acts the way she does. She's controlling because if she is not, people are going to see she's nothing but a fake who did not earn the others' awe in the slightest. And once the truth comes to light, it could lead to a nice "you should not pretend to be someone you are not and it's okay to have flaws and need to rely on other people" etcetera speech that the Sonic franchise is quite good for. In my head that sounds much better than someone whose qualifications are garbage at best acting as if she's the leader of all heroes in the world.

Sorry if that idea does not make sense. I'm just frustrated rn.😅

No, I get you.

It would also be almost meta! She went from being a civilian to a leader overnight, in the same way she went from being a background character to one of the main secondary characters.

This would explain where her confidence comes from when she has very little experience, and it would tie with her being a control freak. However, I still think she should be called out, because her behavior is very blatantly unfair and amateurish. This is the big problem for me, not just that she acts as an expert when she didn't really do anything to earn it: she's in the wrong no matter how you slice it, she's blatantly disrespecting people she should treat with more courtesy, and her friends are taking it despite her admitting she has a tendency to be bossy.

Seriously Lanolin: why are you immediately dismissing Whisper when she accuses someone of being Mimic? Are you afraid of coming off as incompetent for having fallen for his tricks? Are you afraid of him in general and want to bury your head under the sand? Are you so stubborn that you refuse to consider you might have been wrong? Or do you think Whisper is being irrational because well she has trauma and all?

Some options are better than others. And I better get a believable answer that doesn't paint Lanolin as the rudest bitch on the planet.

[consistentsquash]

5 meta recs for monday

the humanity of creators by @danpuff-ao3

A brilliant short essay on parasocial relationships/separating creator and art.

Creation is such a personal, vulnerable experience. Art, music, writing, etcetera. Creation itself is deeply personal, but so is the experience of those creations. It creates a point of connection, in a way. Connection to the creator, connection to other fans. But experiencing these works does not mean you know the creators. You know a piece of them, perhaps, but not the whole of them.

 

Must-know for Japanese fandom: the meaning of "proship" and the concept of "proshippers" in Western fandom by Maromi

Really well-written essay about Maromi's experiences with antis. Especially love the perspective of cultural differences and how folks can use literally anything to harass you if you are making some problematic art. Link is English translation of Maromi's actual essay in Japanese.

Proship-antis (hereafter referred to as "antis") began to claim that the "pro" stood for "problematic," and expanded their scope beyond a specific ship war to instead begin attacking all "proships." As the definition of the word became muddled, the number of young antis increased, especially among teenagers, who would attack people who supported any kind of problematic ship. This has sometimes escalated to bullying, to the point that one might become a target for harassment if they don't prove that they aren't a proshipper, or might be ostracized for not putting "proship DNI" in their profile. It's also used as a tool for racism―asking someone whose primary language isn't English whether or not they are a proshipper, and if they can't prove that they aren't, they may become a target for harassment. (This is what happened to me.)

  Mumbles by eldritcher

A really poignant look at fandom changes esp HP slash fandom changes. Incisive and resonates a lot.

LJ fandom was criticised often for its cult of nice that was a facade hiding all manner of nonsense. There’s truth to that, but what I’ve seen in the days after I find magnitudes more unappealing. The polemics of identities conducted so effectively and continually in modern fandom and fandom-adjacent publication genres is quite extraordinary. It's wicking out voices and stories, and it’s become an exercise in walking on eggshells. New authors, or new to English authors, or authors unfamiliar with or uninterested in Anglosphere cultural discourse, may not be able to do what I could do in the aughts, because of everything they’ll have to fear tripping on. 

  House elf plotline: A Critique of Author Choices by @ashesandhackles

HP meta in 2023??? Trust me! I really liked this meta and definitely recommend reading it even if you don't normally go for meta. It's just an incredible summary + observations of the worldbuilding. Definitely one of the most objective metas I have read in HP. You should actually think about posting it on AO3, @ashesandhackles.

With a character that had this much thought and agency in Chamber of Secrets specifically because of what it meant for house elves as a whole (and one whose presence made Hermione excited in GOF and hope that other house elves look at his example), one must ask ourselves: why?

  cringe by lierdumoa

The Revenge of the Pearl Clutchers That's what "cringing" is. It's pearl clutching. When the pearl clutchers turned cringe into an adjective, they turned a reaction into an accusation. The pearl clutchers don't want to take responsibility for their own kneejerk emotions. They want to blame YOU.

I feel like there's a lot of folks who are trying to reclaim cringe. But some newer folks are kind of missing the history context behind a lot of fandom vocabulary like this.

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game

There’s too much on my plate presently so I won’t write this brainworm right now but imagine this Enemies-to-Lovers Butchlander AU premise: Butcher transmigrates into different worlds where every identity he assumes pits him against its “virtuous hero” (Homelander).

The catch? Butcher has to somehow win his enemy over—or it’s death.

So, for context before I start going into detail, what the heck is “quick transmigration” you ask? It’s essentially world-hopping through various worlds in one story (think multi-short stories that all somehow connect together in a bigger narrative).

The original world this Butcher hails from is an alternate reality where Vought International has expanded all across the globe—and he himself is a Supe affiliated with Vought UK.

On a PR visit to Vought-American (Homelander would have to be tied early into the story here somehow), Butcher’s inner circle gets ambushed by “Supe terrorists”/ “supervillains.” One of those Supes has the power to temporarily banish a person from their plane of existence (or whichever power it is that’d jumpstart the “Quick Transmigration” system)—and Butcher gets caught in that.

He wakes up with a splitting migraine, and a “Conquer System” that explains his return conditions. He’s allowed to go back to his world as long as he fulfills his mission task in each world.

His mission? Fulfill the dying wish of each “soul” he’ll transmigrate into. Fight fate.

The caveat? Whatever identity Butcher assumes, he’ll be the natural nemesis of that world’s equivalent of the “Favorite Son”/ “Golden Child” (the meta equivalent of each world’s main character/ male protagonist/ rival).

Most of all, Butcher CANNOT kill that person. Or it’s automatic erasure.

At this point, Butcher doesn’t know who that person is yet so he’d naturally snap, “You expect me to know who the bloody hell that’d be?”

System: “Oh, you’ll know.”

——————————————

There are 3 main twists:

The first twist is each body Butcher takes possession of is an AU version of him so we can play with 5-6 (or more?) different settings.

There’s full (medieval) fantasy, modern showbiz/ entertainment industry, A/B/O, interstellar (sci-fi), etc.

What’s important is the world before Butcher returns to his original world is ‘The Boys’ (TV or comic) canon universe; it’s so that this AU Supe version of Butcher lands himself in a reality where he’s, once again, powerless—but this time he’d apparently married this American woman called Rebecca Saunders. Essentially the canon events of the show or comic.

But with the same win conditions set by the System, Butcher has to tackle the situation differently from his counterpart. It’s the hardest challenge to pass (it’s the world most similar to his reality but the body he’s inhabiting has burned many bridges).

The second twist is “the Homelander” of each world somehow always falls for Billy.

So we’re talking King Stillwell’s greatest and most loyal knight falling under the charm of the dragonkin he was under orders to slay/ subjugate.

The prince of Hollywood—Vought Entertainment’s top A-list moneymaker—falling for this English chav paparazzo.

An Alpha falling for another Alpha.

Their names—and age—will always change in each world. For example, in one world Homelander is called “John Gillman” and in other worlds he’s “Johnny, J'onn, Jon,” or whatever is the appropriate variation of his name.

Butcher, for example, can isekai into “William, Will, Bill/y, Wilhelm,” etcetera.

And the last twist is, when Butcher accumulates enough “points” to return back to his reality, kick ass and chew bubblegum, *his Homelander* has experienced the longing and affections his alternate versions had felt for the Butcher through his “dreams”—even though they’ve never met.

Homelander and Butcher meet for the first time officially in their world, as strangers (competitive rivals because of their different divisions), yet they’ve both “experienced” worlds where they’d somehow become companions. Partners. Lovers.

And we end this story hinting it’ll be the same.

[windandwater]

I know various people have talked about how insular people around here are but like. we need to actually incorporate this fact into our behavior, and change it. and what I mean by this is. people who aren't online all the time have an extremely different perspective on almost everything we take for granted here.

like. my parents watched Sherlock. they enjoyed it a lot and my mom still makes jokes related to it without any irony or self-loathing. to them it was just. a fun detective show, a modern take on an old story. watch once and move on with life. she and my dad didn't spend several years knee-deep in navel-gazing meta that ruined it for everyone so now they can't talk about it without feeling like everyone's going to judge them for ever liking it in the first place.

partially this is a function of a lot of people here being teens & kids when it came out, but we (my parents & me) were adults. I was having a good time in fandom and look back on the 2010s pretty fondly while a lot of people here are still going through the process of hating their past selves, and you tend to project that onto the things you used to like. I did that too. and then I came around to forgiving & loving my past selves--all of them--which is why I have no problem admitting to all the things I loved in the early 90s & early 2000s but would have had a hard time admitting to 15 years ago.

but it's not just that. the weird refusal to pretend certain things never happened--Harry Potter. a smaller example, Firefly. etcetera. people think if you even mention HP at all you're automatically terf? like...if you go into the outside world, I'm sorry, but JKR's shit beliefs are not common knowledge. and like it or not that book kinda changed the world. and not all for the worse.

(I will NOT go off here on why Joss Whedon seems to get a pass for Buffy & Avengers but someone mentioned a bad thing about Firefly and now we can't talk about it at all--not to mention that it's apparently still okay for him to actively profit off of his work--but. that's off topic.)

(for the record my views are thus: neither of these creators should get any more money or attention as creators, but we shouldn't pretend that the stuff they made had zero effect on us as a culture or as individuals.)

this isn't really about any of these pieces of media specifically, it's more like. this weird insular culture that believes certain things are common knowledge and therefore if you ever talk about them except for in the Approved ways, You're Bad. it's not healthy here and it's not healthy if you ever plan to have a conversation with any living human.

I'm tired of like. if you post a gif of the wrong show you're cringe. if you reference a the wrong book you hate queer people. if you quote the wrong show you're racist. no matter what the actual gif or quote or reference is. it's not like that outside the internet and on the internet it feels like walking on very stupid eggshells.

I know how we got here but it's dumb. the past happened. it wasn't always perfect but we were still part of it. if we erase it we'll never learn from it but we'll also never get comfy with good the ways it shaped us.

we're so busy molding ourselves into a perfect future that we don't realize that the imperfect past got us here in the first place. let it exist. in all the ways it was.

[redstringraven]

#someone meta about don and raph and their non verbal communication for me (@isitdonproof, on this post)

i'll take a swing at it from the context of this moment specifically, mostly because 1) i think we can agree that all the boys communicate with each other non-verbally to varying extents AND do it differently depending on the bro-combination, and 2) if i start combing through the series for more examples, this'll devolve into a much longer post. it's already gotten long, so forgive me.

uuh, this'll also be pulling a lot from my previous enneagram discussion, but i'll do my best to be to-the-point, so you can follow along without reading my other nonsense.

i checked the episode just in case and the gifset doesn't show it, but don looks down at raph first. then raph tilts his head back to look up at him. this kiiind of disrupts the immediate concept that came to my head, but i'm gonna follow through with it anyway. disclaimer that their enneagram placements are headcanons of mine because that's of course not officially listed anywhere, feel free to disagree, etcetera.

raph's an 8; 8s are very alert to where the 'power' in the room is, because their own power/autonomy/sense of control is integral to them. they also want the truth and don't appreciate it when information is withheld "for their protection", because if they don't have all the details how can they hope to control the situation?

don is a 5; 5s are very objective and capable of responding to problems rather than reacting to them (whereas the other three tend to be reactive types). they will look at a situation and shoot straight with you whether it hurts your feelings or not.

raph and don are connected on the enneagram web, because an 8's stress number is a 5 and a 5's security number is an 8. i'm not gonna dive into that again here, just know that it means they're capable of sharing behaviors and traits; it's one of the reasons i'm not too fond of the idea that don and raph are "opposites". they're on different wavelengths, yes, but not opposing ones. and as i mentioned in don's enneagram post, i think it's the 5's ability to be objective that makes raph much more receptive to being 'called out' by don rather than leo or mikey; he knows don will be straightforward and not tap-dance around things, which is something an 8 values.

returning to the gifset, this interaction takes place a minute or so before leo's lowest moment in the series. splinter says "for months now, you have been brooding, surly, and stubborn" but it's when leo says "yeah. right." that raph and don actually pause and look up. the following exchanged glance, in my opinion, is don and raph checking with each other.

splinter is trying to get through to leo, and leo is pushing back. but he's not just pushing back, he's being outright disrespectful--he tells splinter that his lesson 'stinks' and his overall tone is aggressive. there's a power shift happening in the room.

up to this point in the season, raph's been growing increasingly hostile toward leo's change in behavior. at first he found it amusing (s4ep1), but in the prior episode, samurai tourist, he said leo was "going mental". in that same episode mikey came to leo's defense and pushed back on that statement; after that it seems raph backs off leo's case a little (through what dialogue we get). don, on the other hand, has been distant and avoidant when it comes to addressing leo and his *vague gesturing* everything.

since this moment comes after mikey's push-back, this feels to me like raph sensing an upcoming explosion from leo, but maybe pausing to think "am i judging him too harshly again by expecting the worst?". so, he looks up at don as though to silently ask "am i being a bonehead and jumping the gun, or is something about to happen?" only to find don is looking back down at him. don's not shaking his head or signalling to raph that he's wrong to have this reaction. instead, he's maybe looking to see if leo's backtalk has warranted something more than a growl or an eye roll from raph--a sign that this is something to be alarmed of.

in that glance: raph's getting from don that his intuition is correct and it's not his frustration with leo triggering again, and don is getting from raph that there's been a power-shift and something beyond an argument is about to happen.

tl;dr: yo i'mma check his vibe... --bAD VIBE--

i hope this made sense HFJKDHSJKG.

[2d-dreams]

Pollux Codex

In this post I'm going to go reeeally in depth into Pollux's name and what it meant since the beginning. I'll tackle both "meta" (symbolism, foreshadowing, etcetera) reasons and why Pollux himself would choose it ::)

Warning this is like a super super long post. I am insane.

Section 1: Who is Pollux?

It is necessary to know first and foremost who this lil guy is. I mean. I don't think anyone who isn't in "The Arts of Being"'s mini-fandom is going to wind up reading this,.. so I guess it'll be quick!

Pollux is a Hexagon who, back in Flatland, really loved history (and interestingly enough, eventually was to repeat it from the very beginning, tracing back to Flatland's 'Big bang') — His real name is Paul Schwarz, but he uses his codename, Pollux Codex, and has earned the title "The Hexed" post-TAoB.

Pollux became an Apostle of the Gospel of Higher Dimensions, supposed to enlighten his world along with Bill.

Section 2: Why did he choose the name?

Pollux chose the name because it is related to his main interests! Pollux is a character in Greek mythology (while greeks or their mythology may not exist exactly in Flatland, this is still important.. maybe he translated the name from that of an actual character of an ancient mythology and saw that it had the same attributes as the Pollux of Greek mythos so thats why he uses it in our language? idk give me a Break) and a codex is an ancient manuscript text, tied in to history and his love for reading.

Codex, with the x removed, is Code, like a secret code - reference to Bill's codename, Cipher.

Also, both Pollux and Codex have 'x' in them, and Pol REALLY loves how that letter sounds. ks. ks. ks. ks. Also loves the sound of 'k', but clicking doesn't have a lot of positive connotations according to Flatlanders.

And, of course, it sounds really cool, somewhat similar to his real name [fun fact: i did not realize that Paul and Pol are probably pronounced the same.. perks of not being a native english speaker] and goes along nicely with Bill Cipher.

Section 3: Pollux

On to the interesting part! The meaning behind the names.

Yes this section and everything below was written like 5 days after everything above lol.

Pollux in Greek Mythology is known, along with his twin brother Castor, as the gods (together called Dioscuri) of twins, horsemanship and sailors.

Pollux is immortal, whilst his twin Castor is a mortal. Castor is killed, and Pollux asks his father, who is a god, to share his immortality with his brother. Once turned immortal together, they both become stars, stars that sailors use to guide themselves at sea.

Twins

Twins and duality are a reocurring thing in both Gravity Falls and The Arts of Being. In Gravity Falls there are Dipper+Mabel, Stanford+Stanley, and there is discussion of an entity that is 'the opposite of Bill', in the fandom said to be either the Oracle or the Axolotl.

The twins theme is reinforced on accident by the interpretation of The Olden Days of Bill's last words, where people thought he was invoking Xolotl, aztec god of fire and lightning, twin of Quetzalcoatl, and also god of twins, illness, deformities, and monsters, but also an important part of the creation myth of the mythology. Quetzalcoatl, on the other hand, represents life, light, wind, rain, civilization and knowledge.

These two gods are also a great inspiration for what later on become the roles of Pollux and Bill in the new mythologies of the Exwhylians, Ypwherenians and Zetwhatians, is referenced through things like Bill's association with fire and Irregularity being important in his story, and Pollux's love for rain and later on how he became the foundation of the new civilizations.

and it's also a lovely reference to my homeland México ::3 !!!

In The Arts of Being, this twin situation is mirrored. Bill's father and uncle, Caesar William+Arrhenius William Campbell are twins. A. Square, author of Flatland, and B. Square are twins in TAoB. However Bill and Pollux themselves.. don't seem to have their own twins.

For Bill, either he has a twin that he does not know of, or his twin bond is with Liam, his adoptive older brother. He is very close to him, so who says they can't have the twin bond?

When it comes to Pollux, he actually had a twin. One that existed for little time. (Yet another thing I should add in the rewrite, because while it was always a thing I knew, I never really mentioned it and it bugs me). Basically, while in the womb he had a twin, one that early on merged with him. Had this not happened, Pollux would've been a pair of Pentagon boys instead of one Hexagon. Pollux himself sees his mind as 'two brothers trying their best to pilot one body'.

The twins of Gravity Falls are often seen as opposites, like Xolotl and Quetzalcoatl, Stanley and Stanford with the 'strong dumb' vs 'smart and shy' etc. Bill's father and uncle have a similar dynamic even down to their children - Caesar had an Irregular son and whatever the hell's going on with Bill, while Arrhenius had three perfectly regular and successful Square sons.

Bill and Pollux both become part of their duality through their close relationship, despite not being twins, they are undoubtedly sticking together forever after losing their 'counterparts'. Bill's the outgoing dream demon who lies just because he can, who's purpose becomes that of 'liberating' each dimension, while Pollux is the quieter dream angel - oneiraph - who only lied in an attempt to protect himself, eventually becoming the builder of the new Flatlands. There are more details, like their color pallette outside of Flatland, with Bill having a golden body and blue fire, while Pollux has a blue body with yellow fire, the associations with fire vs rain, etc.

Horsemanship and Sailors

Neither Pollux nor Bill have any interactions with horses, and the sea doesn't even exist in Flatland. How does this tie in to TAoB, too? Well, in a more symbolic way, just like how Bill and Pol themselves have no biological living twins.

Well I'm going to ignore the horsemanship part because. Yeah. But, as for the sailor part. Their sea is that of extradimensional knowledge.

Pollux and Castor, once turned into stars, are used as reference by sailors to guide themselves at sea. If you refuse to use any sort of guide while at sea, you are likely to get lost and eventually die. Pollux and Bill 'become stars' as they ascend into what would be the sky if Flatlanders had one, when A. Shape and A. Sphere pull them three-dimensionally-upwards in order to turn them into their Apostles of Higher Dimensionality.

As 'stars' (Apostles), they are supposed to guide the Flatlanders to enlightenment - to survival. But ignored, ridiculed and imprisoned for this, Bill ends up accepting A. Shape's deal and liberating the dimension under the excuse that they had not allowed themselves to be guided.

Beyond Dead Flatland, they still are guides for those who follow them - those who seek chaos and destruction and fun follow Bill, and those who seek higher knowledge follow Pollux, Apostle of the Axolotl itself.

Section 4: Codex

Guys I'm starting to get tired of writing so much but I'm still hyped up. Excuse the decaying quality I am no longer talking about aztec/mexica gods.

Codex, an ancient manuscript, is a reference to the Book of Three Dimensions/the OG Flatland written by A. Square/Mr. Abbott (and Gravity Falls' Journals).

Codices are usually amongst the few things we have available to know about ancient cultures, their traditions, etcetera. Pollux in the end of The Arts of Being becomes a living codex of his own lost world, being the last person within Time and Space that knows of Bill's full origin and the old culture of Flatland, along with being the one to build history of several dimensions afterwards.

Pollux as the Apostle of the Axolotl isn't only restricted to the Second Dimensional Worlds, but he also learns of many, many worlds and dimensions beyond them, becoming one of the wisest and most ancient creatures of Timespace.

Section 5: The Hexed

Pollux earns this title thousands of years after The Arts of Being, a title that has an unknown origin in universe, whispered in awe across dimensions.

"The Hexed" is, first and foremost.. a pun. Hexed. Hex. Hexagon. he is a hexagon. euehehehehehhe im so sorry.

A hex is sort of like a curse. Pollux feels cursed, hexed - he survived the death of his entire universe, but he suffers. Everyone he ever knew, every book he ever read, each and every single innocent person died, and he feels responsible for it, and it haunts him.

He hopes that Bill can be redeemed, that he really will return to the Axolotl, but his hope is stretching very thin as millions of years pass by and Pollux is still there, painfully remembering everything.

And he also feels horrible for yearning for Bill so badly because he knows, he's completely aware that Bill isn't out there spreading love and kindness in the multiverse, he knows he causes suffering just for funsies and he hates himself for wanting to give him a second chance after all that has happened, and at the same time, feels ungrateful for wanting to undo his destruction, because that would also imply the destruction of his dear Exwhylia, Ypwherenia, Zetwhatia, of undoing all the good deeds he's done as an angel, of never giving Providence and Nature the relief of knowing that the descendants of their world are in good vertices.

[suzukiblu]

I really need more fun Kryptonian biology to mess with in fic but I'm short on ideas right now.

Common-seeming fanons I've seen and liked:

purring

happiness = literal floating

either intersex or just sexes/genders that don't translate into standard "human" versions

inhumanly bright eyes

Also I still really love the whole "Kryptonians psychically soulbond with just literally anyone they love" thing, though alas that is not a thing I see on the reg. ALAS.

Anyway all of these are fun but I need mooooore and I also need to make them all Kon's problem. Like, just all of them. Possibly also Match's. Meanwhile Kara facepalms in the background and Clark gets reamed by Karen over how he didn't think to give his teenage clones sex ed. CLARK WHY THEY'RE LITERALLY YOUR CLONES.

Clark: technically Match is Kon's clone--

Karen: Go talk to your kids about sex.

Clark: I would rather go to the Phantom Zone, thanks.

And Jon probably got The Talk from Ultraman, the poor bastard. Ughhhhh.

[solarisgod]

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[ghaniblue]

Last Lines tag game

Tagged some time ago by @vivantesopales who's writing some interesting Voldemort meta.

I didn't have anything to share back then because I was only writing my anon @regulusblackfest fic. That's posted now, but then I still couldn't share anything because I was busy turning my fest fic into a long fic (heaven help me).

But today I returned to my Pandalily/Jegulus/Jily WIP. Think fussy ace vampire Regulus + lesbian vampire Pandora + human Jily in an open marriage meet in a Muggle club. Lily gets railed in the toilet while Reg recites poetry to James. It's the most ridiculously self-indulgent thing ever.

********

Regulus wipes his hands on his trousers and makes a sour lemon face. Pandora rolls her eyes. Any minute now he'll start pontificating about noxious miasma and the great unwashed. As if he wasn't a member of the undead, and could actually catch any of his so feared diseases. You can take the boy out of the country manor, but the boy will stay a prissy toff with a riding crop up his arse. Oh, now there's a thought.

It's been almost two centuries. One of these days Pandora will get him to relax. She's nothing if not persistent, and eternity is theirs etcetera. He better learn to enjoy its pleasures, or else. She made him. She can destroy him. But it would be a terrible shame. She's so very fond of the little tosser.

"Come have a drink," she says, towing him after her to a high table in the corner, one finger hooked in his frilly shirtsleeve. "Tequila goes very well with your spiralling."

"M not spiralling," he mutters petulantly, but follows her like the good boy he is. 

what have you been working on? @wanderingdonut @lqtraintracks @skeptiquewrites @crying-lightningx @broomsticks @teacup-tai

[occasionally-good-ideas]

What’s your favorite dp episode?

Mines Reality Trip! Look at all the good shit we got!!! On The Run from the guys in white, Danny got to FLY a SPACESHIP! The Triotm. ROAD TRIIIP(I fuckn love road trips)

Identity Reveal AND THE FALL OUT!! (hence the ‘On The Run’ part,) bitch was on all news channels, billboards, ETCETERA in like A DAY. that’s impressive.

THE COMIC CONVENTION???? Motherfucker has a big enough fandom IN CANON that he’s a feature in Comic-Con?!?!?! He got to hide in a CROWD OF COSPLAYERS!!! I’m so sad that scene was only like 6 minutes long that meta-half-fourth-wall-break IS MY FAVORITE THING

THE END FIGHT??? The PERFECT blend of Beat up Danny, and Danny Kicks Ass. Dude got turned into jelly then Ran Over(splat), trying his best to not let pretty much EVERYONE he cares about get MURDERD by a WANNABE GHOST CLOWN BITCH, then he figures out he can SHIT TALK this guy into LOOSING!!!

Mans wins AND THEN we get a heartfelt ‘we except and love you’ speech from the Fentons??? Bruuhhh I love a good dicecc fic as much as the next guy BUT I LOVE when Jack and Maddie are good people and love their kids

Good episode. 10/10. All the adventure with none of the long term consequences (which kinda sucks cuz I could watch a whole spinoff of just them On The Run)

[boydykedevo]

I know you said you don't have much to it but it deserves it's own post so *please* talk about your Tuggcetera "sold to One Direction" AU!

JAHSKDJDH okay it’s really mostly bare bones, but as I was answering this I came up with more so. Cracks knuckles.

Context here is that my usual backstory for them is Jellylorum is Etcetera’s mom and they, along with Gus (who’s not related to them, Jellylorum befriended him while pregnant with Etcetera) were strays before joining the Jellicles when Cettie was very young. She’s older in this au, about her usual age (just a bit younger than Victoria in my hc). And obv it’s crack so Jelly’s very ooc lol

So the au: they’re strays and Jelly needs money for drugs (catnip) so she sells Etcetera. She’s obviously unhappy about this, but then her new owner arrives and GASP it’s Tugger and he’s soooo hot but surprise he’s part of the CAT MAFIA (Macavity’s gang). But over time it turns out he has a heart of gold and he falls in love with her etc etc

And there may or may not be a meta narrative that this is all rpf Etcetera is writing about Tugger… on her cat laptop? Random scraps of paper in the junkyard? Idk I haven’t thought that far but maybe Tugger finds out and they end up kissing irl and such