#no it's not fan fiction no it's not anything coherent it's literally just all the stupid words in my brain puked out via my keyboard

[running-in-the-dark]

(:

[terrietont]

Monty was done dirty in Security Breach and SB: Ruin

They did Monty dirty in both Security Breach and Ruin

He was so antagonized by both the game and the fandom even in the beginning, just for not being Bonnie.

What was the point of monty if they were just going to make him as a catalyst for the random absence of Bonnie? I genuinely don’t understand the story direction of what they were even going for with him if they were just gonna utilize him as a “evil replacement” beastly thug.

Monty’s design and mannersisms could be utilized for so much more than just “We wanted to make a new guy instead of Bonnie” and then make the entire fandom shit on this new guy for being the alleged evil killer of Bonnie (which I honestly don’t even think Monty is responsible, at least not with his control)

Unless they’re just going in a really lukewarm direction and just like “yep Monty bad cause Bonnie is gone” with no nuance or reason, just that “he’s selfish” and not that it was mimic, Monty possessed by afton etc etc. and all the other more interesting ways you could develop the “murder” case of Bonnie. I really hope they weren’t just gonna be like “Yeah Monty bad, the end” Because that would be such a let down. Giving Monty no misunderstood complexity but just a ruthless brute is just kind of disappointing… why even make Monty a thing if they were just gonna create an irredeemable brute?

It seriously just seems like Monty was intended as a fandom punching bag rather than an actual character because “Bonnie better” even Steel Wool doesn’t want to keep him in the band or have him even be coherent at all.

They quite literally wrote him in to not be loved by anyone in the story. Freddy never says anything remorseful about Monty’s claws (maybe that’s because Gregory didn’t directly say it was Monty, but still it still feels like he didn’t give af). Cassie doesn’t acknowledge him as anything more than “that weird Monty thing” when she was like “Poor Chica what happened to you?” When Chica is also partially animalistic at that point

Monty gets no remorse or development in universe, apart from a niche group of fans outside the game story that wish we had more of him and something added to him like Roxy, and even Chica. Roxy was misunderstood, tragic and turned out to be a lovable fierce protector and friend much like Freddy but with a bit more edge and tragedy combined. Chica although she is too far gone in Ruin, she still had some sense of being partially friendly if even for a second, but Monty? Nah he’s always been bad even before the virus… lame.

They just gave Monty the middle finger for simply existing in the first place even before all the Bonnie stuff came out and honestly as a fan of crocodilians it’s disappointing. And then he was completely tossed aside as Bonnie’s murderer with no added explanation or mystery. What?

Can we not have a single fictional crocodilian/reptillian that ISN’T “evil villain” coded?

Monty made me realize how dirty Reptiles are done in fiction.

[woodchipp]

Credit where it's due - I actually do like that the video takes its time to make a solid case for Sunny's diagnosis! Some of the other points the video makes, on the other hand...

"In fact, it's unheard of for a person with PTSD to experience [traumatic flashbacks] in a manner resembling a coherent, organized verbal narrative - something that OMORI takes into account."

This... reads as more of an implicit excuse for the shitty writing, if I'm being honest. "Most of the story doesn't make much sense since it's How Trauma Works™" is also rather reminiscent of the "that was The Point™, you just didn't Understand it" attitude and defense I've seen fans of the game exhibit and employ whenever anyone points out its writing flaws.

I agree IRL traumatic flashbacks don't resemble a coherent narrative - because I've done some research myself - but OMORI is a fictional story first and foremost. Fictional stories usually need to have some sort of an understandable narrative, and if the narrative is opaque to the point of being incomprehensible, it's usually a testament to how horrible the writing is. "Confusing" doesn't always mean "daring and smart."

On that note, Bojack Horseman's Time's Arrow tackles the topic of an underrepresented condition such as dementia with the tact it needs, manages to convey how disorienting and confusing dementia is and conveys the featured character's traumatic backstory in all its horror while still being enjoyable, gripping and easy to follow. Wow, It's like the writing was actually competent enough to allow for that!

If Omori doesn't quite understand what something means yet, then neither do we. And that's how it's supposed to be.

Unless we spoil ourselves about the game's plot, that is. lmao

Hot take but If literally the entire impact of your story can be nullified just by looking its plot up on the internet, your story isn't good. I think the fact the OMORI subreddit has a specific policy requiring people to hide anything even remotely spoilery about the plot (i.e. the "meat" of it) while discussing it speaks for itself.

"OMORI seems to have constructed the structure of Headspace after the psychoanalytic theory of Freud and Jung."

"The bond Sunny has with his friends is one of the major themes in OMORI. [...] His friends' words and well-wishes literally give him strength in the final fight against Omori."

What bond? The one that has his friends do everything they possibly can to show how much they love him while he never does anything remotely substantial for them?

What words and well-wishes? The ones Sunny takes out of context to to make himself feel better? The ones predicated on his friends being unaware that he's Mari's killer?

Give me a fucking break.

Of course, the most frivolous part of the video is the conclusion the narrator makes.

"We aren't responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again."

Sunny is largely responsible for what broke him, though.

He killed his sister.

And I detest that everyone who ever seems to talk about this game ignores that.

[ohbo-ohno]

How do you write fanfiction without going ooc?

Personally I think you're the best cod writer, I'm considering writing some fan fiction but I'm scared the characters arent in character

"best cod writer"??? when i haven't posted in like a month?? oh babe we are getting MARRIED ilysm thank you <3

im actually like fucking terrible at giving advice (i am not a well spoken person lmao) but i can talk At you for a bit about this!!!

grasping a character's voice is actually like. deeply difficult, and it's maaaaybe the thing i struggle with most when writing (or at least one of the things lmao). especially bc literally every single writer has a different voice for every character, so you have to find what works best for your story and your style. your ghost shouldn't look/sound exactly like someone else's ghost, because he's yours, yk?

that also being said - things that are ooc to me aren't necessarily ooc to someone else. the ghost in my mind would never let you call him a cheesy pet name like "sisi", but that doesn't mean that someone else's ghost wouldn't, yk? and to them, they're in character! so you've kinda got to decide what you think being in character is, if that makes any sense

i read a looooot of fanfiction before i started writing my own cod stuff. i've only watched the full campaign once, but i've read what's probably dozens of fics lmao - my ghost and soap are an amalgamation of the things i enjoyed most in other people's fics. think about the things that you love the most in your favorite fics, and see if you can replicate that tone/vibe

i also think that getting a character's Voice is a lot more than just dialogue. i write in either second person or third person limited, but for the sake of this i'll talk a bit about third person limited

if i'm writing smth like i'll eat you whole, im technically writing from johnny's perspective, right? so i don't write his internal monologue in his accent, but i do use certain adjective he would - like instead of describing ghost as "broad" or "hulking", i said he's "a big motherfucker" bc that's how i think johnny would talk. this doesn't matter nearly as much with second person, but letting johnny's voice float into the internal monologue helps keep me in the right headspace for the fic. it's easier for me to maintain his voice if i never really let it go, yknow what i mean?

also i know this sounds sooo stupid but i think a big part of writing in character is literally just thinking "can i see them saying this? would a person like this do this?"

like. okay. ghost is a 6'4 special forces lieutenant who is willing to do literally anything if it means completing his mission. he's a big man with an even bigger reputation. can you see him begging for your forgiveness at the slightest argument? can you see him stuttering on a first date?

and soap is an incredibly accomplished sergeant who's set records in the military, he's a demolitions expert and a skilled sniper with a hell of a temper. can you see him giggling? can you see him crying when his girlfriend is mad at him?

sometimes making sure you're not writing ooc is as simple as "They Would Not Fucking Say That", and as unhelpful as it is, that's literally just based on vibes

is any of that coherent at all?? i genuinely don't know. hope i didn't make things worse! ily!

(also just as general writing advice - practice!!! don't post everything you write!! i cannot tell you how many things i've written will never see the light of day, but all my little failures in writing have given me a better grasp on the characters, yk? you have to do badly and recognize what's bad before you can be super happy with your writing. write something and then focus on exactly what feels off to you, and change only that. idk. maybe im spouting bullshit)

[dustyfairywings]

Ok I think I know now how I wanna go about organizing my blogs.

I’m gonna make dedicated fan blogs for Blue Eye Samurai and Hazbin Hotel each. I’m gonna continue doing any original posts or reblogs about either within their respective blogs.

In the case of the BES blog specifically I’ll also be blogging about Edo Japan more broadly since I’ve wound up doing a lot of research in earnest about the period for fan fiction writing. I’m also thinking I’ll throw up any BES-related journal writing exercises I do over there. It’s probably gonna be a sort of open journal documenting my writing and research process interspersed with reblogs of others’ fan art, fanfics, and fan theories.

Likewise I will set up dedicated side blogs for any other specific non-fandom topics or aesthetics. I’m particularly fond of the surprisingly poetic prose of tumblr shit posts (think “tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit” type posts) and just the very specific type of humor and storytelling that arises from tumblr’s reblog system and the community’s character. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to these posts I want to preserve haha.

I’m gonna change the name of this blog so it’s in line with all my other socials and I’m gonna uh TRY to clean this blog up (this is likely a Sisyphean task and I expect I might give up on this over time. But I still gotta try). I’m also gonna try to cut down on the number of mindless reblogs that wind up on this blog. If I reblog something here it should be because it’s helpful info/advice, important news/PSAs, or other people’s complete/finalized original work or fan work that I don’t have a dedicated blog for. In the case of informative posts I will do my best to only reblog it here once I’ve read through it and not just skim it tell myself I’ll read it later. In addition to all this I’m gonna uh actually try to use tags for organizational purposes. Force myself to slow down my mindless consumption and actually interact mindfully instead.

There’s still a lot of stuff I’ll want to reblog with zero thought or explanation just cause it’s funny or relatable or whatever, so all that sort of stuff will go on a dump blog. I’m really attached to the blog’s current name, it’s been with me from the start, so I’ll probably use it for my reblog dump.

Why do I feel compelled to do all this? Well, for the vast majority of my time on this site I was content with just being a faceless, largely voiceless user that just reblogs whatever is relatable in the moment and scrolling endlessly. I was on tumblr sure but I was never really in community with anybody. Now nearly a decade down the line, I feel like I’ve finally found community with others on this website thanks to Blue Eye Samurai, and the last thing I want is to drive people away bc they find my blog to be obnoxiously spam-like and disorganized. You can’t follow others from your secondary blog, only your primary blog and I actually want to have mutuals here. When it comes to social functions on this website, THIS blog is my first foot forward and generally others’ first impression of me. And in that respect, I’ve been a poor steward of my own image. If mutuals want to get to know me, this blog doesn’t really say anything useful or coherent about me. It’s literally a dump and we all deserve better than that.

[comfortunit]

Hi, no judgement I'm just curious, what does it mean to be anti-fandom?

you know how fandoms behave? the groupthink? like genuinely a kind of mob mentality? are you familiar with the phenomena of fanon overtaking canon? of people being completely unable to analyze a work outside of a distinctly FANDOM lens? like all they care about is "i'm in denial about this character dying" and "it's canon in my heart" and the neil-gaiman-worshipping ass bullshit about how "we told canon to get lost!"

at this point, what i'm about to say is an ice cold take but that shit's annoying. beyond annoying, it's fucking disgusting to me. everything is just tropes to them, it's "but i want to be the protagonist, too!"

it's literally like marketing to them. everything is diluted, nothing is genuine, nothing is real. it's all just cheap imitation. everything is "transformative" fanfiction and fanart and no matter how many times they re-read, rewatch, replay the source material, the hermeneutic cycle has long since died; they bring no new genuine experiences to their re-examination of the work as it truly exists, only "i loved this completely incoherently derivative AU fanfiction so much i'm going to re-read the series with that as my perspective/framework", over and over and over. each time getting further and further from coherence. everything is hollow. everything has been eaten out from the inside.

like whatever if people want to call this dramatic then fuck them. if/when a work of fiction matters to you, like really matters to people, WHY is it that the fandom's first instinct is to remove these characters, whose meaning is defined by the story in which they exist, hollow them out, project themselves into them, and treat these stories and source material like everything has to be theirs now? why does everything have to be shallow derivatives of an original? can you not examine characters as they really are? get to know them as they exist? is that really such a difficult task?

and when it comes to murderbot, why not make a secunit oc? why must the fandom treat murderbot like it's a doll, it's a possession that belongs to them. is its entire story not an arc about autonomy and personhood? is that not the fucking core and soul of its source material? has it not expended chapter after chapter explicitly reminding the reader that it fucking hates being forced to do things it doesn't want to do? what genuine substance, what meaning is being brought by the fans, the fandom? anything? i have seen nothing but depraved conduct from the murderbot fandom. people are expected to "just let people enjoy things 🥺" as if that sentiment doesn't come from the most pathetically insecure corners of their fandom-brained shipping-sick heads. let people enjoy things? who's fucking stopping you from enjoying things? can you not handle difficult source material without sweetening it and processing it to make it easier to swallow? the flagrant disregard for genuine representation of a perspective that i have never seen represented before is what really sickens me, it's just so deeply wrong. there's something so horribly corrupted and repulsive about that.

and yes i take this very personally because i resonate deeply with the pov the murderbot diaries portrays, but on a more objective level, 'fandom' is not a sustainable way to approach anything. it's not a sustainable way to watch films or television shows, it's not a sustainable way to analyze music (have you fucking seen how swifties behave? do you remember how directioners behaved?), videogames, poetry, books, artwork, anything. anything except franchises. ask yourself, is murderbot a fucking franchise to you? then go to the fandom wiki, patronize the fandom reddit, participate in the fandom discord server, leave kudos on fanfiction written by the franchisees putting their own spin on murderbot like it's a hard rock cafe.

there has to be a line drawn sometimes between 'harmless fun' (here's an idea: make some fucking OCs!) and creating fandomized misrepresentations of source material that already possesses an incredible soul... and replacing that soul with something soulless.

and i'm not fucking saying that people have to agree with me. i know people disagree strongly with me. yes, i think the people who disagree are fucking kidding themselves, inhaling the fandom nitrous-oxide, and 'turning their brains off' instead of engaging critically with the literature itself. but this is my opinion. this is what i feel and believe.

[cruelsister-moved2]

Im the hater anon omg i didnt mean to lead u astray but i haven't finished it i'm just over half done. i probably will finish just so i can coherently say why i don't like it bc rn my thoughts are all over the place but  u hit all the major points im like nodding and taking notes rn.  Its very shallow lore wise like its all overly complex exposition that barely effects the plot. I could write about this for 100 years but basically it was boring and i just feel like it has nothing to say like theres no purpose or message and i think speculative stuff should have SOME weight behind it idk.  That paired w how the writing itself is like..not pretty or artful or anything………………….

And on top of that its not even actually funny. Instead of real jokes its just 100 million mcu quips awkwardly inserted so that no situation is ever treated genuinely or seriously or with depth. For example. My personal least favorite part beyond general quality so far is how often they bring up gideon being inappropriately horny… idk how else to word it.. Its one of her 3 personality traits. they mention her porn collection i swear every couple of pages. its played 4 jokes but like the rest of it its literally unfunny and feels so out of place. Like this is right when they just discovered an incinerated body → ”she looked troubled, which made Gideon sad, but she was also soaked right through to the skin, which made Gideon need a lie-down.” Its like if someone whose only point of reference was tiktok during that era where every vaguely masc woman got made fun of for being a quote hey mamas lesbian unquote tried to write a masc woman.  Reading it as a masc lesbian myself is just sort of embarrassing idk if other ppl feel differently but it just feels overplayed and goofy. 

Anyways… this is all very long and incoherent but thank u for complaining and vindicating me… i started reading it a couple days ago on a whim bc ive been seeing ppl talk abt it a lot lately and i was instantly SOOOOO disappointed. Part of it was definitely that i was expecting something very different because of how people talk about it but also its just like bad. Its insane. I also had no idea abt the roachpatrol thing so ummmmmm :(

hiiiiiiiiii omg so your suffering isn't even over yet my condolences.

the worldbuilding exposition industrial complex needs to end im so serious. I just had such a nice conversation with some writer friends about soft vs hard magic systems and world-building and how frustratingly common the assumption that more complex lore you dump the more sophisticated your story is at the moment. in reality many more sophisticated stories deliberately utilise abstraction and whimsy for thematic statements. v happy for brandon sanderson fans but again, a lot of those stories are basically like mystery novels except the magic is the mystery, whereas the speculative fiction authors who... actually speculate...are often using it as a tool to speculate about our own existence.

and the writing is so ugly like I've read a couple of chapters and I feel like i could get through a mid story if it's at least well written but it wasn't even inoffensive it was actively offputting like that prose was stinkyyyyyyyyy..... and the quips exactlyyy like who is laughing at none pizza with left beef anymore and the fact a lot of it isn't even the author being witty but just like. a reference to a meme? it's literally supposed to be like gritty but then everyone is memeing and quipping all the time how are you meant to take that seriously?

and okay the like sexualisation of Gideon had kind of been my suspicion but I hadn't read enough to make that claim for certain so. that's disappointing to have it confirmed. given that the author is a fem woman who calls herself a lesbian whilst being homestuck married to a guy, it really brings up some kind of discomfort in me to be using masc women that way and making a joke out of them and their sexuality and calling them himbos and shit like. it really doesn't seem like she actually knows any masc women??? and when that was a huge part of the marketing for the book it comes to feel exploitative.

one thing to be aware is that tor like. pushed it really hard marketing-wise for whatever reason. I guess they feel it symbolises a new era of sci-fi and like were using it as an outreach effort to engage the generation that mostly only reads fan fiction or whatever which I guess cheers if it achieves that. but the majority of negative reviews are specifically that it was nothing like what they expected it to be, because of the.... super gimmicky marketing.

the tagline being sword necromancer lesbians in space or something so lame 😭 and it really seems like the elements came first and the justification came second so it's never really explained why they use swords instead of more technologically advanced weapons (bc the answer is 'it sounds cool') or really why it needs to be in space at all (because the answer is 'it sounds cool'). even the necromancy is supposedly fairly tangential and ive seen people be underwhelmed how much actual lesbianism is involved too 💀

9mbut yeah the r0ach patr0l thing I wish people were more aware of because honestly above anything else, I've seen people who were fans and then found this out and felt super uncomfortable so I think people deserve to know what kind of background she has, and this is literally where she developed her writing and her name as a BNF so it's directly connected to her current career not just like a celebrity who tweeted something dumb when they were 14. like I think it's fair to take that into account + idk it's INTERESTING to me that she went from that to debuting with a masc lesbian whom she projects like comic hypersexuality onto it really is all much to think about truly

[romanceandshenanigans]

Writer Q&A

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

I've been playing around with a fantasy setting centered around an archipelago where a multitude of magical creatures have made their home, but now the mainland has the means to get to them and navigating what exactly to do next. I've got a witch queen married to a shapeshifting dragon, a fey king in a poly relationship with a fairy and an immortal human, shifter clans, mermaids, themes of colonization the works.

There are just so many directions I can take it and my tendency to overwrite means it'll be a long time before I get anything coherent out of it. It's part of the reason I'm starting with this regency romance first. I want to prove I can complete a full novel before I commit to a whole fantasy series.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

Not especially when it comes to my writing. However, whenever people have asked me for writing advice and specifically writing OCs, I've always felt flattered.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

Favorite part is finally giving all these voices in my head some place to live. It's a relief exorcising all those little conversations and flashes of moments out of me only to realize I've got a bit more to say than just "wouldn't it be cute if". Of course, this prompts only more voices and the never ending cycle of mental abuse continues.

Descriptions. I know what the scene is supposed to look like. Why can't I just telepathically communicate it to the audience? It's the screenwriter training. Can't be helped.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Any free time. Literally. Doesn't matter if I"m particularly motivated. If I have some free time, I know I will just feel better if I go somewhere and write for at least an hour. Doesn't have to be good. I don't necessarily have to use any of it. I just need to do it.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

Let it be bad. It's a lesson I'm still trying to instill within my self, but it is vital. Just let it be bad, it's what a first draft is for.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

Theming actually is really important if you want to keep any kind of cohesion through various drafts, especially for long term pieces.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Honestly I've only written only short pieces, all fan-fiction. This is my first attempt an a wholly original creation. I've completed a couple of short film scripts, but honestly nothing I'd particularly want to share here.

What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

"I am haunted by humans." - Death (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak)

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

I think it depends on what you mean by controversial. I mean, I am setting my story in regency era England so there are characters who are going to have homophobic view points on some of the characters I plan to write, but I know I'm also going to make a point about showing how that view point is wrong. I'm not afraid to cast authorial judgement on my characters. So, what is controversial about that set up?

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

Well my younger self who have a rude awakening about certain aspects of her sexuality, I can tell you that much. And that also goes for political ideology and general attitudes towards life. The difference between a sixteen year old and a twenty-eight year old is frankly staggering.

Tagging: @kittttycakes, @16boyfriends-and-me, @can-of-pringles, @auroramagpie and anyone else who would like to join in. (Just make sure to make your own posts)

[astaroth1357]

Demigod MC Series: Dionysus

Hey y’all, sorry for going dark! I’m alright, almost completely recovered in fact! I just got so sleepy while my body was fighting stuff off and couldn’t really work up the energy to write... Still going to be spotty for a short time, but I’m glad to have gotten this done. See ya soon!

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus

Lucifer

Well, this mortal stumbled out of the portal covered in glitter, body paint, and carrying a red solo cup… which they proceeded to stare at like, "'ell sshhit… Thiz iz sum stron s'uff…"

First impressions were not on their side here.

He spent a depressingly long amount of time more or less assuming that the MC was a drunken f-up and spent the first few months trying to make them more… presentable.

But like… How do you stop someone from acting like a drunk fool when they can turn any drink they touch alcoholic???

For months they would show up to meetings buzzed or stumbling, all smiles and all giggles but HORRIBLY unprofessional, and he just couldn't stand it!

But then he found out their little secret…

Assassination threats befall the exchange students all the time. Most of them are dealt with quickly but some (through skill or dumb luck) manage to slip through...

He had been walking with the MC through their new vineyard in the House's courtyard, yet again trying to lecture them about their drunken behavior, when suddenly the two were ambushed!

Ten or so heavily armored demons dropped down from the sky to attack them! Lucifer was so preoccupied that he got cornered by three of them and it took him a hot minute to destroy them.

When he looked back at the mortal (who had been fighting a 1-on-7) he was certain they'd have been kidnapped or worse…

But he saw that they had already cut down two attackers with their weapon with ease. The other five were rolling in the dirt, babbling about inexplicable terrors and imaginary pain as their minds succumbed to madness…

Meanwhile, the MC just stood in the middle of it all with the icy glare of someone who’s just revealed how stone-cold sober they've always been under the surface...

When they turned back to him, they put their usual ditzy smile back on over the tormented wails of the demons around them...

MC: Whoopsie… Gotta little mad there. 🙂

He uh… took a big ol'step off their back after that. Surprisingly, they're more pleasant (and less dangerous) "drunk" than they are sober…

Mammon

Oh HELL yeah!! Lucifer actually gave him a mortal that knows how to party!!

Admittedly, they looked like utter trash when they first met, like, "Hey, I've been at this party since DAWN" trash, but they gave him one good look and pulled together a surprisingly hot smile.

MC: "-ey yer cute… Ya like strip poker?"

Spoken like someone else who also makes shit decisions… They were going to get along just fine!

And they did. The MC to him was that one friend that's always down for anything. Just anything. Whenever. Wherever.

He wants to try sneaking into Lucifer's room to steal stuff? Sure, what time?

He wants to take a mattress and see if he can ride it down the grand staircase of the palace? Alright, we bringin' pillows too?

He needs to set up another scheme that's gotta involve live rats and box of tiny hats and monocles?? That's oddly specific but count them in!!

Sometimes he honestly can't tell if they're laid back or just crave chaos... but it works out fine for him either way so who cares? 🤷‍♀️

And if you think normal Mammon is a pain in the ass for Lucifer? Check out drunk Mammon. All the same urges but literally none of the (marginal) competence!!

At one point, the eldest ended up stringing both Mammon and the MC from the ceiling after they both barged into his office looking for Goldie… while he was still in there… watching them wander around aimlessly calling out for a piece of plastic like it was a missing puppy…

They end up together on the ceiling a lot come to think of it, but hey, at least now he has some company. 😌

Leviathan

Thinks they're the most normal normie to have ever normed on this normie planet!!!

No, seriously. They're a billion times worse than Asmo!! All they want to do is go to parties and drink all the time! What kind of use is he to someone like that??

… That being said they ARE pretty fun to be around… And their sake is WAY better than anything he could get off Akuzon!!

They also like karaoke too! So at least he has someone else to go with (even if they get so drunk they can’t remember any lyrics and just belt barely coherent discount Mariah Carey vocals behind him...)

Of course, the real fun between these two is everybody else getting to watch a couple of the Devildom's sloppiest drunks attempt to communicate with each other…

Levi: MMM-*hic*-MCCC…!!! *throws himself at them from across the bar*

MC: What Leviachan??? 😨 Did the chair kick you off?!

Levi: Nooo! *pokes their cheek* I wanna-I wanna tell you sometin'...! *tries pulling them closer*

MC: Whaa? Secrets?? *leans in eagerly*

Levi: Mammon used all ma money on’a pyramid scheme a thou-zand years ago… AND HE STILL WON'T PAY ME BAAA-!!! 😭😭 *starts shaking them violently*

MC: *getting flung around like a limp noodle* Waaaat?! Nooo!!! I'm so sowwy!! 😢

Mammon: *watching it all go down right next to him* 😑 Ya guys need some water… I'm cuttin' ya off, got it?

MC: 😱 Shut yer whore mouth, criminal!! *starts pelting him with pretzel bites*

Levi: 😤 Yah!! *joins in*

Good thing he's a shut-in, because the hangovers he gets after those escapades are unreal…

Satan

A little concerned for their liver, honestly… How much damage have they already done to the poor thing...?

But at the same time, he'll be damned if they don't make some utterly fantastic wine!

Alcokinesis wasn't a power he would have pegged a demigod to have but apparently the great art of making drinks comes from their godly DNA.

When they first met, he was trying to get the MC to act less slovenly but made the mistake of agreeing to a wager: he'd let them dress however they pleased if they could give him the BEST drink he'd ever tasted.

Now, Satan isn't a huge drinker (thank you terrible alcohol tolerance), but he's still a man of fine tastes. Plus, he's sampled Demonus from Diavolo royal stock before. They should not have won…

But on that day, he had to let them go to RAD in a pink blanket toga... 😑 Their wine is just THAT good.

He hates to admit it, but they've gotten him drunk more times than he could probably count too… He's not a huge fan of clubbing with them and the others, but if they bring over a bottle from their vineyard he just can't resist. They're a master of their craft, truly.

And it's a good thing he likes their drinks so much, because if they called him, "Kitty-boy," when he's sober, he may have just become a sour grape himself…

They also may or may not have copious amounts of blackmail material of him either meowing between sentences, sobbing over some fictional character he likes, pole dancing on dares….

Yeah, he's been trying to destroy their phone for months now. If Lucifer were to see ANY of that, he's done for… 😣

He has also been meaning to ask them about other aspects of their abilities, their father is also the God of Madness after all, but anytime he tries to bring it up they shove another glass in his hand and tell him not to kill the mood...

Eh. What's the harm in having another drink, right? 🤷‍♀️

Asmodeus 

Honey. He's MET Dionysus. He's been to a Dio-party or two and they're INSANE. He could not be more thrilled by this!!!

He practically scooped them up on the first night that they were in the House and it’s practically been a nonstop rave between these two ever since. They’re like the party twin he never knew he needed!!

He absolutely abuses their ability to turn pretty much any drink they touch into alcohol at clubs. It makes the nights so much easier on the wallet PLUS it makes an excellent little party trick to impress the succubi! Who doesn’t want a free drink? 😏

And can he just say that their drinks are better? Just flat out amazing! If it weren’t so unhealthy he’d consider drinking nothing but their booze and wine for the rest of his days, Satan’s certainly getting close to it.

But little does Satan know, he’s not even getting the GOOD stuff...

There’s the normal wine: grapes picked from the vineyard, hand squeezed, then magically helped through the fermenting process. But their real good stuff? They were given enchanted oak barrels from their father and anything that comes out of those is worth starting a WAR over. 😩

He knows, because he gifted an extra bottle to Diavolo once and Barbs came to him the very next day demanding to know what vineyard had produced it with the look of man willing to annex a small nation...

Asmo had to beg Lucifer to talk to Diavolo after the butler more or less kidnapped the MC back to the Castle… Devil knows even Barbs wouldn’t ever be able to reproduce their wine, so they could have been locked there for eternity!!

Thankfully, he got his party-buddy back and their debauchery continued! (Just now with Barbatos following them around sometimes like he’s trying to gather state secrets... It’s an impossible task but he hasn’t given up yet, bless his black heart.)

Beelzebub

He isn't much bothered by their carefree nature, at least they seem to be having fun with his family which he appreciates. 🙂

To be honest, though, he nearly ate them when they first met because they smell like freshly peeled grapes… and for good reason.

By their third day at the House they had (somehow) planted and cultivated a full on vineyard in the courtyard. Hell, the wall growing to their bedroom balcony was covered in grapevines!! Always ripe and completely healthy in defiance of the lack of sun... Whatever magic they used was strong.

And, of course, their grapes were also delicious! Easily among the best fruits he's ever tasted! Every cluster is ridiculously plump, juicy, and sweet like little droplets of pure Heaven… 🤤

When their fruit first ripened, the MC came out with a basket to collect some only to find Beel had gouged himself on over half of their crop!!!

… which may have been why he got snared up on one of the courtyard walls by pissed off grapevines... Even with all his strength, he couldn't break through them and had to wait for Lucifer to cut him down… 😔 

From then on, Beel was pretty much the pesky rabbit to the MC's harvest. They had to set up traps and magical barriers to keep him from their precious grapes…!! Which inevitably meant one of his brothers had to come rescue him from their furious vines at least once a week... 🙄

SOMETIMES, the MC will bring him along to help harvest with them with the deal that he can have an extra basket for however many he helps them pick. But the second he takes a bite he shouldn't, it’s back on the wall!

Out of the vineyard, they're nice enough. But put some grapes between these two and they're mortal enemies… STOP messing with their plants, Beel!! 😤

Belphegor 

So… this drunken fool is supposed to get him out of the attic? Never mind, this is never going to work…

He was SEVERELY underwhelmed when the "human" finally made it up the steps. This was who they decided to bring for their exchange program? They seemed like they could barely stand!

Naturally, he figured all the better for him. They probably wouldn't even last that long! 

Some poor, incompetent human falling victim to a demon out there? Diavolo's reputation would in tatters and he wouldn't even have to lift a finger! (His favorite way of doing things really 😌).

But… they just kept coming back? Like. Nothing was killing them….! How guarded were they keeping this moron?? 

Or… maybe it was something else?

Sure, the MC seemed like a drunken idiot but there were times when he'd swear that they were just… too aware to be sloshed…

MC: *suddenly stops smiling at him mid-conversation and looks him in the eye* You tilt your head when you lie. You know that?

How can someone so cheerful ALSO be so unnerving…?

So really, he should have seen their sudden heel-turn after they opened the door coming. There he was, fully intending to take them by surprise and choke them after a hug…

...and they knocked him down, climbed onto his back like a spider monkey, and rode him around like a bucking bull using his horns like handlebars!!

It wouldn’t have been AS humiliating if they didn’t also keep shouting things like "Giddiyap!" And "Yee-haw!!"

It took him a whole month to be sure that any and all footage of that nightmare was erased and he STILL hates the MC quite a bit for it…. But he's too scared to attack them now, so…

The lesson here? It's not a fair fight when one side’s crazy... 😔😒

[mittensmorgul]

Incoming sad rant about the spn ending. Don't read if you're not interested in reading something like that, but I literally don't know anyone in real life I can talk about this with, and I really need an outlet:

Sometimes I can put the way SPN ended out of my head and think "it's just a stupid show. I don't have to accept the finale, and the writers/network are wrong." But other times I just get gripped with really intense sadness at the disrespect that was done to my favorite characters. To the point where I'll sit still for hours a day, just wallowing in it. It ruins my whole day and mood. And then I think to myself "I'll just find some other stories that end better!" but then I get sad again, cuz I don't think I will ever love other characters as much as I love Dean and Cas, and then I spiral again thinking about all the potential this unique beautiful love story had, and how we're never going to get the closure we deserve.

I really hate that after all this time, I'm a grown ass adult getting sad over fictional characters. I know it's not that trivial, but I sometimes wish it was so I could get over it 😞

Hi hi, and first of all *socially distanced internet hugs* I’m sorry you don’t have an outlet, but you’re always welcome to chat with me (if you come off anon we can talk privately if you want. My DM’s are always open, even when it takes me a bit to reply. no one should have to feel alone in this.)

I’m actually gonna start at the bottom of your message and work my way up, because I also, as a grown-ass adult, get sad over fictional characters. And I need to emphasize that this is the *point* of fiction. A well-written and developed fictional character is *indistinguishable in our minds from an actual real human being.* The way we react to them *feels exactly the same to our brains and bodies* as how we react to real people, and that’s a testament to just how well developed Dean and Cas were in canon.

I am not a young person. I have engaged with a lot of media over my life, and have *never* felt this strongly about fictional characters before, so I understand what you mean when you struggle to think about finding another story that ended better, or struggle to think about finding other characters you might become this attached to or experience this sort of emotional investment in. And I think there is another factor you didn’t consider there: The vast majority of other media I have engaged with, I was able to relate to on a level of “oh that’s nice for them” or “wow that sucks for them.” I have never, and possibly never will again, feel so utterly invested in fictional characters, to the point where it affects my real life as much as Supernatural has. Period.

I will likely never experience *literal physical lovesickness* over two fictional characters ever again. I hadn’t ever experienced it *in my own real life* before, and yet 15.18 triggered all those symptoms in me. As an aromantic person, this was pretty shocking to me. It also says a lot about just how real these characters feel to us, and how important they have become to us. They make us feel this! This is not an accident. It’s *incredibly difficult* to create fictional characters with this range and depth of emotional connection, and yet here we are.

I think that’s the biggest evidence possibly to present in defense of the statement that THIS IS NOT JUST SOME STUPID SHOW.

Other evidence: this fandom, still going strong after 15 years. Look at every SPN convention for proof. Look at AO3, where there are more posted stories about Dean and Cas than literally any other pairing on the planet (by a not-small margin, too). If that isn’t enough evidence, we have fanart to look at as well. Look through @theroadsofararchive where at the time of this posting there are over 40,000 artworks catalogued, and more being added all the time. Same with @canonspngifs where you can search through through nearly 75,000 gifsets organized by an excellent tagging system and made by dedicated fans out of love for the thing. This is all proof that you are not alone, that so many of us care just as deeply about them as you do. Not even mentioning the people who have written hundreds of millions of words of meta, articles, and even masters theses and doctoral dissertations on Supernatural and the fandom. This is a unique thing, even within the larger fandom culture. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your feelings for it are stupid or irrelevant or wrong.

But also don’t let anyone try to convince you that you must accept the finale as part of the story if you don’t want to. Don’t even let *yourself* believe that if you don’t want to. This show has done more to play with the themes of “what is reality” and “who gives a story meaning” and alternate universes and curses and djinn dreams to easily account for whatever the heck the finale was.

my current go-to theory: everything after Chuck’s defeat takes place in the Mockumentary Alternate Universe... it fits way too uncomfortably well... and then I just apply the fic I received in a cosmic transmission from the actual supernatural universe wrote detailing the events of what *I* hoped would transpire afterward. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me, mostly because it *has* to. It means far too much to me not to.

You are not alone in having invested yourself into this story, and these characters. Your feelings about them are not wrong or stupid or frivolous. And the proof is everyone else who feels the same exact way, who connected to this story (and to each other through this story), and whose lives have been forever altered through this journey together. The fact that Dabb turned out to have been Chuck Junior and couldn’t see (or was prevented from showing us) what Team Free Will would’ve chosen to do with that after defeating their original creator just stands to prove to me that the finale can’t possibly be The Truth, you know?

I don’t know if any of this will help you, or provide you some small comfort right now, but maybe it will eventually. We’re all processing the loss of the show and the abject failure of story that was the finale in different ways, and I’m sure our emotional reactions will shift over time. It was just A Lot to process all in the span of a few incredibly emotional weeks-- not even mentioning how all of that emotional response was compounded by the american elections and surrounding nonsense, the general stress of enduring a global pandemic and all that entails, and *waves hands around broadly at everything else contributing to the trauma occurring in the collective of humankind right now.* We’ve all been emotionally compromised, so be kind to yourself in how you feel you’re coping with it all.

And know that no matter what, you are not alone in how you’re feeling. The grief is real, and our brains don’t care if it’s felt for fictional characters or real people. This was honestly a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of us, and not even the wtf of the finale can kill it for us if we don’t let it. I reject that particular piece of rusty rebar and choose to believe in a just and narratively coherent resolution. To do anything less feels like dishonoring the story and characters who have drawn me in and made me feel so much for them over the years. If the story itself couldn’t honor them properly, then I can choose to do so myself.

<3

[takaraphoenix]

unpopular opinion: Wanda's hatred of Tony was justified. I mean I'd be pretty mad too if I was orphaned at 10, lived on the streets of a poor slavic country, and was waiting for a bomb to explode for two days. A lot of people seem to forget that at the time Tony was in his early 30's and was a war profiteer. I love Tony don't get me wrong but everyone seems to look over his many flaws. With proper character arcs, a personality, and maybe her own movie Wanda could have been a fan favorite.

*rubs face* For future references; I LOVE me some Hot Takes, I’m barely even interacting with Marvel stuff anymore and in general, I am not interested in Hot Anti [Favorite Character Of The Franchise] Takes because, quite frankly, I got better things to do with my time than shit on my favorites or read about someone else shitting on my favorites. So please take weird anti Tony takes either to an anti Tony blog, who will wholeheartedly agree with you, or to a pro Tony blog, who actually has the mental space and willingness to debate that bullshit.  But I’ll give you the shortest answer I can pull together right now:

Imagine if, in the real world, people would start hating the gun manufacturer for the murder of their loved ones instead of the murderer. Imagine if, instead of holding actual terrorists, bombers, mass-shooters responsible, people would be going “well x individual person made this gun”...

How’s that sound logic? How’s that justified?

I genuinely don’t remember - or care - what had brought on the attack on Sokovia when the Maximoffs were children, but... whatever terrorist group had attacked them, that is where her anger would have been justified. They decided to get superpowered and didn’t go after the terrorists who killed their parents, didn’t try to help her country, didn’t do anything useful. She went after the dude who designed the weapon.

Tony Stark legally produced and sold his weapons. Stop trying to make the fact that someone else stole those weapons and the fact that a third other person used them for a terrorist attack the fault of Tony.

Also like... I don’t want to meet the people whose favorite character could have been MCU!Wanda - literally any other Wanda, yes, but if you pick, out of all MCU characters available, the one who willingly became a Nazi terrorist, that’s... beyond poor taste (and so was the MCU’s attempt to redeem this character, but then again so was the MCU’s decision to make a canonically Jewish character willingly join a Nazi organization).

I do think that what we like in fiction does not reflect reality. However, HYDRA is very specifically... actual... Nazis; WWII Drittes Reich Nazis, not just some made up metaphor or vague group that is supposed to reflect them. The characters are actual Nazis. And I find it hella shady to like a Nazi (and fun fact: the moment you join a Nazi group, whatever your reasons - and the reason ‘I wanna get superpowers so I can kill the man who designed the weapon others used to kill my parents with!’ is really not a solid reason to join Nazis! - you become a Nazi. Not something akin to a Nazi, or a sympahtizer, not someone who is just ‘along for the ride’ for other personal gain. You join the Nazis, you are a Nazi)!

(And if any pro Tony blog with like... more mental presence for a longer more coherent answer than “that’s a dumbass reason” and “don’t sympathize with Nazis” wants a go at it; feel free to reblog and add on.)

[haruhey]

I just read your essay and ma'am-

If you had written 10 more pages and went more in depth in the analysis, I would have read it 100% (which says a lot cause I HATE when analysis get long)

Ngl, Negan's character is always one I found interesting (and when I find a character interesting, I always end up "liking" them cause I genuinely enjoy learning about what made them the way they are/analyse them, so it does happen quite a lot with evil characters that know how to speak and have that leader vibe) but it always felt, idk, off ? And you put it into words !!!!! Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an amazing actor and he portrays Negan perfectly, and the fact that the actor has so much charm really fits this "off-vibe".

I feel like medias LOVE the trope of "extremely evil character who only makes morally wrong choices and actions but is oh so handsome and charming you can't hate him and also he wasn't ALWAYS like that so it's ok for you to like him ig :)", and it always made me, idk, not uncomfortable, but it felt odd, y'know ? And yeah idek where I'm going with this anymore and it's getting long so imma stop there but summary is that I really enjoyed reading your essay so thank you for sharing !! ❤❤❤

this is the essay anon is talking about!

ahhhhh anon i’m so glad you found my essay interesting !! and i feel you, man. 3 pages and i’m out. i’m sorry but my brain is too small to handle anything more 😩😩

but, anyways, yeah, i agree that negan is a really interesting character - i mean, you can’t NOT be when you literally kill off two fan favourites but STILL go on to amass so many fans for yourself - and that’s the main reason why i wanted to write this essay !! my teacher had an example that was basically talking about this comic book character and why the writer loved them so much, so i kinda wanted to write one about why i hated a character. surprise, surprise, i immediately thought of negan lmaoo.

my original idea was to go with a focus on how jdm’s aesthetic appearance and idiosyncrasies brought a lot of lenience towards his actions (aka pretty privilege, which definitely contributes to that off factor) and i was gonna talk about real life fans of like, ted bundy and richard ramirez, but i could only write 2 pages and i still had to check off all the criteria, so i had to change my idea real quick into my issues with the bad boy trope. it was easier since i only needed negan as my example.

i have my own qualms about redemption storylines (i grappled with that topic a bit, too, in the early stages of the assignment), but i have so many flip-floppy feelings about it that it wouldn’t make for a coherent essay. if i had chosen that, i definitely would not be getting my mark for a clear and concise arguable thesis lmaoooo.

but yeah, bad boys in general kinda suck as a trope, but i’m not like, telling y’all not to read it. my only problem is that some people can’t seem to recognize fiction from reality, and that could be hurtful to them because of the whole ‘i can change him’ mentality that society has kinda,,, idealized?? idk, those are just my thoughts, and again, i’m glad you enjoyed reading my essay !!

[eisforeidolon]

Thank you for answering my question! I was the one who asked if it was the norm for this fandom to use the LGBTQ+ community as a defense for their very disgusting behavior. Thank you for being honest about this fandom. I noticed the hate towards the actors and other people involved with making this show a few times, but I really got into this fandom a few weeks ago and saw how many people hated on Jared and Jensen after the latest con. (1/2)

Honestly the things Jared said were not really offensive, at least to me, but I Honestly the things Jared said were nice to hear. It was pretty cool seeing someone defend the Platonic love presented in spn openly. It just seems strange how some people weaponize sexuality, which can and is very important to a lot of people to make a point about fictional characters. Can you recommend any blogs to follow? I'm thinking about making a Tumblr.(2/2)

********************************

Sure! To be as fair as is possible, the answer Jared gave wasn't particularly direct or coherent. However, I think anyone who cares to understand what he was trying to say can understand it pretty easily, though: there are many different kinds of love outside of sexual attraction and the show was always about those other kinds of love. Especially in the context of Jared having said before that he particularly liked how Supernatural was never centered on romance. I think he got tangled up a bit in his words trying not to offend or devalue other interpretations like that of the person asking, which was awkward, but there was nothing objectively offensive or unexpected in what he said.

The problem is that those certain D/C shippers (we coined the term 'destihellers' to refer specifically to the entitled bully contingent of the ship) were never going to accept any answer but, "Yes, Castiel's confession was 100% romantic and Dean understood it that way and would absolutely have reciprocated if given the chance." They've spent years insisting the real One True Story of this show was a D/C romance, feeling superior for their ability to decipher all the totally intentional elaborately hidden clues to that secret storyline (like Dean looking at someone wearing tan meaning he was pining for Castiel) and mocking, slandering, and harassing anyone who didn't agree. Part of that has been spending a year as of today insisting there was literally no other possible interpretation of what Castiel said - even though had the writers simply substituted "in love with" for "love" it would have removed all ambiguity. So Jared's answer acknowledging that the scene left room for other interpretations and wasn't explicitly romantic just because Castiel said the word love is completely unacceptable and made them disproportionately angry.

This is not remotely this first time this has happened. Generally, after either J says anything about D/C not being the point of the show or Misha not being a lead equal to them, this particular group of fans manages to find *something* to be deeply offended by. Heck, right now? Some of them are angry that Jared trended last night for tweeting about Walker because they saw his very existence on SM as encroaching on their intent to spam today on the anniversary of that episode's airing.

It's a great thing that fandom can be a more inclusive space where people from various groups can feel safe revealing aspects of themselves that face widespread discrimination IRL. It's not a great thing that some people have seen this as the perfect way to win petty fandom arguments, insisting anyone who disagrees with them must be -ist/-ic towards the whole group they belong to.

I don't think I'm really the person to ask for recommendations, as I haven't kept great track of which blogs I follow are specifically just the bro bond and not bro bond plus wincest, because as the core canon content focus is similar there's a lot of overlap. So I'm gonna toss this one to my followers/people who see this post if they wanna make any suggestions on good blogs to follow for celebrating just the canon platonic relationships. Anybody?

[nedjemetsenen]

I literally cannot describe how amazing and beautiful and fantastic what we do in the name of ma'at is. I love reading your A/N so much it's just 💜🥰😻💜❗

Thank you so much anon and everyone else who joined me on this ride. I just posted the final chapter and epilogue for All This We Do in the Name of Ma’at, which means that we are done! I am free!

For those who are curious about what comes next:

1. I am open to writing additional content for this AU. Deleted scenes, post credit content, etc. There's a lot of stuff that I didn't explore in the main fic due to a desire to tell a well-paced, coherent story. Hopefully I pulled that off, but if you want more, feel free to tell me what you want to see. As far as requests go, I prefer asks on tumblr instead of comments because not every request will inspire a full story, but I will try to at least give you a headcannon or the like.

2. I have another long fic idea that I'm currently playing with and will probably end up writing, though I am curious if the general premise appeals or not. It is nothing like Ma'at because it's a complete AU instead of a reimagining. It's also not historical fiction. Remember when I had that two week hiatus when I got sick? Well, I binged She-Ra on Netflix during that time and, while I have many things that I didn't like about that series, it did give me ideas. This new piece is based on those ideas. It is NOT a She-Ra rewrite, but it has a similar vibe. More like something that anyone could enjoy, but that She-Ra fans would potentially pick up similarities in. I'm not going to start publishing this for a while, though. Hopefully I'll get some short story requests first and use those as a break since I'd like a few weeks without a self-imposed deadline to meet. I also want to develop this new fic's ideas a lot more before I throw content out there.

3. I'm going to write a short rare-pair collab with a friend and you'll see that on AO3 soon. Do not worry, this doesn't mean that I'm no longer going to be writing puzzle content or anything like that. Puzzleshipping is, and always will always be, my OTP.

[thingswhatareawesome]

oh, my dreams (never quite as it seems)

title: oh, my dreams (never quite as it seems) fandom: Tiger and Bunny pairing: Barnaby/Kotetsu (taibani) word count: 2150 summary: Kotetsu’s been having these dreams for most of his life. But they don’t mean anything, right? They’re just some strange coincidence, right? There’s no such thing as soulmates, right?

For the For the March Flash Fiction day two prompt: “Looking for me?”

I know I felt like this before But now I'm feeling it even more Because it came from you

The first time it happened, Kotetsu was young. He and Tomoe had just gotten engaged and were discussing moving to Stern Bild City so he could try to catch the attention of a sponsor and get hired as a hero. Normally not very prone to dreaming, especially with as exhausted as they were after days packed with wedding planning and packing for the move, plus his training and trying to find work, one night he slipped into a strangely clear and coherent dream.

He was being stared down by a scowling blond man who looked just a bit older than him, with a stern face and cold green eyes behind his glasses, wearing a strange mecha-looking suit. The man eventually sighed and gave a frustrated huff. “I thought you were looking for me.”

“Buddy, I have no idea who you even are,” Kotetsu sassed, then abruptly woke up. Blinking up at the ceiling, he thought, what the hell?

Kotetsu forgot the dream soon after, and would have forever if not for it happening again. Life was amazing, everything was going just great! Except Kotetsu was so busy his head spun and it felt like he couldn’t manage to remember everything with all that was going on. He was a hero! And it was everything he hoped for! Mostly! When his sponsors weren’t yelling at him about damages and Ben wasn’t aggravated because he kept doing what he wanted and not what the higher ups at Hero TV wanted! And Tomoe was pregnant! He was going to be a dad to a little girl!  

Then one night he dreamt of that frowning man again, who looked at him and asked, “You said you were looking for me?”

Kotetsu stared and stammered, “I, shit, did I forget something? Did I have an appointment with you? Was it an interview? Did Tomoe need me to get something from you for the nursery?” He flailed and patted at his pockets. “To do list, to do list, oh man, did I lose it?”

The blond man rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his long, swoopy-curled hair with a sigh that suddenly sounded familiar. “Never mind.”

And then Kotetsu woke up, Tomoe laying on his now numb and asleep right arm, and he murmured, “Huh. Stress is really getting to me.”

*

The next time the dream happened, Tomoe was gone. His daughter was in a different city, living with his mother. And Kotetsu was alone. Alone in his apartment, alone in his bed, alone in a sprawling, bustling city where no one really gave a crap about him.

Kotetsu thought he was asleep, but his eyes were open and he was staring up at the shadowed ceiling, and that guy was there in his room, just standing there looking at him. Except this time he was in normal clothes, pants and boots and a red leather jacket. He was frowning like the other times, but different somehow, like he wasn’t so much angry as just…serious, somber, somehow. Concerned, maybe? A little bit.

“Were you…looking for me?” the man asked quietly.

“No.” Kotetsu paused, blinked slowly as he thought for a long moment. “I don’t think I’m looking for anyone or anything anymore.” The only person he wanted to look for was far, far beyond his reach. “But. I. I dunno, I guess…I could use a bit of company for a little bit? If that’s okay.”

The blond man nodded, and Kotetsu felt his eyes flutter, then close, suddenly so very heavy. The last thing he felt before sinking into sleep was the sensation of someone brushing his hair back from his forehead and running a finger every so gently beneath his damp eyes.

*

Five years later, Kotetsu met Barnaby Brooks Jr.

Back at home after that bizzarre day, remembering those three old dreams and thinking about getting caught like a damsel in distress earlier as he fell, being called old man, *and* being shown up on live TV by the aggravating new guy (that somehow he knew??), he rubbed at his face with his hands roughly.

“What,” Kotetsu said to the empty room, “the fuck?”

*

Not long after that, his mother told a tale during one of their phone calls of people who sometimes dreamed of soulmates. Usually, she lectured, the dreams would happen over and over, only ceasing when an emotional connection was formed—like a close friendship or even a romantic relationship. Those whose hearts formed a special bond of love would even begin to see a red string connecting each other.

Kotetsu had snorted and waved a hand to make her stop. Nah, no way, no how was he believing in that sort of cheesy crap. And anyway, he’d already found his soulmate, and lost her, and no young upstart was ever going to be anything like Tomoe had been for him.

*

Well. Okay. Maybe Bunny would end up a friend after all. A good friend. A bona fide partner even. And Kotetsu would do anything for him.

But soulmate? Bunny would surely never let him *that* close. And certainly it would never be romantic love. Tomoe had been it for him. Kotetsu reminded himself of that, swore it to himself, more and more often, each restless night when it was just him in the quiet and dark, or during the day when he caught sight of Bunny and felt a strange pang in his chest, sharp behind his sternum. Tomoe had been *it*, he thought again, feeling the solidness of his wedding ring digging into his finger as he clenched his fist.

And anyway, the dreams had stopped, Kotetsu thought to himself. It’d been years. So whatever connection had already happened, right?

Plus soulmates weren’t real so the dreams stopping was just a random thing that didn’t mean anything anyway. Right?

*

Then the dream happened again. After…after he’d hurt Bunny, by not telling him about losing his powers or wanting to retire, by not trusting him. By *slapping* him. When Kotetsu fell asleep while waiting for Samantha Taylor to return to her home, he saw Bunny walking away from him into an endless expanse of darkness. “Bunny,” he shouted, running to chase after him, reaching and reaching for him, hand outstretched to try to grab him, but he could never manage to get close enough. “Bunny! I’m sorry! I’m looking for you, please, I’m looking for you! Where are you?”

He woke on an unfamiliar couch, mumbling “Where are you?” out loud as he slipped from dream to reality. But then everything blew up in his face, almost literally, and Kotetsu was too busy running for his life and trying to figure out what bizzarro world he was in where no one remembered him to wonder or worry why the dream had returned.

Or why it had changed.

*

Everything was fine. Everything was good. Great, even! Kotetsu retired and moved back home, where ha could be around his daughter and his family, and could be there for Kaede as she learned more and more about her new NEXT powers. He could be there to help his brother at his store when needed, and could help his mother with her garden and with fixing up the house. He was useful!

He was…just sitting around the house, to be honest. A lot. He was so uncool and boring, according to Kaede. He was…

He was missing Bunny. And he was having the dreams again.

A lot.

The dreams were always the same now. Similar to the one he’d had that night at Samantha Taylor’s home, Bunny would be walking away from Kotetsu, never stopping or turning back. Kotetsu would reach out for him but never catch him—though he didn’t shout at Bunny with the same deperation as he had in that earlier dream. Now, he just called out for Bunny, saying “I’m looking for you!” like he was calling to Kaede when she got too far ahead in a crowd and he couldn’t see her. Or sometimes in a tone of voice like Kotetsu had spotted an old school friend across the street, friendly and delighted. Or sometimes yelling to Bunny while sounding oddly lonely and wistful.

And sometimes he’d call out for Bunny flirtatiously, with a lilt to his voice like he used to do when he was being playful and silly with Tomoe.

Huh. Interesting.

Those times, when he woke from the dream, Kotetsu would think Oh. Is that how it is now? Is it? Maybe?

But not like he would ever try to find Bunny and see if the new dreams meant anything. Bunny was getting to live his own life now, finally. And he deserved that—and Kotetsu would do anything to make sure it stayed that way. He could put up with a few dreams if it meant that somewhere out there, Bunny was truly enjoying his life and was happy.

Though the sitting around the house thing, the being an uncool dad thing, the kind of sort of maybe missing being a hero thing? Those, he could do something about. There surely was a way Kotetsu could try again. Make the best of his situation. Kotetsu had Ideas!

*

Being a Second League hero wasn’t so bad. Sure, sometimes he messed up or looked foolish, sometimes the network or fans made fun of him, but that wasn’t all that different than First League had been. And Kotetsu was there on his own terms, making the best of it, and he wasn’t ever going to give up. Not anymore. Wild Tiger was never going to be a quitter, ever again.

Not even when he got caught like a princess needing rescuing yet *again*. Not even when he was going to get written up for damages to some dumb car (and this time it wasn’t even his fault!)

Because Bunny was back, and the way he’d said, “Because I’m your partner” had left Kotetsu feeling like he could soar through the air like Sky High—even as he and Bunny decended into bickering.

Because Bunny was *back*. Bunny was back *for him*.

*

It was like a breath of fresh air to spend time with Bunny again, like something loosened and relaxed in Kotatsu that he hadn’t realized had been tense. Staring out at the night sky and the patchwork quilt of city lights below while on the balcony of Bunny’s new penthouse apartment, Kotetsu marvelled at how light he felt, how hopeful and free. They’d reuinited, and he felt like he was at the start of some big adventure, excitement making him eager to venture forth.

From inside, he heard Bunny calling his name. “I’m out here,” Kotetsu hollered back over his shoulder in response.

Bunny pushed aside the curtains, slipping out through the sliding door. “There you are. I was looking for you.”

Something suddenly made Kotetsu pause and blink, twisting sharply to look at Bunny. Something about the soft curve of Bunny’s smile, the glint of the starlight reflected in his eyes, even through his glasses. The moment felt like something out of a dream. His heart skipped a beat.

“Were you? Looking for me?” he murmured. The moment felt almost fragile, like he was cradling something crystalline in his hands.

Bunny’s eyes widened and he stared at Kotetsu almost as if seeing him for the first time. A long silence fell, and Kotetsu realized he was holding his breath. Then, tentatively, Bunny responded, “yes. Always. I—,” he looked away, biting his lip, then his gaze snapped sharply back to Kotetsu’s as if pulled by a magnet. “Kotetsu,” he said firmly, and a shivering spark shot up Kotetsu’s spine at the use of his actual name, “were you looking for me, too?”

“Oh, Bunny,” Kotetsu reached out carefully to grasp Bunny’s arm, then trailed his fingers down until he could clasp his hand, interlacing their fingers, his skin tingling when the younger man allowed it. The physical touch, the feeling of smooth, warm skin and a firm grip, made everything seem to solidify and suddenly feel real again. For a brief second, he thought he caught a glimpse of something shimmering red and threadlike in the dim light, trailing from his hand and leading to Bunny’s. “I’ve been looking for you for so, so long, you don’t even know.”

Then Bunny smiled, wider and brighter than Kotetsu had ever seen before, his eyes crinkling, and Kotetsu felt the same firework burst of joy in his heart that was there on Bunny’s face, like every dream either of them had ever had, in an instant all at once came true. Then I open up and see The person falling here is me A different way to be

[phantomchick]

List of wips - aka struggles

Call Me A Jason Todd fic I started two years ago and still go back to poke at longingly, will the second and final chapter ever be posted? Who can know for sure.

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I tell myself that I don't need Anyone (But the truth is no one needs Me) Another Jason Todd fic I haven't completed, posted two years ago for whumptober, it was the only day of whumptober I participated in, intended to be full of Captain Atom and Jason Todd interacting during the fall out of Bludhaven getting chemo'd but he doesn't show up in the first chapter and have you ever tried to read Infinite Crisis? It's a fucking mess. With this wip I have a close to justifiable excuse in that I refuse to write without knowing the canon, and reading through all the canon that's relevant is A Task.

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The Monster in The Man A Merlin fic floating around my drafts, currently at a good bit over 5k wherein Merlin gets POSSESSED by an old enchantment gone mad. Written because a Merlin fic I read ended on a horror style cliffhanger and I couldn't handle it so I charged my way through the first 2k of a sequel and I've been adding to it ever since. Angst with a hopefully happy ending, if I ever frikking finish it.

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The Dragon Lord In the aftermath of his father's death after Merlin inherits his father's dragon lord abilities he notices some minor changes to his interactions with his friends, the thing is that Merlin is a dragon lord and unusually what he hoards is people, things might just turn out the better for it.

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Maelstrom A Naruto time travel fix it fic that wouldn't leave me alone until I got the first chapter out, ironically it has left me entirely alone since I finished the first chapter and I have no idea if inspiration for it will ever return or when that will be.

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You Don't Know Anything Long long ago in a land of asks and a time of legend @paradise-runway sent me a fic request for "one where the other Bat boys find out the circumstances of Jason's death and resurrection and their reaction?" it has been lingering in my drafts haunting me ever since, someday, someday I shall fulfill what has been promised.

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Of Curses and Covenants A longfic exploring the magical underbelly of Gotham's history, focuses on the intertwined relationship of the Wayne Family and the Zatara Family brought about by how often Waynes through the generations have ended up being cursed. I have an index of all the curses ready, the problem with this one is the plot and the story.

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Vicki Finds a Bat (temporary title) Vicki Vale stumbles upon a still alive young adult Jason Todd at a wafflehouse on the way back from snooping into Cobblepot's latest criminal schemes. Convincing the young man to go back home to his loving father might prove more of a challenge than she thinks however. (will have a happy ending if I ever fucking finish it, for now it looms in my drafts like an unhappy gargoyle)

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Hug Deficit A fic about Jason being touch starved and his family fixing it, hurt/comfort all the way, post resurrection.

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Stephanie Brown and The Mansion of Man Pain Robin Era Steph, she and Alfred have pumpkin spice lattes together, it's their thing because I say it is. Includes, Alfred raised 5 boys counting Bruce, he's not sure how to handle a little girl and Bruce trying to dad plus Steph trying her best. Would be a lot easier to write if I was any good at comedy.

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Another Time, Another Place Some twenty years or so after their death, Martha and Thomas Wayne appear in the middle of Wayne Manor's ground floor parlour room, the major problem with this? Not only are Bruce and Dick away, Alfred's on holiday in England! Which is why Jason as the eldest has been unwillingly nominated by his younger siblings to deal with the situation at hand. Martha and Thomas in this are heavily inspired by @unpretty's amazing portrayals in her fics with them.

- Queen Blackfire and the Lazarus Lord An au with Soulmate identifying marks: Jason Todd was having an okay time as de-facto leader of The Outlaws, a band of misfits and rebels with hearts of gold (or at least silver) saving the world the best they could and filling in the gaps the more straightforward heroes tended to miss while they were at it. Then he found out he was soulmates with the Alien Warrior Queen bent on declaring war on planet Earth if the Justice League didn't find her soulmate for her. Things with his friend, team mate and potential future sister in law Kori just got super awkward and the only good thing he can find about this situation is how angry (and protective? But maybe he's just imagining that) Bruce seems over the whole thing.

Side note: Kommand'r freaked out during the years Jason was 'dead' and accidentally brought peace to a huge chunk of space and intergalactic society via building up her empire after throwing herself into work to escape the grief.

- To Grasp The Hand of a Fox Naruto and Kurama travel back in time to save the world but unfortunately they land in the same moment that Kurama's just been put under a genjutsu by Madara Uchiha, Naruto has to make his way to Konoha and wake Kurama up before the villagers seal him away inside Mito. Can he save his friend in time to save them all?

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Those Winter Sundays Mcu fic. Snapshots of Tony working hard for the avengers and no one noticing. Civil War Team Iron Man.

- Salvation Rides a Solar Wind Iron Man fic in a Science fiction / Western style fic where Tony's presence is described through the eyes of the aliens he helps. Au where the war with Thanos goes very differently. The type of fic that needs like 5 multi chapter fics in a single series to truly shine, hence why I will likely never finish it.

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And We Break Away Again Jason goes back to Talia after Damian is brought back from the dead by Bruce. It's not that he begrudges his little brother his resurrection, the opposite, but he can't ignore what Bruce did to him by taking him to the magdala valley and he can't ignore what Bruce doing for Damian what he didn't do for him, (do for Dick, do for any of them besides the blood related one) means. So he decides to go back to the only person who ever seemed to understand why he wanted to avenge himself in the first place, the only person who seemed to agree that he had a right to be angry that he'd died at all, the only person he can trust to hold him together while he feels like he's falling apart that won't judge him against the heroic mold while they're at it. Not sure if this will be a oneshot or a series but we're going good Talia with this one regardless, DC's been ruining her lately but through fanfic all things are possible so fuck them.

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Fan The Flames In the aftermath of a magical fire taking hold of the Daily Planet in Metropolis, Superman is missing, can Batman and the rest of the Justice League find their friend as well as the identity of the evil arsonist before Lex Luther does it first?

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In a Whisper (In a Wish) Ichigo Kurosaki protects people, it's not just who he is, it's what he is, down to the core of his very soul. The only problem is, that a few weeks ago he sacrificed half his soul to protect the world. It aches inside where he knows something important used to be. When everyone he cares for is avoiding him and he's starting to feel more like a shadow than a person, that aches at him too and he can't help but wish, quietly, privately, painfully, to himself if no one else that things were different, that he wasn't so broken or so alone. But if wishes were fishes they'd fill a whole sea (just be careful not to whisper them within the hearing range of the Hōgyoku).

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An Honest Conversation (Is A Bitter Thing To Crave) Jason kidnaps Bruce but things don't go as Bruce expects. First of all the reason Jason was able to kidnap him was because Stephanie of all people was his insider, why would she support someone Batman knows she's only met once. And second of all the reason he's been abducted - So that Jason can drug them both with the same substance. And when Bruce asks what he's doing this for Jason only responds, "We don't trust each other enough to have a truthful conversation otherwise" and refuses to say anything more while they wait for it to kick in. What will be revealed by this forced honest encounter on both sides? -

carrying the world on thin shoulders Midoriya Izuku deserves better from literally all the adults in his life so this is part whump part hurt comfort part fix it fic that sprawls out from time to time but it's pretty bad tbh, at some point I'll probably make it neater and give it something resembling a coherent plot. Hopefully. -

Trust Issues HP fic. Harry gets dosed with a potion that's supposed to reinforce your strongest survival instinct, the person who drugged him might've intended to be helpful but said potion happened to be at extra strength and he was given what would be a normal fix for the regular version but for this one is twice the recommended amount. Great.. The biggest problem about all this - beyond his internationally wanted godfather Sirius endangering himself by hiding out in a cave near Hogsmeade against all rational advice, his best friend Ron hating him, everyone in school besides his other best friend Hermione also hating him or avoiding him and the entire Goblet of Fire problem - is that he can't bring himself to trust anyone enough to tell them what's wrong.

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Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies A post marvel avengers story, thor pov probably, made because I like to dive into a pool of thor & loki sibling feels sometimes: Starts off as Thor regales his new human shield brothers with the story of his banishment and return to Asgard ending with Loki falling into the Void and the Avengers have some questions, questions Thor had not thought of, remarks on things that Thor doesn’t know how to explain away.  After he goes to Loki’s cell and asks him some things he becomes more and more angry despite having no one he can punch > Gets drunk and criticises Sif and The Warriors Three after they try to calm him down > mention of Loki still being underage by Aesir standards during Thor 1 seeing as Thor was being crowned due to being of age in the movie > heavy inspiration drawn from queen regnant by peaceheather. “For while the Treason I detest, the Traitor I love still.” Currently just an outline.

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Separation Split personality disorder Red Hood and Jason Todd, alternatively, Red Hood is a demon/parasite latched on to Jay. A lot of work necessary considering right now it’s currently just an idea inspired by a cool tumblr fanart.

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A Trinity of Head Wounds The dcu trinity in the aftermath of a fight against some alien invaders (or something along those lines), whump, hurt/comfort, starts with them arguing, ends with them bleeding on each other in a friendship way, whole thing should take place in a single room on the watchtower and be a oneshot so it's gotta be a short and sweet one-two gut punch with the feelings which is difficuuult.

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A Stark in The Stars an mcu fic, a really over complicated mcu fic, mostly because of Steve Roger's timeline fuckery, Tony's alive but he's not supposed to be, but so are a lot of people who were dead but aren't now you might say what with the snap and the blip. The thing is that Steve's timeline fuckery is making it so that everyone keeps getting confused between the two different timelines of events, obviously more confused the more that their characters were connected to the films/the events that were altered, the punchline of this particular fic though is that Tony's still alive and he's unaware of the timeline of events where he died. And as he's currently in space he's also unaware that everyone on Earth thinks he's dead (because why wouldn't they? he died in endgame after all). That makes this fic super tough to write because like ultimate unreliable narrator right here and not sure how to tie in the whole 'oh wait actually everyone on Earth thinks I'm dead because of the canon timelines' thing in or at what point of the story to do that at. The fuckery of it all gives me a headache. Plot is hard. Also all of that's basically background to the actual focus of most of the fic thus far which is Tony travelling around space in an Iron Man suit up until the point where it won't be background.

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Magic Chained Merlin au. When you put magic restraining cuffs on Magic himself you don't just bind him you bind all magic the world over. It is therefore, infinitely lucky that Uther Pendragon never became aware of this fact.

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A Child in The Cold bnha Midoriya deserves better also Recovery Girl and Aizawa have shit to answer for as far as I'm concerned.

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