#or as i like to call it since there aren't any better alternatives.....

[seth-burroughs]

Worshipper x Priest ramble because I'm soooooo normal about the chapter 1 characters.

Listen. As chapter 1's biggest defender these two had it going on. the names: The Priest & the Worshipper - Worshipper is a NM fanatic, dedicating himself to learning everything about him and wanting to catch him sooo bad, being so utterly *obsessed* with him he eventually BECAME the Nail Man (albeit the less cooler one), it's blatantly obvious the Worshipper is supposed to be worshipping his favourite serial killer over any deity in the Metal Fox church. The Nail Man being, well, Priest guy. That's his God guys. The priest that also wanted to play god sooo bad he copied the urban legend of NM to make it real the same way Worshipper guy copied the real Nail Man. The. You could make so much fucked up religious imagery old man toxic yaoi with this. The Worshipper wants and NEEDS foxy grandpa carnally he comes into the confessional booth every few days so he can try and fail to flirt with him using the most egregious and disgusting pick up lines and the Priest not even getting the hint and just saying "awe thanks that's very nice of you my fellow child of god :)) now if you'll excuse me i need to return some video tapes" and skedaddling to the woods. The vibes are immaculate forever sorrowful over it not being popular or even present at all in the fandom... Priest/Worshipper walked so hellxander could also walk just not as fast they were the BLUEPRINT OF TOXIC RAIN CODE YAOI❗❗❗That is all, I will now depart.

[llamagoddessofficial]

Okay wait! We need more fae farm Sans please! that was too good! What would it look like when Sans's secret is revealed?

HFKDSJ okay, here's some more.

I really don't think he'd be too worried about it, when you discover his otherworldly nature. Because neither would you. Everyone already knows he's kind of strange, rumours of him not being 'normal' are abound. At that point, you would've already spent many moons getting to know him, being vulnerable without even realising - and you'd be living in a world where fae aren't uncommon at all. He's already proven himself a trustworthy friend. Why would you be scared of him?

... Especially since you have no reason to believe he's anything other than normal fae.

What you (a human) might forget is that the fair folk are not a homogeneous group. Some fae even other fae fear. He's one such entity.

It's difficult to tell if he's more powerful than Dream or Nightmare, considering he spends all his time... well, farming. It's also difficult to compare them because while all three are very ancient, they trace back to very different lineages. Dream and Nightmare are fae of butterflies, flowers, mushrooms, trees, seasons. Farmer is of ferns - of bogs, of gingkos, pine and moss.

Yall remember my Forest God AU? He's like if a Forest God got its act together, and just decided to settle down in a humanoid form. He's lived long enough to know what really matters... things like soft socks, a place to call home, the eyes and lips of a human you love.

He calls you "chickadee". It's his favourite bird.

People from the nearby village will giddily ask if you and Farmer are 'courting'. The delightful but mysterious bachelor finally has someone he likes? Everyone's rooting for him!

You have a very important role, on his farm. Very very important. You're his preserves tester. How is he supposed to know his jams and chutneys are any good, without someone of refined palate to assist him?

He has a really wonderful singing voice.

Old habits die hard; he still likes to trade. But the trades are silly, and often just an excuse for him to play. You want to hear him sing again? Better 'trade' by agreeing to cuddle up by the fire with him. You want another song, because the last sounded so ancient and beautiful and unlike anything you've ever heard? Try his spiced rice pudding, then he'll think about it.

His favourite food is roasted chestnuts.

His farm rests on the boundary between the fae and human worlds. You can enter from either side - and if you're not careful, leave on the wrong side. Farmer always walks you the right way, but if someone he doesn't like decides to make their leave, he might not be so attentive to where they're going.

You can stay at his farm without turning into fae. Alternatively, if you enter his property from the fae side, your transformation into fae is paused.

Wouldn't be surprised if he can reverse an incomplete transformation.

He talks fondly, but in the past tense, about a brother.

[starkeysbaby]

I just thought of Rafe with a sleepy gf reader who falls asleep anywhere anytime. His truck, midsummers, party’s, in the middle of a convo. Idk why but I love the concept

omg i absolutley LOVE this concept!

A/N: I APOLOGISE FOR LATE UPLOAD. I HAD MAJOR WRITERS BLOCK, BUT IM BACK NOW!

Sleepy Girl

pairing: rafe cameron x sleepy!reader [est. relationship] 

warnings: none i think lol? [lemme know if you find any]

summary: numerous scenarios of when rafe cameron takes care of his sleepy girl

rafe cameron masterlist main masterlist

in his truck

It had been half an hour since you had told rafe that you were tired before ending the two hour long facetime call you two had been on. It had been half an hour of you trying to get to sleep. Despite being tired, you couldn't manage to fall asleep which was surprising for you as you'd usually be out within minutes after your head hit the pillows. After a few more minutes of struggling you decided to see if rafe was still awake.

*messages with rafe*

About ten minutes later you got a text from rafe saying he was outside. While he would usually come get you himself, at night you told him it'd be best if waits in the car so you guys don't wake your sleeping parents. "Hi beautiful" you heard him say as you got into rafe's truck and put your seatbelt on before he could ask you to. His free hand immediately found it's place on your thigh like it always did during your drives. "Hi, thanks for this" you blushed at his compliment from seconds ago. "Anything for you" he smiled as he started driving with no indication of where he was going. This wasn't the first time the two of you would go on drives when one of you was restless (almost always you) so as usual he would just drive around the obx until you both called it a night.

You continued on your drive having small, random, meaningless but interesting conversations as some random song quietly played through the speakers in the background. As you heard rafe talk about his new project with his dad at cameron development, you couldn't help but smile at him, feeling proud and happy at how much his relationship with his dad has improved and how his attitude towards life in general has changed for the better. The sound of his voice and his thumb rubbing against your thigh lulled you sleep causing rafe to gently pull over and place the blanket he kept in the back over you. He looked over at your sleepy form at a red light and couldn't help but to admire you "love you, my sleepy girl"

at parties (imagine this in a reality where kooks and pouges get along lol)

Kelce had thrown yet another end of school party despite it already being halfway into summer. The teens of the obx were always looking for an excuse to have houseparties, keggers, get togethers, you name it. If it had booze, drugs and people their age, they were down. Not that you were complaining though, you loved having a reason to get all dressed up and spend a night with your best friends and boyfriend. Although you were quite tired today and when vocalising this to rafe and your friends they all replied with something along the lines of "when aren't you". JJ in particular begged you to come and dared you to not fall asleep before 2 am. After a little persuasion and a bet formed between you and jj stating that the loser cleans the others car/bike for the next month, you were down.

At around 1:00 am you all (you, rafe, sarah, kie, cleo, john b, jj, pope, kelce, topper, barry and some other mutual friends) had found yourselves sitting on kelce's rather large balcony alternating between random convos and playing stupid party games such as truth or dare. You were sat in rafe's lap with his arms around you, one of his hands stroking your thigh whilst the other held a beer.

Feeling yourself grow tired you moved your face to bury it into rafe's chest almost forgetting about your bet with jj before you hear barry's voice booming. "YO THORNTON" causing jj to divert his attention away from a clingy kie "looks like mrs country clubs called it a night, pay up" you heard causing you to jolt your head up earning a groan from barry and a chuckle from jj and rafe. "Are you guys betting on me?" you asked putting two and two together. "Hey it's not just us, everyone is, even your boyfriend" jj pointed above you at rafe to get the blame off of himself.

This pulled whatever sleep you had in you away as you sat up and looked at rafe who had a sheepish smile on his face. "Explain" you said staring at rafe. "Well um-" he stuttered earning giggles from kelce and topper who rarely saw rafe at a loss for words "we all bet on who we think is gonna win the bet between you and jj" he explained. "Topper, kelce, john b, and cleo think you're gonna win and kie, barry, pope and sarah think jj's gonna win" he finished. "And you? who do you think is gonna win rafe?" you asked interested to hear his answer.

Some giggles from sarah and john b had you guessing you weren't going to like his answer. "well... baby you know i love you, but my money's on jj" he smiled down at you again with that sheepish smile. "really?" you laughed "you're betting against me?" you fake pouted, not really caring about something so silly. "Sorry baby" rafe laughed kissing your forehead. "Well imma stay up now just so i can see you lose" you smirked up at him "and so i don't have to clean jj's bike for the next month" you added on.

A while later you began to feel sleepy again as you drowned out the conversation between rafe and a few of the others. You looked up at rafe with sleepy eyes and he could swear that he'd never seen anything cuter. "Is it pass two?" you asked him in a pleading voice that had him send a quiet prayer to God that it had passed two so you could stop torturing yourself. He checked his watch, annoyed to see that it was 1:41 am meaning you couldnt sleep for another twenty minutes. Not having the heart to break it to you he just nodded causing you to bury your face into him as you layed against him, sleep immediately taking over you.

He bought his finger up to his lips and looked at everyone else with a death glare, a silent threat to everyone to not ruin it by telling you the actual time or else. He looked back at you sleeping then to jj who had a smirk on his face as he'd just won the bet. Little did jj know that there was no way on earth rafe was gonna let his girl wash jj's bike causing rafe to smirk to himself thinking of how he would deal with jj tomorrow, not caring how annoyed the blonde would get, you won't have to lift a finger. And that money he won from the other bet? He was already planning on how he was gonna take you out with that money and treat you the following day. "goodnight my pretty, sleepy girl" he whispered as he placed one final kiss into the top of your head before resuming his conversation with everyone else.

at midsummers

So far, midsummers had been everything you dreamt and more. You wore a stunning emerald green satin dress which complimented your skin tone and eye colour so beautifully. Your parents were so happy to see you with rafe enjoying midsummers remembering their own first midsummers together whilst the camerons wouldn't stop complimenting you. You had always been family to them being sarah's bestfriend since you both were three but they loved you even more after you started dating rafe.

The hours flew by as you danced with your parents, kie, sarah, wheezie, rafe and a few of your other friends. You even shared a dance with ward as he thanked you for bringing his son back to him. After a while you, kie and sarah went to grab a drink away from your parents hoping to get something alcoholic into your systems. After a while, not many people were left. Your parents had gone home without you once you told them you'd be staying at tannyhill with rafe and sarah tonight. You, kie and sarah were talking when you saw sarah roll her eyes at something behind you before feeling a pair of hands grab your waist. You turned you head to see rafe smiling at you pulling you away from sarah and kie leading you to the dance floor.

A slow song was playing as you both slowly danced to the music with your arms wrapped around his neck and your head was rested against his chest. Rafe's hands stayed at your waist and hips as he moved your body with his bringing his lips down to your ear "have i told you how beautiful you look tonight?" he whispered. This caused you to giggle "only about a milion times". He chuckled at that and you felt butterflies emerge in your stomach at the rumbles from his chest "well that's not enough, lets make it a million and one" he started before peppering some kisses into your hair "you look gorgeous princess" he finished with one final kiss. You smiled feeling nothing but comfort in that moment in that calm atmosphere "i love you" you whispered earning an "i love you more" from rafe. You continued to dance as you felt your eyes get heavier, sleep taking over you. Rafe also felt your body get heavier as you gave into the sleep leading him to gently carry you to his truck, "let's get you home my sleepy girl"

at a picnic date/mid convo

"oh my god rafe, this is so cute" you beamed at rafe as he took out a little picnic blanket and placed it over the grass "i know, you want some strawberries?" rafe smirked in a cocky tone, proud of himself for coming up with a successful date. "yes please" you said sitting down next to him. As soon as you sat down you felt rafe's arms pull you into his lap and before you could say anything to object, he stuffed a strawberry into your mouth.

You two proceeded to talk about many things going on in the obx particularly your night at midsummers just yesterday. With your head in rafes lap, you looked up at him whilst he sat upright against a tree peering down at you and mindlessly playing with your hair. When rafe started describing his favourite moments from midsummers, trying find a few pictures topper had managed to snap, he heard your hums get quieter and less frequent as the seconds passed. Shrugging his brows he moves his phone away so your face was no longer blocked, only to find you sleeping with a small smile on your face. He couldn't help chuckle, not only at the small bit of whipped cream on your nose, but also at how his sleepy girl had fallen asleep on yet another date. Slowy, he quietly snapped a picture of you before putting his phone to the side whilst dropping his head down to place a gentle kiss on your forehead, bringing it back up as he continued to admire you.

This was a picture rafe loved.

An image he wanted imprinted in his mind.

His favouite sight.

"sleep well my sleepy girl"

[creature-wizard]

"I'm in a bad place and need to get out, what can I do?"

I figured I'd make a post with all the resources/tips I've collected to help people get out of shitty situations so far, since it's easier than linking to a bunch of posts each time.

Seek out appropriate resources. This can include support groups (online or offline), helplines, and the like.

If you're in the US, you can call 211 to help you find resources.

Crisis Text Line offers services to the US, Ireland, Canada, and the UK.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is a US service offers a lot of information for sexual abuse survivors.

The Trevor Lifeline is a service for queer youth in the US.

If you're a minor, you may wish to read How To Escape Abusive Parents: A Guide For Minors.

If you're an adult, you may wish to read How To Escape Abusive Parents: A Guide For Adults.

You might also Duckduckgo something like "resources for people in abuse" or "abuse resources help" or "domestic violence survivors resources".

Ask people for help in finding resources. If you can't find anything on your own, there are other people who know where to direct you. It might take awhile to find what you're looking for, but keep asking.

A WORD OF CAUTION: there are many predatory spiritual groups and conspiracy theorists out there who prey on abuse survivors and mentally ill people. You will often see these people claiming that channeling or hypnosis can help you remember past life memories or repressed traumatic memories. This is nonsense and quackery.

Relevant posts of mine:

Hypnosis is unreliable for memory recovery, and this is one way we know.

False past life memories among the starseed movement

Here’s the trouble with hypnotic regression…

If you're on a website that claims to support cult survivors and you see any of these names in the citations (and make sure you check the citations!), leave immediately - all of these people are far right conspiracy theorists. (Unfortunately, many people today are unwittingly perpetuating the BS of Fritz Springmeier in particular. See this and this for more info on that.)

Change who and what you surround yourself with. Start associating with different people/groups as much as you can. Get hobbies to fill your time. Unfollow blogs that reinforce the beliefs you're trying to get away from, and follow blogs that provide a healthier alternative.

You might follow blogs like:

A Kind Place

Trauma Survivors Helping Trauma Survivors

Compassionate Reminders

Trauma Survivors Activities

Reasons For Hope

Bluest Fluff

If you're trying to rebuild your worldview without conspiratorial/culty elements, go take a look at my Resources page.

Remember that your first job is looking after yourself. You don't owe the group. You aren't responsible for the group, or for anyone in it. It might feel that way, but it's vitally important to acknowledge when you're unqualified or suffering burnout. You might feel like bad things will happen if you leave, but that's a fear, not a fact.

You also don't have to justify your departure to the group. You can just leave. If you feel that you must give a reason, you can offer something as simple as "I need to take some time to focus on my mental health" or "I'm really busy lately and don't have time to spend here." If they throw a fit over this, that's honestly just more proof that you need to get out.

If any practices the group taught you actually helped, you can keep doing them. If doing affirmations helped you, keep doing affirmations. If listening to so-called healing frequencies actually made you feel better, you don't have to stop listening to them. If you were practicing something like the Law of Assumption, you can carry on with a lot of that under a psychological model rather than Neville Goddard's wacky metaphysical model. (See this video for an example.) If it genuinely helps you and doesn't hurt anyone else, by all means, keep doing it.

You might look at my Manifestation Without Woo posts:

Manifestation Without Woo: Changing Your Brain

Manifestation Without Woo: People React To Your Projections, & Your Projections Affect Your Perceptions

Manifestation Without Woo: Setting Reasonable Goals

Manifestation Without Woo: Make It Fun!

Manifestation Without Woo: What If It's Not Working?

Get some critical thinking skills. In order to keep yourself from falling into another bad group, it's important to develop your critical thinking skills.

Learn to apply the Five W's (who, what, when, where, and why) when encountering any information.

Learn common logical fallacies.

Learn the difference between fact, opinion, belief, and prejudice.

Don't equate emotional reactions with some kind of innate or higher moral guidance.

Ask yourself if you're "thinking for yourself" or being led to believe you're thinking for yourself.

Know what emotional manipulation tactics look like.

Watch out for these behaviors in any new group you join.

Yes, there are ways to confirm the age of an old text without having the original text itself.

Learn how propaganda works.

Watch out for these red flags in spiritual groups.

And watch out for this red flag.

Understand that belief doesn't have to be binary.

So yeah, hopefully this'll give folks some actionable advice. I can't promise it's going to help each and every person out there, but hopefully it'll give a lot of you something that will help.

[sweetbbyshion]

Breakup

-> Touya Todoroki x Reader

characters: Touya Todoroki (Dabi), Shoto Todoroki

genre: a tiny bit of angst but mainly fluff

summary: you and touya breakup. his little brother isn't very happy about it.

warnings: established relationship (between dabi and the reader), breakups, happy ending though, this is set on an alternative reality where quirks aren't a thing and the todorokis are trying to be a better family.

another part of this series (you don't have to read it to understand this

I do want to write more scenarios with bf!touya and shoto being close to the reader. If you have any scenario you want to see, my requests are open

Dabi breaks up with you on a random day before summer vacation, just before your six month anniversary. You don't get an explanation even after you screamed and cried to get a reason why. Dabi simply kept looking at you while you tried to hit him for breaking your heart with no care in the world.

A week later, his mom calls you. She talks excitedly about all the plans for the summer and you break down crying once again. You hate Touya even more for not telling his family about what happened and letting you deal with it all alone. Surprisingly, Rei still asks you to visit but you tell her you're not sure you can do it. You hear the sadness in her voice and you hear Shoto asking if he can talk to you but you hang up before he has the chance to get the phone.

That family took you in like their own and you couldn't be more grateful but breaking up with Dabi meant you couldn't afford to be in that family anymore. So, you do your best to ignore Shoto’s texts for the next couple of days. You don't hear from Dabi in the meantime and you feel, for the first time since the break up, that maybe you will be ok.

For some reason, the gods are against you and Shoto shows up at your door on a wednesday night, completely alone.

“Does your mom know where you are?” You ask, after rushing him inside and preparing some food for the boy.

“Not really. I had to take extreme measures. No one wanted to tell me why you didn't visit anymore.”

You're not even sure how the kid managed to get to your house. You sigh, reaching for your phone to text Rei about her youngest’s whereabouts. You feel his intense eyes on you; Shoto always looked at people like he could see their deepest secrets. He was observant of those he cared about. You turn your back to him and go clean the dishes used to cook, trying to push back the talk you needed to have with him. Maybe if you stalled long enough, Rei would arrive and you won't have to do it.

“Did my brother do anything?” The fork slips from your hand at the sudden question.

“Of course not. I’m just… busy.”

It was a bad lie and even Shoto could tell it wasn't the truth. But what were you supposed to tell him? You couldn't just say his brother was a huge dick that broke your heart with no explanation and then just ghosted and left you to deal with the aftermath of his decisions. Shoto looked up to Touya, you couldn't paint him as the bad guy - even if you wanted to talk shit about him to anyone who was willing to listen.

You turn to Shoto and give your best smile, “How about you finish eating and then go watch something on the TV? I’m sure your mom will be here soon.”

The youngest Todoroki stays silent for the rest of the time. You take as long as possible cleaning everything and, luckily, the doorbell rings as soon as you sit on the couch. Shoto is the one getting up to open the door, you follow him right after to apologize to Rei for any inconvenience. You open the door with an apology on your tongue that disappears as soon as you see your ex boyfriend standing there.

“What are you doing here?” You talk, venom coating your words.

“Came to pick up the brat. Let's go, Shoto.”

The smaller boy looks at his brother and then you, obviously sensing the thick tension in the room. “I don't want to go.”

“What do you mean you don't want to go? Just get in the car, mom was worried sick about you.”

Shoto moves to stand behind you, a small pout on his lips as he refuses to go with his older brother. You try to convince him, “You can spend the day some other time if your mom allows it” but Touya is quick to shut off the idea. You stare at the man that was once your lover but he doesn't keep eye contact with you, instead looking at his brother with a stern look.

“You're not together anymore?” The look on your face is enough to give him an answer. “Why? I thought you liked each other?”

“Shoto…” you start, “Sometimes people aren't meant to be together. It happens all the time. People… fall out of love, or something? You’ll understand when you're older.” You wanted to give him a better explanation but how could you when you didn't know it yourself? Shoto looks confused but you simply smile and push him towards his brother. “It's late. You should go, ok?”

The boy simply nods and walks out, Touya following him right after. You close the door before resting your back against it. It hurt seeing Touya again. It hurt even more to cut ties with such a young boy that you learned to love like your own brother.

You wipe away the tear that stubbornly fell and walk away from the door. However, you only take three steps before a harsh knock is heard. You look around the room to see if there's anything Shoto might have forgotten.

“I didn't fall out of love.” is the first thing you hear when you open the door. “I could never fall out of love with you.”

“Then why?” your voice is no louder than a whisper.

“Because I love you too much.” The look of confusion in your face is enough to make him keep going. “I was such a shitty boyfriend sometimes, you deserved better.”

“That's the shittiest excuse I’ve ever heard!”

“I know!” He interrupts you. “What I mean is that I’m fucked up. I ghost you over small things and I punch walls whenever I’m mad. I need serious therapy, I swear.” you have to hold back a laugh, not wanting to ruin the serious conversation. “I don't want to hurt you.”

Your expression softens when you feel Dabi’s hand touching yours. “You would never hurt me.”

“I’m my dad’s son. It's a matter of time until I do.”

You shake your head quickly, tightening your hold on his hand. “You’re not your dad.” you whisper. “You're a good person, Touya. You remind Fuyumi to take care of herself all the time, you help Natsuo with homework even if he knows the answers just because you want to spend time with him. Not to talk about how you're always calling your mom because you don't want to leave her alone ever again.” your hands move to his cheeks, forcing him to look at you. “And you’re Shoto’s role model. He looks up to you, he wants to be strong and smart like you.”

“That doesn't mean anything.”

“It does!” you lightly caress his cheeks. Those pretty blue eyes stare intensely at you as you keep walking, “It means you care about them and would never hurt them. Just like you would never hurt me.”

Touya grips on your shirt while pulling you closer. “But I did hurt you. You have been crying.”

“Then be with me and never make me cry again.” you plead. “We will get you help and I will be with you every step of the way.”

Touya hugs you and you melt into his arms, feeling like you just got home after a long day. You breathe in his familiar cologne and play with the hair on the back of his neck, missing the soft locks between your fingers. “Stay the night.” you whisper. Touya simply hums, tightening his hold around you and you sigh happily with the thought of finally sleeping well with the cozy man you missed so much.

You feel another pair of arms trying to wrap around you and you look down to find a smiling Shoto trying to wriggle his way in between the two adults. Even Touya doesn't have the heart to tell him you're having a moment and instead he puts an arm around his brother.

“Can I stay too?” You laugh at the request and nod, earning you a squeeze from Shoto that quickly asks “Can I sleep in your bed too?” The look in Shoto’s eyes tells you that he’s only saying this to annoy his older brothers.

“Wow little guy, back off from my girl will ya?” Touya argues, pinching the smaller one’s cheek.

Your heart warms with the interaction and, even though you knew you missed this, you didn't have an idea of how much until now.

Despite the protests, Touya forces Shoto to sleep on the “very comfortable couch”. He picks him up and almost throws him there, then tucking him in with the fluffy blanket you had on the couch. Shoto tries to wriggle out of the tight hold Touya has on him but to no avail. Touya kisses his forehead multiple times to annoy the younger boy before leaving him alone.

“Will you be ok here? You can sleep with us in the room if you want.” you decide to ask Shoto. He simply shakes his head and promises he will be fine there. “Sleep well.”

With that, Touya drags you to your room and finally kisses you. You missed the way his lips feel against yours and how he caresses your back during the kiss. Your breakup was just a horrible case of lack of communication and you hope in the future this doesn't happen again.

You let Touya pull you to bed and cuddle you. You fall asleep almost instantly and you don't think you have slept that well since the breakup.

You and Touya decide that the next day you will have a serious conversation. But for now, you just enjoy each other's company.

[batmanfruitloops]

Happy 1st Anniversary to the Batmanfruitloops!!! 🎉

Whoo! This is such an achievement, but also it's such a crazy thought that it's been a WHOLE YEAR??? It means a lot that so many other people like our au as much as we do, and even more that we've been able to make friends; we want to thank all of you new and old for joining us here to have fun and enjoy the journey of our au!

With that said, I'd like to share some old art that's "behind the scenes" stuff from out time since we started our au.

also if you've been here since these were the profile picture and banner, you're a real one;

Fun fact, I (Sarsee) don't like fruit loops, but it was the first thing I thought of to name the blog, plus it was memorable. The au name being "Batman: A New Gotham" came later! Double plus, the abbreviation is BANG and I find that coincidence just delightful.

One of favorite changes that happened out of nowhere was John's eyes changing from more round to almond. He used to look a lot more like the Telltale Joker, but I feel like his current eyes fit better with his personality in our au. This also isn't going to show up because it's file names, but I had originally wanted to call the Joker "Jbird" like Batman calls him in the Lego Batman movie. (for context, it's the scene where Joker is tied to a bunch of balloons - you know the one - and side note, I want to redraw a screenshot from that with our Joker eventually) I don't have any pictures with a "Jbird" design because I never got the idea to work, I just thought it could have been interesting considering Joker works with Batman in our au and that would put him on theme with the Batfam being flying mammals/avians.

Most of the other original designs aren't too drastic either - or at least it doesn't feel like it to me. Scarecrow and Riddler have changed a lot though. And I think the changes that came about with Fluffy joining on board were much needed (Scarecrow's costume was always done by Fluffy, but I designed him out of costume originally -I was originally making the au myself, but that didn't last long when we started yapping about ideas to one another and never stopped) She also couldn't understand how I stylized his hair, so it became puffy and unruly instead of curly and gelled back. Ed can still gel his hair if he wanted to, just for special occasions.

Some old sillies as well from Fluffy;

we find the contrast between Batman vs. Scarecrow and Joker vs. Riddler very funny because it's so drastically different. The Joker and Riddler never really try to hurt each other, they just like to play into the dramatics and vibe while still on their separate sides. Batman and Scarecrow want to tear one another's throats out and watch them suffer for it because they have no idea what's going on in their heads.

with the villain!joker timeline, there's an alternate version of the Goon squad (Dork Squad + Joker) where it's Harvey instead of the Joker. Or as well, there can be all five of them. Harvey is the only person who can scruff Jo like the gremlin he very much is and he'll just let it happen.

I don't know if this will show up in the comic anymore, but at one point the Joker was going to refer to Scarecrow and the Riddler as Samhain and a leprechaun because they're both partially Irish - couldn't really be that specific with voice claims, and they'd be offended

and lastly, Ed gets cranky when he's tired

Batman and Riddler are the only two to get digital references at the time and man, do I much prefer how streamlined the final ones look. I mean, what was the dingy brown I had behind Batman? For a split second, Ed's coat was almost purple, but thankfully, Fluffy convinced me otherwise and suggested his shoes be purple. This is also before his vest, and now there's an in story reason for why he doesn't have it in the beginning. Also look at how skinny and tall Ed looked!! (he was still short, he's not allowed to be tall in our au)

That's all I have for now, we'd love to hear any thoughts/memories/etc. in the comments!

Love, Sarsee and Fluffy, your batmanfruitloops creatures

[the-elusive-soleil]

Some things that might have happened if the Valar had gone to war with Morgoth immediately after the Silmaril theft, and evacuated the Sindar, Avari, and very first Men to Aman to escape the continental destruction:

Nobody swears any Oaths. Feanor doesn't get the chance to, because the Valar go after Morgoth before he can.

He would have liked to go help with the war, but the Valar have made it clear that the Eruhini need to keep out from underfoot, and Ulmo is actually enforcing this one.

Feanor does contribute weapon designs in exchange for the promise of the Silmarils being returned to him ASAP.

(We have the sun and moon, I feel like I should say. The Valar made them when they needed light sources for the war and it was clear they weren't getting the Silmarils back all that soon.)

There's a lot of excitement when the new arrivals show up. Olwe is ecstatic to see his brother again - with a Maiarin wife and a daughter, too!

Thingol is upset about losing his realm and also grieving his friend FInwe, but cautiously intrigued to meet Finwe's family.

Feanor has become High King of the Noldor at least in name, but in practice what's developed is that Fingolfin and Maedhros and Caranthir and Turgon handle a lot of the day-to-day and Feanor is so busy crafting that he never noticed the shift. No one is super interested in telling him.

Thingol very nearly breaks it all open by accident, but they avoid a crisis just in time.

The Avari disappear into the outlands and forests and assimilate as little as possible.

Thingol and Melian start up a new city, but it's...not quite the same.

Luthien is restless. Her parents' new city might not have a girdle, but she feels fenced in anyway - partially with her parents not wanting her to stray too far in this strange new place, and partially because she's the one and only half-Maia and stunningly beautiful and everyone wants a piece of her, so to speak.

Funnily enough, certain of the Feanorians know exactly how those itchy feet feel, and her father doesn't hate them in this timeline.

She's not into hunting to kill things, really, but Celegorm teaches her this neat trick that sometimes you can just say you're 'going hunting' and head off to the woods to do whatever you want, like running just for the sake of it or dancing without anyone watching you, and no one will ask any questions.

She ends up spending a lot of time with him and the twins and Aredhel.

(Celegorm and Luthien eventually get married, because why not.)

(Melian gives her blessing on the condition that their firstborn son marries Nimloth, who goes along with it because she trusts Melian's foresight. Or, alternatively, they might have a daughter who marries Beren when he comes along; that'd be a fun twist.)

(The point is that Elrond and Elros eventually exist. They aren't in need of adoption, but they develop a surprising bond with their uncle Maglor.)

Almost forgot, the dwarves got brought over, too.

Caranthir does a lot of the negotiation with them, since his bluntness meshes best with their ways.

They and the Men keep having new generations be born and die, and it's...an adjustment for the elves.

Finrod, nonetheless, becomes great friends with a Man called Balan and his folk.

Caranthir encounters a Haladin woman named Haleth when she comes to court to arrange for greater independence for her people. He's in love at first sight. It takes her a little longer.

None of Caranthir's family understands why he'd choose to go through the eventual heartbreak of losing a spouse, but he ignores them all, and gets married anyway.

They have an astounding number of children. This is partially because they have better proximity and aren't in survival mode, partially because it takes them a sec to figure out how human conception works, and partially because Caranthir wants there to be as much Haleth in the world as possible before she's inevitably gone.

Hurin Thalion and Morwen have three lovely children. Nienor probably has a different name. Lalaith lives to an astoundingly old age, healthy as a horse.

Tuor and Idril, of course, get together. Turgon is a bit less enthusiastic about it this time, what with Tuor just being A Guy and not Ulmo's champion, but when would that ever stop Idril. Tuor does die eventually, but they have a good life till then.

Feanor ends up liking the Men and dwarves a lot more than anyone thought he would. He learns All The Languages, and loves to swap techniques with the dwarves and bounce off Men's ingenuity.

Also, the Sindar introduce a radical notion called marriage counseling, which is apparently something you invent if you're coping with Arda Marred instead of trying to maintain an assumption of perfection. They've also invented family therapy. Feanor and Nerdanel, and really the whole House of Finwe, benefit hugely from this.

Oh, and elf/dwarf relationships become hugely popular among the Noldor, because when your dwarf spouse dies you can literally go see them at Aule's house still as long as you're discreet about it, so no one bats an eye when Celebrimbor announces his engagement to the craftswoman Narvi some time down the line.

[lemotmo]

Let's all spiral together!

Q. No title yet for Ep 2! Oh my god it's just sounding more and more likely and I am so afraid to believe it because they've teased it for literal years and we're still not there!

Q. They could still tease it and just not do it and say it's not queer baiting because they they gave us bi Buck.

Q. Why doesn't episode 2 have a title?! What do we think? 👀👀

A. I bunched these asks together because they're a good combination of what my ask box currently looks like, minus the questions I'm ignoring, and because I can answer all of this in one post. I'm going to tackle the queer bait question first. Yes the show gave us bi Buck so using Buck to tease a possible storyline would technically give them an out on the queer baiting accusation. But they aren't using Oliver/Buck for any of the teasing. They're using Ryan/Eddie. The entire off season promotion has been Ryan/Eddie centric. The early bts antics have been Ryan/mustache centric. They are playing it up. The one official filming post was Oliver/Ryan. Now technically they haven't outright said the words queer, gay or Buddie (though basically confirming they've tried to make Eddie canon queer for several seasons is as close as you can get. So they're already towing the line), but they have heavily insinuated them since the beginning of last season. Much more so than they ever have. Not doing it would 100% be queer baiting at this point. The show is out of leeway where this storyline is concerned. They aren't going to get a pass anymore from the audience or the media who cover the show, the media part of it has already begun. We started seeing legitimate articles pointing out the Buddie of it all during the off-season, and that continued yesterday with the two jurnos who wrote about the Buddie shift. The show is out of time. Anything else will be detrimental to them at this point because people will absolutely walk away. They're out of excuses. They're out of 'next season'.

Episode 2 not having a title, or not releasing the title yet either means the title is a spoiler of some kind, but unless it's called Buddie Begins it can't spoil too much, or it's an indication of it being a significant episode. I would imagine it's the second option. If someone whose memory is better than mine can confirm when we got the episode title for 7x4 I would appreciate it because I don't recall getting that title that far in advance either. I would imagine it's an Eddie begins again type episode. It's also probably the alternate reality episode, if that is indeed what they're doing. The 3rd episode being titled 'There's No Place Like Home' is also a pretty good indicator that the previous episode could be an alternate reality. I'm super curious about what they'll go with title wise. Will it be another play on words like 'Eddie, Exhausted and Escaping' or something else like 'Escape from Reality' which would be a nod to the Freddie Mercury Bohemian Rhapsody thing they've been playing with. The writers and director are Buddie people though that was immediately noticeable. Whatever good Buddie scene you can think of there's more than a good chance that that particular writer and director were involved. Everything is setting up.

Oh, I'm already down deep into the spiral Nonny. :)

I love all the content we're getting. This hiatus is so much more fun now. :)

Is Buddie queer baiting? In my eyes? Right now? No, not at all. But they do need to proceed with caution.

In fact, in the beginning of last season I would have said 'No, it's only ship baiting', because neither of them were out of the closet. But now that they've continued the same kind of promo for season 8, even though Buck is in a relationship with another man? The way they are consciously hyping up the Buddie of it all? The way they keep implying and playing into the fact that Eddie might not be as straight as he himself thought he was?

Yeah, they're not there yet, but they're definitely toeing that line and they need to be really careful with how they proceed.

I remember saying to someone last season, right before 7b started again, that the show had to either 'shit or get off the pot'. They could have done that in 7b. But now that moment has passed. There is no more getting off the pot. They need to... well, you catch my drift right? ;)

I'm so curious about that episode 2 title and the Wizard of Oz reference in episode 3. We all know how much Tim loves old classic movies.

So many questions, so few answers. The time is right to create some beautiful theories and speculate about those episodes. Fun times ahead!

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[txttletale]

What would then be the best action for the ukrainian people to undertake as response to putin's invasion? You rightly critize proposals that are disconnected from the material reality but you also seem to be rhetorically denying material reality somewhat. You seem to be saying that you don't believe ukraine should just surrender.

"i don't believe (and neither do any of the other marxist-leninists calling for peace, only putinist campists and russian nationalists believe this) that unconditional surrender is in the best interests of the ukrainian people."

So that means they should fight back; of course not unto the destruction of Russia or even pursuing it offensively, I do agree on that, but they should fight back nonetheless. But here is the rub. Is it possible for Ukraine to do so without the weapons sent by the US and other Navo states?

This seems the crucial part to me to judge all proposals by. I know you are right that that the US' support likely comes with strings and that should be critized. However, it is a meaningless objection if the alternative is to be invaded by Putin. It is impossible for the US to intervene without pursuing its own interests and the perpatuation of its own hegemony. That seems to be the position you have taken and are defending. I agree with it and I wish it would be possible for the US to intervene without that. But that is not the world we live in. But what you have failed to argue is that therefore it would be condemnworthy to support the US sending weapons to Ukraine. Since the alternative is well...russia which is also pursuing its interests and perpetuation of its own hegemony succeeds in its objects. As you repeatedly pointed out this is an inter-imperalist war and this isn't one where a good option seem to exist, but some options can be better than others. So unless there is an alternative I am overlooking (I don't think a communist revolution in Ukraine is possible at this moment) you seem to be bascially leaning back and saying: "You know, people who are saying the US should send weapons to Ukraine to avoid a russian invasion, are you aware you are just bad as the US hawks?" Basically you are saying: "Hey, the US aren't the good guys here". And that is true, but that is different than saying: "It is in the best interests of the Ukrainian people for the US to *not* send weapons"

And I am not sure that is true. Unless you either hold the positon that it is possible for Ukraine to successfully defend itself on its own or that being invaded by Putin is still better than than the strings tied to the US' support.

as i say time and time again on this blog, the state whose actions you can most effectively and meaningfully oppose are your own's. i certainly think it is the duty of russian and belarusian communists to do everything in their power to dispel russian domestic propaganda, sabotage their government's war effort, & hasten the war in this way. obviously the militarist hardline factions within russia are just as much of an obstacle to a realistic peace deal as their NATO war hawk counterparts. but usamericans and europeans are in no place to have any impact on that end of the equation -- and any attempts to are simply coopted by the imperialism of their own governments. this is an inter-imperialist war -- directing your action and criticism towards the bourgeoisie of an enemy power rather than your own bourgeoisie is not only tactically less effective, but downright counterproductive

[spider-jaysart]

Jon Kent week Day 4 (the day that this whole thing was actually meant to be posted on, but I missed it)

Kryptonian culture or Alternate universe

Okay, so this au of mines is called Bed boy au

It's about Jon and the Superfamily being these special beings called "Dream saviours" who live in another realm. Their job is to visit the dreams of many humans everynight to give them joy and good sleep, especially to those who are very sad or depressed and are going through hard times as well

One day Jon is given his first ever assignment to go into Damian's dreams on his first day of the job and is very excited about it. Once he finally interacts with the Boy Wonder in the dream, he can see that he's not really doing so well because of certain things that are currently going on in his real life, so he does his best to cheer him up by using his abilities to create a wonderful dream for him to enjoy that night. After that, they both end up bonding well with eachother, and in the morning Jon goes back home feeling proud of himself at a job well done, while Damian is able to wake up with a smile on his face

Days later, Jon is curious to know how Damian's been doing now and sneakily tries going back to visit him again to check up on him and asks Chris to fill in for him on his other current assignment this time as a favor, which his brother thankfully does for him

Jon meets up with Damian and sees that he's not doing so good once again, so out of concern, he decides to continue visiting Damian's dreams everynight instead to make sure that he's always doing okay, causing himself to not pay attention to his other assignments later on in the future after this decision

In Damian's dreams, they both always go on imaginary adventures together and do many other fun things with eachother as well, and become best friends. Jon begins to wish that he could hang out more with his new friend in the mortal realm, but his kind aren't allowed to visit there though due to the rules in his world, which is a problem for him

And Damian begins to start wishing that Jon was actually real, since he thinks he's only someone who's just apart of his imagination (which is what he actually thinks at first), so he starts to become saddened about it

So after Jon tries escaping the Dream saviours realm one day to try and hang out with Damian in the real world, he unexpectedly gets caught in the act and is banned from visiting Damian anymore after that

Though, after a good while, Jon, not being able to put up anymore with this punishment getting in the way of his friendship, later somehow meets up with Damian again in his dreams and reveals to him about what he actually is and whats going on and they both figure out how to fix all of it in the end. After that, they both have a happy ending where they get to hang out together in real life all the time like they had wanted, without any kind of restrictions holding them back like before

Fun facts:

For the Superfamilies abilities as Dream saviours, they all have the magical power to do many creative things in a persons dream, they can also all float/fly, they never have the need for sleep, so their energy or day schedules are never messed up by their night job because of that, but they could do it if they wanted to, and they can also physically heal others as well, especially humans when they visit them in their dreams, actually healing them in real life while they're asleep so that they can wake up feeling physically better again

While Jon's suit is all pink, especially in his skin and hair, Lois is purple, Clark is light blue, Conner is a greenish blue, Chris is orange, Kara is yellow themed, and Krypto is the lightest blue

[Image ID: Two images of two digital drawings for day 4 of Jon Kent week, which is for the prompt "Alternate universe". The first image is a reference sheet of Kid!Jon Kent who is a "Dream saviour" in an au called "Bed boy au". He is standing in the middle of the drawing with a happy smile, wearing a Superboy suit that is in the colors pink and red instead of his usual red and blue color scheme. He has a gittery pink, see through cape on. The sleeves and collar are also pink and see through with glitter on them too. He also has a yellow, glittering belt on with a red, round jewel as buckle in the middle, along with long red fingerless gloves on both hands, red boots, and the Superman symbol on his chest. He also has pink, glittering skin. His eyes are still blue, but with pink sparkles and his hair is still black, but has pink shine in it now. The background is pink and has little notes about his outfit, which were just described. There is also a white text box on the right next to Jon's head, saying "Jon and the Superfamily are these special beings called "Dream saviors" who live in another realm. Their job is to visit the dreams of many humans every night to give them joy and good sleep, especially to those who are very sad or depressed and are also going through hard times as well.". The artist's signature @spider-jaysart is written next to Jon's left foot. The second image is a digital drawing of Dream saviour!Jon in Damian's dream. Jon is in the left corner of the drawing, happily pointing at himself, greeting Damian, who is standing in the right corner facing his back to the viewer, saying "My name is Jon! I'm here to bring joy to your dreams!". He is wearing the same suit from his reference sheet and Damian is wearing a black sweatshirt. The background is colored light black and the artist's signature @spider-jaysart is written above Jon's right shoulder. /.End of image ID]

@jonkentweek

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Man, the more I think about future alternate history of Temeraire the more it looks like the 20th century would see a massive decline if not outright near-extinction of heavyweights dragons, at least those in Europe and maybe Russia

It's 1914, dragons in Europe have had rights for a while now, still not 1:1 to humans (not sure where women's rights would be at in Temeraire universe so maybe dragons are on par with human women) but we're getting there. They aren't seen as beasts or intelligent warships anymore. But then World War I begins and the propaganda machine is everpresent and merciless. It is every man's duty to defend his country or else he is a coward and a weakling and deserving of shame, and for dragons, whose size and strength is incomparable to humans, this applies tenfold. Not to mention the fact that dragons require lots of food from the already dwindling wartime resources. The pressure on dragons to "pull their weight" would be massive. And so most of them join the war effort, working as messengers, reconnaissance, moving cargo, or serving as soldiers in their own right, old but still capable dragons once again taking on harnesses and crews like they have 100 years ago and teaching the younger ones the tactics they still vividly remember. But this is not the 1800s anymore, technology has progressed and just like the traditional cavalry, dragons and their crews fall prey to modern artillery and machine guns. Smaller, lighter breeds manage to keep ahead of the relatively primitive technology, but the large and slow heavyweights become little more than gigantic moving targets. In this world, the term The Lost Generation rings even more true.

Meanwhile in Russia the period of chaos after the dissolution of Russian breeding grounds during the Napoleonic wars has long since passed, with sky-high costs in both human and dragon lives. By the 1830s, some of the few remaining dragons were lured back to human society with promises of steady food and treasures, and it did not take long for things to return to what they used to be. Dragons were indeed treated better now, but still far from equal, their situation more reminiscent to pre-Temeraire Britain, and there was still a strongly baked-in hierarchy of preferential treatment based on dragon size. Come 1917. The war drags on, living conditions plummet and unrest rapidly rises in the Russian Empire. Still not seeing any of the societal changes that dragons of Western Europe enjoyed, Russian dragons find much common ground with peasants, especially the small lightweight dragons, and calls for a change became louder. Humans and dragons alike united by the vision of peace, freedom, prosperity and equality for all, the Socialist Revolution sweeps through the country with the speed of a grey courier's flight. A republic is established, the tsar and his family are executed, same as thousands of other members of nobility, the wealthy, and others seen as enemies of the state. This includes many dragons who did not side with the revolution, particularly those who refused to part with their hoards. Many heavyweights saw themselves as targets, viewed as symbols of the imperial power by the people and as tyrants in their own right by smaller dragons. Then the middleweights, and even lightweights do not avoid suspicion. Talks of the inherent greed and savagery of dragons find more and more voices, people remind themselves of the brutality unleashed by freed dragons a hundred years ago. With the increasing industrialization and technological development, there are opinions that dragons have no place in a modern world, claims that "why need dragons when we can achieve just as much with machines and pure human ingenuity". Many dragons find themselves out of work and out of food, and retreat to the wilderness. Those who remain are mostly the small ones, just large enough to live similar to humans, eat as much as humans and work according to human standards.

[thewertsearch]

@broooer submitted: Hi Sally! Hi Cat! Love the liveblog! Sorry for submission, I wanted to send an ask but that's not long enough for what I wrote up. I've been waiting for a bit because I wanted to give you a perspective I take on Sburb/Sgrub/The Game/Skaia now that you have learned about the Ultimate Reward. It's very much a biologist's perspective (spoilers I'm an ecologist working on getting a PhD in environmental stuff) so it's an interesting complement to your coding perspective, from which I learned a lot!

[More under cut]

It's *evolved*: it's a system that that "exists to propagate" *itself* because the versions of it that are better at doing so are the ones that go on to create and seed new universes with new planets and new life and propagating in general. It doesn't need conscious control or manipulation to go on do so - it has a framework that worked in the past, and it builds on that framework with each iteration, regardless of whether it's the most practical way to go about it. It won't be the most practical, most literal way forward, just the way that evolved first and proved "good enough", not selected for consciously, just working out mechanically. This doesn't explain how Sburb/The Game/Skaia first came about to *be* in the first place, but once the first "seed" or two of it was established, the versions of it that survived are those that were good at doing that. It would explain how it exploits timelines a bit - the main timeline is the one that propagates the game forward, so that the alternate timelines are those that don't survive because they won't produce a viable seed for a new universe. They're "offspringless", they don't have a future, they inevitably die off. Stable loops evolved as another way of ensuring propagation. Timelines like Davesprite's work because they help the Alpha timeline propagate forward, and even then the timeline itself dies off after it's benefit to the Alpha ends. There might be many potential Alphas, but the one that arises first - that is "good enough" to do it's job (A) will be taken on, even if it means it later has to evolve loops and roundabouts and what not to make it effective in another situation. If it had evolved instead in way B, it might be more straightforward than A, might be more efficient/need less timeloops/etc., but since A happened by luck, it's the good enough timeline to be the main timeline. (This doesn't mean there won't be other "alpha" timelines in existence, but that they probably don't interact with other alphas, since they're separated by different situations… and this goes heavy into evolutionary biology so let me explain a bit more). There is something called evolutionary fitness landscape, where you visualize how one trait is more evolutionary beneficial than another.

So you see those peaks? Those are the most beneficial points in the landscape - and sometimes these peaks are separated by dips and troughs which are actually negative to the fitness, or the evolutionary survival of the organism. So organisms that "land" near one peak (have the trait of that peak that gives it a benefit in its evolutionary fitness) will not be able to transition to another peak even if that other peak is even better than the peak they are on, because there is a deep dip between them where they'd lose evolutionary benefits. They're *locked* into these peaks. They can't reach those other peaks. In other words, if Alpha timeline A is peak 1, it's supplementary alternate timelines can't interact with Alpha timeline B, which is peak 2. Of course, this doesn't mean that any peak is the best one or even good for the kids because the kids and trolls are more like… cells. Some cells die but in the process ensure the survival of the organism (the timeline in this case). The organism is still dependent on the cells. Of course, this doesn't mean there aren't, say, parasitic elements to the timelines, or even outright predators, or just beings who are good at exploiting these timelines/Sburb/Sgrub/The Game/Skaia for their own ends. After all, we already heard about a demon that appears when a universe dies and that it works to establish the parameters of it's appearance from the beginning of the universe's timeline since it appears ("The demon is already here"). It might be part of Skaia. It might just be a cancerous cell. It might be an outsider taking advantage of this "organism". There's so many options! Anyways, hope this is interesting and that I did not add any spoilers for what you haven't read yet. If I did, Cat, tell me and I'll rewrite it! Cheers! Rairii

*PS: I'm not an evolutionary biologist so there is more to evolution than just this! It's a complicated subject and I loved my evolution class and teaching it as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, but it is NOT my specialty.

Hell yeah, this is the kind of discourse I'm here for!

This submission suggests that Sburb's behavior - and in particular, the way it exploits timelines - is the result of evolution, which is a fascinating idea.

Like, the implication here is that Sburb is a lifeform, a species of living creature, and subject to biological imperatives. I've kind of touched on the idea before, but didn't dig into it too deeply at the time, since biology isn't my wheelhouse. I think it's time to get the shovel, though.

I'm picturing Paradox Space as a soil, constantly being subsumed and transformed by a menagerie of metatemporal lifeforms. No wonder Homestuck's timelines are so twisted, if they're the medium through which sessions spread, grow, and propagate themselves. Soil is complicated, even when it's made out of time.

I also love the analogy of Paradox Space as a fitness landscape. I've used them before when working with genetic algorithms, and likening Alpha Timelines to local maxima is inspired. I really like the idea that there are other viable timelines out there, separated from the kids by an ocean of offshoots like Davesprite's. This explains Homestuck's arbitrary time loops - they are arbitrary. The narrative is focusing on an arbitrary Alpha Timeline.

This is also an interesting perspective on the kids' session. If their Alpha Timeline has grown, through natural selection, into a timeline where Sburb survives and thrives, why has their session failed so spectacularly?

...well, there's more to survival than reproduction.

Perhaps the kids are being maneuvered into a position where they can protect Sburb, ensuring it survives to create more universes down the line.

This really is an excellent take. Thank you so much for your thoughts - and good luck with the PhD!!

[raccoonfallsharder]

There’s been a few rumours that the Russos (and one of the writers from Infinity War/Endgame) may be coming back for Avengers 5/6! I’m curious about what those movies will be like, because they’re going to be even MORE crowded with a gazillion characters. 😅

And particularly, I wonder what the role of the Guardians is even gonna be in them… or at least Star-Lord, if no one actually has any plans to bring them back — which seems to be the most likely outcome. Personally, I wouldn’t actually mind too much if the new Guardians were brought back to join the final battle or something like that. It might be nice as a last hurrah for Rocket, maybe!

But what do you think? I know your opinions on those movies, so… I know what you have to say will be very interesting. 😁

oooooh boy. this just unlocked a whole bunch of competing thoughts in my head. i hope i can make sense of them enough to type them up.

here's the thing. i don't trust the russos or the IW/E writers but i am a person who (1) believes that people can grow and become better at damn near anything they want to, and (2) i am happy to be wrong. maybe the russos and whichever writer who is coming on board will have taken good lessons from the last five years since endgame (five years holy shit) and they'll come out stronger, better, more respectful storytellers. maybe they'll listen to other, better, more respectful storytellers on the team. hell, maybe disney will even let them be better (disney properties seem to be at their best when the mouse is least invested in controlling its indentured creatives). and of course, quality and effective storytelling won't only be on the shoulders of the russos et al. it will also be on the people who are working on the adjacent, intervening movies, and whether they are capable of and permitted to create compelling narratives and fully-developed characters along the way.

now, another thing i think will be tricky is if they choose to do another massive ensemble-battle (like the final endgame fight). i'm just not sure almost anything they can do will be actually satisfying to anyone who identifies with the characters who aren't the main focus. the reason that so-called "girl-power" moment in endgame was so fucken dissatisfying for so many of us was because it was unearned. condescending. you can't choose to feature so few of these women in the course of the whole movie, kill the only one of them with more than like three lines, and then throw every woman left alive into thirty seconds of battle choreography and think that your target-audience will see that as anything but patronizing. if the russos go for that level of sprawling battle-pageantry, that's what will happen, on some level. we just can't pay attention to every character the way they truly deserve when the cast is that massive.

and... i imagine this is exactly how the guardians would feature, if they aren't picked up by anyone in the meantime: one second of screentime in the background of a big fight, maybe with rocket's signature word as his new team advances to ultimately be lost in the ranks. or a singular star-lord, fighting on the side of the new avengers.

now, i'll let you in on a little and possibly controversial secret: i don't need more of rocket in the mcu. i think the mcu might fuck up a beautiful story. if they were to bring him back - unless it were a complete alternate timeline like a new cartoon - i almost think it would need to be a wholly different genre. here are the best ways i think disney could bring "mcu" rocket back:

fuck copaganda but brooklyn-99 had a distinctly guardians vibe in terms of a bunch of well-meaning dysfunctional idiots coming together under extremely exhausted but HIGHLY effective leadership. we could take this ride through space in a star-trek-esque adventure-of-the-week approach or base it in knowhere so we can really see what it looks like to be a guardian in that community, and meet some of the characters like xlomo smeth, ssssaralami, hoobtoe, the broker, HOWARD, etc.

mst3k but it's like, movie night on knowhere. they project some disney movie on the side of one of the bone-buildings and rocket and groot are always making commentary. but they're not the only ones. nebula's there, and for kid-appropriate movies drax and the kids are too. sometimes howard comes along and he and rocket get drunk and compete to be the harshest critic. adam tries to crack jokes sometimes but he's bad at it.

nebula and rocket during the snap. IN SPACE. mostly. i'll accept occasional visits to terra check in on thor. i suspect we see a lot of kraglin on the third quadrant and maybe spend some time helping with reconstruction in knowhere.

a super-ironic self-aware parody of some old sitcom like full house. i'm open to rocket being the father-figure and the new guardians being the chaotic fam, but i'd also be open to it focusing on the star children, calling it "drax the dad," and having rocket be the uncle-jesse-character. which brings me to my last option, which is

actually center the show around a singular someone else, like adam or phylla, and have rocket occasionally make an appearance as an important background character: a father-figure, a mentor, a captain, a guide, a beloved pain-in-the-ass. occasional conversations over the comms where he's like "are you eating enough? are you cleaning your cannons like i taught you? you still closing your eyes when you squeeze the trigger 'cause i told you to stop fuckin doing that. when are you coming home? nebula misses you and your brother is driving me fuckin crazy"

i do think there are other things that good writers could make work but these are the ones my heart rests on because i just don't trust disney/marvel very easily these days

WHICH IS ALL TO SAY

of course i'm gonna watch whatever disney/marvel puts out into theatres and/or on disney+, especially if the guardians are in it. and especially if my guy is in it.

but i'm also fully expecting to have my heart broken. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

as i said, i'm a person who is happy to be wrong.

[schizononagesimus]

As a person who’s violent during psychosis, could you explain what your ideal help would look like? Since involuntary commitment and forced medication are recognized to be abusive methods of “treatment” I was curious if you have any experience with alternatives?

Long answer:

I've had a few instances with good responses to my psychosis. Once, my psychiatrist lied to me so I'd finally take a pill instead of thinking it was poison; I'd been complaining about being irritable and she told me it would help. I trusted her as I'd had a good relationship with her for four years and wouldn't take medication. Once I was stable (literally within hours) and called to tell her I didn't realize you weren't supposed to see monsters everywhere and think there was someone trying to kill you and have multiple people living in your head and controlling your actions, she told me she lied because she realized I was in a psychotic episode that had been building for a long time. I wouldn't consider it forced medication personally, because the truly forced medication I've had has been being carried bodily by four nurses, held down, stripped, and given a shot in my ass while I screamed. So even though it was perhaps coercive, that is the best treatment I've had was that lie and I'm infinitely thankful for it. In terms of friends and family helping? I refuse to tell my family what's wrong because they'll use it against me. My friends know, but I become terrified of them and isolate. I'm getting better with that, though, and reached out to a friend a month or so ago, and he took me out for food to distact and care for my body, literally held my hand through it, and ignored my ramblings. He didn't feed into it, which was the most important part; I'd say my ideal scenario is someone acknowledging that I'm in pain and distracting me from what's happening. For prevention of worse episodes, my roommate also protects me by holding onto pills I might use, but by my request. They also make sure to trust me- they don't take all the sharp objects away, for example. The fact that they trust me makes me fight the delusions because I'd never betray their trust or ruin their day (at a minimum) by doing something like killing myself or someone else. Furthermore, no one acts shocked or scared of me. People ask for my consent for gentle touch and advise me on how to self soothe. Importantly, my friends do NOT promise to not send me to the hospital, despite my begging. They promise to get me help, regardless of what that help looks like if things get really bad. And in that, I trust them that they won't let anything bad happen to me.

TL;DR: CONSENT AND TRUST. It's so basic, but psychotics aren't offered this generally. Whatever helps you, develop a plan with your loved ones before you have an episode and let them know of what might happen to you, and tell them what might help. It may be different for you than what helps me, but consent and trust are the two biggest things that help any of us. We are people, and we deserve the same consent and trust as anyone else.

[idolish7imagines]

Hello! I hope it's okay to request how TRIGGER would show their jealousy for a S/O who's friendly and caring to everyone? Thank you in advance!

TRIGGER would show their jealousy for a S/O who's friendly and caring to everyone

A/N: Sorry this took so long! I hope you enjoy it!

.::.

Gaku Yaotome

Gaku takes great pride in you being his s/o, practically everyone's darling around the company of both his coworkers, staff and friends

everyone except his sometimes, apparently.

He's 100% for you to be independent and having strong relationships with others, being dependable and all that. But he can tend to get...possessive for lack of a better term.

He knows he's special to you, thats something in which his confidence would never wain, but he does need his alone, quality time with you. It helps him recharge especially after a long day.

As much as he loves that you're always present and there for both his and your own friends, he's still not above blurting out his needs that you should take a break from tending to everyone else and do something chill with him, like watching a movie or going for a drive.

His schedule was already hectic in certain seasons, so quality time is important to him as it is

It doesn't happen too quick at least, he'll give at least a 2 week grace period before his arms wrap around you from behind and he practically begs you to not leave and go do something besides being at his side.

With that said, its pretty easy to recognize when he's jealous.

Even if he's on good terms with the person, there's a painfully particular frown he gives when you're talking to them and he's been left out while standing by.

One thats easy for people that aren't you to spot as well, which has led to much more teasing than he'd be willing to admit.

Though the good part is that after his bouts of jealousy he feels the need to make up for lost time by taking you to an expensive dinner to remind the both of you how exclusive your relationship is

Kujo Tenn

Tenn is conflicted

He once had an impulsive thought to take you out more, but all his ideas would greatly interfere with his schedule, at least the ones that he feels would be enough to consider quality time

Sometmes he feels like you belong to everyone and not just him; which isn't necassarily bad, in fact he can relate, always trying to please his fans over his own needs and wants

The fact you're so kind is part of why he fell for you. Even when he had his moments where other people would consider him cold, you were always nice and understanding towards him

But that doesn't mean he won't pout like an annoyed cat when he sees you mingling at small parties and even with his other group members while leaving him in the background practically.

At times he's even petty enough to excuse himself from the room while pretending he has something better to do (though he usually comes back at realizing he's being a tad childish)

Once you notice he's jealous he'll ignore you a bit as 'punishment' but all you have to do is pet his head or let him rest it on your lap and its like he's reset and all is forgiven

He won't go as far as wanting to have you cut contact with the person at least not verbally but you can tell when he'd prefer to have your attention more

Alternatively you can buy him sweets and he'll be a little more content

but he definitely wants to go on some kind of date with you. Maybe two for good measure. Of just you and him, whether its something a bit more outside like going to the amusment park or just spending the day in each other's presence without taking any other calls (unless its for work)

Tsunashi Ryunosuke

Ryunosuke is not a jealous man. He trusts his s/o 100% (which would be a catastrophe if his judgement of character wasn't astute before dating someone)

Though it'd be a lie to say he didn't still go through his bouts of loneliness when its been a while since he's seen his fellow group members or even you due to his schedule. He wants to be happier when you tell him about the other things you've done, but ends up having a bittersweet taste in his mouth after hearing it.

It moreso makes him feel bad that he can't control his emotions getting the better of him, rather than directing it towards you.

And so, after realization, Ryuu figures the best way to cure it is to try and catch you the next time the both of you have enough free time to make your relationship feel special again. Easier said than done though.

Unlike Gaku, he wouldn't ask for much in terms of spending time with you alone. Just a night spent at either of your homes, making dinner or even ordering in and watching something and talking.

Weirdly enough, his other friends notice faster than you his feelings about the matter. He still looks at you fondly when you aren't looking back, but its different.

After a few attempts at denying when being asked about it, he'd finally admit that he'd been missing you

Even if the person he's jealous of is in vicinity when they hear that its pretty hard to be upset with him when he puts on such a genuinely somber face

Ryuu tries not to make a big deal out of it, assuring that he's fine with whatever you choose to do with your time

(which, obviously you'd spend more time with him)

[ca77um-ilo77]

alright you have me convinced!! what should i know before i watch indycar next season??

yooo i'm so glad i convinced you!! this is a pretty long post, and is kind of all-over the place. i tried to break it up by general topic, but i'm adding randomly as i think, so just a warning. i'll add some info links i like at the bottom. (if you or anyone wants to talk indy or f1, asks or dms are so very welcome, i love making friends <3)

one thing about indy is unlike in basically every else, many cars look very different even when on the same team as well as special liveries that are nothing like their normal ones, so i'd recommend getting the indycar app (it's free and user friendly once you figure out the weird layout) as it has a spotter's guide. it also has onboard cameras and radios for free (!!!!).

indycar is (usually) a pretty friendly sport, but as is the case with american sports, we like chaos, so the drivers can pretty much say anything except swear words lol. there's a few different clips of drivers threatening each other, which is great. id say most drivers are friends or at least acquaintances, expect santino ferrucci (huge bigot, pay driver, got kicked out of f2 for extremely dirty driving, and i personally hate his hair) and often romain grosjean as he hits people a lot. as for 2024 rookies, kyffin simpson's dad bought him his seat, and kyle larson saying the n-word in 2020 means he has some really, really racist fans.

the safety rules are strict and the cars are very durable which is good for high-speed crashes. the safety people (shoutout amr indycar safety team i love y'all, amr the company i hate you more than i hate the fia) travel with the races and have extensive training. they are also stationed in places that allow quick access to any location on a track. this is most apparent at ovals as they are much faster and more dangerous. at the other races, they are stationed where there is higher likelihood for a more dangerous crash that needs faster reactions. they take trucks to the site that are full of basically anything that might be needed. this is especially important as indycar refuels and are at high risk of combustion compared to f1. the calling yellow flags is also a lot more liberal which is nice. during longer yellows, and reds at ovals they'll run a sweeper truck to clean the racing line so people don't slide into walls.

for flag code info, as i don't have the patience to write it out, it is is section 7.2 of the rule book (page 27). i've linked it at the bottom of the post.

with the cars, they're all required to have the same chassis and aren't allowed to change a huge amount, so the racing is mostly down to skill, though andretti, ganassi, penske, and mclaren are better as they have more money. there are two engine suppliers, honda and chevrolet, iirc (don't quote me here) chevy is a bit more powerful, but honda is a bit more handleable. fast pit stops are usually about 7 seconds due to smaller pit crews (7 people maximum) and refueling. each car also has it's own pit box as teams have variable car numbers based on what they can afford. firestone provides tires, and there are two compounds, primary and alternate, as well as a wet tire. primaries are the harder compound and have a black sidewall. alternates are softer and have a red sidewall, except at street circuits where it's green to signify all natural rubber. use of both compounds are required. on broadcast you'll hear them mention "sticker reds" which are just the brand new ones.

more tire info in section 15 of the rulebook (page 84). there's some complex rules if you like tires.

the biggest difference between indy cars and f1 is f1 has power steering, indy doesn't. if you watch onboards, the drivers are wrestling the car the whole time, and most of the racing comes down to skill. the actual racing is often chaotic (indycar app helps with this. i keep it open always) and since there are many pit stops in a race (the cars use a lot of fuel) the leaderboard will change a lot.

the points system is very different, i'll try to cover it as succinctly as i can but i'm going to put a link for the wiki on it at the bottom anyway. (this is going to be formatted real weird, but i want to be brief). p1 50; p2 40; p3 35; p4 32; 4th-10th decreases by 2; p10 20; 10th-25th decreases by 1; everything p25 down is 5 points. drivers get points for finishing the race, basically. (unless there's more than 33 finishers, then 34 down get nothing, but that doesn't really happen). there's some bonus points also, 1 for leading a lap, 2 for most laps led, and 1 for pole position. the final bonus is for indy 500 qualifying. top 12 get points from p1 getting 12, descending by 1, to p12 getting 1.

as for the circuits there's three types: ovals (6 races, 4 tracks), roads (6 races, +1 non-championship race), and street (5 races). ovals are very high speed with little to no breaking. road courses are just your average circuit made for racing, the roads tend to be a bit rougher than f1's but that's kinda just how american tracks are. street circuits are, well, on the street. american roads suck major dick. the smoothest indycar street circuit is comparable to the worst of f1's. very bumpy, usually some good crashes (watch 2023 st. petersburg start. shit was insane).

as a fan, i cannot recommend irl indy more. some races are busier than others, obviously, but it's cheap considering it's a big racing category. 3 day entry for the less major races is usually $60-ish, and paddock passes are an additional $120-ish. not 100% on the price for pit access, but that is a bundle with three day tickets usually. the races aren't super crowded and there isn't assigned seats which is nice. the paddock is super open (check my "fenrir indycar" tag, quick access on my pinned) and you are able to walk up to and touch the cars if you really want (i wouldn't) as well as have conversation with engineers if they're not busy. if you have pit access the drivers are usually just wandering around and are often happy to stop and talk/sign something when not busy. there's also a high risk of nearly getting run over by drivers on their scooters. will power is notorious for this.

for my non-americans, (love y'all) we are very happy to have a conversation with strangers. the indy fans are often thrilled to talk about their favorite drivers and thoughts with anyone. when i went id say the only bad experiences i had was getting overwhelmed (my fault, i went to a place that i knew would cause a meltdown) and my dad getting hit twice by a man in a golf cart twice (same guy, not my dad's fault, the cunt didn't try to move, warn him, or apologize, just hit him, let my dad stumble, hit him again. i'm still mad). the seats are usually right on the track, so it's extremely loud and smelly. 10/10 can not recommend irl indy enough. i am biased to the pnw and it's the only race i've been to, but the portland race is great. it's not got masses of people, you can walk right up to the track to watch with the only thing between you and the cars being a concrete wall and a fence, and as it's a smaller race with less fans compared to the east coast and mid-west races, it's cheaper. biggest con is its built on a swamp, so super humid. (another pro, i'll be there <3 [joke.])

any questions you've got or clarification needed, my notifications are on and i'll respond to relevant stuff as soon as i see it.

LINKS:

rule book (clicking on a section of the table of contents will take you there)

points format wiki

schedule (tickets can be bought here)

app link

2024 series wiki (so helpful)