#or maybe its just their specific dynamic which is just... so good...

[sonknuxadow]

when i watched the one about silver i could hear all 11 sonilver shippers on the planet wailing in agony in the distance

[szftzy]

yandere batfam concept!

okk so what if, batfam! but mc is a senior, around 18, about to graduate. they work a part time job paying off expenses, while cramming studies and what not. quite a productive life style right?

well, it most definitely gets tiring. thing is, mc knows two brothers around their age, and knowing them for quite a while. sure they were intimidating at first, but you grew to like them as good friends! the younger brother being feisty, while the older one witty.

now you forgot to bring up a fine detail, they were billionaires. more specifically— waynes.. now i know that was a crucial detail but bare with me here!

now, the mc is not a leech. they would enjoy treating themselves, but their dignity as a hard working person doesn't let them! that includes asking of anything from their filthy rich acquaintances.now, when the brothers had invited them over on their behalf, after a while of knowing them, it was pretty awesome.. like not to be dramatic.

now as they had kept sleeping over one or two times, they had meet the rest of the siblings. they had quite a big family, (5 brothers, 3 sisters, a butler and their dad.) of course having equal excitement for each member they had met, but definitely not amounting to the adore they had for their dad! I mean cmon, he built this empire by his bare hands! you'd like to know if you could get a tip or two on how to be successful, ya know.. for the near future.

now that you think about it, that makes you more excited to hang out with them. their family dynamic is so bizarre and so full of life, you do get a bit jealous at times— but never in any bad intentions, you are more than happy for them! plus if it gets you free delicious cookies from the butler, your more than down!

hanging out more around them makes you notice all their little ticks, everything that they like, anything that puts a frown on their face.. even though thats routine for some of them. ahem ahem.. now at a point it can get lonely, like your so invited in the family, but not at the same time..? its sorta difficult to explain, so just never-mind.

now it does get to a point where the mc, gets their own room! now you definitely had a guest room, but at some point your room starts to have life. its not a guest room anymore, little by little it fills up with your interests, your favorite colors, anything that you would like. although subtly gets noticeable over time. now it definitely had a bit of childish tones about it, which was weird considering you were about to be a legal adult.. but okay?

Now at this point, Its nearly graduation. now this would be a joyous event, if not for the fact you were planning on leaving for metropolis.(of all places?) as a kid, you always knew you didn't wanna stay in Gotham, it being the dangerous and gloomy city, although it had its pros, the cons were way more.

And you definitely had grown to adore your friends, they almost feel like family at times, but life has to go on. right?

when they heard about this, they were not elevated for sure.. for a while after that it was just awkward smiles and weird tensions, neither side being happy with what was gonna happen, but you had to.

before school got too busy, you decided to go out with them more! they insist on sleepovers instead of going outside, which you don't really understand why since it wont make a difference. maybe its because they were billionaires or something.. Man rich people are weird.

Anyways, when it came time for exams, you had nearly stopped going out at all. concerning them immensely, but it had taken you a while to assure them you were studying. much to their dismay. (weird, that was something they always detested? their not setting a very good example.) now when you finished up exams, and your graduation ceremony occurred, of course they had to be there!

and after that, they would start bombarding you with text messages, each text had a personality where without even looking at who sent it you could tell who it was from, each text begging you for something. it was always something about— come over! stay! dont go! say goodbye! yada yada yada..—

now it gets annoying at a certain point. but you had decided to pay them one last visit, having packed your stuff and everything done early, you decided it couldn't hurt— oh really now?

your last dinner with them, was interesting! at first the tension was as thick as a wall. for the most part it being small chit chat. but over time, you guys had regained your flow of conversations, everyone chatting and laughing actually having a good time. now their dad doesn't join in alot, but when he does, he also does have fun! which is a bit odd, but its adorable.

when he kindly offered you chamomile tea, you politely refused, but since he insisted, you decided to take him up on his offer. now this wasnt anything weird since the waynes were very generous, but now for some odd reason everyone was staring.. which you tried to pay no mind to.

but as you continue drinking the tea you felt more and more woozy, knowing to just stop and put the tea down..

suddenly a rough hand from behind firmly grabs the cup and gently peers it up to your lips, in total shock you had tried to push the hands away, but it was to no use. you could only watch as you kept drinking the obviously drugged cup, feeling the other hand rubbing against the small of your back soothingly..

you were only a little bit conscious here and there.. enough to feel someone easily carrying you, leading you somewhere, and tad bits of conversations that slipped your mind before you could comprehend.

now waking up in this room, the room you had a bad feeling about.. surrounded by comfortable pillows, big cute plushies, and soft large sheets. to your surprise you were also changed in the most comfortable silk pajamas. it almost coerced you to fall back asleep but you knew better!

you immediately jumped up and ran up to the door, quite obviously secured with locks from the outside.

you tried pushing the doorknob but to no avail, now due to your panic you just froze. immediately lying down on the floor from shock, tears bubbling up.

you buried your face into your knees, and just started sobbing your heart out— why now?! why now of all times to ruin your life? just when it started to get good for you..

you then hear the sound of keys being forced open, and then the door gets kicked down. did someone come to save you? at the doorway, their was the brothers! both with worried looks on their faces, the two ran up to you and immediately locked you in their warm yet suffocating embrace

they immediately start apologizing, for not being there when you woke up.. wait what? they're not here to help?

then it all connected, you were an idiot.. yesterday.. this room. it was obviously their doing. you attempted to sprint off the minute they loosened their grip, bad move.. they were gonna let you explore the manor. but now they knew you need a few months to get adjusted.

now they had tried to not overwhelm you too much, their precious baby, only a few batfamily members being there at a time. sometimes all of them would be there, but at that point you would be napping. unaware to the eyes adoringly watching you drool on whoever had the fortune to carry you that day.

they're so affectionate towards their sibling/kid to a point where its infantilizing. like they will just hold you down for hours, whispering sweet nothings as you lay down in the comfiest bed you can imagine of.

of course sometimes you can still leave your room here and there! ljust not the manor itself. (like you cant leave, ever.) and yes you can still do all your favorite hobbies, darling.. but I'm a little afraid its too grown up for you.. how about we lay down for a nap, okay?

not to mention— you used to have a job, before they confined you. you used to have studies, responsibilities and issues— all that? no more, we'll take care of all that.

don't start questioning them why you suddenly feel lightheaded and tired right after waking up from another nap. its definitely not the tea they just coerced you to drink! again! you probably just thought a little too hard for your fragile brain.. its okay, just rest your head in their lap and let all your worries go away. <3

and you couldnt even fight back! you were not blessed with the best height or physique, and not to mention even the members who didn't fight as much, still had years of technique and experience! yeah.

and now all of a sudden anytime a conversation gets even the slightest bit mature, they'll cover your ears and act like your not there, or have another member of the family escort you to your room for a nap. you don't need to know any of that, sunshine. and if you try to insert your own take on the topic? they'll just laugh, no baby.. your too precious to actually understand these big conversations. maybe when your older?

on the topic of your room again— it is the cutest, most comfortable room someone could think of! filled with your favorite colors, big pillows and plushies.. way too childish for your tastes.. but at first when you had slept over you didn't mind. the room had no windows, you didn't think much at first. not until they had started adding more locks to your door? and apparently your room is soundproof?

no wonder any guests they have over cant hear your pleas of help, thats even if you were allowed to be awake when they came over! please forgive them.. they're just so overprotective, and feel so jealous if someone comes near.

oh and if someone questions whats the door with alot of locks, positioned right next to your dads, was for? well they'd either just change the topic as quick as they could, or give them a filthy look that would make them reconsider ever asking that question.. poor guy.

It evolved from just staying over at your rich friends house, to being under lock and key, as their little baby for them to cherish and adore.

soo this was jus a lil drabble, but lemme know if you guys want a part 2 or something longer!

[vsa-pieldepapel]

ralsusie became real and kinda popular in the fandom and i IMMEDIATELY thought of you. also your susie hadcanons... you're predicting it all....

so what are your thoughts on their dynamic in the new chapter? and on susie's character development overall?

oh it's a fucking party in my house rn you have no idea. i have so many things to say about them that i don't believe its possible to make all of them coherent in a single post but i'll vomit some of it Before that tho i must say i am surprised at how many people thought of me w these new developmetns lol. mostly because the internet is so fast paced i thought no one would remember. thank you though.

i remember saying somewhere that I was convinced ralsei observing susie's independence and force of will would plant a seed in his head for him to strive for freedom and agency, and I'm surprised how dead on that was. Guts is widely accepted to be the stat for how much a character is willing to stand against the control of the player, which ralsei has Zero of in all chapters, but fascinatingly, even though he goes back to zero in ch4, at the tail end of ch3 before i fought the roaring knight i checked the power screen and ralsei had a single Guts point. this was immediately after susie consoled Tenna and told him, "did you hear that, Ralsei?" so i am convinced that single moment of guts was brought forth by her, by the lessons he learns from her character.

I had rather low expectations going into the new chapters because I really still wasnt convinced if Toby was self aware on how he was writing the holiday family, susie and noelle, and ralsusie, or if that was all serendipitous. The new chapters make me believe more strongly that he is aware and its not all coincidental. theres a lot here and i would have to make an entire separate post about it but I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by how many poignant, emotionally resonant moments happened between susie and ralsei building on how much they push each other to be better, and how it's emphasised that they're influencing the other. I was incredibly shocked in a good way that they had an actual argument, but Susie didn't resort to all the coping mechanisms we see her use with Lancer. Ralsei has proven now that he will be there by her side and she has decided to believe in that rather than keeping in mind that she could be abandoned at any turn, and I thought them being able to genuinely talk it out and MAKE it through an argument was an excellent indicator of how powerful their relationship is (and I do mean this all even if it's just friendship stuff for now, because the healthiest couples, anyway, are those where your partner is also your friend). I remember being skeptical way back when of people who made susie sporty and confident, because she struck me as feeling ugly, insecure, and not really that successful in that regard either, and I'm glad I was right. Her monologues about feeling unwanted and broken which feels very much the result of unstable circumstances like moving constantly, where there is no consistency to any one situation, and neglectful or abusive parenting were very resonant. Curiously though my fave part of all these new developments about susie are when it pertains to how she connects to the lore of the prophecy, which is another separate post. Basically, I love how susie is a "wild card", but that necessitates a LOT of elaboration. I like that her stubbornness and her will to fight are displayed for both when they're good and worth it and when they're dysfunctional. I also found the exploration of how an individuals psyche shapes a dark world fascinating.

The bloody handprint lives fucking rent free in my head. Again, I need to make a MASSIVE post to connect a lot of dots here idk how to do it. But I am very, very excited. Maybe it would be easier to organise everything if I was prompted to talk about specific things. I could make a pepe silvia style video about it atp rofl

[runninglikeabuckley]

possibly hot take, but if/when they resurrect bobby, i would love it they didn't have athena's reaction be anger (which imo makes sense and obviously angela bassett would eat that storyline). i'd love if she just got to be happy lmao and maybe consider a career change. what i'd love to see is if BUCK is angry when bobby comes back. because bobby MADE him leave. buck took eddie wondering if he (eddie) could have done anything to save bobby, is because buck didn't. he didn't do everything he could to save bobby! bobby asked him not to! he asked buck to be strong, to take care of his team, and to let bobby have time with his wife. and we've seen how much buck is struggling, so imagine the ANGST if bobby comes back and instead of uncomplicated relief to have him back, buck is struggling to forgive him. for leaving, for telling buck to respect his wishes and let him die, for putting the weight of the team on his shoulders (in buck's mind). the angst!! there hasn't been a buck-bobby conflict since the lawsuit really, but they have such a good dynamic and its SOOO good and compelling to watch it come under pressure. also chim could be brought in as a parallel, given his anger with bobby pre-resurrection but i feel like given maddie and his kids it's harder for him to hold his anger once bobby is back (or give me a full buck chim storyline where they bond in a weirdly toxic way over bobby coming back, that would SLAP). ALSO!!! wouldn't it be convenient if there was another recent complicated father-son conflict that the show never fully resolved?? wouldn't it be interesting if there was someone who could relate to buck feeling betrayed by his father's actions?? or a father who could relate to bobby's catholic upbringing and sense of guilt over his son specifically, even though he never meant to hurt him?? wouldn't that be crazy

[thistlecatfics]

Talking about Incest in Public

(both the painful traumatic kind and the hot fictional kind)

As it turns out, lots of the people who read and write taboo fiction have survived some deeply fucked up shit. After talking about incest with other survivors on the Moon, Sun & Stars discord and answering questions, I decided to share more about my experiences and the things that helped me survive and the things that helped me heal, because there are a lot of us, and a lot of us feel very alone, and maybe there are other people who aren’t incest survivors but who might want to know more to better support the survivors in their life.  

–

Incest is not just a sexual act between two family members -- it's a larger system of absence of boundaries within a family, and it's almost always part of multiple incestuous dynamics, even if only one might be the obvious or explicit dynamic. 

If you’re an incest survivor, you’re almost certainly not the only one in your family. 

-

“The true characteristics and dimensions of incestuous abuse have been masked by the taboo and silence that have surrounded its occurrence. Recent research demonstrates that incest occurs regularly in our society, perpetrated by individuals who, for the most part, would otherwise be regarded as fairly normal. The taboo on incestuous relations is a deterrent to some would-be perpetrators but not to others. The taboo contradicts the reality of incest prevalence, a fact which led Armstrong (1978) to comment that th taboo has been on the open discussion of incest and not on its perpetration.”

-Christine Courtois, “Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy” 

–

To use my family as an example - 

My (similarly aged) brother did sexual things to me as a kid, and I had a range of reactions to it including pleasure and enjoyment. And confusion. And fear. I do not think he is bad or even what he did was bad. I think we were both two kids who existed in a family with incestuous dynamics, and we were both shaped by those dynamics and trying our best to survive. 

From a young age, I existed as a physical comfort object to my mom (when she was sad she'd get into my bed to hold me until she felt better while I dissociated), and I took on the idea that my role in the family was for my body to be used to make other people feel good. The sexual behavior by my brother felt like an extension of how my mom held me. 

My mother was the victim of incest from her uncle, and her parents sided with her uncle over her when she spoke out about it (even after he was facing legal consequences for his behavior with kids outside of the family) (even after he fled the country). She didn't know how to emotionally regulate herself, and I don't think she had (or has) the capacity to understand a child's need for physical autonomy and boundaries because her own were never respected. 

There were other incestuous behaviors and dynamics within my family which I'm continuously discovering and unpacking. I think my mom’s uncle abused my grandmother too but I’ll never know for sure. It’s deeply uncomfortable to look back on a happy family story or a childhood nickname and see something sinister underneath and wonder if you’re being paranoid or if it’s actually that bad.  

–

Things that have helped: 

Long term relational therapy (5+ years). EMDR. Adopting a cat. Adopting more cats. Antidepressants. Reading about incest (realistic, terrifying, academic). Reading about incest (fictional, hot, amateur). Being a competitive athlete. Getting a graduate degree. Going on long walks late at night. Telling my family I had Covid so I could skip a family vacation. 

These books specifically: Healing the Incest Wound by Christine Courtois, The Myth of Normal, Dissociation Made Simple, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, The Narcissistic Family Unit, Clementine Morrigan’s writing x1000. 

The protector parts: Eating disorder. Self harm. Drinking. Perfectionism. Depression. Suicidal ideation. I’m grateful to these imperfect protectors I’ve leaned on over the years. 

Things that have not helped: 

You will be shocked to hear that people on the internet yelling about how people who find fictional incest hot are disgusting and bad and dangerous did NOT in fact help me unlearn the belief that experiencing incest made me disgusting and bad and dangerous. Luckily, I’m built of spite. But it certainly did not help. 

(If I think about my vulnerable pre-teen/teen self reading those things, I become deeply angry. How dare you hurt her in the name of protection.)

- I don’t cater to all these vipers Dressed in empath’s clothing God save the most judgmental creeps Who say they want what’s best for me Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see

-Taylor Swift, But Daddy I Love Him

-

After I discovered fanfiction in middle school, and then after I realized that there was a world beyond OFC/Draco Malfoy fic, I read a lot of Blackcest. I devoured any I could find, hopping through rec lists on LiveJournal. 

Reading Blackcest fics, first Bellatrix/Sirius then Sirius/Regulus mostly, allowed me to see my experiences reflected. Those fics gave me a way to contextualize my family and my role in it. I hate the expectation that kids who experience bad things should go to a safe trusted adult rather than find art that romanticizes their experience. The whole point is that there isn’t a safe trusted adult. The whole point is that I needed the art. I got to hold the romanticized narrative until I got far enough away that I could put it away in a box until I had enough therapy that I could safely open the box and build a new, more honest story. 

Obviously plenty of people love incest smut and fic and art. It’s taboo! It’s angsty! It’s a classic! Probably most of those people don’t have direct personal experience with incest in their families. I’m glad they read and write fics too. 

But for me – have you ever experienced something you believe so strongly you will never be able to say aloud? That any time you see your secret referenced it’s in shock and disgust and revulsion? You can pretend – you’re very good at pretending – but you know it’s real, and you know it’s your secret you’ll hold onto for the rest of your life while the world reminds you how disgusting you are? 

Then you find that people are writing about what you experienced in a thousand variations that all contain some nugget of your truth.

I cannot express in words how important it was that I found those stories at that time. 

I never commented on a single fic. I never made a single account on any of the sites I read fanfiction on. I clicked the “yes I’m 18” box without hesitation every time. I wish I could go back in time and have my adult self articulate the enormity of my gratitude for each and every author who helped save me whose work exists on sites I can only revisit with the Wayback Machine. 

I understand why people might feel horrified at the idea of a 11-12 year old reading smutty incest Harry Potter fanfic. People aren’t wrong for feeling that way. 

That said, I truly don’t care what people who aren’t incest survivors think.

I’m so proud of that child for finding a way to survive. She might have hated herself, might have fantasized about death, but she survived and kept the truth of her experience wrapped up in a fictional world where it could be safe to explore and kept it there until years and years of therapy made it possible to engage with it in reality. 

- I’m a real tough kid I can handle my shit They said, babe, you got to fake it till you make it And I did

-Taylor Swift, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart -

No one is writing about incest the way Clementine Morrigan is right now. I’m so grateful for her. I’m not sure this little tumblr post would exist without her essay series. 

"Incest functions as a spell of unreality. A structure of nothingness. A completely normal and unremarkable family life in which something unnameable is ominously and terrifyingly wrong. You know in the summer when you can see the heat making the air go squiggly? Imagine those squiggles as an indication that in the seeming nothingness, there is something there. Incest is like that. Subtle, pervasive, unthinkable, unnameable. But present, felt.

As a teenager I came up with this metaphor: Imagine you are in a house full of bugs. There are bugs crawling all over all the walls and all the furniture and in your food and even on the fork you are lifting to your mouth. And you feel disgusted, you feel like something is really wrong. But your whole family is acting completely normal, laughing and eating and talking as bugs crawl over their faces and into their mouths. When you tell them you think there are bugs in your food your family says it’s just pepper and not to worry about it.

There is no way to talk about incest without feeling that you are lying. This is because incest lives in the realm of unreality and everything in the realm of unreality cannot be thought or said or named. When you speak of things that happen in the realm of unreality it will always feel like a lie and be treated like a lie. You are breaking the fundamental rule. You are not allowed to talk about what goes on in the realm of unreality because it isn’t real."

Read more and pay for her writing if you can on her substack.

-

Without a doubt, the not-explicitly-sexual incest from my mom fucked me up more than the explicitly sexual incest from my brother, but I only feel confident claiming the incest survivor label because sexual stuff was done to me by a family member, and I still feel like I’m lying sometimes because it wasn't bad enough to count. 

I’m a literal mental health clinician who can map out various incestuous dynamics within my family and who has clear memories of a family member doing sexual stuff to my child body, and I still feel like I’m lying. 

I believe you if you feel like a liar because I bet you do. I believe you if the incest never included anything directly physical. I believe you if you enjoyed it. I believe you if you don’t remember but feel like it’s true. 

I love us. 

If we’re monsters, I love our courageous monstrosity.

If we’re liars, I love the way we make up stories to survive when reality is impossible. 

If we’re an uncomfortable truth, good. 

-

It still impacts me. I’m not over it. 

It’s very difficult for me to imagine love that does not include violation. To be loved and to be allowed to maintain a self. 

But I’m open to learning otherwise, and that openness is new. 

-

I was so, so good at living in unreality. I could make myself perfect, such a flawless object until I couldn’t think of anything except killing myself, but even then I still maintained the image of perfection my family expected. 

It’s cool I never actually killed myself. 

I find it hard to be around my family now. There are advantages of living in unreality. I drink a lot more when I’m around my family than I ever did before, but I don’t think about killing myself nearly as much. Reality is worth it. Being able to exist as a person is worth it. 

- I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.

-Sylvia Plath

- I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. (I insist.)

It didn’t kill me then. It’s not going to kill me now. (I remind myself.) 

My life is worth living, and there are fights worth fighting, and it is undeniably true the world is full of horror, but it is good to write and create and be alive, and it is good to try. I’m a little afraid to post this, but the fear and shame isn’t mine to hold, and I never should have been the one holding it. 

Consider this a thank you note sent out to the universe in the hopes the sentiment echoes towards those authors who saved me then and to all the writers who are saving people now. Your art matters. No matter how weird or niche or dismissed or hated it is. It matters. 

Thank you.

[talxns]

Academic Articles that Analyze Queer Readings of Batman and Robin (Brudick)

There actually exist multiple!…but the ones I want to introduce right now talk specifically about how the creation of the batfamily was DC’s attempt to dissuade brudick readings. and that it can be argued that DC is still doing the same thing today.

The first article is called “All in the Family: Homophobia and Batman Comics in the 1950s”, published in the International Journal of Comics Art in Fall 2000 by Chris York. It was not available for free online, but I bought a digital copy of the volume it was published in and provided screenshots because it’s been 24 years and I hate the fact that academics are behind paywalls so I’m sharing.

This article was actually infamous because DC refused to grant permission for the use of their panels in this article.

Click for better quality.

Notable Quotes:

“National [Periodical Publications]’s biggest step, however, was the introduction of other members of the Bat-family, which would give them permanent female counterparts and solidify their heterosexual status.”

“It is clear that, although Batman and Robin remain partners, their interests are no longer as the Dynamic Duo, but as a Bat-family.”

“Taking the focus of the comic away from Batman and Robin was exactly what these superfluous characters were designed to do.”

The second article, published in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies in 2005, is called "Domesticity, Homosociality, and Male Power in Superhero Comics of the 1950s" by Mark Best.

Good news! This article is available online for free and it’s a great read.

Notable Quotes:

“In contrast to the Marvel family, however, the Batman and Superman families were modeled more after the familial relations of the nuclear family and the gender expectations of the domestic ideology.”

“One way the genre attempted to contain any “subversive” potential, including the possibility of homosexual readings of the comics, was through the narrative device of the “super­ hero family.””

Here is more academic reading with the themes of Batman and homophobia, written in 1991. This article is referenced in the former piece.

In summary:

(lest we forget) Batman has had queer readings since its inception, specifically between Bruce and Dick.

The creation of the batfamily served to curtail those brudick readings

It seems pretty obvious that the same attempts are STILL being made by DC, now with the exaggerated push for explicit familial titles like “father” and “son”. And are still working if you see any discourse online from fans who strictly oppose brudick on the basis of their “father/son” relationship (which seems to me a more modern emphasis compared to in the past, maybe i’ll make a different post about that later.) They are unknowingly parroting Freddy Wertham’s concerns and eating up DC’s new strategy of distancing Bruce and Dick, just under an accusation harder to argue against nowadays. It’s gauche to criticize queerness nowadays, but consider it incest and suddenly it’s acceptable to bash again.

I just find it incredibly fascinating that brudick had been discussed and analyzed in multiple academic articles! And reading some comments I saw lately of people exclaiming “I can’t believe Brudick is this popular!/Who on earth is shipping Brudick!?!” made me sigh and really want to pull these out. Brudick has been a thing before all of us were born. DC’s propaganda/internet purity culture has been doing too good of a job lately. We have to remember our roots.

[egot1stical]

spamton and tenna thoughts CH3 SPOILERS

so spamton and tenna both think the OTHER fucked them over. huh.

so tenna pov, he was getting close to spamton to figure out HOW he blew up so fast (and seemingly actually grew kinda attached?), but whoever was on the phone said... Something which cause spamton to abandon tenna which caused tenna to freak. I ASSUME the phone call was the caller telling him tenna was using him, but I may be wrong. we don't really know

then spamton pov, he was making a friend post Blowing Up, which yknow, was pretty unique because he was convinced all his friends hated him. but it just turns out that this friend was using him to get popular and he stopped talking to him out of the feeling of betrayal.

spamton seemingly picked up some of his dialogue tics from being around tenna. I mean, it makes sense, they're ads. specifically, SPECIL, CUNGADERO, and NEO were bastardisations of tenna's way of speaking.

its super interesting because it puts spamton as more or less the more powerful in the dynamic, which isn't what most people expected. I MEAN IT MAKES SENSE, tenna is old tech, spam is new, he was gonna teach him current era things, but yknow. it's fun to have more big shot spam context, cuz we don't know many specifics about that era

the caller... cooouuuullllddd be Mike? I'm really just lost on that. we sure don't know anything about Mike except it's someone spamton really cares about, that tenna's looking for according to spamton... but tenna KNOWs and has working for him in chapter 3 till he leaves too?

anyway they're really good, I admire spamton's determination to convince himseld that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS FRIENDS HATES HIM. also crazy that he's still alive

(yes I've seen the foam scene both with and without dealmakers and the check and the rpg route ending)

concept from my friend that I think is good

-these two get along and like each other to a degree, bla bla tenna wants to be a big shot

-mike has been there the entire time, talking to both, figuring out what they see in the other

-mike calls "hes using you, you know?"

-hangs up before tenna even gets to him

-"aw man, spamton left? That sucks. Im here for u buddy"

-stays behind with tenna, maybe hes the more useful one to whatever goal mike has

-ends up leaving him as well

-profit?

[zeropro]

So I’ve seen you draw and tag a couple of different ships, just wondering which are your favorite???

Love your art btw :D

Thank you!

I don’t have a specific ship i'm particularly loyal to, so I guess I’ll rate them and also provide my own headcanons:

(disclaimer i dont know ship names so imma just try my best)

Trine-shipping: yes, put the three of them together, I don’t care. familial, sexual, romantic, platonic, its all good. I go crazy seeing them stand next to each other in the cartoon what do you want from me.

thunderwarp: I see this one a lot and I quite like it. these two being mates with starscream doing his own thing kinda makes sense considering starscream has a bunch of other ships. also makes it fun when something happens to one of them and starscream is left in the awkward position of having to deal with that.

thunderstar: been thinking about this one more lately. they’re like foils to each other. thundercracker’s a good boy to starscream’s bad boy, and he does such a concern about all the morally dubious stuff starscream gets up to. but at the same time, he admires starscream’s ambition and rizz and starscream the kinda bot that would pull you so high if you followed him. I think out of anyone, starscream is the closest to actually trusting thundercracker. 

starwarp: i had this thought one time of what if skywarp is like the horniest asexual and starscream is the most traumatized aromantic, and how would that even work XD nothing solid in the works just an idea that I had. ive seen these two less often outside of trine shipping but it can be pretty hot. I like when they are being protective of each other. I always see skywarp as more emotionally open than his trinemates and starscream can use some of that open and honest emotional love and care. someone to forcfully make him accept being loved. someone who will actually push back when he’s being stupid. and with skywarp being loyal to megatron, so much angst potential for both of them.

starbee: im a sucker for the whole ghost bee starscream dynamic. I already made a post about these two, and after all this time I still really enjoy this ship. I think characters that don’t actually like each other at first but grow into a mutual respect is so tasty. I think some people don’t like the ship because they headcanon bee as too young? well, starscream is actually younger in my fic lmao, but also they’re like 6 million years old and are born with full adult processing capabilities, I don’t think age matters here :P its less about intimacy for me anyway. I like them together because of how much it takes to get there. 

starwavewave: okay this one is 100% fueled by tfone but guyssss guysss theyre married and megatron is their son and im just aaaagh dont seperate them! such a kookie dynamic, the cool headed soundwave, the emotionally volatile shockwave, the arrogant yet cowardly starscream, all being fail dads to their little scamp leader. hahaha. high command polycule 

megastar: gasp, rated above skystar. yes, I just find this dynamic more interesting. I like an abusive ship sometimes for the angst but I also enjoy seeing megatron when he isnt abusive? kinda catharsis maybe. I read a fic once where the war is over and starscream invites megatron to one of optimus’ high profile parties and is appalled at megatron showing up in robot equivalent of underdressed, meanwhile megatron the working class miner is like “I washed, what else was I supposed to do” XD and I just love that haha. theres just so many ways to take it. I wont be doing any megastar in my au, I just tag anything that has megatron and starscream interacting with megastar cuz thats the dynamic to me

skystar/jetstar: iddkkkkk i know this is the most popular ship but it’s just!! idk! its not as interesting to me haha. I love this as a past ship, they were roommates in college, starscream opened himself to someone, chose to become close and then was hurt by it. just another wound on starscream’s spark before he ever even meets megatron. I don’t think theyd get back together after the ice. idk how well I can write this so I’ll just explain how it happens in my au here: skyfire died and starscream created this version of skyfire in his mind that was perfect, he memorialised him because he was dead! you just cant live up to how someone remembers you. I think that was part of the reason why starscream reacts so badly when skyfire “betrayed” him. unlike thundercracker, skyfire knows how to set healthy boundaries. not to mention he’d been on ice for four million years, lost his entire life, everyone he knows, and his entire civilisation, planet, and culture to a war he had no part in. bot’s gonna be upset. pissed off even. skyfire shouldnt have to be some soft sparked punching bag for starscream, he’s kind and a pacifist but he’s also going to get upset and have feelings. I think starscream’s betrayal would hit pretty hard, he’d gonna be upset about how much starscream’s changed, how much damage starscream helped cause during the war, and also starscream shooting him in the back for wanting to protect the native wildlife! when they properly talk to each other again it’s going to be heated on both sides, and I think after some hard work from both sides they could end up in a place where they are willing to be friends again, but I don’t think they’d conjunx. skystar isnt end game to me, but it is canon and an important part of the story

starop: I think ive read one fic where I really liked this ship. it’s just such a random pairing. my initial reaction is just noooo optimus prime?? but that guy’s everyone’s dad! Ive been told a big part of it is they’re both megatron’s ex’s and that’s pretty funny. not for me sadly haha (opxmegatronoldmanyaoiotpfrfr)

starjack…wheelstar? whatever the starscream and wheeljack one is. I’m not into this one. I see where people are coming from with it, but wheeljack isnt an interesting character to me. they can be science bros tho

starscream and windblade: ive seen this like once or twice. not for me. windblade is like, starscream’s daughter or something idk XD 

soundstar: uuuh i dont see it. sorry! i legit have no thoughts on soundstar. theyre coworkers XD. ive seen fics where the seekers are really young and soundwave moms them, and that’s really cute. okay, I like soundwave as a caretaker if the seekers are young, but yeah I don’t think I understand this one. 

shockstar: nooooooo. tho ironically theres more canon content there to fuel this one than soundstar (is this emotion?) but still no XD I don’t even hate shockwave! let him be sunstorm’s dad, that’s cute. but no, shockewave too creepy. no ship. they are also coworkers

what other ship is there even? oh yeah

starprowl: this is apparently a really popular ship?! I guess in a way prowl is sort of like the autobot’s starscream, undermining his leader, arrogant, willing to do the dubious play. they’re both ruthless. I like this one better than starjacked, but its still an odd pairing to me.

oh! knockout and starscream, i can kinda see it? like, as a rebound after breakdown? I like knock out and breakdown, so I’d only see these two as like friends or if something happened to breakdown. they’re a LOT of fun when they interact tho heh heh, perfectly clashing personalities

on the topic of tfp, I guess starscream and arcee is a ship? I can see this similar to my enjoyment of starbee, they’d have to work reeaally hard for this one to work but they have had potentially positive interactions in the show (before starscream screws it up) so its possible in a better world where starscream doesnt suck they could become friends. him killing cliffjumper is gonna be a huge hurdle tho! 

dont talk to me about airachnid

do people ship starscream and ratchet? I don’t ship it, but I do really like interactions between them. starscream is so terrible but he also gets hurt a lot. ratchet is grumpy and prejudice but he’s the best doctor and he’ll fix him up! I like when something terrible happens to starscream and ratchet cant help but feel bad for the guy. that’s the good stuff.

lastly i have been asked a few times on trinebee. im assuming this is bumblebee and the trine. i hadnt thought about it but it makes sense! if youre a starbee shipper, but you also support trine propaganda, then it only makes sense to bring bee into the trine. also bee and thundercracker are friends! the only ones who havent really had any interaction is bee and warp, and honestly idk if I see those two getting along but bumblebee is everybody’s friend so XD I’m sure it’ll work out!

and i think those are all the thoughts i have on the ships! 

no hate on anyone who ships any of these!!! you all do what you do, these are just my opinions, and honestly I’m just not a huge shipper to begin with haha. I am…unsure if there will be any shipping content in my au, I write my scenarios very much “canon but to the left” and so it comes out very sex-less because romance and intimacy is just not the type of content I’m in the business of writing. but, idk, i think about it sometimes. sometimes I think about the end of chapter one of thundercracker’s origin, the night starscream took thundercracker out on a not-date. i think, who knows, in some version of the story maybe they shared a kiss? maybe they went back to the apartment and things went further? maybe. but of course, in every version of the story, starscream is gone the next morning. 

happy valentrine’s day!

[nikitaxlee]

!Hyper-feminine female Y/N! x overprotective, slightly toxic? Niki

Warnings: Toxic relationship dynamic, slightly Ditsy Y/N, just a quick thought of mine.

THIS WAS IN MY HEAD, SO NOW ITS IN YOURS 😋🎀

I don't know why, but Niki seems like someone to go for the polar opposite of his style. So I'm thinking pink, girly, and bows. I can also imagine him doing anything to keep his darling girl close, so when he finds his ditsy little girlfriend at some café with a random scary guy he's bound to get a little angry right?

---------------------------

"And I was like, what do you mean you don't have this in pink?"

This is what Niki had walked into the café hearing from Y/N. She was talking to a guy who looked to be undressing her with his eyes and only pretending to be invested in this trivial conversation. Still, Niki would've listened to her as if she was god herself. And in his world, she was.

Niki and you had one specific fight a couple nights before about him leaving but that doesn't mean you get to go around talking to other guys as if they would put up with your shit. Niki decided to watch a bit longer in hopes it could make him laugh a bit more watching this guy fumble. But he hated the way you giggled and batted your pretty little eyes at this random who was just trying to get your hands in his jeans.

Just the thought of this guy thinking he could slide his hands up your dress made Niki's hands clench. Niki had tracked you down from your phone which Niki installed a tracking app on. Toxic, maybe. But you were his for the taking.

He could entertain the idea that you could talk to other guys but he knew that deep down, no other guy could satisfy you like him.

When he left that night, he had given you a kiss and told you to be good. Not once was there ever a mutual agreement that you guys were going to go on dates with other people, so this was basically cheating in his book.

When Niki came back from his thoughts, he saw this guy start grabbing your hand from across the table, and that's when Niki drew the line. He could look, not touch. Niki stood up and made a beeline to your table.

When you caught Niki's eyes, to say you were surprised would be an understatement. You hadn't expected him to be in town, and you knew he would be pissed. The previous night he texted you that he loved you and would be back in a week.

Niki strut over shaking his head a swept your hand up into his practically dragging you out of the café.

"w-Wait, Niki...."

"No. No. Absolutely not. So this is what we're doing now? I leave you along for A DAY and this is what I catch you doing?" Niki stepped closer and you cowered under his tall form, pushing you against a nearby wall.

"But N-Niki"

"Am I not enough? Do I not give you enough of my love?"

Niki was pretending to be hurt to make you feel bad and manipulate you into thinking he was going to leave you.

"N-Niki I'm sorry, please don't leave me..."

Perfect, Niki had you right where he wanted you. He wanted you to beg for him. Beg that he wouldn't leave you. Niki sighed and fought back a smirk

"Baby, no, no. I would never leave you. But you have to understand that you're mine. No other man should even THINK he had a chance with you. Because I'm your last."

You nodded with teary eyes and leaned into him as he wrapped his arms around your form. Unbeknownst to you, he was smiling knowing you had fallen into his trap. He could make you think he could leave at anytime but really you were trapped with him forever. In any normal relationship, he would have just left. but you weren't just anyone.

You were HIS girl. You were made for him specifically. And he'd do anything to keep you close.

idk guys lmk what you think. honestly was better in my head.

[mediumgayitalian]

¡hi! I just wanted to mention I found your ficts like, a week ago by pure chance and I am absolutely obsessed with the way you characterize will and the rest of the apollo cabin. Haven't actually interacted with any pjo content in a WHILE but i just absolutely ran through most your ficts in such few time, i adore how you write oh my god. It's everything i've ever wanted for these characters I so rarely find any content but am still mildly loosing my mind over.

🥺thank u..........that is so kind. and if ur looking for more stuff i can list some of my biggest inspirations!!

my fave pjo writer, even above rick riordan, is @cordelia---rose -- she is the will solace author of all time and gets him like no one else does. and me personally im more of a character writer than a plot writer, but BOY can cordelia do both. here's her ao3.

another writer i love is @the-ghost-king, who is not only right all the time but has some EXCELLENT niche headcanons for will that fit so so well. he's also got great analyses in abundance about the entire canon series, as he's currently rereading it, and on nico in general. his ao3 is here.

GOD does @rottenpomegranate (could not tell u if this is the right blog, im going off ao3 username) ever get not only solangelo specifically but how to write really intimate relationships. i stg im regularly picking thru their fics for instructions. anyways. ao3 here.

@anything-thats-rock-and-roll u wanna talk about PLOT! they have ur back!! they come up with the most fascinating story ideas and i eat it up every time. delicious. they are also an autistic will truther and i love that. ao3 here.

OVER TO THE FCKN CLASSICS IT'S @rosyredlipstick !!! ive been reading her stuff genuinely since i was 11 years old. i GREW UP on conchell. her stuff is so interesting and her shorter stuff is so cozy i reread on the reg. ao3 here.

ANOTHER ENDLESS CLASSIC! been reading @buoyantsaturn 's stuff just as long. he's got a HUGE collection of work it's my aspiration. they're really good at writing drew actually which is niche but i love her. ao3.

and a third classic! @percyspandapillowpetperry ive been reading their fics forever and it's funny cus their username is so specific it Sticks in my memory. i remember where i was when reading a lot of these for the first time. they write a lot of silliness and they're great for a laugh ! ao3

THE PJO ARRANGED MARRIAGE ROYAL AU....😭😭😭 @gatesofember COME BACK PLEASE I NEED TO SEE HOW IT ENDS!!! i used this fic as inspo for my own royal au. i drank up every word and i think of will's family dynamic in it ALL THE TIME. ao3.

@percyinpanties wrote my favourite smutty solangelo fic of all time and they actually generally write a lot of good, kind of plot driven but mostly just GOOD smut and i am there w a notepad every time. i stg. ao3.

i disagree with @ughdomenico a Lot but i can never pinpoint why and im always mad that even tho i disagree i also agree a little. even if i don't want to. she always has something fascinating to stay and it sticks in my mind forever. always inspired. ao3.

nikkiRA when i fucking catch you nikkiRA. "Will dreams of the people he cannot save. They're mad a him." changed my fucking LIFE youre evil youre sick and twisted. ao3

THE GOLDEN APPLE THE FUCKIN GOL okay. @thegoldenappleofdiscord has this one fucking fic and its unfinished right. has been for years. of will growing up with plague powers that he hates. and it fucking HAUNTS me it changed the way i wrote will solace forever PLEASE COME BACK (ao3)

@ghosttotheparty dude his solangelo is great of course but their PERCABETH...their percabeth fucking gets me bad. ao3.

look if you're frothing at the mouth for a royal au. and i so often am. @theroyalsavage as you can maybe guess, has you COVERED. they get the weirdo power dynamics means sucker punch intimacy of a royal au SO good...like she knows what she's doing fr. ao3.

OKAY ONTO ARTISTS:

@mothmanavenue hasnt been doing much pjo stuff lately but when she does it's fire!! she made my pfp too.

@skysmadness is less active here but he's pretty active on instagram (same username) and just posted some nico art actually!! i love the way he draws faces. AND in general i love how he draws nico, he styles him really well.

oh boy @cindersart hasnt drawn pjo in FOREVER but they've been drawing since i was a kid. i have soooooo many of their works saved on my phone bc their comedic expressions KILL me and inspire so so many fics.

brand new follow for me but @the-sunniest-angels angels holy moly!!! they use colours SO well it shocks me so bad. i love how whipped nico is in their art lol

@delicate-sketch ... oh all of you know delicate sketch. she's got pfp's all over this site lol. and HOO boy do her paintings knock the breath out of you.......ive been thinking of her children of hades painting for a while like im always thinking about delicate demigods now. they are. they are

hasn't gone here in a while either (i am noticing a trend 😭😭) but @clingonlikeclingwrap drew a couple of my fics and they captured will angst SO well. love that to pieces.

and finally @cometjuice HI BELOVED.....theeeeee apollo cabin artist OF ALL TIME like oh my goodness i scroll thru their blog every day like the paper. endless endless w's.

ANYWAYS this was a lot but i hope ur can curate ur tumblr experience!! so many brilliant minds at work here!!

[myebi]

art vs artist 2024 ✨ can't believe we're here!

i've been thinking about this year a little bit these past few days, with the holidays being under special circumstances for me. the past month passed quickly but very gently, which I'm grateful for all things considered. i think it's now safe to say that after some reflecting 2024 was one of - if not the - best year of my life. I've never experienced such a whirlwind of gratifying experiences in the span of twelve months: i met so many new and nice people, had my first con experiences in amazing settings and my first job opportunities in a field i wanted an experience in for a long time, traveled the world somehow, got 10x more attached to my characters than i already was - and I'm quitting the year with just as many projects as i did when i entered it. granted, new problems came up and still persist, but with every year that passes i get one step to catching up with the anxiety and fears that hold me back, and it's that one step that each time allows me to surpass fear and welcome something new. every leap of faith partially led to the beautiful things i experienced throughout the year like a ripple effect (partially). it's gratifying and humbling in equal measure. so cool!!

art wise, i'm a lot more satisfied with the direction my art is taking than i used to be in the past two years. i came up with brush settings that shifted my line dynamic and i discovered a new rendering technique i really enjoy that allows me to balance time-efficient with textured together. i think my art has been getting a lot more expressive and while sometimes it makes me feel like I'm straying away from a more sanitized, thought through illustrative style, maybe it's worth it for the feelings to be conveyed the way i want them to. i haven't gotten to a point where i'm experimenting with my shapes, compositions and palettes in a way that shakes up my habits in a good way, but I'll get there.

I've also come to realize while making the meme that i actually have very few finalized personal works to show this year! i made most of my personal work posts on a time rush (they usually were made for specific days). I've been working on a set of drawings that required some tweaking and a few days to sketch properly, but the result is worth it, I'm so proud of them!! i wanted to get them out before the NY but it convinced me that rendering had to take its time as well, i don't always want to rush things nowadays. being on a time limit and taking all the time necessary are both good drawing exercises nonetheless.

lots of rambling, but i had lots of thoughts. I'm so grateful that some people are still in my life as we inch toward the new year. to my moulin squad, to my tol staw, to all the new friends i made this year, to my kitty, to my family. i love you like the world. and of course, to all the people who follow my work from up close or from afar, thank you so much. to know i bring a bit of inspiration, thought and color into your day has a lot more worth to me than you can imagine. thank you for manifesting your interest and your support whenever you do!! 🙏

i hope you all have safe and healthy holidays 💛 drive safely and tell your loved ones you love them. my thoughts are with Ukraine and the people of Palestine.

[vigilskeep]

as a fellow rook de riva player i’m really curious how sol took the whole… house egrativi being founded with the specific intention of taking in orphaned kids to become crows. final nail in the coffin moment for my rook personally

this plot thread was the first and easiest target of my mental rewrites because it just... doesn’t make sense, to me? functionally, regardless of thematically. like, i think it suffers the most obviously from the writers not really getting into how the crow power structure works. crow houses are business ventures that require money and manpower. you can’t just start one with a name and a dream while everyone smiles approvingly. also, you can’t just not have belonged to one in the first place! i spent all game trying to figure out if he belonged to the de rivas or the cantoris or the dellamortes or someone else, and when he started his own house at the end of his arc (again, ???) it was very apparent to me that this is just a misinterpretation that there is a general force of crows and the houses are simply nobility among them. no, somebody paid for your training and they want back on that investment so they own you. also, taking in orphans being your grand new venture for the crows is both insane and doesn’t make sense because the crows already do that as one of their main recruiting strategies. teia cantori is standing right in front of you as the evidence!

my provisional rewrite which i think works fairly smoothly without losing too much is that jacobus & his cousin are the sole surviving heirs of one of the three houses whose talons were killed in the antaam plot in tevinter nights: balazar, valisti, and arainai. (my self-indulgent vote is balazar, because the tevinter nights context of the dynamic with teia and viago is juicy. there’s no real reason for it to be arainai and bringing in that name for no reason would be cruel, but you could definitely cook with it if you really wanted to go for it.) naturally, these kids already have a grudge against the antaam, one that teia and viago are struggling to corral while having to treat them like crow hierarchy equals (iirc a balazar or valisti would actually technically outrank them both), and the elder cousin goes and gets himself killed trying. we’re now forced to operate with one of the four houses present in treviso being led by an even younger grieving child who is obviously a liability. this should be good for paralleling lucanis’ immediate future and highlighting what the crows do to their younger generations. in my most ideal of worlds where the crows are truly crow-ish on screen, maybe you’d have a plot choice with no good answers like...

a) teia would present this option. you decide to take a risk on this kid and believe in him and let him stand on his own two feet, and this actually pays off with sudden help in your fight against the governor like it does in the game. he chooses this idealistic, childish direction for his house where they’re taking in kids who have lost their families like him and it will all be one big family again! and he says some suddenly very nervewracking things about how they’ll understand it’s the best place to be eventually and one of the kids got hurt in the governor’s estate but heir has promised they’ll take care of it and train them all so hard they’ll never lose anyone again. he’s going to make sure of it. you’ll see! they’ll take the best contracts until they’re godslayers just like you! there’s a final shot of him standing very small and very alone. and that’s on you

b) viago would present this option. you decide this kid is too much of a risk to count on while you’re trying to save the city and the world, and maybe you care that he’s also a danger to himself. you back house de riva to forcibly seize jacobus’ house and all its assets to get the job done with, while jacobus himself is locked up out of harm’s way until the fight is over. this route also helps in your fight against the governor, there’s no sudden chaotic helping hand but everything goes smoother and cleaner, and hey, there are no children in the fight, if that kind of thing matters to you. however, all the ferocity of jacobus’ grudges turns on you and viago. he hates you. and letting him loose afterwards and giving back his house would be viago, the most paranoid man in thedas, handing a knife back to someone who wants to kill him. (which is, i suppose, the utmost charitable interpretation of viago’s main reasoning to keep hold of a bunch of assets, but no less true.) so they’re just keeping hold of jacobus... indefinitely. and that’s on you

but that’s me being self-indulgent and making it a bigger choice lmao. in answer to your actual question about my rook rather than this massive tangent, yes it was dizzying to stand there as another child was given full crow status and already planning to train other children. the cycles are cyclinggg

[fiveht]

hi five, do you have any smut recs? Your smut is probably the best I've ever read (and I've read A LOT of smut) and you're becoming my gold standard, so I'm curious, who is five_ht's five_ht? Any fandom/pairing you like!

Oh my god anon, the rabbit holes this ask sent me down.

It may surprise you to learn that I don't actually read a ton of PWPs, in spite of the fact that I used to write PWPs exclusively. For me, the appeal of a smut scene comes from the dynamics between the characters, which obviously can be well established in a short, porny one-shot, but it usually takes a bit more time and plot than that. Also, smut doesn't have to be particularly explicit or detailed for me to consider it top-tier porn. Gutter filth is my own approach, but it's not the only one that works.

So I managed to come up with a list, one for each of the pairings that I'm currently into. Most of these are on the longer side, and if you're unfamiliar with any of the source materials, consider this a strong recommendation that you give them a shot if the fics pique your interest.

First, Wolfstar:

For My Impertinence by synonomy

Regency (non-magic) A/B/O AU with all the standard associated tropes

This one is an example of absolutely top notch UST followed by brain-melting porn. Alpha Remus is just… perfect. I always appreciate an author who can balance the omegaverse tropes with a character like Remus, who we generally take to be fairly quiet and level-headed and not tending towards those typical alpha impulses. Seeing him break, just a little bit, in the heat of the moment, is almost hotter than the porn itself. Also, credit where it's due: it is NOT easy to incorporate truly explicit porn into a universe like this without either going over the top flowery with the language, or causing an abrupt shift in tone, but synonomy manages it. So hot, and so satisfying.

Damen/Laurent, Captive Prince:

Switch by AstraBlue

Modern AU, BDSM, daddy kink

This thing is long, and still a work in progress, but it's so, so worth it. I don't even normally read WIPs, but after I read Captive Prince I was jonesing for some fic, and I'll be honest, the prevailing fandom view on the relationship dynamics between these two wasn't really working for me. Like, okay, if we did not have canon sex scenes in the series, I could maybe buy into the concept of Laurent being a topping-from-the-bottom kind of guy as the popular fandom opinion seems to lean, but we DO have canon sex scenes, and what I see in those scenes is a repressed little bean who clings to control in his social life and is desperate for someone safe to give him permission to let go and stop thinking for a little while in private. And lucky Laurent, he has the ultimate soft Dom literally gift wrapped and delivered to him, in "giant animal" form.

So that's the kind of dynamic I was looking for when I started reading fic for this pairing, and Switch scratched that itch like nothing else. Daddy kink, soft Dom Damen, aloof imperious Laurent who turns to putty in daddy's hands. It's got all the things. It's got Damen running into Laurent at a sex club dressed in his Dom clothes with a man grovelling at his feet and in spite of all that, sizing him up in under a minute and concluding, "I'm going to fuck him until he cries, and he's going to call me daddy while I do it."

It's also worth noting that this is the sort of AU that can easily stand alone as its own story if you're unfamiliar with the characters. Not because it represents any major departure from the characters in canon, but because it does such a good job of establishing them within the universe that you can read it and feel like you're reading an original work. (That being said, as long as you're cool with some technically problematic tropes, you should read the books, because they're fantastic.)

Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, The Raven Cycle:

twist by thesehands

Canon setting (post Dreamer trilogy), short and porny, daddy kink

It was hard to decide on one specific fic to rec for this pairing, but most of the ones I was debating were by the same author, so I went with this one, because daddy kink. This one is canonverse based, though they also have written a number of really amazing AUs. (Also check out "eights" for some quality horse girl Ronan action.)

Thesehands just has the most perfect approach to this pairing, I would read literally anything they wrote for them. Any author who acknowledges the sacred truth of Ronan as an unapologetically slutty bottom is a good one in my book, but this author really gets it. Their Adam voice also cannot be beat; domineering, attentive, detail oriented, a little bit mean in a way that Ronan gets off on; that is Adam Parrish. Management.

Anyway, this fic in particular is such a great exploration of the way daddy kink might work between these two. Because really, if we want to talk about an established power dynamic between them, surely we'd say that Ronan holds the balance, considering he is a literal god of creation, and is also physically stronger and more imposing in every way, but he defers to Adam in pretty much all matters anyway, because he chooses to. I could write whole essays about how this all works for them, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about telling you to go read this fic where Ronan redecorates his late father's office for Adam to use and then goes out and gets a womb tattoo and then watches a porn video entitled MUSCLE BOTTOM BEGS TWINK DADDY FOR ORGASM.

Andrew Blur/Sam Halse, Summer Sons:

speak to me (don't say a word) by bothybitch

Quasi-gapfiller, PWP, canon D/s vibes

This pairing (and fandom) is woefully underappreciated, but I would keep coming back to this fic for them even if there were hundreds more to choose from. This fic picks up from the middle of a canon scene and asks, what if Andrew wasn't on some ghost bullshit and instead let himself be gay and horny for the second time?

If you've read the book (and if you haven't, you should), you'll know that the D/s tone between Andrew and Sam (and Andrew and every other attractive, masculine alpha male he's ever met) is well established in canon without ever needing to be stated or explained. Andrew unknowingly craves direction and dominance, and Sam gleefully obliges. This fic weaves in that dynamic effortlessly, which is honestly not always easy when the story is so short and the actual sex acts are so tame, what with Andrew's complete lack of experience with men. This fic gives us a little taste of what might be going through Andrew's head on those rare occasions when it's clear enough for him to directly acknowledge that yes, he is into men, and beyond that, he is into dirty, rough, dominant men who call him princess.

Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, All For The Game

quicksand by likearecord

No-exy AU, college setting, heavy on the yearning and pining and UST

Okay, if you read ANY fic in this fandom, you should be reading likearecord. They are the absolute GOAT, not to mention amazingly prolific. NO ONE writes Andrew's voice like they do. (Or Neil's, of course, but Andrew's seems to be much harder for a lot of authors to grasp, for obvious reasons.) This particular fic is an AU that's considerably lighter in tone than canon, but it's so fucking good, and funny, and engaging, like the perfect quirky queer romcom. I've reread it probably like a dozen times. Andrew's inner monologue makes this whole fic what it is, just his constant, intense pining for Neil that colours literally his every thought and action. It also gives us one of my favourite "oh no, he's hot" moments in anything I've ever read, ever:

Andrew follows their eyelines across the deck and comes to an abrupt stop, his feet refusing to take even one more step once he sees the erotic mirage in front of him. The guy is barefoot, topless, in swim trunks that leave most of his sculpted thighs bare and cling wetly to the muscles of his ass and the soft handful of dick between his legs. Above that, abs so cut Andrew is pretty sure he could outline each individual muscle with his tongue; they form a defined V that slopes towards the trail of auburn hair that disappears tantalizingly beneath the waistband of the swim trunks. Belatedly, Andrew drags his gaze up. The guy is toweling off his hair with one hand, making the muscles across his chest and arm ripple. Andrew meets his eyes—a bright blue that puts the sparkling pool water to shame—and flushes hot at the curious amusement he finds in them. This is—this has to be Neil. Kevin’s little brother Neil. Andrew had been expecting dangerous—a cheeky menace with a honed steel tongue and a fondness for risk—but he hadn’t expected lethal. He hadn’t expected Neil to be fucking gorgeous, actually, but here he is. Strong jawline, straight nose, cheekbones you could sharpen a knife on, a lush mouth that imprints its shape onto Andrew’s brain instantly, and the hint of a dimple peeking out around his half-smile. Andrew is pretty sure Neil is moving in slow motion, that it’s taking long, long seconds for Neil’s hand to stop moving over his hair, for him to blink those enormous blue eyes, for him to toss the towel onto a chair. A stirring instrumental plays in the background, ringing through Andrew’s apparently otherwise empty skull.

Gay disaster Andrew Minyard is a masterpiece.

Anyway, I realise this fic is technically rated M, but I assert that that is irrelevant when the buildup is this good. I also think that the epilogues were added after the fact and that the porniest of them could easily merit an E rating. That shit is so hot, I swear to God. Andrew's unending thirst for Neil has such a presence, it's like a whole character in and of itself throughout the entire story.

[goomyloid]

I asked this question to another kriselle shipper. What would your idea for a non snowgrave kriselle ship dynamic be?

but of course... all my weird route ideas build off of normal kriselle anyway so im glad to explain heh

you see. in my Head heres how i think things go. when they were young kris was one of those kids that didnt know how to handle other kids their age being nice to them (like noelle would) so they either scamper off like a mouse or develop that strange little kid crush that kids get. i feel like a lot of people's conclusions are that noelle used to like kris but i actually think, it's the other way around, as in like kris never actually properly resolved their Strange Feelings towards her especially since Tragedy Struck and their families kinda broke apart.

ive said it previously but kris generally strikes me as the type of person to end up dealing with things on their own so as to not trouble anyone... i think they spent a lot of time running away from their feelings about a lot of things, only for it to all catch up to them at once... i think they know they care about noelle a lot despite whatever happens, but they desperately run away from feeling anything More if they can help it (interesting comparison with susie, because she makes kris feel more content with themself, while i imagine kris just thinks they'd weigh noelle down)

noelle just treats them more or less the same as always, maybe behaving more childish alone with them like we see in ch2 (which kris also does to a degree lol) and in a strange way i think her feelings are specifically like? non-romantic? she has not and probably will not """fall""" for them in the traditional sense (sidestepping weird route shenanigans) but there is this intense closeness that she desperately wants and misses from them. even if they werent actually Close Close theyre still close, in a strange way.

also. sigh. ok im gona sound batshit insane for this. hear me out here. ive actually really been thinking so hard about grown up domestic kriselle where they get married for Tax Benefits AND. AND. LISTEN TO ME. um . if you are. at all familiar with the infamous unfinished fanfic known as Umriss, (im sorry) (im sorry) THERE IS. A VERY GOOD FOLLOWUP ENDING BY COURIERNEW. LIKE ITS ACTUALLY SO GOOD. And crafts the most detailed in-character depiction of what can only be described as a romanceless marriage between kris and noelle with their adopted kid but its so good. Its so. Oh it makes my heart feel full and also want to kill myself. but like. I suggest only reading this is you are familiar with Umriss. if you are not then dont ask me about it. or go in blind idgaf. im sorry for even bringing that fic up but ohhhhhhhhhhhhh couriernew interpretation of domestic kriselle is SO tasty and perfect

for those that dont want to read, basically its just noelle saved kris from dying a shut in after all their family members pass away and they basically only have each other. and its so. aughh. its worth sitting through the berdly/susie for .

[themostimportantnight]

😼💥💪 SHIKI GEKIDAN MUNGO AND TEAZER 💪💥😼

I found this channel that's got a bunch of adorable, old-ass videos that are just fun little slideshows of cats put to songs from the Japanese Cats soundtrack (any titles that start with 「ミュージカル　キャッツ」 feature songs from Cats). This then inspired me to put what Japanese abilities I have to good use, so I translated Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer back into English 🙀🙀🙀🙀

(+ translation AND translation notes under the cut)

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マンゴジェリーとランペルティーザ　小泥棒 / Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer: Thieves

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer

A notorious couple*

From comedians to tightrope-walking acrobats, and everything else

Now, we’ve made a fortune

And we live in a fine home*

This is merely our zone of operation*

We were born to be drifters*

We only passed by the scene*

Wherever we go, our names are always a bit too well-known

The window is narrowly opened

The basement was vandalized*

The roof’s red tiles are peeling away and falling off

If a drawer is opened and your shirts have disappeared

If you lose a glass ring again

The whole family will all say at once,

“Again, Mungojerrie

And Rumpleteazer

Just accept it, they’re the ones who did it”*

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer

Extraordinarily smooth talkers

Stealing, sneaking, snatching

Our skills are top-notch

We have a very fine home,

But we don’t live there

We have the most fun when we’re chatting with the police

When the family assembles for dinner

And orders a luxurious meal of meat on the bone,

The cook will come out, crying sorrily, and say,

“Excuse me, you’ll have to try again tomorrow*

The meat has gone missing from the oven”

The whole family will all say at once,

“Again, Mungojerrie

And Rumpleteazer

Just accept it, they’re the ones who did it”

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer

A wonderful team*

It could be a fluke, or just good luck,

Or could it be the weather?

We show up like the wind

And we’re gone like the wind

Hey, Mungojerrie and

Rumpleteazer

Or maybe it was some completely different cats!

If from the kitchen or dining room you hear a loud noise

If from the study your precious vase is heard being smashed

The whole family will all say at once,

“Again, Mungojerrie

And Rumpleteazer

Just accept it, they’re the ones who did it”

*While in English the lyrics are “[...] we’re a notorious couple of cats” (leaving the exact meaning of “couple” open to interpretation – “couple” as in quantity, or “couple” as in the dynamic?), the Japanese lyrics treat “couple” like a borrow word (「カップル」, which is just the English word for “couple” in katakana); this suggests that Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are being referred to as a literal couple/duo. I only mention this because it implies a specific dynamic between the two, rather than the English lyrics which keep their relation vague – the Japanese lyrics don’t necessarily suggest that Mungo and Rumple are a romantic couple; simply that they work as a couple (the word could be used to mean a lot of different things – they could be twins, inseparable friends, simple partners in crime, or something else).

*Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’s home is explicitly referred to as 「立派な一軒家」 (“rippana ikken’ya), with 「一軒家」(ikken’ya) meaning a detached house, or a house that stands on its own separate from others around it. This phrasing may have been used to help with worldbuilding, as Mungo and Teazer are established to come from a well-off family that would presumably live in quite a large home.

*”This is merely our centre of operation” is a fairly innocuous line in English; in Japanese, however, the line is 「そこは単なる作戦地」. 「作戦地」 (sakusenchi) is mostly used in a military context to describe where a fleet is operating, from planning to attacking – this phrasing is less open-ended than the English lyrics, and really helps to sell Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer as sweet little terrorists).

*「ながれもの」 (nagaremono) translates to “wanderer” or “drifter” and refers to a person who doesn’t tend to stay in one place for very long.

*Rumpleteazer sings first, but it made a bit more sense to place what she said after Mungojerrie’s bit upon translating the line. This whole line (「狙った所をちょいと/通り過ぎるだけなのに」) was a hard one to translate – 「狙った所」 (neratta tokoro) can be translated as “target (specifically, a place)” or “scene (of an incident)”. The line reads as if Rumpleteazer is saying “all we have to do is walk by, and we get recognized”.

*The phrase used here, 「荒らされて」 (arasarete), can literally mean either “to damage” or “to break into” — I went with “vandalized” as I felt it captured the essence of both of these definitions.

*「二人の仕業は泣き寝入り」 was difficult to translate – 「二人の仕業」 can mean “Our/their fault”/”our/their actions” (usually in a negative context); 「泣き寝入り」 is used to describe giving up and accepting a situation.

*This line, 「すみません明日にしてください」, is incredibly basic in Japanese. 「明日」 (ashita) means “tomorrow”, and 「して」 (shite) means “do (it)”; I tried to add some context to my translation instead of just making the line “Excuse me, do it again tomorrow” (I’m not normally one to try and add a ton of spice to a translation if I want it to be direct, but the line just felt so strange without it).

*The phrase used here, 「二人三脚」 (nininsankyaku), literally means “three-legged race”, but can also be used to describe two people who work together to achieve a common goal (ex. Teammates, collaborators, etc), just like racers in a three-legged race (they operate as one).

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[apollo9235]

My OCs for @jayrockin's Runaway To The Stars! Drawn by the fantastic @translunaryanimus, Who has just posted a short comic with them as well as two of his own OCs!

In alphabetical order we have:

Aalok (she/her, they/it) - The ship's AI, here we see her in her preferred RC unit, that little toy robot on Maristel's shoulder. They acquired a functionally infinite supply of this toy when an entire container full of the product was recalled and left in the distro center. For reference they are 10cm (~4 inches) tall. When not in an RC unit Aalok represents itself as a monogram of its name. Since they have so many spares, it's not unheard of for Aalok to intentionally destroy or loose one of the units in service of a joke.

Maristel (They/Them) - 'Captain' of The Screwloose. (Info here) They take over piloting whenever Aalok lets them, but primarily they deal in negotiations with clients. While no where near as good as someone who specifically studies the languages of other sophonts, they can speak (or sign) all the common languages well enough to ingratiate themself and their crew to clients. Their pronunciation is great, but word choice and sentence construction is often lacking. Maristel is a unique GMH and also a biomodder, they take the attitude that: "If I'm already gonna be a weird croc-taur, might as well have fun with it and do what I want!"

Tuuvarii (she/they) Tuuvarii is the engineer for The Screwloose, They have a hormone imbalance that makes it so they're permanently 'in spring' much to the horror of other Avians, but it doesn't really get in the way often. Maybe because of this, maybe not, Tuuvarii is also a Carnalist, and almost always paints carnalist colors over her bright markings. Both her parents are Diver Avians but somewhere up the family tree there's a skimmer so she ended up with a more prominent crest and larger ears than most other Divers. Ears which they've done some modification to, circle cutouts and grafting skin from the webbing on their hands. Probably gonna post detailed timelines for these goobers once they're finalized and also a short story about the group meeting Hearts that I'm currently writing with @translunaryanimus. But until then I'll say this, the dynamic between these three is: Maristel & Tuuvarii- Besties Aalok & Maristel - Worsties Aalok & Tuuvarii - "Hello fellow shitster"