#second. they were besties first and foremost

[aromacaque]

my shadowpeach tag is so good it's just qpr posts with random analysis thrown into the mix

[bmpmp3]

why does everything i get really into always end up being so god damn niche. by the year 2035 i am going to be blogging exclusively about the interpersonal relationships between the pillbugs and snails hiding underneath the bricks lining the flowerbeds in my parent's garden.

[dukeofdelirium]

when I think about how all of Carl’s storylines got wasted and given to other characters they weren’t written for I get filled with an unimaginable rage, lol. like that dirty grease rat Daryl who is not even a comic book character, mind you. he was a shitty AMC OC they made up that stole so much screen time and got other characters killed. he got Glenn killed and he also was used to ruin Negan’s comic depiction. or Carol, who died long before the prison ever fell. or Rosita, who was as irrelevant as they come. or Henry, yet another shitty AMC OC. or Judith, a character that got her legs blown off via shotgun days after being born.

pisses me off so bad besties.

the whole “look at the flowers” bullshit was Carl’s plot point. he was the one that executed the other kid, his personal friend, because the adults didn’t have the goddamn spine.

he was the one that took on Negan and shot Lucille in All Out War. he was the one that was attempting to assassinate Negan and went against Rick as the anti hero of that arc. he was the one routinely visiting Negan in prison. he was the one that set Lydia loose and was romantically involved with her, leading to the Whisperer war with Alexandria and Hilltop, and it fucking mattered because it was Rick’s son, growing into the man he would become!

it was Carl that was supposed to be passed the torch after Rick died. he was the entire point of the storyline, point blank period.

every character, and I mean every single one, could die, and it wouldn’t matter so long as Carl Grimes lived. every other character was expendable, but not him. and the thing is that the show never even tried to match his comic counterpart, for reasons I’ll never fuckin understand.

he was by far the most compelling character in the comic book. they did this shit with Andrea too which pissed me off as well, but I could look past it… because Andrea was still expendable in comparison. but killing Carl was just too damn far. it strayed too far from the source material.

and I don’t give a fuck what anyone says—the core fans of The Walking Dead were always and will always be the comic book readers.

this show was first and foremost an adaptation of said comic book. this story was well established with a huge fanbase long before AMC got its greedy hands on it. they pitched the show to us comic fans as a faithful live action adaptation of a story we knew and loved, and they spit in our faces. so yeah, I don’t care to hear TV show only fans say their piece or tell me or other comic readers that the show was still “good” in the end. it wasn’t, and it was no Walking Dead I knew and loved the second they killed Carl.

[sixpennydame]

Hey hey hey bestie, I’m here for #24 with Jean.

ありがとうございます✨

Dee, my lovely, it's all your doing that I'm having a Jean moment to begin with! 楽しんでください！

Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)

Cowboy!Jean x Fem!Reader

C/W: Slightly dom!reader, face sitting, NSFW, Minors Do Not Interact!!

You loved to hate Jean.

He was, without a doubt, the cockiest bronc rider on the pro rodeo circuit. And as much as you hated to admit it, it was for good reason. Jean almost made it look effortless; as the wild horse bounded out of the chute, kicking and bucking, Jean would hold on tight, leaning back and anchoring his feet into the stirrups. He would ride it out, the full eight seconds, every time. He knew he was the best, and he had no problem telling (and showing) everyone. It infuriated you.

As a barrel racer, you often saw him at the same rodeos, a gaggle of women always waiting for him. He'd take pictures of them and sign autographs - an arrogant smile on his face as one woman unbuttoned her shirt for him to sign her breasts.

God, you hated him.

But you also loved to fuck him.

The first time, the two of you were drunk and horny after both winning in your respective events. A group of you had ended up at a honky tonk joint in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and as he spun you around the dance floor, he pulled you close, his hand moving down to the small of your back as he asked to go back to your hotel room.

It just never stopped after that.

There's a knock at your door and you open it to see him there, an arm leaning on the door frame.

"Hey," is all he says before he saunters inside. The moment the door clicks closed, you're grabbing him by the shirt and pinning him to the wall. His hands start to unbutton your blouse as yours move down to his muscular ass that’s squeezed into his tight Wrangler jeans.

Clothes fly off and you push him onto the bed. "Please...sit on my face," he begs. His voice is soft and needy, and as you straddle his shoulders, moving slowly towards his face, he whimpers.

You hover just above his mouth and feel the heat of his breath on your intimate parts. "You want this?"

"Fuck yes," he responds, "I wanna taste you...wanna make you feel good." His rough hands wrap around your waist, resting at your hip bones, but he doesn't dare push you down on him because he knows..

..you're in control.

You lower onto his face and he immediately drags his tongue along your vulva. He’s precise - he knows your body by now and knows exactly the way to move to make you feel good. But that doesn’t mean you just sit there. You begin to slowly grind your hips back and forth and moans of pleasure from both of you fill the room. His hands grab at your breasts desperately as your hips move faster, then in a circular motion. The new movement causes his tongue to flirt around your clit, but when he finally latches on it, you stop. He sucks on your clit, switching between light and hard suction, and it causes you to grab onto his hair. You know that his cock is rock hard behind you, and a part of your wants so badly to reach back and touch him, but you and he both know that this is how the game is played.

Your pleasure is first and foremost.

Jean continues to suck on your clit and lap at your pussy until your legs start to shake and your climax washes over you. When you move back, his face is covered with your juices. “Shit, I love how you taste.” His hands move up and down your thighs. “What else do you want?”

You move further down and start rubbing your pussy on his cock, causing him to take in a deep breath. “Depends…is that the best you can do tonight?”

“My wild girl…I’ll let you do whatever you want. Use me all night long, if that’s what you want.”

You love it, watching Jean moan and writhe beneath you as you fuck him. Within the four walls of your hotel room, the cocky, arrogant bastard becomes your slave, willing to do whatever you want, for as long as you want it. You sit up and put your hands on his pecs, feeling his muscles tense, his body coated in a layer of sweat, his eyes watching your body as his cock disappears inside you again and again. He knows you won’t stop until he’s given you everything.

And both of you know this won’t be the last ride.

—//—

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[mcmuppet]

im pissed at oscar after his "First and foremost, I'm a McLaren Racing driver. I'm not racing for Oscar Piastri Racing, I'm racing for McLaren. That's always the big picture." Like bestie Lando was racing for McLaren and giving it all for the team before you were even in F3, let alone in contention for an F1 seat. Have some fucking respect. Not to mention not thanking Lando once when he was the first person Lando thanked after winning. It's funny he and Stella have this attitude to Lando, yet when he tried to ignore team orders last year to the point Lando had directly ask if he was trying to ruin both their races on team radio, not a single fucking peep was said. Yet Lando does it once when he legitimately was faster (which wasn't the case with Oscar last year. Lando then proceeded to drop like 20 seconds on him) and suddenly there's no place on him in a team he's been giving everything to before half of formula 1 fans even knew who oscar piastri is.

no anon i fully agree

i'm not the happiest with osc rn. i'm quite disappointed. especially bc lando has been literally crucifying himself in the media IN ORDER PROTECT THE TEAM

between not thanking his teammate at all, barely mentioning him after a 1,2, (not even really to say good job, as far as i've seen) and the comments about racing for "the team" and "not pressing the radio button to say certain things"

it's not a good look imo

especially bc like, we know oscar has been tracking lando's career. he KNOWS lando has given his blood sweat and tears for this team.

if anyone on the entire grid knows what racing for and being on a team means, ESPECIALLY the Mclaren team, it's Lando Norris. it would do the rest of the team well to remember that

[fantasy-nerdddd]

Coin could have made Katniss mad at Snow with less likelyhood of being exposed and without killing Prim

I was rereading Mockingjay - for the 27th time - and I had a thought. Prim's death was stupid. Coin sent a 13 year old into battle, as an untrained medic, and then dropped Gale's bomb on top of her. But that creates a huge problem. Two, to be exact.

First and foremost, why was Prim into battle? She didn't have the title of soldier. I bet she wanted to go, to keep an eye on her sister possibly or just helping out with her skills. But, it shouldn't be allowed. And District 13 is known for following the strict rules. So, that would have raised suspicion on its own.

Second, although less vital, the attack was their signature. Gale made this bomb, the concept at least. And while the Capitol could have a similar weapon, Coin certainly did. And Katniss could have known. When she learned about the weapon, she was in Special Defences right after she got released from the hospital because her choking bruises were getting better. And Coin had to have been keeping an eye on her. Especially considering how controlling she is. And she obviously knew Beetee and Gale where also there working on bombs, because it must have been in their program. Nevertheless, even out of Special Defences, Gale is supposedly Katniss' bestie. She should have known not to use a weapon of his, because there was a big chance Katniss knew about it.

If someone knew all of the above, they could have guessed that the bomb was from 13, Haymitch definitely would have. I think the fandom underestimates how much he understands what's going on. Coin, should not have killed Prim, because it could expose her intentions before she could get a grasp in control, as it did in the end. So, I can think of one way to turn Katniss against Snow.

When I said Prim wouldn't be killed, it doesn't mean no one else would. We just need to find a good enough substitute. But there isn't a big variety, if we are honest. She needed to find someone Katniss cared about, that was in the Capitol or would be reasonable to send in the Capitol, and could die because they were at the wrong place, in the wrong time.

In Mockingjay, I can't find the exact place it's said, Katniss thinks to herself "Except my mum, Prim and Gale, who else loves me unconditionally? In my case, I think it's none". Other than the criminal offence that she thinks Gale actually loves her, we need to take into account that this is said a short while after Peeta, Johanna and Annie return to 13 and Katniss and Peeta have their wholesome reunion. So, she was referring to him. And she cares. So we are adding him to the list of people Katniss cares about. Haymitch is added too, because she asked for his and only his comfort in Chapter 11, right after the bombing of District 13.

Alright, so our list consists of: Prim, Mrs Everdeen, Gale, Peeta and Haymitch. We already got Prim out of the way, and Mrs Everdeen would be a nurse too, so it would take two bombs to take her out, one to lure her into danger, and the other to blow her up. That's Gale's idea, so we cannot use her. Gale was captured by the Capitol for a bit, and even if he wasn't he is too loyal to Coin. Coin would have killed her only influence on Katniss. I am not convinced Haymitch wouldn't play it safe and hide in the shadows while drinking. And if he did, which to be fair, he would, and if we had a movie of him in the Capitol it'd be named "Finding Liquor", he would stay in a house waiting for the liquor to run out. Coin would have to bomb a entire city, but Katniss might have died in the process.

In my opinion, Peeta was the best sacrifice that could be made. He was already in the Capitol, he shouldn't be but he was. Whether he was there to kill Katniss, or a more unpopular opinion, to make Katniss kill him in fear of her life, that doesn't matter. She had already defamed herself by putting a mentally unstable Peeta in the battlefield, so she doesn't have to make it worse by sending a 13 y/o. And he was just running around ready to cause a distraction (completely irrelevant, but that his first thought was "Oh, let me go behind you so that if Katniss needs saving I can risk my life so she won't get captured" is so cute). He was just an accident away from blowing up.

But, I hear you asking, how could Coin know that Peeta meant this much to Katniss? Omg, do we have to get through this again? Finnick, chapter 11: "After your first Games, I thought the whole romance was an act on your part. We all expected you'd continue that strategy. But it wasn't until Peeta hit the forcefield and nearly died that I - that I knew I'd misjudged you. That you do love him. I'm not saying in what way. Maybe you don't know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him". Anyone. And if that isn't enough for you, Katniss, chapter 3: "When the war is over, if we've won, Peeta will be pardoned." *Dead silence for a while* "No form of punishment will be inflicted. The same goes for the other captured tributes, Johanna and Enobaria.". She basically said to her face "I care about him".

And I hear you saying "How would they know where he is?". Oh shit, that's a very good question. But how did they know where Prim is? How did they know that Katniss would see what happened? Or that they weren't hitting Katniss herself? Or that it was worth doing all of this, and Squad 451 wasn't dead in the sewers and eaten by the mutts? That's what I propose: Beetee found a way to hack the Capitol cameras. Plutarch was working next to Snow, he knew where the pods were. Beetee made the Capitol's TV system, that's why it took them so long to break into. But it's not unlikely either of them knew a way to hack the cameras. Or Plutarch just had people working for him that had access to the cameras.

And you know the best part? Katniss wouldn't need to see it either. If they had access to the cameras, they could just replay a video of the hovercraft dropping a bomb on Peeta. And it would break her. Just as much as it would with Prim. And Snow might have not convinced her that it was Coin. Because Coin wouldn't have sent a 13 y/o to battle, suspicious enough. And the attack wouldn't have Gale's signature. Just a hovercraft that dropped a bomb. And Snow's main argument still stands: Why wouldn't he have left with that hovercraft? But it might have been someone else's from the Capitol. Or that he knew he was doomed, that soldiers were coming from all sides, and hovercrafts were flying over his head. So he killed him, not as a last resort, but out of spite. So that Snow would have his own "If I burn, you burn with me!" moment with Katniss.

And either way, the chances of Coin being exposed would never be zero. But that's the closest I can get them to zero. And also: Peeta was basically a traitor. And I bet Coin wouldn't want to keep her promise with Katniss, to not inflict punishment if the rebels won. So his death would mean that she killed two birds with one stone.

And, in regards to literacy and symbolism, which plays a huge part in the series, his death would be as powerful as Prim's. Prim, was the person she saved from certain death, only to result in an uprising and, after some time, her death. Peeta was the person she refused to kill. Not because she was in love, not yet at least, but because she cared. Peeta was the reason this started, with the star crossed lovers strategy that got them closer, and the berries she pulled out so they both survive. They were the final two tributes of the hunger games, refusing to kill each other. And the 76th Hunger Games, as well as the Quell, were the desperate tries of the Capitol to get them to kill each other. And they refused. Again and again and again. The two tributes remaining, that were allies their whole games, can't be both Victors. They were in a rematch. And with the bomb, it's like getting out the mutts, the desparate option to kill a tribute when the final two refused to kill each other. And, just like how it was supposed to go at first, Peeta died and she lived. Like the Capitol wanted it to go. "Our lives belong to Snow and our deaths do to".

I need a fanfic with this concept. Hell, I might write one myself. Can you add anything? Either to strengthen the idea or to go against it?

Edit: Well know the fanfic is a WIP. Figures.

[cherryelectricboogaloo]

Also Bell lore is intrinsically linked to Bitters lore. Who is Bitters? The other courier. What, you don't know that there's TWO courier six? Fake fan.

Whenever I write Bell lore here I'm waiting with the mousetrap in my other hand like yes yes come closer no no ignore my arm conspicuously hidden behind my back. Now are you ready to hear about The Dual Protagonists—

Writing Fallout New Vegas lore with a friend requires either a compromise or the erasure of one whole courier. A WASTE OF POTENTIAL I say. That's why me and my bestie most beloved (at @caricatureblue ) ended up deciding both our couriers existed, actually, and the platinum chip was put in two separate deliveries. Harder to track and easier to transport, right? (Except Benny had Yes Man. Sorry House, but also not sorry at all House.)

Enters Bitters, and enters Bell. They're two different sides of the same coin and I love that for them so much.

Bitters is from Arroyo. Bitters was supposed to be the next Elder. They're the Chosen One's kid, they're a direct descendant of the Vault Dweller, they were meant for great things. And then the Legion took them on their endless pursuit of Conquest and Subjugation. Bitters spent the most important years of their life under the Legion, witnessing the atrocities AND SUFFERING THE ATROCITIES FIRST HAND. They had a brilliant future ahead of them that was taken from them by the Legion. They were meant for great things and they were deprived of all of that. After escaping the Legion they try to go back to Arroyo, only to find out their mother is long gone and that their aunt wants them gone, lest they try to take her place as the Elder. So, they leave. They become a courier. They try to move on, as much as you can move on from something like THIS + with the Legion on the Mojave's doorstep all this time.

Then there's Bell. Are there important people in her family? Kind of! But they're so far removed from her that she has no idea of who they are, or what they did, or what influence they had on the wasteland. For all intents and purposes, Bell is a nobody. She's the kid of a random British couple that came to America, she's the youngest and her brother is much more outwardly educated and promising than she is, she has no great aspirations in life other than being a courier like her auntie used to be. She's charming enough, but that doesn't change the fact that she's… not really… outstanding, or important, in any way. Unremarkable. She loses all of her family, but being an orphan in the wasteland is the same as a fork in the kitchen. Nothing different from the norm.

Their paths intersect, in the fact they work at the same place and deliver parts of the same packages to the same places, but they never meet before the fatal Free Lobotomy courtesy of Benny.

So you'd expect the obvious, right? Bitters, the lost heir that was meant to take up their mom's mantle would reclaim their spot as Elder of Arroyo, and not only that, they'd also save the Mojave and, no matter which faction they decided to trust, they would be the defacto changing force in the narrative. Meant for great things. It's their destiny. It's what's supposed to happen. Bell, well, she's a helper, right? It's not even funny that her last name is Watson. She's here to be supportive and as a second gun, she's here to highlight Bitters' strengths and to cover for their weaknesses.

But that's… not… what happens.

First and foremost, their relationship of mutual trust and relying on each other? Essential.

Without Bell's insistence on gentleness and kindness and compassion and drive, Bitters would have been aimless, and wouldn't have spared half the people in the wasteland they met. They're angry. So, so angry. They don't want to be, but severe brain damage does that to someone. Bell stays their hand when she sees someone can genuinely change, and helps focus that anger on the intended target (the L E G I O N).

Without Bitters putting their foot down sometimes and reassurances and righteous anger, Bell wouldn't be able to choose anything, and would have let people step all over her all the time. She's afraid, all of the time. Terrified she'll make the wrong choice, that she's incompetent. Bitters pushes her forward when she's too scared to act, and reminds her that sometimes people don't want to change.

Bell thinks Bitters is a genius, and in many ways they are! Even if the brain damage made things harder for them, they're still extremely knowledgeable. They're a Science kid, they're skilled with Medicine, they're resourceful and know how to convince people if they want to, and they're resilient and courageous and strong and how could Bell not think they're perfect? …That's the thing. Bell sees Bitters as this… impossibly Perfect person. Above her, in every way.

AND BITTERS SEES HER THE SAME WAY. Bell is sweet and gentle and compassionate, she can and is willing to talk things out with people every time, she's a fantastic gunslinger, she's knowledgeable in a variety of fields even if she can't articulate it well, and she's always there when they're frustrated with not remembering something, or not being able to do something they used to do well before the Headshot. They see Bell as a Superior.

These two have to work through their tendency to put each other on a pedestal and putting themselves down, but that's something I can talk about on another post.

The fun thing is that Bell thinks she's not capable of leadership, Bitters is… and they couldn't disagree more! Besides, they don't- want, to be a leader. Not like what New Vegas requires, or what Arroyo needs.

When it comes down to it, it's Bell who pushes for an independent New Vegas, and Bitters backs her up every step of the way. She becomes the public face of New Vegas, the Sheriff, and Bitters becomes the ghost of New Vegas. Doing things behind the scenes, aiding in so many fundamentally important ways while only receiving acknowledgement from the people close to them. Bell doesn't think she would be able to be where she is without Bitters, and Bitters doesn't think they would be able to be in Bell's position.

I AM UNWELL ABOUT THEM can you tell i love fallout new vegas

[jackdaniel69nice]

Just saw your pinned post! My favourite Dark Shadow friendship is them and Hagakure! They're definitely a very chaotic duo in my head, always pranking their classmates and causing shenanigans. She's been seen petting them in the manga which is adorable, no-one can resist petting Dark Shadow hehe! Also in the OVA UA heroes battle I think? Dark Shadow and Tokoyami were pitted against her and she used her warp refraction against them so... Angst potential?? Though she would be useful for when Shadow gets out of control and I'm surprised that the only time she's used her quirk on them is in a card game. Maybe she refuses to hurt them? After all it wasn't even her playing her own character. Sorry I'm rambling! I'd love to know your opinions on them!!

-☁

Oooogh my immediate reaction was to shout “yes yes yes!!” I love Hagakure and dark shadows friendship so much. I always make Hagakure a little more chaotic and sassy in my hc too.

So my first and foremost headcanon is that dark shadow can see Hagakure always. Maybe it’s their sensitivity to light that makes her shine more or it’s their ability to see more than visible light. Either way they basically try to keep that a secret for as long as possible for an edge during battle training. Eventually this is discovered though and she is not happy. Of course I do think Hagakure is really comfortable being nude so she is mostly mad about not telling her sooner. Dark shadow is very respectful of course and doesn’t ogle her or anything (they are generally very flustered by girls, very lesbian energy). In a way they are kinda nude buddies since dark shadow never bothers wearing clothes either. I do think in second year she has enough hair samples to make her own costume though, she loves it for the winter months!!

Hagakure is so bubbly and bright and dotes on dark shadow so easily. Her touch doesn’t seem to hurt any more than the rest of her surroundings unless she’s actively using her warp refraction. They get along great as she is one of the first friends dark shadow makes. She always calls dark shadow cute and they pretend to be offended but it’s always ruined by their blushing. Together they are always gossiping and getting into hijinx with Mina. They will do dress up and make up and things because dark shadow can actually see her and Hagakure loves that they can actually say what looks good on her. Dark shadow almost burst into laughter one time when they saw her making faces at aizawa and flipping him off.

When Hagakure does develop her warp refraction it made dark shadow…uneasy. They have a lot of faith in her that she would never hurt them on purpose but they know it will be harder to fight her now. Hagakure, ever observant, notices her little besties more reserved mood and puts two and two together. She obviously tries to reassure them and cheer them up. It works great and after that small hiccup things are back to normal.

I don’t think Hagakure would be willing to back down during a training exercise just because she doesn’t want to hurt shadow. No one ever really wants to hurt each other, it’s just training, but it’s still important to treat it like a real battle and fight your hardest. Of course Hagakure tries to use warp refraction on them, but unlike in the card game ova that’s when tokoyami comes back into play.

Tokoyami and Hagakure don’t have an amazingly close relationship. She’s a little too energetic for him, it’s hard enough dealing with dark shadow so when she’s around it’s like double the work to keep them under control. He has dubbed the shadow-light duo as “Double Trouble”. He enjoys hanging out with her in small quantities though. Tokoyami should also be able to “see beyond the veil” (i.e. see ultraviolet light due to his bird eyes) so he might be able to see her but not as well as shadow can.

Regardless of dark shadows weakness to light tokoyami could still try his best to fight her. Logically since Hagakure has no support items or offensive quirk abilities she has to be pretty strong to stand a chance against her classmates. She’s probably following Midoriya’s work out routine XD Either way her and tokoyami are pretty evenly matched when it comes to speed and strength. Tokoyami would be at a disadvantage though because her warp refracting can be blinding which is important in a fight. Although, if tokoyami has his cape he can use it to shield dark shadow to land a few good hits in. The deciding factor would be their skills in hand to hand combat, which Hagakure has to be superior in. She is able to focus all her time in training hand to hand but he can only use about half of his because he works on training with shadow the most. So I would say Hagakure still wins most of their fights.

Tokoyami is obviously frustrated with this so she offers to help train him. Tokoyami is used to doing things on his own and feels like the offer is out of pity so he refuses at first. It would probably take some clever word play from dark shadow and cashing in a favor he owes them before he relents and agrees. Now they are forced to hang out more. Hagakure ends up being surprisingly strict and extremely serious about teaching him. He kinda likes this side of her, and dark shadow is “frightened” being on the other side of her wrath for once.

Overall there are very little issues between Hagakure and tokoyami, and they have a slowly building friendship. Hagakure and Dark Shadow are besties for life!!

[vinization]

A Poisoned Heart - Chapter 1

AO3 link

Next chapter

It is truly amazing how much a few lines on a piece of paper can change things. Anne learns this the worst possible way, but fortunately she meets someone who understands her pain. Little does she know said someone has plans for her, plans that will change her life forever.

Or,

Anne reads Marcy's journal and gets a new father figure. Unfortunately for everyone, that father figure is none other than King Andrias.

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

Though wackiness and danger were a staple of life in Amphibia, one she had become very used to by now, Anne Boonchuy was sure this was her craziest day here yet. First, she and the Plantars had finally come within sight of Newtopia, after days of traveling on their fwagon (she still couldn't believe they agreed to call it that). Second, they couldn't actually enter the city yet because there were a bunch of giant ants nearby, because what would be a day in this world without some monster to deal with?

And third, Marcy was here.

Marcy was here!

Anne could barely pay attention to the battle plan her bestie came up with to deal with the barbariants - she almost forgot about them entirely, because the only thing her mind could focus on was that MARCY WAS HERE! And she wasn't just surviving here, but thriving! She looked so cool with that armor, crossbow and cloak... which suddenly caught fire for some inexplicable reason.

It was rather endearing, to be honest: despite all the "leveling up" Marcy clearly went through during her time in Amphibia, she was still the adorably clumsy nerd Anne knew since childhood.

Which quickly became a source of stress once they and the Plantars entered the barbariants' nest. As knowledgeable as Marcy was about pretty much everything (including botany, much to Hop Pop's delight), she couldn't stop herself from falling down a hole, or trapping Polly on the wrong side of a wall of insta-vines. And yet she insisted on staying at the front of the group, despite Anne's protests.

This mission couldn't end soon enough.

Finally, they reached the barbariant queen's chamber.

"Okay, here's the plan," Marcy whispered, handing bundles of stinkshrooms to her teammates. "We're going to have to plant these around the room, that way she gets a noseful. They're set to go off in five minutes, so move quickly." She took a breath before continuing. "Also, the queen is nearly blind but hears really well, so be very, very quiet."

Anne and the Plantars grunted in agreement, and so the group split up and began to sneak around the chamber, planting stinkshrooms on the ground as they did so. Everyone except Anne that is, since she chose to continue watching Marcy's back. They were right in the belly of the beast, and so Anne's senses were in overdrive, ready to react to the slightest hint of danger.

While Marcy was busy planting her batch of stinkshrooms, Anne's ears picked up the sound of a huge rock falling from the ceiling. The Thai let out a gasp before shoving her friend out of the way, getting a surprised yelp out of her.

"Anne?!" Marcy began, annoyed. "What are you -" Her train of thought ground to a halt once she saw what was about to happen. She didn't even have time to gasp, or let out any sort of warning.

The world froze, yet all Marcy could do was watch the rock fall squarely on Anne's left leg.

There was a crunching sound, which was soon drowned out by the scream that followed.

The Plantars reacted immediately, Sprig first and foremost.

"Anne!" He shouted. "What - OH FROG!" He immediately rushed to her side, followed by Polly and Hop Pop, but despite their best efforts they couldn't stop Anne from writhing and screaming in pure agony, her hands clutching at her wounded leg.

All they did was catch the barbariants' attention. The queen roared, commanding her hideous children to deal with these intruders once and for all. Her enormous, slimy, pulsating form towered over the group, and she extended her tongue, ready to swallow them all with a single gulp.

And then another scream, this one of pure rage, tore through the air, followed by a crossbow bolt that pierced the barbariant queen's tongue right as it was about to ensnare the frogs and their human family member. The monstrous arthropod shrieked in pain, spilling its repugnant blood and bile everywhere, before the stinkshrooms went off, finally forcing the barbariants to retreat.

Yet Marcy couldn't care less about the pandemonium going on around her - she had to save Anne (whose wails had given way to shaky whimpers), no matter what. The report to the king, the inevitable self reprimand for putting her best friend and her adoptive family in this situation, none of that mattered right now.

"Guys!" She called, ignoring the ugly feeling clawing at her insides. "C'mon, we have to get her out of here!"

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

Were Anne not busy being consumed by excruciating pain, she'd likely be amazed at the fact she was still conscious. The world had long stopped making sense to her: shadows of various shapes and colors danced before her eyes, while her comrades' increasingly desperate pleas for her to stay awake were nothing more than jumbled noises to her ears.

It wasn't until her eyes were suddenly flooded by sunlight that she realized she was resting her head on Marcy's shoulder. Marcy Regina Wu, whose performance at gym back home was infamous to say the least, was the one who had carried her out of the cave. When did she become so strong?

"Alright, we're out!" Anne heard Sprig say. "What now?"

"We get her to a hospital!" That voice definitely belonged to Hop Pop.

"Duh!" And that was Polly, more than a little annoyed at the obvious.

"Wait!" Marcy cut in. "Before we do any of that, we need to stem the bleeding first. Help me lay her down!"

Anne felt herself being lowered to the ground, supported by three pairs of hands. She saw Marcy's face take most of her vision, but try as she might she found herself incapable of focusing her eyes on her.

"Anne, I'm going to apply a tourniquet on your leg." Marcy said, concern and anguish written all over her face. "Please be ready..." She looked and sounded like she was talking more to herself than her wounded friend.

Anne felt a piece of cloth wrapping around and then squeezing her leg. The pain became even worse, but by this point she was so exhausted that the sound which came out of her throat was only barely audible.

It was more than enough to get a reaction out of Marcy. "I know, I know..." She looked like she was about to fall apart, and that somehow hurt Anne far more than her wounded leg could ever hope to. She always hated to see Marcy cry, and this time it was even worse, not least because she was directly responsible for causing it: had the Thai been even a tiny bit faster or stronger, she would've been able to avoid that rock and everything that followed.

With the torniquet applied, Anne saw and felt the world shift around her once more. Her increasingly delirious mind concluded, correctly, that she was being carried by Marcy once again. She saw tears falling from the ravenette's eyes, and all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around her and tell her everything would be alright. That she didn't need to cry for something that wasn't her fault.

Anne heard a bell ringing, and wondered if Marcy was actually an angel carrying her to heaven.

She certainly looked like one.

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

Anne had no idea how much time went by after she finally fell unconscious - she couldn't tell if she had been out for minutes or days. She didn't even know what place she was in, no matter how much her body and eyes moved against her will.

It was completely unlike all the movies and shows Anne had seen during her young life. Rather than being stuck in some dark void, her eyes and ears were constantly assaulted by images and sounds she couldn't even begin to make the slightest sense of. She felt her body jerking and her throat vibrating every now and then - was she trying to talk, or just screaming? She couldn't know, for her brain would shut down, like a lightbulb being turned off, before it could interpret the messages sent by her senses properly.

It had become a routine: Anne would 'wake up', squirm, make some noises she was incapable of hearing for whatever reason, then black out. Rinse and repeat, over and over and over, until she stopped bothering to count. It didn't matter how many times it happened, though: she never, ever got used to it.

However, there was another thing that remained a constant, together with the lapses in and out of reality. Namely, a warm, soft feeling on her right hand, enveloping it tightly enough to be felt but not enough to hurt. She sometimes felt something similar on her left hand, but it was much colder and... slimier? Weird.

That warmth was the only comfort Anne had during her spasms, and boy was she grateful it never went away. As much as she squirmed and (presumably) screamed whenever she was 'awake', the feeling on her hand was always a beacon of warmth and kindness, a refuge against the storm that plagued her senses.

Until, at long last, Anne opened her eyelids out of her own volition. Everything was blurry and muffled at first, but as the seconds (or minutes, or hours...) went by, her eyes were able to slowly scan the environment around her. She was in a large room (to put it mildly - the ceiling looked so far away!), probably some kind of infirmary, and everything in it was bathed in the warm, orange light of the afternoon sun, which came in from a nearby window.

She knew where she was (to an extent) and what time it was. Now it was time to solve the big question: where, or rather who, was the warmth on her hand coming from? Anne sort of knew the answer all along, but she wanted to see it with her own eyes.

She tried to turn her head, but her neck muscles refused to budge. She kept on trying anyway, letting out an audible groan from the effort, and felt the grip on her hand tighten, followed by something that sounded very much like a sob. She hated it.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of trying, Anne finally turned her head. And was greeted by the sight of the person she had expected since the very beginning.

"Mar..." She croaked, and felt her throat's soreness almost immediately - so she had been screaming, after all. "Mar-Mar?"

Marcy's head snapped a full 90 degrees in her direction, and at long last Anne got a good look at her expression. To say she looked dreadful would be an understatement of monumental proportions.

"A-Anne?" She stammered, her puffy, bloodshot eyes brimming with tears ready to be shed at a moment's notice. "I-is that really you? Are you actually awake this time?" She bit her lip to contain a sob. "Please be awake, please..."

Anne found herself unable to speak, so she held Marcy's hand a little bit tighter and smiled at her. It was a tiny, nigh imperceptible thing, the corners of her lips moving only a few millimeters upward.

It was more than enough for Marcy to fall apart.

"I'm sorry!" She wailed, now grasping Anne's hand with both of her own. "I'm sorry, I'm SO sorry!" Tears poured out from her eyes as if they were waterfalls, glistening on her cheeks. "I went on and on about how I wasn't a klutz anymore, how you didn't need to protect me, and then..."

"Marcy..." Anne managed to utter, her voice low and hoarse.

It wasn't enough to stop Marcy's increasingly broken monologue. "You were just worried about me, because you had every reason to, and I just HAD to get in the Zone! You nearly lost your leg because of me! It's because of me that you're-"

"Marcy!" Anne shouted with all of her might, and her bestie snapped out of it at long last. The two girls kept staring at each other, not making a sound, for what felt like several minutes, but was probably only a few seconds.

Finally, Anne spoke up once more. "Marbles," she began. "How long was I out?"

"Three days."

Another pause.

"You haven't slept yet, have you?" Anne asked.

"I never left your side." Marcy replied, and her tone was completely different from before. It was confident, direct and, above all else, proud.

"Marcy..." Now it was time for Anne's eyes to fill with tears.

"And I'd do it all over again."

This was too much for the Thai, and she finally began to cry. Marcy stayed there holding her hand, just as she had for the last three days, and all Anne could think about was how lucky she was to have her as a friend. Her tears dried up at some point, and the two girls engaged in small talk (Marcy handed Anne her phone, allowing her to show all the photos she took of her past adventures) until the sun began to set, the warm orange which filled the room slowly giving way to darker, colder tones.

"Okay Marcy, I think you can go to sleep now." Anne spoke up, her eyes fixated on her friend's bloodshot counterparts.

"No way," the ravenette replied without hesitation. "I can't, what if something happens?"

"Aren't we in the castle?" Anne retorted. "Like, the safest place in not just Newtopia, but all of Amphibia?"

"I know, but-"

"She speaks the truth, Master Marcy." A feminine voice Anne never heard before suddenly barged into the conversation, and she craned her head in its direction. It was a short, long haired and aquamarine skinned newt, wearing what was probably the fanciest dress Anne had ever seen.

"But Lady Olivia," Marcy replied, "I need to at least tell the Plantars about this! I also have to--"

"They fell asleep not long ago, and they've barely had any rest of their own." The newt, whose name Anne now knew was Olivia, stated. "You shall inform them of this tomorrow."

"But--"

"Go to bed, Marcy." Olivia's tone and expression were stern, but she quickly softened. "Please."

Marcy locked eyes with Anne last time, before slumping her shoulders in defeat. "Fine..." She got up, let out a long sigh, and exited the room. Something fell on the floor, but nobody paid attention.

"Thanks for that." Anne gave a small smile to Olivia. "She really needed it."

"I look forward to talking with you in the future, young lady." Olivia replied with a warm smile of her own. "Marcy speaks very highly of you."

Anne let out a giggle, and saw the newt give a short bow before she too left the room. The Thai was completely alone now, and she quickly concluded her best option was to get some sleep of her own in preparation for tomorrow - she couldn't wait to hear the Plantars' voices again.

It didn't take long for her to stumble upon a problem, though: she couldn't. Whether it was because she was too anxious to talk to her adoptive family or because she had slept for too long already, Anne couldn't keep her eyes shut for long.

With nothing else to do, she began to stare at the ceiling... until that too became too boring to do.

"Ugh..." Anne facepalmed. She fiddled with her phone for a while, but the lack of anything resembling the internet here meant her entertainment options were very limited. And she had already binge watched every episode of Suspicion Island with the Plantars, so...

"Dang it..." Anne groaned, an irritated expression on her face, until she suddenly had an idea. If she couldn't get up from her hospital bed, she could at least check out how her body was holding up.

Her left leg was in a cast, as she expected, and said limb was, to her immense relief, still in a recognizable shape. She couldn't feel anything in there yet, which made sense since she probably spent the last three days hooked up on who knows how many anesthetics. Her other limbs were fine, if a bit sore from, well, everything she went through.

It was a shame she wasn't wearing her old school uniform anymore, even if Anne couldn't fault the doctors for getting rid of it. It was a painful loss, since that outfit was one of the last reminders she had of home. Speaking of doctors, she wondered how they treated Marcy after she appeared in Newtopia - according to the nerdette, she was so busy gawking at the scenery she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her own leg in the process.

She hoped they didn't treat her like the Wartwoodians treated Anne at first - Marcy deserved better than that.

Time continued to go by, yet sleep continued to elude Anne despite the darkness surrounding her. The boredom was becoming unbearable for her, and the longer she laid wide awake in her bed the more confident she felt about doing at least something with her body. She wasn't about to attempt to walk around, she wasn't stupid, but maybe she could at least try to sit up.

Anne took a deep breath and, despite her back muscles' protests, rose ever so slowly before finally stopping. The world shifted around her, and from her new position she could see her surroundings in a different angle. The first thing she realized was that the room she was in was, in fact, huge, so much so it seemed almost unnecessary to have so much space, especially when it came to height. She'd have to ask Marcy about this later.

Anne began to look around, using her phone's flashlight in the hopes she'd find anything interesting. After a few minutes, the Thai eventually found an object that caught her attention: a book on the floor, close to where she was. It took some effort, but she managed to extend an arm and grab it.

"Now what's this?" Anne thought aloud as she brought the book closer to her eyes, which grew as wide as saucers once she got a good look at the cover.

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

Marcy's Journal

A Guide to Amphibia

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

"Whoa..." Was all Anne could say to herself at the moment. She had completely forgotten Marcy had a journal - she kept writing things on it even as she, Anne and the Plantars entered the barbariants' tunnels, eagerly documenting everything she saw - she must've dropped it while leaving the room. Anne wondered, for the briefest of moments, if she could--

NO, she immediately shot that idea down. If Marcy's journal was anything like her own, it was likely full of very personal thoughts she had no business knowing about without her bestie's permission. And yet...

"Grr..." Anne growled, irritated at her growing curiosity. She still wasn't sleepy (this latest discovery didn't help), and she loathed the idea of continuing to stare at the ceiling even a second longer. But she couldn't read the journal behind Marcy's back, that would be beyond awful. She had just gotten her back, after all, and she saved her life.

Yet she also hadn't told Anne about her own adventures besides some vague hints here and there, even as the Thai poured her heart out about all the times she nearly got eaten by some random giant monster, or the time she adopted a freaking kill-a-pillar... the fight she had with Sasha, even if she omitted a few details...

"Urgh..." Anne cradled her head in her hands before letting out a loud sigh. This should've been an easy decision, just keep that journal shut and ask Marcy about it tomorrow! Why was this so difficult?

Finally, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Just a peek," Anne told herself. "Just a teeny tiny little peek..." She slowly opened the journal, her hands shaking like tree branches in the wind.

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

WARNING

You can only read this journal if you do one of the following

1. solve my password

2. defeat me in battle

3. get my permission :3

Belongs to:

Marcy Wu

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

An ugly feeling settled into Anne's stomach. She didn't meet any of the requirements, and the longer she stared the more chills ran down her spine. She really, really shouldn't be doing this.

She turned the page anyway.

Next came a drawing of the Music Box, so perfect and precise it looked almost like a photo - Marcy had always been an excellent artist, and it showed. Next to the drawing were three questions, each focusing on a different aspect of the Box: what the three gems on it could mean, what was up with the frog drawn on it, and, last but definitely not least, how it worked.

By this point Anne's unease had given way to outright dread. She couldn't stop her eyes from wandering to the next page.

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

OMIGOSH

OMIGOSH

OMIGOOOOOOSH!

It worked!

The music box actually worked!

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

"... What?" Anne's heart skipped a beat, and she rubbed her eyes in the hopes she'd see something different. When that didn't work, she shook her head. It didn't change anything.

She kept on reading.

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

This is unbelievable. I am smack dab in the middle of another flipping world!!! I know the book said... but I didn't actually think it was gonna... but it DID and I'm here and--

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

Anne felt like her brain was about to shut down, just like how it did so many times before. This... this couldn't be real. The Marcy she knew would never... and on her birthday?

Her lungs kicked into overdrive, the sound of her breaths deafening. Her heart pounded inside her chest, but it did little to diminish the feeling she was on the verge of blacking out, nor did it fill the gaping chasm in her stomach.

She kept on reading, hoping to find something that would indicate at least a little bit of regret, but all she saw were more 'omigoshes' all over the page, plus some irrelevant information. It wasn't until she saw the very last words that it finally hit her.

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

Time to take the first steps of my very own Isekai adventure!!!!

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

...

An adventure.

Marcy knowingly tore Anne away from her family so she could go on an adventure.

The pit in Anne's midsection continued to grow. She turned page after page, and all she saw were vivid, utterly delighted descriptions of all the places and people Marcy met during her stay in Newtopia, plus everything else that caught her interest. The more she read the journal, the more she remembered how her first days in Amphibia went.

While Anne landed in the middle of a swamp, Marcy landed in a cozy city.

While Anne had to sleep in a cave, surrounded by giant insects and other monstrous creatures, Marcy was pampered and coddled.

While Anne had to earn the Wartwoodians' respect with blood, sweat and tears, Marcy became besties with the freaking king without even trying.

A sob forced its way out of the Thai's throat.

This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair!

All Anne wanted to do was enjoy her birthday! She didn't want to get transported to a world full of talking frogs who saw her as a monster, all while the wildlife kept trying to eat her or worse! She just wanted to spend some time with her Mom and Dad, was that too much to ask? What did she do to deserve this?

She felt sick, angry, betrayed, enraged. Above all, however, she felt powerless. She had come to terms with the fact Sasha wasn't that good a friend, but this... this was too much.

So Anne sat there in her bed, tears gushing out of her eyes as she did her best to contain her sobs. So focused she was on keeping the storm raging within her under control, she didn't notice how her surroundings were shaking as if an earthquake was going on.

"Um... hello?"

A deep, booming voice 'whispered' from above, snapping Anne out of her little world of pain and tears. She looked at the direction it came from, and her eyes were greeted by the single largest newt she had ever seen. Anne felt her heart threaten to leap out of her mouth the moment she laid eyes on this stranger, for if his gigantic size and white beard weren't enough of a hint, the crown sitting atop his head surely was.

She was looking at none other than king Andrias Leviathan himself.

"H-h-hi..." Anne managed to stammer.

A long paused ensued, and Andrias sat down. It didn't make his size any less intimidating, not least because of how this simple act made the entire room shake.

"So... you're Anne, right?" He asked hesitantly, and the Thai forced herself to nod.

"Lady Olivia told me what happened, so I figured it was time I checked on you in person." The giant newt continued. "I didn't expect you to be up at this hour..."

Anne didn't reply. She just kept staring at Andrias with wide eyes, as if expecting him to crush her at any moment.

"What are you reading?"

The question hit Anne like a ton of bricks, for she immediately remembered she was still holding Marcy's journal.

"N-n-n-nothing!" She stammered, trembling like a leaf, before hiding the journal behind her pillow. "It was nothing, j-just a sad book! Yeah, a really sad book!" She forced a smile, and quickly assumed the worst after seeing how Andrias didn't look a single bit convinced.

"I'm sorry!" Anne tried to shield herself, as if that would make a difference against an attack from someone ten times her size. "I-I know what I did was wrong, I'm sorry! I promise I'll--"

"It's okay."

Anne froze upon hearing those words, before slowly craning her head in Andrias' direction. Rather than the furious frown she expected for daring to peek into his closest advisor's deepest secrets, the Newtopian monarch's expression was full of concern and sympathy.

"Wha-what?" The girl managed to ask.

"Marcy told me of what she did." Andrias looked pensive before continuing. "How she knew about the Box all along."

Anne took a deep breath to regain some of her bearings. "Did she tell you why?" She asked.

"Something about her father getting a new job out of state," Andrias replied. "She said she was afraid of losing you and your other friend, the one called Sasha."

"So she took me away from my parents instead." A laugh escaped Anne's throat, one so bitter even she was surprised. "My home, my life..." Another sound came from her throat, this one a sob.

"I'm sorry." Andrias extended a finger towards the Thai, and she leaned on it for comfort. It was soft and pliable, like a huge cushion. "If it's any consolation, Marcy told me she regretted what she did."

She sure didn't seem like it, Anne wanted to reply at first, before remembering the ravenette's breakdown after she woke up. She recalled how sunken her eyes were, the way her hair was a complete mess, how she never left her side during her coma. "I hope so."

A moment of silence went by, before Anne broke it. "But even then..." She began. "I still can't believe she'd actually do this. I've known her all my life, I never thought she'd be willing to..." A shudder ran through her body before she could finish the sentence.

"I know what that's like."

Anne's head turned so fast she almost got dizzy. "You do?"

"Yes." Andrias repositioned his hand so that it was roughly level with Anne's bed. "Say, there's something I'd like to show you. Care to come along?" He asked, his solemn look giving way to a warm, inviting smile.

"Um, sure!" The girl replied with careful excitement before crawling towards the king's gigantic hand. It took a while longer than she would've liked, but she managed to do it. Her point of view suddenly shifted upwards as Andrias stood up to his full height and brought Anne close to his face. The mysterious, intimidating giant was gone, replaced by a kind old man who was willing to comfort even a complete stranger.

"Ready?" He asked, his smile widening.

"Lead the way, big guy!"

"With pleasure!" Andrias let out a giggle that, although low for someone his size, was more than enough to rattle Anne's entire being.

The Newtopian monarch began to walk through his castle's myriad hallways, all illuminated by the dim light of Amphibia's moon. Anne had a bird's eye view of her surroundings, and it was all so cool! There were tapestries and paintings all over the walls, stained glass windows and columns with sculptures of snakes coiling around them. She couldn't wait to see what this place looked like during the day.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking, Andrias entered his throne room, and Anne couldn't help but gasp at the sight. It was everything she had already seen, yet somehow even more beautiful. The blues, purples and aquamarines of the walls, tapestries, columns and windows combined with the moonlight perfectly.

Topping it all off was a huge coral throne full of intricate designs. Anne could only imagine what it was like to sit on it.

"Wow..." It was all she could say.

"Pfft, this is nothing." Andrias waved his free hand dismissively, an easygoing smile on his lips. "You see this place once, you've seen it a thousand times." His smile changed in an almost imperceptible way. "What I'm planning to show you is way more interesting."

Something about the king's tone and expression sent shivers down Anne's spine. "O-okay..."

Andrias walked away from the throne, in the direction of a seemingly ordinary statue. He pushed a hidden lever, and the sound of stone shifting from its original position filled the duo's ears.

A secret passage.

The dread Anne felt when she read Marcy's journal returned in full force.

"... What's down there?" She managed to ask.

"I could tell you," Andrias replied, his smile so sweet it was almost sickening. "But I'd rather not spoil the surprise." He walked down the spiral staircase, a blue coral torch on his other hand.

Anne really, really wasn't liking this, but she couldn't muster the strength to say she wanted to go back to her bed, assuming the giant newt would even listen to her. She was completely at his mercy, and that terrified her to an extent she hadn't felt since her first night in that cave.

Strange, ghostly creatures appeared, and Anne did not like how they scurried away the moment Andrias approached them.

Finally, the stairway ended, and Andrias entered a large, dark chamber. Try as she might, Anne couldn't see an inch ahead of her.

She shivered nonstop.

"We're here," Andrias began solemnly, before turning his full attention to Anne. "You're about to see something no one in Amphibia knows about, not even Marcy." He paused briefly before continuing. "This is a secret I've guarded for a thousand years, and I'm about to share it with you."

"Why?" Anne asked right away, her dread giving way to a careful excitement. "Why me?"

"I'm tired of lying, Anne." The king replied, and for the first time since the Thai met him he actually sounded his age. "I can't do it anymore, not to you. You deserve better than that." He put the torch on a slot in a nearby wall, and the entire room lit up.

Anne's anticipation gave way to complete and utter astonishment. She blinked several times, struggling to comprehend that what her eyes were registering was in fact real. Her mouth was so wide her jaw looked as if it was about to fall off, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't utter a sound.

"What... what am I looking at?" She asked after what felt like an eternity.

"Our history," Andrias replied without skipping a beat. "Our real history."

Every inch of the room was covered in murals and reliefs, not unlike those one could find in an ancient tomb or monument. Anne couldn't understand a lick of what was written in them, but she didn't need to: there were more than enough images all over the room, all very easy to interpret.

They showed various scenes, depicting workers, merchants, warriors, scholars and nobles, depending on the context. One element Anne found particularly interesting was that they didn't seem to be divided by race: from what little she bothered to learn in between all her adventures, modern Amphibian society was a caste system, with frogs serving as farmers, toads as soldiers and newts as intellectuals.

These murals showed a different story: all three species proudly standing side by side as equals. Anne's eyes wandered, and she saw various other reliefs, some showing seated figures with crowns on their heads. They were undoubtedly Andrias' ancestors, if only because of how big they were compared to everyone else.

Anne's eyes landed on an image depicting a huge, walled metropolis, its magnificent spires dwarfed by a building whose outline looked very familiar. Before she could ask anything about it, however, she saw something else, an image that brought her train of thought to a screeching halt.

"The Music Box..."

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Andrias spoke, sounding proud but also... sad? Forlorn? "It was my ancestors' dearest possession. It was with it that they united Amphibia, and led it into an age of prosperity unlike anything seen before. And nowhere was this clearer than here in Newtopia." He looked like he was about to cry for a second, but kept himself together.

Anne had never been so eager for a history lesson before. "What was Newtopia like back then?" She asked.

Andrias looked pensive for a few moments, as if searching for the right words to say. "I can't put it into words, it wouldn't do it justice." He began, a smile on his face as he recalled memories from a long bygone era. "It was a city where all Amphibians could live in harmony, thanks to the Music Box's power." The king's chest swelled with pride. "We were proud, united, with a future to look forward to. And our technology, oh don't even get me started on it!" The jovial smile Anne was now used to returned to his face, yet it still carried a hint of sadness.

"C'mon, tell me!" Anne was sure that, were her leg not in a cast, she'd be jumping in excitement. "Come on!"

"Well kiddo, I asked Marcy about your world's technology once." Andrias replied, a hint of smugness in his voice. "I know it's not nice to brag, but it doesn't hold a candle to what we used to have. We had factories, airships, robots! Believe it or not, this castle could fly!" The newt smiled upon hearing Anne's amazed gasp. "And since we had the Box, we were free to visit all kinds of different worlds and learn from them."

Anne needed a minute to process all the information she just heard. "Dude... that sounds AWESOME!"

"It really was." Andrias let out a long, exhausted sigh. "And then everything fell apart."

"What happened?" Anne asked before she could rein her curiosity in.

"I happened. Or rather, my 'friends' did." The way Andrias said that one word unsettled his little listener to her core. It was a deep, near animalistic growl, which betrayed the rage that still boiled inside him a thousand years latter.

Anne kept her mouth shut this time.

"Their names were Leif and Barrel." Andrias resumed talking once he got his emotions under control. "We knew each other since we were tadpoles, and got into all sorts of trouble together while growing up." He couldn't help but giggle a little, as he remembered some of the many shenanigans they got themselves into. "We were inseparable."

"And then...?" Anne asked hesitantly.

"They betrayed me. The day before I was meant to become king, Leif stole the Music Box, grabbed a weapon and blasted her way out of Newtopia. And Barrel?" Andrias looked at Anne for a moment, expecting her to try and guess the answer. "He did nothing." The giant newt continued when no such guess came. "Leif ran away, and Barrel let her." He balled his free hand into a fist. "I've had to deal with the consequences ever since."

A pause ensued, giving Anne the time she needed to gather her courage and speak up once more. "So that's why everything here's so... medieval? Because the Box was stolen?"

"That's exactly it, my dear." Andrias, and for the second time that night he sounded his age. "I was forced to watch my civilization, my home, be reduced to a shadow of its former self, all because of me." His voice dripped with venom, all aimed at himself. "Our technology, everything my ancestors worked for, it all went down the drain because I couldn't see that the people I trusted my life with were nothing more than--" A strange force snapped him out of his monologue, and he looked down.

His eyes were greeted by the sight of Anne hugging one of his fingers with all her might. "It wasn't your fault," he managed to hear between what sounded way too much like crying.

"You're a good person, kiddo." Andrias said before patting the girl's head with another finger. The gesture, combined with his words, soothed Anne's cries, and the old newt found himself immensely relieved for a reason he couldn't quite explain.

A few minutes of hugging and patting later, Anne let go of Andrias' finger and turned to face him.

"I'll help you." She said confidently.

"Hm?" The giant raised an eyebrow, as if unsure of what he just heard.

"You heard me right, big guy." Anne repeated, her eyes shining with determination. "I'll need the Music Box to get back home anyway. You can keep it and bring Amphibia back to what it used to be! Everybody wins!"

"I do like what I'm hearing," Andrias replied, doing his best to conceal his mounting excitement. "But do you even have it? It could be anywhere..."

"As a matter of fact, I do!" Anne said enthusiastically, and Andrias' eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Hang on, I don't have it with me right now," she added. "Hop Pop left it with some contacts back at Wartwood. I have a photo though!" The Thai grabbed her phone, searched for the right image, and held it up for Andrias to see.

"Hmm..." The king squinted his eyes and put his free hand on his chin. "That's definitely the Box. The gems are grey, though..."

"Hey, you're right," Anne scratched the back of her head, slightly embarrassed. "I, uh, never actually noticed."

"No matter!" Andrias beamed. "I'll just search through the deepest of our archives, there should be something we can work with in there."

"Great! What can I do to help?"

"Well, can you translate ancient Amphibian runes?"

"Eeeeeh..." Anne couldn't help but look away.

"Hahahahaha!" Andrias bellowed. "Don't worry about it kiddo, I got this. You just enjoy your time here in Newtopia, okay? You deserve it."

"Thanks, I'm sure I will." Anne's lips curled into a warm smile, though it didn't last long. "Um, I've got one last question, if you don't mind."

"Sure, go ahead." Andrias replied. "What is it?"

"Okay, so, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to," Anne began, her body language betraying her unease. "But, why did Leif steal the Box in the first place? I mean, she must've known how important it was to you guys, right?"

Andrias' eyes widened in surprise, and Anne immediately regretted asking. Before she could apologize, though, the king spoke up.

"She did," he began. "As to why she stole it, you saw what the Music Box can do firsthand. It takes a lot of power to open portals to other dimensions, and that power can do a whole lot of damage if it falls in the wrong hands." He felt his little listener shudder at the thought. "Leif didn't trust me with it, so she took that choice away from me."

"Ah," something clicked inside Anne's head, and her eyes narrowed. "So she was that kind of friend."

Andrias raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. "The kind of friend who bosses people around. The kind who says they care about you, but don't listen to anything you say." Her hands balled into fists. "The kind who bully and threaten you into doing all kinds of stuff you don't want, and get you in trouble for it." The brunette finished with a snarl.

"I'm sorry you had to know someone like that." Andrias replied with a sympathetic look. Deep down, however, he felt an urge to find out wherever this person lived and then crush them beneath his boots.

"Don't worry about it, I stood up to her." Anne smiled. "She won't push me around anymore."

"That's good to know." Andrias couldn't help but sigh in relief. He thought of asking about this mysterious bully's identity, but concluded his conversation with Anne had gone on long enough. Besides, if his previous talks with Marcy were any indication, he could guess with a reasonable amount of confidence that this person was Sasha Waybright - he'd have to deal with her sooner or later.

First things first, though.

"Say Anne, I think you've learned enough stuff for one night. Want to go back to bed?" Andrias asked. He was answered with a yawn, and so the giant newt exited the room without further ado, climbing the same stairway that led the pair down here.

The walk back to Anne's room was short and uneventful, Andrias' footsteps surprisingly quiet despite his size. It wasn't until he reached his destination that he realized Anne had fallen asleep on his hand.

He couldn't help but stare. Here was one of the three champions of the Prophecy, more vulnerable than ever - she was no longer aware of her surroundings, and even if she was she wouldn't be able to do a thing if Andrias even thought about harming her. It would've been so, so easy to just crush her into a bloody pulp right then and there.

Yet he didn't. He had several opportunities to dispose of her this whole night, but he did not take a single one.

The idea of turning one of the Calamity Gems' bearers against the prophecy they were supposed to uphold was one he had considered since he first met Marcy three months ago. Despite her immense intelligence, however, the Taiwanese girl was way too similar to Leif for Andrias' comfort (she even called him 'Drias' when they first met), and that unease skyrocketed after the confession she made over that game of flipwart. She'd be a pawn and nothing more.

Anne, though? Everything Andrias knew about her indicated she was a person who did right by her friends, even though they clearly didn't deserve her. How could he not comfort the girl when he first saw her, crying her eyes out after discovering Marcy's true colors? She had been failed by one of the people she trusted the most.

Just like him. And he knew that, if he didn't help her, she too would be left to deal with the consequences of that betrayal all by herself.

She deserved better.

Andrias sat down, picked Anne up with as much care as he could and slowly tucked the girl into her bed, making sure she was in a position where her cast wouldn't cause any unnecessary discomfort. Once her head was resting on a pillow and her body covered by a blanket, he got up and prepared to leave. Before he turned around, however, he heard a sound that made him stop in his tracks.

"Mhhhmm..." Anne mumbled before opening her eyes. She sat up, blinked a few times and looked around. "Whoa, I don't remember getting here..."

"You fell asleep on my hand," Andrias explained. "So I put you in your bed myself."

Anne stared at him for a few seconds, as if she didn't understand what he said, before her lips curled into a tired yet happy smile.

"Hey, Andrias?" She began. "Thanks for everything, I needed this."

For the second time that night, Andrias was on the verge of tears. "Anytime, kiddo." He wiped his eyes for good measure.

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

I've had this Tumblr blog for years now, yet I never really used it much. So I might as well start posting this Amphibia fanfic I've been working on for the past few months, because why not?

[theographos]

They all became what everyone said they couldn't be. All except Toby that is...

Once again i'm sharing my Trollhunter propaganda onto my loved ones, and by that I mean trapping them in the same room as me and forcing them to watch the show. (with consent) And this time, it's my bestie who has to go through that. And as I rewatch the show, I think about what I see and compare it to the rest of the franchise.

Jim, despite everyone and himself telling him he couldn't, became the Trollhunter in his very own way.

Claire, despite Morgana saying otherwise, became the new owner of the Shadowstaff in her very own way.

Blinky, despite Vendell and overall the whole Troll market telling him otherwise, became the mentor of a brilliant Trollhunter in his very own way.

AAARRRGGHH!!!, despite the Gumms Gumms and Queen Ursuna saying otherwise, became a fighter for the right cause and left his role as Gunmar's spawn for good. Or in other words, he learned how to be a fighter in his very own way

Toby, despite the plot telling him otherwise, became a hero fitting the common standards of heroism in medias and a hero fitting the Tales of Arcadia's standards.

But wait... Toby's character development doesn't really make sense with the rest of the main characters now, does it ?

No it has nothing to do with the fact that Toby is a "fleshbag"

So I already discussed on how the screenwriters could have given a more interesting role for Toby in another post, but I didn't deeply explained why in terms of storytelling.

First and foremost, no I do not think that Tobias would have been better if he wasn't a human, this post is more because I believe that Aliens and Toby lack "plot important" features (except for the movie) (waiting a whole franchise to give that kind of feature to a character or an important specie in your story isn't something we should acclaim). So I thought of ways to kill one bird with two stone, and give plot-interesting features to both the race and the character. Plus I think it's more interesting to think of solutions that fits the already established universe, and then think of solutions that fits my way of writing stories.

Second of all, yes the human bestfriend of a character can be wonderfully done, like in Teen Wolf for example. From the start we meet Scott McCall, the main character, and his bestfriend Stiles Stilinski. Throughout the whole show they are exposed to supernatural phenomenon, the entirety of the cast becomes linked to the supernatural world either by being hunters or by being a supernatural being. Everyone except Stiles.

And despite being human and a comic relief character, he is relevant to the plot. He is the "detective" of the group, he is always the one noticing strange things and finding a solution to the current threat they're dealing with. He is also incredibly funny, voluntarily or not, and the screenwriters take their sweet times showing how hard the plot is taking a toll on the characters through Stiles. Which means we see him having panic attacks, doubts, nightmares, etc.

And guess what ? He is the fan's favorite character ! In the last season, when Stiles's actor couldn't be more present due to an injury, it showed. You could feel the lack of Stiles in most the scenes, and the bestest parts were the scenes in which he appeared, also because they came up with an excuse to explain why Stiles isn't as much present as before.

But that excuse is so well done that when you see Stiles again, you're not only relieved to see him well, but also very interested because suddenly the plot drives forward so quickly. If you take away Stiles, the plot isn't going anywhere (because he was the one investigating most of the supernatural threats), and even the serie isn't that interesting anymore : it's less funny, less human and even.

Heck, the plot wouldn't even exist without Stiles ! In the beginning of the show Stiles takes the main character in the woods because they're looking for a dead body (dumb teenager idea)(his dad is the sheriff so it's not that weird). And in those woods, the main character ends up lost, gets bitten by a werewolf and the story starts.

So yes, a human bestfriend can be interesting in the story in an emotional point of view, he can be relevant to the plot and have an interesting dynamic within the main group.

Dreamworks isn't good with "bestfriend" characters

Trollhunters is in many ways similar to How to Train your Dragon. While Hiccup is trying to protect dragons following his own morals even if they differs from the rest of his village, Jim is trying to protect trolls following his own morals even if differs with the rules of Trollhunting. Of course both franchise have their own identity, and not everything is similar to the other. But they do share the fact that they're both animated by Dreamworks.

Yet I see one major problem that the HTTYD franchise had who's also present in ToA : The bestfriend character has nothing more than a "helping hand" kind of role. Astrid is interesting and has plot relevance, just like Claire, but they're more the love interest kind of person. Stoik, Valka and sometimes Gobber have plot relevance as Hiccup's parent figures and/or mentor, kind of like Blinky, Strickler and Barbara. I think I could compare AAARRRGGHH!!! with the dragons in some way. He has a link with the main bad guys of the show, just like the dragons (dragons and dragon hunters) he has that loveable side like the dragons and big fighting skills like them. (I'm not saying that AAARRRGGHH!!! is similar to an animal, i'm saying that his role plot-wise is similar in some ways to the role of the dragons in HTTYD)

But when we take a look at Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs, even if they have distinctive character traits from one another and some sort of character development in some episodes of the shows, in terms of plot their role are basically "well the main character cannot do everything on his own, plus we need humor". Some episodes are based around them, just like for Toby, but no villains are directly linked to them, no plot points are directly linked to them. They're only in the plot because they are the friends of the one who's relevant to the story, whether it's the dragons, Hiccup or the rest of the Trollhunter team.

Toby, just like Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs is a supporting character. Yes he has helped a lot but more because they needed a third hand more than because they needed his specific competences. And no Warhammer isn't what I can call a competence, since Jim's status as a trollhunter works with and without his weapon, and Claire's shadow magic has been awaken by the shadowstaff and even when it ends up being broken into pieces, she is still relevant without her weapon.

Warhammer was something that Toby wanted a lot, couldn't use, so they put a curse on it to kill two bird with one stone. The biggest competence that he had so far in Trollhunter was his dental problems. Without that, they wouldn't have meet Gladys the changeling or they wouldn't have found the Janus order. Because the rest of the time it's just luck. Luck isn't a competence, it's literally just luck.

In terms of a fighting team, Toby doesn't have a distinctive role.

Jim is the front fighter. He is the one that is going to go straight to the enemy.

Claire is the mage, even if she knows how to fight, her main feature in combat scenes is her magic.

AAARRRGGHH!!! is a tank. He is strong and big, and is able to take on bigger enemies and take a lot of damage upon him.

Blinky is a councellor, he might not be the best at fighting but he will be able to come up with a strategy based off his knowledge as an historian, and also serve as some sort of therapist and moral compass, giving back faith and the will to fight to his comrades.

I have a hard time understanding Toby's role is this team (combat-wise) other than "the helping hand". The moral compass is already occupied by Blinky, he is hardly a tank since AAARRRGGHH!!! can take upon the offensive and defensive aspects of that role. He cannot be the "troll-nerd" one who knows everything about troll culture since Claire and Blinky already take upon that role. The best I could come up with is either the one who deals with humans, even if when it happens it's always more or less accidental and he is not comfortable in those situations (or not good, like when they had to exchange the formula with Vendell's staff), or again a helping hand, a sort of plus one in case there are a lot of ennemies or everyone else has a task and that problem must be taken care of right now.

That's why I proposed that he could be a healer. Not a very good one, since that would just make the team invicible (most of the times their difficulty comes from injuries or being tired, if you have a character that can fully help those problems there is not a lot of hardships).

Truthfully I have a hard time thinking of an actual role he could have within the team. Because being the "plus one" is already the role of the Creepslayerz.

It has to fit with the serie's message

Like I said in the introduction a recurring theme for the main characters is that people around them do not believe they are fit to become what they're supposed to be or what they want to be. A some sort "against all odds they managed to become [insert role]" if you'd like.

As I have established before Tobias is more of a "helping hand" kind of role, and no one has ever kept Toby from being a helping hand other than him. (Meanwhile every other main characters in Trollhunters doubt themselves because of everyone telling them to do so.)

The only thing he has been kept from doing by other characters (especially the villain) is to be the hero. He is only a human with nothing else, he can help but he can't make a difference on his own. But if we continue to follow the story's theme, he would need to become a hero in his very own way. To claim that title and to use it in a way that is most definetly his, whether with his own competence or his own moral compass.

Toby doesn't have that, since he became trollhunter after Jim, after Jim proved that humans can be trollhunters. He would only be repeating Jim's story with some differences, but the struggles would be the exact same. Meanwhile Claire is having her very own difficulty because she has her very own role as a hero. Her struggles are similar, but not completely the same.

See, when I talked about alien!toby it was because it was easy to tell yourself that aliens might not recognize Toby as one of their own, which could create some sort of "you want to be like us but you'll never be, you're just a human/too bad at it". It's also easy to imagine Toby having trouble with that part of him, either physically or mentally. After all he always thought he was a human, learning that you're part alien is a whole pre-written identity crisis.

And yes even his sacrifice at the end of RotT doesn't really fit the story's themes. Yes Toby saved the world in his own way, but what I don't like about it is the fact that he is considered a hero because he sacrificed himself.

He is not a hero because of who he is, he is a hero because of what he has lost. This is a one time kind of heroism, because as you might guess you do not come back from the dead every so often. I am not saying that he shouldn't have sacrificed himself, i'm saying that every main character became a hero before trying to sacrifice themselves. You saw a big part of their competences before that, but like I said Toby doesn't have particular competences in the show.

It still fits the theme "don't think, become" of the show, but if we look on the plot from afar it means that Jim had to fight to become a hero, Claire had to fight to become a hero, same for AAARRRGGHH!!!, Blinky had to lead to become a hero and Toby had to die.

This is quite a horrible thought don't you think ? That the only way for one of the main character to be fully recognized as a hero in the plot is to die. It worked in some shows, especially for morally grey characters, but throughout this whole post I showed you how Toby had nothing meaningful given to him, and the only thing he always had was ripped from him.

This is not something carefully planned, it's just that they did not cared.

Nothing in the whole franchise justify the tragedy that is Tobias's character arc. Changelings became heroes, Gumm gumms can be heroes, humans too, except for Toby.

Toby is left with crumbs. No magical ancient weapon, just a warhammer that doesn't even have a story worth mentionning in the show. No cool and original duty, just the one that his bestfriend had and who decided to give it to him to make him happy. A big act of heroism, that only Jim will ever remember because this happened in another timeline.

His role as trollhunter, his warhammer, his role as "protector of arcadia" at the end of Trollhunters, even his dynamic in the group is merely a pat on the head in hopes that it will make him shut up and comply. And while some characters are beautiful tragedies, Tobias is not an intentional one. If it was one, you would have seen it coming. If it truly was meant to be a tragedy, the writers would have dropped signs, they would have portrayed it in a particular way.

Even if they lacked time in the later seasons of Trollhunters and Wizards, they had time in 3Below. They had 2 seasons to give anything to Toby, whether tragical or magical.

But they didn't, so nothing shows that they intentionally did it. I even think that they did realize what they had done at some point, and their only way to arrange things was to make him die so that he could finally be a hero.

A hero that only one character will ever remember in the show, because they couldn't even give him that glory, it had to be reaped away from him in one way or another. Because at the end of RotT, in terms of timeline, it never happened, or at least it didn't happen yet.

In conclusion to all of that, I will repeat what I have said a thousand times in this post : Toby wasn't done justice with this movie. He didn't have the ending he deserved, and his story arc in my opinion isn't really a story arc. It's more like him complying and shutting up about his situation because he was given something that looks shiny, but holds no real importance nor deep meaning (or some twisted meaning).

The writers did not want to include Toby in the plot for most of the franchise, and when they did it was in the only way they knew of : something that looks shiny and cool but is in reality just a way to shut everyone up and move on.

[magical-oppas]

when lando was asked about it in the media pen, he also added that it was the best thing for both their races – and he was right.

had the two of them wasted any time, and more importantly tyre life, fighting eachother they would've been risking the double podium (which is exactly what they don't need trying to catch aston in the wcc).

suzuka was a race of tyre management. if you didn't have the pace in the tyre you were pretty much screwed – case in point george russell, and overtaking him.

lando was able to breeze by him easily and establish a gap quickly, but it was slightly more difficult for oscar who had 5 lap older tyres with the undercut, and slower pace overall. at the point oscar was fighting russell, leclerc was closing up behind oscar to the point he was just about in drs range, <1 second, to oscar.

had oscar wasted any more time or tyre fighting lando, he may have struggled for one lap more overtaking russell. that then would've given leclerc the opportunity to further close up and start attacking oscar, who then would've needed to defend rather than progress forward to the podium. post-race data showed that oscar was only 0.070s faster than leclerc across the race distance, so it was a genuine risk there.

it looks like the team just had to discuss this eventuality, and then waited a little too long to send a clear radio to oscar, hence the hesitation and confusion from lando – who then felt it necessary to explain his position.

there's not much you can really take to heart with driver radios – they're under immense pressure, amped up on adrenaline, flinging themselves around a circuit at 300kph with 3g forces compressing their bodies. the radios are first and foremost for communication with the team – you can't hold anything back. we're just lucky enough to listen in.

I have nothing more to add to this. Perfect analysis. You go bestie.

[drakon-syngrafeas]

All Too Well - Taylor Swift: Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?

I do not usually think about my ex husband. I honestly wish him whatever karma he deserves & that he has grown past the broken parts of his past that made him not love me. He is not my concern anymore.

But...

Miss Swift decided to write this song. She wrote it with her own past pain in mind, but she was unaware that she was also borrowing heavily from mine. And not in some artsy 'I can relate' or 'she knows we all feel' way. There are so many hard points of similarity that she might have been following me around for 10 years, taking notes.

First & foremost: we were 10 years apart in age. I was 25 & he was 35. 1983 & 1973. We never really suffered issues because of age per se, but my 'youth' did play a part in my downfall - he held it against me. And it pushed against one of those broken parts of his.

The scarf: He had this cashmere green & gold scarf. I adored it and would steal it often to wear. So much that I found a similar blue-green one at a second hand store for myself; I needed something to make me not feel so sad when he started to not say 'I love you' with feeling, just a rote phrase with faded emotional ink & blurred by dried tears. But I wore first his & now mine; yes I still have mine. *grins awkwardly*

"Singing in a car, getting lost Upstate": His family & hometown are in Upstate New York. We met through mutual friends & a men's spiritual event. We danced together at a party & moved in together a few months later when my roommate moved North with her husband. And his family knew me & loved me. We would drive 12 hours across expressway 90, singing Broadway, Scissor Sisters, indigo Girls, Loreena McKinnett... you name it. Harmony & counter harmony. Solos and duets and free for alls. Usually in Fall or early Winter; the trees were alive with fire & gold before falling, or barren afterward. Some of my happiest memories.

'Photo album on the counter': His family loved to tell me stories about his younger years. His grandma lived with his parents; his sisters nearby. The aunts, uncles, cousins, old family friends. Pieces of life that had drifted out of my own family when my grandma passed. They became my own until he broke that too.

'Dancing around the kitchen... down the stairs' & 'Sacred prayer & we'd swear': we would stand for minutes and hold each other in our kitchen in our townhouse apartment, light swaying as our feet got tired but we just stayed that way. Those small moments are gems I keep embedded in the back of my ming, pieces of stained glass trying to maintain what I can of something so precious then.. but the glass is fading as the years go on. I tried to hold onto that sacred promise with a legal one but even that wasn't enough bandage to bind up the broken pieces.

'And you called me up again just to break me like a promise. So casually cruel in the name of being honest': He broke me with a phone text. We had separated our living space those last 6 months 'to allow space to work on things'. Well, he just worked on separating. He texted asking me to release his phone (it was my account). Would not call when I asked why; only texted we were done & to let him have his phone. I called someone to come home & broke down. I don't remember much other than my bestie wanting to run him over; the pain of that day will never end.

Dead & gone & buried... he tried I think to reconcile, that last time I met him for breakfast to give him the last of his things I had found while packing to move out of the apartment. I was too numb to see it then, but it double crosses my mind often now, inciting anger or sadness - or nothing. Flatline.

Would like to be my old self again - but I'm still trying to find it; after 15 years, I still catch myself missing things I reach for, like a soldier missing limbs. It seems it will never return to a whole body. Just phantom limbs trapped in the past gripping me now. The love affair maimed me in ways I never knew til I found them.

But yes. Enough staring at broken glass that cannot be fixed; just admire the pretty new patterns.

It was rare & I remember it All Too Well.

Thanks Taylor. :) Thanks for the memories.

[jovenshires]

9, 10, 28, 29 bestie !!

tyyyy bestie <3<3<3

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

my wife, my best friend, the project i will always carry with me, dancing on my own. nothing like dealing with your own issues through the lens of a gamer boy who lives off of mountain dew kickstart and jurassic park movies <3<3

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

if we keep score was so so so much fun!!!! it really took on a life of its own and i LOVE to worldbuild so even though it was Stressful, i had a good time writing it for sure <3<3<3

28. How did you recharge between fics?

as i told you specifically i literally took like. a work week off. i listened to music, i binge-watched an anime, i went back to work after winter break, i read some of a book. it was great! back to the grind now though <3<3<3

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

i was gonna answer this like a joke but it made me emotional so here are my genuine very real thanks KLNFKNFKLNFKNL

i'd like to thank smosh first and foremost for getting me through what has objectively been one of the most difficult years of my life. the company's been through ups and downs, but so have i, and i find a real genuine comfort in these guys playing board games and making memes so truly thanks so much to them. especially tommy and spencer bc where would i be without them KDNKLSNFK

thanks of course to soupy for being the second person to post a spommy fic and co-pioneering this nation with me. i am so honored to have her as a mutual, a friend, and a peer. her works are incredible and she jumped into the deep end with me when no one else would. and to add onto that i'd like to thank every spommy writer for sharing all of their incredible works, and every spommy nation member for commenting or giving kudos or coming into my askbox. genuinely you all made my year so much better and inspired me to keep creating and keep growing. i love you all so much, there are no words to describe how grateful i am for you <3

thank you to julie, who accepted every insane stray thought, text message, and rambling fic plot. she sat there as i described iwks in detail in my car on the way to the mall. god's bravest soldier. she's truly a real one for that, i might have stopped talking to me by now LMAO. thank you to mauricio for entering back into my life, validating every insane thing i've ever said, and just overall being an amazing friend. we have been through so much together you and i and im honored to be on this crazy journey with you now. shoutout too to snel and baflegacy who have also gotten a TON of my insane ramblings via dms, i adore yall and im so honored to have gotten to know you. <3<3<3

i cannot stress enough how HUGELY thankful i am to stella. when i tell you none of my works would be where they are today without her. she does the very stressful and tedious task of reading over my works for me, and i am forever grateful. like almost none of the fics i've written would be even half as strong as they are without her help. not to mention she's just one of my favorite people on this planet in general; i love talking to her and being in this online space with her and creating with her and yeah. my partner in crime, thank you so so much.

and finally: all of smoshblr in general. i have been here for six years now, and i've never had a fandom feel so much like home. all of my friends and mutuals, new and old, and every other follower of mine to boot. you all know who you are - i adore each and every one of you. thank you for everything. <3

send me fic writer asks!

[loving-family-poll]

ok hold on lemme elaborate. first and foremost lemme preface this by saying that on a personal level the resemblance is superficial at best. when I say "parallel" I mean "there is a narrative parallel" not "stewy is similar to logan as a person". the second statement is truly nonsensical. HOWEVER... both stewy and logan represent an image of an american dream of a self-made man, and, more than that, seek to embody this image and Become it (to the detriment of their respective moral characters). logan is an immigrant that has built his business empire from nothing, he is the archetypal Self Made Capitalist. Stewy is an immigrant that has built a Perfect Life for himself from nothing, and HE seeks to embody spirit of a Newer capitalism (his area of work is not a part of the "real" economy, his job is to exercise the most predatory form of market pressure). both have fundamentally abandoned their humanity in the process, logan is supposedly "doing everything for his kids" while. not spending any meaningful time with them for the sake of the Business, and stewy is "always honest", but. his name is STEWY. this man has buried every aspect of his cultural identity for the sake of success. he kills the man he was yesterday every time he wakes up in the morning.

additionally, stewy is Positioned in the narrative as a mirror to logan. he is a mirror to tom (outsider to the family, metaphorial groom for one of the siblings), and, well. we all know about tom. additionally, we have the whole... dinner for winners thing. which positions stewy above kendall in the hierarchy of logan's approval, but, well, that will never mean anything because stewy is not white. nevertheless, stewy is a winner.

ADDITIONALLY, i strongly believe that kendall's love language is being led. he has to have someone giving him pointers and directions, we see it obviously with logan, when logan isn't there he asks rava for it, etc etc etc. logan himself recognizes it (through the words of brian cox), by describing the situation in the end of s1 as "kendall is under this corrupt influence of stewy" (yet another case of logan being a jealous jealous old man btw).

there is ALSO the aspect of food. stewy and logan are among the few characters that in this show eat, and eat confidently, whenever they want (another notable specimen is TOM). there are approximately 5 thousand essays written about food in succession, so I won't delve very deep, but. it's about a show of power. and about being able to take have and enjoy whatever they want.

returning briefly to the "kendall's love language is being led": all of kendall's relationships are in some way influenced by his relationship with logan. they are either a way to validate himself In Front of logan or they are about filling the logan-shaped hole in him. I strongly believe that stewy "I think you should do cocaine with me, despite the fact that you are very much in recovery right now" hosseini is capable of filling that hole.

anyway. I love stewy. I could talk about him forever. muah.

love, succ anon

Yeah I guess I just disagree with your analysis. For one, you're just incorrect about Stewy's origins - he isn't an immigrant, or if he is, his family must've immigrated when he was a young child. He certainly grew up in the U.S., we know he and Kendall were in at least university and high school together, and possibly knew each other even younger. And Stewy isn't self-made, he, like Kendall, was born into immense wealth. They are two rich boys who met as teens, did a ton of coke together, blew daddy's money (and each other 😉), and became lifelong besties and worsties. Also Stewy is positioned not as a mirror to any of the Roy's or Tom, but in contrast with them. He is neither a patriarch nor under the thumb of one, he couldn't give less of a shit about Logan, he is as far as we see a functional if shallow human being who's capable of normal relationships with others. Stewy doesn't really control or direct Kendall, he enables him, which the cocaine thing is an example of. I also disagree with the idea that Stewy is dishonest bc of his assimilation into white hegemony? That's not reflective of Stewy's character, but of the necessity of erasing personal identity and conforming to white supremacy in pursuit of weath. If anything, Logan and Stewy are opposites - the self-made industrialist patriarch of a bygone era vs. the new born-rich investor generation

[kuuttituutti]

for the oc ask meme!

13 and 23 for aina

2 for milcha

and 24 for both castor & abella 👀

Aaah thank you, these were tasty sorry writing these took so long fghjk. Thank you for asking about my babies !!

13. If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

It’s interesting to think about, but don’t think so. I think I could have some small talk with her, and we wouldn’t argue, but I don’t think we’d love to hang out or become besties. We’d both try too hard to be polite and would end up just exhausting social batteries. Like as a character I love her, she’s one of my fav girlies, but she’s the certain flavor of my ocs of “extremely weird religion guy” that I don’t think i’d want to share a room or a table with. 

23.What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

The girl is repressed. In many ways, but I think especially she would have a hard time trying to process shame and guilt. Those are both just weird feelings in her stomach that she can’t really put words to and that makes her angry. Not a lot of things make her feel too guilty,  and if they do, she’ll just end up repressing them really, really deep. But especially if it’s not her that is directly responsible, she tries not to feel too guilty, Burden can bear that for the both of them. 

And of expressing, I think Aina is not the best at expressing her annoyance. If she’s annoyed by someone, she’ll just mask it and continue with the interaction. It can be a bit uncomfortable later, if she ends up confessing to the other side, that she has been annoyed by them throughout the day.

~

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

Milcha can be surprisingly ruthless and cunning when she needs to. She kind and fun, but she also wants to make it out alive. Preferably with her friends, but if not she’s not afraid to stay alive alone. Milcha puts herself first and foremost and with the world she lives in, I can’t blame her. She is the second person to kill someone else in the game and on top of that, her victim is Castor who was a lot of people’s bet for the winner.  

Oh and her type is milfs and dilfs. I don’t think that’s a thing people think about when looking at people, but sure, that’s a thing not everyone would pick up on. 

~

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

Oughhh… gonna put a cw for emotional abuse here. 

Both Castor’s and Abella’s lives were heavily influenced and controlled by their mother. There was a lot of pressure, disdain and complicated feelings on all sides, but very rarely was it healthy. 

 Abella struggled a lot with their mother, who often would direct all her negative feelings towards them instead of Castor, or even them both. In the canon of the story she ended up internalizing her mother’s words of being less than their brother, and honestly never really recovered from her trauma(s). 

 But if she had ran away, I don’t think she would have won the game in the end? Her mother’s actions and training towards her and Castor both were ruthless and unforgivable, but it did ensure that Abella won in the end. But I think that the life she would have had would have been a lot happier. For the first thing, I think she would have been able to start transitioning earlier. Without her mother’s influence she would have chosen a different name I think.  She could have dedicated more of her time to things she actually enjoyed, like dancing and painting. It would still end up with her in the game in the end, but maybe she’d be able to form alliances with people more. 

 If she was able to escape her country one way or another, she’d need to live a careful life, but that could still be a happy life. She’d probably move to somewhere nice and quiet. And get herself a dog. 

Castor was always mama’s favorite. Mom was not Castor’s favorite, but he didn’t really have too many other choices. Their mom kept especially Castor isolated from other people so nobody could learn any of his weaknesses and that Castor would not get too attached to anyone.  It should never be a child’s responsibility to take care of a family’s balance and yet, a lot depended on Castor’s success and the hopeful winner status he would get. 

If Castor had disowned his mother, ran away, or even stood against their mother more, things would have been a lot different. As a child Castor still tried to defend his sibling and keep her away from their mother’s mean words, but after Abella asked him to just stop. Castor never really knew why, but respected his sibling’s wish. But if Castor had pushed back more, I think him and Abelle could have had more freedom in their life. 

If Abella had died instead of Castor, I think Castor would have gone on a full rampage and won the game by brute force. He had very little interactions with other contestants, so I don’t think he’d had any problem killing everyone. He’d be celebrated as a victor and his mother would be proud. I think he would become an icon like his mother before him, a winner that can be celebrated and isn’t afraid to show his face to the families of the contestants he killed. 

In the end, it’s kind of sad how little control Castor or Abella ever had over their own lives. There were choices they could have made to be happier, but those would have been drastic measures that could have lead to different kinds of tragedies. These twins are just doomed to be separated, either by death or by life. 

[golbrocklovely]

this is no disrespect to either of you three anons, so please don't feel like this is me trying to be a bitch.

but oh my GOD i don't care lol

i'll just say everything i feel about this here and then be done with it.

ms singer was a girl colby went on a few dates with, and was done "dating" her by like halloween or a little bit after. he didn't even know malia until sam's bday, so it's not like he left ms singer for her. ms singer herself has said she's on good terms with colby and that she has no hard feelings for malia, it's katelyn she has issues with.

colby unfollowing her on her bday was not done maliciously. he just unfollowed her, most likely, bc he has unfollowed every girl he either a, dated/had a fling with or b, found hot. shock and awe to absolutely no one, she falls into that category.

but also she's STILL talking about her beef with katelyn. and look, she has every right to talk about it as long as she wants to. i'm not here to say she can't vent. but let's be real for two seconds: first and foremost, fans are egging this on and we all know that. anyone that wants to argue otherwise is just plainly ignoring what is happening. ppl go on her tiktok lives just to ask her about katelyn so she can start complaining about her yet again. and the only reason fans want more tea on katelyn is bc they hate her bc she's not kat. full stop, full transparency, that's why that's happening. yall don't like tess; you just like that she gives you tea on a girl you hate bc she maybe once shaded kat when in reality if you have more than one brain cell you would know that's not what she did. stop being so up kat's ass that you think everyone is out to get her.

and secondly, tess can complain - sure. but she is talking about real ppl that are now dealing with real hate. it's the whole fuck around and find out method. keep talking shit on someone, and someone close to them (ie colby) is gonna stop fucking with you. why is this a surprise to anyone?

and i'm not here to say that katelyn is innocent. don't mistake me for that. i'm just saying, if katelyn was a shitty friend to her, then that's a shame. but the beef is very much between the two or them, and not us. stop egging it on for content reasons, or for twitter threads, or for whatever weird reason yall try to justify in your head this all for.

not only this, but colby and ms singer only dated MAX a month, but i don't even think that's the case fully. they went on a couple dates and stayed cordial. some of these fans are acting like he blocked his bestie or something. they remained friendly with one another bc things didn't end badly between them. they don't have to have loyalty towards one another, that includes colby. this isn't some betrayal. he unfollowed bc he's taken now, and she's still talking about his best friend's gf. it's really that simple.

dear god, all of this is such hs drama bs and i'm so tired of hearing about it, honestly. i'm too old to go back to my hs self who would have throughly enjoyed this drama. but seriously, can we find literally anything else to talk about??? i'm actually begging at this point.

and colby didn't unfollow ms singer bc malia told him to. he did it bc he wanted to. he's a grown man, as many on twitter love to point out every time he does something they deem as childish. why do you think this is any different?

also, sam and kat pretended to be besties after the break up. let's be real here. there clearly was some awkward tension left between them, but if they told the fandom they were going no contact and never talking again except maybe in passing, ww3 would have started. so they remained cordial to be appease fans (and probably themselves in one way or another). and realistically, kat probably made sam unfollow her (by blocking him/muting him/removing him as a follower) bc the day she did that was after pics of him and katelyn leaked from new years. realistically she probably wasn't thrilled about that and needed some space. it also didn't help that the khakis personified that is sam golbach decided to like a tweet that she made saying how nice her spotify top five looked without the "take a look at my bf" song, which CLEARLY WAS ABOUT HIM. he got his ass blocked after that, and rightfully so lmao

i would like to request - respectfully to all anons going forward - to stop bringing up ms singer, shea, and stas. hell, throw kat in there too. i don't care enough about any of them to hear what's happening about them. i'm tired of talking about them. some of them i've been talking about for years, i've said my piece on them countless times, and i just want something else to talk about. bc it's always the same stories over and over again and i just cannot care about it any longer.

also, since i might as well throw this in too, if you genuinely think snc are malicious in any compacity - STOP WATCHING THEM. why are you here if you genuinely think colby is a slutty manwhore who fucks anything that moves and is malicious and a shitty friend and whatever other random nonsense you think he is?? why are you here if you think sam is a terrible boyfriend who's also a bit of creep and has as shitty gf and again, whatever random other shit you believe???? why are you here???? you don't like snc anymore, and yet you waste your time talking about them. what you really like is the tea that comes from them and the ppl they have surrounded themselves with. i implore you to log off and find a hobby or a content creator you ACTUALLY like.

(also none of this was really directed at yall. more so the fandom et large. sorry if it felt like i was yelling at you guys. wasn't what i was trying to do here lol)