#they kept it so vague for 8 seasons like what's going on

[ekparavani]

the most surprising thing in the new season is how open they are about the fact they're in canada??? help?? like, the ogs didn't try so hard to hide their accents all this time for you to come in and send a box of Canadian hugs or wtv!!! have some respect...

[reikunrei]

this is a cold ass take but not one I’ve seen around in my online circles, but the scooby-doo reboot has me thinking about how like. I feel like a big part of why it feels like fandom doesn’t last as long anymore is that we’re just constantly getting reboots and sequels of the same 3 things over and over.

and you’d think, wouldn’t that make the fandom last longer? and sure…. for those same 3 things. but like. it makes me think that a vast majority of people look at media and go “if it’s not actively putting out content, then it’s dead” when for so long, fandom around stuff would last for DECADES after a series had ended.

like, nobody lets anything sit and breathe anymore. and it’s exhausting.

and I get that the reason WHY we keep getting reboots and sequels is bc execs are scared to put money into anything new when this old title would immediately have a payoff bc it’s familiar to people. but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. in fact, it makes it MORE depressing, but nobody needs me to explain why.

I just wish people would stop beating dead horses. it’s not worth it, because it will so easily become forgettable when you just keep rehashing the same things, same settings, same characters over and over.

[ladykailitha]

Never Hold Back Your Step... Part 12

Welcome back to another addition of Dustin being absolutely chaotic as fuck and Robin inserts herself into a dangerous situation because she has to out sass an eighth grader.

This story really is nearing in the end of season 3, and I don't think this story will go for much longer than that. So it will probably be the next story I finish.

What this means is that soon I'll be starting up "The Hellfire Erotic Club" as I am already two chapters into sugar baby!Steve and sugar daddy!Eddie so that one is next on the docket. And as it sounds, it absolutely will be mature. It might even be my first explicit story I've written. So let me know if you want to be kept off the list for that one.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

~

Things mellowed out with Robin at work. She still had the YOU RULE/YOU SUCK board, but at least wasn’t throwing out snide comments and sneering glances every two seconds so Steve absolutely counted that as a win.

And he continued to flirt badly. The worst was when Eddie and Jeff had stopped by after touring the music store.

“It’s the hat,” Steve said with moue. “It’s ruining my best feature.”

Robin snorted. “Your best feature? You don’t have one.”

Steve rolled his eyes and took off the hat. “My hair is my best feature, of course. I was the Hair in school, after all.” He threw it off the side and did a mocking shimmy with his shoulders before heading to register to greet a group of giggling girls.

“Hello, ladies,” he said smoothly. “My name is Steve and I’ll be your captain on this journey on the ocean of flavor. What can I get you today?” And then to really sell it. He winked.

The girls as he expected were completely turned off and hurried to get away as soon as possible. But hey at least Jeff got the number of one of the girls. So yay, gay wingman for the win! Or whatever.

Eddie came loping up to the counter, Jeff close on his heels. “That has got to be the most depressing thing I have ever had the misfortune to witness.”

“Seriously dude,” Jeff said with a wince. “Your mojo must have got up and went. Holy shit.”

Steve just pursed his lips and waved vaguely in Eddie’s direction. Eddie and Jeff giggled, but Robin frowned in confusion.

“Why does Munson being here affect your flirting?” she asked. “Because from what I’ve seen it doesn’t matter if he’s here or not, your flirting is always bad.”

He just shrugged. “Maybe the PTA is right and Eddie can cast evil spells and cursed me.”

Eddie wiggled his fingers at her, but she just rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. If he could cast spells Mrs. O’Donnell would be dead by now.”

The three boys cackled.

“Or maybe,” Jeff said seriously, “the girls remember Stevie here hanging out with us freaks and geeks last year and think he’s suddenly beneath him. You know, now that he’s not King Steve anymore?”

Robin’s mouth open and closed like a fish before she snapped it shut with an audible click. She blushed a dark red and was grateful that a mother with her two young sons came in just then so she could avoid the awkwardness that followed.

“I’m off in five minutes,” Steve said, “if you two want to wait around?”

Eddie and Jeff shared a glance and then Eddie nodded. “Sure, we could hang out for a bit.”

“Yeah,” Jeff said with a half shrug. “I don’t have anything to do today.”

Steve moved off to the side to start scooping the lady’s order. He gave each of the kids a cone and the sundae to the mom. Then he tossed the scooper into the warm water they kept nearby to keep the scooper clean. He walked to the back and returned within seconds.

Just then the power went out. Steve sighed and went over to the light switch. He flipped it up and down.

“That didn’t work two days ago,” Robin hissed. “And it’s not going to work now.”

Eddie peered at Steve through the dark. “This happened a couple of days ago, too?”

“It’s because of how hot it is outside,” Steve said. “Which makes the AC run overtime and it blows the breaker.” He sounded like he was repeating something someone else said as he continued to flip the switch and then the lights came back on. Just as Steve was about to leave again, Dustin came running up to Steve, skidding to a stop when he saw Robin, Eddie, and Jeff standing there.

“Hey, guys,” he said with a strained smile on his face. “Can I talk to Steve for a moment? I won’t take up much of his time. I promise.”

That got Steve’s hackles up. He turned to Eddie and begged him with his eyes to understand what this meant. Eddie tilted his head to the side for a moment, before his mouth formed an ‘O’.

“Jeff and I will be at Suncoast Video,” he said, “we’ll be there when you’re done.”

Jeff blinked at him for a moment trying to decide if it was the worth the fight. Then he shrugged and followed Eddie away from the strange tableau behind them.

Robin eyed them suspiciously as the two boys went to go sit down.

“What’s up, bud?” Steve asked, a nervous chill sliding down his spine. Please don’t be the Upside Down. Please don’t be the Upside Down. Please don’t be the Upside Down.

“So because my ma doesn’t want me racking up her phone bill calling Suzie,” he said, “I put up, with a little help from Lucas, Will, and Mike, a communications tower so we could talk.”

Because of course they did. They were geniuses when it came to building that kind of shit, but not so much in why they shouldn’t.

“And there was this weird Russian transmission,” Dustin explained hurriedly. “I don’t want to show you the recording yet, not with so many people around. But I can I meet up at your place later tonight?”

Steve was about to turn the kid down. After all, he had tried the hero racket and it blew. All he got for his troubles was ringing in his ears and the biggest break up of his life.

“Just think, if we solve this then we can be celebrated for exposing a Communist plot!” he exclaimed. “We could be American heroes, Steve!”

Oh. That did sound nice. There was no chance of him putting his body on the line for a recording in Russia after all. “Sure thing, bud.”

~

There was no keeping the stupid little transmission from Eddie or Robin. The first one wasn’t a surprise, really. Eddie was attached to Steve’s hip like he’d always been right there. Robin was more of a shock, to be honest. She just inserted herself where she didn’t belong on sheer sass alone.

Because Dustin had all the tact of a bull in a china shop, he had been whining about not being able to translate the message. When suddenly the window to the back slid open with a slam.

“You do know you’re in public, right?” she huffed. “If you’re trying to being sneaky about it, you’re failing miserably.”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Like you’re so smart.”

Robin raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “And how many languages do you speak, dork?”

Eddie and Steve shared a glance, then tried to stifle a laugh, Steve by biting his lip and Eddie by shoving his hair in front of his face.

“Two!” Dustin huffed, puffing out his chest. “Binary and English.”

“Binary doesn’t count,” Robin said, rolling her eyes. “You can’t ‘speak’ it. I speak French, Spanish, and Italian. That’s four.”

Dustin crossed his arms. “Does to and besides I didn’t hear Russian on that list.”

She tilted her head and smirked. “And how do you even know it’s Russian?”

Dustin’s jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes bulged out of his head.

“Just because it sounds ‘Russian’,” Robin said, using air quotes around the word Russian, “doesn’t mean it’s not some other Slavic language.”

Dustin’s bottom lip quivered. “And how many Slavic languages are there?”

Her grin turned feral and she leaned on the counter, looking him dead in the eye. “Eighteen if you don’t count the different dialects for each region, then you’re looking at something closer to twenty-five.”

“There’s no way there’s that many!” Dustin cried.

Steve bumped his shoulder into his. “Why don’t you let her hear it? What’s the worst thing that could happen? That she doesn’t recognize the language? It’d be no different from where we are now.”

“Come on, Dusty,” Eddie implored. “Or do I have to tell Suzie that you think girls aren’t as smart as boys?”

Dustin turned to glare at the older teen. “That’s a low blow, man.”

He looked over at Robin who was eyeing him expectantly and sighed. “Fine, here.” He handed her the portable tape deck and sat back to watch.

The message came through the small device and Robin listened to the whole thing, before rewinding it and playing it again.

“So what do you think?” Dustin asked after her third listen through. “Is it Russian?”

“Oh yeah,” she said with a smirk. “And probably in code.”

But before Dustin could answer, Eddie leaned on the front counter. He had been watching Steve the whole time Robin had been listening to the recording. When she got to the end, Steve would frown. Even with half of a banana stuffed in his cheeks like a chipmunk.

“What’s on your mind, Stevie?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“There’s something about the music,” he muttered, tapping his fingers and humming the tune.

Dustin huffed. “Can you please pay attention to the important part, Steve? The apparently secret coded message in Russian?”

Steve shoved the rest of the banana in his mouth and chewed silently. He swallowed roughly and asked Robin to play the music again.

“Steve!” Dustin snapped. “What did I just say?”

Eddie glared at him. “Shut it, kid.” And Eddie began to listen to the music, too. Then Steve and Eddie made eye contact as they both got it at the same time.

Steve grabbed Dustin’s wrist and dragged him out of the ice cream shop, Eddie fast on their heels. They reached the Merry-Go-Round and Steve tried to pull out a couple of quarters but they fell to the ground. He bent to pick them up, but Eddie shoved a couple of quarters from his pocket into Steve’s hands.

Steve put the quarters into the Merry-Go-Round, while Eddie and Dustin stood by. Eddie smiled, smug and Dustin stood there, glowering at Steve, arms crossed.

The carousel roared to life. And then music started.

Dustin’s jaw dropped. “Wait, what?”

Steve and Eddie shared a grin.

“That’s the music from the recording!” he continued. “How did you recognize it?”

Eddie laughed.

“Because I hear it at least two or three times a shift,” Steve said, putting his hands on his hips. “It’s hard to miss because it’s so loud and so close to Scoops Ahoy.”

Dustin frowned and pouted because he had thought that Steve was just being his usual spacy self. But he actually figured it out.

As the three of them walked back to the ice cream shop, he said, “All that tells us is that Russians like carousels.”

Steve and Eddie shared a glance over his head.

“That’s an Indiana Flyer carousel,” Steve said slowly. “As in they only make them in Indiana.”

Dustin stopped short and his eyes widened in fear. “Does that mean they’re here in the state?”

Eddie shook his head. “Worse than that, Dusty. I’m pretty sure they’re here in the mall.”

Steve’s heart sank. He had been hoping that they would be able to solve this without getting directly involved, but that had just flown away like a startled butterfly.

Now all he had to do was convince himself that the Russians weren’t in Hawkins for the gateways to the Upside Down.

It was going to be a tough sell and he knew deep down it was never going to stick.

There were Russians in Hawkins and they were most likely here for Hell.

~

Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Tag List: FIVE SLOTS REMAINING!

1- @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @blondie1006

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @angels-of-hades

7- @mugloversonly @y4r3luv @greeniebean911 @birbsauce @acingthecounts

8- @cryptid-system @counting-dollars-counting-stars @ravenfrog @dreamercec @sadisticaltarts

9- @clockworkballerina @bluelightsinthevoid @blcksh33p1987 @i-go-pink-in-the-night @mamafaithful

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: Battle for the Pridelands Sketches

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of one of my favorite episodes of TLG, I decided to do some sketches of some takeaways I had during a rewatch of the episode:

1. Wema, Tunu, Dogo, and Kijana aged up to how old I think they'd be around the time of the episode. Why were they not aged up?? Kiara, Tiifu, Zuri, and Mtoto were given some specific age models only used in this episode, why not the Outlander kids? I feel the jackals would be the equivalent to 12 years old by this time, while Wema and Tunu would be like 8-year-old kids.

2. I've heard people ask where the zebras and baboons were during the final battle, and for a while I was like "Yeah aren't they significant recurring characters? Where even were they in the Pridelands Army arc of Season 2?", but THEN it dawned on me: Baboon. Zebra. Cavalry. When watching the scene where everyone charges to the Outlands, I saw the galagos riding the sable antelope and went "haha like horses, that'd be funny if it was with zebras because equines", then I was like "baboons would probably be like humans while riding zebras" and I was just "WAIT IS THAT WHY PEOPLE WANTED THOSE ANIMALS IN THIS EPISODE". So here we are, Big Baboon and Thurston team up to surprise the Outlanders (and even the Pridelanders) by doing what they do best -- throwing fruit and panicking and running, respectively.

3. A sketch of this sudden visual I got during Ushari and Scar's conversation where Scar promised that Ushari and the rest of the reptiles would have whatever's left of the ravaged Pridelands. I instantly imagined the Pridelands becoming this unrecognizable wasteland ideal only for heat-seeking reptiles after the disastrous volcanic eruption Scar had in mind. The environment would be a tad like something out of the Mesozoic era.

4. One of my favorite aspects of this episode: The famous important-as-hell-but-vaguely-presented lore drop of the Strange Lion's (actually pretty ambiguous) existence as well as his actions accelerating Scar's entitlement and envy of Mufasa (which would kickstart the very premise of the first movie and the franchise as we know it). I love this guy's design for the same reason I love Zira's -- it's just so consistent in shapes and colors that all match with each other.

5. I find it funny that in order to not interfere with the events of TLK 2, TLG just decided to have it so the Outsiders would be completely out of the loop of the fact that Scar's spirit returned. It could easily be explained that Scar kept Zira out of it on purpose, or that he didn't know (and possibly didn't care) that she was still around. I have to think that the Outsiders don't live too far from the Outlands Volcano, so they've had to have heard some commotion and wonder what on earth could be going on. Looks like Zira's fanatic spiritual connection with her beloved Scar can apparently be heard by her peers.

[shieldofiron]

Jason woke up feeling like warmed over death. He tried to open his eyes and then quickly closed them when the sunlight streaming through the windows hid him right in the face.

He reached for the nightstand where his drunk self usually laid out alka seltzer and water and met open air. Wincing, and with his eyes still closed he heaved out of bed. Either the floor was suddenly further away, he was more hungover than he thought, or-

He cracked his eyes open and glimpsed a crumpled costume piece from the night before. His angel’s wings were tangled with a studded leather belt that brought back a flood of embarrassing memories.

“I want it,” He remembers pouting, tugging off the stranger’s belt with quick movements.

The voice in his memory was low and thrilling, “You’re too drunk, little angel.”

“In the morning?” Jason had asked.

“Okay. In the morning.”

Jason closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face.

“Morning.”

Jason turned with a groan, “I’m like… so insanely hung over. If I try to blow you I think I’ll puke.”

“Relax,” The stranger’s voice sounded vaguely familiar, which helped settle the anxiety in his stomach, “You need water or anything?”

“Uh,” Jason peeked his eyes open to take in the messy room, “You have any alka seltzer?”

“Sure,” The stranger was way too chipper.

He was also, Jason noted, fucking loaded. Jason hadn’t been in an apartment this nice since moving to Chicago. The windows were so bright because they were one continuous curved piece of glass overlooking the city. The bed was grand, some type of enormous California king. Or what Jason’s friends might call an orgy bed.

“Here,” A tattooed wrist came into view, handing Jason a glass of fizzing water, “It’s not done-“

Jason chugged it, gulping down the glass and the crumbles at the bottom in a single seasoned motion.

“Oh shit,” The stranger giggled.

Jason glanced up. He sort of looked familiar too, but then again Jason had always had a type. Ever since flustered, self hating moments in high school where he would stare across the locker room at Eddie Munson’s tattoos. And then beat him up for the privilege of touching him.

Anyway, the other go go boys had taken to pointing them out to him. Rockstar, Ten O’clock… That one at the bar is for Jason, go over and flirt, honey.

So this wasn’t exactly a situation Jason had never been in. Though the fancy apartment was kind of a change.

“Do I need to take you out to breakfast,” The guy had a nice smile. Kind of soft. And long, very long hair.

“No, s-sorry, I’ll get out of your hair,” Jason tried to hop to his feet and groaned.

The stranger reached out and pulled Jason close, tugging him on shaky legs until he was enveloped in a kind of half hug.

“I was gonna say,” The guy smiled against Jason’s temple, “Or can you stay in bed and I’ll make you something.”

“Oh, uh-“ It wasn’t like Jason had anywhere to be. His roommate was a drag queen about twenty years older than him and he never woke up before noon. The day after Halloween was pretty slow at the club and he didn’t have to be there until 8:30 pm.

“C’mon,” The stranger tugged him a little closer, “You got glitter on my sheets, you owe me.”

“I leave glitter everywhere,” Jason pouted, “You’re not special.”

The stranger chuckled, “Oh, I kinda missed that.”

Before Jason could even imagine what the Stranger meant, he was yanked back towards the bed.

“You don’t have work?” The stranger asked.

“Not until later,” Jason muttered, “Sorry about last night. I normally don’t get drunk like that at work.”

“It was after work that you got so drunk,” The stranger said.

“Did I?”

They flopped back onto the bed, Jason tangled in long dark hair and tattooed arms. So basically heaven.

“You kept saying you needed courage,” The Stranger muttered, sounding a little put out.

“Sorry,” Jason shrugged. “It’s just, you’re really hot.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” the stranger grinned, dark eyes sparking, “Tiger.”

“I guess,” Jason got a little lost in the moment, “I can stay.”

“Great! I’ll make us some eggs and toast,” The stranger bounded out of bed, “You stay right there.”

“Okay,” Jason swallowed.

Maybe it was a pretty woman type thing. Not that this guy seemed so super mega rich. And not like Jason was a hooker. People thought all the dancers went for that but Jason had never been able to go through with it.

He laid back in the bed which was indeed smeared with glitter.

“Sorry about the glitter,” He called out, cringing, “Occupational hazard.”

“I don’t mind,” The stranger called back, “They’re not my sheets to clean.”

Jason blinked, “Uh, is this apartment… um…”

“I didn’t break in,” The stranger read his mind, “It’s owned by the record company. I’m in town to record an album then it’s back to LA.”

“Wow,” Jason glanced around, “Would I have heard any of your music?”

The stranger paused in a strange way, “You don’t listen to metal now, do you?”

That was a weird way to put it. Now. Like he didn’t used to. Well, he didn’t but this guy didn’t know that.

“I had an ex who got me into it a little,” Jason rocked a little, tucking his knees up to his chest, “I like tattooed guys, so it comes with the territory.”

He could practically hear the guys smile, “Do you now?”

“Yeah,” Jason said stiffly, until he realized that sounded rude. “Just my type, I guess.”

The stranger appeared suddenly in the doorway, “Jason.”

Jason startled, the arms wrapped around his knees tightening. This guys voice was very familiar. And he was asking if Jason liked music now, calling him tiger.

It nailed him like a sucker punch, “Eddie?”

“I was waiting for you to realize,” Eddie grinned.

Jason’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s.

“You must have been really drunk last night,” Eddie smiled, shaking his head.

“I g-guess I was.”

His mind was racing a mile a minute. Eddie Munson… Christ. This wasn’t a pretty woman thing. This was a revenge of the nerds thing.

Jason scrambled up, his whole body protesting moving from the big comfy bed, “I gotta go-“

“You just said you were gonna stay.”

“I… I’m… did we have sex last night?” Jason tugged on his tiny white shorts. He didn’t see his club bag anywhere, which meant he’d spent the whole night with Eddie Munson in a white speedo and angel’s wings.

“No, you were too drunk. Where are you going?”

“I gotta go-“

“Jason, what’s the problem?”

“Is this a revenge thing?” Jason whispered as he snatched his halo off the four poster bed, “You gonna call everyone in Hawkins and tell them that I dance at a gay club and go home with people for money?”

Something breaks on Eddie’s face, “You went home with me for money?”

“No!” Jason half shouts it, “I just mean-“

“This isn’t a revenge thing. I just saw you dancing and you came up to me and started flirting,” Eddie shook his head, “I just… like you.”

Jason crumples the halo in his hands.

“And if you’re going, you can’t go like that, you’ll freeze to death. I had to force you to wear my jacket last night, I’m surprised you don’t have frostbite on your tits.” Eddie shook his head.

Jason made a little choked sound.

“So I take it you’re not out in Hawkins?” Eddie ventured when Jason didn’t move a muscle.

Jason shook his head.

“Me either,” Eddie gave him a tentative smile.

Jason twisted the halo in his hands.

“Look, please stay. Please,” Eddie bit his lip, “Or if you have to go let me at least give you a shirt for Christ’s sake. You look good enough to eat.”

Jason’s cheeks went up in flames, like hellfire.

He looked down at the ground.

The smoke alarm started screeching in the next room and Eddie went pale.

“Fuck.”

They both sprinted out into the kitchen where the eggs were smoking, black and charred to the bottom of the pan.

Jason opened one of the huge windows, while Eddie tossed the pan into the sink, dousing it in water that sent up a huge puff of steam.

“Well there goes trying to impress you,” Eddie shoved a little at the pan, “Fuck.”

“You wanted to impress me?” Jason shivers and it’s not entirely because there’s icy fall air blowing across his bare chest.

“Well? Yeah? I want you to stay. In my bed,” Eddie doesn’t look up from the pan, “Wanted to ask if you had a night off soon. Maybe I could take you out. Somewhere with no alcohol. Like the movies or something.”

Jason swallowed, “I like you too. Like… I… I always had a crush on you, so…”

“So?”

“So if you don’t mind glitter on your sheets,” Jason bit his lip, “We could just have the toast in bed.”

“Oh,” Eddie’s eyes went round.

“Or we could skip the toast.”

“Is that a yes to the date?” Eddie ventured.

Jason dropped his halo to the ground.

“Yes.”

Also on Ao3

[gryphon1232]

DRS Universe Info Post

Hey all! This is going to be a long post, and it's going to break down a lot of my work on the universe!

🛑What is the DRS Universe?

The DRS Universe is a connected fictional Formula One-centric universe. The history of the sport generally follows the real world counterpart, and for the most part, the world is kept as similar to the real world as possible, but things such as sponsors, drivers, teams, wins and events throughout the history of the sport are brand new.

🛑General Info/Q&A:

🛑Why does the DRS Universe Exist? I'm a very big fan of F1 and of Writing, and I wanted to mix those things together and write an F1-Based novel. I'm also a fan of creating OC's and having more control over what I write, so it was only natural that I'd make my own teams and drivers. That expanded to stuff like sponsors and some brands and companies in the universe, etc. I tried to keep the broader strokes of the sports history accurate to the real world as well, but I made new, fictional historic drivers, events, dates, etc. 🛑What is the current season? The current season as of the novel I'm currently working on (shunted) is 2023! 🛑What is Shunted about? Shunted focuses Lance Adams and Alexandre Lareaux, enemies-and-rivals turned teammates. It follows them as they navigate the 2023 season, and even worse for both of them depending on how you look at it, their newfound friendship and possible romance. 🛑Why are there 11 teams? Because more teams + more drivers + more cars on track = more fun. Also, because I wanted 11 teams, and it's my universe.

🛑What are the teams?

(This is a list based vaguely on each teams' performance throughout the 2022 season.)

Delphi Voltage Racing

Aurelia ABM F1 Team

Scuderia Rossetti

McGrath Racing

Hayworth Moore F1 Team

Cautiline-Aimé

Reinvoire GP

Pearsons Racing

Scuderia AltairShock

Modena-Roth

Hurst F1 Team

🛑Who are the drivers for the 2023 season?

(Drivers names are listed, followed by their driver number, nationality, age, birthdate, height, and first season in F1. If something hasn't been decided yet, there will be a "TBD" in that section, if a driver has won a WDC, there will be an "🏆" following their name.)

Delphi Voltage Racing:

Felix Akerson 20 • Swedish • 23 • TBD • TBD • 2020 Kennedy Grant 14 • American • 20 • TBD • TBD • 2023

Aurelia ABM F1 Team:

Annika Becker 🏆 33 • German • 37 • TBD • TBD • 2006 Émilien Rousseau 6 • French • 41 • TBD • TBD • 2001

Scuderia Rossetti:

Alexandre Lareaux 11 • Monégasque • 25 • 8/26/1998 • 5'9 • 2017 Lance Adams - 🏆 5 • British • 25 • 12/29/1998 • 5'11 • 2016

McGrath Racing:

Noah Landvin 8 • Belgian • 23 • 6/4/2000 • 5'7 • 2019 Jack Palmer 47 • Kiwi • 21 • TBD • TBD • 2022

Hayworth Moore F1 Team

Scarlette LaRosa 50 • Spanish • 22 • TBD • TBD • 2022 Beatrice Camelio 88 • Italian • 21 • TBD • TBD • 2022

Cautiline-Aimé

Connor O’Riley 77 • Irish • 26 • TBD • TBD • 2016 Owen Lancaster 76 • American • 20 • TBD • TBD • 2023

Reinvoire GP

Benjamin Accardi 4 • Australian • 32 • 5/24/1991 • 6'0 • 2013 Mateo Vassallo 44 • Mexican • 24 • 5/17/1999 • 5'8 • 2017

Pearsons Racing

Giang Mai Linh 99 • Vietnamese • 25 • TBD • TBD • 2018 Vincent Fortin 28 • Canadian • 25 • TBD • TBD • 2017

Scuderia AltairShock

Matthew Coleman 16 • British • 19 • TBD • TBD • 2022 Toru Kajima 81 • Japanese • 18 • TBD • TBD • 2023

Modena-Roth

Cláudio Amaral - 🏆 21 • Brazilian • 43 • 8/17/1980 • 5'7 • 2000 Marco De Caro 61 • Italian • 24 • 1/19/1999 • 6'0 • 2018

Hurst F1 Team

Martijn Van Hall 24 • Dutch • 36 • TBD • TBD • 2009 Charles Stafford 58 • British • 42 • TBD • TBD • 2001

I leave you with this little piece of art/graphic design I did to introduce my drivers!

The Results of the 2023 Formula 1 Chronex Australian Grand Prix:

[batsplat]

How well is Marc actually doing on the GP23 cause I know he’s ahead by a lot to the other GP23s and no disrespect to them but I feel like they aren’t a good comparison because Marc is just better and has a lot more experience so how do you judge how well his season actually is would it be by adaptability or by looking at how good Martin and Pecco were on the bikes last year or by an entirely different criteria cause he does do well to keep up with the GP24s it’s really impressive. And Aragon and Misano did showcase how amazing he is in tricky conditions kind of like Sachsenring 2021.

y'know, in motorsports you can never know these things with any certainty. there's just too many confounding variables. like we know the gp23 is worse than the gp24, we can be reasonably confident it's a bigger gap between specs than in years past... but beyond that? it's not as much worse as bez is making it look, for instance. sometimes it really just comes down to how a rider adapts to a specific bike, whether they're being hindered by any pesky changes to the tyres, that sort of thing... but it is a problem, because bez was kinda supposed to be our benchmark going into this year. right now, marc doesn't have a great benchmark. again, we know he's adapted well, we know he's doing a 'really good' job, but obviously that's all pretty vague. you also can't compare what he's doing right now to what jorge/pecco were doing last year on the gp23... I've seen some people compare lap times between seasons, which, no!! don't do that! the reason why EVERYONE'S lap times have gone down by so much is because michelin have introduced a new rear tyre. it is a completely meaningless comparison. keep it away from me

so, yeah, we don't really know. I'm interested in misano next time out and the flyaways to get a sense of what marc's performance is right now in a 'normal' weekend. like, those two wins were undoubtedly impressive, but also they don't tell me anything I didn't already know. he's very good at anti-clockwise circuits! specifically sachsenring, cota and to a slightly lesser degree aragon... the margin he had over the field was exaggerated by track conditions all weekend, which were of the slippery low grip kind he's always been incredibly strong at, but this was always marquez territory. he also took full advantage of the brief rain at misano to do his thing - and he kept up a very impressive pace when it was drying out, though we were perhaps denied a more extended battle by pecco's physical condition and championship considerations. as marc said, he didn't have anything to lose in that race. but y'know, again this is all in line with expectations. during the summer break I did kinda think that marc's best chances of winning this year were a) aragon and possibly phillip island, or b) a gross ever-so-slightly wet race. his pace in austria was also strong, albeit half a step behind the two gp24 frontrunners - which is what you'd probably expect with the machinery deficit. it's obviously important that he's gotten back into a winning habit again, maybe ironed out a few of the gremlins in the gresini set-up. everything he needs to finish the season strong and come out firing next year

the one slight question mark I still have is the whole qualifying situation. he currently leads his teammate h2h 8-5 which... well, given the kind of disgusting beatdowns of gifted qualifier dani pedrosa he used to deliver,, it does raise an eyebrow. I'm perfectly open to the argument that this is all just about adaptation, about being unfamiliar with the circuits on a ducati, circumstantial factors and a string of bad luck... but, well. just something to keep an eye on. he did need a slice of good fortune in misano - otherwise you just wouldn't be in victory contention at that track from ninth. that's a problem! prime!marc would go entire seasons without qualifying lower than sixth; I know he has a reputation for being a crasher, but back in the day he was able to walk that fine line extremely well to give himself the lap he needed in qualifying without binning it. maybe it's a question of the margin for error still not being quite there at the moment (outside of aragon, obviously), maybe it's something about the risk/reward calculation... who knows. maybe he'll be closer to prime!marc again in qualifying in 2025. but obviously it's worth mentioning in this discussion; by every other metric, marc is completely brutalising the other gp23's

let's quickly compare average grid positions of marc versus his teammate throughout his premier class career

(btw, updating this made me see that marc's average grid position is still the third best on the grid, which.... I mean it's a gulf to second... but given how much I've been bullying him for his qualifying, this makes me deeply unimpressed by what certain other riders have been doing this season)

anyway, look, no cause for alarm, not got a terminal case of being washed quite yet. qualifying can sometimes be the thing that declines first... valentino was never close to the qualifier marc is (defo not a bad qualifier but very much a sunday man)... but that part of his game definitely declined sharper and earlier than everything else and he had some horrendous qualifying seasons when he was still otherwise competitive. it'll be interesting to track next year for sure, defo curious to see how the h2h shakes out with pecco

[collectiveclams]

Trying my best to figure out what these guys look like in my head before I go look at the fandom’s generalized designs for the characters.

A friend of my twin got us into the show and a week later we’re at season 8!

I definitely need to tweak Cole’s design a lot- I want him to have a more strongman build & revamp his entire face design. But at the very least I’m happy with getting his hair the way I want!

Kinda hard to see, but Zane’s got little screws for earrings! I honestly didn’t account for how much older the faceplate would make him look, I intended him to look way more boyish.

Rambling about my current HCs of the Ninja’s appearances below:

I’ve been having a bit of an trouble deciding what various flavor of Chinese & Japanese these dudes should be based on. Considering the show is based on a 2010s vague idea of “Asia” and carries traits of both Japanese & Chinese influence, I’m just going to use both. I don’t know what sorta general consensus the fandom has of their appearances bc I have barely interacted with the fandom, so if this violently contrasts with that then yippee I have original thoughts, I guess.

-Kai is Japanese. Kai, being vain and caring more about training than Jay for example, has a more aesthetic build that’s definitely form more than function. Like a natty powerlifter who’s not competing. I’m not sure what height he should be, but if he’s taller his muscle definition would appear smaller so I’ll have to keep that in mind.

- Nya has initially a more functional build- far less muscle definition than her brother. Not outwardly buff and doesn’t have pronounced muscles, but can fairly easily haul a 100lb hunk of metal from a scrap pile to her workbench. But after becoming the water ninja, her new training gives her more pronounced muscle definition. Initially shorter than Kai but grows taller as the show goes on.

- Cole is southern Chinese. He’s got a strongman heavy set build. I envision him as fairly short so his muscles can be a little more pronounced. If you stripped his muscle definition from his ninja training away, I still want him to look like one of assholes who haven’t worked out a day in their lives but still somehow looks jacked.

- Zane is what pops up when you look up “Chinese teen male stock photo” because he needs to look like The Most Generic person ever. No muscle definition at all on this dude. He’s a nindroid & so there’s no need to include muscle decision to show that he’s strong. He’s either average height or slightly on the shorter side bc gravity is a bitch and the taller make a humanoid robot, the more balance becomes a bitch to deal with. So average height or short Zane it is.

- Jay is Uyghur so I can get this dude his reddish-brown hair. Minor muscle definition. His isn’t for aesthetics like Kai, he’d rather do ninja training than do the types of sets & pushing to failure needed to achieve more pronounced muscle definition for aesthetic lifting. Jay needs to be shorter than Nya. He’s definitely taller than Cole but I need him to be just an inch shorter than Nya because that’s funny to me personally.

- Lloyd is Japanese. Solely because Oni come from Japan & I got spoilered that Gargamon is an Oni later. Lloyd is a stringy ass kid at first & has no muscle definition at all. During his Green Ninja training before the Travelers Tea, he’d be trained for efficiency & not for aesthetics with the deadline of him fighting his father possibly being around any corner. After Travelers Tea he likely kept his training to function over aesthetics and would share similar muscular definition to Jay & Nya. And he’s tall. His dad is tall as shit with 4 arms. I want this kid to go through the Worst gangly teen era anyones ever seen and only barely fit his form once he finishes growing.

Additional thoughts:

And as a big comic nerd who owns around 800+ comics (might be more around 1000 now?), hoo boy I have so many thoughts on Lloyd and Jay liking Starfarer. I cannot wait to make a fic that’s just Lloyd and Jay ganging up against Kai over some incredibly wrong take of the comic he absentmindedly said and trapping him in a 3 hour long conversation about frequent mischaracterization and mishandling of the characters in Starfarer & how what Kai said was wrong. I just need a fic of Jay and Lloyd talking to each other about their favorite runs of Starfarer and complaining about a tie-in/crossover comic that’s written particularly bad, or complaining how an author completely misunderstood Fitz Donnegan or complaining over an author change & etc. I just need to make a fic of these boys talking about average comic book fan things.

[stormkobra-5]

Hooray for spooky season!! 👻

May I request this from prompt list #2 for Poe and the reader: 22. Seeing ghosts in your new house.

Look. I know that’s Kane and not Poe. But this fits better (also, he was filming The Last Jedi and Annihilation at the exact same time sooo...). You’ll see heheheheheheheh. (This is a little late... I’m giving myself the deadline of Thanksgiving to finish these blurbs, because the day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas tree goes up. :3)

“Poe! I’m serious!”

“I know you are, baby, but are you sure you didn’t just have a nightmare?”

You frowned, crossing your arms over your chest defiantly. Your husband, Poe Dameron, had seen a lot of things in his years with the Resistance, and he certainly believed a lot of things. In fact, he’d stated numerous times how he believed in Force Ghosts. Or even ghosts, in general.

But apparently the idea of ghosts haunting your own little home, after the war has ended and you’re finally settling down, is impossible. Improbable.

It’s kind of hard to ignore when a stack of (secured) books goes flying off a (stable) bookshelf in the middle of broad daylight. “So I had a nightmare while I was up and doing the unpacking? That’s what you’re saying?”

Poe raised an eyebrow, pursing his lips. “I didn’t mean it like that, baby.”

You huffed, moving to continue unpacking the box of decorations you stood beside and grumbling about your husband. He chuckled softly, letting the cord of the sweeper he was using drop to the floor and approaching you with that stupidly bright smile that made you fall for him in the first place.

You try to remain irritated— rolling your eyes (half-heartedly), huffing again— but when Poe grabs your shoulders and gently turns you to face him, you lose all pretenses of being even mildly frustrated when he kisses you softly. He pulls away with a coy grin, eyes sparkling. “Even if there are ghosts here, baby, we don’t have to worry about ‘em. Okay?”

Something about the way he said it made you melt and nod in agreement before returning the kiss with one of your own. Despite your claims, not a single paranormal thing happened even as the two of you cleaned and decorated and unpacked— or maybe you were too distracted by your husband to notice.

You were, however, woken in the middle of the night by Poe’s startled gasp. Immediately, you lunged up, old reflexes from the war still hardwired into your brain. “What is it?” You fumbled for the blaster you no longer kept at your bedside, frowning when your search came up empty.

Poe threw the blankets off, rushing to the closet. “There’s somebody in the house.”

Panic surged through your veins. “Somebody in the... what do you mean?”

Poe quietly tore open the closet and snatched your blasters, tossing you yours. “Somebody was walking in the hallway. I fucking saw them.”

Just as quickly as Poe, you shot out of bed. Military training and years of experience took over as you searched your new home from top to bottom, using hand-signals and gestures as communication as you stalked through, ready to fire. Eventually your search moved outside, but the results were the same.

There was nobody in your house.

Nobody but the two of you and BB-8.

“What did you see, Poe?”

He looked at you with tired eyes and shock written all over his face. “Thought... Thought it was a person...” He gestured around vaguely as he put your blasters away, turning off the safety with shaking hands. “I woke up and was gonna go get some water when... I swear to the Maker, baby, I’m not making it up. I thought I saw somebody walking in the hallway.” His eyes found yours almost pleadingly... you arched an eyebrow nearly to your hairline.

“I dunno, Poe. Sure you weren’t having a nightmare?”

He paused, pursing his lips a bit. “...Fair point.” He climbed into bed beside you, an arm looping around your waist to pull him flush against you. He heaved a deep sigh, kissing your temple as you cuddled up together. “......Baby?”

“Yeah?”

“If there are actually ghosts, we’re moving.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle, wrapping your arms around him and pulling him closer. “Agreed.”

[thetarttfuldickhead]

What do you think about the fact that Jamie didn't go back to his old locker now that that ZAVA 4 lockers monstrosity was redivided among the players? Seems like O'Biren took one of the places in the corner instead and Jamie kept his new place closer to the rest of the team

Hiya, nonny!

Full disclaimer: I know zero things about locker distribution in professional sports and Google has not been my friend, so I’m just going to roll with the assumption that players are normally assigned a locker but when one becomes free because someone leaves or whatever you might ask to switch. There are probably lockers that are considered better than others (either in general – it’s cool to be in the middle of the room, or something like that – or specific to each locker room, like ‘that one’s best, it has a nice little draft from the ventilation’) and the better the player, the better chance do they have of trading up when the opportunity arises, because that’s how these things tend to work in other settings. Possibly a lesser player might get asked to switch lockers when a new star arrives? I really don’t know, but maybe? And then we have superstars like Zava who can demand 4 locker monstrosities in the Ted Lasso-verse, though at least one podcast I listened to mentioned that this is unlikely to happen in the real world.

In season 1, Jamie has a locker in the middle of the right side. If there are good lockers, this is a good locker, because otherwise Jamie wouldn’t have it. When he returns in season 2 he is assigned – I assume – a corner locker instead. At this time, he shares it with 1 O’Brien, a 22 and a 25 (probably De Maat and Bekoe respectively, though I only see the numbers in 2x03 – you can see the names in 3x02 and 3x03). I am thinking that these are probably not the best lockers in the room? Partly because none of our other main players have a locker there, and partly because it makes sense to put Jamie somewhere not great at this point, kind of like Ted intially putting him among the reserves in training. Even if I’m completely wrong about there being higher status and lower status lockers, it’s probably a good idea not to dump Jamie right in the middle of a room that’s teeming with resentment towards him, but just keep him a little to the side.

Maybe it was just the one free locker, nothing more to it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and all that jazz. I’m just kind of digging Jamie intentionally and literally being put in the corner while working his way into the team’s good graces. Possibly not pushing for a switch even after he was in a position to do so, either because he got used to the spot or as a continued demonstration of humility.

Now, in the beginning of season 3, the corner is shared by Jamie, 18 Babatunde, 25 Bekoe and 22 De Maat. Our friend O’Brien is seemingly occupied elsewhere. Once Zava leaves and the lockers are redistributed, O’Brien is back in the corner, again with 22 De Maat, 25 Bekoe and probably 18 Babatunde (can only make out the ‘e’ at the end of the name and the vague tail end of an 8 in 3x07). Jamie sticks around where he was put during the Zava takeover.

All this rambling just to lay out what we know and the many assumptions that lead me to believe that once Zava is gone Jamie is in a position to choose if he goes back to the corner or stays with his new locker. He has that kind of clout, he is the star of the team and the coaches owes him a little bit for the whole Zava thing. (You might well have taken this for granted, nonny, but I did not – hence everything that went before in this post.)

So, Jamie chooses to stay where he is – closer to the rest of the team, as you say. And that’s the rub, isn’t it? I think Jamie probably does care at a little about having a higher status locker (if such a thing even exist) because he’s still Jamie fucking Tartt, but he cares a whole lot more about being close to the team. After all, Jamie likes being at the center of things. He is social and he is physically affectionate: he is not someone who thrives on having a little quiet corner to the side. No, Jamie wants to be in the thick of it, part of what goes on, making his voice heard and chatting with his team mates and joking and voicing his opinions left and right. Touching everyone all the fucking time. Being touched. (Sorry, I just have an extreme amount of feelings on the subject of Jamie being tactile.)

Admittedly, he did not seem keen on moving lockers when Zava arrived but that’s arguably due to him not being a fan of getting shoved to the side for the other player’s ego. Once he found himself in his new spot, he probably remembered how much he preferred that position to the more obscure one, and he likely feels like he has less to prove now: he can afford not going back to the corner.

Besides, I think the whole Zava ordeal left him feeling excluded and alienated from all the others and therefore particularly keen to be closer to them. Reforge those bonds. Hang over people’s shoulders. Fistbumps. Hear the chatter properly and take part in it, rather than to watch it from the sidelines. Jamie has fought harder than anyone else for this team in season 3 – of course it’s really important for him that he gets to feel a proper part of it.

(And even if it’s not Jamie’s choice and it’s the coaches’ call who goes back, I think they too realize it’s high time for Jamie to take his place at the center of the team, metaphorically speaking, both because he’s earned his spot there, and because he’ll thrive there, and because they do get that this Zava shit was detrimental to his integration in the team.)

[incarnateirony]

This isn't exactly a ask but more of a thank you. I've been watching Supernatural live since season 8 but never really interacted with the fandom because it never felt very welcoming. I just felt like I kept being gaslit but then I would question it and it would just become a cycle. I probably just didn't know where to look but luckily I was scrolling through TW tag and found you. I guess a question I could ask is if you ever watched Merlin or do you just know about it because of the eruption on tumblr every Christmas eve? Also I really appreciate when you talk about your disabilities because I can relate. I've been gaslighted by doctor's all my life and I just recently found out my Kidneys aren't doing what there supposed to lol.

Anyways thank you

Sure thing! First things first, let me give you a warning that since you just expressed something to this tune, you may get some hateful spam in your inbox. It's vile, just block and delete. Maybe if I warn you in advance, they'll know better than to try.

But that said. Yeah. Like. It was always there. And in seasons 12-14 for example I was telling yall like. No, you're not crazy. Yes, there's market testing. No, I didn't know how to show the receipts at the time without fucking up my source. Yes, they all know. Yes, there's good faith groundwork and they're fighting and trying but we shouldn't hate on them, support their efforts. But people had vested efforts in convincing people there were no efforts, and went so far as to convince reactive hellers to attack me telling me I was telling the gays to settle, instead of support their fellow queer creatives in a literal battle.

Over time the authors got less and less accessible, Bobo was burned out after Wayward failed, which he had picked up as a repeated fan pitch from the Wayward Daughters movement. And why wouldn't they? EVERYONE was dogpiling them. But finally, people are realizing the truth. Others are getting more shrill as they realize the accountability they have if they admit it, and that goes for a few lanes to be honest. Because even hellers were often very cruel to the people fighting for them.

it was antagonized by the same accounts trying to stir the shit today, but people are still accountable for their actions, and that's something this fandom isn't used to.

I'm going to admit I don't know much about Merlin, it just wasn't my thing, it vaguely pops into my purview but I admit I stay pretty insular on tumblr, I rarely Venture Out if you will.

And glad me bitching about my bad hips and gas helps I guess lmao

[macgyvertape]

Shadow & Bone s2 thoughts

S1 of shadow and bone was a surprise favorite show; I’ve rewatched it a lot as something to watch when I’m cooking or wanted something familiar and comfortable.

After last season I tried reading the books; I didn’t finish Seige and Storm because I kept negatively comparing book Alina, Mal, and Darkling to their show versions. I did like the Six of Crows series but have no interest in the other books. So I’ve got a vague idea on the plot points unlike when I watched s1 

Oh I really like the map to cgi city transitions, and the wanted posters as establishing shots for storyline transitions

Sturmhond meeting the Crows like this, this is so much more fun than the book intro of him

I don’t remember seeing Jasper’s gun misfire in s1 or see gifsets of him fixing it.

Tolya and Tamar get a cool intro camera pan and theyre both really hot

Huh Darkling intro very different than the book, honestly he comes off as someone who spent a bit too much time alone by himself than menacing

How come in pirate clothes Sturmhond becomes the most baby faced of the cast

Love Alina’s stag antler embroidery dress, I’d love to wear a dress with that kind of neckline

Having one of Kaz’s plans go wrong and it not be something he accounts for, really ups the tension and makes Pekka Rollins a threat, and he’s actually more threatening than the Darkling. Wolf mask guy is just a creep, the costume kinda felt out of place

I expected the flying ship look more aerodynamic and either there’s a lot more flying ships or the show really glossed over them being repaired after being totaled because it needed characters to move around in ways they didn’t in the book

“Who do you want standing in that door when the lion gets hungry” then cut to a taxidermied lion. Lmao fun transition

This is one of the shows where I find basically all of the main cast attractive, very much including Inej in a knife fight

“All that matters is we know what’s real” with a political engagement, damn this is so much better than the YA jealousy drama of the books

OFMD AND S&B, edgy dude after his love abandons him starts cutting off the digits of the people who drove the breakup 

Rip to Matthias because the show didn’t seem to know what to do with him, I enjoy his plotline much more than s1 but its because he has such low screentime

The costume budget and workmanship is so good this show as it covers so many different styles and cultural influences

Bloody beaten up Kaz threatening as he gets his long awaited revenge is fucking incredible top moment of the season, especially because for Pekka “but for me, it was a Tuesday” he just couldn’t remember 

Genya’s really going through it this season and characters mistreating her is a more understandable and relatable evil than vague war crimes. “I should be your greatest shame!” and “ask me how I did it” she gets some great moments

Mal’s capture then causal return felt like an awkward plot point, like it shows up here because maybe it happened in the book

Huh for a major season 1 character and a global Big Bad threat the Darkling really isn’t getting much material this season, he just sits around and broods in a dark room while his underlings who wear lots of eyeshadow (to show they’re evil) do things. Like early on in the season he seemed sick but then he isn’t, then he just gives up all his action items about Grisha revolution to chase after Alina

Actually very curious about how much screentime Kaz’s dead brother gets vs the Darkling lmao

I didn’t realize at the height difference between Kaz and Inej until she hallucinated them almost hooking up. Eps 4-8 I watched playing a drinking game of take a drink for every romantic moment

The show really contrasted The Disciple and Neyar have such a good relationship compared to whatever the fuck toxic parent child relationship of Baghra and Aleksander 

Great that the Darkling and Mal can interact and bonus its in some weird fucked up way (dead peoples bones), there isn’t enough of that in fandom or canon 

The final battle has basically no tactics just people running around for cool dramatic timing, especially the Crows fighting in the frontlines

Darkling died in this show like he lived in s2, anti-climatically standing around downbad for Alina

Tbh there’s a lot of sex that could be done with gloves and clothes on 

Lmao where is Feydor he didn’t appear at all

Things I didn’t expect: David being killed off early RIP, Alina not losing her powers and faking her death to live with Mal but instead this weird non emotional breakup, and Zoya to not get more character backstory

Think it's interesting the contrast of the bee highlighted by the camera during the Darkling’s funeral as a subtle hint to the Elizaveta plotline vs the last few minutes throwing in: Jurda Parem, Nikolai’s shadow monster infection, a future war with Fjerda, Alina using shadows, all as continuation bait if it gets another season 

Verdict: enjoyable season 2, I’m so glad this season got about 15 minutes more per episode so it could cover the full Grisha trilogy in case it gets the infamous netflix s2 cancel. Still a favorite show because its  the perfect mix of drama, romance, and just enough writing cracks for fun AUs. The show covered a lot in the 8 hours with a fast moving plot that I watched over 2 days, so I’m very curious how my opinion of plot points will change with distance and reading others perspectives 

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2023 - Day 7 - Halloween Ends (2022)

Does Halloween End with a bang or a whimper?

So, not quite Day 31 but this is indeed Halloween Ends in every sense of the word. Not just the season but the very franchise itself…sort of. But we'll come back to that. This is the last of the David Gordon Green directed trilogy, a man who has taken a sharp turn into horror in the last few years after that little stretch into stoner comedy back in the late 00's, early 10's. After this trilogy, he's moved onto The Exorcist with the newly released Believer, with another sequel Deciever planned in 2025. That seems to have opened to fairly poor reviews so we'll see if they'll make it to that next sequel. I kinda fell off that franchise after the third one but since we've wrapped up Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St, there might be room for it to slip into the schedule.

Speaking of poor reviews, I remember this time last year when this was getting a lot of negative feedback. I managed to keep myself at a distance in terms of plot, trailers etc and only really had a vague sense of the feedback to go on where the word 'weird' kept coming up, in that it's weird for a Halloween film. That is something I would agree with but, for me, it's a good weird.

Does it reflect badly on me that the opening of this movie elicited a laugh from me? Not like a belly laugh or anything, I do tend to have this almost nervous laugh as an immediate reaction to something that should be considered scary or intense. And there's perhaps little more intense than a guy dropkicking a door open straight into the face of an 8 year old who is sent flying down a multi-storey building to his untimely death. Geez, this movie isn't fucking about, is it? Kids don't die in a Halloween movie, Michael Myers has at least some standards. Maybe that's what people were complaining about?

But the curious case of young Corey Cunningham, a young kid just trying to get through college before this accident sends his life into a tailspin is just the catalyst for the ever spiraling events of the movie but he's also a shining example of the kind of world building that I've come to love about these new movies. There's this idea that's brought up that for a town that has been living in the shadow of Michael Myers and his crimes for the last 40 years, and lest we forget still living in fear that he's still on the loose somewhere, Corey is the monster that the townspeople can see. He's the one that they can point their fingers at and unleash their angry energy towards. Arguably you're never going to have a good time of it if you kill a child, accident or no accident, but I like the idea that it's so much worse for him given that this is Haddonfield and it's residents are at the end of their tether with this whole thing.

Without wanting to delve too much into other people's criticisms at this stage before logging my thoughts, I am curious how much of it is down to the lack of Michael and the emphasis on Strode family drama, which is obviously something I was wanting them to lean into more in the 2018 Halloween so I was on board when it started playing out that way here. 'Where's Michael' is always the initial criticism of something like Halloween 3 and he is very much a peripheral character here. Or maybe it's more that as a movie presumably built up as this grand finale and a final showdown between Michael and Laurie, which we do get, felt like it was tacked on in a 'Okay, you sat through the meat and veg of our spin on Halloween so he's here's your treat.' Without going through the trailers and hype going into the movie I'm unsure if that's how they were building it but that's certainly the impression I got from the end of Halloween Kills.

After a run in with some punk kids, Corey is introduced to Laurie's granddaughter Allyson at the local hospital and the pair hit it off, a duo of nihilists whose trouble backgrounds seem to serve as a bit of a bonding experience. She's the survivor of a homicidal maniac, people think he is a homicidal maniac, they're just a perfect fit as they wallow in their collective misery and intent to watch the world burn.

But after another run in that leaves Corey injured, he's dragged into some sewers by a shadowy figure that we come to learn is Michael who promptly strangles Corey to near death but seemingly lets go. Michael is shown to be frail at times so did he just lose his strength, did Corey break free or did Michael see something in this youngsters eyes that made him set his victim free?

It's something that Laurie sees as well, particularly when Corey starts lurking outside her house like he's The Shape from 40 years ago. But as on the ball as she is, you do sound like the boy who cried wolf when you start protesting that he's 'just like Michael Myers' which is something you've been bleating on about for the past four decades. It's kinda like that meme about Boss Baby, when you spend your life fixated on Michael Myers then you're probably going to get a lot of Michael Myers vibes from this…

The only thing I am iffy on is the relationship between Corey and Michael. Corey is played off as this young apprentice of sorts but it's not as if Michael is readily accepting of help, even Dr. Sartain in 2018 he killed off pretty much the first chance he got even though they were meant to be buddy buddy. There are times when it looks like Corey thinks he's in control of Michael, which is probably just in his head, but there's moments when he's doing weird things with his hands and due to the scar he has, I did wonder briefly if they were going for some weird mark of the Cult of Thorn type thing here. I guess it is just this weird connection between them, like Michael understands this shared anguish they have or maybe a sort of 'passing the torch' thing given Michael's advancing years. Or maybe he just recognizes a greater evil than himself, like I said, even Michael knows when to draw the line when it comes to child murder so he's just paying his respects to Corey.

And I guess the ending in a way I'm a bit iffy on as well, specifically the Laurie/Michael showdown. I get that they felt obligated to include it, you probably would have had people rioting in the streets if you didn't show that after these 3 movies, never mind all the other ones in the franchise and especially given this is likely the last chance saloon for the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis. But the vibe I got from Halloween Kills was that there never was this connection between the two that Laurie seemed to play out in her head, it's all just some cosmic coincidence that she happened to be the one all those years ago so it seemed like plot convenience that Michael just happened to make his way out into the world now to track her down.

But the actual ending itself I really like because, spoiler warning, not only does she incapacitate him and slit pretty much every available appendage, they make sure this fucker is never coming back by taking him to a giant metal grinder that they promptly feed him into. Unless he's planning on reassembling the quivering piles of jelly T-1000 style, this guy is deader than he's ever been. Granted, they stopped short of burying whatever bits are left in a concrete filled coffin 2 miles beneath the Earth's surface like I would but they put a good shift in.

In the build up to that moment though, there's this whole procession where everyone in town shows up to witness this momentous occasion. Even when the cops look on uneasy about what's about to play out, like this isn't in the rule book, the sheriff from Halloween Kills shows up to stress that tonight it is. The whole moment is very cathartic, not only for the viewer in that we've finally seen good triumph over evil, but for the entire town of Haddonfield. Even if his timeline has been retconned six ways from Sunday over the years, it's almost as if every resident from every possible continuity is here to finally witness the moment his corpse is destroyed so they can get some closure on the vast body count he must have built up over these last 40 years.

So, whilst I can appreciate that people going into this movie last year with all that hype behind it might feel like they were on the end of a bait and switch, I really loved this. I've said it til I'm blue in the face over the years that slasher movies can be very hit and miss for me and something like Friday the 13th just bores me to tears. Something like Terrifier that I watched this year, it felt like it was just going for the immediate, visceral reaction but trying to be as gory as possible for cheap pops. But it hadn't earned the real weight behind those deaths because these are just disposable characters. When you have people like Dr. Loomis or Laurie Strode who bring some actual gravitas to proceedings, they can actually make you care, there are actual stakes involved and you're not just cheering for the bad guy and waiting for him to stab Camp Councillor #12.

If you want your bog standard slasher movie, go nuts. I'm sure there's hundreds of them out there. Hell, there's like a dozen other ones in this series alone so I'm all for when one of them wants to try something different. If someone wants to mix their indie, moody, coming of age teen drame in with Halloween then I'm all for it. It certainly has a unique atmosphere to it unlike anything in the series, it put me in mind of something like It Follows in artistic terms, the look and feel to it as well as that general overarching look at these younger characters and their lives being shaped by these traumatic events. Here we have this culmination of movies that has been building up Haddonfield as this deeply toxic place where misery is just a way of like and everyone in it almost seems cursed, with two characters specifically that have every reason in the world to want to get out, with things in their lives ripped away from them in harrowing events but ever after all of that, they feel trapped and bound to this place and unable to break free.

And what does the future hold for Halloween as a franchise when everyone has ridden off into the sunset, quite literally in Laurie's case? Well, everyone seems content for now to let things lay but considering the number of reboot and remakes we've been through, whose to say this will ever truly be over? This is easily one of the biggest franchises in horror, if not the biggest, so it's not going to lay dormant forever. This timeline might be over but I'm sure someone somewhere will start a new one in 5-10 years. Hell, multiverses are all the rage, they'll probably end up drawing in all the different iterations of Michael for some monster mash. And that's just speculation on the future of the silver screen, because we've already had word this month that Miramax has won the TV rights for Halloween so we'll be seeing that before too long.

But, for now, we must retire our Halloween cap as we look forward to the next major event of Christmas and the hopes that I might make the effort to round up the full dozen reviews this year. We live in hope…

[ghost-proofbaby]

Director's Commentary for Shire please

I need clarification because you've already mentioned you always had the intention of writing a "fix it fic". Did you plan Mordor before Shire? Or did you just write Shire around the concept of Mordor? Did you leave any breadcrumbs that weren't picked up by readers? I need an itemized list, ma'am 👀

of course, love! so, short answer - no. mordor was not properly planned before shire but... long answer? yes.

i left a ton of clues, actually! they were very heavy in the set up, because instead of dropping obvious plot clues (which i definitely did), i mostly focused on making it clear these characters were 'built' to specifically fall into this situation of season 4. all the relationships, all the small moments, all the little details - they all add up to make gasoline for vecna's fire so to speak. this is probably more than you wanted, so i apologize, but it's fun because i kept a vague list for myself and this one has more details. <3 so yeah sorry this is stupid long and i got carried away but thank you for the question!!! shire is my baby and i'm always willing to give lame ass director's commentary

the name. i was stuck on the name until i realized i could break that quote into two story titles!! i think i specifically said that on tik tok, too. like before shire even broke 100 hits, i was over there going "👀 this is a secret tool i will use later"

shire started with an altered but still canon scene (dustin's return at scoops)! as well as alluded to the fact that the upside down existed because of steve changing! to show that i was following canon <3

in chapter 2, there's also a hint of something that will be happening in mordor. as i said, mordor wasn't properly planned, but i had an idea of how it would go down haha. actually, there two references? but one is unintentional so go figure.

chapter 3 once more referenced that the upside down was canon! starcourt still burned down, the events of season 3 occured, but willow was simply not involved... yet. obviously, robin involved her by informing her of what really happened, and planted the knowledge/fear of the upside down in her.

chapter 4 shows a brief flash of willow putting someone else's comfort above her own - when she downplays her hair to her mom. it's a big part of her character for mordor, obviously lol. also robin shoos away her mother and says she'll take care of her, alluding to how when trouble happens in the show, parents aren't involved. to hint that if trouble arose, willow's mom would be absent.

also in chapter 4! steve doesn't slow down. willow is the first to notice the danger and him nearly hitting the deer. she notices danger before him - he's an action-first, think-later type of person. again, crucial character points for mordor. willow is literally the first to sense vecna technically speaking. and speaking of steve, notice he doesn't want willow involved in the upside down in this chapter and is trying to scope out just how much robin involved her. when it comes to the russians, he was an open book. when it came to the upside down, he's ready to shut it all down and keep her in the dark. <3

7.. chapter 5 crucial character point - where as we established that willow puts others needs above her own, eddie is the first to put her needs over his (not getting the cigarette near her, the jacket, etc.)

8. chapter 7 - eddie refers to willow as multiple magic user names from D&D. she's the one later linked to the freaky wizard villain aha

9. their book choices. willow chose little women, which furthers solidifies the way she grew up so fast, the way she tries to fill a stereotypical role as a woman not only in society but her family (aka with her mother after parker passes. also, it was alluding to the fact that she's lost a sibling!) eddie's is about adventure, about being thrust into a journey. they were choices i felt fit who they were as characters best, alluded to the fic namesake, and also serve as a way to criticize how they approach responsibility. willow takes it with heavy shoulders - eddie is simply thrust into it. willow's fate has long been sealed, but eddie's was an ever changing opportunity, if that makes sense. one is doomed by the narrative not just from society, but by her past. the other isn't doomed yet. he still has a chance to escape it all, while willow is already involved with the upside down due to robin. i sound like a crazy person now haha. also when just used in shire, it shows that willow and steve won't be together but uh... that's an entirely different list, isn't it? also their conversation about it in 25. <3

10. also worth mentioning how often it is brought up that willow is a bad liar, but we see her capable of lying when it comes to bigger picture things (keeping the fake dating realistic, etc.). she does know how to keep a secret.

11. the difference in how steve and eddie treats willow when dropping her off. it was, one, to illustrate which one she would end up with (again, different list). but also how one is far more individually protective over her :-) that'll come into play later. simply put - steve has faith that willow can handle herself, and eddie trusts her but also chooses to still take precautions (from a distance or otherwise!)

12. eddie progressively makes willow more reckless. in the beginning of shire, she's very anal about her schedule and such. by the end of the story, when their first date is going wrong, she's better able to handle it. eddie, on the other hand, struggles with losing control. they change each other wildly. in shire's context, that's for the better. in mordor... it'll be an issue.

13. she goes from wanting no involvement in d&d, to being involved for eddie (first game - sternly won't play. by the end of the story, she is willing to help plan a campaign. specifically, she helps plan VECNA'S CULT. and vecna's return is her idea). another change, another demonstration of the subtle lengths you'll go for the one you love, until it's no longer subtle situations.

14. willow also criticizes the way the game involves making careful decisions through dice rolling! she's more aligned with steve's thought process of acting first, worrying about consequences later, especially when it comes to herself. it shows that underneath it all, although they switch roles from planner and the one who goes with the flow, those values were always there under the surface. which comes into play in mordor and the vecna situation!

15. chapter 16 - the first demonstration of willow being eddie's protector.

16. also chapter 16 - it's established that eddie is dustin's protector, which plays into his canon demise (in my opinion, at least!). and then chapter 17 - solidification of willow being eddie's protector as she physically will put herself between him and danger before dragging him away from it. also, eddie being dustin's protector again. haha. also, eddie acknowledging it. :-)

17. "I mean, you get this look when your friends get hurt - like you’d burn the world down for them."

18. "She would burn the world down for him - she’d drag Jason to hell and back herself if it meant the boy in front of her knew a moment of peace."

19. the use of second hand news being the first song they listen to together from rumors rather than her favorite song (the chain), most specifically the line that is quoted - When times go bad, when times go rough, won't you lay me down in tall grass and let me do my stuff?

20. “Ah, ah. Careful doll, or you’ll be number four.” - no comment on this one. but uh. major.

21. the ENTIRE ordeal with freddy krueger and nightmare on elm street. all of it. major breadcrumb.

22. “You’re distracted. What are you gonna do one day when there’s a freaky ghost invading our dreams and trying to kill us, but you didn’t watch the movie with me so you have no clue what to do to save us?”

23. the whole parker situation. obviously, i pulled real life inspo, but i always knew i was going to traumatize willow (as audrey put it). parker's death shapes who she is a person very fundamentally, and gives vecna an in for her mind. the thing is, i purposefully made it something that was pretty far back in the past, but still affected her deeply. she's had time to heal, but she didn't. there's so much to say about this little tid bit but it's rough, and sensitive to talk about.

24. willow’s favorite song being revealed to eddie. i really expected more people to catch that haha

25. willow having to choose between eddie and steve during their fight with jason. 

26. willow’s d&d character has major clues! Spent a long time combing over that one

and then obviously, her headaches, her nightmares, the upside down visions, etc. that i brought back for the final chapters. like i said, so much of it was fit into the beginning of the story. i needed to set it up for mordor, but a lot of shire is just a love story. my entire point for shire was solely mordor - it was tell a nice love story that comforted me through a lot of rough times. i'm just lucky i got to have my cake and eat it too i guess lol <3

so i guess in a way, when you asked me if i wrote shire around the concept of mordor, the answer there is also no! i wanted shire to be able to exist without mordor, as well.

anyways. much love. brevity ain't the wit of this soul.

[attourney-at-lycan]

OKAY i finished love love paradise. now. THOUGHTS.

not enough garroth. i want more garroth. i need more garroth.

you can tell the huge difference pdh has had on mystreet if you watch s1 and llp back to back. they reference it a lot so you’d probably be clueless for some of the mentions, though they do vaguely explain some of their references. 

at the beginning the voice lines were a bit weird, there was always such a weird awkward pause between the lines that was extremely obvious but it does get better after the first couple episodes

the whole dante, jenna and nicole thing bothered me. IT WASN’T. problematic per say. i dont think it was b a d but it could’ve been done much better? i do like how nicole and jenna didn’t act as if nothing happened and didn’t try getting back w/ him or give him a second chance at love. i like how dante knows he cannot repair the damage he’s done. his plot lines can be mature which sometimes takes me in for a loop. however when zane said “dante is trying, he’s just being dumb” it made me.. yknow the kombucha girl cringe meme? yeah that one. i feel like........ it was taken a bit too lightly imo? IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT. i just wish it was taking more seriously.

also the travlyn thing towards the end kinda.. gave me whiplash. LIKE I KNOW it was sorta foreshadowed w/ travis going “i can’t take it” in his convo w/ dante but.. IT WAS SO WEIRD? because initially it was written as a funny joke but then it wasn’t and travis was actually feeling hurt. it’s just i don’t think it was done well enough so it came off as a sudden change in tone thats jarring

oh my god am i being too harsh- i feel like i was being too harsh bc this was not written by a genius so idk why im critiquing it so harshly im so sorry. but i’m still going bc i can :]

BUT ANOTHER THING. the whole aphmau being scared of swimming was hhh? on one hand i feel like it was taken wayy too seriously but at the same time i feel like it wasn’t taken seriously enough at times. by that i mean, aphmau seems to be the type to trust her friends a lot regardless, and she encourages her friends to tell her things no matter how embarrassing they may be, but when it comes to her, she stubbornly refuses to tell anyone but zane. but then when everyone knows, no one takes her fear seriously w/ pushing her into the water or going “lmao you’re overreacting”. maybe it’s me because i also cannot swim and it’s sooo fucking scary being in chest level water. tbh im honestly overreacting bc i would also laugh if someone was in my position ngl

WHERE WAS LAURANCE. WHERE THE. FUCK. WAS MY FAVORITE QUEER?

gene was great i love gene he’s so fun. it was honestly so weird him appearing like that. also what did they do to ivy. i wish ivy kept her haughty behavior but i do get her maturing or wtver but i just wish there was still that spunk now to me she feels like a bland.. character who’s just changed to good.

ONE MORE THING. i forgot what i ti was. GOD I SAID THIS ALREADY BUT SYLVANNA REALLY PISSED ME OFF THIS SEASON. i was fine w/ her not knowing that her daughter had a boyfriend but still going against her wishes despite knowing she has one afterwards simply because you don’t like him hrggghr. i know that mom’s can be annoying like that yeah but jesus fuck it does not help.

honestly aaron was just.. The Boyfriend, yet again. i did like how it was obvious that aaron was becoming more comfortable w/ the people around him and being more outgoing. it was cute. however. most of the things coming out of his mouth was aphmau. EVEN WHEN IT WAS DANTE’S PROBLEM HE COULD NOT HOLD BACK FROM BRINGING UP APHMAU IM SO TIRED. 

anyway i give this season...... honestly 8/10? i know i complained a lot abt this seasons but it was genuinely fun to watch. i liked the other little side characters like the token gay couple (guy and nate + teony and The Girl who’s name they mentioned but i forgot), the dad and his son, also the bartender- 

ONCE AGAIN i would love to mention this mini review is totally based off my personal taste yaddah yaddah, this is a very subjective and biased post so :thumbsup:

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

I think the one thing that is so confusing to me is that his parents knew he had never divorced Iris, but knew the marriage was over long before she disappeared. The way Carlos was like "we meant to [get a divorce]" made it seem like they just kept forgetting since Tim said it wasn't long after they got married, they drifted apart and Iris disappeared around 2016/17 and that was after gay marriage was legal in TX.

The math isn't math-ing to me. But this is also the show who is probably going to annul the marriage with lone star legal magic and i'm okay with that

Yeah, it starts to get extra difficult to make sense of when we get to that point. As far as Carlos not getting a divorce, I can understand that. I can see getting a divorce not being a priority for Carlos at the time. He truly believed he would never get married again and it probably would have been at least a vaguely unpleasant thing to have to do that might have required him to have some conversations and thoughts about his feelings. For that reason, I can definitely see him just putting off doing it, and then Iris disappears and is assumed dead, so it becomes a non-issue. Then Iris is back but she needs his insurance so there's a reason not to get a divorce. That makes sense to me.

It might be possible that Gabriel and Andrea didn't know at the time that they didn't actually get divorced. Obviously, they would have known about Iris' disappearance. They probably would have then found out when Iris reappeared. Maybe that's when Carlos told them that they had never actually gotten a divorce. Possibly he told them about Iris using his insurance? The further down that road we get, though, the more confusing it gets. (I also don't like thinking about Carlos actively taking steps to hide the marriage from TK, so I don't love thinking about Carlos discussing it with his parents while he and TK are together.)

What confuses me the most is Andrea knowing in 4x01 both that Carlos is still married to Iris and that he never told TK about it. Her reaction to this seems strangely mild. I guess she does at first assume TK knows because she scolds him about not telling TK the truth when she realizes he doesn't know. But she knew Carlos was still married and starts talking wedding plans for a wedding in 8 weeks. What is she thinking? Or really, what is Tim thinking?? It's not like this is something that happened way back in season 1 that doesn't quite mesh with the season 4 revelation...it's the same episode!!

But whatever. I'm over it. Use Lone Star legal magic to annul the marriage. If it gets us to a Tarlos wedding, that's all I really care about.