#this is clearly past his emo phase

[yuviur]

Post-Odyssey Ron and Terry Jr <3 Gotta love this emotionally available dad/son duo!

[chubs-deuce]

Imagine if Dawn ever goes through a goth/emo phase 👀.

Charlie for the most part just lets her be - uncharacteristic of her, when she's normally the stricter parent! She remembers all too clearly having had a similar phase and she'd feel like a hypocrite if she tried to undercut it unnecessarily. Her father had tried doing that and, if anything, only prolonged it by inciting her spite.

The only line she draws are more intense kinds of body mods. Most piercings can grow closed again, but stretched ones for example might never be the same again - and given how Dawn and her parents are practically immortal since they don't keep aging past a certain point, that is just an awfully long time to live with the permanent consequences of reckless teenhood.

Alastor meanwhile is not a fan of this new style at all and, frankly, feels a little bit disrespected by her attempt to visually distance herself from her parents so harshly - and while he'd never admit it, it's in part because he fears losing the bond he had with her long-term.

She's always been particularly attached to him, looked up to him like an idol - and now that she's getting older he might have a bit of trouble accepting that his little girl is slowly growing much more independent. Him nagging her so much about this is obviously not helping that, so it's a bit of a learning curve in a lesson about tolerance for both of them.

[slvtforfiction]

Hi I think your request are open. 😭

Anyways I have a prompt where it’s like Jonnie meets a fan and like later on he kind stalks her media and accidentally likes something for an old emo phase and she dms him “??” And it just spirals from there into something cute?

An old phase,A new like

☆ Yesss!

☆ Love this,thank you anon x

☆ Sorry it’s so short

☆ Johnnie Guilbert X Reader

☆ Fluff

☆ If you are going to request: please check at the pinned post if requests are open,otherwise I will delete your requests which I have already been doing

☆ Creds to @cafekitsune for dividers :)

Masterlist | Pinned post

“So today we are-“ I look down at my phone as a notification pushed past my do not disturb, Johnnie Guilbert like your photo.

I knew Johnnie,we had text back and forth for a while about doing a video idea even though we had never done it. I had met him at a convention and most likely acted like the biggest fan girl alive.

I clicked on the notification and saw that the like was a photo from 2020,almost 4 years ago.

You:

Liking photos from 2020,huh?

Johnnie:

Sorry didn’t mean to.

You:

Nooo it’s okay sorry lol

Johnnie:

Okay good lol,thought you were mad

You:

No,no lol

Johnnie:

So how are you?

2 weeks later,

“I’ll see you again next week? Maybe another date?” I ask with a schoolgirl smile on my face, “Yeah ofcourse,I’d love that.” He replied and I smiled,kissing his cheek.

We walked back to my apartment and watched a movie,cuddling up to each other and sharing some popcorn whilst we watched some shitty romcom. Neither of us cared about the movie,though neither of us would say it. We just enjoyed the comfort of each other.

Around nine o’clock Johnnie left,I was sad to see him go but I knew he had an apartment to sleep in so I couldn’t exactly keep him.

6 months later,

“Hey Johnnie!” I smile down the phone,we hadn’t hung out a lot this week but I didn’t mind,opting to sleep on call for the week instead.

“Hey love,you okay?” He asks me and I smile at the nickname, “Yeah,im okay,you?” I ask and I could almost hear his smile.

It was always nice to hear johnnies voice,it had become comforting over the past month or so,despite his energetic attitude. He always knew when it was time to settle down and he always knew what to say and how to say it. It made me envy those closest to him.

“So how was your day?”

1 year later,

“Happy 6 month anniversary!” He said as he hugged me,I smiled and kissed him as I grabbed some chocolates I had bought him.

He handed me some flowers and chocolate and I smiled, “Happy 6 months!” I smiled at him,my face beaming with excitement.

One phone call 6 months ago had led me to become infatuated with him,though I would be lying to say that I hadn’t had a small crush on him since I first text him.

We sat down on his sofa in his apartment and smiled as we put on the same shitty romcom that we always do,it had become our tradition and no one was complaining. As long as I got to snuggle up to the comfort of his chest I didn’t mind.

It had become apparent to both of us that we didn’t really care what we watched as long as we were with each other. I smiled as I snuggled into his chest,something that had become somewhat familiar with us. He snaked his hand around my waist and we sat their in comfortable silence as we admired each other.

2 years later,

“Happy one year!” I say as I wake up next to him in our apartment, “Happy one year.” He smiled at me,clearly as tired as he always was,I smiled at his goofy little smile and kissed him on the cheek.

“I got you something.” Johnnie whispers as he reaches into his draw,on the other side of the bed. He pulls out a ring box and I smile as he opens it, “I got us those Pandora promise rings you like.”He says with a smile. I sit up in bed and shimmy onto his lap pulling him into a deep hug. “Thank you Johnnie!” I almost yell as I kiss all over his face.

“Do you wanna be the moon or the sun?” I ask and he shakes his head “Whatever you want princess.” He chuckles and I immediately give him the moon ring. “Johnnie,we’re literally the sun and the moon.” I smile and he nods his head, “I love you so much,thank you!” I say happily and he smiles at me as he gives me a peck to the lips.

“I got you something too!” I say with a huge smile beaming across my face, I reach into my draw and pull out three wrapped presents. I feel like a parent watching their child open their presents with glee.

“Awh thank you baby!” He says pulling me back in for a hug and I smile,accepting the hug gratefully.

6 years later,

“I love you so much,I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else,Y/n Y/l/n, will you marry me?”

“Yes!!!”

[emeritus-fuckers]

I dunno if I’ve asked but could you do some headcanons on young Nihil finding out he has a child with a fan (not inserting my oc at all) and it’s a daughter

I may have got slightly carried away XD - Nyx

Young Papa Nihil finding out he has a daughter with a fan

He's terrified. Completely terrified.

He just kinda stands there looking shocked and then asks how much you want for child support.

You don't really see him much, but he does support you financially, whatever you need.

He visits after she is born to leave a ring past down the Emeritus line. When I say more visit, more like he turns up late in at night in the hospital when no one is around. He doesn't want to see anyone who could talk into staying. He leaves the envelope with the ring next to her crib. He can't even look at her, she seems so small and tiny it makes him want to stay so he runs.

He visits again when she is two. He only accepts a cup of coffee and watches her from a distance, you can see him pale slightly.

Her eyes... she has his eyes... fuck. Her beautiful black hair is now down to her shoulders.

He leaves far quicker than he should, he sits in the car barely able to control his own breathing. He knows deep down he is becoming an even bigger fuck up.

He tries to distract himself, but he can't help but think about her, wonder how she is. He starts to realise, he misses her. But no, he can't get involved, he detroys everything he touches and she is too precious.

He keeps reasoning that she is better off without him, he can see that she is clearly well cared for by you.

He came again when she was 3 and then when she was 4. That visit really got to him.

She seemed so happy to see him, that innocent gaze broke something in him. He lifted her up and held her tightly in his arms.

She was so fascinated with his facepaint. Tracing the lines of it with her delicate fingers. He told her that he was Papa, he didn't know if she knew he was her father, but Papa was his title so he stuck with that, it worked.

From then on he visited once a year, but that was it.

When she gets older and starts to wonder a little more she finds his songs and finds out about the band.

Now that really gets to him, one day he goes to visit and she is singing his songs. He smiles to himself saying she has his gift with music, and she does her voice is beautiful.

There is a phase when they don't speak, when she realises he is her father and that he pretty much completely abandoned her.

But Nihil asks for the chance to explain, he would have failed her as a father, he really did do his best, he didn't want to mess her up like his father did to him. He just wants her to be happy.

Their relationship imrpoves, he is still distant but he takes an interest in her life. As she becomes a young adult and beyond she writes letters to him and as Nihil ages these become the most precious things to him. He always writes back and visits her when he can. He hopes she will always turn to him if she needs his advice on stuff.

He just wishes he hadn't been such a coward when he was younger. He knows that thankfully he salvaged it somehow and that at least he has one child happy to call him their father. He deeply regrets the way he went on with his own sons, but his father wasn't a good person and the scars from Nihil's childhood run too deep.

~

Written by Nyx.

Taglist: @charlie-is-a-menace @copias-fluffy-asscheeks @randodummy @tuttifuckinfruttifriday @calliedion-dungeon @randominstake @callmeicaro @thecuriouss @dio-niisio@firefirevampire @mybotanicaldemise @emo-mess @natoncesaid @ouijaboardemo

[soupbabe]

Emo Boy (Emil Müller x Reader)

While walking into Emil's home, both him and Reader are greeted by a picture of his past.

Okay I fully understand that this does nothing to establish his character, but it's a lil funny.

Tagging: @rottent33th, @slaasherslut, @the-pinstriped-hood, @bugginbeetlew

"What is this?" You held back laughter as your eyes fixated on the picture in front of you. Inside the wooden frame was an ill fitting, printed out screenshot of an old Facebook post from Emil's mother's account. Your attention was immediately drawn to the picture of a younger boy giving a peace sign to the camera. From the heat damaged, flat ironed, bangs with blonde streaks, to the Pierce the Veil shirt, to the "I ❤️ BOOBIES" bracelet he showed off, he was clearly emo.

To make it even better, he looked a lot like your boyfriend too.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Emil peer over your shoulder and see his jaw drop. "What." You turned your head and gestured to the picture, "This you?" You smiled through your words, trying your hardest not to laugh at your flabbergasted boyfriend. However, another voice couldn't help but lose it over the situation. From the living room, a young girl emerged and stood by the hanging frame. "You like it? I found it a couple days ago." Her smirk was smug as she eyed Emil, whereas color drained from his face.

"I didn't know you had an emo phase," you mused, giggles breaking out as you glanced back at the photo. "I know. Not my proudest moment." As if she was rubbing salt into the wound, the girl spoke up once again, referencing the caption his mother put under the photo. "I don't know, at least mom thought you looked cool." Emil's voice was monotone, in response. You'd think he was upset if you didn't see the way his lips quirked up into a smirk. "Hey, Maria I think dad needs your help in the kitchen." "Do I have to?" "I didn't ask if you wanted to. Go."

[houseoflennoxx]

Hiii! What are your OCs favorite songs? ❤️❤️

Love C xx

What a lovely question, Cleo! I had so much fun thinking about it💕 In my headcannon they have really diverse likes on music, so let's get into it.

On the part of our dear Alistair, like a good 90s baby, he has always felt nostalgia for earlier times. In his case, he LOVES 80-90s rock, and if I had to pick a favorite song for him it would be U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Special mentions to She from Green Day and Are You Gonna Be My Girl from Jet.

Avalon, meanwhile, is a 2000s teen through and through. Since her relationship with Alistair began, she tried to hide that side of her, but on her Simspotify it will always sound Glamorous from Fergie and Ludacris. Her special mentions would be Shakira's Whenever, Wherever and Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone (what huge hits they are, my goodness).

Jasper is only a couple of years younger than Alistair, so their tastes are very, very similar. However, our second son is a bit more heartfelt than his brother. His favorite song, of course, is I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith. In addition, two of the songs that also represent him are What's Up? from 4 Non Blondes and Keane's Everybody's Changing.

For her part, Prudence is a fairly conservative woman and a bit corny, I would say. I haven't explored that side of her much in the story yet, but in my canon, during her adolescence she was very fond of listening to romantic ballads and she hasn't known how to get out of that phase. Her favorite song is, without a doubt, Because of You by Kelly Clarkson. In addition, her special mentions are When We Were Young by Adele and Impossible (Acoustic) by James Arthur. (The 2000s sponsor this post hahahaha).

We come to the one and only Kate, the true superstar of this story. As we already know, Kate was especially rebellious during her adolescence, between 2012-2015, and her time on Simblr marked her emo past (as it did for many of us who were born in the late 90s). For this reason, and clearly identified with this facet of hers, her favorite song is and always will be Sk8ter Boy by the great Avril Lavigne. As special mentions, Decode, by Paramore; and Blink-182's First Date. (Any resemblance to the author's reality is purely coincidental.)

We continue with Celia, who, as we know, is a lover of impossible causes, drama and her deep-rooted Hispanic culture. Despite her youth, she never liked the songs that most attracted her generation, opting for more independent singer-songwriters or music bands, always in Spanish. His favorite song is Hasta la Raíz by Natalia Lafourcade. For her part, her special mentions would be Limón & Sal by Julieta Venegas and Cuídate by La Oreja de Van Gogh.

Elliot is a highly sensitive boy whose musical tastes could be identified as folk or indie-folk. His favorite singer is Vance Joy, in whose discography he highlights Fire and the Flood (Acoustic), which he has tried to recreate with his guitar several times, still without success. His special mention of the genre would be Take Yours, I'll Take Mine, by Matthew Mole. But also, as a teenager, he has a predilection for Harry Styles and his As It Was (but don't tell anyone, it's too mainstream).

If Maddox lived in Spain, he would be a "cayetano". I don't know what the English equivalent is, but you can look it up. If I could explain it well, and if there was an equivalent in other cultures, the music he would listen to would be "Taburete" (you can search for it, at your own risk). But since he doesn't live in that reality, Maddox has a predilection for electronic music, especially Avicii's The Nights. Also, among his favorite songs for the gym, we find Cake By the Ocean by the group DNCE and Hymn for the Weekend by Coldplay.

Marianne is a tween with tween tastes and is obsessed with SimTok and kpop. As much as she loves ballet, she doesn't usually listen to classical music in her spare time. Her favorite song lately is Typa Girl by Blackpink. She is also a big fan of Olivia Rodrigo, highlighting good 4 u, and Leah Kate, with 10 Things I Hate About You. She's becoming a little modern feminist.

Lastly, and although you haven't met little Axel yet, let me tell you that like any 2-year-old baby he is obsessed with Lola the Cow and makes his parents listen to it 24/7 non stop. (Again, any resemblance to the author's reality is purely coincidental.)

As a highly procrastinating person, I leave you here the Spotify list so you can enjoy these great songs. They're in character order, so you know who you're listening to. I'll probably add more people or change the songs over time, if you want to check it out.

Thanks again for the question Cleo, I had a blast!

[domidextrus]

I didn't think there was a whole lot to say anymore about Death Note after so many other videos have picked at the show's "What is justice, really?" philosophical quandary to death, but Sage found a pretty interesting angle here.

With all of the contemplation about whether Light had a point or not, one thing that tends to be brushed aside is the fact that Light's actions are born from the kind of troubled outlook that teenagers of his kin exhibit. His possession of the Death Note only amplified his already disconcerting beliefs at the time because, once he took his first life with it, he literally couldn't cope with having been directly responsible for someone's death, so he doubled down and painted himself as a martyr of justice.

The original manga is much better at pointing out his delusions of grandeur and made his ultimate karmic demise absolutely warranted, whilst the anime's attempts at a smidge of sympathy eventually became the show's double-edged sword. On the one hand, it turned the anime into a hit with Western audiences, but on the other hand, impressionable viewers who lacked media literacy or critical analysis skills misinterpreted his glorification of indiscriminate punishment to those deemed deserving as a desirable trait, all whilst looking past the fact that he's still clearly a villain despite his protagonist role in the story.

Now, this isn't to say that the show's philosophy isn't worth mulling over, or that anyone who ever felt a connection to the character or bought into the merch during their emo phase was a total rube. What shouldn't be ignored is that Light's actions, whether justified or not within the context of general morality, are still undeniably the actions of a villain in the context of the narrative.

[toa-arania]

Val fucked up catastrophically

I know Val getting in way too deep isn't that unusual for her but oh boy. Oh god. Oh fuck. Jesus fucking christ. Holy shit.

This week's bullshit starts with a road trip~! Levi got a letter from some other werewolf pack, so he and his pack (a grand total of three whole werewolves) have been invited to a big-ass gathering of wolves to discuss some fuckery. Because things always go horribly awfully, they decided to bring the rest of the gang along, which they were technically allowed to do but was very clearly an awful idea, since we would be several other supernatural beings infringing on god knows how much wolf turf (wurf? wurf). We packed our things, spent a while preparing, and got ready to go and have a fun weekend out by the great lakes.

We hadn't even arrived by the time nonsense started happening. There was a hitchhiker. Then there was the same hitchhiker. Again. And again. And again. Then they started doing CSL (Clown Sign Language) at us as we drove past so Aluber, ever the idiot, jumped out of the moving car window. This was eventually how we learnt that the hitchhiker was Aluber's cousin Berula. Their names are all anagrams. We kept driving, now with Aluber and Berula hanging out in the back of the wolves' truck while Mei, Darcy and Val were together in the second car, sometimes talking, sometimes just quiet, and sometimes being forced to listen to Darcy blasting MCR now that she's in her emo phase. We eventually pulled over at a gas station after saying bye to Berula, and we encountered the super fucking suspicious guy who runs the place, who introduces himself as Gremory and gives us some additional free stuff along with whatever we got. Once we were back in the cars and continuing the journey, Darcy did a quick google and learnt that Gremory is one of the demons from the Ars Goetia. We fed all of the bonus food to Aluber, and Gremory has not come up again. I am convinced the GM just did this to fuck with us.

We arrived at our destination and checked into the motel we booked at, Levi and Aluber in one room, Darcy and Val in another, and the Wolf NPC couple in the third. Mei was technically in Darcy and Val's room but she doesn't sleep due to the whole being dead thing. Despite how thin the walls were, we curiously heard no noise from the wolf couple's room, which we all expected. What we heard instead was noise from Levi and Aluber's room, which was not them fucking but sure as shit sounded like it.

The following morning, the wolves prepared to head out to the big imposing wolf meeting, and Val planned to bug Levi so she could listen in. However, there was a Darcy-shaped spanner in the works. Because the girls had gone to sleep basically just in a blanket pile on the floor (Darcy and Val have been bonding over the weekend and we're going to make it everyone's problem) and Darcy is not at all a morning person, she grabbed onto Val's arm and would not let go (represented by Darcy's Player latching onto my arm too), so Val was unable to get up to go and bug Levi before the wolves left. Plan thwarted :(

Then all hell broke loose.

The non-wolves were just hanging out in the motel, doing a little homework and just chilling. Val was working on a spell that she planned to test out upon getting back, Darcy was struggling with her work, Mei was actually managing to do it properly, and Aluber was turning it into origami. Darcy and Aluber got the sense something was Wrong, and then we heard a knock at the door. "Housekeeping." We did not answer. Aluber teleported (oh yeah, the clown can teleport short distances) to his room, intending to look out of his door and see who was there, and appeared directly in front of A Guy. Fuck.

Aluber teleported back as "Housekeeping" broke the door in and told us to come with them. They refused to promise the fae that they wouldn't harm us, so Val took measures into her own hands and cast Binding (can't harm people) on one of the werewolves, which they were surprised to see actually work, since they're usually resistant to magic. She did not have time to do this again before one of them attacked Mei, with Darcy managing to take the hit. Aluber got ready for a brawl and Val had him drink the one vial of the supernatural stimulant she'd brought with her, and then Mei pulled a fucking glock and said she was preparing to call the police. In a truly glorious move, Darcy capitalised this to verbally accuse these people of breaking into the room of three teenage girls (since these characters are all 17). With the threat of calling the police on them for pedophilia, we somehow managed to convince them to retreat. We immediately packed our shit to get the hell out.

The first really weird thing happened when Aluber, due to the Val Drug(tm) started to grow claws and sharp teeth and a general feral physique. Val's first mistake was to try to intensify this by supplying Aluber with a little boost of her own magic, reasoning that since this was being brought on by something she made she would be able to bypass his natural fae magic (which would reject mixing with occult magic) and boost the drug directly. As far as we can tell, this did not happen. What happened was Aluber crackling with green magic and passing out for five seconds. The GM took Aluber's player out of the room to explain some things while we all freaked out, and when they came back Aluber woke up and was suddenly focused and smart and coming up with plans and it was fucking weird but we're going to put that aside for now because it's helpful. Honestly Val likes this Aluber way more than Quirky Clown Boy.

We escaped to a populated area, discovering along the way that we were being followed by four entire werewolves, and tried to come up with a plan. During our escape planning, we got a call from Levi, who had apparently been dealing with fuckery on his end too because he told us that apparently his pack had been given territory here without us knowing, and that he'd only barely managed to negotiate our safe passage there. We went as fast as we fucking could to this little patch of forest and set up camp. Eventually we were joined by the NPC wolves, who told us that Levi was going to be a bit longer because he almost accidentally became the wolf king.

Apparently what happened is something intrinsic to werewolves. There are certain tiers, with a select few being at the top. They aren't called Alphas, but we've been calling them that because A/B/O has been one of our favourite ways to tease Levi. His fight instinct set off in the middle of the wolf conclave and he accidentally challenged the leader to a duel and would have won if he hadn't come to his senses and stepped down. Also someone stole his shirt so he was in fact shirtless when he finally came to join us at camp, which Val took a particular enjoyment in (she is down bad). He told us about the fight, and Val asked to go in his head to see what the werewolf empress looks like (hot. so incredibly hot. oh my god y'all. she could kick me in the stomach and i would thank her) and it is a testament to the weirdly good amount of trust she and Levi have that he let her.

Val then proceeded to do something that backfired catastrophically.

A little while back, Val found out that Levi made an Unbreakable Vow to never harm a specific selection of people, and has been trying to work out a way to get around that because she doesn't want Levi to fucking die if he messes up. Since she's already aware that certain magical effects manifest physically in his mind, she went looking for the vow, and found that distinctive pink chain wrapped around a big red button. She got closer, examining the chain, and to try to learn more about it, she touched it.

Val was ripped out of Levi's mind and into the fae realm, where the Fae King (Buncle himself) chided her and told her she would never learn her lesson on her own, then conjured a chain around each of her ankles and wrists before putting her back into her own body. After recovering from the confusion, she attempted to cast a spell. The magic flowed into her hand... and dissipated.

Val's magic has been sealed by the Fae King.

[ponderousorb]

More ramblings re: the Dexter Friends Extended Universe

word vomit below the cut, cw: depression and dysphoria mentions, also weed mention but very briefly Mainly to do with Mandark, Surfer Boy, Dee Dee and her friends

So in this universe, which I would say is pretty much my own bubble universe and nothing I would expect as canon, especially since the Powerpuff girls are just There, I've been thinking about how the timeline goes. One of the themes I'm interested in is the idea that people can change and evolve, especially from childhood, and Dexter learning slowly to make his thinking less black-and-white. (He has a real problem in the show thinking in binaries/opposites like "girl things" vs "boy things" and good vs evil even in situations where it doesn't really apply. Very typical kid thing to do and, doubly so with the heavy autism-coding let's be real. Anyways, my bubble universe subscribes to the Trans Mandark theory because we love Applicability in Storytelling, even if accidental. I'm now currently debating when Mandark and Taylor met back up, because Mandark pretty understandably avoided the beach through puberty bc it's a dysphoria nightmare, but I don't think he'd be very comfortable explaining that to people.

So I'd imagine Mandark avoided him, not knowing how to handle stuff and feeling deeply embarrassed and awkward, and the fact they go to different schools would make this easier. I'm debating whether they stay in contact via text/skype as was the style at the time, I'm thinking yes, but Mandark does not want to meet up in person because he has horrendous self-esteem at this point, you know - being 15 and all that - and doesn't want to be perceived by this very cool person that gives him confusing feelings. Taylor remains kind of hung up on this boy that gave *him* funny feelings and Marie teases him about his 'imaginary boyfriend' they've never met.

I am thinking Goo's parents and Mandark's parents probably are aquaintences because they seem to be part of the same very hippy-dippy crowd (Goo's parents being less intense and giving her more actual free expression, but not realizing she's lonely), so she probably knows Mandark through that and likely getting put in a Gifted Class or two together in High School. (It's the 2000's so I can't imagine Goo gets diagnosed as ND even though she clearly is, lmao) Dee Dee would also probably be friends with Nazz as Popular girls who Do Sports, but like - casual friends. They don't necessarily hang out in the same group all the time but will be the connector piece for several smaller groups to hang out together and go to parties. Dee Dee's besties in highschool are Goo and Bubbles who are extremely like... colourful and energetic and Nazz has Alt Girl stoner vibes (since childhood, irrespective of actual weed being involved) so they're quite different but have this mutual respect, you know? So Nazz's main group is Taylor and Marie (maybe I will think of others), and both her and Dee Dee also can command a crowd of others for parties etc with their popularity. So, if Dee Dee is having a RAWR XD scene girl party, Goo asks if she can bring her friend from her AP classes, Dee says sure and it ends up being mandark in the middle of his Emo phase - he gets extremely embarrassed over his past behavior and spends the night hiding from Dee Dee who is oblivious to all this. Nazz turns up with her skater crew and, in his efforts to hide from Dee Dee, Mandark walks straight into Taylor who is HYPED to see him. Eventually, Mandark and Dee Dee mend fences and strike up a tentative friendship through Goo, but Dee Dee is at first still pretty sus about him, and in fairness she has every right to be. Dexter also still sees Mandark as his arch-nemesis despite this kid getting hit with depression like a ton of bricks. But he has an 'evil aesthetic' according to Dexter so he must be plotting something dark. This actually spurs Dee Dee to befriend him more because she hates Dexter telling her what to do, and they bond over their terrible, terrible poetry. Bubbles probably becomes closest to him because she's a sucker for taking in wounded animals and he has wet cat energy, that and their music tastes overlap a wild amount. (Bubbles is a huge System of a Down fan) - Bubbles also feels like she can let out her Dark Side around this emo friend of hers, in a way her sisters would usually laugh at, and Dee Dee and Goo don't always know how to relate to. Like yeah Dee and Goo feel sad and angry sometimes, but Bubbles has this real issue since she was little of no one taking her seriously, and treating her like a little insipid baby, and it ties into how Mandark's parents treat him.

[urdearestmom]

so happy to see you back here because the takes on mike ever since the season (by bylers, locals and even people who claimed to love him but are now mad and not even trying to understand him) are driving me crazy. he needs protecting

I am tumblr’s Mike Wheeler defence squad

No but actually I think the problem is so many people just consume media without thinking critically about it (which like, it’s FINE to just watch things for fun, but if you’re going to pass judgement on something then perhaps you should spend more than 2 seconds thinking on it. maybe analyze the scene past your first reaction to it).

I'm going to talk mainly about Mike's interactions with Will and El in the early episodes of season 4 but there will also be references to earlier seasons.

Now, Mike's not an angel by any means!! The boy makes mistakes. He WAS dismissive and kinda rude to Will (also everyone forgot it was Will's birthday?? including me LOL) but it's not like he was behaving that way with the intent to hurt Will. Mike tends to hyperfocus on El whenever he's around her (which we've seen since s1: drifting from Lucas, Dustin's claims that all Mike cared about was El; s2 Mike's emo phase when she wasn't around and his subsequent focus on her once she returned; s3 Mike's entire emotional arc being about his feelings for El). In the scene at the rink, El had JUST been publicly humiliated and Mike found out she had been lying to him about her life and emotional state, so of course he was more concerned for her and focused on finding her than he was with listening to Will. Duh, anyone would be.

That hyperfocus is a completely natural thing that happens when you have strong feelings for someone; you tend to drop your friends a bit. The goal is to find a balance between the attention you give your friends vs the other person, but it's a learning process. Also Mike is at the maximum only 15 years old and this is his first relationship, so he is very much still in the early stages of figuring all that out. The important thing is that when you realize you hurt someone you apologize, which Mike did and Will forgave. I loved that scene a lot because I really really appreciate their friendship and the fact that they were both even tearing up a little bit really moved me :') It's also a development for Mike because he brought up the situation himself and apologized without anything else prompting it, which has been a difficulty for him in the past (remember him refusing to apologize to Lucas in s1? or the fact that we never saw him apologize to Max after s2 either). It takes emotional vulnerability to recognize that you were wrong and apologize to someone for hurting them, and he is a character that struggles profoundly with putting his feelings out there, so this is a win for him!!

The thing about his vulnerability leads me to my next point: the fight with El. El was completely valid in wanting to hear Mike say that he loves her, I think definitely in part due to her terrible upbringing and some in part to media she'd been exposed to since escaping the lab. Before she got out she was clearly in an abusive environment, where likely the only form of affection she received was words (Brenner's actions were obviously not those of someone who cared for her, but his choice of words and tone of voice helped him manipulate her), which would have some effect on the way she expresses herself and the way she accepts affection from others. During her time in isolation, we saw her watching soaps and those are the kind of stories where love is presented as this grand, sweeping thing that can only be demonstrated and affirmed through an extremely dramatic declaration. That's not a thing that usually happens irl, it's part of the entertainment factor, but El wouldn't know any better and she probably came to expect something similar.

Mike, on the other hand, is a person who struggles to verbalize any of his feelings, much less something as all-consuming as his love for El is. Some of that is simply part of his personality, but some of it is also home influence. It's obvious by now that the Wheelers don't have a great marriage, so Mike has more than likely not often or ever heard his parents say that they love each other (interestingly, I don't think Nancy has told Jonathan to his face that she loves him either). Mike has learned to express his love for people in a different way: through his actions. He is usually the first to jump into action/planning mode when a friend is in danger, he takes care of people who need help (El in s1 and Will in s2, and the way he comforts El at various points during s3 even while they were broken up), and consistently acts recklessly when it comes to someone offending or endangering his loved ones (aka, the cliff scene, or him attacking a possessed Billy armed with a skinny piece of metal, among others) because he feels as though he is their defender and keeping them safe is how he shows that he cares. Let us also not forget the fact that he handpicked those wildflowers in El's favourite colours because he knew they would make her happy (he also dressed in the same colours, which I LOVE even though his airport outfit makes him look like a muppet).

At the moment that they had their argument, El had been experiencing a lot of changes. Not only did she lose her powers, the thing that defined her as a person for almost her whole life, she also moved across the country, away from almost everyone who cared about her, and started school. Being bullied in general is difficult enough, but being bullied when you know you really are different and there's nothing you can do about it must be hell. The loss of her powers caused her to question her own self-worth because without them, who is she really? That's something that El is still in the process of discovering. Being the victim of bullying at the same time has reinforced this idea she has that her powers are what give her worth. With them she can defend herself, intimidate her enemies; without them she is a target. She must feel that people only liked her before because they thought her abilities were cool. This thought, plus the emotional toll that bullying causes, plus the fact that she only ever overheard Mike say that he loves her and it was while she still had her powers, and the fact that he hasn't said it in words since then has probably made her extremely insecure about whether his feelings for her are from a genuine place of love, like hers are for him.

Because El is struggling, and because Mike hasn't yet worked up the courage to vocalize his feelings, they fight. El is upset because she has probably started to doubt whether her boyfriend, who she cares about immensely, genuinely loves her or not. Mike is upset because he loves her so intensely and he tells her that in the way he knows how but she isn't receiving the message, and he doesn't know how to fix it. It's an unfortunate situation all around but I thought that it was a very realistic problem to present Mileven with and I absolutely adored how many layers there are to what's happening. Millie and Finn's performances were also spot on! The way you can see Millie's anger through her sadness and the absolute sincerity in Finn's whole person (his face, voice, even the little extra movements he does while speaking) really lend the emotions to the scene and make it feel real.

Anyone who says "El deserves better" is delusional or just hasn't considered how wonderful Mike actually is. How could she do any better than the boy who has cared for her unconditionally since the moment he met her? I mean, he put himself in danger to protect her and she's literally killed multiple people in front of him and he didn't bat an eye. All he wanted was to know that she was safe.

Anyone who says Mike doesn't love El: see the above. I don't know what show you're watching

ALL OF THIS TO SAY: I love Mike Wheeler because he is a flawed character. He's not perfect! He makes mistakes! But guess what, we all do. It's part of growing up and part of being human, so all it does is make him feel more like a real person to me. He's a lovely lil boy and I will defend him to my last breath, tumblr!!!!!!!

(i know this got really mf long but i will probably be active for a bit so send me more asks friends!!)

[justauthoring]

And The Story Goes...

Prompt(s): Hello there! I saw your requests were opened for haikyuu and I thought about a bokuto x f!reader where they're both already together but some friends of them wonder how Bo and her got together because they seem to have a complete different personality trait, like reader is super quiet and calm whereas Bo is full of energy and quite loud. So the story could be how they ended up in a relationship? And reader could actually be very talkative and lively around the right people (Bokuto 😝) Is this okay? Thank you so much for your work!!

Hi!! Could you pls write a Bokuto x reader fic where the reader goes to Fukurodani. This is set during the training camp at night when they’re joined by Tsukki. Maybe the reader is a manager or part of the girls team and is just visiting. The reader is friends with Kuroo and the members of the Fukurodani team. The guys are teasing Bokuto and/or reader cuz why not lol. Maybeee Tsukki can’t believe that Bokuto is dating the reader cuz the reader is awesome or something like that? (You can ignore the previous sentence if you want)It doesn’t have to follow this exactly, but I beg you pls pls pls have it during the training camp. You’re writing is soooo amazing and I trust whatever you think is best!! Hope you have a great day xx

Requested by: @ohwaitimthewriter​ + anonymous

A/N: Hello, yes, hi! I’m back from my short little break with this adorable oneshot. I thought these two were so similar I couldn’t help but combine them -- hope you both don’t mind! Pairing: Bokuto Koutarou x F!Reader

“I just don’t understand.”

Blinking at the sound of Tsukishima voice, you turn your attention from your clipboard to him with a curious tilt of your head, humming; “what’s that, Tsukki?”

And he eyes you for a moment, silent and carefully, before he turns and he gaze turns to the rest of the small crowd around the both of you -- but more specifically zones in on that of Bokuto, clearly puzzled. “How are you with him?”

He’s blunt because that’s just how he is, and but now you’ve grown adjusted to the first years somewhat blank voice and attitude that it doesn’t really phase you or insult you as much as you think it should. Part of you wants to be offended, and you’re not even sure if it’s for your sake or your boyfriends, but you’re not, and instead, you simply set down the notes you’d been taking for Bokuto and Akaashi’s sake and clasp your hands behind your back, smiling. 

“Because I love him.”

You say it so matter-of-factly that even Tsukishima blinks in response. He pauses another minute, as if contemplating, before his face twists into barely concealed disgust. “You’re so quiet and calm, but very smart and analytical when you want to be,” you blink at the compliment, “and he’s so... not.”

“Not?”

“He’s loud,” Tsukishima frowns, “all the time. And he’s not very--”

You cut him off with a small squeal, the sudden feeling of arms wrapped tenderly around your waist surprising you, and the lack of footing beneath your feet. But the surprise only lasts a second because it isn’t all that hard to realize who it is when you hear a familiar cackle and the touch becomes recognizable. 

“Ko!”

You’re laughing as he sets you down, and the second you have your balance, you spin in his arms, smiling up at him. You notice then that Kuroo, Akaashi and Lev have also followed your boyfriend off the court, where they’d previously been doing some extra practicing.

“Hey babe,” he grins, all tooth-like, down at you.

“Everything okay?” You frown gently, “why’d you guys stop? You didn’t hurt yourself, right?”

Your eyes are already flickering across his body in search when Kuroo steps forward, laughing lightly; “no, the idiot just didn’t like that you weren’t watching him,” your lips form an ‘o’, and Kuroo turns to Tsukishima. “Besides, we lost a player.”

“Moo,” Bokuto frowns, hair deflating with with a pout, “what’s so important about Tsukki that you weren’t watching me anymore, Y/N/N?”

“Oh,” shrugging, you turn to Tsukishima, “Tsukki was actually asking me how you and I started dating, Ko.” 

Tsukishima frowns, and you know it’s because that’s definitely not what he’d been asking, but he holds his tongue -- or rather, is forced to when Kuroo speaks up before he can. 

“Actually,” Kuroo calls, brows furrowing, “I don’t even know how you two met.”

“You never told him?” You ask Bokuto, who shrugs down at you.

“Never came up.”

“I always just assumed the two of you met through volleyball.”

“They didn’t,” Akaashi shakes his head, “Y/N-san became manager because of Bokuto-san.”

Rolling your eyes, you laugh at the memory. “He’d been begging me to for so long,” you shake your head, yet there’s still a bright smile present upon your lips. “It was a bit weird starting a new club in my second year, but Bokuto had pull with the coach and he said I already was there every night for practice that it made sense anyways.”

Bokuto squeezes you then, pulling you flush against his chest as he grins brightly; “which means Y/N always gets to see me play now.”

“Oh, hush,” you lightly slap his chest, to which he pouts again, “I went to every one of your games anyways.”

He doesn’t argue. Mainly cause you’re right.

“That’s great,” Tsukishima drawls, “but that still doesn’t explain how you met.”

You turn to him in surprise, him being the last one you expected to ask that since he hadn’t really wanted to know in the first place anyways. And by the expression on his face, or the way he flushes lightly when you smirk knowingly at him, he hadn’t really expected himself to ask it either.

“I assume it still has to do with volleyball,” Lev grins, excitedly leaning into the conversation.

You blink when you realize just how interested everyone seems to actually be, even Akaashi seems mildly interested and he’s never asked before. 

Well, who are you to deny.

“You’re right, Lev,” you grin brightly. “He hit me in the head with a volleyball.”

There’s a pause, it lasts for no more then a minute, and then a sputter of surprise, gasps and chokes echoing around you as every boy wears a different expression of surprise. Akaashi and Tsukishima are the most tame, which isn’t surprising. Tsukishima just seems... really the same, Akaashi’s eyes have widened slightly, but he doesn’t seem all that shocked.

Maybe it’s because he probably knows Bokuto best besides you.

Lev looks flabbergasted, eyes bulged and lips parted. And Kuroo... well, Kuroo’s laughing like a hyena like he does when he finds something really funny; arms wrapped around his stomach, tears coming out of his eyes, the sort, and Bokuto looks so absolutely insulted that you’re almost scared it’s enough to bring him into his emo-mode despite not even being on the court.

“You hit her in the head with a volleyball!”

“Honestly, that makes sense.”

“Akaashi!”

“Sorry, Bokuto-san.”

“Bu-But!” You desperately cut in, shaking your hands in front of you. “He was really apologetic and sweet, and literally brought me flowers every day to school just to say sorry again. And in the grand scheme of things, I’m glad he hit me in the head with that volleyball or else I never would’ve met him.”

“Aweh, babe~”

“Even if it did give me a mild concussion.”

“Babe-! Don’t laugh, Kuroo!”

Bokuto pulls from you to swat Kuroo, who ducks from his hit and before you know it the two are chasing each other. Lev instantly goes to join, just excited to be apart of everything, and with a long sigh, Akaashi goes to reign in Bokuto, leaving you and Tsukishima alone.

You watch Bokuto for a moment longer before speaking, “to answer your question, I’m with Bokuto because he makes me the best I can be.” You eye him out of the corner of your eye. “He may be loud and a lot, but I’m not really my true self without him.”

Tsukishima still seems puzzled and honestly, you’re not that surprised -- having been helping the Gym three squad after practice for the past few days, you’ve come to learn that Tsukishima’s not all that understanding a simple human relationships and seems to struggle opening up to other people.

You hope, however, he’ll learn to understand what you mean.

“Oh, and Tsukishima?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t ever call my boyfriend stupid again.”

You send him a short smile, raising a brow at him as his lips part, surprise flooding his gaze.

“Y/N/N~! Come watch me spike!”

“Of course, Ko.”

-

Have I said how much I love Bokuto?

[xiao-cafe]

drabble game — prompt 20

pairing: childe x gn!reader

prompt: “don’t try to fix me. i’m not broken.”

tags: modern au, fluff, established relationship

wc: 0.6k

summary: childe makes fun of you LMAO

It’s a little past 11pm when Childe slides off the side of your bed and crawls over on all-fours to where your shelf was, expressing his delight as he fishes out the old yearbook that had caught his attention in the first place. Putting aside your manga, you blink away your sleepiness before looking over at Childe curiously, wondering what had gotten him so excited all of a sudden.

You groan outwardly when you realize what Childe had in his hands. Had it been any other yearbook, you would’ve been fine with it. But your boyfriend had specifically chosen the year you went through your ‘emo phase’ and immediately your mind conjured a few choice memories of your dark past. You scrambled to get to your feet, taking two long strides and throwing your weight onto his back, rocking the both of you forward. Your boyfriend only yelped in response before righting himself with ease, swatting away your hands that tried to grab the yearbook. 

“Childe, don’t look, please?” You whine into his ear as you cover his eyes with your hands. “But I want to see how cute you were when you were younger!” Childe whines back, his tone is mocking but you let it slide, choosing to take your revenge by biting his ear. You’re disappointed when Childe barely flinches at the pain, snickering as he continues to scour the pages for a glimpse of a younger you. A pout makes it way onto your face as you stare at the side of his face. Childe’s eyes are glimmering with undeniable glee and you feel your resolve weaken immensely. After all, how could you stop him when he’s grinning so adorably?

You sigh in defeat, letting your arms flop idly as you peer at the pages from your shoulder. “Next time let me see your old yearbooks,” You say, anticipation building in your chest at the thought of finding Childe’s old pictures. “That’s impossible, I already burned them.” He replies nonchalantly.

Your response is interrupted by Childe’s sudden intake of breath as he points at a familiar, unsmiling face. “Is that you!?” Childe gasps. He nearly knocks you off his back as he sits up abruptly, bringing the yearbook close to his face so that he could examine the picture clearly. “Were you having an emo phase back then?” He asks as you slide off his back to sit behind him. Your face twists into a mix between a frown and a grimace as you grumble your affirmation, “Yeah, it was a pretty weird time for me but I’ve grown to be better from it.” 

Childe lets out a laugh at your response, “You’ve become cuter too.” You blush at the compliment and scoot closer to your boyfriend, resting your cheek on his shoulder as you watch him flip to the last page. 

Ah.

Beside you, Childe erupts into a fit of giggles as he points at the only sentence written on the last page. “Don’t try to fix me.” He manages to say in-between giggles, “I’m not broken.” Your face darkens as Childe continues to laugh unabashedly, it was embarrassing to say the least. “This is why I didn’t want you to see this.” You sigh, shaking your head as you delivered a swift jab into your boyfriend’s side before getting up from the floor. Childe looks at you with tears in his eyes, chest still heaving from how hard he had laughed.

“Where are you going?” He asks as he reaches for your hand.

“I’m going to text Scaramouche for your old pictures.” You smirk, ignoring his pleas for you to stop.

end.

[blacklight-ghoulette]

alright so i'm seriously in the dark, what happened?

it'll be easiest for me to quote the reddit posts I read on it.

Going under a cut due to length so I don't kill anyone with a wall of text.

From u/awkwardtiefling:

"For those who make it to this thread first, a summary:

Per(lead guitar aka Fire/Dew) is connected in some way with a model named Paris. Paris supported Trump and has posted culturally insensitive content in the past, i.e. a bellydancer looking costume tagged as "g*psy" amongst other typically associated ones, and posted a photo on Thanksgiving while wearing a stereotypical Halloween store style Native American costume, war bonnet included.

They were also upset that she had a weird phase with King Tut and were unhappy that she was "sexualizing a child." He died at 19 so that's not really the issue. Just seemed like a weird and ultimately harmless phase.

From there, they assumed they may have been dating and got very, very upset. She's in a long term relationship with Don McLean of American Pie fame and I believe he's also in a relationship with someone as well? But they've dug through old photos to jump to conclusions and presumably harassed Per off IG with shitty messages, which is unfortunate because now he's being called childish for completely stepping away and removing himself from the issue. Paris is still being hounded as being racist and dangerous(because she supported Trump and obviously hates all LGBTQ+ people).

He's going to care more for her even if she's not squeaky clean than what some deranged kiddos on Twitter think about her. Sucks for him and the rest of the group, though. I have no doubt they'd start pestering the rest them about this.

edit:

Since I know they're poking around Reddit, it's one thing to point out the issues with a person and it's another entirely to harass someone off the internet because of who they're associated with. Some of you certainly did just that and need to accept that some of you needled him into reacting the way he did. Per is likely fully aware and just happens to be able to overlook Paris's past for who she is now.

As far as Paris goes, she probably isn't going to take any of your concerns into consideration. Nobody reacts well to being bombarded and she's just going to dig her heels in and ignore you the more you do it. If she's ever truly regretful for what she did, she'll apologize when she's ready or has a PR person badger her into it."

From u/SchoolfGhoul:

"Pword stand for Per. It's the real name of the lead guitar ghoul. Twitter folk seem to have a real issue with just using his name. They were complaining about the fact that apparently he doesn't like being called 'Dewdrop' and were making a real drama out of thinking like the fandom had upset him or something. The guitarist is a 40 year old man who probably doesn't give 2 shits about some nickname some fans made. However clearly he does take issue with all the drama and vilification that's being going about over who he chooses to be friends with. It's all really stupid and thanks to a few idiotic, immature teenagers who can't deal with someone else spending time with a guy who they have some obsession with, Per shut down his Instagram. I don't blame him really. The man has had a successful career since the late 90s as a Death Metal musician where he could play guitar without being harrassed on social media. I enjoy speaking to the Swedish Death Metal community group on FB. It's where all the cool fans and musicians hang out."

From u/ya_boi_jayy:

"It's a load of horse shit, I'm sure at this point you already know what's going on but I'm adding on to the story. I was added to a Ghost group chat a while ago for some reason. Here are some things they've said about Per.

"manz is a grown ass adult acting like he's 12"

"He woke up and chose emo😭"

"like babe, you are not the main character. don't get me wrong, i love per but.. ARE YOU THAT DESPERATE FOR SOME 😺"

"yeah he posted some edgy lyrics in his story and deleted his account an hour after"

"Per bestie I loved u sm, all this for some 😺😺? HDNDB"

"man he was so desperate to get his 🍆💦"

"they have matching bracelets?? they're in sweden together? they're definitely sleeping together"

"he deleted his Instagram last time when he got caught cheating on his ex fiancé, he is definitely sleeping with her"

This is such bullshit, people can't mind their own business. It's fucked up. For some reason they hate him now meanwhile yesterday they were all like "omg he's so cute i love him sm 🥺🥺🥺" PLUS they're all saying that they're the mature ones.

Here's what Per posted on his story before deleting it.

"Just cause you don't understand what's going on. Don't mean it don't make no sense. And just 'cause you don't like it, don't mean it ain't no good. And let me tell you something. Before you go taking a walk in my world. You better take a look at the real world. Cause this ain't no Mister Roger's Neighborhood. Can you Say "Feel like shit"? Yeah, maybe sometimes I do feel like shit ain't happy 'bout it but I'd rather feel like shit than be full of shit. And if I offended you. Oh, I'm sorry but maybe you need to be offended. But here's my apology and one more thing, FUCK YOU!""

So, yeah. All this shit.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Comics: Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime or Weblena: The Preschool Days (Lena Retrospective) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, My Lena Retrospective, which fittingly has now come to Women’s History Month! I sadly do not have anything besides this arc prepared for the month. This month is pretty packed for me with two shows a week to cover, as while there’s only two weeks of Ducktales left final space starts up right after to take it’s spot, two arcs to cover, and two time specific movie reviews: animal crossing the movie and the 1990 TMNT film. I will try to get more than the currently planned top 12 superheroines list out there... but this month is very tight as is, so if I do not I deeply apologize.

Now that’s out of the way, it’s appropriate we start Women’s history month on some likely lesser known parts of Lena’s history, with some comics stories focusing on our faviorite emo lesbian duck and her 87 counterpart. Before I get started on that though Kev my patreon pointed out something intresting a few weeks back i’ve been forgetting to get to and since we’re looking into Minima, I felt this was the perfect time to do so: Lena’s Concept art. 

There’s quite a few things to gleam from this. For starters as pointed out in the reddit thread I got the image as a whole from this was made in 2015, meaning Lena was one of the first new characters designed for the series and was part of it from the VERY early stages, as evidenced by the fact that despite clearly having their new personalities established, Beakly and Webby still had the old designs. 

The other notable change is that her first design was way more like both Magica nad Minima, a bit more modern, but clearly far more obvious who she was related to. She also had all black feathers making the shadow twist a bit more obvious and was likely done away with both to avoid giving that twist away, the same reason for the fake lestrange name, and to avoid accidently black coding her, as while Lena being black would’ve been intersting, it also would’ve invited a firestorm of controversy given that their one black character in season 1.. woul’dve started off as a homeless, manipulative antagonist, and none of that would play well nor was it something the progressive crew of this show couldn’t spot from a mile away.  And even this early on they have an almost final design ready, simply changing the shirt to fit her personality more, and her hair to be pink because it honestly looked better She also had green eyes throughout, but for whatever reason they phased them out. That part I don’t quite get as they look nice but probably they were hard to translate to the reboot style once they settled on their own. Her purple eyeshadow and haircut though have stuck since and were good calls. 

One last VERY obvious note.. Webby was gay for Lena from minute one. While Dana helped it is now VERY obvious they gay coded this relationship from the design phase, and the crew was entirely aware the whole time and I gave them less credit than I should have. They clearly had this in mind, and it’s very likely ONLY subtext because Disney, while making more and more progress, is very reluctant to have queer characters as Owl House was a struggle and since they have a tighter leash on properites based on the sensational 6, that means Frank knew they had the same odds of making Webby or Della queer in anything but subtext that a pig has of suviving in a slaughterhouse. I bring this up because I fear the series getting accused of queerbaiting somewhere down the road instead of doing what they could with a bad hand and hoping they could make the show as gay as they could. Penny is as out as they posisbly could get her, and Violet and Lena’s dad’s got a full apperance, if no speaking role that made it obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt their gay and did it in a plot important episode. So they did their best and I want them to get credit for that. 

But while this is all intresting stuff, join me under the cut for the meat of today’s review as I dig into Lena’s only apperance in the tie-in comic that was never punished here, and the only apperance of her protoype Minima.

Spies Like Us:  As I mentioned this comic was never published here which is doubly weird to me because of how I knew this story existed. Since I follow comics weekly and buy trades reguarly, I read the solicits companies put out eveyr month to see what new series are coming, what the ones i’m currently reading are doing, and what trades are coming out. That sort of thing, and it’s something I love. I know their basically adds.. but their well put together adds that really pull you into the books you like. The big two and the indies are all very good at it and sometimes i’ts the only way to know a comic is coming if the company dosen’t make a press release for it ahead of time. 

So naturally given there are several comics I follow at idw, paticuarlly the TMNT comics, I read those solicits and found they were going to do an issue with Webby and Lena becoming spies, and was excited about it. I ended up forgetting about it and never really followed the Ducktales comic as it came out, and upon reading an issue or two recently, one for another comission by kev as one story, happy happy valley, was particularly terrible. For those who haven’t read the story or my review, it involved the family getting stranded on an island where their forced to partake in activites and smile..that somehow turned into an aseop about Louie wanting to be rich. It ended with this

Yes.. really. That actually happened. But even with this, I fully planned to cover the issue when I covered Lena, and brought it up to Kev when he commissioned the retrospective. He gave me the discord equilvent of a blank stare and had never heard of it. I soon found out why: the story was replaced as, and fair play to disney, it spoiled Beakly’s past from the agent 23 episode which wasn’t going to air in time.  What dosen’t work is they never reprinted the story in The US.. didn’t put it in a future issue and just swap it’s place didn’t put it in the nothing. And the story was fully complete as we’ll see, with a cover and everything so they had no excuse whatsoever to NEVER use it, even with what happened to Lena in the season finale, this clearly took place before that and it was weird to just shelve it because of that. But thankfully when a bunch of the stories were reprinted overseas, this and another one, also webby centric got published overseas. But not in english.

Lucky for me, I was able to find an english translation of an english story which you can read RIGHT HERE. It was translated by @neopuff and I thank them for it as without them this review would not be possible and want to give them all the credit. So was it worth all their hard work translating it? Well let’s take a look. 

We begin at the Manor where Lena is skulking around suspiciously.. though it turns out she and Webby are just playing hide and seek. Though Lena accuses cheating. The dialouge here is pretty flat though that’s not Neopuff’s fault at all. As I can attest from reading other stories a lot of the early IDW comics are just this flat in dialoguge no matter the writer as they were likely given character descriptions and basic info about the show they likely had written up for merchandising and Frank and Co were given no involvement and likely weren’t made avaliable to consult on the comics to help them be a bit more fleshed out. It’s very obvious to me Disney just tried to get these pumped out so they’d have a series in stores to tie in without carring about qualities and given Scrooge debuted in comics, their lack of care toward that side of things in general, but especially in the first american published original duck comics in a while, bothers me a lot. It’s inexcusable. 

That being said the story isn’t half bad nor is the setup as the two hear a beeping and find it’s Beakly’s phone going off with a mysterious message from Q, Webby thinks she’s been reactivated, and is encouraged by Lena to go look after her while she stays along. While Webby says in response

It just feels grossly out of character for both. Lena is far more subtle about manipulation as shown five minutes ago and Webby blindly trusts her. Because she has a massive crush on her and is naïve about how the world works. It just seems very odd of her to get suspicious as she never does on screen, and again it comes off as Disney having barely given the writers any materials on them when i’m sure Frank or Matt would’ve been happy to write up a thing for them to help outside of the usual press materials they were given. 

Though hte last line isn’t all that out of character and has an obvious answer as within a jumpcut Launchpad’s taking them to London and is told to blend in.. which he does with an australian flag and accent.. good gag. 

So our heroines do some heroic breaking and entering and look for the package, but soon find while hiding it’s already in transit.. and had obvious bows on int. Whoops. Our heroes trie the old follow tha tcar bit and refreshingly, it dosen’t pan out as the guy stops and tells them to get out. A nice twist. Unable to follow, our heroes instead find launchpad lost, as his map is upside down

So Lena dares him if he can follow that plane, a nice bit of character for both. I will give Joe credit. While the dialouge’s a bit flat and there was that out of character moment.. for the most part he does nail the actual character down and does use it decently enough. He’s just not given enough page room or actual details to work  with is all. 

So while our heroes follow they end up having to crash as they run out of fuel.. lucky their with the expert but end up near home where the package is delivered to. Turns out this wasn’t a spy thing, this was just a thing with her aunt. That’s fine and a nice gag.. it’s just ruined by just sorta.. ending. Lena leaves disapointed and Beakly scolds webby for “playing spy” and she’s sad. That’s it that’s how it ends. Which dosen’t fit the characters, as while Beakly would defintely scold her, it just dosen’t FIT that she’d be that tearse or not appricate the effort or give her an actual lecture and it feels like Joe had no idea how to end this after the gag and just.. ended it. 

Final Thoughts for Spies Likes Us: This was okay.  It is a bit of a disappointment as for the only story not available.. i’ts just okay and not really above an average Ducktales comics story, with some nice character bits but feeling a bit weak overall, as do at least the first half of the idw comics. I haven’t read the later stuff to see if it got better. It’s worth a read if you like Webby and Lena as characters and it’s not BAD, it’s just not anything impressive and is a simple hyjinks filled misunderstanding story. 

Dime After Dime:

So now  we go back a bit to the original. I didn’t do these in chronological order because frankly, Dime after Dime is the better story of the two and the bigger one at that, so I have more to work with here. But the original also had comics and honestly from the few i’ve read much BETTER comics. I chalk this up to two things: The Ducktales 87 comics seem to have come out AFTER the series was already a hit, and since Ducktales is pretty close to the original uncle scrooge comics minus it’s own tweaks here and there, it’s easy enough to just write the stories like you would a regular uncle scrooge story, just with Webby and Launchpad added, whereas the idw writers were staffed with writing for all new versions of the characters with noticable differences without much to go on.  It’s why to me with tie in comics you have two options: Wait long enough so you can put your story inbtween the episodes like the Steven Universe and Regular Show comics did or just make your own continuity entirely like the Adventure Time Comics and the Archie TMNT Adventures series did. The ONLY time i’ve seen a comic work like this is the Bravest Warriors comic, which had a talented writer and fit well enough in the margins until it sadly ended.. and honestly is BETTER in some cases than the series. I might get to it someday. The point is this comic shows why you need to have a deft hand adapting something instead of just falling your arms about and hoping it’ll work. 

So today’s comic was part of some Disney Series called cartoon tales, which clearly repackaged comic stories from wherever, and put them together. I don’t know much about it and the only other issue avaliable collects the disney adventures adaptation of “Just Us Justice Ducks”, which I might cover at some point. This book does have two other stories which i’d be happy to do on comission or on my own at some point, one involving gladstone the other gizmoduck, but for now, i’m just sticking to the title story and the reason you all came here. 

So we open with Magica gazing into her crystal ball from her Mt. Vesuvies base saying that Scrooge will never know what hit him I know exactly what and who wiil hit him thank you very much. 

Scrooge is seeing Webby off to her first day of day camp, getting all teary eyed which is touching. Beakly apparently goes with her as the story never SAYS Sshe does but she’s not also not around when the story moves on, as Launchpad says it looks like rain. Scrooge dismisses him, though Launchpad turns out to be right. Scrooge had good reason for once though, instead of just being a dick good on you comic for making me not want to punch him in the face, trust me that is a high bar to clear with the scrooge comics, as the weather was fine just a minute ago. Naturally it was Magica All Along! Nothing scrooge can do now that eveyrthing has gone wrong! Her entrance though is sadly not a catchy earwormy tune, but .. this confusing line

I think your thinking of Gladstone. And he’s still single so.. have at that but no Scrooge is the one who values hard work over anything else and brags about THAT or being rich. I .. I don’t get this line and frankly I don’t want to. Even in stories where the dime is supernaturally lucky and the source of his wealth he dosen’t boast about it because he’s not stupid and dosen’t want everyone knowing how to bankrupt him instantly. This line will baffle me until I die, presumably, given my life’s tragetctory, after reviewing an episode of mighty ducks and slipping on some a jerky wrapper. 

Scrooge asks what she wants... 

No this isn’t that kind of story sadly. Her plan is to.. zap the bin with lightning and take the dime. Really just went with your first draft didn’t you magica? But as stupid as this plan is Scrooge has prepared for it. He installed a lightning rod on the bin to save on power, and to power his new super soaker traps. So all Magica did was save him money. She flies off and nothing is acomplished. 

So we get back to Webby at the Teenie Weenie Day Camp.. and just so you don’t think that was a terrible joke on my part...

My theory for how this name got approved at all is the editor KNEW how that sounded and just wanted to see if Disney would actually print a comic with the phrase Teenie Weenie without getting what it means in slang or how hilariously inapproriate it is to namme a children’s camp after it. 

Your probably wondering who that grown woman calling Webby a dweeb is. Well story wise, she’s SUPPOSED to be another kid at the camp around Webby’s age. In practice, she looks like THIS in closeup

So it looks and plays like a 30 year old woman snuck into the day camp and no one’s noticed she’s not actually a children. Or their just humoring her because she had a week to live. I don’t know. I do know she doesn’t get to judge on names. 

Snippy Von Glitz, proof rich people really do hate their kids and this this comic is trying personally to give me material. Snippy is your average alpha bitch, taking a chair from Minma and being obnoxious and classist and all that jazz. Minima gets hers back by making the chair bouncy then returning it to normal so Snippy gets in trouble when she makes up things about the chair, with the lady in charge getting ready to call her Dad. You cannot convince me that her “Dad” is just what she calls her husband, this is how they both get off, and that the lady at the preschool only tolerates it because they pay her a lot and so far the kids haven’t noticed Snippy is 30. Webby likes minima finding her name pretty, proving that the ho yay is alive no matter the webby and magica relative, and Minma returns the favor by saving her from a block. 

Minma is reluctant to make an actual friend, finding they aren’t worth anything and given most of the kids here apparently pick on her and her aunt is well.. Magica, it’s understandable why she’d be so cold. But Webby presses on and says something from Scrooge about friends. Which given Ducktales scrooge has none goes weird but it gets Minma to find out she knows and lives with Scrooge, so she cons webby into taking the dime for show and tell, showing that she can manipulate them with her powers, and that he won’t notice it’s missing, getting her with “I thought you wanted to be friends” 

So let’s pause for a second and compare and contrast the two: Both are the niece, or at least sorta in Lena’s case, of Magica, both manipulate webby, and both are her first real friend: The 87 boys are little monsters and I don’t consider them friends or even brothers, while the 2017 ones are just that: brothers. Their her siblings in all but blood, not friends and have hteir own long complicated history. 

But otherwise the two are vastly different. Lena is a far more complex character as she’s been abused her whole life, is a rebel because Magica hardly gave her agency, and while she starts wooing webby out of self interest it’s clear even as far as the first episode she cares. Lena would gladly be part of the world if she could and this whole scheme is to gain that choice. 

Minma is still sympathetic but very different: She walls herself off because the other kids laugh and mock her for being herself and lashes out at them.. not unreasonably mind , but still feeling she needs no one else.. but as we’ll learn later she’s only helping Magica to finally feel accepted, to get all the fancy clothes and stuff that will make her popular instead of that grown woman masquerading as a kid for disturbing reasons. Minma is at her heart just a hurt kid desperate to fit in. And while Lena shares the desire for a place to belong.. it’s at it’s core much sadder. Lena.. wants a family. Someone to love her and to care about her and actually look after her. Minma has that she just wants to be loved. it’s similar but very diffrent and I can see why Lena evolved into what she did, as Frank and Matt ended up going in a far darker but ultimately more interesting direction. Minima is not a bad character at all though and without her I don’t think we would’ve had Lena, but at the end of the day the 87verse is just not that complicated, so the reboot needed something more and that more evolved into who we have now. 

Both kids excitedly talk about their new friends, with their respective guardians being distracted. Scrooge is distracted by the fact his car is a bit bumpy and Launchpad offers to fix it up for free with some parts from a buddy, which given the sentence “This won’t cost you anything” makes him erect, Scrooge agrees. Magica meanwhile, whose watching Minima while her mom is away which raises a LOT of questions we don’t have time for like who she is, is she’s poes wife or does Magica have other siblings... it’s a lot of questions we’re never going to get answers to. 

The next day Webby got the dime easy as Scrooge was distracted. so Minima swaps them while she’s distracted. But while swiping it was easy, which to be fair Webby is likely approved in his security so it woudln’t match her.. or the story just needed to progress. You make the call. 

Magica does the logical thing and goes and get sthe dime and the story ends there.. and i’m shitting you, she of course brags to scrooge, reveals minima as her spy, and offers to RACE him for it shortly after he realizes he has a fake.

The only major flaw in this story is Magica’s overconfdience, which isn’t BAD persay, but here has gotten to dumbass proportions. She just can’t plan for anything and a CHILD has a better plan than her that only dosen’t work for reasons we’ll get to. And that plan is almost ruined by Magica taunting scrooge!

So a race is on but Launchpad has transformed Scrooge’s old Model T into this

Damn that’s cool. Scrooge of course dosen’t like it, but honestly you get what you paid for. Oh that’s right you paid nothing for something you NEED to use every day for transportation. 

At  the rickity thickity bridge, Steve Buschemi’s worst roll and her minion ask Webby to roll with them and Minima mistakes this for betrayal planning to soak them all.. only for Webby to DEFEND HER, pointing out minma’s her friend, how she dresses is fine and she loves her no matter what.. the last part’s implied. The 30-year old asshole and her minon leave Webby and Minma is genuinely touched, as no one’s done that for her before. She put up so many walls... she didn’t realize someone could ACTUALLY care about her, so obessed with thinking she had to be like that soccer mom in preschoolers clothing, she just had to be herself: kinda werid but in that fun adams family way. Webby says she knows Minma would do the same.. so while she prepares to let’s get back to the race. Magica realizes Launchpad’s roadster is actually gaining and spreads some tacks, but Scrooge counters with some money.. because of course he has a lot of money in the trunk. But Magica takes out the bridge and while scrooge awesomely JUMPS IT... he’s still too late. 

As you probably guess though, Minima had a change of heart, and gave Webby the real dime back, and Scrooge confirms it. Minima TRIES to tell Magica, and Magica is horrified her niece is a goody goody “I”ll never hear the end of it at my astral aerobics class”.. I.. I want to see that. Let’s raise those spirit ladies and kick kick that soul, doge that shadow king punch them in the soul. Yes! Now eat it eat it and absorb it’s power!

We end on a button joke as Webby apologizes for taking the dime., Scrooge accepts it and Webby tells them magica learned to carpet and they gulp for some reason. 

Final Thoughts on Dime after Dime: This story was decent. It has problems, some jokes don’t land and Magica is made horribly incompetent, but minima’s character arc is endearing, and Webby herself is precious as always and her winning Minima over feels genuine. And Scrooge is in prime adoring uncle mode with her and i’ts just so cute. And the roadster race is pretty awesome to watch honestly. It’s an exceptional and enjoyable tie in story.. and not the last ducktales 87 story we’ll be covering here. Wink wonk. 

Next Time: Things get DARK as Lena and Webby head into the depths of Scrooge’s hidden bin and Lena heads into the depths of her own soul. 

Tommorow: Woo-Ooo mofos as we go back to the very beginning of the reboot! A family restored, a lost city to explore, and a glomgold rises! Be here or be square. 

[pendragonsandbuckleys]

Reclaiming that broken youth.

Summary: Michael had made it his mission to relive a small piece of the past with Alex. First he tried with the rings, two chunky black and silver things that he’d claimed had been left at the junkyard during his one of his shifts. Alex had simply joked that they weren’t his style anymore and left it at that.

The eyeliner had been a much harder sell and still Alex had refused.

And now, as he was ambling his way up the driveway, he was starting to think that maybe his third attempt would not be so lucky.

-

aka. Michael convinces Alex to let him dye his hair.

Word Count: 4,949

[Also on AO3] 

Was it embarrassing the number of excuses he’d found to come and see Alex? Yes.

Was he going to stop anytime soon? Not likely.

Nostalgia had been rearing its ugly head again leaving him craving a time long since passed and he’d been coming up with whatever reason he could to justify seeing Alex. Going to his house, or the Project Shepard bunker, or the Crashdown where he just happened to bump into him. 

The photo of the two of them had been moved from the cardboard box to the desk along with the few other pictures he treasured of Max and Isobel - he couldn’t make it too obvious after all. But seeing the two of them together like that often made him miss what they used to have. Things were so much simpler back then, until they weren’t.

The problem with nostalgia though was that the feelings weren’t real. They were an echo of what used to be that tended to leave an uncomfortable emptiness the longer you thought about it.

That time had passed and there was no getting it back. Unless?

Surely they didn’t need to be seventeen again to get that feeling back. That soft, carefree feeling that used to settle on their skin as they kissed in the desert.

That’s why he had made it his mission to relive a small piece of the past with Alex. First he tried with the rings, two chunky black and silver things that he’d claimed had been left at the junkyard during one of his shifts. Alex had simply joked that they weren’t his style anymore and left it at that.

The eyeliner had been a much harder sell and still Alex had refused.

And now, as he was ambling his way up the driveway, he was starting to think that maybe his third attempt would not be so lucky.

Three quick taps on the wood brought Alex to the door and he was so focused on the sight of him that Michael barely noticed the smile it brought to his own face. He was in full casual wear, t-shirt, jogging bottoms, matching bed hair sticking up in a perfect mess.

“Hey.” Alex welcomed him with a bright smile. If he was at all surprised to see Michael on his doorstep on an early Saturday morning with absolutely no warning, he hid it very well. His eyes darted over to see where the truck had been parked comfortably on the driveway, before flitting back to Michael.

“I thought we could have some fun.” Michael spoke with a smirk, forgoing any formal greeting, eyes already glistening with mischief. And oh how differently that sentence would have been taken when they were seventeen.

Alex was about to step aside without hesitation when he noticed the box held gently in Michael’s grip. He eyed it warily, already sensing the reasoning for the visit. “What is that?”

“Fun!”

“Um no, I believe that’s called hair dye.”

“Just hear me out.” Michael grinned as he confidently side-stepped his way through the doorway and into the house. “We haven’t hung out properly in a while and we both have the day off…”

Alex shook his head as he pushed the door closed behind him and followed Michael towards the living room. He never would have denied Michael entry, but there was something about him making himself at home that gave Alex a warm feeling in his chest. “See, you keep saying we but I don’t see a box of dye for your hair anywhere.”

“Yeah, well I never had an emo phase, did I?”

“The important word there being phase.” Alex crossed his arms against his chest as he peered down at Michael’s hands again. It was a white box with a bunch of writing on it, but the guy on the front was very clearly modelling the black dye inside. “You know I never actually used to dye my hair back then, right?”

Michael shrugged and waved his hand in the air as if to say whatever, we’re doing it anyway and handed the box over for Alex to get a better look. “You vetoed my other options so I’m stepping up my game.”

Alex watched him closely, noting how he squirmed slightly under his gaze. At first, when Michael had started dropping by a few weeks ago, always at odd hours, always unannounced, Alex had been worried. The ‘hanging out’ excuse could easily have been a guise, an easy escape from any problems he was avoiding and Alex didn’t know how long was best to let Michael hide from whatever was going on.

But seeing him now, wide eyes filled with an innocent sort of playfulness, it looked like Michael really did just want to spend time with him. Even if he did have the most random idea for a pass time. “Why are you so desperate for me to dress all emo again?”

“For…fun?”

Alex chewed his bottom lip to hide the small smile threatening to emerge. “I’m only off work for a week, you know.”

“That’s why it’s temporary.” Michael turned the box around in Alex’s hand and tapped at the words printed clearly on the back. “Three washes and it’s gone.”

“You’ve got an answer for everything, haven’t you?”

-

Michael wasted no time in getting them set up. He grabbed a spare plastic bowl from the kitchen cupboard, an old towel that Alex didn’t care about dirtying and set Alex’s shower stool in front of the large bathroom mirror. 

He should have been embarrassed by how excited he was getting, but he was far too busy being filled with said excitement to care. Against all odds, Alex had actually agreed to do this with very little persuasion required and there was no way he was letting him change his mind.

Alex didn’t interrupt as Michael rummaged his way around the house, finding what he needed and he certainly didn’t show his bemusement at how Michael seemed to know exactly where everything was. And once everything was ready, he took his place in the designated seat, strangely nervous at the thought of Michael dyeing his hair.

Though maybe it wasn’t nerves. He certainly had butterflies, though it could be from the thought of engaging in this teenage sleepover-esque activity. For the boy he liked to come over to his house and willingly run his fingers through his hair for the next hour? Seventeen year old Alex would have done anything for this.

“Right, tell me what to do.” Michael said as he pulled the instructions from the box and handed them to Alex before emptying the rest of the contents next to the sink. He’d probably end up doing it his own way, but he just wanted to give Alex an excuse to stop staring at him as he worked.

As Alex unravelled the instructions a small packet of gloves fell out onto his lap. They didn’t look the sturdiest but it was better than nothing. “There’s the gloves so make sure you wear them,” he said as he placed them next to the bowl.

He gave a quick skim read of the words to get a general idea of what do. There was a lot of writing and he doubted Michael would be patient for long enough to get through it all. “Oh okay, this sounds pretty easy, literally just brush it evenly through my hair.”

Michael nodded distractedly as he carefully fiddled with the lid of the tube. The room wasn’t exactly big and he’d already elbowed a wall with one arm and knocked the empty bowl to the floor with the other. Tripping over the towel had been an added bonus that Alex had enjoyed far too much. He had no idea where this clumsiness had suddenly come from, but now he was being extra careful with everything.

“Put it in gently. We don’t want it going everywhere.” Alex instructed him as he squeezed the dye into the bowl. The coal-black cream squelched as it left the tube and a small drop splattered onto the white tile wall which Michael hastily wiped with the back of his hand. It smeared across the wall at first until he managed to clean it all off.

With everything set up, he clamped Alex’s towel covered shoulders and beamed at him through the mirror’s reflection. “You ready?”

“Go for it.” Alex rolled his eyes at the enthusiasm radiating off Michael. Yep, he definitely felt like a teenager right now.

Michael started out slow. The dye was cool against his fingers as he scooped a blob into his palm. He knew Alex would be able to wash it out almost instantly if it ended up looking terrible, but still, he didn’t want to get it wrong.

He took a breath before reaching for Alex’s hair. Only now did it click just how intimate this activity was for two people who had barely done more than stand a few feet away from each other recently. He thought it would be a bit of fun, getting Alex to dress up in his old high school persona that they both used to love. But now, with the dye in his hand, he realised that meant running his fingers through Alex’s hair. An action that he used to love whenever they kissed. The smooth strands under his fingertips, pulling him closer when he could no longer control his urges.

But they were friends now. And friends dyed each other’s hair, right? Friends helped each other put on makeup or decided outfits if one was going on a date, so doing each other’s hair was no different from all of that.

The strands of hair slid across his palm easily, turning from dark brown to black with a single touch. It felt just as soft as it did ten years ago.

The room was silent as he worked save for Michael’s movements and the occasional hmm from Alex. Michael wasn’t sure if Alex realised that he was making the little noises but he was just glad he was finding it relaxing. The casual glances over Alex’s head and into the mirror showed that his eyes were closed, his lips curled into a small smile.

Michael was surprised by how much he was enjoying it himself. He was used to working with his hands all day, but this was different. Working on the cars was methodical, a heavy-handed muscle memory from years of experience, but this? This was gentle, personal.

It took about as long as would be expected to cover hair of Alex’s length and as Michael moved to the front so he could finish up the fringe, Alex opened his eyes to watch him work, “So really, what’s with all the emo stuff?”

Michael avoided the eye contact as he concentrated on turning the remaining brown into black. How could he explain that he was feeling nostalgic without it sounding sappy?

“It’s probably just some misguided attempt at reclaiming my youth.” He answered as he scooped more dye onto his fingers.

“Okay, but it seems more like we’re reclaiming my youth.”

“Yeah, well, this part of your youth was the best part of mine.” Michael replied without thinking, feeling the heat instantly rise up his cheeks at the honest answer.

The mortification was written so clear on his face that Alex forced himself to hold back a chuckle. They were still working on getting that openness back to their friendship, so for it to come out so easily every now and then was a nice step in the right direction.

“I actually always wanted to dye my hair back then.” Alex spoke up, steering into a new conversation to save Michael’s embarrassment. “It seemed like the next logical step for my fashion choice.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Getting the eyeliner passed dad was enough of a challenge and even then it was something I could take off pretty instantly if need be. I think the dye would have been too much of a risk.”

Michael felt a pang of sympathy for all Alex had to endure back then, he’d seen it firsthand several times all the way up until Jesse Manes’ death after all. But no. They weren’t going to dwell on that today. If they were reclaiming their youth then all unwanted memories were unwelcome and henceforth banned from all thoughts. 

He nudged Alex’s shoulder playfully as he moved back to the bowl. “And you didn’t have an expert hairdresser to do it for you.”

“That too.” Alex laughed, rolling his eyes as he heard the sound of yet another blob of dye dropping to the floor, “Though I didn’t expect my hairdresser to get it everywhere but my hair.”

Michael gritted his teeth with a frown as he looked down at the small black splatter, a glaringly obvious stain against the white. “Hey, that’s only the third time.”

He ran his hands through Alex’s hair for the last time, being careful to check that every strand was covered. The dye had already started doing its job beautifully and emo Alex was very much taking hold.

It was as he was stepping back to inspect his finished work did he notice just how much of a mess he’d actually made, sheepishly pointing out to Alex that there was some on the edge of the sink, a few blobs in the shower and it was on the wall in about four different places.

“How the hell did it get there, I didn’t even go near that wall.” Michael exclaimed, utterly confounded at the mess he’d managed to create. Had he been in his own head so much that his hands had taken on a life of their own? 

“It’s fine,” Alex laughed fondly as he nudged the bin closer with his foot. “Just put the gloves in there before you touch anything else.”

“…wait, there were gloves?”

Alex turned around this time to look at Michael properly. He hadn’t noticed the lack of gloves on the hands in his hair, but looking at them now he could see they were completely covered not by the plastic, but by a creamy black gunk. Michael had a mischievous look on his face, tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek as he tried not to snigger and Alex could feel himself doing the same. “What is the first thing I said to you?”

“Put it in gently?”

They couldn’t hold back their laughter. Scrubbing his hands removed all but the faint grey tint now dyed into his skin, but Michael didn’t care. Maybe it was all the dye fumes, but it felt like he was on a weird kind of high. Here they were, two boys giggling away like they’d been caught making out in the supply closet at school and in that moment everything felt right with the world.

Leaning back against the sink Michael crossed his arms as he admired Alex’s hair from the front. Even slicked back against his head it was looking good but they still had twenty minutes to fill before it was ready. “So, what should we do while we wait?”

Alex slyly leant over to the bowl, still filled a quarter of the way with leftover dye and waggled his eyebrows impishly at the horrified look Michael was now giving him. “Come on Guerin, it washes out.”

It really was quite a small bathroom with nowhere to run so as Alex stood up to get closer, Michael backed away so much he practically fell into the shower. The laughter returned as he tried to hide as much of his hair as he could with his arms. “Nope. These curls are sacred and there’s no way you’re turning them black. The most you’d ever get on me is the eyeliner.”

Alex gasped gleefully, eyes wide with excitement as he watched it dawn on Michael what he’d just said. He opened the bathroom cabinet and there, at the back of the bottom shelf, was Michael’s latest gift to him. Still unused, he’d only kept it for sentimental reasons, a fond reminder of his past self, but now Michael had no excuse.

“Take a seat.” Alex batted his eyelids innocently as he gestured to the stool he had vacated and Michael had no choice but to comply. He always found it hard to deny Alex anything, but right now, he’d do anything to keep that joy in his eyes.

Alex hadn’t used eyeliner in over ten years. At age seventeen it had taken him weeks to perfect the art without smudging it or poking himself in the eye and when he first joined the military he often missed the soothing action of it. But now, a decade on, he still held the pencil with the hands of someone who would never forget how to use it.

Michael looked up at him expectantly from the seat, a slight tingling rushing through him as Alex held his chin to tilt it upwards. He’d never worn any kind of makeup before, never really had the urge to, but there was always a first time for everything.

There was something quite sexy about Alex knowing exactly what to do, telling him when to look up, when to blink, pressing the pencil down just enough to leave the colour on his skin, but not too soft that it tickled. His hands were very gentle as they held Michael’s face and he felt his mind wandering as he let Alex work.

“Guerin, stay still or it’s going in your eye.” Alex admonished lightly, tongue poking out as he concentrated. He was surprised by how steady his hand was being and he didn’t want to mess it up now.

He gave a few more strokes before stepping away, tapping the pencil against his chin as he admired his work with a grin. An eyeliner-wearing Michael was never a look he’d imagined before, but it sure was a look he was appreciating. It was a subtle change, but one that made Alex want to dress him in a leather jacket and start a rock band with him. “All done.”

Mourning the loss of Alex’s touch, Michael sighed as he got to his feet, knees popping as he stood up and leaned in close to the mirror.

He looked…different. Not a bad different, maybe even a good different. It made his eyes seem brighter and his lashes look darker and the longer he looked in the mirror the wider he could see Alex’s smile getting.

“Alright, I’ll give you this one. It doesn’t look too bad.”

“Right!” Alex was practically giddy as he stepped closer to look at Michael’s eyes through the mirror. Their hands brushed lightly as they both leaned against the sink. “I didn’t think it would look this good, but now I’m starting to wish you’d had this look in high school.”

Michael turned to face him then, bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes roamed over Alex’s face. Maybe this whole nostalgia thing wasn’t so bad when you had someone to share it with.

He grabbed the eyeliner from Alex’s hand before he could be stopped and held it above his head with an eager grin as if Alex couldn’t reach it easily. “Your turn.”

-

Michael had been banished to the sofa while Alex washed out the dye. He’d willingly volunteered to help but Alex wanted the finished look to be a surprise. Not that he could blame him. If it looked terrible at least it would give Alex the chance to kick Michael out of the house before he even saw it.

Not that that would actually happen, Michael had done an excellent job and the finished article would prove just that, thank you very much.

The muffled noise of the shower turning on and off filtered through the walls as he peered around the room. He’d seen the inside of Alex’s house enough times now to know the layout but not enough to know its contents. 

The colourful spines of the neat pile of books stood out against the brown of the table they were sitting on. Their titles were too small to read from across the room but it made Michael wonder what kind of books Alex read now. He’d never thought to ask in all the time he’d been back in Roswell. Did he still read fantasy books like the ones Michael used to see him get lost in for hours at a time? Or were they non-fiction, filled with facts about a world that Alex had always longed to explore.

There were a few plants dotted around the room which Michael was nerdy enough to know the names of. They weren’t the type that required much watering though Michael could almost picture a green-thumbed Alex taking care to provide them what they needed.

But taking up most of the space was a whole range of musical items. A turntable alongside a crowded box of records, because of course that’s how Alex liked to listen to his music. A pair of speakers on either of side of his keyboard, a thick black pair of headphones sitting atop the black and white keys. And guitars. So many guitars.

I mean come on, four of them in one room? Alex was practically begging him to pick one up.

Three of them were next to the keyboard, held neatly on their individual stands, but it was the guitar standing alone that caught his attention. It was leaning almost precariously against the wall, looking like it could slide to the floor at the smallest touch but he had a feeling it had been there for a while. It was the one Alex had tried to gift to him all those months ago, after all.

Before he could stop himself, he pushed off the sofa and edged towards the guitar. Its case had been unzipped just enough at the top to show the dark brown wood poking through and Michael didn’t hesitate to unzip it the rest of the way.

Plucking a few of the strings made Michael wonder if maybe Alex had played it recently. It seemed to be perfectly in tune. It had been a little while now since he’d held a guitar, let alone played one, but this one seemed to fit so naturally in his hands.

The faint whirring of the hair dryer could now be heard through the bedroom door and Michael couldn’t help himself. His fingers fell into place effortlessly and played a tune that he once played for Alex all those years ago. It wasn’t hard to remember, it was one of the only songs he actually knew by heart and the muscle memory of the notes hadn’t failed him yet.

As the strings vibrated under his fingertips, the rest of the world fell away, the soft melody filling the room. He’d missed this, the calm that would wash over him whenever he used to play and for a brief moment as his fingers slipped between the C and G chords he wondered why he ever gave the guitar back.

“Suits you.” Alex’s quiet voice interrupted the notes and Michael almost dropped the guitar in his surprise. He hadn’t heard the hairdryer stop, hadn’t heard the door creaking open but the way Alex was smiling at him told him he had nothing to feel embarrassed about.

The smile wasn’t what he was focused on though.  

The inky black hair had turned out so much better than he’d ever imagined. The dark strands contrasted his lightly tanned skin so starkly and Michael could tell that he had taken a few extra minutes to style it a little.

His eyeliner was mismatched and uneven - one eye having been done badly by Michael before Alex, fearing the idea of getting poked in the eye again, had confiscated the pencil and finished the second eye perfectly by himself.

He looked like his innocent seventeen year old self. 

But also not. His features were matured enough to set the illusion off-kilter just slightly.

He looked incredible.

Michael wasn’t sure when his legs had made the decision to stand up, but here he was, two feet away from Alex, staring at him with his mouth half open. Alex took the silence the wrong way though as he gave a nervous laugh, feeling his cheeks redden.

He anxiously rubbed the back of his neck and the movement knocked Michael out of his daze. He slowly dragged his eyes away from Alex’s hair and down to his lips, watching them form the words as he spoke. “It looks terrible, doesn’t it?”

Had Alex even looked in the mirror? Had he not seen what Michael was seeing right now? 

And it’s not even like the hair and makeup changed him that much. He’s looked beautiful the entire time Michael has known him, he just looked beautiful with his old style right this second rather than his new one. 

Maybe Michael just always thought Alex looked most comfortable in his seventeen-year-old style, it was a look he had precisely crafted for himself to best represent the person he was. The black jumpers with bold patterns, the makeup, the piercings. It was the look of a rebellious kid who didn’t want to fit in.

His current style was created through circumstance, through being forced to take on a duty that he never chose but has now made his own. And his style was his own now too, the muted colours much more reserved, but still his choice.

But now standing before him was a beautiful combination of both of those people and oh dear, he’s never really stopped thinking about Alex this way, has he? And more important, how long has he been staring at him without saying a single word?

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his throat had gone strangely dry.

“No.” He whispered in reply as he stepped closer, his feet making their own decisions again and he suddenly couldn’t stop himself. In that moment he couldn’t remember why he had been holding back for all of these months when the person he wanted most in the world was standing right in front of him.

He kissed him before he could stop himself, hands gently grabbing Alex’s face, feeling soft lips against his own. It felt like he was seventeen again, kissing for the first time in the darkened rooms of the UFO Emporium but as his hands crept up into Alex’s hair the sound of a distant car horn through the open kitchen window broke through his dream-filled haze and he realised what he had just done.

“Oh god, I’m sorry.” Michael stuttered out as he pulled away with a gasp, instantly embarrassed at how impulsive he had been. He bit his bottom lip as his eyes stayed trained on Alex’s chest, not daring to lift them any higher. In one tiny moment of weakness he had broken their agreement and he wanted to kick himself for how stupid that had been.

It had been decided that they would just be friends. No drama, no fighting and definitely no sex. The relationship between them would be strictly supportive and platonic and as much as Michael had longed for them to be something, he had agreed for the sake of keeping any kind of connection with Alex. And turns out, he couldn’t even give him that.

If he had looked up he would have seen the surprise on Alex’s face. Surprise that Michael had kissed him - sure - but more the surprise that Michael had pulled away so abruptly. And far too soon for that matter.

Before Alex could talk himself out of it, he took Michael’s face in his hands and kissed him right back. His heart fluttered as Michael instantly pulled him closer, softer this time, as if they both knew in that moment that there was no rush.

Michael’s entire body tingled, heat filling his chest as Alex lips parted with a tiny breath. He was hardly aware of what his own hands were doing, so desperate to never let go, his knees almost giving out as the rest of the world fell away, leaving them in their intimate, almost forbidden, moment.

As his fingers ran through the soft strands of the freshly dyed hair, Michael was reminded of every other time they had performed this same action, how natural this felt, how safe, like coming home.

“I would have let you dye my hair weeks ago if I’d known that’s all it would take.” Alex sighed as they parted, still only inches from Michael’s face, not daring to move any further lest the spell be broken. He hadn’t seen the day going this way when Michael had turned up on his doorstep with his mischievous grin but he wasn’t about to complain.

Michael gave a small huff of laughter at the unexpected comment, his hands itching to pull Alex closer. He had been wanting to do that for a long time, but he’d been good. He’d stuck to their agreement and given Alex the space to move on, no matter how many times he’d wanted to rebuild that abandoned bridge between them. But it seems the long awaited move had now finally been made and he didn’t have to hold back anymore.  

Because here Alex was, black hair, dark eyeliner, standing in front of him with that nervous post-kiss smile that Michael had missed for far too long and now he never wanted to let this moment go.

It seems today had definitely been third time lucky.

Very lucky indeed.

Thank you for reading 💜✨

[therianimal]

My System’s Experiences: switching hosts and a disconnected past

It took years before we realized that the complete personality shifts we experienced at various points in our life was us switching between hosts. Before I was host (or even existed at all), there was Lucas; a few years before him, Eren. The earliest host we know of is 4 years old and was the host during our preschool years. It seems inconceivable that we wouldn’t know - but as a system that has no amnesia, experiences the world as “different people sharing a single consciousness”, experiences switching less like “stepping back” and more like changing perspectives, and exists in a place between median and multiple, these changes disguised themselves as life phases.

It made sense to us that being 16 would feel different than being 12, and we were aware that changing over time was a normal experience for children and teenagers. Sure, it seemed weird that as a child we were definitely a girl, during our early teen years we were likely nonbinary and during our late teen years we were a trans man - it was never really clear to us WHY we changed so much.

That is, until I realized that we were plural, and that we have always been different people who simply passed the mantle of Host along like some kind of hereditary monarchy. It seems somewhat obvious now - the fact that I used to say things like “back when I was Lucas”, that I didn’t have childhood memories of being a therian, and that each “life phase” involved a completely different personality, set of interests, and sense of self were all signs. Even my dad is prone to saying things like “You’re a completely different person now than you were when you were 16″ (I really get a kick out of the double meaning). But it wasn’t until I started to consider that I (we!) might be plural that the truth about our past hosts came out into the open.

Our obliviousness can be accounted for by another issue: the specifics of how we switched hosts. I like to compare the scenario to mitosis - one member gradually becoming two. It would take months before the two people were distinct, at which time the new member would usurp as the new host and the previous one would go into dormancy. Because it’s so gradual we can't pinpoint an exact moment when each switch happened, and it's sometimes hard to clarify whether a past event happened to one member or another.

I’ve started to refer to the mid-mitosis host as “proto”, thqe in between of Lucas and me being “proto-Blue”. Lucas was a trans man and emo, and I’m a mascfem nonbinary person who isn’t particularly alt - our mid-self was still trans but more gender nonconforming and no longer 100% male, and they still listened to emo and rock music but had moved away from the clothing style. This "self" doesn't exist in our system as an actual person - it was simply an in-between stage. This host change (and all the others as far as we can tell) was fluid and not at all a sudden switch.

When Lucas returned from dormancy, it was chaos. He had been functionally asleep for three years - in the meantime, I had broken up on bad terms with his best friend/girlfriend, socially detransitioned (he had worked hard to come out as a trans man), and thrown away most of his old clothing and possessions. Trump had even become president, which was honestly one of the most overwhelming things. And he suddenly had to confront the fact that we were plural, that he had not always been host, and most of all that he had lost several years of (what he thought was) his life. I had to confront similar issues, but for me it was gradual while for him it was all at once.

Since then, several of our past hosts have reawakened - but not all. There are large unaccounted for periods of time, presumably involving still-dormant system members. It’s difficult to talk about our/”my” past, because when referring to things that occurred between the ages of 15 and 17 I can usually say “Lucas did X”, but how do I refer to the incidences that happened to unknown hosts? On top of that, due to years of assuming we were one person and each of us claiming past events as “my past”, it’s not that easy to say that X event belongs to one person and Y belongs to another. Things that happened to Eren while she was host often feel just as relevant to me, personally, as things that happened while I was host.

This all creates a confusing communication barrier, and risks creating conflicts between members - for example if I say “I got a perfect score on the reading portion of the SAT when I was 12!” would that be unfairly taking credit for Eren’s accomplishments, or simply describing an element of our shared narrative that feels relevant to me? There has been at least one conflict with another member where I was accused of selectively taking credit for their good deeds and accomplishments while disowning failures and negative actions - I believe that was a misunderstanding, but clearly it’s complicated.

I, as an individual, have only existed for four years. It sounds strange to say that as a 22 year old, but it’s true. This sometimes makes it alienating to spend time in identity-based communities like the therian, otherkin, transgender, and other LGBTQ communities. I once attempted to join a trans Amino, only to find that I was required to explain my “trans self discovery story” in an introduction post - it wasn’t even optional! How do I explain “In our teenage years, Eren felt disconnected from gender but couldn’t put it into words. Then we learned about trans people, and Lucas discovered over the course of a few months that he was a trans man. I knew I was nonbinary from day one (four years ago), though figuring out the details has taken a few years.” To someone who knows nothing about plurality, it’s incomprehensible.

Of course I could have made something up or oversimplified things, but at the time I was on Amino to discover my truth, not hide my truth. Due to the “born this way” narrative, saying something like “I identified as a trans man in my teen years, but later on identified as nonbinary” would imply that our experiences as a trans man were fake or the result of a confused misnomer, when they were very real. Directly undermining our experiences and our reality for the sake of community really sucks; I quickly left that Amino.

I’ve had similar issues in the therian community. I first realized I was a therian/nonhuman before realizing I was a member of a plural system, which caused all sorts of confusion for me. I joined the Therian Guide forums and learned from their posts and resources that “If you didn’t have therianthropy related experiences as a child, that means you’re just a confused human who’s been influenced by the internet and is having a wishkin phase." I wanted to believe that wasn’t the case, but the argument made sense and I had no counterargument to make against it and no way to explain why that rule wouldn’t apply to me.

Even now it sometimes feels alienating to encounter online threads and posts centered around the question “What signs did you experience as a child?”. I know that other people’s experience don’t invalidate mine, and vice versa, but it still sometimes makes me feel out of place. Rationally I understand that nonhuman experiences are highly varied and that's okay! - but insecurity isn't rational. I’m still acclimating to the idea that as a pluran my nonhuman experiences will probably never be the same as a “stereotypical” otherkin or therian (if such a thing exists).

I went into this essay expecting to write a short post about how my lack of childhood/teen years has sometimes caused me to feel alienated in the therian community. But as I was writing I realized I had a lot to say about my system, and felt compelled to change angles and truly discuss our host history. It might be a bit random, but I hope that at least some people will find it interesting.