#this is gonna be the last big meta post i make for a fucking while. im taking a goddamn break

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

the way izzy was received by this fandom rlly is the worst combo of how fans responded to kylo ren and how fans responded to, like, tyler durden or walter white.

anything i could say comparing izzy fans and kylo fans was already said in this fucking incredible post by @chuplayswithfire. but basically: izzy is a huge cunt to everyone in this show but fans take him at his word when he talks about being hardworking and competent, they minimize and excuse his actions and act like he's an innocent traumatized baby, and they focus on him, a shitty white antagonist, instead of any of the other interesting characters of color they could be paying attention to

but imo the thing that rlly makes a difference between izzy and kylo, and the thing that makes me compare him to those other two white dudes i mentioned above, is that unlike the movies kylo ren is in, ofmd is actually well-written

the first movie in the star wars sequel trilogy was pitched, written, filmed, and literally released with no ending for the trilogy in mind. the writing for the next movies was adjusted based on fan reactions, and major plot points were decided by studio executives deciding which events would make the movie more profitable. i should not have to explain to you that this is a terrible way to write a movie series. or a television series. or literally any kind of fucking story in the world.

our flag means death, or what we have of it so far, is not that. there's fully developed characters with given realistic motivations, instead of one-dimensional props that are jerked around by a constant tug-of-war between writers, directors, and studio executives. there are narrative plot points that are woven expertly throughout the story, not hints of storylines that are completely forgotten about by the next franchise, or storylines that were finished that are getting dug up again. there's a central theme to ofmd, unlike the new star wars movies, where the theme seems to be "how can we milk this fucking franchise for all it's worth." there's no goddamn queerbaiting

i'll admit that i've never actually seen breaking bad, and everything i know about it i've learned via tumblr osmosis. but from what i can tell, it's actually a very well-written show, and the whole point of the show is that walter white is the epitome of entitled and abusive white man who thinks he's super tough and badass and that everyone should listen to him and do whatever he tells them to do (lmao, sound familiar?). he ruins his life and the lives of everyone around him and idk he might die in the end. anyway dont do drugs.

fight club i have seen, and i can confirm that this is a fantastic movie that features, you guessed it, an arrogant white guy who represents the classic violent male power fantasy. the narrator, deeply depressed because he's a beta male, watches jealously from the sidelines as tyler durden starts seeking violence, first from just meeting up with random guys for consensual beatdowns, but it escalates as more and more men start joining the fight club (wow! the title of the movie!) until the club morphs into a terrorist group. also if you haven't seen it there's a Big Plot Twist that i haven't mentioned and it's pretty good. love that movie.

anyway the point is that both of those men are very obviously. shitty fucking guys. classic macho men (even tho tyler durden's fashion sense is fantastically fruity, for some reason) who crave power over others and respect in the form of fear. the whole point of their fucking characters is that in any generic action movie, they would be the heroes

and so many fans just. completely fucking miss this. there are hoards of dudebro fan guys who relate to these characters and go "wow, he's just like me!" and absolutely do not get the point of the thing they're watching. it is fucking baffling to see

anyway that's izzy stans!! an truly groundbreaking combo of your classic female fans who woobify evil white men and classic male fans who miss the entire point of characters who are written to subvert the expectations of what kind of role a character like izzy hands, walter white, or tyler durden would be expected to play!!!!! izzy hands is written to be an antagonist and the personification of toxic masculinity that ed is trying to escape from, and yet people are acting like he's the show's third protagonist.

because izzy would be a protagonist, in a different and much shittier story. and even though we all watched the same show where he very clearly is not the protagonist, people are applying that role to izzy and not actually looking at what role he plays in this show.

[trutrustories]

STUDY IN LOKI ROMANCE Part 1: Ouroboros

Since we're only a few days away from the last episode, I decided to COUNT DOWN everything we´ve got so far ( that can be interpreted very easily as romantic ) and discuss what the actual fuck is going on with second season. Because even though I shipped lokius practically from S1E2, I absolutely did NOT expect this kind of development. (Not that I´m complaining) Warning: This is gonna be LONG post, lots of screenshots, lots of SPOILERS, lot of "oh-my-god-they-so-cute" language, and little bit of meta. I originally thought that this post would be everything at once, but since I have just too many screenshots this time around, I´ll have to split it. so every post will be one episode. Color coding means:

IIIIIIIIII = anything, that coud potentialy be just acting choice.

IIIIIIIIII = everything else (tzn.: whatever was written, and/or carefully prepared by filmmakers. )

side note: I already wrote, about how amazing it is, that Mobius is unable to fight but fights anyway and how beautifuly, and ridiculously brave he is HERE. But this is about Loki/Mobius interactions, so I´ll try my best not to talk about THAT. (Even when I´m really happy, that s2 continues with this formula and Mobius is still his completely defenseless while aggressively brave self. I love him, btw.)

Soooo EPISODE 1, le´t go: 1)"Mobius It´s me!" few second in and we have slowmo chasing scene with detail on Loki, and Mobius and then THIS Loki´s heartbreaking look on his face here.

2) "Tell me, you recognize me!" (Loki trying to desperetly find Mobius, and then running towards him) Also If this Time slipping didn´t triggered anything external, but It´s just his own, unlocked power - I honestly don´t know, how they will explain that - does that mean, that he unknowingly unlocked this power, because he was send by Silvie into the past, and then he was simply desperete and Mobius couldn´t recognized him so his body reacted by time slipping to place and time, where Mobius would know who he is???

3) this very unexpected exhibition of touches (meaning Mobius practicaly glueing himself to Loki for this entire section)

I´m sorry, but my man here is like "no, I´m not about to let you have a personal space. NOT. AN. OPTION. let me hold you some more" xD

4) This scene in in an elevator first of all, that was a second time, he slipped and was RIGHT back with Mobius, the very next second. secondly: Mobius being scared for Loki and insisting he needs immediate help thirdly: Loki reassuring Mobius, It´s not that bad.

also this "we just had sex in a cabin" shot:

and lastly...

Big thanks to the film crew for this shot to give us an idea just HOW MUCH OF AN UNUSED SPACE was in the elevator! 👌

5) Mobius and Loki talking to OB. being perfectly coordinated team and smoothly working together, while standing on a same spot, but in a completely different time.

poetry... just poetry!

6) Distressed God and his Happy Face just so we know: how long is it, since their reunion? Because I would swear that not even five minutes ago Loki was in state of complete panic, and look at him now:

Look at him smiling, enjoying view at struggling mobius 💚

few minutes with this man, and HE forgets all about his trauma and just vibing.

me too, Loki. Me too 🥲

btw, this thing over here?!!!!

7) bickering, like married couple, part 1

8) "Mobius if I don´t make it back" and "You´ll make it back". What was it, what where you about to say Loki? It sounded important! next time TALK FASTER!

9) Mobius risking his life SKIN for loki and refusing to give up on him.

10) Loki saves Mobius in an epic fashion and they end up in a hug: also they roll around the floor together

I mean... this whole scene was absolute TOP! So yeah. That was a first episode. before the premiere I was litteraly hoping, that I will see our Loki and our Mobius together at least ONCE, before first end credits. I actually couldn´t believe my own eyes, holy shit!

[ivyial]

Reading one of your answers, I noticed that you wrote “Leon has a crush” and while I was playing the game, I also had such thoughts because a man cannot behave like that if he does not feel something. Can you please explain how you were convinced of this?

hi there!! i'm so very late to this ask i'm sorry :,)

so i'm gonna try and retrace the steps of how i realised that (from a year or so ago lolol). one thing you have to know about me before we begin is that i cannot recognise flirting for SHIT LMAOAOAO like genuinely. it is BAD. i am seriously socially impaired in that department.

when i played re4r last year, i had not played the og re4 (i still haven't, as a matter of fact). so i went into it relatively blind, with no opinion about leon/ashley (it did not seem like a big enough ship that people were ever giving their opinions on it, apart from the 'overtime' part in the og). i knew a bit about ashley, and how annoying a big chunk of the fandom found her in the og, and that was about it.

ashley flirting with leon in the game was somewhat obvious. the "i think you'd look pretty dashing" line was a big giveaway, although other than that, she doesn't actually make any big move on leon (sure, she offers him to become part of her security detail at the end, but yeah).

HOWEVER.

the dining hall scene happened - leon telling ashley "i'm not used to having such good company"???? that definitely made go 💡!!!

also, if you go back to chapter 9, after ashley's playable section, she finds leon again in the cage, and he says to her "can you make it down? i can catch you". i didn't find his words odd, but i found his tone extremely specific. if you go back and listen, it doesn't exactly sound like a matter-of-fact offer. it sounds like an incentive, but i wasn't so sure whether it was more for ashley's benefit or his own. he just sounds so bashful saying it and he's smiling. maybe that's just me, but i definitely found his tone suggestive in that scene. at the time i just shrugged it off as me misunderstanding tone (as it happens sometimes).

i originally was not predisposed to seeing them as a couple, since i'd never really seen the possibility of it being evoked in the modern RE fandom. i was more of a cleon girlie at the time too (i still am, but not as much nowadays). so i finished the game for the first time thinking "aw, leon and ashley had such a great dynamic, he's very supportive of her and kind, they're a great (platonic) fit". but then, you know, there was still the flirting initiated by ashley, the flirting (?) initiated by leon, and that unusual tone that he had in chapter 9.

so i didn't really see the bigger picture until i read the leshley/eagleone posts written by @sapphire-weapon (if you haven't checked her blog out yet, you have to, not just for her leon/ashley posts, but even for her general meta analyses which are absolutely brilliant). and then, i started putting it together, noticing the instances of leon flirting with ashley, some of which i'd missed, the structure of the story, etc.

and from there, well. you realise how well leon and ashley work together, even in a platonic setting, and you add their occasional flirting, as well as the DINING HALL SCENE??? which to me is a massive giveaway and is one of the things that convinced me the most apart from their literal interactions. room with red wallpaper, a statue of two snakes that could either be fighting or, well, fucking lmao (i also don't need to explain the phallic symbol there), the queen/king paintings, and the fact that this is one of the few rooms in this game where they are not interrupted by any enemies. it's a very private setting + "well, yeah, but i'm not used to having such good company".

leon's crush is also demonstrated through the way ashley pulls out a softer side of him.

you can see in chapter 13 (when he calls out for her from the other side of the cell - if you listen closely, it sounds like nick apostolides is reverting back to re2 leon's voice for that line).

there is also quite a bit of (sometimes unnecessary) physical contact between the two, which is almost always initiated by leon (it might even always be him). see: the way he holds on to her just a bit too long after catching her when she jumps out of the church window + the way they look at each other (chapter 5), right after escaping the ganados and joining luis in the villa (chapter 5), comforting ashley in the castle (chapter 9), and most importantly, checking on her after opening the cell and letting his fingers trail along her arms etc. (chapter 13) and (not physical contact but intended) the way he manages to break saddler's hold to reach for ashley when saddler touches her head on the altar (chapter 15). and i mean, he carries her bridal style multiple times (either catches her when she jumps or carries her like that on the way to the lab) (that in itself is also for the sake of practicality, but it adds to it).

taken separately, these events would probably not mean anything, but when you look at it all together, you realise that leon's feelings for ashley run deeper than just professionalism. i don't think he has to act like that - or at least, not if capcom just wanted them to be PURELY PLATONIC PURELY SIBLING CODED as one part of the fandom shouts all day long

this is a very long answer but yeah!! i hope this answers your question. btw, feel free to send me more leon/ashley asks!! i'd love to answer them :3

[2offayyo-kzt]

(yes I already posted this yesterday but I deleted it, unintentionally 🙃)

Welcome to another episode of me overanalyzing side-characters !

I'll explain why I consider this scene to be one of the most fucked up moments of the show (wwdits shitty meta) :

(the scene lasts 1min 45)

TW : Child abuse ¦

(I probably extrapolated, it's just my personal interpretation)

So in short, Colin stole Sean's car, the man is not upset with the teenager, actually it's Laszlo who is really mad because it could have seriously pissed off his best friend; Sean initially sides with Colin.

S : "Look, uh, we all make mistakes. It's no big deal - Listen, he was just taking it for a little joyride."

So Sean is aware that it was basic teenagers' bullshit and isn't particularly upset about it. Guillermo prompts Colin to speak up.

As Colin starts to vent, Laszlo interrupts him, even insulting him, Sean tries to step in to calm the tension.

C : "You can't tell me why I grew a foot and a half overnight like a human radish."

L : "Listen, you ungrateful f*ck, you're giving me the pip."

S : "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa."

[...]

S : "Guys, guys, guys."

L : "All right, you cheeky f*ck." (to Colin)

S : "Things are getting a little too heated in here."

[...]

S : Okay, listen, my dad and I used to fight like this all the time ! And nothing good came from it ! You understand me ?

This exact moment particularly struck me.

The acting was so good, the emotions so sincere that the first time I saw this scene I had to pause it (because I felt really uncomfortable)

For me, it was 'young Seanie' who expressed himself here, not the adult man, look and tell me if it was not a fucking cry of distress from his "young self", he raised his voice when it was not necessary, like a child about to have a tantrum.

And for me the best detail of this scene : while Sean explains what solution he proposes for "settling differences" between Colin and Laszlo, just behind him, on the top of his shoulder, there is the head of the Devil Jersey, as if the demon on his shoulder whispered (bad) advice to him :

S : "Now, I'm gonna count down from three. When I say go, start swinging."

G : "Wait, what ?"

S : "First one to tap out, other one's head of the household."

Then he encourages Colin to make eye contact when he is clearly uncomfortable, the only one at ease is Laszlo.

Why force him to do eye contact ? So that Colin can see himself being punched in the face in high definition, wtf Sean

Laszlo was ready to hit Colin at that moment.

Only Guillermo reacted with GOOD SENSE ! And we are talking about one of the most unhinged characters of the show, even for him it was too much.

Since when ??! you encourage your best friend to beat up his "son" (as a parental figure), how messed up is that ?

And while Guillermo is holding them back on this shit, Sean exclaims "C'mon !" as if he's disappointed that it didn't happen.

Now we can ask ourselves why Sean would encourage his best friend to do something as stupid as hitting his child; I personally think it's because Sean has only developed unhealthy coping mechanisms (alcoholism, gambling)

It is implicitly nuanced that Sean was beaten up by his father on a regular basis, and probably in the face (no wonder he resisted to the brain scramblies, it was already pudding before/hj)

//

Let's face it, Colin would never have had time to react if Laszlo had decided to hit him.

I think that at this point, Sean wanted to be a spectator, he wanted to revisit unconsciously the violence that he himself had suffered when he was younger but this time from an external point of view.

After all Laszlo loves Colin Robinson deeply, and it is even Sean who reassured Colin about that during the Pine Barrens episode.

S : You know, you're lucky to have a guy like Lasz - taking care of you.

C : I guess. Sometimes I think that Lazzo doesn't like me so much.

S : Are you kidding me ? He loves you.

So if Sean saw Laszlo beating his son in front of his eyes, maybe he would have had the confirmation that his own father loved him, that his father beat him, but that it was a 'sign of love' in the end.

Sean never learn to communicate properly (hence the dysfunctional marriage with his wife) and when he had to argue with his father, it ended in violence (with fists)

//

Sean was forced at a very young age to take on a role that he wasn't supposed to be, in this case the fight that was supposed to take place between Colin and Laszlo was to determine who would be "head of the household."

Colin here is a teenager, he should not have all the responsibilities expected of an adult, but it seems that Sean at the same age had to undergo it (he wasn't allowed to watch PBS, at 14 he killed his first deer (let him jerk off instead of forcing him to hunt srs 😭) , Sean seems to have never experienced a childhood that a 14yo is supposed to have.

At a minimum he had the decency to say "First one to tap out" indicating that if Colin gave up and didn't want to fight anymore, he at least had a way out. I doubt Sean had that same chance, and I think he must have been knocked out many times.

Sean's response to problems is usually to give up or violence (e.g. when he threatens Guillermo "to ream him" after he thought he made a homophobic remark)

Sean is deep down emotional but has never been able to express his emotions in a healthy way, seeing Lasz's love and attachment to teen Colin, he saw before his eyes what he missed during his childhood to build himself psychologically.

In reality, he is not inclined to violence, he even hoped that Baby Colin would only be violent towards walls :

The only times Sean almost cried were when he offered the Jade necklace to his wife :

[...] talking about his favorite movie series which is probably the only valid excuse he has for crying as a 'real masculine man yk', not supposed to be fragile or to show emotions :

He was a neglected and abused child and I think that during this scene he almost indirectly succeeded in repeating the cycle of abuse he suffered from, but by projection this time.

So I just wonder, if Colin had been knocked out by Laszlo (without having the time to "tap out"), how Sean would have reacted afterwards.

Seeing with an outside eye himself (teen Colin) lying on the ground.

Would he have been angry at Laszlo, at himself, at Teen Colin for not being strong enough ?

I leave you with his thoughts :)

Conclusion : get Sean a fucking therapy.

[thegeminisage]

as someone who wasn't around in 2014....can you tell me what it was like? (stucky) can you give me a taste of the gardens of babylon etc

what was it like...this is such a fun question i want you to know i gave serious thought to my answer and also discussed it at length with my 2014 friend last night and i know already it's gonna be so long. sorry that i answered your ask at fuck o clock in the morning i am scheduling it to go up later and also at the time you sent the ask in to make sure you see it

ok so like. i mean, you're on the fandom website, right, so i assume youve been in fandoms. idk if youve ever been in a really, REALLY big fandom, at the same time that said fandom was also producing content (even if the source material was not). think d*stiel post nov 5, or undert*le circa late 2015/early 2016, or z*lda after totk came out, or h*rry p*tter as the seventh book was being released. (i'm censoring to avoid a false positive of anybody's blacklist except in the case of the last one, which i am censoring out of <3 disrespect.) like there's something REALLY luxurious about being in ANY large and active fandom and it's mostly the power of crowdsourcing. st*r tr*k 2009's tarsus iv headcanons. the storm trooper lore re: the f*rce awakens before the second two movies came out. everyone just kind of agreeing that dean w*nchester was a teenage hooker. you know?

like, that's "just fanon," sure, but part of the beauty of it is that no one person makes up fanon, we all gather in the biggest writing group in the world and collectively go insane and bat ideas back and forth. there are a hundred THOUSAND fics about bucky barnes on ao3 and that's just the people who were writing, not even counting artists and gifmakers and meta-writers and people who just reblog stuff. i can't possibly begin to put an accurate number to how many people are in any given fandom at any given time, but imagine (on the low end, i'm sure) there are THOUSANDS, perhaps tens of thousands, of people going nuts about stevebucky at all times. tens of THOUSANDS people doing "yes and" with each other on the internet 24 hours a day seven days a week. it's just like being in any fandom, you log on to your dash and see what the mewchies posted while you were gone, but in a fandom so huge and so active you were getting bombarded with idea after idea after idea every single second, so if you don't like one you're spoiled for choice in what you engage with next. it didn't even matter that cap3 was two years away or that it sucked when it finally got here because we collectively wrote cap3 a million times over. like, genuinely, it was a mass creative exercise. it's the biggest writing group in the world. for better or worse, we were shaping our own version of that universe, without any input from or regard to the people who actually created the characters and movie, in a way that compelled most strongly to our own tastes and demographic.

what made this particular movie/fandom special though was a few things. firstly i still genuinely believe it was ahead of its time...marvel shit pre disney was allowed to be political in ways it is ABSOLUTELY not now. like, cap2 could say "the government is secretly full of nazis and they all need to burn" in 2014 two years before the 2016 election and 7 years before jan 6. like you just couldn't say that now. "war bad" is an oldie but goodie, but "our entire government is corrupt and needs to be torn into flaming pieces and cast into the potomac" is um. pretty radical. so is, by the way, "men as victims" and "men having emotions" etcetc. like, not in fandom, fandom all but invented that shit, but as far as dumb superhero movies go. i can't tell you the number of metas i read AND WROTE discussing steve rogers and masculinity and how all that was portrayed, intentionally or not, in that fucking film. i had entire separate universes built up in my head for steve who was born a cis girl and steve who decided later in life that "nonbinary" or "trans woman" was a better fit and then steve who was born as a cis boy and remained a man his whole life but felt weird and different ways about being queer which clashed with the weird and different ways BARNES felt about being queer. i'm not saying the film (or the fandom! good lord) was perfect, it was a product of its time, but it was also WAY ahead of its time too. it was weird to expect the next film to come out and actually, like, be good. it wasnt, but we fully believed it would be and that wasn't delusional behavior because the last one had been. i would never have that kind of faith in a marvel project now because they've been bought by disney.

oh yeah and that's the other thing too like. speaking of queer people. gay marriage wasn't legal in the US on a federal level until 2015, and you couldn't just flip on your TV and see them whenever you wanted. ten years doesn't seem like that long ago in the grand scheme of things but like, we lived on glee and cw/mtv queerbait (disclaimer that i personally only participated in cw queerbait) and that was it. we had crumbs. and like when people write gay characters theyre Just Gay, but if you decide to be crazy stupid in a slash fandom you can decide these layered characters are gay and that's even better rep than um whatever was going on in other pieces of media. these guys are both so lonely and out of step with time and lack other people with "shared life experiences" (girl what the hell was that) and their connection w each other keeps them afloat in a world that doesn't want them so like of COURSE it seems like it's supposed to be romantic. and like, i could and did make myself and my tumblr buds crrrazy (and got made crazy by them) thinking about:

how steve's size when small and again when big interacted w his gender identity and his sexuality and how that sexuality manifested. barnes's identity As A Man hinging on his ability to go to war for his country bc Thats What Men Did but now he's no longer fit because theres worms in his brain. loss of bodily autonomy which usually happens to women and natasha being later in that journey than steve and bucky are and so close to being at peace with it but not there yet. stigmatization of seeking treatment for mental health issues lessened by the presence of sam who could have been a Macho Tough Guy but actually gives off strong Talk About Our Feelings And Be Soft vibes. don't even get me started on the relationship (predatory) between steve and rumlow and how it parallels the one between barnes and pierce (and if any of you motherfuckers BREATHE a word of that h*dra tr*sh p*rty shit in my direction i will END you) and the stigma that comes from being preyed on when vulnerable As Men. steve's depression and ptsd and him getting triggered by, yes, the fucking ALS ice bucket challenge. the collective belief that he was conscious when he was frozen even though nobody said that so that he and barnes could have that in common too. the headcanon about barnes having roma heritage - shoutout to not easily conquered my beloved, and the 14k smut coda i wrote for it✌ speaking of smut, i would be remiss also not to mention there was a STRONG element of collective lust involved. i'm immune to 99% of it bc im ace but the winter soldier was uh. VERY graceful. you know? i didn't write 14k of porn because i was uncompelled. we were on one. we went fucking crazy. fandom in general but especially big fandoms have a kind of nonstop endless well of creative energy born from obsession that is the absolute envy of people like my mortal enemy grrm. we NEVER quit.

also, HISTORY (and other vaguely educational subjects). we were all so desperate to know how steve and bucky would have lived in the years we couldn't see them it sparked a sitewide interest in 1940s american history. there was a thing about bananas tasting different now because of a plague. m&ms being invented as wartime candy. stuff about how shoebox apartments looked and how rations worked. 1940s recipes and radio shows. the 1940s queer movement and how it interacted with ballroom dancing and private drag get-togethers. how amputations work and how prosthetic limbs work in real life so we could extrapolate it to fantasy. how to hand-draw that fucking arm in photoshop. why soldiers are trained to say their serial numbers when captured. what ww2 was like. what dog tags are for. what did they get in the ration packs. what brand of cigarettes did they smoke. what brand (and i am being so serious, i STILL own a tube) of LIPSTICK did peggy carter use. caloric intake of someone with a 4x speed metabolism and how much famine peanut butter he'd need to eat daily to keep from starving to death. oppression of irish immigrants and their children/grandchildren back in the 1940s. the difference between conservatives and fascists, back when there was a difference. what activities generally took place on these mysterious but ever-present new york city docks. just exactly HOW many terrible movies and tv shows has sebastian stan been in ranked by his resemblance to james buchanan barnes in each one. (i personally went through his entire imdb list at the time and then made a venn diagram.) electroswing! teachers and professors would have killed for their classes to have the kind of enthusiasm a bunch of mentally ill teenagers and 20-somethings on tunglr dot edu were showing about this one very specific set of subjects. this film also sparked my love of fight scenes. if you've read this fic or this fic and liked the Big Fight Scenes in them, you can thank cap2 for leading me down that path.

and then yes there was also discourse. my personal most hated thing was the above mentioned h*dra tr*sh p*rty (DO NOT GOOGLE THAT, i will just tell you it's nazi rape porn🤢 and i hope everyone involved is having a bad day today) and also the fact that SOME FUCKING PEOPLE can't understand "don't be shitheads about a fanfic where the author can see you doing it." but then ofc people were also sexist about nat and racist about sam and minimalizing those guys (and every other character besides tony really but sometimes him too) for the two white male leads was a whole thing. and on the funnier side of things you had (justifiably, i suppose) bitter st*ny fans who HATED what those two got in avengers and got real mad when stucky started outpacing them on ao3. and people complaining about the characters being too uwu soft. and then other people arguing whether or not barnes counted as disabled when he was missing a Whole arm. and THEN discourse about was it ethical to remove the arm and build him a new one ESPECIALLY without his consent (if people don't know they're being ableist in their fanfics hypothetically is it still ok to kill them with hammers?) and why was tony doing it if that guy killed his parents and is it ok that we keep making tony not that mad about his dead parents is it not enough that barnes stole his limelight as the guy who gets shipped with steve but what if all three of them fucked but can you really fuck the guy who offed your folks but ACTUALLY isn't it cringe to like tony anyway since RDJ and gwenyth paltrow are bad people and who says chris evans are sebastian stan are such good people etcetcetc. and let us not even get started on the plausibility of the avengers tower fanon after age of ultron came out and it turns out nobody became friends and they all still hated and mistrusted each other. and whether or not the avengers could be considered found family if the other characters were constantly getting shafted into being barnes's little support animals. and then ofc every once in awhile one of the actors of people involved creatively would say something ranging from mildly controversial to absolutely horrible on the internet and we'd all fight about THAT for awhile like a dog with a bone. i mean. typical infighting of any fandom tbh.

but i was very happy. it was all the most enormous thought experiment and creative endeavor (and semi-educational adventure??) that we all participated in daily for like two-ish years without stopping ever. i loved doing it. AND, when you click with a piece of media like that, you also click with other people who clicked with that same piece of media, so in addition to the sheer level of dopamine going into my brain at all times i also formed decade-long friendships that will certainly last the entirety of my lifetime, and when we're in our 90s in nursing homes i will be able to say, "we are friends because i wrote 14k of smut for your fanfic" or "we are friends because i couldn't get enough of your gifsets" or whatever because you know, we quite literally went to stucky together.

[eclipsecrowned]

'by request' muses + how badly they break canon

MUSE: kokoro kyriakou FANDOM: a realm full of cardiovascular imagery RELATIVE: er*qus (uncle) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: not at conception when the relative had 0 backstory lore, but then the mobile game dropped, and now she is the merriest of mary sues -- and not just because she's related to a canon, either. lore has it only two apprentices survived an attack on their generation of wielders, so kokoro's dad can't even exist post-dr. multi-generational drift against canon events.

MUSE: astraea l*cis cael*m FANDOM: last legend the fifteenth time RELATIVE: n*ct (brother), r*g*s (father), and *rd*n (ancestor) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: over her knee like a single dry twig. the whole narrative kind of depends on the end of a dynasty, and here i go introducing a member that is actively defying the gods and circumstances that make victims of her male relatives. she's mostly here to explore aspects of canon that were left to atrophy tbh.

MUSE: zorya constantine FANDOM: graphics about sleuths RELATIVE: miss fishnets herself and some cunt from beatlesville DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: surprisingly, no. there have been universes in the past that show her parents having reproduced, and in fact a complementary muse i play is her brother from one such universe. i tend to default to her being a visitor from another universe rather than any particular interpretation's child.

MUSE: 'valas' d*vir FANDOM: the gate of a norse god RELATIVE: 1-2's pc (father), v*conia d*vir (mother) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: prior to 3? no. v*conia's romanced ending -- the one i pursued as a baby kadi -- has her bearing the pc's child. after the character assassination of her in 3? yep. wretcheds of the c*ast completely scrapped her canon characterization to make a one dimensional zealot of her, so everything came crashing down for valas' lore. my city now, though.

MUSE: kayden c*nnors FANDOM: marvelous graphics RELATIVE: the l*zard / dr. c*rt c*nnors (father) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: yeah. she doesn't even get a zorya pass of other lore existing that at best doesn't rule her out -- the c*nnors only ever have a single son in the whole of comics history. writing kayden in as an older daughter in the family dynamic upends decades of comics lore, and i revel in getting meta w it.

MUSE: mira snow FANDOM: a ditty of icyhot RELATIVE: br*ndon st*rk (father), ash*ra d*yne (mother), assorted canon relatives DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: ssssort of? it's implied her mother had a daughter prior to her death, and that it was a st*rk brother that was responsible. mira is me pursuing that plot thread and chasing 'what ifs' about her role in the already unconventional dynamics of w*nterfell. the big divergence is the kid is allegedly dead.

MUSE: ly*nna b*lton FANDOM: a ditty of icyhot RELATIVE: r**se b*lton (father), b*th*ny rysw*ll (mother), brothers out the wazoo DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: undoubtedly. while the lord of l33ches has many stillborn or cradle-withering sons to his name, no daughters are ever mentioned. it's pretty clear if she had survived where her brothers had not, it wouldn't be for long given her half-brother's proclivities. i am simply pursuing female horror narratives.

MUSE: laerion v*laryon FANDOM: a ditty of icyhot: revenge of the son-cousin of the prequel RELATIVE: c*rlys and rh*en*s (parents), l*ena and l*en*r (siblings) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: yep. family's fucked and then i throw another not into the fire, out into the roaring waves of their dominion. the heir who would give anything to be in his brother's shadow again. he's gonna be okay, though, bc my city now. i'm ridiculously fond of him and i can't be convinced to part with him.

MUSE: odessa h*rkonnen FANDOM: dewn RELATIVE: the h*rkonnens (extended relatives) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: not as badly as you would expect. we never get a full scope of the size of this noble house as opposed to the sparseness of their enemy's family line. an offshoot of the main line is not unthinkable, as we have no idea who in the family holds the ancestral planet together while the baron is absent.

MUSE: danae sp*ncer FANDOM: the malicious dwellers of the zombie apocalypse RELATIVE: the properly dishonorable earl sp*ncer (father) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: yes, canon makes it clear the earl is the last of his family -- but. i can argue the phrasing 'end of his illustrious line' could mean the family name dies with him, as danae would be anticipated to take her husband's name, or as i write it, that danae was disowned, disinherited, and no more a true sp*ncer.

MUSE: julia mayfair FANDOM: cawabooty RELATIVE: v*kt*r r*zn*v (great-grandfather) DOES THIS MUSE BREAK CANON: in all honesty? no. we know nothing of the man's backstory or connections prior to the war, save that he had a father who was killed by germans. this is a case where you can say anything about her great-grandfather and there's nothing contradicting or supporting you. there's no canon to break.

[pleuvoire]

Rosemary, since youre the one who got me to listen to more PinocchioP recently, I'd love to know what your favorites of his are if you'd like to share :3

HEHE….. strap in this might get a little long. i like his music a lot. gonna start with my top favorites and then just throw other ones onto the pile from there

nobody makes sense - probably my top favorite. LOVE a good "life has no meaning so we have to create meaning" theme, and the visuals are beautiful. i'm buried in a garbage heap, looking up at the stars...

nice to meet you, people of earth (my own translation of the title lol) - ALWAYS MAKES ME EMOTIONAL. the strengths and faults of humanity viewed through the eyes of a hopeful outsider...

loveit - a quiet melancholy one about easily getting sucked into self-destructive relationships... and the mv is beautiful

anonymous m - best of his recent work imo. LOVE a good meta exploration of hatsune miku as a character or not-character

lonely ufo - one of the first songs of his i ever heard. makes me emotional...

ghosts play to the audience - really interesting song about creative integrity vs crowd-pleasing as an artist and the unclear boundary between the two. also about ghosts! and it bangs!

yozurina - a song about the uncertainty and attachment of long-distance love. dawn comes again...

vocaloid is lame - a melancholy song about dealing with haters of one's work that sort of turns into a classic pino-p "finding optimism in the midst of your sadness" thing. the high note on the astronaut line always makes me tear up a bit

everything about animals - duet between miku and pino-p himself! "there's tigers, horses, deer, working adults, livestock, monkeys, you who once raised your first cry..."

it's a festival, hey come on! - i only checked this one out recently because of the creative mixed-media mv and it took a while to grow on me but now i think the chorus is so catchy. flashing lights cw

tonchinkan feast - possibly the first of his songs i ever heard. kind of an oddball but i love the creative mv. my party trick is i can sing this from memory. if you listen to it you'll understand why it's a party trick

motivation is dead - THEE depression song

god-ish - i'm sorry vocaloid community for putting this one so far down the list i just thought of a bunch of other ones first. this one got so crazy popular it shows up in "all time miku songs" tribute art. kind of wild. i was there when it dropped, who'da known...

magical girl and chocolate - another recent one that got popular although not to the insane degree of god-ish. when i find a toku character to apply this to it's over for you guys

non-breath oblige - forgot about this one for a bit but it's so good it makes me emotional. wish it was humanly possible to sing

and i'm just gonna throw ultimate senpai, what's inside, kick ass literally, nee nee nee, and mushroom mother onto the pile real quick before this gets too long. you've already seen 404, apple dot com, what yama says goes, last continue, reincarnation apple and common world domination from my other post so i didn't write up a blurb for any of those but those are some classic favorites of mine too, especially the first three. NOW as if this post wasn't long enough here are some collabs and stuff of his i like:

i'm a controversy by ado - vocals by ado, written and produced by pino-p. aka THE FUCKING DREAM TEAM EVER. this song expresses ado's conflicted reaction to the controversy she's generated with the social criticism in her music. imo THEE best song to come out of the voca-p adjacent circle this year. mv goes hard too

(not) a devil - collab with deco*27, another insanely popular voca-p, possibly the most insanely popular one currently active. as you can imagine this one made quite a splash. i like duet collabs like this because you can hear the difference in how each artist tunes their miku. pino-p's muted soft-spoken miku ftw

gorgeous big conversation - collab with utsu-p, a less popular but still fairly big voca-p known for his signature heavy metal sound which you can hear in this song. i love the lyrics of this one they are silly and surreal, i wish this video was subbed. shoutout to internet comedian arufa who is the guy in the video, he also provided the human voice in anonymous m. you may know him from this video which got popular on tumblr

ok hope this wasn't too long :) enjoy!!! also, i put these in no particular order, but if you pay attention to the upload dates think it's interesting to see how the style evolves over time. also did you know the art is done by pino-p himself :) with some exceptions obviously but that distinctive style you see always popping up is done by him

[skinnyscottishbloke]

A and B for the fandom asks!

Heyaaaa thanks for these : )

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Well number 1 has to be my ineffables, Crowley/Aziraphale from Good Omens. I’ll read allllll the fic - the angsty post s02 pining/reunion fics, the post s01 long friendship realized fics, the south downs retirement fics, hell even the human au fics (although those are a bit more hit or miss for me). I just cannot get enough of them!!! They are the ultimate to me. The outpouring of fic and art and meta post s02 makes being in the fandom extra fun rn. Also I like both the ace and allo interpretations, if the writing is good.

My number 1 used to be Johnlock, specifically from BBC Sherlock. While we all know how that show fucked up, Johnlock fic still has a special place in my heart and I find myself revisiting favorites often. Similar to Good Omens, the post s02 Reichenbach fall hiatus art/fic/meta was a great great time and makes me smile to remember it.

Nick x Charlie from Heartstopper are adorable and sweet and are definitely my fluffy pairing. Alex and Henry from RWRB are like their older siblings in a way - I just love them too (more book versions for Alex and Henry, although the movie was lovely, I just feel like the book goes more in depth).

Also love Merthur (specificially from BBC Merlin). I don’t even really like the show??? but I looovveeee the fic world, especially when the whole ensemble makes an appearance. Modern AUs are really fun for me in this verse.

Gotta shoutout my OG ot3 Parker/Hardison/Elliot from Leverage. Their canon relationship was beautifully developed and I love when fic takes it to the next level. Lots of found family vibes, idiots to lovers, all the best tropes.

The first ship I ever read fic for was Rose x The Doctor (Nine or Ten) over on whofic.com. They’re still a huge ship for me (Doomsday still makes me cry fuck) so even tho I don’t seek out fic as much anymore I still reblog a lot of gifsets and stuff.

I was on the Stucky train HARD for the longest time, and I still go back and read fic, especially from the Winter Soldier or Endgame fix it era. Another Marvel ship I read a lot of was Matt/Foggy from the Netflix Daredevil. Avengers era ensemble fics (everyone living in Stark Tower) are also a favorite.

I went hard on Drarry for a while and I still go back to certain fics but I wouldn’t say it’s a current favorite per say.

Gonna save my last big favorite ship for the next question cause it fits really well.

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

So!! My last big main ship is Bagginshield (Thorin/Bilbo from the Hobbit) and this is one that I didn’t really even get into until I read The Riven Crown by beautifulfiction. She was one of my fave Sherlock authors and so when I saw she had written Hobbit fic I was like welllllll normally I don’t read fic of written media (especially Tolkien cause I grew up reading Middle Earth); but it’s B soooo I’ll give it a try. And oh my fucking god I was HOOKED. And now Bagginshield is probably #3 in terms of how many fics I have bookmarked and how often I think about them lol. Richard Armitage knew what the fuck he was doing as Thorin in those movies. I also love the ensemble aspect with all the dwarves and I love fics (like the Riven Crown) where it gets into the bureaucracy of rebuilding a kingdom like Erebor and also rebuilding trust in the aftermath of Thorin’s gold lust.

There’s other pairings I love (Booth/Brennan from Bones, Kanthony from Bridgerton, all the Sense8 relationships, some Zutara) but I think these are the main ones for me.

Send me a letter from this list

[ghcstvalleychief]

I think both Kinn & Porsche are looking at their respective lovers in the same light by the end of the episode. I think Porsche looks at Kinn and sees someone trusting the ex who stabbed him in the back and betrayed him and his family. And I think Kinn looks at Porsche and sees someone trusting the person he's warned him about countless times and whom he deems untrustworthy.

The quandary is that they both have a right to feel the way they feel. However, this is where their miscommunication comes into play because they're both wrong. And yes, I'm gonna make a prediction here and I could be wrong. I'll take the L if I am. Porsche doesn't trust Vegas and Kinn doesn't trust Tawan. That's it. Full stop. Due to their lack of communication, I'm sure they don't see it that way though. Plus, I imagine their own emotional hang-ups, trust issues, and personal insecurities play a part in convincing them of something that's probably not true. Let's take it a step further and have a big brain moment here.

Porsche can't show Vegas he doesn't trust him and he can't shut him down. The last time he went up against the minor family, he got choked out. Granted, it was to save him from a worse fate but that's what objectively happened. Kinn can't show Tawan he doesn't trust him either because he can't find out his true motives if he's elsewhere. Neither of the antagonists in this equation are stupid, so neither of them would show their hands to someone who's openly being suspicious and wary of them.

The only way they can get proof of their suspicions is if they keep them close. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. You can keep a better eye on your enemy if you're close to them. Now, do Kinn & Porsche have trust issues between them? Yes. Do I think both of them have done (or plan on doing) something that may look shady to the other when it comes to how they handle this whole thing? Yes. Kinn has to make a choice to gain the trust of his father and people while still ensuring that Tawan (and the mole) believe their plan worked. He still doesn't know who Tawan is working with. He thinks it's Vegas but he has no proof of that. Keeping Tawan in the house makes it easier to figure out who his partner is. But also, from this episode, we know that most of the guards notice more than they let on. Hell, this episode showed us that most of the people in the major family house notice and see things none of us thought they did. With that being said, no one knows who the mole is. The mole was most likely in that room when Kinn ordered Porsche to be locked up.

As for Porsche, he may run off with Vegas because he thinks he can get more evidence of his innocence and literally everything else. I think Vegas wears a mask around Porsche like he does around most people but I also believe that Porsche can outsmart him. It's like I've mentioned in my other meta post here - Vegas lacks self control and patience, so Porsche could quite literally wait him out because he will fuck this up. His arrogance will blind him to what's actually going on with Porsche and he will believe that he's beaten his cousin. Because while Vegas wears a mask, he doesn't realize that so do other people. He doesn't know Porsche but he believes certain things about him and that's why he utilizes the approach he does with him. He can read Kinn and he can even read Pete, it seems. He can't read Porsche though, which may be due to his arrogance and Porsche himself.

Now, this is all conjecture. I could be wrong about all of this or even some of this. Porsche may not have a plan and neither does Kinn. Maybe. But something tells me there is far more going on here with both of them, so I'm not pointing the finger at either one of them for this whole thing. All I ask is that you guys remember that and cut both of them some slack here. Give them credit because neither one of them lack intelligence. I'm pointing the finger at Vegas and Tawan though because they're the reason all of this is happening and it's quite clear that they're working together. With the help of whoever the mole is, of course.

[megaawkwardhuman]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. learn to know your mutuals and followers.♡

sorry for not responding to this sooner

wrote more then I expected so just gonna put this here

1: my dog!

he might be annoying at times but at the end of the day I fucking love him and if anything bad happens to him I'm going to kill a bitch. though it would be nice if he didn't jump on me all the time since he's fucking big (he's still a puppy tho so I cut him a lot of slack) (also he's a german shepherd if you're curious)

2: art

whether it's viewing it or creating it art has always made me happy. I've been drawing since middle school and while I do have creative dry spells I haven't really stopped creating and picking up random mediums (just pencil, just pens, pixel art, sewing, kandi making, painting the list goes on and will continue to go on)

3: music

I would go insane if music didn't exist. It's always been a big part of my life whether it's my dad blasting music while cleaning the house or me listening to music while walking down to a corner store to get an arizona. Music also helps give me ideas! like I have a few fic ideas written down that were inspired by songs.

4: watching and talking about media I like

I'll take this moment to apologize to my irl friends who have witnessed me info dump over discord vcs at like 1 am without planning what I'm saying so it's all one big cluster fuck of words. I fucking love to ramble on and on about shit that I like ESPECIALLY THE MEDIA I CONSUME!!!! I've always been a nerd for details, theories, and over all over analyzing. not always but most of the time if given the chance to talk about something I like I become like one of those door to door missionaries. Only instead of talking about my god I go on about how gay something is. Also watching shit that I like! after I'm done typing all of this I'm gonna rewatch some wwdits while working on bunny art (I swear one of these days I will explain the bunnies. It's a whole thing with a looooong story behind it. I wanna share it but I think it deserves a separate post so I won't talk about it here.)

5: tumblr

is this one a bit of a cop out? probably. is it true? 100%. it fucking baffles me that my ideas and art can bring joy to others. hell I still can't believe I've INSPIRED OTHERS but somehow I have. All of y'all in the wwdits fandom have really helped me get through art block that was going on for months I think? I can't put into words how thankful I am for this site. All of the amazing artists, all of the meta posts, just EVERYTHING AH YOU GUYS HAVE NOOO IDEA HOW MUCH I LOVE Y'ALL. it kinda feels weird since at the end of the day I don't really know y'all and y'all don't really know me but still from the bottom of my little queer heart thank you all soooo much for the follows, likes, replies, and reblogs.

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Thunderbrush 6

How Do I Exclude My Scorpions?

A conwoman disguised as a noble and the delegation of university students studying her have arrived in the jungle city of Thunderbrush, ruled by ancient dryads and organized crime. Will they manage to stay uninvolved in shady conspiracies? (No.)

Story so far | Session log index | Previous session

Last time, Looseleaf very successfully mimicked her sister's appearance, which failed to fool her co-conspirator in the secret society- but it's fine, they had a nice talk anyway. Oh and the co-conspirator got robbed, but not by Looseleaf, and it's a big mystery!

After that, Looseleaf went back and met up with Saelhen and Oyobi and got some skewers, while Oyobi told them all about the rules and regulations and meta of the venerable sport of Warball. (I'm gonna make a post for that but it's gotta wait because I'm doing a thing that won't be done until later.) In the meantime, we soldier on, to... get some literal lab rats from the Zoology department, which surely couldn't turn into a disaster.

...I'm sorry, they what?

Uh, we'll get to that. First, they have to get there- and there's something in the way. It's not the huge, expensive, and anachronistic metal walls in the way, or the exterior stone wall, or the leather-armor-clad guards manning the gate. Those things they could just walk right past, because they're visiting students and the security isn't to keep people out.

No, the thing in the way is a goblin and two halflings, clad in ostentatious black-and-yellow robes, all glaring menacingly. The party, undaunted, walks right up.

Long-Arms, Student Council President of Thunderbrush Metropolitan University, has no patience for these interlopers.

Saelhen's approach here is to pretend like the Headmaster told them that the Student Council would be generously showing them around town, and acting oblivious to any hostility. Long-Arms insists he will NOT be showing them to tea.

Looseleaf has as little patience for this guy as he does for her, and attempts to just walk right past them. She asks the actual guards where to go to get lab rats, and they helpfully give her directions, likewise ignoring the Student Council. She heads straight inside, much to the consternation of Long-Arms, still being thoroughly fucked-with by Saelhen's false politesse.

Saelhen attempts to flick a ball bearing at one of the bombs to knock it away, but accidentally sets it off instead. Still, this disorients the Student Council just long enough for Saelhen to turn invisible and slip inside, losing the Council in the process.

They pass through a magic security checkpoint of some sort, which... goes off, when Saelhen invisibly goes through. The guard is flummoxed, though- he writes it off as a false positive, since none of his detection magic seems to be picking up on Saelhen's form of invisibility.

(While invisible, Saelhen hears... sounds, in the distance somewhere. Almost like whalesong. Deep, reverberating moans. Heard by no one else.)

The party meets back up and heads to the office of Ondere Groove, head of the Zoology department.

Their job is to be a bureaucratic obstacle, but they're not interested in being a bureaucratic obstacle- they do some creative accounting to deal with the party's unusual situation as guests, and get some requisition forms for them to sign before sending them on their way. It's pretty painless- Blacksky University is apparently on the hook for the "losses" of the rats, but it's not the party's problem.

They head down to the basement, where the feed room is. Getting down there is a little more of an ordeal- Saelhen has to shake a Student Council tail by tripping them up with ball bearings, and there's a guard posted at a heavy locked trapdoor who has to run them by the rules of the ZOOLOGY STORAGE area. Long and short of it: don't let anything escape with you when you leave.

They head down a super deep stairwell, into a long corridor lined with huge glass windows opening into... holding cells? Terrariums?

There's a bunch of containment units for various monsters. Packs of wolf-sized feathered reptiles, a fifteen-foot-tall wooden marionette covered in wriggling runes, living distortions that look like jellyfish, a t-rex bobbledragon, a subtly-swaying silken cocoon, a collection of rocks stacking themselves on each other, and- to Looseleaf's considerable consternation, considering her species and an associated phobia- a giant spider.

The most notable specimen, though, is a few windows down, as they head down the hallway. And... this has gotta be a thing that's been in a video game, I bet I can google images it...

Okay, yep, cool, Monster Hunter done already did it so I don't gotta draw anything. Huge crystal scorpion!

Up on a catwalk inside the cell, holding a bundle of rags, is a terrified halfling girl, who seems deeply alarmed by the scorpion that she was surely already aware was in the room.

The scorpion seems to be targeting Saelhen in particular, for some reason. Looseleaf, assuming she'll be safe, attempts to use spirit magic to reinforce the glass... but fails. And Saelhen attempts to dance mesmerizingly to direct its strikes at less weakened parts of the glass... and also fails. Uh-oh.

The glass shatters, and combat begins!

Looseleaf starts by jumping up on its tail, the one place it can't sting. From there, she tries to improvise and restrain it with spirit magic- and, uh, fails again. She does, however, pick up on how most of the scorpion's body isn't part of the organism- there's some sort of shriveled internal musculature that's arranged some actual rocks into the shape of a scorpion.

Meanwhile, Saelhen attempts to keep the thing occupied. It's laser-focused on her, so she focuses on dodging, and expertly avoids its crystal hammerblows while occasionally tossing knives into cracks in its stone armor created by Oyobi's wild blows.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Are you even trying, gigantic scorpion?" Benedict (GM): It screeches a horrible grinding chalkboard noise. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "I will thank you not to speak of my mother that way."

Then... Looseleaf tries something. She has a thing called "Painread", a trick she learned by studying the torture wizard's notes, which allows her to simultaneously attack and learn the target's HP.

So, how does she advance Deep? Well... that connection she established...

Then it's Saelhen's turn to have a truly fantastic idea.

Normally, it's very difficult to send things to the other side. The other side wants to spit things back out. Things from this world don't belong there, and it takes the bracer's magic to keep them even partially submerged. There's resistance.

Benedict (GM): This thing? There is no resistance at all. It's smooth as silk, sinking into the other place with you. You've taken it back to where it's supposed to be. And it is screaming in terror. Do you want to stick around to see what happens to it, or head back?

The things on the other side swarm and devour the scorpion alive as it screams in panic and agony.

And meanwhile, in the material plane, the monsters in the nearby cages seem agitated, drawn to the same call, trying to push through the walls. Everyone is panicking about this, and the scorpion's disappearance.

Saelhen stays to watch for a bit- but it seems like the things that are eating the scorpion have started to notice her, and something takes a bite out of her leg. She pulls the plug and returns to the material plane- and the scorpion doesn't come with her. Looseleaf immediately treats the bite wound- which was full of nasty neurotoxin, and could've been fatal. Saelhen opts to store the extracted neurotoxin in a jar of honey.

The aftermath is pretty messy, but doesn't take too much remarking on. The Student Council shows up, demanding that they account for the disappearance of university property, and they stonewall 'em pretty hard. They get the box of one dozen rats they came for, no problem. As they leave, they go through security- and Evelyn shows up and verifies that Saelhen hasn't stolen the scorpion or anything. Long-Arms, cowed by his boss, is totally miserable.

The only real issue is- the girl in the enclosure earlier accosts them. Goldie Lightharvest, zoology student, was in charge of handling that specimen- it was her big term project, and now it's just gone? Where'd it go?

Saelhen stays pretty vague about this. She mentions she "sent it back where it came from" and provides no further useful details, much to Goldie's frustration.

This doesn't satisfy her, though, and it seems like she might be back later to make some trouble for the party for robbing her of her important zoology project.

Next time, though: it's time to do some science with lab rats to explore the limits of the bracer's abilities, spirit magic, and... uh, necromancy? Maybe???

-------

...That night: Looseleaf has a nightmare.

██████ hiding. ██████ seen ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████. It's █ ███████ out there. ███ saw █ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ █ ███ ████ ███ ████ █████, only ██ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ██ ██████, █████ ██████ ███ torn ██ ██████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ████-█████████- ███ █████ ██████ feeding █████████████████ ██ ██ ████ █ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████. ███████ ███ ██ ███ ██ safe ████. ███, hiding ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ████████, ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ devoured ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████ █████. ████ ████ ████ ███ ███ longer ████ ███ ███ ████████. Time ██ █ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ever █████████. ██████ █████ refuge ██ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████, █████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ slowly █████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ██ feed. ███ ███ move ████ quickly ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████████, ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ███████. ████ ██ ███ safest █████ ███ ████ ████ █████. ███ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ faster, ███ ████ ████ hiding █████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ safe. ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██ hide. ███ █████ ██ nowhere ██ hide, nowhere ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████. ██████ ████ ████████ █████████. You █████ ███ ████ ██ ████. ██████ █████ █ crack ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███- █████████ ███ tiny ████-█████████ █████████ enter, ███ █████ ██████ ████. █████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ eat ████. █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██ safe. █████ ████████ nothing ██████ ████ ██ ██ devour ███ █████████, you feel █████████. ████ ████ ██ ████ ████ hiding █████. ███████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███, ███ █████ ██ run ██████ ███ open █████ ███████ ███ crack ██ ███ ███████, ████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████. ███████████, ███ ███ set upon ██ ████████ ███████. ████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ █████ █████, ███ fail ██ █████████ ██. ████ ██ ███ ████ eyes, ███ exposed █████ ██ ███, ███ ████ ████ ███████. ███ lose ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███ safety. ██████ saved ██ █ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████- ███ grabs ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███ air, ██████████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ agony ███████ ████ tiny █████. You ████ ██ choice ███ ██ █████, ███████ ████ ████ weapon ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██████. ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███, ███ ██████ ███ ███ hit ██████ ████ █ █████ ████ ██████ █ █████ ███ weaknesses ██ ████ █████, ██████ ███ close ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████. ███ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ quickly ██ ███ ███, ████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ exposed █████ █████ ████ ███ ██████-like ██████ ██ ████ ███████ █████. ███ reach ███ █████, ███ ███ █████ inside, ████████ ███ ███ ████████████ pain ██ ███ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ injuries. ███ █████ ███████ ███ █████, ██ and ██ and ██ and ██ and ██ and ███ ████ ████████ crushed. ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ████████. ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ███████. ███ ███ ██████ ██, ███████. ██ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ██████, ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████. ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██ █████, ███ ████, ███████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███- █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███. █████ ██ █████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████. ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██. ████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████, ███ ████████. ██ ████ █████ ████████. ██████████ ████████.

███ ██ ███████ hurt. ███████, ██ ███████ hurt. ██ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██████ hurt. ███ ████ ███████ ██, ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████- ████ █████. ██ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ██. ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ hurt ███. ███ ████, ███ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ █████, ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███. ██████ ████ █████████ ██ █ ██████, ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███- ███ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █ █████ █████. ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███. ███ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███, ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████████, ███ ██ ███████ hurt ███. ███ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ █████████. ███ █████ ████. ███ █████ ███ ████? ███████ hurts. ███████, ██████████, ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ hurt ███. Panic █████ ████████ ████... ████? ███████. ███████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ████. ██████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ panic. ██ ███ ███. ███ █████ ████ ███ ████. ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████, █████ █████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ hurt ███, ███ ███ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ hurt. ███ █████ ████ ████ "heaven" ██, ███ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██. ██ █████████████- █ █████ █████ ███████ hurts.

███ █████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███- ███ ████ █████. ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ████. ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███████. ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████- ███ ██████████, █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██. ██ █████ ██ █████. ███ █████ panic, ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ hurt. ███ █████ █ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████. ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████- ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███ panic ███ pain. ████ ███ ████ ███. ██ █████ hurt ███ ███████- ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████. ███ ████ █ █████ ████████ ██████████ ███. ██ ███ █ ████ ██ ███ ███. ███ ███ ███ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████. ██ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████ █████. ████ found you. ███ █████ ███ ██ ██ ████. ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████, ███ █████ ████ ███ ███ ████ weapon. ███ ██████ and ██████ and ██████ and ██████ and ████ and ████ and ████ and ████. ████ too ████. ██████ █████ too ████. ███ ██████ panicking ██████. █████████, ███ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███████, hurts. ███ ██████. ███ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ████.

███ ████ █████.

██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ and ██████ and ██████.

██████████! ████, ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████████████? ███████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████? ████ ██ ██ █████! ██ █████! ██ ██████! ███ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██████ ██!

███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████████. ███ ████-█████████, ███ ██████, ███ █████████ ████. ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ surround ███ drown ███. ███ ████ ███████ ██ hide.

███ ████ ████, ████? ████ ███ ████████. ████ ████ █ ████, █████ ███?

███ █████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████, ███ e █ e █y █ █ █ n █ HURTS

She wakes up shaking, unable to remember the source of the panic wracking her body.

[lex-munro]

[Suicide Squad Scrap] Princess pt. 16

self-indulgent batjokes-flavored SS/BvS/JL, installment 16.  this universe’s Ratcatcher is a sassy young Gotham native with the meta-human ability to speak to certain species of small mammal.

more references to past Constantine/King Shark (i can’t help that i find it hilarious).

the piece as a whole is rated Mature for pervasive language, varying degrees of violence, use of controlled substances, sexual references, questionable ethics, and themes of mental illness.  set from Flag’s POV, with references to Birds of Prey, but not compliant with The Suicide Squad.

***

“We got the north patrol,” says Ratcatcher.

“Didn’t see west patrol,” says Lawton, “but we got two of the sniper nests.”

Digger scampers into the alcove.  “Got the western patrol,” he reports.

They wait.

Nothing happens; nobody else joins them.

“Wha—where the hell’s Jones?”

“I, er…lost ‘im.”

“How do you ‘lose’ a six-foot-four lizardman with fangs?” Flag demands.

“Look, I ducked into an alley to have a quick piss, all right?”

“Fuckin’ idiot,” huffs Lawton.

“It’s all those damn energy drinks,” Flag grumbles.

“Oy!  At least it’s not lager anymore, yeah?  Intervention well received!”

“Heard you cried when King Shark read his letter to you,” Lawton says.

“Man’s got a poet’s soul.  ‘Me sad when you fall down like idiot instead of stabbing people’ hits deep when you’re hungover.  Said the only thing that ever made him sadder was when his boyfriend went to hell for like a month without a word; broke up with him over it, in fact.”

Flag tries to hail Croc on comms, but all he gets is static.

Lawton heaves a sigh.  “It’s gonna bug the shit outta me, tryna figure how they took a guy like Croc quietly.”

“Must be blowdarts, yeah?” Digger says, like that somehow makes sense.  “Saw this old guy once—four-foot-nothin’, made of pitch-black wrinkles, white hair, and spite—he could take down a kangaroo from fifty yards, completely silent.”

Flag shakes his head.  “Well, that pretty heavily implies an active enemy presence beyond guard posts, and one that might take prisoners if you look interesting enough.”

“Fuuuuck, I look so Muggle,” whines Ratcatcher.  “They’ll kill the fuck outta me.”

“What’s Muggle?” Joker asks.

“What’s—even my old ass knows what a fuckin’ Muggle is,” says Lawton.  “You ain’t seen or heard shit about Harry Potter in the last twenty years?”

“I don’t really follow celebrities outside the Gotham crowd.”

“Celebr—”

“That doesn’t matter!” Flag snaps.  “We got places to be.  And a Muggle is just a normal person.  Muggle, Normie, Vanilla.  This don’t change shit—we still stay low and quiet and assume they’re gonna try and kill us if we get spotted.”

“I mean, it changes a little,” says Ratcatcher.  “Now we gotta keep an eye out for the luggage while we’re poking around.”

“Heh, luggage,” chuckles Digger.

Joker leans around the edge of their hiding place.  “Mm.  Hm.  Hmhmhmmmmm.  Boomie, that door marked ‘maintenance’ should head down.  You verify the door to the compound.  Gun-Bunny, go get those last two snipers out of our business.  Snack-Pack, send some crunchies to verify the main servers.”

“I look like a fuckin’ Jell-O cup to you?” Ratcatcher gripes.  (“Tapioca,” Digger sasses, which earns him a boot to the shin.)  Nevertheless, as Digger wrestles with a heavy-duty cellar door, she sends two rats into a nearby vent.  (“No, I dunno what fuckin’ floor—just follow the wires.”)

Flag checks the intel tablet again.  Lawton should be able to get a line on the final sniper nest before Digger ever makes it to the compound’s entrance.  The hitman’s gone by the time Flag glances up.

Meanwhile, Ratcatcher is back in their little alcove (tying her shoe and complaining about being thirsty), and Joker is staring at the maintenance hatch while counting.

Ninety seconds later, Digger checks in on comms.

~Got a fuck-off big door here.~

“Two feet early,” says Joker, mostly to himself.  “Twins?”

~Locked up tight,~ says Digger.  ~Deffo the right way.  Bright side:  at least Satan’s got good intel.~

“Does it look computerized?” Flag asks him.

~Absolutely.  But no sign of an access panel on this end.~

Flag turns to Joker.  “If we get you to an access panel, can you hack it?”

“I look like a hacker?” Joker asks, confused.

“You hacked Harley’s nano-charge.”

Joker shrugs.  “Human factor.”

“What?”

“Found somebody who knew how and threatened ‘em until they did it for me.  It’s called ‘delegating,’ Flag.”

Ratcatcher sighs.  “Well, thanks to the jackhammer, I got a shot at it.  But drone recon said the access panel for the door is on the roof, totally separate from the server farm and all the central processing.”

~Take your time,~ Digger says.  ~Shut door ain’t goin’ nowhere, and I brought a Red Bull.~

“Blech.”

~Nah, it’s the peach kind, Arcee.~

“Huh.  Only one doesn’t taste like ass.”

“That’s not what ass tastes like,” Joker says authoritatively.

They all pause to either look at him askance or bleach their brains.

“So, the roof,” Flag says.  “The roof of this building.  In plain view of the lookout post halfway up that building,” he adds, pointing to the lone administrative office tower on the next block.  “Where there’s people with guns who shoot on sight.  While we’re trying to do a stealth job.”

“Gonna need a diversion, for sure,” Ratcatcher says.

Joker shrugs.  “Only four of ‘em up top, plus the four on the door of this place and whatever’s giving Gun Bunny trouble.”

~I heard that.  All snipers taken care of.  Two roofs away, on my way down so I can follow Arcee back up and give cover.~

Joker nods and shoves his coat at Flag.  “I’ll distract the lookouts.  Flag, you escort the little lady into the building.  Give a yell when you need me to make my move.”  And he just strolls his way across the street.

Irritated, Flag drapes the trench coat over a nearby hydrant to free up both hands.  “Furry friends first, then me.  Stay back until it’s clear.”

.End.

[idy-ll-ique]

Paparazzi.

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x F!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Warnings: TOO META, m*sturbation, mentions of s*x

Requested: nope

Summary: I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me... Y/N Y/L/N writes Marvel fanfictions. One day, Sebastian stumbles upon her account and, unable to help himself, reads all the stuff she has written about him. He didn't mean to fall so hard for her but he does. How can he not? She has shown him parts of himself that he never even knew existed.

Author's Note: Hiya peeps! Okay so a few weeks ago I read a similar (but dark) fanfic and I really wanted to write a softer version of it... Enjoy!

---

Same old, boring routine.

Y/N hit post and slumped against the headrest of her bed, sighing. She waited; a minute, then two passed and she noticed that someone had liked her post. She smiled to herself as she kept her phone away. Though boring, she wouldn't trade her life for the world. Y/N… well, she was a university student first and foremost but she was also a writer.

Being a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she had started writing fanfictions a few years ago. She posted them on Tumblr, where her blog, though not very well-known, stood out enough for her posts to get around 800-1000 likes per post. She loved it; she loved writing, she loved posting her stories and especially, she loved the feedback.

Sometimes people were rude, but most times, the reviews she got were fantastic. She read each and every one of them, smiling goofily as people freaked out over her fanfictions. It warmed her heart. A smile automatically blooming on her face, Y/N lay down on the bed and decided to go to sleep, it being almost 3 am.

Unbeknownst to her, someone else was up at the same time, tossing and turning in his bed, restless.

Sebastian sighed as he sat up, running a hand through his hair. He drank some water and lay down again, closing his eyes but it was like sleep was mad at him. Refused to be anywhere near him. He groaned to himself and picked up his phone from the nightstand, deciding to go through Instagram, hoping he'd finally fall asleep to the glare of the screen.

As he logged into his account, he skipped the activity page and went straight to the explore page. Bored, he continued scrolling until his eyes landed on a specific photo. And the breath escaped his lungs when he clicked on it; the woman in the picture was absolutely gorgeous. He just couldn't resist going to her page, smiling widely when he read her bio.

It gave him her basic information; her name, her age, the university she attended. But what caught his eye was the link below the bio. My Marvel Fanfictions Master List. Marvel fanfictions? She was a writer? Smirking, he clicked on the link and it took him to Tumblr. Of course, he'd heard of the site, but didn't have an account on there. At 3 am, his mind sure wasn't working right.

A post popped up on the screen, the same master list she had mentioned earlier. And his eyes bulged out of their sockets; damn, those are a lot of fanfictions. He went through the whole thing, smirking again when he noticed that she had written the most fanfictions about him. Not Bucky Barnes, no, Sebastian Stan.

He clicked on the first one. The date of posting was way back, in 2019. He started reading; nothing about it felt weird to him; he was intrigued, if anything. And as he continued reading, he couldn't help but imagine her being in the stead of the female protagonist. Her, the writer. The woman whose picture had made him end up reading in the first place.

When he finished the story, his heart thudded wildly in his chest. Wow, she really has a way with words. And he had also noticed how in the author's note, she used a lot of slang but reading the story had made him realize that she had an amazing, extensive vocabulary. He went back to the master list and clicked on the latest post under his name.

Posted: 15 minutes ago.

His breath hitched in his throat when he read the warnings: there was going to be sexual intercourse in this one. For one moment, he hesitated; did he really want to read this? "Oh fuck it," he huffed and scrolled, starting to read. The more he read, the more his shaft twitched in his pants. He wasn't really like that during… but oh damn, he wasn't complaining.

"Oh, Seb…"

His hand slid down and he rubbed himself through his boxers, unable to take his eyes off the text in front of him. His strokes got harder and faster as the sex got steamier. "Ungh, I'm gonna cum—" And he suddenly came in his boxers, groaning. Slumping down on the bed, he quickly finished reading the rest of it, going back to the master list.

He took a screenshot with the account's name in it and then went back to her Instagram account to take another screenshot. Keeping his phone away, he slipped out of his boxers, cleaned himself and pulled the covers on top of him, finally feeling tired enough to fall asleep.

---

Y/N was walking across the campus of her university, going to the cafeteria when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Taking it out, she opened Tumblr to read the message someone had sent her just then.

his-username: Hi there! I was binging your account last night, you write really well

your-username: Omg thank you!!!! I really appreciate it, I love getting feedback! 🥺❤

his-username: You're welcome! Especially your latest post, that was really good ;)

your-username: hehe 😈 glad you liked it!

Smiling widely, she kept her phone away and continued walking, not knowing that the person who had texted her was the same man she had written about. Sebastian smiled to himself when he read her text. After getting up in the morning, the first thing he had done was install Tumblr on his phone. Then he made an account for himself.

Figuring out the app was easy; he found out that there was an option to keep your liked posts and the accounts you followed hidden, and selected it immediately. No one needed to know what he did on the app. Then he went back to her account, pressed the follow button and started binge-reading her fanfictions again. Last night had he read only two, and that had left him wanting more.

Funny how much things can change in a night. He liked and reblogged all her posts without a second thought; he even read all her Bucky Barnes posts. She understood his character so well, put him on what he thought was an undeserved pedestal while writing about him. Some of the stories were AUs, which he found out stood for Alternate Universes. Mostly mobster or mafia stuff.

He had the day off, and he spent the entire time cooped up in his apartment, on his bed, reading. The more he read, the more he started fawning over her, over the version of him that she put out to the world. Dominating, suave and just perfect. He loved it. At the end of the day, he decided to text her again, hoping she wouldn't think he was weird or find out the truth.

his-username: do you wanna be friends, maybe? I'm new to the app, don't really have any friends here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That was a lie, he knew Mark Ruffalo had an active Tumblr account. But it's not like he could tell him.

your-username: Yes sure!!!! I was also thinking of making some friends on this app lol

his-username: You don't have any on here? But you've been here for years, haven't you?

your-username: haha yeah, but I don't really reach out to people much. Sometimes people leave their feedbacks on my posts, text me but that's that

his-username: Ohhh

his-username: well, let's start with names. Mine's Sebastian

your-username: Really?????? omg that's so cool lmaooooooo (didn't think you were a boy but 😳👀)

his-username: Not a boy, I'm a man 😤😂

your-username: 🤣 im y/n, btw

his-username: Y/N, that's a nice name

your-username: thank you!!!! So, what do you do?

his-username: nothing really that interesting, I'm in theatre

your-username: theatre is nice! I'm studying at [university] in New York lmao

his-username: Wait you're in New York? So am I!

your-username: ASDFHKSHKGF that's awesome!!! also I noticed that you've been going through my account the whole day 😏 notifications upon notifications keeping my phone busy

his-username: Oopsie?

your-username: 😂😂 I really don't mind, it was great! Despite the amount of likes on my posts, I only have a few loyal followers lmao gaining one more felt nice

your-username: You a big fan of Sebastian Stan? Cuz I noticed that you were only reading his and Bucky's fics 👀

Sebastian's face heated up.

his-username: kinda yeah 🤷🏻‍♂️😁

your-username: Cool cool cool, I'm a big fan of his too!!!! also got a crush on him but whatever 😳

Sebastian smirked at his phone. A crush on him, huh? That… was acceptable. He suddenly felt his cocky side coming out; the one she described in nearly all her fanfictions.

his-username: wouldn't blame ya, I mean, look at him. You have also written the most fics about him and Bucky

your-username: right????? damn that man has raised my standards. Anyway, I gtg now, I have to finish a paper before midnight. ttyl!

his-username: Bye! 👋🏻

He kept his phone away and took in a deep breath. This was the most fun he had had in years, and he was not letting her go so easy. He realized he was quickly falling for her; rather unhealthy, but he couldn't help it. Look at her. She looks like a goddamn angel, writes like one, makes him feel like one, do you really expect him not to fall for her? That's insane.

---

Months passed by like a breeze. Y/N and Sebastian had become very good friends, and he knew his way around words just enough to keep her from finding out his identity while not lying to her. Y/N also appreciated his friendship, because he was the one to whom she could rant about her most favorite man in the world— Sebastian Stan.

Sometimes, she thought about how weird of a coincidence it was that her new friend and the actor shared the same names, but then she used to brush it off; that was a common name, right? They talked for hours on end; Sebastian (her friend, not the actor) was extremely witty, smart and fun to talk to, she had to admit. Sebastian felt the same way.

His feelings had worsened. Y/N entirely owned his heart now. Somedays, he'd just go on Instagram, go to her account— her username memorized by him— and stare at her photos until he grew tired; he'd never get tired of looking at her beautiful face but his stiff body afterwards begged to differ. She was just so Elysian. He longed for the moment when he could meet her in real life.

His personality had also changed majorly, and people had caught on. Especially his Marvel co-stars, who knew him to be introverted, shy and, in Anthony Mackie's words, "boring". They were surprised at his sudden change in attitude; he knew his worth and Y/N had helped tremendously in finding it. Now, all those adjectives that she used in her fanfictions fit him perfectly.

Sebastian was never tempted to read fanfictions about himself from authors other than Y/N. No, he only loved her work. He was sure no one else could write as beautifully as she did, he was her #1 fan. Y/N even sent him funny Marvel memes she found on the app and he used to enjoy them heartily; God, the others have no idea what they're missing out on. Our fans are awesome.

Everything was going well.

Until one day.

Sebastian was getting bored at home, so he decided to go to the nearby library to clear his mind. He had read not one book in the past few months, hung up on Y/N's fanfictions. At this point, he was obsessed with her and he knew it. It was nothing dark, per se, it was— it was similar to how Y/N was attracted to Sebastian. How she was a fan of his work.

Just the same. He was a fan of her work in the same way. Just how she was attracted to him, he was attracted to her. Walking into the library that he visited often, he gave the librarian a smile and ventured further into the dark place. He checked his watch; the library closed at 12 am, it was currently 9:30 pm.

Not many people were around, heck, nobody was around. He thought himself to be all alone until he heard it. A sigh, coming from a few aisles away. He walked in that direction and peeked around the corner, freezing when he saw the other person. Y/N? Her books were strewn all across the table as she sat alone at the booth, rubbing her temples.

"You okay?"

She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. I'm dreaming. This is not real. Now I know for a fact that Sebastian Stan is not standing in front of me, asking me if I'm— "Hello?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face, pulling her out of her thoughts. "I, uh— I'm— h-hi," she stammered and he almost chuckled. "Hi." She gulped visibly and blinked at the table, not meeting his eyes.

"Can I have a seat?" He wants to sit with me?! "Y-Yes, sure, sir," she blurted out and he easily slid into the booth next to her. "Hey, please, call me Sebastian. What's your name?" He gave her a friendly smile, even though all he wanted to do was push her back into the booth and kiss her wildly. His shaft twitched just by thinking about it; Y/N was a thousand times more beautiful in person.

"I'm Y/N, it's very nice to meet you, I'm… I'm a fan," she admitted, playing with the ring she wore on her left thumb. I'm your fan too, sweetheart, the biggest one. "Y/N, nice name. You come here often? I haven't really seen you around." She shook her head. "Oh no no, I moved to this part of the city just a week ago, this is my first time here. The library is cozy," she shrugged, easing out of her tense position.

Sebastian nodded. "Yes, I know, this place is awesome. Got all my favorite books here," he chuckled and she smiled at him. "What's all this?" A groan left her lips. "Ugh, stupid university work. I have to write a book report but I don't even know what to write about." He smiled gently. "Well, I have a few favorite books, would you like some suggestions?"

"Oh, please! Tell me!"

He started listing some of his favorite works and Y/N noted the names down until he said the last name. At that, she froze. That's the name of my latest— She looked up but he had a smile on his face. "Oh, and the last one is by my favorite author." He took a pause. "Y/N Y/L/N." She froze completely, staring at the man with her jaw dropped.

Sebastian grinned. "We finally meet, Y/N, I've been waiting for months." Her mouth opened and closed several times as she recalled every interaction she had had with her online best friend— scratch that— her celebrity crush. All the times she had confessed her love for Sebastian Stan, all the dirty and inappropriate memes that she'd sent him…

Embarrassment flooded her entire body as she exhaled shakily. "It was you," she croaked out, "On Tumblr, the account— I'm so sorry—" Sebastian frowned in confusion when she blinked back sudden tears, a few still rolling down her cheeks as shame replaced embarrassment. "Y/N, please don't cry…" She looked up at him, his figure blurry due to her tears.

"You've read everything, haven't you? I just— I'm sorry, I don't want to make you uncomfortable—" He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. Y/N couldn't hug back, though she appreciated the hug especially since it came from him. "You don't know how much you mean to me, doll," he mumbled into her shoulder, using the nickname she often used in the stories she wrote about him. He grew accustomed to it easily.

"Huh?"

He pulled away to wipe her tears. "It was an accident," he admitted, "But I stumbled onto your Instagram account from my explore page. Then I clicked on your account, saw that you wrote Marvel fanfictions and I just couldn't resist the urge to read what you had written. Blame it on 3 am me, to be honest. You're a great writer, and I was immediately drawn to your works. They're awesome.

"They've helped me so much in the past few months. You see this changed attitude that everyone's been talking about lately? All because of you, sweetheart. I'm sorry for keeping my identity secret, but after reading your works, I knew I had to get closer to you. I made the Tumblr account just for you, just so I could talk to you. I'm sorry for lying, but thank you."

Y/N dumbfoundedly stared at him for a few moments, her heart beat getting steady with each thump. Here was a man she admired, loved more than anyone else in the world, telling her that he harbored the same feelings for her. How crazy was that?! Not trusting her words, she simply pulled him into another hug. Sebastian wrapped his arms tight around her, pulling her flush against him.

"Can I kiss you, doll?"

She slowly pulled away from him and nodded, shyly biting her lip. Grinning at the endearing gesture, Sebastian cupped her face and leaned in, gently pressing his lips to hers. The kiss grew hungry in a matter of seconds, and Y/N responded just as eagerly. His hands slid down to her waist and tugged on it, pulling her on his lap. She straddled his thighs as they continued kissing.

"Fuck," he groaned when they finally pulled away from each other, out of breath and panting. "You see what you do to me, doll?" Sebastian spoke huskily as he took her hand, placing it right on top of the tent that was forming in his pants. "Oh," Y/N whimpered when she felt him, the sound going straight to his shaft. "How about I take you home and we recreate some of the scenes from your stories, hm?"

"O-Okay."

"Good girl."

---

A/N: What a meta experience 🤡 Leave a like if you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

[troquantary]

Edward Cullen: That Boy Ain’t Right

So I was doing a reread of @therealvinelle 's collection of Twilight metas, as one does, and in "Edward, Denial, and a Human Girlfriend" she mentions that she doesn't believe Edward is sane. I thought, "ha, yeah, he's definitely not," and also, "but wait, what does that mean exactly, please say more about that." But since she's already inundated with asks, I've decided to use my own head-muscle and explore this idea. (TL;DR: I start out more or less organized, synthesize some points Vinelle has made across several posts (and have hopefully linked to them all where relevant but please tell me if not), touch a little on narcissism, then take a hard left into the negative effects of being a telepath.)

Just a couple things to note at the outset, though. Theses have been written already (probably) about Edward as an abuser. Edward being insane doesn't negate that at all; he's definitely an asshole and just...a disaster of a human being. (I find it more funny than anything, but YMMV.) I'm also going to try to avoid talking specifically about mental illness and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to abusive behavior -- that's territory I'm not really equipped to discuss, like at all. My starting point is "Edward has a deeply warped perception of reality," not "Edward has X disorder."

So: deeply warped perception of reality. The evidence? Goes behind a cut, because my one character trait is Verbose.

Vinelle provides a great example of it in the post linked above, which I'll just quote because she does words good: "[Edward] keeps acting like his romance with Bella is a romantic tragedy, and all the cast of Twilight are actors on a stage making it as sublime as possible." Edward's the one to pursue Bella, but he does so with the full belief, from the very beginning, that it will never last; Bella will "outgrow" him, go on her human way, and he can spend the rest of eternity brooding magnificently over his too-short romantic bliss. [Insert premature ejaculation joke.] Turning her is never an option, even though Alice, Noted Psychic, says that romancing Bella will either end with her dead (exsanguinated) or dead (vampire).

This framing, where he's a dark anti-hero in love with -- but never tainting! -- the pure maiden and eventually leaving her in a grand, tragic sacrifice to preserve her soul? It's fucking bonkers. Bella isn't a person to him in this scenario. As Vinelle points out, Bella's never really a person to him at all; he falls in love with his own mental construct, cherry-picking from what he observes of her behavior and her responses to his 20 (thousand) Questions to convince himself that she is the ideal woman.

Bella's not the only one who gets the projection/cardboard-cutout treatment. Edward sees everything and everyone through a highly particular, personalized lens. He filters his entire reality, which we all do to an extent, but the thing with Edward is that he starts with his conclusions and then only pays attention to the evidence that supports those conclusions. Often that evidence consists of what he admits in New Moon are only "surface" thoughts -- but recognizing that limitation doesn't keep him from taking those thoughts as representative of what people are. Edward then becomes absolutely convinced by his own "reasoning" and won't be swayed from what he has decided is Objectively True. It's obvious with Bella; it's also painfully obvious with Rosalie. (Vinelle explains this and brings up Edward's raging Madonna/Whore complex in the same post, so refer to that again -- she's right.)

He also catastrophizes. Everything. Bella's just vibing in her room, rereading Wuthering Heights for the 87th time? She's gonna be hit by a meteor, better sneak into her room while she sleeps. Bella's going to the beach with the filthy mundanes their human classmates? She's gonna fall in the ocean. Jasper's cannibal pals are stopping by for a visit, but know not to hunt in the area? DISASTER, DEFCON 1, ALSO FUCK YOU JASPER FOR EVEN EXISTING IN MY AND BELLA'S SPHERE YOU UNSPEAKABLE BURDEN. Edward must believe that Bella is vulnerable and in near-constant peril, to support the reality he has created in which he is the villain turned protector and maybe?? hero??? (!!!) for his beloved. So when the actual, James-shaped danger arrives, he goes berserk, snarling and flipping his shit and generally not helping the situation. His fantasy demands that Bella remain human, so instead of doing the very thing Alice, Noted Psychic, assures him will neutralize the threat (and not just a threat to Bella, either, but to Bella's family and any other human James might decide to include in the "game"), he vetoes it immediately, no discussion. Bella Must Not Turn, and he sticks to those guns despite James nearly reducing her to ground beef, despite leaving Bella catatonic with depression (but human! success!) in New Moon, despite Aro's order and his family's vote and, let's not forget, Bella's clearly and repeatedly stated desire to be a vampire. It's going to happen. But he doesn't accept it until Renesmee busts out of Bella like the Kool-Aid man and the poor girl's heart finally, unequivocally stops.

Sane people don't behave this way. I don't want to slap labels on Edward, but I can't help but note that he comes across as highly narcissistic. He's the only real person in his universe, the lone player among us NPCs. That probably has a lot to do with him being frozen in the mindset and maturity of a seventeen-year-old boy, but I think it's also just...him, on some fundamental level. His failure to connect with others and recognize them as full, independent beings with their own wants and priorities isn't like Bella's failure -- she's badly depressed. Edward is...something else, and I get the sense that his sanity has been steadily deteriorating over time. And a cursory google of narcissistic traits turns up some familiar-looking stuff. He's self-loathing, yes, but also grandiose; he hates himself for the monster he is (and hates most vampires besides Esme and Carlisle for their monstrosity, too) but still feels superior to humans, to the extent that he felt entitled to human blood and resented Carlisle for depriving him of his "proper" diet. He eventually returns to Carlisle, but he's far from content -- the beginning of Midnight Sun finds him in a state of ennui, bored and dismissive of (if not outright disgusted by) everyone around him, that has apparently persisted for years and years. He doesn't play the piano, he doesn't compose, he doesn't enjoy anything...at least until Bella comes along and then he becomes obsessed to a disturbing degree with her and his new, romantic tragedy spin on reality.

[Next-day edit: I’m not sure where else to fit this in, but the way Edward casually contemplates violence against people who have, at best, mildly annoyed him is...chilling. I have a hard time writing off his strategizing how to murder the entire Biology class as a result of bloodlust -- it’s so calculated, nothing like the blackout state of thirst Emmett describes when he encountered his own “singer,” and that is probably the default for when a vampire is extremely thirsty. But even ignoring the Biology class incident, Edward still does things like consider, with disturbing frequency, how he might grievously injure or kill Mike Newton, all because...Edward considers him his romantic rival (despite Bella barely giving the kid the time of day). He thinks about slapping Mike through a wall, which might be an amusing slapstick image, except as a vampire Edward’s actually capable of turning this boy’s skeleton to a fine powder. So it’s, y’know, kind of sick when you think about it.

But even worse than that, when Bella tells Edward about how she flirted with Jacob to get at that sweet, sweet vampire lore, Edward chuckles and then, after dropping Bella home, flippantly observes that now that the treaty’s broken, why not genocide? I’m not even kidding, it’s right there in Midnight Sun; he seriously thinks about the fact that he’d be technically justified now in wiping out the entire tribe because a teenager tried to impress a girl with a spooky story. That is fucked. Remember, Edward was there with Carlisle when the treaty was first established. He knows how remarkable it is that they even came to a truce in the first place, that it was only ever possible because Carlisle is...well, Carlisle, and that it marks a pretty significant moment in supernatural history. He doesn’t care; he doesn’t respect it, or he’d never think something like “Ha ha, if I went and killed them all, I wouldn’t even be wrong. I mean, I won’t do it, but I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be wrong.”

Again: not the thought process or behavior of a sane person. (Or a person that respects life in general -- sorry Carlisle, big L.)]

Finally, whether he's a narcissist or not, I think the fact that Edward has constant, unavoidable access to everyone's thoughts is a powerful contributing factor to his instability. He can tune out the mental noise to an extent, but he can't stop it -- so he comes to rely on it like another sense. This causes issues with disconnect and lack of empathy, of course, but there's another facet to this shit diamond: he's basically experiencing a ceaseless flow of intrusive thoughts. His narration in Midnight Sun suggests that he "hears" the words people think, can "see" what they visualize in their mind's eye, and can sense the emotional "tone" and intensity of their thoughts. Therefore, perceiving Jasper's thirst through his thoughts makes Edward more aware of his own, "doubling" the discomfort. This would be a lot to deal with even from just his immediate coven members, but Edward gets all of this pouring into his head like a firehose on a day-to-day basis because the Cullens live right alongside humans. I know Meyerpires have galaxy brains or whatever, but that's a ton to process.

Besides the compounding effect on his own thirst when he "feels" the thirst of others, Meyer never suggests that Edward has difficulty separating his own thoughts from other people's; even when he was newly turned, he recognized Carlisle's "voice" in his head as Carlisle's. That would create a whole different host of issues around identity, but it looks like Edward's escaped that particular torment. However, I can easily imagine that what he does experience is just shy of unbearable nonetheless, with an eroding effect on his sanity over decades. He can't sleep to escape it; he's on a dishwater diet and probably (like the rest of his family) experiencing a perpetual, low-grade physical discomfort due to his thirst never being fully satisfied; and he's around far more people than is the norm for vampires -- even discounting all the humans, his own coven is unusually large -- meaning more noise.

Honestly, it would be weirder if he were all there, considering.

And even though I feel like I lost a sense of structure around where I started ranting about telepathy, I've written like 1.5k words about Edward fucking Cullen and I think that's enough for one post.

[boydykedoctor]

Okay genuine question I'm trying to understand the appeal of clauman bc I guess I kinda see it but feel like I'm missing something can u sell it to me pls

The Official Clauman Treatise

clauman (noun): the stranger things ship consisting of murray bauman and scott clarke

ugh okay there are two schools of thought we can take here which are characterized by complete irony vs. sincerity.

i. irony

clauman began as an ironic ship to make fun of the way fandom culture insists on cramming every character into a ship + the absolute most random/absurd pairing you can think of + that post going around that's like "i headcanon these characters as divorced" which led to my horrible brain saying "wouldn't it be funny if i created a headcanon that disgraced ex-journalist murray bauman and bubbly earth and biology middle school teacher mr. scott clarke once had a terrible, no good, very bad hookup at a science and technology convention in. uh. fuck. i don't know. indianapolis."

then, because it's been a long fucking time since season 3 dropped, i said, yeah. let's post about that nonsensical monstrosity as much as humanly possible until i can memeify it for me and a few mutuals.

examples of pieces from the ironic school of clauman:

the clauman moodboard

the clauman playlist

"ugh you know what we’ve already established in hawkinunsolved (gayeddiemunson) canon that murray is glasses 4 glasses which means either his hookup with mr clarke was pre-lasik or this all falls apart" (source)

ii. sincerity

now the problem with the ironic approach is that i can rationally explain it, as i just did up there ^ BUT the fun of clauman lies in its complete irrationality. if one were only to support clauman ironically, then it becomes too rational and is therefore no longer 1. completely absurd and 2. inflammatory.

as a side note, it is vital to clauman's continued existence that it is inflammatory. this boat is kept afloat by millie @robinsteve who is always and forever will be leading the anti-clauman charge. this is very important work she does for the cause of clauman because one cannot rebel without an establishment to rebel against (Big Mileven, Big Byeler, Big Jopper, Big The Other One).

SO if we're gonna keep this up, we have to also engage with clauman sincerely. this led to an era of me making posts such as the following:

"i do think i mighta Perceived clauman a little too strong by accident. the dynamic of dorky, incredibly earnest elementary school teacher and eccentric former-journalist-turned-conspiracy-theorist… just saying" (source)

"reason #46 to support clauman: it forces murray to have his own embarrassing drama that other people get to point out to him for once" (source)

"clauman could do when harry met sally" (source)

i am always threatening to write the ultimate clauman one-shot fic that cements their convention hook-up in the gayeddiemunson canon. there is no telling what this action would do to the current political climate and whether the fic would end up more on the ironic or sincere end of the spectrum. i imagine it will end up being a grotesque hybrid of the two.

iii. a meta layer

the extra meta layer of these two different schools being irony/sincerity also coincides with the two opposite attitudes of murray/mr. clarke so no matter how you choose to engage with the concept of clauman you are actively participating in reifying the clauman dynamic. i don't care if that last sentence doesn't make sense to anyone else because it makes sense to me.

iv. how to decide if clauman is right for you

i've taken the liberty of creating a helpful graph that can help the average stranger things fan locate their alignment. now, i wanted to create something that was a little bit complex because i am a nonbinary bi?sexual. this isn't a fucking kinsey scale, oh no. this is serious business.

for example, i would be in the top left quadrant, while millie would be in the top right. the majority of my mutuals fall into the bottom right quadrant, though some are closer to the bottom left depending on how funny my posts are.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk

[wenamedthedogkylo]

At long last. After over a week of rewatching and cross-referencing, here’s the wholly unnecessary massive meta post where I red-string a bunch of shit together.

At the end of the absolute fever dream that was Ep 13, I spewed out some stream-of-conscious, barely-coherent meta thoughts that some people seemed to like a little. First, thank you, glad you saw any kind of value in my frantic ramblings. Second, as I was thinking over everything that had happened and kept remembering more and more details to link things together, I realized… I should probably double check some of what I was remembering. We’re now only 14 episodes into C3, but it’s been long enough since I’d seen some of those earlier eps that I was definitely questioning if I was remembering things correctly.

So here I am—now armed with a whole Google doc of notes, quotes, etc.—to try and make those original thoughts a little more coherent and sensible. Again, this is less of a “theory”-theory, and more just me going

So let’s dive in, shall we? Spoilers ahead for pretty much all of C3 so far, so beware of that if you’re not caught up.

First, the brief glossary of shorthand I’m using, just in case you get confused.

Next, what’s the “not really a theory”-theory? That everything from Dugger to the Fucked Up Shade Creepers to the brumestone is connected to Armand Treshi.

But how and why? They never found out where the brumestone went, or how Dugger got the way he did, or what was up with the FUSCs. That’s what you’re probably thinking, right? That those are still loose ends to be tied up? I would argue that they’re not nearly as loose as you might think.

The linchpin of this theory is that two-timing goopy bitch Emoth Kade. She came to The Ball literally on the arm of Armand Treshi, and Eshteross confirmed that her Mahaan house had ties to House Treshi. Now what’s a gal who turns into a pale, black-eyed, goop-sweating, wall-crawling, acid spitting monster that can talk to FUSCs, doing hanging out with Armand Treshi? Or better yet, flip that question: why’s Armand connected to someone like that?

Well, because he basically made her like that, of course.

1. THE GOOP PATROL

Let’s talk about Dugger for a second. Remember that nasty little goop man? The pale dwarf with the jet black eyes who literally sweated out that gross clear-ish sticky stuff? Who turned all wormy to crawl through the tunnels in the spires? Who literally birthed a FUSC out of his back in a moment that still makes me gag to remember it?

I think a lot of us thought of him immediately when Matt described how Emoth looked at the end of Ep 13. And then it was confirmed in Ep 14: Emoth and Dugger were the same kind of fucked up. There were some differences, of course. Emoth could clearly control when she looked like a fungus demon, while Dugger couldn’t or maybe chose not to. When cornered, Dugger literally spat an AoE cone of that goop stuff that dealt Poison damage; Emoth spat out a straight line of goop that also did Poison. But they’re definitely the same kind of squishy goop person. Hell, Emoth even went and slimy-ed her way into a baseboard hole in the wall, like. Need I say more?

Well, I’m gonna. Because Emoth Kade and Dugger started out as utterly different people. Emoth belongs to a frickin’ Mahaan house ffs. It might be a lower-tier one, but it’s still a Mahaan house, and one that has ties to House Treshi. Dugger? A nobody. A former carpenter who shut down his business and ran with the Hubatt Corsairs for a while. They come from totally different worlds; how the hell did they end up with the same condition?

(I’m also, just this second as I’m writing this, realizing that both Emoth and Dugger had ties to the Corsairs. Dugger literally was a member for a time, while Cyrus said Emoth had worked with them in the past and that’s how she roped him into being her big himbo distraction. Shit, bro, I’m pretty sure Armand has more influence inside the Corsairs than maybe they realize… The Gang definitely needs to talk to Yash about Emoth and let him know that she was a goop person, too. They need to start checking their ranks for double agents.)

Yash Mangal with the Corsairs told the Gang that six months prior, Dugger vanished for several weeks. They thought maybe he was arrested and/or dead. But he turned up again, and he was already way different—“sweating more, skin growing paler”, becoming more aloof over time, and refusing to answer questions.

Well, what if he was arrested by the Wardens? What if that’s how Armand got ahold of him? I’m already pretty certain that Armand and/or Vali Dertrana had a hand in breaking Cyrus out of prison. I did that other meta theory about how Armand staged the robbery of the Gold Guild’s caravan which Cyrus was blamed for, and if it wasn’t obvious before, I think e14 proved that Cyrus is really not sharp enough to break his way out of a prison solo. He had to have help, and he made it sound like he met the Corsairs after he was on the lam. So who helped him escape in the first place? Maybe even he doesn’t know, maybe he thought he got lucky. But I’m pretty sure at this point that he only got out of there because Armand wanted him out.

Which means it would be perfectly reasonable for Armand or Vali to be able to go into the Granite Hold prison and pluck out a recently-caught member of the Corsairs to turn into their newest henchperson. And even if Dugger hadn’t been arrested, we know Vali was getting “riff raff from the Steps”, poor people who “no one would miss”, and collecting them for Ira’s experiments. Who helps the poorest people of Jrusar? The Corsairs. Reasonable to think that Dugger was down in the Steps helping people out, and got bagged by Vali’s people while there.

“Well hold on now, why’re you bringing Vali and Ira into this?” Because, my darling dearest fellow Critter, how do you think Dugger and Emoth got turned into goop people?

2. EVERYONE HAIL TO THE NIGHTMARE KING

Think about what Fearne remembered from her nana’s stories. The Nightmare King was “a figure that bent and twisted nature for fun. [And] beings that exist within nature. Just didn’t care for them.” What else would you call Dugger if not “bent and twisted”? Same with Emoth. Same with the FUSCs. Imogen and Laudna tangled with normal shade creepers in Zhudanna’s house pre-stream, and Imogen said those ones “looked alive” and were “less, you know, explosive”. They are all absolutely bent and twisted versions of what they used to be.

Also, think about the way all of these beings have been described. A recurring theme pops up, particularly pale skin, creepy black eyes, and wide mouths with sharp teeth.

When the Gang finally gets a better look at Dugger in his house, they see “that weird, kind of glistening, similar oily film [that] you see on everything emerging from him, these blackened veins that curl up the side of his face… The eyes are almost completely black like the other shade creepers that you’ve seen in the previous encounter.”

At one point during that same fight, a FUSC attacked Imogen, and as it got close, she could see “... grayish fleshy arms… Its stretchy, toothed mouth with no nose features and the beady black eyes staring at [her].”

Emoth was first described as already being pale when she entered with Armand, but when Chetney got a look at her in Headmaster Alakritos’s room in the Chambers, she was described as: “Her eyes, black. … darkened veins in the side of her neck. … her arms are a little bit longer, and that sweat is dripping off in a thicker, mucus-y pattern.” The others of the Gang who fought her later saw her “latched to the ceiling, in her dark gray, silver dress, pale sweaty skin, … head turned down, black eyes and extended jaw just dripping liquid saliva from it, the sharp teeth exposed…”

Pale skin, black eyes, no nose, wide stretchy mouth with lots of teeth, unnaturally long limbs? Kinda fuckin’ sounds like Ira Wendagoth to me. And it makes sense that when the Nightmare King twists creatures into horrible versions of themselves, they would each end up sharing some of his features. And let’s not forget that Ira has shown us his prowess with transmutation magic—he turned FCG into a frickin’ turtle without batting a big dark creepy eye.

I think it’s also pretty clear that Ira’s experiments were responsible for the Spitting Mimic that was killing people at the DST. Even without going really meta, we know the Mimic started eating people right around the same time that the Treshi’s Stone Mason’s Guild did “repairs” in that alley. The Mimic shares both Dugger and Emoth’s predilection to spit some kind of nasty damage at enemies. Dugger spat a cone of Poison, the Mimic spat a glob of Acid, and Emoth spat a line of Poison.

But if you go into the Spitting Mimic’s original stat block in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, it explicitly states, “The variant presented here is a particularly large and voracious specimen—the result of Netherese experiments on ordinary mimics—that spits acid.” Even in regular D&D lore, normal Mimics aren’t like that; they can only be created. It makes perfect sense that within Exandria, the same would hold true, and Matt adapted it to be the result of Ira’s experiments under Armand’s employ. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that metal half-sphere thing that Imogen pulled out of the Mimic’s body was part of how Ira mutated it, as well as being what tied it to that particular location.

Lastly, it should be noted that Ira, Emoth, and the FUSCs all dealt Piercing + Necrotic damage with their claw attacks. That seems a little too coincidental to me. Dugger probably would have, too, if he hadn’t chosen to fight with actual weapons. Or perhaps his goop-person abilities were different enough from Emoth that he couldn’t form claws to fight with. Thankfully, we’ll never know.

“Okay, that makes some sense. But where’s the brumestone that Dugger was smuggling? That hasn’t turned up yet.” Oh, but it has, my friends. It definitely has.

3. I’M BLUE DA BA DEE DA BA DIE

Day one of C3, the Gang comes together to protect innocent people from murderous moving furniture. We all remember, it was iconic. But let’s rehash real quick, yeah? It was a nice evening, peaceful, everyone was minding their own business. Suddenly everyone heard (and Imogen felt) an “odd, low, bassy rumble”. Right then, Laudna saw a “dull blue flash” off the side of the street ahead. A “small arcane sphere” flashed inside a cart pulled by two sillgoats, who reared up and ran away. The cart detached, scattering boxes which broke open to dump utensils and furniture in the street. That furniture came to life, and thus our beloved party banded together for the first time to defeat it.

Ahh, good times. Things were simpler then.

Hop-skip-and-a-jump ahead to the fight against Ira under the Moon Tower. At the end of Ep 10 when the Gang walked in on him working, Ira held “a blue gem about the size of someone’s clenched fist” up and over his shoulder. At the beginning of Ep 11, Chetney noted that Ira had put the gem down on the table behind him, which was described as a “fist-sized piece of blue crystal that’s giving off a faint blue glow.” And when their conversation came to an end, Ira picked the gem up once more and threw it on the ground, where it exploded in “a wave of arcane energy”. For everyone in the Gang except Chetney, that “burst of bluish-purple arcane energy” was familiar. A moment later, the tables and chairs nearest the explosion came to life.

“Yeah yeah, we know, Ira was behind the moving furniture. What does that have to do with bru–”

Blue. Stones. That. Make. Things. Move.

I’m tellin’ ya, that’s brumestone, baby!

We first hear of brumestone in Matt’s description as Orym, Fearne, and Dorian were arriving in Jrusar by skyship. They watched as “two prominent, blue, rounded stones about 10 to 12 feet in diameter that are affixed to the front of the ship—referred to as brumestone, which has a natural arcane ability to remain aloft in spite of gravity and that maintains a skyship’s movement—begin to glow brighter.”

At PT, the Gang found that odd crumbly, gravel-like residue in the pilfered crates. FCG used their Identifeye on the dust, and saw that it was “a somewhat vibrant sky-blue color almost, like a light cerulean. It’s a dull piece of brumestone.” Matt further explained brumestone’s rarity; how it’s heavily controlled by the Alsfarin Union in Ank’Harel; that it’s only known sources are the ruins of floating cities from the Age of Arcanum; and that “they are the blue stones that are embedded in skyships to keep them aloft.”

Drawing from sources like the original Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting and Campaign 2, the CR wiki explains that brumestone itself is not magical, but is particularly receptive to magic that will make it levitate. By embedding it in skyships, the enchanted brumestone is therefore able to make that otherwise inanimate object float as well.

So we’ve got a glowing blue rock that can be enchanted to make inanimate objects (like skyships and cities) float. And we have a glowing blue rock that can be enchanted to make inanimate objects (like tables, rugs, brooms, etc) move on their own.

Can I make it any more obvious?

Armand hired Ira to help him sow chaos in Jrusar. To do this, Ira needed supplies. Among those supplies is a very rare and notoriously hard-to-get mineral that is, according to Yash Mangal, very valuable on the black market. It’s a very tightly controlled element, and the Corsair spokesman said that there are probably a lot of arcanists and engineers seeking it out.

But this is Armand Treshi of House Treshi we’re talking about. He’s absolutely got the money and connections to get his hands on some illegal brumestone. (Especially once he stages a robbery of his own guild and squirrels that money away from the official books; see above theory about Cyrus and the robbery.) All he needs is ready hands to do the smuggling. Another trade: Armand, through Vali, provides Ira with test subjects for his experiments, and Ira twists them into willing servants who will do their dirty work.

Dugger, either picked up from the Steps or arrested and plucked out of prison, is among the first of these subjects to get goopified. He sticks around the Corsairs for a bit, probably gaining Armand & Co. some intel, and then eventually leaves them to focus on smuggling the brumestone into Jrusar. (This, I believe, is what he meant when he told Danas, “Well, I suppose we need to adjust our supply lines.” He killed her immediately after that, so he wasn’t saying “we” to include her; he was referring to himself and someone else. And since the Corsairs were certain he hadn’t gone to the Ivory Syndicate, it makes perfect sense that that someone was Armand & Co.)

The brumestone is passed on to Ira, who in turn uses his various contraptions and magic to enchant the mineral in a different way. After all, levitation magic and animation magic really are not that different. They are both used to move objects, especially those that cannot move on their own. It stands to reason that if brumestone is receptive to one kind of movement magic, it would, with a little arcane prodding, be receptive to others. And with how Ira loves twisting things to be darker and scarier, it’s no surprise that when he makes furniture move, the first thing it tries to do is kill people.

4. MY MIDDLE NAME IS ‘SECOND-SUMMARY’

Now, any reasonable person might have come to these conclusions and just moved on with their life. Given my ADHD and the ensuing memory issues, I am physically incapable of doing that. So when I say I literally rewatched damn near every second of C3 so far to make sure I wasn’t making this shit up… I mean I rewatched damn near every second. I made a Google Doc to cite specific information and quotes when needed. If anyone wants to see it, I’ll be happy to share. At this point I’m just recording anything that seems interconnected and/or important.

So I promise you I’m not pulling this stuff out of my ass. At most, I’m drawing lines and filling in gaps with reasonable conclusions. And where I’ve landed is that Ira the Nightmare King made the FUSCs, Dugger, Lady Emoth, and the Spitting Mimic for Armand Treshi, as well as used the smuggled brumestone to make animated killer furniture.

Obviously, if I end up being wrong about anything, then oh well. The surprise will be all the more amazing, because after hours of doing my best tin foil-hatter impression, Matt still managed to dupe me. Which would be exciting as fuck. But if I’m right, that doesn’t really lessen the excitement for me. Because despite all this, I still haven’t got a fucking clue where this will end up leading. Tie all of this in with the Paragon’s Call shit and the werewolves (still convinced those are linked), and all I can surmise is that Armand Treshi has much grander and more ominous designs for Jrusar than we thought.

Because as I said in my original blathering post, it’s one thing to make a little furniture move and one wall that eats people. Like, that’s still wild as fuck, but in the scale of an entire city and the surrounding lands, that’s relatively small potatoes. At best, you make people feel a little unsafe and off balance, and use the upset to maneuver your way into more power.

But the connections to Armand just keep adding up. Now we’ve got Lady Emoth, his date to one of the biggest political events of the year, being a goop person and robbing Gryz Alakritos’s guest suite? On top of everything else?? What did he have that she wanted so badly? And what in the ever-loving fuck was that shit with Emoth saying “we have business for her tonight” and “she’ll help me” and someone called “mother”? Like, I kinda joked during the stream that this might mean there’s a Queen Shade Creeper, but… bro what if there is? Ira what the fuck did you do?

At this rate, I really wouldn’t be surprised if Imogen’s red storm dreams, the Lumas Twins’ deaths, and the shadow assassins that attacked them and Zephra were also somehow Armand’s doing. The description of how the shadow assassins just kinda vanished reminds me of Ira being all smoky and hard for Laudna to hit; is he somehow responsible for those beings as well? WHERE DO ALL THESE THREADS LEAD?

MATTHEW WHAT HORRIBLE CHAOS HAVE YOU COOKED UP FOR US, I CAN’T STAND THE WAITING ANYMORE