#this was gonna be much more elaborate but then I realized that's insane

[royalarchivist]

The recent QSMP official streams are formatted like old Saturday morning cartoons, and since the Federation Bunnies have been playing the role of pathetic cartoon "villains"...

Well, an idea got stuck in my head, so I made this quick silly edit. :'D

[abyssruler]

roses are red, violets are blue, lynette is so done with the two of you

lyney x gn!reader

lynette thinks fontaine’s worst kept secret isn’t how neuvillette wears blue underwear or how the hydro archon loves a good drama, no, fontaine’s worst kept secret is lyney’s massive crush on you and how everyone and their grandmother know except you.

comedy, pining lyney, lynette being so done

Lyney’s frowning.

Most people would find it an odd expression on him, used to having him direct dazzling smiles and playful laughter their way. But Lynette isn’t just anyone, and the sight of Lyney frowning is hardly a rare phenomenon within the privacy of their household.

Freminet’s usually Lyney’s choice of victim for whatever nonsense he’s managed to build himself up in that head of his, but Freminet’s busy doing errands and Lynette is unfortunately the only person within vicinity that Lyney trusts with his secret—which isn’t even a secret by this point, people have been making bets on how long it would take you to realize that Lyney’s been pining over you since forever.

Case in point: Lyney frowning over two identical flowers. She doesn’t need to be a mind reader to know that her brother is having a midlife crisis over which flower to give you.

Lynette thinks he should just man up and confess. Preferably within the next week or so, otherwise she’d lose her bet.

“Lynette, which one is more eye-catching, the crimson one,” he holds up the flower in his right hand, then he raises the other one, “or the maroon one?”

Lynette gives him the deadest stare she can muster. “They’re the same color.”

“Oh, sister, have you no taste?” Lyney tuts, pouting at her for a moment before returning to that constipated look as he squinted at the ‘crimson’ and ‘maroon’ flowers. Talk about being delusional.

“(Y/N)’s not gonna care whether the rose is crimson or maroon or red,” she tells him. You’d probably accept a dead flower if it came from Lyney, with that starry-eyed look you always got whenever he so much as glances your way. Lynette’s not one to judge other people’s taste too harshly, but she does wonder what you see in her overdramatic and annoying brother.

Ah, well. They do say love makes people blind. Hopefully not literally though, Lynette’s not looking forward to performing shows alone because Lyney got blinded by his love for you—though if you asked Lynette, she’d tell you it wasn’t love so much as obsession. Only someone insane would spend hours picking out flowers and calling them ‘maroon’ and ‘crimson’. It’s just red.

Lynette squints at him. “And since when were you interested in the meaning of flowers?”

“Well, I suppose you could say I like to dabble in other pursuits.” Lyney gives her a cheeky grin.

“Right…” He’s clearly losing his mind.

“Red roses symbolize true love, though rainbow roses in particular pertain to passion, and…” He trails off, eyes blinking in astonishment. She can practically see the lightbulb appearing on top of his head.

With a flick of his wrists, the ‘crimson’ and ‘maroon’ roses disappear. Lynette watches him warily, wondering what kind of outlandish idea has formed in that head of his.

But he doesn’t elaborate more, only shoots a wink at her and says, “I’ve got a great idea.”

✧

His great idea, as it turns out, is to corner you in an alleyway and make it rain rainbow roses around you as he asked you out on a date, all while Lynette is crouched on the roof, dumping sacks of rainbow roses and vindictively hoping one of them stabs Lyney in the eye. No such luck.

You, as the ever-crazy romantic that you are, are awestruck and amazed by what he’s done instead of weirded out like how a normal person would be. With an eager smile and a twinkle in your eye, you accept the rose in Lyney’s hand and say yes when he asks you to meet him for dinner tomorrow. Lynette wants to barf, but settles for dumping another sack of flowers on top of the two of you.

And if she uses a little bit of anemo to direct a few petals to Lyney’s face? Well, you removing a petal sticking to his cheek and having your fingers linger there for a few moments wasn’t part of the plan (the plan being: embarrass her brother by having him choke on a petal while he’s speaking), but she can’t entirely begrudge the result. Not when Lyney looks like he’s about to have a meltdown with just one touch from you. Good blackmail material right there.

Lynette’s happy that the two of you have finally gotten your heads off your asses and are actually going on a date. Though mostly she’s happy about the amount of mora heading her way soon.

She’ll have to thank Freminet for telling her about the bet about you and Lyney. Maybe she can start a new bet on when the two of you are getting married—probably soon, if the lovestruck look on Lyney’s face is anything to go by. She hopes he won’t be crazy enough to propose on the second date, because you’d certainly be crazy enough to accept if he did.

Oh, well. Lynette will put a bet on one month just in case.

[soft-mafia]

Writes you headcanons for Buggy x Younger reader so you don’t have to get emberassed asking for them:

- Usually doesn’t go for people who are like, a decade younger than he is. He makes jokes and he finds people in the 20 - 25 range attractive but he usually never actually starts anything because it’s either very clear that they are just at wildly different stages in life, that they aren’t interested in him (and he is a monster he’ll tell you, but he very rapidly makes it clear he’s also not THAT kind of monster), or they are attracted to him and he can already tell that they are either having a wrong image of him or that they are misguided and, again, he’ll take advantage of people but he’d walk into the ocean to drown himself before he goes that route.

-So when he actually finds someone that’s younger than him but actually is interested in him like that and also kind of…. Know what they are getting into with him? Who realize he’s been beaten down by the world and a jackass and pompous and imperfect and a whole nother set of unflattering adjectives but also keep insisting that “Yeah no, I am actually still into that.”? He’s a bit perplexed to put it mildly. Will need ages of confirmation and his partner proving that they are capable of choosing for themself and aren’t just feeling puppy love for him.

- Still isn’t convinced that this entire thing is built to last so it will probably be harder for him to open up to them in any ways, even moreso than it already would be if they were in his age range. In turn he’s actually gonna put in some good amount of effort to make the entire thing not completly regrettable for them. He thinks that you eventually gonna realize that you’re better of with someone you’re age, with a stable life and no criminal record but he’s gonna try and make your time with him at least a good one.

- if your first times with him he’s gonna make damn fucking sure he puts out his fucking A-Game. Not really a gentle lover but he’s gonna make sure you are completly fucked out and satisfied by the end of it. He gives you oral and you will have come at least once before he even thinks of sticking his dick inside you. Way more foreplay and kissing than he usually (pretends to not) like. Keeps his devil fruit powers to a minimum because he figures elaborate Chop Chop assisted positions are a bit much for a first timer.

-After that tough he’ll gladly indulge you in any kinky shit you want to try with him. Goes insane when you grab him close one night with your legs wrapped around him and whisper into his ear if you can call him “daddy”. He’s a constant stream of dirty talk after that “Yeah, yeah come on tell daddy how much you like it!”

- Into dirty talk in general actually, loves to bring attention to your age difference at times. fucks you mercilessly from behind before bending over and whispering “You look like such an innocent little thing. Hard to believe you’re letting a dirty old clown like me fuck you almost every single night. I’m a fucking lucky bastard.”

- For all the big game he talks and for how high his libido still is, he still sometimes regrets going so hard on you the day after. You’re already up and jumping into the shower while he turns around still exhausted from last night. Trying out those new positions seemed like a great idea at the time but now he feels like he’s been swallowed and chewed up. How can someone that much younger than him ride THAT hard? Forgets his worry tough when he hears you humming in the next room. Debates with himself for two seconds if he should go back to sleep before throwing the sheets of himself to come join you in the shower. If one of you starts anything during that? …. Wellll he can deal with being just a little more exhausted at breakfast. You make him feel younger than he is

ANON THIS IS AMAZING I LOVE YOU SO MUCH😭😭😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[sagittato]

This is my first post and it’s gonna be low effort because I swear I can’t get this off my mind—

Do people from twisted wonderland realize how much Azul Ashengrotto could potentially look up at Vil Schoenhiet??? ONLY @jxnebuggy ACKNOWLEDGES THIS IN HER fem!twst FANFICS AND IT DRIVES ME INSANE!!!

Vil is a successful, confident, drop dead gorgeous fashion icon. He has a whole business for cosmetics because he’s so gorgeous. He’s very skilled in potion making, so much so bro makes his OWN makeup. He has a strict diet he follows and it’s clearly gving him the results he wants. Vil Schoenheit is everything Azul wants to be!! On top of that, Vil is Azul’s bloody UPPERCLASSMAN.

And does everyone forget how Azul literally info dumped about the man in Book 5 Chapter 2?? Nobody talks about it. They’re too busy headcannoning Sebek or Riddle or Floyd to be neurodivergent af (jkjk)!! Such a shame Vil told him to stfu but in his own pretty, 3w4-coded ways😔😔

Azul has shown before he will invest inhumane amounts of time into things he thinks are important. An example of this is in his birthday jackect card, he talked in a fair amount of detail about the quality of the pillow Ace gave him. He could do this because he researched ON pillow qualities.

It’s likely when he was trying to step up his game with success or diet, he stumbled upon Vil, researched the frick out of this guy, and lo and behold became a fan of his.

Some honourable mentions are when he made a deal with Vil in his ceremonial robes. I haven’t seen it because I wanna save the feeling of raw happiness with these two characters interacting once I get the card. If we didn’t see Azul show any sort of fan behaviour when Vil made that deal then I firmly believe he was kicking, giggling, twirling his hair off camera behind closed doors over it. Then I do hear in the second Camp Vargas event, Azul and Vil had some more interactions! I thiiiiiiink they were getting competitive with each other??? That changes nothing from my ignorant eye. It’s NRC. Everyone is really competitive and will turn on each other’s backs faster than Leona can fall asleep (bro’s actually depressed, I swear).

Anyway, I think it’s only right I list my headcanons now for them:

Azul gobbles up any dietary/beauty tips Vil has

Azul uses Vil’s makeup brand that’s probably vegan

He also collects Vil’s magazines and puts them all in a box hidden away in his closet or under his bed

Vil probably finds him annoying💀💀💀 (what can I say? he has a reputation for not stfu around higher class people)

Elaborating on that, Vil does respect his success but I bet he can see the unhealthy greed that lies under it all. Thus, that’s prolly a reason why he would try to distance himself away from Azul.

BADLY wants to collaborate with Vil because Mostro Lounge profits would soar if they did. Knowing his bold arse he probably made the request at least thrice and Vil shut him down each time. He’s obviously not gonna stop because we all know him. (never back down never what—)

Yes, I know he canonically looks up to Ursula, but I think he would like someone… yknow… alive to look up to.

Keep in mind I’m only on Book 5 Chapter 29 as of this moment so it’s totally possible I missed some things! Leave your opinions, headcanons, or anything else in the comments, I’d love to see them! Do leave spolier warnings though. That way I can decide whether I wanna spoil things first myself or not.

EDIT: I already fixed it but did I really just say book 6 😭😭😭 i meant book 5 i am so sry hdgdhjjjdhdjj

[lunyxdragon]

Dragons Rising Rant

I WAS NOT READY for season 2 part 1

(I'm spoiling pretty much everything below the cut)

This was everything I wanted and more (not to say it doesn't have its issues, but still)

I know some people were grumbling about Lloyd taking Zane's role of being the vision haver but I honestly like how they handled it. Because it feels an awful lot like a PTSD allegory. Like, Arin is literally like "you've been through a lot, maybe it's catching up to you" or smthn like that, the visions showing up at random and inconvenient times during the day, being unavoidable but they can be lived with, panic attacks, so am I the only one seeing this??? This does some interesting things to my Lloyd PTSD headcanons... another thing is the two people that have had visions are the two most likely people to have PTSD imo, so... there's that...

Lloyd verbally acknowledges having panic attacks which caught me so off guard for a show to sell toys to eight year old boys. It wasn't like puss and boots level of panic attacks, definitely not given that much focus, but it was there. Lloyd canonically has panic attacks!!

I know it's a kid's show, but I feel like they could have handled the sleep deprivation a bit better than "Lloyd is falling asleep all the time," like there's so many other ways you could convey that, at least vary it a bit. They hammer this point into the ground and I feel like kids aren't that dense, and would understand it even with half of the random falling asleep replaced with irritability, zoning out, or other stuff like that idk.

I WAS NOT READY for Kai to get sacrificed. When they were talking about human sacrifices I was like "nah ninjago would never go that far, that pretty much confirms that either the sacrifices aren't actually necessary or the forbidden five don't get brought back," then Kai literally gets sent to the backrooms with no way out.

And Bonzle. BONZLE. Need I say more? Wish she had gotten more focus though. The sorceress felt like a d&d oc shoved in last minute though, and her design was so chaotic it was distracting from the show for me. Probably just me though, I like order. She's fun, I just wish they'd either given her an arc or given that focus to Bonzle.

Internally screaming when Nya says "Jay would never forget me" and when Jay showed up. I really hope they give him enough time to shine.

Ras literally runs and catches up to a moving car and knocks out a dragon in a single hit. Bros insane. I guess the blood moon just makes him physically stronger? They didn't really elaborate what the blood moon does to Ras and why. But he's an actually competent villain, which Ninjago is in short supply of.

Cole literally said "Come at me (bro)" to the Administration.

Speaking of Cole, Geo misses him!! I'm way overhyped for this couple, but this is the closest thing we'll get to a canon gay couple in ninjago. Lego doesn't have the balls to actually show them kissing or being a couple, not with their show that gets aired all over the world to sell legos. I'm gonna go rewatch the land of lost things episode from s1 later.

The timeline is even more messed up now though. If Cole only just returned, when were the Mech Pilot shorts supposed to happen? We'll see what the creators say on Twitter lol.

Ending this off on a positive note, the found family is gonna kill me. Arin literally seeing Lloyd and Nya as his parents was gold. Oh man Ras slammed the poor boy around a lot, physically and mentally. Just let both Arin and Sora realize they're not useless. Nahhh the angst is too good.

Is there more? Probably. But I need to do my calculus coursework...

[crystallizsch]

hi ian i come bearing angst fuel for the yuusha as twsted elsa (maybe an idea for her possible overblot idk she kinda reads to me as someone whod preemptively isolate in the case she feels...blotty)

(also seeing that art of her playing violin totally didnt fuck me up im still nursing my bruised heart 🥴🥴💕💕)

https://youtu.be/NDldNaEZTt8?si=Wm71pgTltuJLjFvk

^^this is from the frozen musical where they gave a song to elsa to explore her emotional turmoil and it just fleshed out her character so much more than the orig movie (ok i havent seen frozen 2 oops) but just this section here:

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive?

Was I a monster from the start?

How did I end up with this frozen heart?

Bringing destruction to the stage

Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

anyways lmao i jus think the song is neat i think yuushas neat (i wanna see more of her ahehehe i love seeing infodumps abt ur yuus)

-diodellet

(throwback to this “what if yuu had magic” ask where i had a ✨realization✨ and this more recent yuusha lore drop that i gave zero elaboration on 🙃)

very rough ob yuu design??? idk i came up with it on the spot ;;; and it’s kinda based on disney’s concept art of elsa when she was supposed to be the villain.

evil ice queen vibes :3

also i know the ob monster is supposed to be based on the villain— which is elsa in this case— but lowkey. an ice monster is way cooler.

also also i just realized after i drew this i couldve done a grim/yuu tandem overblot ough 🤧🤧 (next time I'll do that instead if i ever go back to this concept)

(read more below because it got SO long)

AAH anyways hi hi dio!!! when i saw your ask i went —

— with this entire post

AAGH HOW MANY MORE UNINTENTIONAL CONNECTIONS ARE GOING TO BE BETWEEN FROZEN AND YUUSHA

i guess watching the movie everyday when it came out when you’re like 9 does something to your brain chemistry (and still haunts you at least a decade later) 💀

but anyways the angst ;;; overblot yuu ;;;;; my brain is rotting and the worms have taken over

also i didn’t even know that there was a frozen broadway musical so im gonna have to check it out later 🏃💨💨💨

(also dont worry frozen 2 is a nice watch for the most part but the way they concluded the characters did not feel 100% satisfying to me 😭 BUT i love some of the songs tho ;;; kristoff’s goofy 80s ballad song is one of them specifically, i need everyone to listen to it)

hfgnnfhfgv anyways thank you so much i’m chugging that angst fuel as i expand more on a possible ob yuusha with another infodump 💪💪💪

⚠️⚠️⚠️ ALSO IM SORRY BUT mentions of taking one’s own life so please proceed with caution ⚠️⚠️⚠️

i had to reread what my initial thoughts about it bc it was months ago??? and after rereading im just like, huh what was i on— (just that feeling when you just cringe at your old posts ;; but idk i think the insanity/cringe sometimes can loop back into being a genius and the cycle just continues)

anyways i’ve been on and off writing yuusha’s bio and overblot yuu was just at the back of my mind chilling but i didn’t really do anything with it.

but now that i have the opportunity,,,, im gonna go on the magicless route this time bc i feel like I've said all what i thought if it was an overblot due to her own magic.

so uh from what i gather overblots are a mix of overuse of magic + intense negative emotion.

since it’s magicless yuu, i guess the one of the general headcanons around the fandom is that they’ve been too exposed to overblots and then intense negative emotions suddenly just triggered their overblot.

uh anyways onto the elsa parts

Is everyone in danger as long as I'm alive? Was I a monster from the start? How did I end up with this frozen heart? Bringing destruction to the stage Caught in a war that I was never meant to wage

THE LYRICS ARE SO GOOD ;;; i really love how some broadway interpretations expand on the source material

and yeah you're right 🤧🤧🤧— yuusha would try to hide and escape, especially as she overblots bc she would try to avoid hurting people (and like elsa, it'd only hurt others more trying to escape bc of probably how she leaves destruction in her wake trying to make others stay away from her 😔)

(this is a small tangent but i remember thinking about an overblot kalim and i imagine him to be similar, like he would not hurt anyone intentionally in his overblot.)

anyways so the way it would go is that i imagine her friends got fatally injured either because a) she feels that she’s too “useless” without magic to help and wasn’t able to do anything OR b) her attempts at helping to try and prove that she can help without magic made everything worse.

and then she just goes into a guilty spiral then boom — overblot.

ALSO in the song, the way elsa briefly contemplated taking her own life but then realizing there’s no guarantee that would solve anything hnghgh (<- another unintentional parallel to my yuusha lore because that’s actually how she ended up in twst except she did NOT have the latter realization)

there’s this “yuu is dead” theory i’m just using and that the black carriage actually just caught yuusha’s soul after she took her own life from all the burden.

also some bonus angst context for that violin post :3

yuusha back in her homeworld is raised and known to be a gifted musician. people can feel the life and soul in her music but when people interact with her, they are usually met with an ice-cold (heh) personality.

the dead family member was the one who taught her music and the only one who was kind to her.

there’s always an expectation from her family to perform well and to keep up appearances as to not be a humiliation since anything she does can reflect on her entire family. (also hi, slight yuusha/jamil parallels maybe???)

the way she presents herself also stemmed from an incident as a child when she went apeshit on another kid bc she was defending a friend.

so from then on she was taught taught to conceal don’t feel those emotions — which just unfortunately extended to any positive ones, not just negative ones like rage.

so when she is brought to twst, there’s no memory of her being forced to hold back her emotions so she’s just unapologetically affectionate and open with everyone bc that’s how she really is.

but every now and then, memories of her breaking down haunt her in her dreams or as subtle reminders in the waking world.

then yuusha just goes on her day like she just wasn't reminded of her past.

(unnecessarily tragic lore my beloved, but anyway—)

another extremely brief tangent and bonus -> the two songs i had on loop while drawing pre-twst yuusha

lindsey stirling my beloved i love her music

the songs are such a vibe

her instrumentals in “lose you now” especially makes me feel some sort of way 😖

[secondstar-acorn]

season 2 means the world to me and now that it's over it's time for me to Elaborate (while I SOB how dare you anthony)

it being a more complex and less easily fixable storyline fits because they're teens! it really resonates with my early-20s-ass!!! i love season one it's incredible but their goals being more clearly set out also makes sense! all they really want is to get their kids home. the teens have to save the world and kill willy and reconcile with their parents and and and---

also idk why but in season 1 i really only had one dad that i Latched Onto and that was henry. i love darryl and glenn and ron obviously but henry just hit different for some reason and we're not gonna examine that because then i'll have to schedule a therapy appointment. but this season i have latched on to every single one of the teens. they're all extremely, WILDLY important to me and i'm gonna talk about it (scotty mute your dash)

let's talk about taylor first because i ADORE him. i am so freaking proud of him, y'all. he started off the season asking cassandra who his dad was and he ended the season by realizing that all he needs is his mom! that's a fantastic moment of character development. he cares so much about his friends! he knows who he is and he puts on a confident attitude, but he's still just a scared kid a lot of the time. he's so supportive 24/7 (HELL YEAH MY MAN) and if norm is the glue, taylor is the emotional support glitter on the craft project that is team stunt teens. he brings up the mood! he adds pizzazz! he's not. afraid to shine but he's also kinda fragile! that's my fucking guy!!!

ok moving on to my absolute beloved scary marlowe. i was one of those people who started off not really liking scary and not understanding her Deal but i finally GOT her in halt and catch fireball and from then on i've been obsessed with her. she falls into my favourite category of fictional character which is morally grey woman with insane amounts of power who just desperately wants to be accepted by people (i.e. jean grey, morgana pendragon, etc.) she stares willy in the eye as he dies!!! she tells her bio dad to fuck off and she accepts terry as her dad and remembers her mom is her best friend and GODDD SCARY MARLOWE. she's one of the most performative of the teens but she's also one of the most genuine. she is quick to defend each of her friends and once she's back in, she's BACK IN. she backs up every single one of them whenever they need her support, and her friendship with normal especially is extremely special to me. they're siblings your honour. the thesis of scary marlowe's character (imo) is "what if my friends love me more than i hate me" and that is a POWERFUL ASS choice that beth made. that's every teenager i know!!! that's me in high school!!! she's fucked up and she's imperfect but she is trying and she's learning to forgive herself for caring and i could write more but i'm not gonna because this is already getting so long and we're only halfway through.

okay this one is. god. normal oak. you put an oak in front of me and i start crying immediately. normal is no exception. hermie may be the theatre kid but normal has the theatre kid energy of trying so SO hard for attention and love but never getting the appreciation he wants. every single relationship he has is FUCKED. he lives off of validation and he's never learned to love himself as is. (please fucking god get this kid to samantha stampler he needs to hear that he's enough just as he is). he hasn't been loved by his parents the way he should, he's fighting to meet impossible expectations, he's been inadvertently pitted against his sister since birth, and he starts the season filled with the naive sort of joy that comes from doing No self reflection whatsoever and ends it deeply self-reflective and clearly still dealing with his trauma. but now he has friends who accept and love him no matter what. friends who will pull him onto the dance floor! he's the cheerleader! he's constantly giving out the validation he's wanted his whole life. he is so generous and so kind and so fucking sad and he breaks my heart. i need a campaign exclusively about normal going to college and learning how to live without his parents constantly in his business and learning who he really is and wants to be. he is. god. normal oak swallows garcia has been living with two conflicting philosophies his entire life, from sparrow "love wolf" oak garcia to lark "bring this glock to school" oak garcia. it's no wonder his mom is a centrist because who ELSE could love both of those men. (rebecca and morgan should meet up. side note.) and he chooses love every time!!! WE HAVE TO HELP IT. i love normal. i hope he's gone to therapy in the past twenty years and i hope he sees that he's had the people who care about him and love him all along in the form of his friends. i was normal normal was me and i am so proud of him. because even though everything has sucked shit he keeps pushing through. he's resilient and i love him for that.

and now. the teen who came out of nowhere and stole all the space in my brain. the true surprise of the season for me. LINCOLN LI FUCKING WILSON. god what to say about lincoln. so so much. i am so overcome by emotion whenever i think of lincoln that it is nearly impossible to put it into words. i understand this kid on a spiritual level. he has one goal and one passion his entire life. he loves his dads so much and he defines himself by what he loves and what he's interested in. he's never been confronted with the real world before. and then he is. and suddenly his world is no longer soccer and dads and his small house and fifa. now he is realizing that oh, the world is a little fucked up actually, and oh, the man i idolized for 14-15(???) years is kind of the one who fucked it up. he means the best for me but by sheltering me too much i am woefully unprepared for the world i'm living in and now all of my false hopes and aspirations are crashing down around me and the only way i can deal with that is to not care anymore. he has to shut it all out or he'll actually have to Think about how awful it is. his dad has killed people. he was found on the titanic?? scary, the person he immediately latched onto once he started doubting his dad, betrays him, and then he's floating again. and scary comes back!! and they eventually get married!!! and future lincoln has learned to forgive and understand that maybe, if he can forgive scary and love her and know her for who she really is and accept her even though she killed that guy that one time, maybe he can learn how to do the same for his dad. i'll say it. lincoln is the luke skywalker of this season. he is throwing away that lightsaber. he is saving grant from his self-hatred by choosing to love him at the end of the season. he tries to change himself as a way to get space. he hates hermie but he tries to be there for normal. he's best friends (...)with taylor and he finds his first REAL friend that isn't one of his dads through taylor!!! taylor inspires him to finally rebel and steal that laffy taffy!! high school lets him start to figure out who he is. he's able to forgive his dads. his sense of morality is maybe a little fucked up but he's probably working on it now!! he's absolutely the bitchiest out of all the teens and i love him for that!! he does his dads' taxes??????? he's been forced to handle WAY too much responsibility on literally all fronts and he shuts down to try and cope. he is canonically autistic to ME. the way he thinks about everything is Insane. he's besties with a bunch of dolphins. soccer is his safe place. when he loves something he holds on TIGHT. this is an incredibly long-winded way of saying i love lincoln and i will spend the rest of my life losing my mind over this character.

my point here is i love season 2. it's weird! it's freaky! it's eldritch! it's brightly coloured and also dark as shit!! i love season 2!!!!!!!

and don't get me started on dood because then we'll be here for hours.

[fiberglassandflowers]

Hey idk if there’s some master post about mbts but if there is may I please ask where and if not could I perhaps humbly request a description because it sounds cool as FUCK

omg yayy okay so there's not a masterpost as of now (though there is a google doc in the works that will probably be. very big) BUT i will try to give a brief rundown. underneath a readmore 👍

OK SO. IN SUMMARY

MARY BELL TOWNSHIP: more like mary bell CLOWNSHIT ha ha. heavy surveillance like everywhere (including in peoples homes. how fun). it's also got some like radiation stuff going on. all the residents are a lil radiation poisoned But it's mostly fine. also the town moves and i dont know why.

VANNIE OVERTURE: based on suburbia overture. the mayor who is a vampire. major control freak. sucks shit. like most of the reason mary bell is the way it is. permasmile swag. has killed before. hates when people are weird freaks and is actively passive aggressive if not outright aggressive.

TRIP LETWO: based on 2econd 2ight 2eer. world's silliestguy contrarian and infamous public nuisance. deeply tortured individual but shes dealing with it i guess. physically cant leave mary bell township. he has too much goddamn lore

LYDIE LAPLACE: based on laplace's angel. so lame. just deeply lame. killed a guy and got kicked out of office building heaven (laplace's inc. id give this its own section but it doesnt really matter all that much). i dont ever think about it unfortunately im sorry women.

MINA BYRD: based on i/me/myself. very sweet very nice. ladybugpilled socialanxietycel. doesnt have a whole lot going on but she is nice im glad shes there. im gonna have a significant relationships section of this but im saying that shes roommates with lia here bc its not really significant otherwise

WALTER LEE: based on ...well, better than the alternative. worlds first cis father to be a butch lesbian. probably a girl but she doesnt know that. weird nostalgia issues so bad his wife left him.

DOTTY LEE: ten years old. strange little girl but i dont really think about it a lot. not much else to say about her really.

LIA CRATES: based on outliars and hyppocrates. her name is pronounced like lie-uh cray-tees not lee-ah crayts. i have to clear this up because i realized most people were wrong LMAO. a little mean but not so much when you get to know her.

WARREN LEARY: based on blackboxwarrior. actually the worst therapist you will EVER meet. isnt even licensed. you book a session with her and she only talks about herself the entire time. constantly referencing a dark and contradictory past.

MARSHA TILLIS: based on marsha, thankk you for the dialectics. slightly better therapist! still not that good. has the spirit of an old man despite being in his 40s. will begin to psychoanalyze your behavior upon the first thirty seconds of knowing you.

NORMAN LEE: based on love, me normally. guy trying really really hard to be a regular guy. has a loooot of problems that stem from this. hugest people pleaser the world has ever known. a little bit offputting. has hair symbolism :-)

MORTIMER: based on memento mori. doesn't have a last name. worlds silliest grim reaper death thing. works in the death division for laplace's inc. lived a pretty normal life. then it died :-(. more here

FERN O'DYNAMIC: based on thermodynamic lawyer. hates his bitch wife (who is a praying mantis for. unknown reasons? will elaborate). just has a lot of anger inside him and doesnt know how to deal with it so he takes it out on other people. he kind of sucks but he's a neat character.

MIRANDA WRIGHT: the person being sung about in thermodynamic lawyer. bug wife (i can blame anything on radiation). she wasnt always a bug she just kinda did that idk. there's not much about her but she's an etymologist.

COTARD LETWO: based on cotard's solution. she has so many problems oh my gooood. deeply lonely person. fascinated with the macabre. its like coping mechanism that makes you worse. im insane about her writing a basic description is so difficult fkdjsfhsjd

RAMONA MCLAREN: based on red moon + hand me my shovel (though the latter was included later on bc it fit her). worlds most intelligent and stupid single celled organism. patheticswag. absolutely batshit insane. attempting to solve the end of the world.

KUIPER SUNSHINE: based on dr sunshine is dead. uh. i dont really know much about her to be honest SORRY... its really silly though + haver of prophetic dreams that she is NOT transparent about. fucks with people a lot just for funsies

COLIN THESIER: based on cover this song. girl who used to be in a band but got kicked out bc of friend drama. survivor of a toxic codependent queer friendship. trying to be a better person bc she used to suck pretty bad unfortunately. a bit more here

theres like a couple more characters but none of them are really important enough to give their own sections. debbie letwo is trip and cotards mom, laplace is the head of laplace's inc, maude is walter's ex wife who left him (heres the scoop on that).

OK NOTABLE CHARACTER DYNAMICS TIME:

VANNIE/NORMAN: norman has been pretending to be a normal dude this whole time + vannie totally fell for it. normans stuck in this friendship bc hes too much of a people pleaser to break it off even though vannie actively drains him emotionally. also he feels validated by vannie thinking hes normal. its so awful im so insane about their dynamic

VANNIE/TRIP: THEY HAAAATE EACH OTHER. their entire core beliefs are at odds (guy who thinks everyone should do their best to conform vs. guy who loves being a weird freak and doing fuck all). their dynamic is honestly pretty simple in comparison but theyre so petty and stupid its insane. if you put them alone in the same room one of them isnt coming out

TRIP/NORMAN: theyre gay together. there's a weird lore thing about the way relationships are handled in mary bell but long story short theres paperwork that has to be filled out if you want to be registered for one and trip thinks its really funny for xem and norman to constantly break up so they'll have to fill out the paperwork because it fucks with vannie. theyre also kind of awful and tragic

WALTER/DOTTY: that is a father and his daughter. walters trying his best and hes doing well but nothing would have been better than just moving out of mary bell township to raise his child.

WALTER/NORMAN: they’re brothers 👍 not much else to say there but they’re cool

WALTER/MAUDE: already linked a more in-depth explanation of their deal but ill summarize it here. maude thought living in mary bell township was really bad for a child (and it is) but since walter has issues about idealizing his childhood he was like "whaaat well i was raised here and im fine" and they fought about it and once it became clear walter wasnt changing his mind maude figured shed just spare herself from all of it. so she left 💯

WARREN/MARSHA: what if the two worst therapists ever were queerplatonic and violated hipaa together. also what if one of them [marsha] was helping the other [warren] because they're on the run from the law. would that be crazy or what

FERN/MIRANDA: actually awful. they really want to divorce but trip and norman keep clogging up the paperwork so theyre on a waiting list forever. their relationship was really good at one point but its not anymore :-( more info here

NORMAN/FERN: fern haaates norman because of the previously mentioned paperwork debacle but normans ass cant deal with the thought of anyone disliking him so hes just been really trying to get on his good side to no avail. also theyre coworkers so its more relevant

MORTIMER/TRIP: man how do i even summarize this one. due to lore reasons that you can read about in the link provided in trips session they have a super weird dynamic present day. or at least on trips end, mortimer is just super friendly to them and it wigs her out.

TRIP/COTARD: OUGUIGHJ. AOAUYFGDSFHSJ. tragic sibliiings. man i dont even know if i can go into this. go here and here if you want to learn more about them. jesus

COTARD/COLIN: frienndsss :-] classic extrovert forcing themselves into introverts life trope a little bit. they play music together and its great. mina's also in their little group but the two of them are closer

KUIPER/RAMONA: have been described by my friend as being "nonromantic freak4freak" and this is true. theyre working together on the end of the world stuff. they also rope cotard into it but thats lore i havent talked much about yet. go here and here for more info about them.

that might??????? be it?????? if there's more ill update it but thats the general basics i think. thank you for being interested and hopefully reading i greatly appreciate it :-)

[allpainnogain99]

Time to screech about Sonic Prime S3E1

Alrighty. Having taken a while to screech about the first episode to myself...now I’m gonna screech about it here LOL I’ve got a LOT I could say about it, soooo here goes. Enjoy my random musings and mostly just me reiterating what happened in the episode lmao

Starting off with Nine. He says that the Grim could have been everything Sonic ever wanted. He and Sonic have the tendency to talk past each other in a way, and they were both inadvertantly using each other. Neither is entirely in the right OR wrong here (which I will absolutely go into more depth about).

Gotta take a second to talk about the fortress Nine creates. I absolutely love the symbolism of it (well, what I’m choosing to take as symbolism, anyhoo). He could very easily have just created a simple lab for himself, like he used to have (and like Tails had), but he didn’t. He created a giant, elaborate fortress. Why? Well, for the obvious reason of “someone might come after me, I need protection”, but I like to think there’s more than that. It’s about power (this will also get brought up again). Nine is more than capable of protecting himself, which is how he has managed to survive for so long on his own. But now? It’s not just about protecting himself. It’s about showing that he can protect himself. It’s a physical manifestation of everything he has had to hold inside for his entire life. All of the mental strength he has, all for the world (or lack thereof, as the case may be) to see. He doesn’t have to hide anymore, and he wants everyone to know.

Then we switch over to the two hedgies, and oh boy is there a lot to talk about here.

It hurts seeing Sonic so lost and confused as to why Nine would have left, “betraying” him in the process. Seeing it from Sonic’s point of view, he doesn’t understand why Nine would want to leave behind what he believed would be the perfect chance to make everything right. Despite being told all the way back in season 1 that Nine wanted to start “our new life” over in the Grim, Sonic failed to see how much the idea of them staying together meant to Nine, as just the two of them. He doesn’t see how much he hurt Nine by not seeing him as his own person. No matter how much he tried to deny it, he was somewhat using Nine as a stand-in for Tails. Do I believe Sonic was being malicious and purposefully stringing Nine along? No. Of course not. That’s not in Sonic’s nature. He was just desperate to have his friends back, and failed to realize how much his words and actions were hurting Nine. Which of course is still wrong and something he needs to realize and understand.

And then there’s Shadow. While many people headcanoned that Shadow would just up and punch Sonic the moment he stepped foot inside the cave, I was pleasantly surprised that he did not. Granted, it was because their lives were literally on the line, but still. Shadow took one moment to say “I toldya so”, and left it at that, prioritizing their escape. He didn’t constantly berate Sonic as they were running, either. The insane amount of character growth that shows just makes me so happy.

And can we just talk about the escape scene? (both parts LOL but in due time). The way they both looked out for each other as they ran, and the fact that Shadow risked falling behind to make sure that Sonic made it to the ground safely??? I just...golly I can’t screech about that enough. (Also this brief frame of Shadow going from being on guard to being annoyed about Sonic’s rough landing is absolutely hilarious and it will live rent-free in my head...forever.)

The ghost scene. Shadow doesn’t berate Sonic for stopping, he’s calm and even tries to reach out to Sonic.

He understands how much it hurts Sonic to see the illusions, a major turnaround from how he acted in season 2 (granted, Shadow had more time to come to terms with the ghosts, seeing as how he had been in and out of Ghost Hill before, but I digress.). He does try to get Sonic to move on, but in the end gives him his chance to grieve and reflect, which Sonic has not had a chance to properly do this entire time. I love how caring Shadow is in this moment. (Also SEGA LET SHADOW SAY “OUR FRIENDS” YOU COWARDS! ROUGE IS SHADOW’S FRIEND, DAMNIT).

And Sonic. How he had gone from hopeful in season 2 that he could save them because he had all the shards, to now being emotionally scarred by the idea of not being able to fix it if they can’t get the shards back from Nine...and watching literal manifestations of specters of your friends being drawn into oblivion...damn it hurts. But I’m glad he was able to snap out of it enough to follow Shadow out.

Escape pt 2: Hedgie Boogaloo. These two are so in sync, they barely have to exchange any words at all, they know exactly what the other is going to be doing, and I love it. I mean, look at this.

Shadow reaching out his hand and Sonic instinctually grabbing it to pull each other forward? Hell yeah!!! And here, all it takes is one glance and they both had the same exact plan. I cannot get over how much I love seeing Sonic and Shadow work together like this.

Nine making his own Metal Sonic. This means soooo much. Nine feels like Sonic betrayed him, but he can’t bring himself to entirely give up the idea of having Sonic by his side. The solution? Create a robotic version, of course. But also, the tiny bit of malicious tone when Nine says “Hello...friend” just gave me the shivers, I love it.

“If there’s anything knowing you has taught me, it’s that there’s always another way”. This line made me screech out loud, I love it so much. Shadow being willing to admit that Sonic not only taught him something, but that Sonic taught him to think outside the box, that things could have more than one solution, that there’s no such thing as giving up. I was grinning like an idiot at this, because yay character development!!!

(ALSO fduoghdfoighdf my grumpy baby being annoyed I can’t oh my golly look how adorable gahhhhh)

ALSO THEY BOTH GET TO ENTER ANOTHER SHATTERSPACE TOGETHER WOOOHOOO!!!!

It was all about power (remember that earlier? XD). In a way, Shadow knows what Nine is feeling. Feeling like the entire world has betrayed you, and having the chance to get back at them? Sound familiar? Granted they went about it two different ways (Shadow trying to destroy everything vs Nine trying to literally create a new world, to an extent), but they both went off the deep end when offered a chance at an ultimate power. Neither one cared what was happening around them, all that mattered was that they got what they wanted. But of course Shadow won’t admit to seeing himself in Nine’s actions, instead opting to just be like “OK yeah this kid is a menace, gotta destroy him”. Do I wish Shadow would be more willing to give Nine a chance? Absolutely. Is he going to? Probably not, that’s more Sonic’s shtick.

Was Sonic in the wrong for wanting to get his friends back? Nope, not in the slightest. That’s what he wanted all along. He spent so long trying to do that, after all. Was he wrong in seeing Nine as a stand-in for Tails? Absolutely. Again, he may not see it that way, but both his actions and words make it clear that he at the very least had a hard time seeing Nine as his own person. Even now, with the words “this isn’t you, Nine”, shows that Sonic doesn’t truly know Nine, because yes, this is Nine. Has been from the very beginning. A broken, distrustful, lost child who just wants a home and safety, friends or no friends.

As for Nine? Was he wrong for wanting safety and a home? Of course not. Everybody deserves safety and a home. Is he wrong for not caring what happens to New Yoke? Ehh...thin ice there. Wrong for not caring what happens to any Shatterspace? Yeah, there the line is crossed. At least in Ghost Hill there wasn’t any living beings (sure, the ghosts/illusions were there, but keyword there is living), but what about the others? Nine could end up having the lives of entire universes on his hands, even his own if he’s not careful.

Grim Sonic. And the fight against Grim Sonic. Have I ever mentioned how much I love seeing these two work in sync? Just that one little nod, and off they both go. It’s such a treat to see, and I will never stop loving it.

(Also Nine just casually making a robotic copy of Birdie is hilarious to me. Like, “Yeah, I made copies of Sonic’s friends, but also the bird is cool, so I just copied her too ‘cause why not?”)

“At least I can trust them!”. Nine is willing to spend his entire life with just robots for friends, and why? Because he can program them however he wants, to be whoever he wants. Nine is eerily similar to the original Eggman in that regard. He’s done with dealing with people, because people are inferior and betray you. Robots can be reprogrammed if anything goes wrong (Sonic Heroes, anyone?). Part of me is curious to see just how close to Eggman that Nine will end up becoming.

Talking about rebuilding the prism. This whole scene. What takes literally the span of just a few seconds, says so much, without even using a single word. Sure, Nine said he would need one missing thing, but after that? It’s all spoken through body language. Nine looks down to Sonic’s hands and shoes. It’s subtle, but he’s trying to show Sonic what he means.

Of course, Sonic doesn’t figure it out, he doesn’t see where Nine is looking. but you know who does? That’s right. Shadow. His face says it all. He doesn’t even have to say “I know what you’re up to”, it’s entirely unspoken, and I love that.

And Nine? He responds in kind. Look at this.

It’s a challenge. “Oh, you think you have me figured out? Then try to stop me”. Again, no words need to be said. He’s calm, confident, smug even. He thinks he has Sonic and Shadow right where he wants them. He doesn’t see any way that they’ll win, and he, again, wants them to know it.

But he didn’t account for how ready Shadow is for war.

Being entirely willing to take on all the Grim robots in order to keep Sonic safe? Sure, it’s for the good of the entire universe, but also because as much as he doesn’t say it, he cares. I mean, listen to what he says as he’s carrying Sonic away. He doesn’t say “This is to save the universe” or “we’re all dead if he catches you”, he says “this is for your own good”. Someone who doesn’t care wouldn’t say that. He’s getting so much good characterization in just this one episode alone, and I hope it keeps up, even if he ends up being seen in small amounts (I swear if he only appears in the finale I will cry).

Aaaand yeah. That’s the end of the episode. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens when the rest of the season drops. I am soooo not ready for it to end, but I’m excited to see how it ends.

TL;DR I screeched like crazy about how much I love this episode LOL

[beanghostprincess]

Shuggy headcanons as per request Madame: Love me some „Shanks being in love with Buggy’s long hair“, but I raise you „Buggy absolutely adores Shanks hair and can’t keep his hands out of it“. Granted, Shanks doesn’t really take care of his hair. Shanks is a bit of a greaseball at times. Suits Buggy well actually. When they were teens that gave him a perfect reason to just be „Eugh! When was the last time you washed this?“ While grabbing a fist full „OW! My hairs fine! I washed it last week!“ „LAST WEEK? GOD YOURE GROSS!“ and nag him about it till he cleaned up. He could always pretend the detached hands that raked trough Shanks hair after this where just there to make sure his idiot best friend did a good enough job. Actually he needs to check up on this every so often because clearly Shanks can’t be trusted to look after his own head and Buggy would be DAMNED if this ginger brought lice into their bunk HOLD STILL. The rituals…Elaborate but stupid as hell.

Shanks doesn’t mind as much as he pretends, as long as Buggy isn’t pulling his head this way and that by its roots, and enjoys the little bit of extra attention when Buggys fingers scratch over his scalp. On quieter days when they are hanging out together Buggy will actually relax enough to play with his hair without the guise of checking for dandruff for once and just absentmindedly chop a hand of to run his fingers trough while he is reading or even just bitching about something unrelated. Shanks just turns to mush every time this happens. Complete zen mode achieved.

In a world where they get together as adults again those moments become a bit more regular, usually when they are in bed together and they are both still in the process of waking up. „Feels nice…You got a real thing for my hair huh?“ Buggy shoots him an unimpressed look and Shanks can’t help but roll his eyes fondly as he answers: „I’m just checking something. I think it’s thinning out. If you keep going at this rate you’re gonna go bald.“.

As I said, the rituals : intricate but stupid as FUCK

So cute and sweet and also a bit angsty because just add the PINING to it,,, They make me go wild. Like, it's noticeable how I've been talking more about Shuggy lately and things like this make me go fucking insane. They were so in love. Gonna jump off a bridge. Anyway!

This is so real. Because Buggy would always complain about Shanks not washing his hair properly (even if one day he does have an immaculate, perfect hair) only to have the excuse to touch it or just be closer to Shanks without actually looking like a needy, pining idiot (does he even realize he's in love with Shanks? He will never admit it). And, y'know, I think Shanks genuinely ends up trying to take care of his hair (more or less. He just doesn't care much and forgets about doing it. Like yeah! Gonna be clean from now on! And then a week passes and he hasn't showered because he's been too busy with adventure to worry about it, or something) because he kind of likes the praise that comes with it afterward. Buggy saying something nice to him doesn't happen often, and he cherishes it forever. But it doesn't happen a lot bc he always ends up forgetting to wash his hair.

I'm a sucker for Shuggy being each other's first kisses, and if it happens while Buggy is playing with Shanks hair,, I might die. They're just too much.

Also, when they're older Shanks still doesn't take care of his hair and Buggy literally drags him to the shower with him. Shanks won't stop making sexual jokes about showering together and Buggy literally and genuinely just wants to clean Shanks as if he were a damn stray dog he just found (kind of the same thing tbh). Then Buggy makes him go back to bed with him and cuddle because he just needs a moment of romantic bliss before fighting his husband again.

[snowyvoid]

I love your haunted siphonophore posting so much it's really good. I think it really fits with how the science team and the game and benrey all sort of play off of each other with Gordon always ending up as the victim/'food' but there's a slight dissonance between all of them. Benrey comes back as a skeleton and for the first night he just walks around and talks like normal until after Gordon wakes up where it seems to become it's own creature that is more tethered to the gamespace (I know it clips out and fucks with geometry but it also feels like it starts to slot into the role of 'spooky skeleton to antagonize and frighten the player' instead of 'benrey is around and talking to people when he's supposed to be dead'). Or how the world seems to bend to fit the insane things the Science Team says (Sunkist, Chuck E Cheese, Passport, etc) but Coomer is still seperate enough from the game that he becomes frightened and angry when he realizes that his world is small and painted. They all kind of group up into one thing, which is basically an elaborate bait and trap for Gordon, but there's tension between the individual pieces and they all have unique perspectives on what's happening despite playing into the same greater thing.

Sorry I'm having a hard time capturing exactly what you meant into this I get what you meant it's just. words are difficult. But your hlvrai thoughts make me insane

no this is like. exactly what i mean. you get it.

the thing about siphonophores is that each component of the organism has its own mouths. like. one component will be the stomach, one will make the organism swim, etc etc, but they all have their own mouths. they all feed.

and there is always this kind of dissonance between gordon and the others, and yes obviously he is the one playing a video game, but i always felt like it went deeper than hostile AI being weirded out by the new guy. it felt more,,, natural?? i guess??? it all feels set up on a stage. aside from the fact that its a game and it is has coded events. the AI, the thing that is suppose to think for itself, still seems kinda. within its own limits. stuck within the body of the facility. (for example, coomer and/or bubby freaking out when they go outside of the skybox/into space).

but the dissonance between the science team and the game/facility is!!! oh my godddd!!!! i could write an essay on that shit. so interesting. and i love that the dissonance is often physically manifested. your hatred towards this thing that you hate is real and will be seen and will affect the world outside you.

like. you have this thing, a large container that has events and ideas that are built into it (the game, the organism as a whole, the haunted house), and there are different components within this container that have some kind of symbiotic relationship (good or bad) with the outside container (black mesa, the individual nervous systems of the organism, the rooms/ghosts/humans haunting* the house), and all of these individual components has a manifestation of its difference or hostility (the science team, the individual mouths, the opinions each component of the haunted house has on each other (i need to make another post about this)).

sorry that was probably really complicated. i just needed to get it out of me because its all ive been thinking about since i made that first post.

*this is within the idea that the hypothetical house is haunted by something. which is generally the idea i go for when in reference to sentient AI, the whole this house had a purpose and it changed, this AI had a code and it was faulty. etc etc. pretty sure ive already posted something about that.

weird little mspaint diagram with some other ideas i have not talked about. note; this is not scientifically accurate to siphonophores. i just thought they were a really good allegory. you are definitely gonna need to zoom in for this thing. but it is important to the explanation i guess.

i just find it really fun to put obvious differences between characters/living things and see where they come together. like the science team, gordon, and benry are all separate beings in their own way but they are like a family. blah. hope you enjoy as always this is a bit messy.

[henrysglock]

Alice/El parallels??? PLEASE elaborate

Oh girl they are SO heavy-handed with the Alice-El parallels in this show, both in the plot and in the casting...This is gonna be a long one because I have so much to say.

You see. They have three whole actresses to play Alice, all of them around age 10. They are not averse to hiring child actors for bit parts. And yet when we get to Henry and El's closing lab scene? They just re-use Alice's actress. Every time. Henry sings TYBTM at Alice after the attic scene with Virginia, and then the next time we hear it sung is Henry to...Alice in a different outfit. Insane 2 me. Do I understand it from a practical standpoint? Sure. Still insane to me.

They also both seem to fill the same role in Henry's life, just in wildly different scenarios. Virginia claims Victor was never the same after the war, and we see him drinking to cope...a lot. We see a scene of him arguing with Virginia about Henry, she's clearly having a Moment about whatever's "wrong" with him/trying to tell Victor it's too soon for Henry to be back in school after he "put that boy in a wheelchair" back in Nevada. Victor basically dismisses her outright, and does so continually throughout the rest of the first half of TFS. Virginia's definitely not getting what she needs from him as a partner.

Thus, Henry seems to have stepped into (read: been forced into) that role of "partner/male caregiver", definitely for Virginia in the vein of attention/affection/emotional regulation...but also possibly for Alice, since Victor seems to be drunk all the time. I can't say more about that aspect with full certainty because we don't see much of Henry and Alice alone together.

However, Henry ends up in a very similar position with Brenner. Brenner initially claims that he and Henry will be like "father and son"...smash cut to the end of the play, wherein Brenner tells Henry he's "as much of a father to this family as [he is]", only to then tell Henry he thinks he's ready to meet his "siblings" (read: the lab children).

Exactly like it was in the Creel household, Henry's put in this parentified sibling/caregiver position...just a touch more literally this time. Thus El is to Henry as Alice was to Henry: A younger sister, but also a daughter in many regards.

This is exemplified through the use of TYBTM (the dead parent song), with Henry singing that to Alice while coming off his "Are you jealous [of Patty]?" fight with Virginia, only to have Henry sing it again, this time to El in the lab with Brenner...Brenner who is notably possessive of Henry and behaves like a jealous husband irt: Patty.

I had said way, way back in the day (late 2022) that El and Alice filled similar roles in Henry's life, and that Henry's motivations for helping El escape HNL stem not only from his care for her as an individual/a family member irt the lab itself, but also from having a second chance at saving his baby sister. "Making up for" Alice being caught in the crossfire in 1959, if you will.

There's also a more tenuous bit that I've touched on before irt the HNL escape and the massacre monologue in 4.07...one that comes up in TFS with both Patty and Alice irt Henry that I'll stick under the cut.

There's a point in the 4.07 monologue where El's reaction to the whole thing completely switches...like she's had a realization about "Henry". It specifically happens when "Henry" requests that El "join him". She goes from terrified and grieving to closed off/resistant like a switch flipped in her brain...like he said something, specifically, that made her go "You're not him".

Alice says that, verbatim, when she runs up to the attic to see what the commotion is irt Henry and Virginia. The dialogue between Alice and Possessed Henry in the doorway of the attic goes:

"Where's Henry?" (scared) "He's...right here." "You're not Henry. You're not him." (closed off/resistant) "...Run."

Which is almost exactly the vibe the massacre monologue scene has, just minus the "he's right here" dead giveaway. An edited version of Alice's lines fit perfectly over El's reaction to to the 4.07 monologue.

Where this becomes especially interesting is the way Henry and El's previous chess scene conversation has direct dialogue parallels to Henry and Patty just before the attic attack:

In which Henry tries to lay down some ground rules in anticipation of things going wrong irt the Shadow. Henry's warning Patty that he'll help her, but it's dangerous. He goes on to try to tell her about Nevada, about the Shadow, but he's cut off by a Vecna clock chime.

I'm thinking Alice, by virtue of just being around Henry all the time, can tell when he's not himself, and she knows to do exactly as he says when things go wrong: Run. "Run", coincidentally, being exactly what Henry tells Patty to do when the Shadow attacks in the attic.

I'm wondering if, in the missing scene where Henry tells El to meet him in the boiler room, Henry gave El some kind of trigger, an "If I ask you to join me, it's not me anymore" type deal, without any added explanation, much the same as he did with Patty.

On a tangential note: Henry's response to the Shadow attacks is very much giving "Run, Hide, Fight" (the active shooter mantra in US schools)...particularly so in 4.07. Run: Leave HNL via the tunnel. Hide: Stay put in the store room/closet until the attack is over. Fight: The Rainbow Room fight. It also shows up in TFS, though, with Henry trying repeatedly to make people leave when an attack is coming on. "Go to bed, Virginia", "Run", "Patty! You have to run!", "Get her out of here!", etc. And it never progresses past running in TFS, since things tend to spiral out of control far more quickly and in much more confined spaces.

[masonsystem]

too sick to draw or do anything else which means its the perfect time to watch mca and be a little autistic nitpicky bitch about it. planning to do a post like this per episode, this one's for episode One. well episode one part one bc nothing in my life is easy and i keep forgetting theres a fucking image limit for posts 🙄

- I HATE THIS FUCKING ANIME ok i needed to get that off my chest...... groaned so loudly at the first four seconds fucking... Church Bells and POLES?!?!? POLES?!?!!! i hate shaft's enviromental choices ok moving on

- how the fuck did i not realize that ayano's VA is rena ryuugu lmfao its all i can hear nowadays

- right theyre on a fucking clock... for some reason.... also honestly i dont like ayano's voice that much. like the voice is fine but i dont think it fits ayano's character

- also this clock sucks i wish it was like more More you know more gears more machinery like ep12 insanity ok wait. are shinaya 3d models here lmfao.. maybe?

- i like this line. saur mysterious

- hahaha.... the Kaien Panzermast

now that i think abt it i have no idea why its called kaien panzermast. like i what its referring to (the song siren thing thats telling kids to go tf home) but what the hell is a Kaien Panzermast?

- this scenery is near meaningless to kagepro literally just a whole bunch of nothing when i say i hate shaft's choices for this anime..... like what is any of this shit. also orange??!? orange of all colors..... god damn man

like yes ok its the evening BUT THIS IS KAGEROU PROJECT. GIVE ME MY RED AND BLUE!

-- this part is cool tho. a bit too heavy handed in the symbolism but i appreciate the gesture

- lol at this:

BECAUSE SHE DIDNT! not until 2017 lmfao. this makes me suspect that the revelations from mr2 were initially supposed to be in the anime. but in the end for whatever reason it couldnt fit itself there, so the only revelation we got was The First Tragedy Exists. and no elaboration.... now that i think of it, iirc me and many fans were pretty thrown off from this opening back when it first aired cuz this was like, the first time we've seen ayano act like this. wait. let me check my timeline

ok nvm lol. second time. first time shes ever like this is in the manga:

but anyways back in 2013/2014 before the LTM episode, there was like no context whatsoever for Why Is Ayano Like That. so that was a doozy

- damn can u imagine working on some songs writing a novel and getting these amazing voice actors to voice ur characters... ohhh i wouldnt know how to act

-HJEKHJSKDFHASJKDFH THIS LOOKS CHEAP AS HELL HELP ME

i mean thats um. one way to show a timeline getting thrown away... I Guess. ignoring the fact that Mary Has Long Hair (which she shouldnt), its a cool visual idea but the execution is um... hfjkssjk

- hehe

headphone actor mv on the left and mca countdown thingy on the right. holy shit they are near identical damn, i just thought they were similar but no, its practically identical. thats so cool T_T if only the rest of this anime was this cool.... whatever onwards i go

- shintaro's stupid futuristic high-rise apartment... i loathe thee

- the fuck is this

- first instance of shaft's trademark of putting random shit on the screen and im already annoyed its gonna be bad for me for the rest of this rewatch if i can even last that long. i know i will at least til ep 10 (11???) cuz i need to see baby mekatrio

- no aku benci lmfao shaft hates to animate so much they threw this story into the future so they could just conveniently project things onto shintaro's cyberwall hahaha..... i fucking hate this anime

- looks like shintaro was drawn by 4 different artists in these various shots that only span like 5 seconds

- damn in the anime its not even ene's fault that shintaro spilled the soda lmfao. thats all on him this time

- also shinene's voices are srsly perfect

- XX you say...... 🤨

- storyboarding sucks shit they went from flashback to not a flashback to flashback again my fucking god dude. the only reason i can make sense of any of it is cuz im rewinding every little thing

- literally no reason to add 'roomie' to this translation but it made me laugh so I GUESS

maybe i should hunt for the official crunchyroll subs. but im too lazy

- lmfao

text from Mekakucity Talkers 24, translated by x0401x. only difference from tht and the screenshot is that shintaro still has hair lol

- hm. i wish it made a bigger deal of shintaro leaving the house. yeah he threw a fit but i wish the actual stepping outside aspect was more dramatic yknow. like how Children Record emphasized it

- WHY IS THIS CITY SO EMPTY

- also curiously this episode is missing this sentence from shintaro abt someone rebuilding the city bit by bit which is in the novels and the manga, which is meant to foreshadow saeru's influence. but then again the first 17 manga chapters are taken nearly word-by-word from the novels so maybe thats all it is 🤷

- also it took like 6 minutes for shintaro to leave the house... theres other things being done ofc, establishing shinene's dynamics, quick exposition of how ene ended up with shintaro to begin with, and spilling soda onto the computer and leaving the house. but i feel like it wouldve been better if the anime stuck to what the novels + mr1 does, where ene blares a loud fucking alarm. that quickly establishes shinene's dynamic and easily leads to a So You Must Be Wondering How I Got Here type of thing, and then knock over the soda leave the house bam easy. instead the anime really took its time with like..... idk making shinaro look ikemen. yeahhh not the best choice, especially considered how rushed the last few episodes are gonna be. ok back to watching the anime

- also aku benci x2 like its only futuristic when its convenient which is soo fucking Lazy. theres literally no reason for this story to be set in the future. like all this city scenery is based off actual modern day Kashiwa its just... ugh. barely any care put into this anime at all

- this anime is cool sometimes

- reused this pencil texture from the start of the episode... wonder how many times ill be seeing that

- the fucking comedic timing of these terrorists lmfao. and right theyre clowns... for some reason....

- also dude ill still never understand why only their thumbs are the only parts ziplocked like what. also isnt that harder to animate... THIS STUPID ANIME

- this is a completely fair reaction to having kano shuuya speak to you for the first time

- no the fuck he isnt he hasnt thought of shit my god.

that comic person on here was not lying shaft really fucked up the order of events here bigtime. kano only speaks to shintaro after shintaro's done brooding.... also seto doing fuckall lol. ik he'll say smth in like 2 seconds but i do find it funny that we've seen him for like the past minute and he hasnt said shit

- ok but its cool that kano's hand just doesnt obey the ziplock.... very clever of the artists to just make him put his hands behind his head and other gestures to indicate that theres something up with him

- why are his eyes red.

[insanepoll]

I think my only hope coming out of this is that a person or two might be intrigued enough to see what Golden Kamuy is like for themselves. it's so much fun, and if you want insane characters, Usami was just our most overtly upsetting example... he is literally only the tip of this yikesberg.

like, the whole story is about a native ainu girl and a former soldier, running around in the Hokkaido wilderness looking for escaped convicts from a maximum security prison, because they each have part of a set of encoded instructions tattooed onto their skins, which leads to a massive cache of stolen ainu gold. so every character is either a traumatized former soldier, or has a high likelihood of having been imprisoned for a reason you don't wanna know about (but you will).

this is where you get the guy with the fetish for being murdered, or the cannibal who became a hotel owner so she could trick it out with trap doors and secret compartments and harvest people discreetly, or Shiraishi. my beloved stupid idiot, who got locked up in, and broke out of, every prison of the region because some guy did an ugly drawing of a woman, and Shiraishi immediately became obsessed with her. then, after literally years of this, he gave up when he finally met her and realized that her face just looks like that irl. like, the drawing was actually really good and accurate.

and sometimes they just stop into a town and find a guy who's been secretly robbing graves and using corpse skin to make elaborate high fashion fetish wear. he also has an abusive relationship to his dead, taxidermied mother, until Tsurumi lovingly guides him into shooting her in the head. and there's an actual functional plot purpose for all of this!

believe me when I say, this series is a wild ride. it's not all insane characters non-stop, but the ones we have are so notable, and they keep one-upping each other. I didn't even mention the guy who fucks a bear.

i swear i was gonna say something coherent and agreeing with you how this maybe will motivate more people into checking it out but. a guy fucks a what

[godforbidfate]

i know i should be thrilled that speak now is about to reach a whole new demographic of people and obviously new songs and recordings are a huge win but as someone who fully lived through the actual speak now era in 2010, i just think these new people do not understand the context and the complexities of that album and that era! while yes, fearless and red both had their own stuff going on, i think speak now remains the most pivotal era in taylor's early career and her country career especially.

while taylor was making huge waves at that time with fearless and the grammys, she was still ultimately a new artist in the industry and she was still incredibly young. so to jump from an unknown country singer to the youngest album of the year winner, she immediately had people criticizing her left and right. i had to defend her to every other person i met because they critiqued her voice or her songwriting or her dancing and not to mention her dating life! and while all this was happening, we the fans were either around her age (19-22) or right behind her (13-18) and so all of us rallied around her while ALSO being criticized ourselves!! the only reason speak now exists is because PEOPLE TREATED TAYLOR LIKE SHIT FOR WINNING AWARDS AND SELLING RECORDS AND WRITING HER SILLY LITTLE LOVE SONGS ABOUT BOYS IN HOMEROOM!

looking back now it is so much more impressive that speak now was her first million release week and that made such a huge impact not only on the industry but also on us as fans and taylor's career as a whole. while fearless was successful, the bond we formed going into speak now solidified taylor and locked her in for a future in this industry because she showed up for us and so we showed up for her. she started meeting fans, playing the most elaborate show of her career complete with choreography and insane costume changes, she crafted her persona as a Performer and a Songwriter all in one era and while the rest of the world was against her, we stood there with her because everybody was against us too.

which is what is so unbelievably annoying now because EVERYBODY LOVES HER! people will latch onto this album because the songwriting is good - IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN - and i stand by that it truly is one of her best, but it never got the recognition it needed because of the circumstances surrounding taylor at that time. but that means now, with her even LARGER fanbase where culturally people have started to see her in a positive light, launching her into the stratosphere of popularity, there is no way to fully appreciate the context of the album. yes, mean is a fun little song about how people suck and one day you're gonna be okay — but what about the inspiration for the song? what about how people literally told lies that she didn't write her own music? and okay yes, it's wild that she dated john mayer and taylor lautner and the kanye stuff happened, but like...do you realize what it was like to watch her go through that in real time and watch the entire world MAKE FUN OF HER FOR IT? and how do you appreciate all of this while also never being bullied (strong word but not uncommon for swifties!!!) for liking or listening to taylor back when she was still starting out? speak now is an album for US - not just general fans, but the fans who stood by her in 2010 when the entire world thought she was the most annoying person in the industry, not worth anyone's time.

what's more, it makes me sad that fans these days will not get to witness these songs during their original era. it's magical to see her revisit her old stuff and i'm sure these songs will sound even more incredible than they already do, but as a long time taylor swift fanatic, i have to stress that i have always been stuck in the 2010-2011 speak now era. i'll be in my seventies and still thinking about the thanksgiving documentary, about the chanel perfume sweater, the oxford shoes, the purple knit hat with the flannel, the central park piano concert, the bus with her face on it, the fucking speak now tour in all its glory. i'll remember the start of the t-parties, the rain show at gilette, the cover songs and koi guitar and the start of her magnificent mashups, when she started bringing out her friends and idols at her concerts, when we spent hours deciphering the handwritten lyrics she'd put on her arms...

yes taylor has been around for a long time and so much of who she is now is because of all her eras not just this one, but people don't appreciate just how much of taylor is because of speak now. and they don't realize just how much our community and her fans were built on the foundations of that time period. so much of the swiftie standard is because of the speak now era.

i hate to be the kind of person to gatekeep because that isn't necessarily the point and i also know that it isn't that serious but i think it just makes me sad that the older we get, the more time that passes and the more these older eras become their own kind of folklore. it's a kind of grief, mourning all the ways things used to be and how young we were and how we were all growing up with taylor and all of us were getting treated like shit. and so yes, it's cool that new people can access this music and fall in love with it like i did when i was fifteen, but it will never be like it was...and that's kind of special in its own way. you can listen to speak now tv and love these songs, but i remember what it was like back then. i was there, and it meant something, and in my head i'm still there, trying not to grow up but wishing for the opportunity to make my voice heard.

[lordichamo]

was gonna ask you to elaborate more about your better and improved dekobokko arc but kondou being able to see mitsuba post fs arc❓❓❓❓❓❓❓❓❓

something something its about his dubiously deceased swag <3 it very much occupies the same space in my mind as This Stuff. just in general i find playing around w/ the uh? boundary between life n death? with him to be really fun & interesting. if ANY of that makes sense. guy who is 👌 this close to being a ghost himself but also like hes totally fine :) definitely. guy who died and came back to life (figuratively) (literally). guy who operates on the warrior cats leader 9 life system to me. also im blaming ^ all that on the fact I kept refusing to confirm to my friends if he died or not while liveblogging gntm stuff. lol.

----- aaand while im here . ouuughhhh dekobokko rewrite [starts gnawing thru plywood] its mostly just me lookin @ the shinsengumi trio and doing canon’s job of figuring out uh? what kinda effects [gestures] all that would have on em. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to ponder and i hate how canon just. grrrrrhrhrhrhrhrrr. noooooo we’re just gonna make everyone else into jokes. grrrrrrrrbarkbarkbarkbarkbark. anyway the insanity definitely started when i realized uh. souko just kinda looks like. mitsuba 2.  and I have been plagued by thoughts ever since. also uh. [taps mic] goriko&tenko are just 1. pretty and 2. fun to draw i think :)