#;; op your brain is so massive yes

[joyfulness03]

@rudeboimonster

I was thinking about warden ingo but with the sygna suit

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

ways to build confidence/appreciate your appearance

I had someone ask me how I try and build self confidence and appreciate my own appearance, and while I'm a massive hypocrite, I figured that what I wrote in response to her was a good public post. Here's my suggestions. None of them are unique, just what occurred to me:

This is obviously fraught with difficulties depending on your circumstances, but one thing that's helped me is sharing pics of my face with one of my friends who loves how I look. The way she'll boost my confidence is excellent. Obviously you probably shouldn't do that with people you barely know, or online (though this friend is online, I only showed her my face after we'd had several voice calls and stuff so I knew she's not a dodgy person) (yes it's a mutual) (I love you mutual).

Also! Wearing clothing that makes you feel attractive in whatever way. Like if there's a colour that makes your heart sing for joy over it, find that and wear that. Anything you look at and go Yes This Is Right, wear it. I have a few tshirts that I particularly like; for me, those are Strange Planet tshirts, but it'll be different for everybody. Find your own 'style', if you can - that doesn't need to be like 'replace your whole wardrobe', I'm talking 'find things you really like, and get them if you can, and wear them'. Make them, if that's something you want to do and have the opportunity to do. My wardrobe is largely op shop things, with a few that I've specifically bought, or materials I've grabbed and got my mum to make into dresses or skirts, while they're on clearance. It just takes time, sometimes.

Body neutrality is also another concept that I've seen around. I find it... not great, personally, though it helps sometimes. Your body is just that: a body. It means you can do the things you want to do. It carries a brain that you use to think. It's a body. Don't overthink it. (I do overthink it, of course, but like. we're supposed to work on not doing so lol.)

Another important one for Christians is the thing I too often forget, which is that we're loved by God. God designed us the way he designed us and he did it for a *reason*. We may not know that reason, but it was a reason. I was once told by a Christian doctor that I needed to not get in the way of God's plan for my life. I don't necessarily know God's plan for my life, but God does.

And if we're talking things like having an ED, SH or any of those nasty little rabbit holes (I say that as someone who has both), they're highly maladaptive coping mechanisms. I'm not going to say they're good ones, but they can be replaced with better coping mechanisms - that's one thing that therapy's good for, but also you can look up CBT/DBT handbooks if you want to learn some of that stuff. I know I've looked up the handbook I was given by my psych before, and found I could download it freely on the internet.

Ultimately, I think, try and find things you like about yourself - physical or not. For instance, I like my stubbornness and how competitive I can be. Those have downsides, of course, but I like them for the most part. Physically, I like the fact that I'm a ginger. I'd advise you to try and make a list of things you like about yourself, to remind you of what you do like, not just what you don't. When we're not feeling great, our brains can bombard us with all the things we do badly or perceive ourselves as doing badly. Having a concrete list can help to remind you like 'oh actually I like this thing about myself'. Remembering, too, that there are people who love us just the way we are (and God loves us too) can help. I don't know why the people who care about me do care about me, but they do and I gotta remember that.

I cannot overstate the clothing one enough, honestly. Wearing things you feel nice in is important, regardless of whether they make you look conventionally attractive (and wearing things you're comfy in will make you attractive to someone, and even wearing a potato sack, if you enjoyed it, you'd find someone who liked you wearing a potato sack).

Anyway there's the end of my list. I might add on to it later.

[lifblogs]

Rookie Flight Maneuvers

@summer-of-bad-batch Week 13 Prompt: "Stop touching me!" // "I'm not touching you!" Alt. Prompt: Crashing Hard Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 513 Summary: Hunter is taking a flight test with his squad, and brotherly chaos ensues. Author's Note: Here it is! My last fic for Summer of Bad Batch. This has been such an amazing time, and I have written some of my favorite one-shots ever for this event. This tested me in some ways, expanded my writing horizons, and has even led to me making new friends. I deeply cherish this event, and can't believe it has come to an end. And especially since I started the event in a cast, healing from surgery and only able to write and post by painstakingly using my phone. I've come a long way during this. I had so much fun. I don't want to stop typing about how great this was because then it'll really be over. Wow. Just wow. Thank you to everyone who has been reading my fics! (No, I won't cry when I mark this series as complete. *is lying*) READ ON AO3

“Stop touching me!” Wrecker cried.

“I’m not touching you!” Crosshair argued back.

Both cadets were in fact touching each other, shoving, shoving…

Wrecker fell right into Hunter, nearly against the console of the ship they were training in.

“Hey!” Hunter cried as the ship lurched. “Are you trying to get us all killed?”

“Pull up,” Tech ordered.

He gritted his teeth, and tried to do as his brother said, and the ship lurched to the left.

“I said up,” Tech told him, “not port.”

“Why don’t you fly it?”

“Pick on someone your own size,” Crosshair demanded in the back.

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Wrecker whined, already much bigger than all of them.

“Sit down,” Hunter told them.

“I can’t fly it,” Tech responded, distracting Hunter from some of the chaos. “This is your test.”

A massive wave came up from the ocean, and Hunter tried to avoid it, but too late, and the wave hit the ship, rattling and rolling it. Hunter tried to go with the wave rather than fight it.

Wrecker and Crosshair, who weren’t strapped down, ended up falling, and Crosshair shoved Wrecker, who hit the console, and buttons sparked and flashed, and warning lights bathed them in red, an alarm blaring.

“Great. I knew this would happen,” Tech sighed.

Hunter tried to right the ship, to at least get it bobbing on the surface of the angry ocean. The amount of stimuli he was taking in was close enough to make him blow.

He tried flying the ship, but something burst, they were launched forward, Hunter hitting his head on the console. It was like there was a flash in his brain, and then a momentary blackness, and what he next knew was that something hot and wet was dripping down his face.

The ship was shoved back, and crashed hard into a wide support pillar.

Hunter leaned back, putting a hand to his head, and Tech looked up from his datapad—had he been on that the whole time?—to say, “I’ll fly us back.”

Hunter groaned, and Wrecker, and Crosshair collapsed into their seats.

“What a mess,” he voiced aloud.

“Don’t worry. We’re special ops,” Tech said. “Or will be. It’s not like they can decommission us. I don’t think.”

Hunter used his sleeve to mop the blood from his face. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tech.”

They started to switch seats, Hunter unsteady as the ship bobbed in the waves.

“You’re welcome.” His tone was completely deadpan.

“They still feed us if we’re decommissioned, right?” Wrecker asked as Tech took the ruined training vehicle out of the water.

“No,” Crosshair lied… potentially.

Wrecker growled, and they started fighting all over again.

“I told you not to touch me!” Crosshair shouted.

“No, I told you!”

Hunter just held his throbbing head. Usually he loved his brothers, but they were pushing him to the limit today.

“Just get us home,” Hunter said to Tech.

“Yes, sir.”

The two-fingered salute he gave him was sarcastic. Fine. Whatever.

A commotion sounded behind him.

Wrecker cried, “Stop touching me!”

[wisecrackingeric-2]

Wasted Summers

Summary: Leon has always hated the summertime. The heat makes him exhausted, depressed- and some days, he can hardly move from his bed.

At least he won’t have to spend those summers alone anymore, though. Not now that Luis is by his side. But Leon still can’t help but let his mind wander….

Content Warnings: Depression/Seasonal Depression, Dissociation, Gender Dysphoria, emotional hurt/comfort (this is a very fluffy fic I promise BXBEHENEJD)

Rating: G

Fic below cut!!

Notes:

Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!! So I wrote this a little while back when it was starting to get hotter in my area and I have MAAAAAAJOR seasonal depression like I get SO SICK during the summertime, so I decided to project that onto Leon!!!!! It was a nice character study and ofc I’m a sucker for Luis and Leon taking care of each other through their bests and their worsts <<33

The song in the title is Wasted Summers by JuJu!!

—————————————————————————

The thin summer curtains swung lazily from side-to-side just out of the corner of Leon’s eye, being blown gently by the cold breeze from outside his open window; cracked slightly to let the fresh afternoon air inside his usually rather stuffy room.

The breeze was cold- cold enough to warrant a blanket thrown languidly over his legs, but not nearly cold enough for Leon to bundle himself under them. The sun was bright and if you stood outside, you’d be sweating within minutes, but his room was angled perfectly to enjoy a nice breezy afternoon without getting too warm.

At least in theory. In actuality, though, Leon was a walking furnace. And having Luis curled up little-spoon style with his back against his chest wasn't helping the heat much, either.

Luis was like one of those massive dogs that don’t know their size yet still insist on sitting in your lap. He was tall- shockingly taller than Leon- and was probably made up of 95% limbs. At least that was the running joke between them.

Leon never minded, though. Not in a million years.

He’d take holding Luis’ body in an uncomfortably awkward position on the bed any day over cradling him dead.

Which, if you’d seen the state Luis was in almost a whole year ago from now- all the way back in Valdelobos, Spain- you’d think that would have been inevitable.

But by some divine act of God, Luis had survived.

Leon could physically feel his heartbeat when he lay his hands on his chest- As if to confirm to his brain that, yes, Luis is right here- Real and breathing and alive. And also lying curled up in his arms practically snoring the afternoon away.

Leon smiled to himself; afternoons like this had become his favorite routine. In between being the President's personal bodyguard and running around fixing other people's mess, his lunch breaks usually lasted a couple hours at around 3:00 PM. Which, conveniently enough, was the same time Luis would get let out of work.

He usually would wake up at atrociously early hours of the morning (Leon simply does not let him get up before 4:00 AM, no matter what the Lab wants) and sometimes even took the Night Shift if there was nobody else to cover it, warranting the late send-off time.

It worked out pretty perfectly for the both of them. Leon would pick Luis up from the Labs on his lunch break (And, most of the time, Luis would already be at the door like an excitable kid waiting for their parent to pick them up from school- If Luis had a tail, Leon swore it would wag every time he saw him) And would take him home for an afternoon nap not too unsimilar to this one.

The plea deal after bringing Luis home was that he’d join Leon on his missions whenever they occurred. But for whatever reason, Leon was almost never sent on Ops during the summertime. Bioterrorism just conveniently didn’t like popping up whenever it got hot, he supposed.

Which sounded great on paper. But in actuality; Leon hated summer.

He hated it for a long time, in his defense. If he had to trace back where exactly it began; he guessed around the time his gender dysphoria really started to kick in.

The heat meant less clothes, and less clothes meant more dysphoria- He’d try his damndest to cover himself up with light hoodies and bind with whatever fabrics he could find in the old Academy lost-and-found boxes, but to no avail.

Even years after his Testosterone and Military Training had sculpted out his body and offered him more freedom, he still dreaded summer.

He’s heard of people saying that they felt worse in the winter; that the cold weather and dark sky made them tired and depressed. But for Leon, it was the opposite.

The hot sun made him feel constantly sleepy 24/7 and his clothes always seemed to cling to his skin with sweat uncomfortably. He felt groggy no matter how much sleep he’d gotten the night before, and he’d wake up from naps still feeling drained.

The days seemed to last forever, and the fan beside his bed would become his best friend.

The government he was forced to work for called it laziness; Leon called it seasonal depression.

So he slept his summers away. But at least this time he wouldn’t be alone.

Leon felt a little bad- even with Luis curled up in his arms with a small smile on his sleeping figure, the blonde couldn’t help but feel a small pang of guilt thinking about all the ways they could be enjoying their summer together outside of sleeping the days away in bed.

Leon could have taken Luis to the movies. Or the beach. Or to a carnival- something so perfectly cheesy and romantic that his trope-loving knight in shining armor couldn’t refuse.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Luis shuffle down further into his arms. The sleeves of his shirt rolled up his forearms and exposed the soft arm hair underneath, and Leon instinctively did the same. He sighed in relief as he felt the cool air from the window hit his skin.

Looking for more of that relief, Leon shuffled his leg out from underneath the blankets and practically threw it over Luis’ waist; an awkward position to be sure, but all Luis did in response was sigh in his sleep, so Leon was confident he didn’t mind.

Leon began to card his fingers lazily through his lovers hair, admiring how soft it was even without having been washed for a couple days.

He let his mind wander as he closed his eyes and buried his nose against Luis’ skin- taking in the familiar scent of leather and cigarettes.

He wondered what Luis’ summers used to look like before he met Leon. Did he used to go fishing in that lake he had fought Del Lago in? Did he used to run around in those endless woods to hide in the shade from the hot Spanish sun? Did he walk along the mountainside bridges with his Grandfather, borrowing his hat to avoid getting sunburnt? Did he have friends to share the summer with? Did he miss his childhood summers? All questions Leon never found the perfect opportunity to ask.

Leon felt an imaginary sense of jealousy just thinking about it. He never got that classic 80’s kids-on-bikes summer holidays like most other boys his age did- most mornings were spent taking care of his parents after violent hangovers.

He looked back over to Luis. His shoulders rose and fell with his even breathing. He smiled and cuddled him closer;

He never had a person to feel this safe around.

He never had somebody to waste away the summer with.

Not until now. Not until he met Luis.

He turned his head and pressed a warm kiss to Luis’ neck; which, much to his surprise, actually got a response out of him.

“ You should be asleep, cariño”

Leon chuckled sleepily. “And so should you.”

“You’ve got work in thirty minutes,” Leon could practically hear the pout in Luis’ voice as he instinctively snuggled down further into his arms.

“You need the rest more than I do”

“I’ll only sleep if you sleep, too”

There was a pause from Luis. Before he groaned and kicked part of the blanket off of his legs.

“ Fiiiiiiiiiine. Only because I love you, though, Sancho”

“I love you too” Leon had to bite back a smile at his faux-annoyed tone as he pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

Another moment of silence passed over them.

“Hey, Luis?”

“ Hmmmm?”

“You don’t actually mind doing, well… “ Leon waved his hand over the bed, “ This with me, do you? I feel kinda bad I’m not spending our first summer together differently…”

“ Leon,”

Luis took Leon’s hands and brought them over to his lips- and although the blonde couldn’t see it, he could feel his smile as he kissed his palm.

“I don’t care what we do together. Just being with you is more than enough”

Leon was about to open his mouth to object again before Luis added;

“Besides. I like taking these naps with you. It makes me feel like an Abuelo”

Leon threw his head back and laughed at that comment, feeling that familiar glow of relief and appreciation sitting at the bottom of his chest once again.

“I like taking naps with you too, Luis”

“If you like them so much then you should actually go to sleep”

“ Ok Ok I will I will!!!”

“Te amo, Leon”

“I love you too”

[mathmusic8]

The Bad Batch S2 E5 Entombed reaction

Yeee for Star Wars Wednesday!

(spoilers under the cut)

"I love a good junk yard!" <3

Ahh, it's the pirate lady. Tech's not impressed XD

Droid friend Mel!

"She says a lot of things." Pffft I like that response

Omega's got such puppy-golden-retriever energy <3

Hunter checks with Echo before making the final decision--he knows where the brain cell lives in this outfit XD

Well there's actually a planet there, so that's a plus :D

Considering the devesation... is this a weird creepy Sith planet? I'll laugh if it is

...does Phee have a sword?? Nice XD

Huh, so Echo's the one carrying the compass. I wonder if they decided he'd be the least likely to lose it, or if he took it from someone who was throwing it around or something XD

It is a sword! Some kinda long vibrobalde

Ooooh, reaching the hand in and feeling creepy vibes, are we?

Oooooooh, big creepy crawly be stalking them now

Skara Nal - place associated with but older than the Jedi

Aligning symbols--reminds me of Lothal. Booby traps here we come :D

Okay, maybe Phee is a decent person after all--that's the second time she's warned/saved Wrecker from falling debris

Omega to the rescue <3

Droid friend Mel, I hope you're a droid friend and not a droid traitor :D

Hunter senses something...

Ohhh, that is big and UGLY

"It's drooling on me!" Yes, Wrecker, it's also trying to bite your face off XD

Aaaaaand now we're actually trapped

"They'll be fiiiiine!" said in a tone that suggests she's said this phrase many, many times in her life XD

Hunter's a little jumpy now XD

Ope, there goes Hunter! Oh good, he's okay

"We've almost died three times already." Hunter is seriously so done XD

So. Done. XDDD

"Sometime's a door's just a door" love these one-liners XD

Pretty rock! So what kind of booby trap is gonna spring the second they try to pick it up?

...yeah, thought so.

Ooooh this is fancy--oh. Oh my. Maybe fancy is the wrong word.

Run droid friend Mel! (or, y'know, waddle)

Ooohhhhh this machine thing is actually super cool-looking though!

But... what is it? Why is it programmed to destroy everything?

Yeee Hunter! Nice save

Droid friend Mel, RUN!

Nooooo! Bye droid friend Mel :(

Seriously tho, who just leaves this massive instrument of destruction just laying around and configures it to start up on kill mode when the key's removed? Like, why? It seems drawn to other electronics--it targets Mel and the ship pretty quickly--but why? Where'd it come from? Who designed it? Who left it here?

Oh good, droid friend Mel's memory is backed up :)

....so was that a filler episode or plot? Hard to tell, but it was fun XD

[waywardstation]

hi, i just binge-read what's posted on ao3 so far of heart full, bowl empty and. oh boy i needed to pop in with my thoughts

first off, i've never had a massive urge to go back in time to give everyone food before, but i have now! a massive bowl of meat and veggies for everyone in the pearl clan, stat.

but in all seriousness, ouch. i know things are just getting started and it's gonna get worse from here, but as someone who dealt with food insecurity a lot as a kid and usually went hungry, this already hits way too close to home and i wanna give ingo and irida in particular some massive hugs. akari too, poor girl's stressed :(

i am curious about volo's intentions and the wounds on the wyrdeer, though. volo theorized about a possible trial and the wounds looked vaguely similar to arceus' symbol…. hm. much to think about.

could be nothing but joltik brain forces me to cling to small stuff like that and run with it.

great work! i'm excited to see where it all goes. -ingo-propaganda (this is my main lol, hello ^^)

ps: i've said this before in the tags of stuff but i'm obsessed with the way you draw akari. she is so small and full of compassion. but also mischief if she feels like it. idk how you cram all of that into her but it comes across perfectly and i care about her, your honor

In regards to my fic Heart Full, Bowl Empty

OP HI THANK YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!!!

The whole Pearl clan does need a big bowl of meat and veggies, they would very much appreciate that!!

And I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the subject, and how you empathize with them. I know this fic can be difficult for some to read because of their experiences, and that is 100% ok. But I’m glad you can still read it ^^ yes, Ingo, Irida, and Akari definitely deserve the hugs!

Volo’s intentions, motives, and interactions are something I’ve had a fun time writing; he’s a very interesting character to me, and I haven’t really been able to write him in the way I’ve wanted to until HFBE gave me the chance to. I’m looking forward to sharing more about his interactions with Akari!! And as for the wounded stantler, that will be answered in the next chapter :) you’re right for thinking it’s leading to more!!

Thank you so much for the ask OP!!! I really appreciate you coming over and taking the time to share your thoughts about HFBE!! ^^

(And thank you!!!! Yes I’ve seen your comments in the tags and I really love and appreciate them haha. Compassionate teenage mischief-maker is certainly what I’ve come to aim for as I shape my design for her, so glad it comes across like that!!! Thank you!!!)

[sekaiikun]

tags by @milanowhore (because these were so sweet but also i have my own thoughts to add!):

i do in fact have a phd in tumblr yes thank you for noticing

so fun fact, i actually JUST started watching naruto for the first time in january because my best friend and I were watching ancient (im talking 2005~) sasunaru/naruto amvs for hours on end and decided that we'd really really like naruto.

and currently a quarter into shippuden- i do really really like naruto!!!

amvs and 2000s/early 10s shit, that's all some of my biggest inspirations for my art in general and im glad that everyones been really enjoying it lately. a few years ago one of my friends said "your art is so 2014 in the best way possible" and i think that really suits the nostalgic vibe that i'm trying to go for.

confession, i completely forgot to add this image in the descriptions of everywhere i posted this:

this piece is 100% inspired by this fanart I had found through sasunaru tributes on youtube (their signature is in the corner, but i can't find the original source of this image anywhere through trying to read the signature or reverse image searching, it seems the OP must've deleted it in the many many years since posting)

my original sketches are a lot closer to it, but i was having issues with composition and anatomy so I wound up throwing the boys onto the floor and changing up their poses

so i'd call this piece a tribute of its own to that original fanart, a complete reaction of "holy shit nine inch nails poster sasunaru fanart this is EPIC" because while i do have critical thoughts on yaoi / fujo culture from this era, i also owe my... entire identity around having my formative years as a kid watching bad quality yaoi tributes made of stolen art on youtube lol.

like i said, your tags are so so sweet and (if you are not milanowhore go read the rest of them) a great analysis that i 100% have shared thoughts about for a long while. just tonight i went to an animation screening and one of the films was a huge joke about yaoi/shojo manga proportioned men. its great. i love that people who grew up with this kind of nonsense (said with love) are making really, really great art now.

lately I've been working on a lot of things that take place in a vague, slightly modernized version (so that i can include my deranged transgenderisms) of the late 2000s / early 2010s, my own naruto au i've been crafting in my brain is the same. but i'd be remiss not to mention brujo_ari whose late 90's early 00's work is a massive inspiration for everything i do!

am i more than you bargained for yet?

[rainbowgod666]

Warning: this is a massive joke based entirely on this video by Red Overlysarcasticproductions (here known as @comicaurora. Yes thats why the artstyle of Aurora is so familiar, congratulations you can recognize patterns and are on the same level as a crow) (crows are cool so its fine 🐦‍⬛)

Stranger in a strange land except yours truly wrote it

1) Micheal is SO BLATANTLY the definition of femboy he gets (IN THE DAMN BOOK) a Fuckton Of Porn Of Him (Which he *likes* for reasons unknown even for ME)

"doesnt understand lying" and then he gets it and he SWEARS UP A FUCKING CATEGORY 6 HURRICANE at the protagonists for an *entire chapter* and its something that NEVER actually happens in the book. Like _at most_ he says "golly" or "darn" and then he just grabs all co-protags by the collar and goes ƳØŲ FÜÇƘÏÑĢ ŁÎŢŤĻË ŞĤĮȚŜ-

its part of MY MULTIVERSE. Which means that around the middle of the book, it turns out that parallel universes are real and nobody wants to conquer anybody because "nobody gives a shit"

This also explains how Mandela County is the 51st state of america even tho it doesnt get a star on the flag: Gabriel (yes that one) appeared and everyone went to him like "please for the love of FUCK make a government" and now its full of transhumanist transgenders (which sounds cool AF btw but whatever)

And also why pokemon dont exist. Long story short the Infinity Energy is a pokemon-only thing and the funny critters DISINTEGRATE without it (whoops)

Micheal meets the ACTUAL angel micheal and they both read the original stranger in a strange land and theyre both disgusted by it. Like holy fuck

The SCP foundation doesnt outright "appear" but its so fucking blatantly obvious that they are there. As in- theres a chapter where the only SCP word is "epsilon 11 nine tailed fox" and its in ONE chapter and its to breach the house of a terrorist

Turns out a martians powers in this book are a mixed bag of references: limited telepathy, steven universe tier empathy (like me hahahahaha i am in pain actually ;w;) and their skin is SLIGHTLY different from a human so whats a little burn for us can become A FUCKING WILDFIRE

Yes theres 2/3 or so chapters about him trying to get pyrokinesis, then jill is like "dude. You are flammable, not pyrokinetical" and he goes home sad

Jill actually has a deep seated trauma which kinda EXPLAINS her """promiscuity""" (dont worry, its a school thing and not a family one) and she gets over it by... getting a girlfriend.

No im not doing this alone half the concepts are either fetishes or political statements and i dont have time for this shit

Also micheal turns out to like gay sex more than straight sex which is weirdly phrased at first bit the reality is that seeing Feminine Guys™ makes him lose his marbles a bit. And by a bit i mean that theres an entire sentence where he says shit that only here on tumblr would be accepted, and it would be classified as "do not tumblrize the thirsty white cishet male please. Its bad enough". Yes he starts crying about it. Micheal may or may not be a big ball of explosive emotions. Whoops!

Speaking of Brain Bullshit: every autistic person ever has a power REGARDLESS of their intellect. This is explained by me (BECAUSE IM NOT PUTTING A STUPID SELF INSERT. IM GETTING IN THERE MYSELF BOY/GIRL/WHATEVERIDONTCAREIJUSTHOPEYOUGOTACOOLFLAGWITHIT) and the explaination chapter ends with a sentient mass of fuel-bleeding something going like "my iq is the same as a borzoi and these people are the dumbest idiots ive ever seen" and me agreeing (because hes right)

Also apotheosis is a thing but its so fucking stupid only the non rich can do it without going insane (obviously) (no they do not lose their sense of mortality/humanity. Thats a cop-out the size of the perseus supercluster)

The only reason he gets an autism diagnosis is because of that whole soup of "being an alien + not understanding society + op bullshit". He doesnt learn what autism IS until the last chapter.

And what happens then? He goes back to mars with a bunch of earth games and films. Mostly to share them with other martians to figure out wtf is a compooter. The epilogue is the release of "stranger in a strange land". An 8-bit styled RPG where youre an alien trying to save humans and

Oh who the fuck am I kidding. In my version of stranger in a strange land, Micheal invents fucking UNDERTALE

[transmorolians]

I think a common reason is sometimes when a post gets popular it can be annoying to see the same post in your notifs or seeing the same (bad or not) takes in the tags, so some people change it to a silly picture so it's bearable or at least funny out of context, like a post that was made for a specific niche interest in mind breaching containment and people vastly misunderstanding or removing the original context so they change the picture to the blorbo so everyone knows this is a blorbo post and you should reblog this post if you love blorbo wow so many people love blorbo

There's also 'op was made was misinformed when they made the original post and has since learned, but people in the notes keep correcting them, and because editing the og will not edit any reblogs and people will continue correcting them without checking the og post for clarification, so it'd be funny if people were being 'um well actually that was actually misinformation that was found out to be a rumor exactly 10 minutes after you posted this so maybe fact check before you just lie to people on the internet :///' and you look at the post and it says 'in Deltarune chapter 3 Toriel will have an epic yuri moment'

i get that and that would be funny to me if i was the op of one of those posts

but when people do that thing it messes with my brain like. "oh wow cool post! i wonder what op's thoughts are? do they have anything written in the tags?" and then i click the post and it's "Minecraft Steve Except The One You See In Animations On YouTube" Jumpscare

it's also very ironic when it happens on posts about like. autism or mental illness. because processing changes differently than others is a commonly-noted autistic trait and is very common in quite a few mental disorders so like i check original post to see if op has any additional tags about the topic or whatever and Thomas The Tank Engine's Massive Tits are there and it inflicts psychic damage on my autistic self like woe. unexpected change be upon ye!

[mongeese]

TMA Meta: Jon’s Ego and Martin’s Lack Thereof

Summary: This is my brain dump about Jon and Martin’s ideas on their own self-importance (i.e. Jon being self-centered and Martin having zero self esteem) and how they contribute to the plot/tragedy of The Magnus Archives, organized into a hopefully coherent essay. I didn’t come up with this all by myself; it was inspired by a meta I read over a year ago about Jon’s ego specifically, but unfortunately op has deactivated so I can no longer access the whole thing. Still, it was a very good post, and definitely made these ideas crystalize for me.

Be warned, this meta is about 2700 words, so it’s a hefty one. And yes, I do know this podcast ended almost 16 months ago, and yes, I do still care enough about it to write 2700 words. What can I say, it rewrote my brain chemistry.

Also I’m tagging @jonnywaistcoat, on the off-chance he sees this and has any interest in reading essays about something he wrote years ago. If you do read this, hi Jonny, love your work!

Now without further ado, the essay, underneath the read more :)

The Magnus Archives is primarily a horror podcast, but as I’m sure we all remember, it is also a deeply tragic story. I believe one of the signs of a great tragedy is a story in which the tragic outcome is technically avoidable, but is actually inevitable when you consider the personalities, ideologies, and behaviors of the characters that inhabit the story. This is true for The Magnus Archives in countless ways, but one that I think is largely overlooked is the egos of the various characters. More specifically, the respective egos of Jon and Martin are hugely influential in the story. Despite having practically opposite perspectives on their own self-importance, each of their egos feeds into the apocalypse and the tragic ending in their own ways.

Jonathan Sims is egotistical and self-centered. That might be a controversial take, and if it is, that would be understandable: he’s up to his eyeballs (pun kind of intended) in self-loathing and sacrificial tendencies. He burns himself out constantly trying to help other people. However, the reason he does that is because he’s self-centered. When I say self-centered, I don’t mean selfish, and I don’t mean vain. I mean the most basic definition of the word, which is that he centers himself in his view of the world. He is egotistical not in that he thinks himself better than other people, but in that he believes, maybe subconsciously, that he is more important and influential they are.

The biggest example of this behavior is the Unknowing. Elias/Jonah tells Jon the world is going to end, and that Jon specifically needs to stop it. Jon is told that he must use his powers to save the world, that he alone has what it takes to see through the Unknowing and destroy it. And Jon does not question this at all. He does recognize that he can’t do it alone, that he needs people to support him, but he never argues the fact that he is uniquely responsible for the safety of literally everyone alive. Now, it’s not an entirely unreasonable conclusion to draw, considering he does have supernatural abilities, he does work for a supernatural institution, and he was being told repeatedly that he was uniquely responsible. But it’s not an inevitable conclusion. He did not have to believe that narrative, exemplified by the fact that when put in a similar situation, Martin rejected the idea that he would be some kind of chosen one (which I’ll get to later). The most logical explanation for Jon wholeheartedly believing he was the only one who could stop the Unknowing is if he already believed himself to be special and unique in some way, even before he knew about it.

It’s not just the Unknowing, either. Jon has massive amounts of trust issues and is very unwilling to confide in others or ask for help. Some of those trust issues were supernaturally induced in season 2, but I believe they existed even before that. Even in season 1, Jon thinks he is alone in his problems, he’s alone in the work he has to do. That is an egotistical perspective. He does not recognize that maybe other people do understand, that they do want to help, that he doesn’t have to be alone in this world. I imagine much of this perspective comes from being an orphan who was bullied as a child; if you spend your whole childhood relatively isolated, it stands to reason that you’d believe yourself to be unique in a way the people around you are not, alone in your situation. It could also be some twisted form of survivor’s guilt from Mr. Spider, because someone died in Jon’s place. Therefore he must be important, otherwise that kid died for nothing. It’s impossible to say for sure what caused it, but what I can say for sure is that Jon has a pretty self-centered outlook on life.

The last bit of evidence in support of Jon being self-centered comes from seasons 4 and 5. This is when he is at his most self-sacrificial and his most guilty, and the reason for that is because of his ego. In season 4, he believes himself to be responsible for all the trauma and death that’s been going on in the archives during and after the Unknowing. In season 5, he blames himself almost exclusively for the apocalypse. And while I can understand to some extent why he believes those things – most of the other characters blame him for it too, for starters – when you look at the actual events, there’s really no reason for him to shoulder all the responsibility. Daisy says so in episode 136, and the rest of the (living) main characters say so in episode 199. With regard to the Unknowing, Jonah was the one who pushed them to stop it, and everyone involved agreed to the plan. After the Unknowing, he was in a literal coma, making it impossible for him to help with any of the Archive’s problems. The apocalypse was planned by the Web, embodiment of manipulation, plus all the characters contributed to the ritual succeeding in their own way. Jon’s conviction that somehow, he alone could have stopped things and so he alone should bear the burden of sacrifice to set things right is hugely egotistical, not to mention entirely false. He’s setting himself on a pedestal, holding himself to a higher standard than the people around him. It’s ironic and tragic, but it’s unavoidable given who Jon is and what he has been through.

So. If Jon is self-centered, where does that leave Martin? Well, he’s pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum. If I wanted to be mean about it, I could say Martin considers himself to be maybe one step above worthless. And that would probably be an exaggeration, but it’s true that Martin prioritizes and considers almost everyone else before himself, and does not consider himself influential or important in any capacity. There is of course his infamous line in 198, “I didn’t really think I was important enough to kill.” There’s also the fact that Peter’s attempt to convert him to the Lonely failed explicitly because Peter placed too much importance on Martin specifically, as is revealed in 158 inside the Panopticon.

The situation with Peter in season 4 is especially notable, because as I mentioned earlier, it directly parallel’s Jon’s position in season 3 with the Unknowing. Peter has told Martin that there is an existential threat to humanity, and that he, Martin, is the only person equipped to stop it. That’s almost exactly what Elias/Jonah told Jon about the Unknowing. Unlike Jon, though, Martin rejects this. He rejects the idea that he could be important enough to save the world by himself, that he could be a “chosen one” in any capacity, and in doing so destroys Peter’s plan. And he was right! Unlike Jon, who was wrong in season 3. There’s something to be said here about how The Magnus Archives simultaneously rejects and embraces the idea of fate: there are no true “saviors”, destined to save the world, but the characters still cannot avoid the final, tragic outcome of the story. But that’s a topic for another essay. The more relevant point to make here is that despite Martin being right, he made this choice because of his low self-esteem and his tendency to de-center himself. It is once again a moment of tragic irony, that the decision Martin makes because he believes himself to be unimportant turned out to be one of the most important decisions of the whole podcast. It’s what led to Jon’s final mark, putting the last nail in the coffin of the world.

(Author’s Note: It’s interesting that despite feeling personally insignificant in the grand scheme of things, Martin’s the one who says “I think our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever.” It’s sort of like, the “everyone matters and is important except for me” outlook on life that is depressingly common. That’s not super relevant to this essay, but it makes me emotional, so I’m including it.)

Those are the most explicit examples of Martin’s low self-worth, but they are not the only ones. He spends most of the first three seasons trying to help other people, whether that’s by making tea, being a sympathetic ear, trying to play mediator, or whatever else he’s doing. He is pathologically incapable of putting himself first until season 4 at the earliest. As Alex said in the season 4 Q&A, he sets himself on fire trying to keep other people warm, and unlike Jon’s self-sacrificial tendencies in later seasons, he’s not doing it out of a misguided guilt or feeling of responsibility. He just genuinely believes other people’s wellbeing is more important than his own. This almost certainly comes from his relationship with his mother, both due to her being abusive and because he had to become her primary caretaker at a young age. He was never given space to have needs or wants of his own, so as an adult he only knows how to cater to other people’s needs and wants. It takes several years of additional trauma for him to learn how to take care of himself first.

I want to make it very clear that I’m not trying to paint Martin as some sort of soft “uwu” character, which I know some people in the fandom try and do. For starters, he’s a total bitch (affectionate). But more importantly, he’s also a very proactive character. I mean, his first introduction is him bringing supernatural parasitic worms into his workplace to prove a point, and the reason he encountered those worms is because he illegally broke into an apartment building. He willingly (well, sort of willingly) throws himself into the action – but he does so for other people, typically to protect or take care of them. It isn’t until season 4, at the height of his loneliness and depression, that he stops caring for others, and even then he doesn’t replace that with caring about himself. He just stops caring about everything altogether. Season 5 is when he finally starts expressing his own needs, after his character arc is mostly completed.

Jon and Martin’s respective egos also bleed into the way they interact and align themselves with the entities. Jon is egotistical, and Jon is an avatar of the Eye. In order to properly inspire the right kind of fear, Jon has to insert himself into experiences that aren’t remotely about him. The primary example of this is the nightmares: before giving a statement, someone might have nightmares about the experience itself, and be frightened of whatever entity was involved. After giving a statement, however, Jon, the Archivist, is inserted into those nightmares, so that now instead of being afraid of the original experience, the statement giver is afraid of being watched during that experience. The Eye, and Jon by extension (however unwillingly), has taken someone’s trauma and made itself the focal point. The center, if you will.

On the other hand, Martin’s experience with the Lonely is largely an exercise in fading away. He can make himself go somewhere else when other people are around. He’s trying to be as peripheral as possible, avoiding everyone and making sure he is not an important feature in their lives. This is most intense in episode 170, where Martin loses all sense of self in the Lonely domain that he became a victim of and all memory of who he is. I don’t know if there’s an opposite to being self-centered, but “having no self at all” is probably a strong contender.

Also, Martin is not directly Web-aligned, but he is definitely good at manipulation, which I think also comes from his tendency to center other people. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of manipulators who are self-centered, but Martin’s specific brand of manipulation mostly involves telling people what they want to hear, playing into their expectations, using their own preconceptions against them, etc. His methods all require pretty good insight into other people, and they require Martin to step out of his own head and determine what other people will expect or think. He has to de-center himself in order to effectively predict, and thus effectively manipulate, other people. And once again, this is definitely a skill he learned growing up in abusive household. I imagine he had to tell his mother what she wanted to hear a lot, in an attempt avoid the worst of her cruelty. That’s straying into the realm of headcanon though, so take it with a grain of salt. I just harbor a lot of hate for Martin’s mom, and I simultaneously love making myself hurt thinking about them, so I mention their relationship whenever I can.

Anyways. My main point is that Jon and Martin’s egos shape much of the story, and both of them contribute to the apocalypse in their own way. It’d be impossible to list all the concrete examples of this, simply because every decision they make in the podcast leads in part to the apocalypse, and each one of these decisions is informed by their respective egos. Still, I’ll try to summarize the most important moments. First of all, had Jon not believed himself solely responsible for stopping the rituals, had he rejected Elias/Jonah’s assertion that he was some kind of hero, he likely would not have played along with Jonah’s game for so long, and the apocalypse would not have happened. On the other hand, if Martin had believed Peter telling him he could be a hero, he would have joined the Lonely and ended Jonah’s plan. Going back to Jon, if he hadn’t been so insistent on taking all the blame for the trauma and death and disaster that occurs, he probably wouldn’t have been so eager to sacrifice himself. He wouldn’t have jumped into the coffin, most likely, and though this is after the apocalypse, he wouldn’t have become the Pupil (which, btw, Jon becoming the Pupil was quite literally him making himself the center of the ruined world and thus a very self-centered action) and tried to doom himself and the world. And hell, if Martin had a bit more self-esteem he might not have fallen for Jon at all! Because let’s be honest, Jon was pretty shitty to Martin for almost two years. And obviously if they hadn’t fallen in love, the whole course of the show would have been radically different, so who knows what that outcome would have been. Their personal views on their own self-importance are thus massively influential.

Before I close, I want to say this is not me condemning either Jon or Martin. They are both a product of their circumstances; they both make good and bad decisions repeatedly. I especially want to make it clear, once again, that I’m not calling Jon selfish, and I’m not calling Martin a pushover. These are two extremely complex, well-written characters, and I tried my best to acknowledge that in this essay. Also, self-centered does not equal selfish, and low self-esteem does not equal a pushover. And though the extremity of their egos are personal flaws, no character is perfect and no character should be perfect, so really I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And now for a last bit of heartache: in the end, their love for each other is what allows them to overcome their ego or lack thereof. In general, Martin prioritizes himself and his desires more than ever before in season 5, not just because of Jon. But his final decision – voting to pass the Fears to other worlds in order to save their own – was primarily motivated by a selfish desire to save Jon, a desire to build a life with the man he loved without pursued by terror-monsters. And Jon made his final decision to step down from being the final hero (or villain, depending on your perspective), to set aside his guilt and sense of responsibility, to remove himself from the center of the world, because he couldn’t bear to watch Martin die, and he couldn’t bear to doom the world with Martin still in it. It’s poetry. Terrible, tragic, heartbreakingly romantic poetry.

[borntolurk]

Oh man...

(Caveat: I'm not going to lie, I too found Maggie to be Odd in some highly specific ways that kind of align with the OP's. But-)

But oh my god, first of all, I'm sure that Gaiman appreciates all the faith that the OP has in him, but he'd better hold on to it because as you note in the tags he is being insulted in EVERY line. Like, dear lord.

And honestly he's getting more insults than he deserves, because not every divergence from the writer's preferred character interpretation is bad writing or an error! Seriously! Do I think that there was some bad writing/characterization? Yes, I do. Do I think that that is clearly an objective problem with the script? Not necessarily, because while sometimes bad characterization IS bad writing (for example, if the characterization is thin or wildly varying), sometimes it does come down to one's subjective interpretation of the character based on evidence, and when someone is acting out of character you need to provide a LOT of proof that that is definitely their character before you ascribe it to Obviously Purposefully Bad Writing.

(TBH, also, I don't think all of the things that the OP pointed out as bad writing were bad. Some of them were just... cliches, but the kinds of cliches that are tropes. The kind where, hey, they're cliches because they're pretty normal things to say and so lots of writers use them! But that's a subjective opinion of mine so I won't insist on it.)

Even more importantly though, as I said in my post yesterday, it doesn't matter if there's a way to read bad TV as good, if you still don't actually enjoy the thing itself! There's no such thing as having experienced it wrong. If you didn't like it, that's valid. (To paraphrase Frasier Crane, "sometimes a TV season is just bad, doomed, and no amount of discussion will save it!") Even if I completely bought this theory, it wouldn't change the fact that the bad parts were just... not fun to watch. And no amount of retroactive anything can change or justify that. (For the record, I don't believe that everything that the OP singled out as bad is bad. I also disliked some things that the OP was apparently fine with. But the point still stands.)

Most key point, though- when you've gotten a one season extension on your passion project show, and you don't know if you'll get a third season to wrap it all up... you don't gamble on getting the third season by producing a "purposely bad" second one!!! That makes no sense! Nobody would do that! It is against literally every logical instinct that a creator of a show budgeted at millions of dollars could POSSIBLY have, particularly if he wants people to agree to spend another few millions of dollars on making more. It would be so massively shortsighted. Not only that, but if someone isn't bright enough to have figured out this whole plan, then he risks alienating an entire fandom that didn't like the season, and even if it DOES get removed he could lose the viewing base (though I guess he could just decide that it no longer matters once S3 is commissioned, made, and done, or assume that later he'll be vindicated).

There are a whole chain of really bizarre assumptions that are required to make this possible. They don't make sense. But that's not really my takeaway.

My takeaway is that we need to trust our guts.

The OP is spending a lot of time not trusting their gut. They're putting a lot of faith in Neil Gaiman, who is, contrary to what is apparently their opinion, capable of disappointing them. They're suppressing all their own instincts and tastes that would, under normal circumstances, allow them to reach their own opinion on whether something was good or not, and rewriting their own brain, practically, in order to value Gaiman's reputation over their own judgment.

Don't do that. Trust your gut, not Gaiman's.

The Magic Trick You Didn’t See: Being An Analysis of Good Omens Season 2

(or: Neil Gaiman, Your Brain is Gorgeous But I Have Cracked Your Sneaky Little Code And Have You Dead To Rights*) (*Maybe)

***

Soooooo I just spent the last 48 hours having a BREATHTAKING GALAXY BRAIN EPIPHANY about Good Omens Season 2 and feverishly writing a fuckin16,000 word essay about the incredible magic trick that @neil-gaiman pulled off. 

Yes, it’s long, but I PROMISE your brains will explode. Do you want to know how magic works? Do you want to know what Metatron’s deal is (I’m like 99% sure of this and it’s EXTREMELY FUCKING GOOD)? Do you want to know about the Mystery of the Vanishing Eccles Cakes and the big fat beautiful clue I found in the opening credits? Do you go through the whole inventory of Chekov’s Firearm & Heavy Artillery Discount Warehouse? 

Here is the essay, go read it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/193IXS11XN46lziHRb6eUpM17yK0BQkRqke1Wh64A_e0/ When ur done u can tell me I’m an insane crackpot, and u know what, i won’t even be offended

In case you don’t know whether you want to bother reading the whole enormous thing on google docs, I’ve put the first couple sections of it under the cut. JUST TRUST ME OKAY, HEAR ME OUT, THIS IS VERY EXTREMELY COOL, NEIL IS GOOD AT HIS JOB–

Keep reading

[dying-acc-idk-man]

Well now that I have an okay to share my brainworms!! [Tbh they're less theories and more like headcanons at this point but if you're willin' to read 'em]

I haven't gotten all of the watcher/listener lore down [I still need catch up more on the Evo context] but atm I like the concept of him being turned into a watcher/listener except his being turned into a watcher/listener was moreso a means of holding power over his head and to have more range of control over bullying the man with his own death as per his typical recklessness, clumsiness, and overall habit of dying fast. He has always been their canary to sing in their coalmines till the fumes silence him, however proper canary features didn't develop [I like to think of a contrast between he and Grian being that Grian was originally a watcher so his appearance is more properly avian meanwhile Jimmy only gets /clipped or mostly flightless/ wings and extra feathers-- like the difference between an elytrian flight and avian slow falling in the origins mod, a born avian vs a made avian] until when he went red in 3rd life since that was basically when the canary curse of the life series became locked in [He can control whether or not he has those features in other servers, but in the life series or general hardcore servers he can't put them away] His being a turned watcher/listener is what makes his death consequential beyond being the first to die: all the worst chaos beginning directly after his death directly ties into abilities he can't tap into himself as per the other watchers/listeners blocking him from the very power they gave him to turn him into a watcher/listener. I also like watcher/listener Jimmy because then he can go god competent op mode and honestly Jimmy deserves to go god competent op mode and like paired with my hc of him not even being fully aware of his powers or the extent of them, it creates these accidental god mode moments like say if he saw someone falling from to their death he'd just like go Oh Shit I Need To Do Something and then he Does by going god mode and swooping in with massive ass pheonix-esque wings and like once they're both safely on the ground it all dissapears and he was so caught up in the moment he didn't even realize and he was like "Damn how lucky!! I must've broke our fall!!" MEANWHILE THE PERSON THAT JUST WITNESSED GODMODE WATCHER JIMMY JUST IS IN UTTER DISBELIEF THAT HE DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE??? THAT HE DID THAT???? Even better, he finds out about his god mode appearance and abilities But He Still Can't Activate It Himself so when something like that situation happens again and someone says something he just goes "hAaah yeah, that just like,,, happens sometimes,,, I don't control it ^v^;;" hrhrhrhrhrjfurj ALSO imagining watchers having like this uniform that includes a boob window for like a chest eye rather than boobs and yes that is an excuse for me to draw Watcher!OP!God Mode!Jimmy in a fancy cloak and gown with a boob window and I will stand by Jimmy boob propaganda till the day I die

But yesyes, these are my brainworms, thank ye for takin' 'em [I may or may not come back with more stuff like this purely because I have too many thoughts in my brain and little to no outlet so it helps to scream it into a void where it may or may not get acknowledged] -- Think of me like a messenger pigeon but instead of bringing messages I just carry brainrot to anyone that is willing to listen :> and may you find an interesting rock sometime soon •🕊

i

i missed when tumblr asks had a limit i woke up to this long thing

i mean its not bad but jeez louis this was so much to read for me aachhchfjx

but your idea is vvery interesting, but it seems i will be having my own interp then since im not that into your idea (well to say, im not into working with the same idea) but yours is rly good! i liked that a lot

[ay-miphae]

AH YES.

i have had this sitting in drafts for so long and now that i'm having some time to think about characters and headcanons here we go.

the Astronomer is in academia/a researcher, basically dedicating his whole career to making sure the planet doesn't die (it does). genuinely a soft guy who is in awe about all things space, although exhausted. huge fantasy nerd. married to the Captain because I (the fandom) said so. demiromantic ace.

the Captain is quite young and high-energy. commissioned the Starblade out of pre-existing ships as his pet project; everybody was shocked when this overambitious kid ended up getting his project off the ground and more than that, being right about everything. massively ADHD and silly, but he burns out fast. pan and married to the Astronomer

the Historian started out as a mechanical engineer for the Starblade, became one of Captain's most trusted colleagues. he knows the ship inside and out and documents everything. a nerd. transmasc because I said so. the most emotionally stable of them

the President is a sad wet cat of a man. became president due to his middle-ground-ness and likability? he makes stupid decisions sometimes but by god (i mean Alphan Jesus) does he try. confident except his leadership privileges are kind of revoked.

the Biologist is the sole owner of the Starblade's brain cell. competent. the voice of reason. that's her. Biologist x Counselor mayhaps because love wins

the Prophet started as an academic, got hit with some time telepathy stuff. started doing prophet stuff. the more I draw him the more gender he gets. probably non-binary honestly

the Diplomat is another politician on Alpha, President's most trusted associate and his official spokesperson. a jolly fella. a little too unreadable

the Opposition Leader also hi OP i see MCR on your blog and from one MCR fan to another i fully headcanon he did some killjoys-esque stuff in the Alphan wild before deciding "yeah screw it I have to try something else." broke some laws. did some politics. he's on the Starblade for some reason and he's making it everybody else's problem. bisexual.

the Chemist has an aura of melancholy. very contemplative and low-key. obsessive about solving things particularly the problem of liquid eternity. gets hit with survivor's guilt, anxiety, depression, diagnosed with 97 mental illnesses but not banned from the Starblade yet. he is sad. his gender is vague cloud of mist

the Counselor used to work for the Alphan government. met the Prophet some way or another and became one of his followers. lost her partner in the apocalypse. very kind. a vibe in a similar way as the Chemist. thinking some Counselor x Biologist because sapphics

TH-1 is another one of Captain's pet projects?? honestly not sure about his motivations and character (still figuring that out) but but I do think he didn't have ulterior motives and just got caught up in the very human need to have purpose and survive. guess he got what he wanted. chaotic neutral?? morally gray?? idk!! another case of he/him nonbinary because i'm pretty sure TH-1 transcends gender

the Preacher is a normal member of the crew?? who also happens to be close to the Prophet, well versed in ancient texts and funeral rites

pspsps ayreon fans what are ur the source headcanons i wanna get some ideas for designing the characters

[anothertimdrakestan]

Batboys/YJ Boys Reaction To You Falling Asleep On Them

req: Hiya! If this is weird you don't have to write it but I fall asleep everywhere. All the time. So I was wondering if you would write a batboys/young justice boys reaction to their like s/o falling aslee on them and it's all fluffy and cute? I love your blog thanks!"

hi angel! this is totally cute hehe i also have a couple fics ab this too if u wanna read them :D anywho i hope you enjoy!

(i didn't do my normal 8 i picked the cutest ones so i could go a little more in depth i hope that's okay i can always do a pt 2!)

Tim Drake:

- i imagine this HAS to be you passing out next to him while he's grinding out case files

- you convinced him to slouch next to you while you watched tv and he worked on cases then suddenly your head lolled onto his shoulder and the slight vibrations of your breath clouded his brain

- he tried to focus through it the first 80 seconds but when your head started to fall off his shoulder he suddenly became a living y/n pillow, timidly wrapping his arm around you to prop you up better while trying to will his heart back down as it tried to beat out of his chest

- when you woke up you were on his chest, his arm slung around you, and a blanket draped over the two of you (thanks alfred) and he was passed out in his deepest sleep for a while

- needless to say there was definitely a "so hi good morning yea i'm in love with you too" conversation when he woke up and it was ADORABLE

Wally West:

- he'd love that shit at the beginning, thinking it's adorable how you can fall asleep standing up while he rocks you back and forth

- then he gets kinda antsy

- he resolved this problem by just picking you up bridal style and carrying you around with him

- like you'd pass out on the couch with him and then he's like "i want to go to my room for my phone" and suddenly you're picked up ever so delicately and promptly moved wherever he's off to next

- it literally looks like he's kidnapping you (he kinda is) but everybody learned to normalize it and now it's just a fundamental part of life like "op where ya off to wally?" "oh y/n fell asleep so we're going back to bed" and it's just normal now lmao

Jason Todd:

- i have this inexplainable belief that when you fall asleep randomly jason just instinctively wraps you in a blanket burrito

- when he was a kid alfred and bruce would find him sleeping around the manor (being robin is hard) and always tucked him in with a pillow and fuzzy blanket and he instinctively carried this concept over to you

- now, whenever you fall asleep he'll gently pull you out of the strange position and place you on the nearest soft surface then proceed to wrap you in either one of his massive sweatshirts (it's basically a blanket on you) or one of the fuzzy blankets he stole from dick

- you always wake up burrito-ed in, like the sides tucked and everything, jason's usually nearby- cooking or reading or there's a small note explaining that he's off vigilante-ing

- now it's a staple in your relationship, and on the off chance jay falls asleep randomly he can expect to wake up wrapped in fluffy warmth with you cuddled into his chest

- tim and dick have SO many blackmail photos of y'all snuggled up but bruce has a single, small picture he always keeps close of the two of you wrapped together the way he taught jason all those years ago ;) proud batdad moment

Gar Logan:

- gar LOVES that you're down to curl up for a catnap at any given time ;)

- he's content to let you cuddle in his lap while he plays video games, though he's definitely gotten in trouble for yelling too loud (not like you can't just fall back asleep lol)

- he also likes to suprise you with food or little gifts when you wake up, you love waking up to his large mischievous grin as he shows you his lastest find

- there's literally nothing better than deciding which fluffy animal you want to cuddle each day, so far pandas rank pretty high, very close to st. bernard doggos and tigers (which are surprisingly soft) but there's also something special about cuddling gar himself, letting him mindlessly run his hands through your hair while you use the slow sound of his breath to lull you to sleep, safe and protected by your guardian angel beast :)

Damian Wayne:

- dami is very chill about it, he won't necessarily cuddle you and swoon over your sleeping form rather defend you from any incoming "threats"

- "drake i recognize your step pattern, y/n is asleep and you shall not dare to wake them"

- "yes. y/n is asleep, do not stare Kent, it's rude"

- he takes special joy in getting to wake you up, there's a certain pride in knowing he's the last person you see before sleep and the first person you wake up to

- "mhm beloved we must go, please wake up dearest i hope you slept well" he's so soft with you, his tone still deep and rumbling but softer and cooler than his normal harsh quips

- he won't admit it, but his heart does a somersault everytime you do that little wake up yawn and stretch, if he weren't around his family he'd probably wrap you in his embrace and kiss your face until you'd completely woken up from the tickling

- but for now, he settles with holding your hand and gently guiding you wherever you're headed next, giving a loving squeeze to remind you he's always there for you no matter where you decided to pass out next

i hope you enjoyed! thanks for the req :) lmk if y'all would want a part two! ily!

[facelessxchurch]

Brain chemistry isn't constant and neither is talent. I genuinely believe Derek was so much better at writing ten years ago. I reread books like Dying of the Light and Kingdom of the Wicked and I come away invigorated. I read phase 2 and it saps my will to live. Maybe it's because Laura 2.0's energy is in phase 2, maybe it's because my nostalgia for phase 1 improves the flavor, but it's true. I also truly think Derek could make a comeback, but I don't like our chances of seeing that happen.

Landy never had any talent. The phase 1 books had potential and a few good ideas but ultimately got dragged down by their execution, lack of planning and lack of focus.

But the same problems we see later on were already there in the first book. Like, Mr Bliss’ motive of helping Nef to make him more predictable made no sense. And Nef only lost bc the Cleaver turned his back on him which feels a lot like Landy had written himself into a corner by making the cleaver OP, had to bullshit his way out of it and then had to come up with an explanation two books later. It’s the first book and there are already two massive plot holes that could have been easily fixed. Fix the Bliss plot hole by either not having him betray the good guys or fix it by him actually successfully managing to sabotage Nef and help the good guys win. Fix the Cleaver plot hole by Tanith managing to trick the Cleaver and lock him into one of the cages in the gaol and have Nef realize it’s over when Tanith emerges from the door way instead of his cleaver. It’s easy to keep the cleaver plotline going by finding the cage cut apart and the cleaver gone when they later on return.  And that’s just one way that you could fix it and it took me like a second to come up with it.

The only reason SP found any success is bc HarperCollins was pushing them like crazy, hoping they would be the next Harry Potter. I mean, the official SP website literally has SP stuff teachers can use for their lessons. Get them before they learn what text analysis is, I guess. And he just recently attended an ‘authors into school’ event again. I mean, the plot holes I’ve mentioned above? Or the fact that Skul’s ‘if you die you die on your own terms’ to a 12-year-old Val is extremely fucked up? I didn’t notice that when reading these books as a kid. But re-readng them as an adult it hit me like a chair over the head.

The thing is, even someone without talent can produce something semi-decent if they put the work in and you could tell through the writing Landy was having fun. Meanwhile he ain't even trying anymore for phase 2, the writing is lazy and judging by how he barely manages to meet his deadlines and seems more invested in his podcast I very much doubt he is enjoying writing these anymore. Add to that that he probably has to put the woke political pandering in bc HarperCollins is woke and his entire career depends on them pushing him and that he is probably surrounded by yes-men. And yes, like you said, add Laura 2.0 influences. Thanks to her Valkyrie is an unlikable cunt now. No idea what happened to the first Laura, but if she would still be helping Landy to write Valkyrie phase 2 as a whole would probably be better. Bc guess what, having the main POV character be completely unlikable drags the entire franchise down. I tried to skip the Val chapters, but unfortunately she has also forced herself into the Nef chapters, ugh.

TL;DR: The phase 1 books were never good, but they were enjoyable bc Landy had fun writing them. He ain’t even trying for phase 2 and that’s why it’s so shit. People can usually subconsciously tell if your passionate about your work or not. The only reason SP was successful to begin with was bc HarperCollins mistook it for the next Harry Potter and decided to push it like crazy and bc he/they decided to aim for children instead of adults.

[gemstarstarlight]

You tagged all my people, Ink, but here is my list of WIPs!

Writing

One-offs

Heartstopper AU where canon!Nick is switched with Royalty!SecretSorcerer!Nick who is the prince of a kingdom where magic is forbidden. The switching is Sorcerer!Nick’s fault. It has repercussions. Possibly world-ending ones.

Stray Kids ZombieApocalypse!AU where halfbies exist (though I think I make them a little too OP lol) and Hyunjin is one; he discovers another one who has gone feral and he and the rest of Stray Kids attempt to rehabilitate them. (Disclaimer: yes, this is an RPF fic. No, I’m not shipping anyone; in this fic everyone is functionally aroace (sexuality is not discussed because shipping is not the point of the fic at all; it’s a lot more about recovery from trauma and accepting new people into an established group no matter how “difficult” those new people may be; also everybody is trying not to die, they don’t have time for that stuff 😂))

Klance/Voltron fic where Keith confesses and Lance, who does not feel the same and also has literally never been confessed to ever please don’t tell Pidge initially panics. They reach an understanding and things aren’t awkward anymore…just in time for Lance to start having a romantic crisis (I wrote this before my ace arc and in hindsight Lance is suuuuuuuuper demi in this 😂😂)

To The Beautiful You rewrite where Jae-hee is in a boy’s school because she’s on the run from something (hint: magical and literally wants to kill her). She still has a crush on Tae-joon but ultimately falls for Eun-gyul because I said so (basically me trying to inject some realism into this terrible show by making it a literal modern fantasy instead of letting it pretend it’s not).

iZombie AU where Liv turns Evan when he was injured in the explosion and Teresa (an extremely minor character that drilled a hole in my brain and basically inspired this whole story) is scratched by a zombie when she is first introduced. She struggles with zombieism on her own until she meets Evan and the two bond, despite their massively different backgrounds.

Brooklyn 99

DISCLAIMER: I know that this show is not as popular as it used to be for reasons (*gestures vaguely at the last three years*) but 1. I think it’s important to look at intentions of the creators as well as the literal text, and nothing about the messaging or themes of Brooklyn 99 suggest to me that this show was written by bad people. Misguided, maybe, but not evil racist people who believe all established systems are perfect. 2. It is okay, and in fact important, to watch content that is different from your own perspective, or in any way is not perfect, and then find the good and the bad in it. It improves critical thinking, grows your perspective, and introduces you to ideas you may never have heard of before. Basically this is me saying please don’t judge me for enjoying B99 or for writing fanfic about it, and I don’t think it’s a crime to like it as long as you keep your brain on while watching it, like you should with any media.

George Weasley renounces magic after the battle of Hogwarts and vanishes off the face of the earth. He settles down in the muggle world, marries, and tries to do some good in the world. But you can’t hide from grief forever. (Side note: I wrote this as a B99 crossover mostly because I thought pairing George up with Rosa, romantically or platonically, would be 1. funny and 2. interesting character studies for both).

Married!ModernDay!Mileven are detectives that spend time with the B99 precinct. The others think these mid-forties detectives are kinda weird, especially Jane, but neither Mike or El care. They’re too busy looking for what was taken from them (This was mostly an excuse for me to write what a well-adjusted adult Eleven would act like, and also to make Mileven a power couple, which is kinda what I want to do in any couple I write. Like, if they aren’t badasses chasing after a goal and being a great team than what even is the point?).

Harry Potter (In this house we love trans people. That is all. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💙)

During the First Voldemort War, the Lestranges attack the Burrow and kill several Weasleys, including the newest baby Ron Weasley; months later, the Malfoys present their son Draco Malfoy and their nephew, Polaris Lestrange. Going to Hogwarts 11 years later is…a problem. Being a Lestrange is bad enough, especially when there are whispers about Polaris being the love child of Bellatrix and Voldemort; it’s worse when Polaris knows where he really comes from…that the family he was rescued from now go to school with him…and they might not be so bad after all…

Draco is kidnapped, obliviated, and left for dead in the Muggle world. Unaware of who he is all the way down to magical properties, he is eventually taken in by a muggle family who accept him and try to take care of him. The repercussions to canon are…severe.

Ron’s twin sister (an OC) is sorted into Slytherin. Her house doesn’t accept her because she’s a Weasley; her family is confused and suspicious of her. Drama ensues.

An OC of mine, due to her criminal of a father who was always on the run and therefore never in the jurisdiction of one country, doesn’t enter Hogwarts until her third year when her father is finally captured. She has figured out her own way to do magic, wandlessly and instinctually. This does not go well at school.

Lord Of The Rings

Spider/dwarf OC, a product of hideous experimentation, who is rescued and rehabilitated but faces discrimination due to being, well, essentially half spider; struggles with finding her place in the world.

Orc OC who actually shows agency and is more than a mindless orc follower. Also, since Orcs are apparently descended from tortured elves, I gave this orc an opportunity to redeem themself and gain an elf body.

Basically two different kinds of difference being integrated—a redemption from the past and an acceptance of the present. Both are present in life and I like both.

Music

Multiple original songs, covering depression, fitting into society, falling behind others, love and other traumas, authenticity, and the depths of healthy relationships (platonic and otherwise). There are…a lot. I mostly do original work.

Some covers, including “Soap” by Melanie Martinez and “Hallelujah (Light has Come)” by BarlowGirl.

Please ask me about any of there I would love nothing more than to talk about them!

So I got tagged by @casadefreewill to do this tag game! (for those of you who don't know, they were my artist for the Miraculous Big Bang and I adore their art!!) I have a ridiculous number of WIPs so I decided to make my own post so it wouldn't end up any longer than strictly necessary. you're going to regret tagging me by the end of this

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. (You can make your own post or reblog this one!)  I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? Dnd campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!

~~~~ DO NOT CLICK THE READ MORE UNLESS YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO READ MORE

I make up story ideas like I'm handing out fistfuls of candy on Halloween. You have been warned.

Splitting this up into categories so there's some semblance of organisation (many of these are untitled, so I name the doc after the first line so I know what it is as I'm glancing through my WIPs)

Writing

Miraculous Ladybug

“Cat Noir finds Kagami's Kotatsu, she can't get him to leave now”

“Chloe-” Adrien strangled the hem of his shirt as he staggered after his childhood friend

“Don’t you think, Alya , that it could have just been a baffling misunderstanding"

“I’ve been a very temperamental kitty…”

*Bakery Enemies fic: Adrien DID get sick from the takeout too (started this one while Buggachat was on hiatus because I was dying for content and didn't end up finishing it in time)

Adrien did not do things impulsively

Adrien Stone AU

Adrien was exhausted

Akuma High AU

Aloof Bug & Wild Noir

Alya the Eagle: Origins

aro-Felix/Chloe (might not end up writing this one because a friend of mine is tackling a similar premise already)

Blood In The Water

Bourgeois Do It Themselves

Can I Have My Chat Back Please

Can't Make Someone Love You

Catching a Stray For Christmas (was gonna write this for Christmas last year but I didn't have enough time)

Cease Fire AU

Chat Noir is His Own Secret Identity

Chat Noir never attended the heroes' day gala

Class Chat

Colours of My Heart

Come Back to Me

Dancing Adrien AU

Detective Alya is on the case!

Don't You Worry, Child

Double Ladybug AU

Emergency Date

Fake Smiles

Felix had a certain... disdain for Paris

For My Chloe

Forgive Me

Four Rules For Freedom

From Black To White and Back Again

Futuristic Dystopian Miraculous AU (based off a dream)

Gabriel & The Taco Eating Contest

Gabriel neglects his son one too many times

Gabriel scowled at his tablet

Gabriel snaps Adrien away

Hands Over My Eyes

Happiness To Protect Paris

Heroes Day Gala

Hope is a four letter word (inspired by the fic Team Is Four Letter Word and a song I was listening to recently, but I forgot which one)

How can I be proud of what a million people shout at me I'm not

How To Feed Your Kwami

I am more than my memories the sequel

I promise

It's Dangerous to Go Alone, Take this "Cat"

Jelly Ladybug

Kwami Swap Switcheroo!

Kwami Swap (Multimouse, Chat Noir, Princess Amare, Mayille Edition)

Ladybug and Chat Noir know each other's identities

Ladybug protects Marinette from being akumatized

Ladybug straightened out the blanket one last time (this one is also technically a Christmas fic I think...)

Ladynoir July Prompts 2021

Marinette & Augustus the Flaming Skull Sword

Marinette and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Marinette had three problems

Marinette steals Gabriel's wedding ring (started this one very recently, it's based off of a dream I had)

Marinette successfully passes the earrings on to Alya

Marinette the Goat

Marinette uses the Rabbit Miraculous to go back to Heroes' day (I had this idea long before Season 5 started airing)

Marriage vows because brain goes brrr

Masks

Miraculous AU Oneshots (which AU? I don't know, I didn't specify)

Nino Rouge

Nino thought he knew his best friend pretty well

Nino's Disaster

No Secret Identities, Just Sentimonsters!

Not a Pigeon and Not Quite Human

Not What I Want! (But Maybe What I need)

one does not love the sun (until the winter comes) (yes inspired off of one does not love breathing because that fic is EVERYTHING)

One Glance

Oops

Operation Adrinette

Paris At War AU

Passage of Time

Plagg & The Pockets of Cheese

Plagg, Kwami of Transmission

Poodle & the cat AU

Purrshia Agreste: Hero Work; Purrshia Agreste: Food; Purrshia Agreste: Love (listing them all together because they're oneshots for the same silly series)

Random (sad) Miraculous AU

Rabbit Adrien Adventures! (also come up with before Season 5 actually)

Ride or Die inspired by

Runaway Ladybug and Chat Noir

Saving Me From Out of the Cold

Senti the Cat

Side Effects AU

So How Are You? (oneshot based off of one of my other WIPs)

Some people had obsessions: coffee shop

some soft Ladynoir

Soulmate Shorts

Step Out of the Sun

Stop, in the name of the cheese!

Storm clouds hung over Paris

Take Some Time Away

Take Two In Ink: Black & Red (aka the AU that started my Miraculous Ladybug journey and inspired my tumblr/AO3 name)

Tear Down Heaven

That Pretty Girl

The Adrien Guardian AU!!! (very fitting that this comes in at 100 because it's one of my favourites)

(splitting up at 100 because tumblr started complaining about how too many characters in one block)

The Adventures of One Rena Furtive

The Angst Sequel to the Floor is Hawkmoth

The Anti Marikuma Squad

The Arm Wrestles

The Disembodied Hand

The Mystery of Marinette

The Tales of Scarabella and Catwalker

The Truth of It (aka, my one posted WIP on AO3 that's been sitting at one chapter forr almost a year now)

There's Nothing I'm Not Worthy Of

Untitled Document (it only has one line on it, I have no idea what my plans were, and, most impressively, it's the only untitled Document in my Miraculous Fanfiction WIP folder)

Whoopsies

With The Power of Lies (last WIP in the first folder...)

A Rejection and a Reveal

A Superhero's Best Friend

A Sentimonster Adrien fic

A Tactical Business decision

A Thousand Light Years Away

Adrien is Andre Bourgeois

Can You See Me?

Flowers on the Grave of Your Old Life

Homeless Adrien AU

Pain, torture, secrets, and love, mwahahaha!

Villains AU (including the two oneshots: Of Butterflies and Lies & Of Birds and Names)

Miraculous A La Mode fic 1 (not sharing the name so I don't spoil anything)

Miraculous A La Mode fic 2

Miraculous A La Mode fic 3

Gift Witch AU

Chlolix (Chloe&Felix) Closet Oneshot

A Game of Werewolf

The quiet evenings were Sabine's favourite

THIS NEEDS A TITLE

Veryifying Source

Oh my, you love her (and she doesn't love you back)

A random woman tries to give Ladybug her first born child

"I have an idea," Chat said, pulling out a monopoly box (I have... no idea what this is. that's the only line on the doc. when did I write that. what was I thinking??? chat what idea did you have exactly)

Another Bakery Enemies Inspired Oneshot

Adrien shifted its small blanket, trying to stay warm (oh oof, this one)

"Marinette! There's an akuma! Get Up!"

It'd been an emotional whiplash of a day for Marinette (aka: Gender? Gender? Excuse?)

Marinette knew she wasn't breathing right

Master Fu liked to drink tea while he watched the sunset

The Ladybug earrings are like a hot potato

"Are we really decorating this whole place by ourselves?"

Ladybug finds out Chat Noir's never had a birthday party

Bee A Thief

k, that's probably all of them (not counting the 10 or so that exist only in my head and in my discord rambles and are not in the WIP folders)

Original Stories

so I have a lot of random original ideas that have nothing written for them. A lot of them I don't have any interest in actually writing (unlike the fanfictions, in which I plan to visit 98% of those). In light of that, I've decided to only list the ones I can see myself working on in the near future. I've also bolded the ones that I work on/think about regularly or that I'm very invested in.

Mystify

Regifting Souls May Be A Bad Idea

Witch and Warrior (W&W for short)

Today is the Day A Nation Dies (if I can ever bring myself to work on it again)

Eloisa (going out on a limb and saying this is the oldest story I have. As in, it was one of the very first ones I ever created)

The Crimson Tree

that one steampunk elemental elves and dragons story

she's just a normal girl with hair made of light

R

Shaman from the horde

S.I.K.E.

Branded

half-orc named Morn

The Mountain Guardian

The Shape of Lies

The Tiefling Dream Story

Unrequited Love

The Raven Crew (which is in the weird state of being three different stories at once...)

Ava & Silver

The Cursed Elf Queen Story

The Masked

Villain x Hero cute edition

Villain x Hero angst edition

Dragon Lost, Dragon Stone, Dragon Breath and other assorted stories set in the same world

Dusk's Harbinger

Unwanted & Unrequited

S.T.M.

Unseelie Court and the human trapping

Marka (one of my oldest stories. has some very interesting worldbuilding if I remember right)

Songs and Metals

Steampunk Paranormal

The Market Place

Sundar

Fast Food short story

Cyanese Short story

Would You Just Marry Me Already?

the one I almost made a comic of

Weavers

Witch Hunt

Bard

Saffron

"so I suppose you want to know how I killed her"

The corridors creak with silence

Vivi & Nine the sentient computer

Villain cursed to fall in love with the hero (or was it the other way around?)

frozen world and fragments

Reincarnation

The Traveler's Guide

Undecayed (wait I'd forgotten about this one it's so cool!)

Dragonshold

the silly werewolf story

wingless

That one wyvern story

That one story with the magical wall

the floating magical wings world

spirit animals thing

Colors

When You Are Wanted

the one where you have to run to the couch so your family doesn't get eaten by monsters

End of Silence

The Zombie Apocalypse story

The Mystify AU

that desert world

I did not like the chair

The short story about the lesbian selkie

Fairy Cats

Inkblot

Other

that horror SBI fic I promised my cousins even though I'm not part of the fandom lol

"Our Book"

Forces of Nature

The Criminal book that might never be continued

AGGA AGGA WOOF WOOF

Art!

not splitting these up by fandom because there's not as many

What Comic

Wait For It Wraith Animatic

Say It Again Miraculous Animatic

Requiem Miraculous Animatic

Oh No Miraculous Animatic

Creature Animatic

Mousey Animation

Human, most of us, Miraculous comic

Felix & Chat Noir comic

Lulu Comic

Light and Fai comic

Eloisa comic

The ~80 pose sketches I've gathered references for

dog!Nino designs

Peacock!Juleka designs

ladybug!Rose designs

finalize a design for Light

Inevitably whatever I end up drawing next for another one of Generalluxun's fics (because you should know that I will)

we won't talk about any other WIPs, such as for D&D or cosplay or just general craft stuff or else we will be here all day

I don't know 235 people, not even close, but I will do my best @chilikit @jinxneedssleep @thatfaecreaturee @gemstarstarlight @elumax-truther @ringnea @quodekash @9-circles-of-l @venusqq @quinnick @chaserofstarsandtheabyss @lilywolfgray @moony4pads @eleilinnrallin @ipso-again @rockets-and-alchemy @generalluxun @breathingisfun @secretsinthevoid

feel free to make your own version of this post because mine is way too long, but please tag me so I can see your WIPs!