#[ esp kill bill like ]

[thethespacecoyote]

contemplating what exactly it was about ford that made bill feel important now

[lemonandpie]

Wanna bet that Marius would always touch Armand when he manipulated him, so when Louis uses touch to show love and reassurance Armand is pavloved into thinking it means Louis is manipulating him

[trans-xianxian]

hey can random fucking strangers on the internet please stop recommending me ways to kill my own rats every time I have to put one to sleep

[gods-favorite-autistic]

I wanna watch I Saw the Tv Glow so badddd but I have no moneyyyy

[rennisaturate]

sza gone say she dont make music for cancers, meanwhile her whole discography is so cancer coded 😭😭😭

[dayas]

F2F, Nobody Gets Me, and Ghost In The Machine are Brucas tracks I don’t make the rules

[hypnotic-kink]

For those asking how I am after the hurricane.... I can't answer all the DMs....

A week into Hurricane Helene clean up and I am fucking exhausted, every muscle in my body aches. My nose has come accustomed to the stench of fishy flood water. I've lost 12 lbs. without trying. My pretty manicured nails are long gone, my hair is in a perpetual ponytail since I don't have a lousy hairdryer. I have a black and blue mark on my cheek from stuff falling off a closet shelf onto me. Bleach and dirt stains all over my tshirt. I'm a wreck and so is everyone else here. We don't care ... all we care about is getting everything wet out of our homes and the drywall ripped out so our homes can dry out so the mold doesn't set in and destroy what's left. Then it can be rebuilt again. Fucking again, 13 months from when hurricane Adalia hit (we all just got done rebuilding from that one). My neighborhood IS A TRUE DISASTER ZONE, everywhere you look down the street is mountains of waterlogged furniture. I see neighbors and we just hug each other and cry together. A picture of a mother and her baby was in my yard, I don't even know them and it's blurred with water, the happy memory fading fast, I don't know why I just started crying for them, knowing they lost everything too. I pray they are safe. Pieces of my fence were ripped out and have floated away, hell I'm grateful a stranger returned my mailbox! Everyone on my block has to find a place to live, none of our homes are inhabitable unless they were on stilts. I found a place to rent, but for how long who knows... The goal is get the house fixed ASAP of course. No small feat when half of the state is hiring contractors etc.

The upside: I found out today the company I work for paid a months' rent and will get the 1st month power and water bill. I again, started to cry, when they told me. Tears seem to be a normal occurrence lately for me, and I thought I was one tough cookie. Ha. Mother Nature is kicking my proverbial ass. It's hard to go thru this once, let alone twice in a years time span.

95% of the house is empty so getting closer to the end of the hard physical labor, hence the weight loss. The city, state and federal aid this time has been fantastic.... they set up comfort stations with showers, washer and dryers (which I spent 3 hrs doing 2 truckloads of clothes, sheets, towels, curtains etc.) and they give us a free meal once a day. They gave us a case of emergency drinking water, and a box of pretty gross MRE'S (yes I tried it ..... the PB & J with crackers isn't bad) but it's survival food if needed. I am grateful I have friends that work for electricians and plumbers, so they got my hot water and my power working already. HUGE blessing. I've got industrial fans and dehumidifiers running so drying out the house is going well. Now I'm disinfecting anything I'm keeping as household items that will go to the rental place. Thankfully the rental is furnished. An entire home of furniture .... gone. Yes, I'm grateful I'm physically out of harm' way but to see the entire contents of your home (furniture, electronics, mementos etc.) at the curb as garbage is overwhelming esp. since I didn't have content insurance. But it kills me when I find things that have meaning and memories. I had my sons time capsule from the year he was born in the closet, and it's ruined. ugh. Stuff like that is irreplaceable. I should've remembered it was there but, in the panic, to get out you forget. I do have flood insurance though so the house will be fixed. I will be back in the house hopefully in 4 months with a little luck. I still have a house which is more than many that were hit in Tallahassee, some even lost their lives, so I am grateful. Continued prayers for Florida please 🙏🏻 thank you to everyone that has messaged me sending their love, thoughts and prayers and support. xox

[sparklingcid3r]

wut did the convo between darry and child services go like? obvi was complicated but like genuinely how did he convince them he could b the guardian of 2 teenage boys? he genuinely must have nerves of steel.

also like must have been the worse adjustment if he always confided in paul or his dad when stressed, but now has no one. like his just isolation from any close relationship is soooo noticeable, esp compared to his brothers who actively lean on their best friends

just ignore that this might end up horribly inaccurate🙏 i’m here for a good time alr leave me alone😭 but fr darry was going through the traumas of odysseus on his voyage back to ithaca when he should have been getting lit at the club😔

Darry’s shell shock looks a whole lot like numbness. That’s how he feels, too, so when the same officers who just told him they’re very sorry, but his parents have been killed in an accident, he just stares and hears them iterate for him what exactly he needs to get done immediately. He forces himself to actually listen, because this isn’t about him, it’s about Pony and Soda and keeping a roof above their heads.

He needs to locate his ma and dad’s birth certificates and legal documents to have their wills probated and assets distributed, schedule an appointment with the funeral director, schedule a date for the funeral itself, meet with the court to be appointed Pony and Soda’s legal guardian, but that’s only after they deem him fit to be the sole caretaker of two teenagers. They’ll assign them a case manager. They’ll ask him what his salary is, they’ll call his old coaches to ask about his time management and self-discipline—what if he comes up short in some way? What if he makes a mistake and gets his brothers thrown in a home?

Fuck, then there’s the personal arrangements. He needs to call the college dean and tell him extraordinary circumstances have forced him to drop out, probably he’ll still have to pay for the rest of the semester he didn’t get to finish. When the case manager comes over for their meeting—the house is a mess from Darry’s birthday party, they’ll think Darry is okay with raising his brothers in filth. Something about bank statements too, he’s sure he’ll have to go over it, see what his parents have been paying for, what he’ll need to pay for and what he has to cut now that money’s about to be tighter. Bills, taxes, he needs to draw up a system to distribute those payments overdue or not. Groceries, do they need to go shopping soon? With what money? With Darry’s money, he needs to get a job now.

Darry gets to work.

Identifying the bodies is the first thing he does. He lets Steve and Johnny stay over to keep Pony and Soda company. Two-Bit offers to come with Darry to the hospital, but he refuses. When he gets to the hospital, he sees Dally standing at the entrance, cross-armed and stone-faced. He doesn’t even look at Darry when he arrives. Just pushes himself off the pillar and shrugs. “Your call.”

Darry says nothing, so Dally follows him in. The police lead him to the morgue. The sheets are carefully folded back to reveal their faces, and Darry’s stomach heaves and his eyes blur. His parents are shredded. They’re just bodies, sliced, crushed bodies. He doesn’t even realize he stumbling until a steeled hand grabs him and keeps him upright, and Dally’s saying “Easy, easy, man. Breathe, Darrel. That them?”

Darry nods. All he’s think is that it’s going to be a closed casket funeral.

The wills are the next thing he deals with. Once those are probated and the surrogate has deemed them official, Darry is free to pay the fees and obtain his inheritance, as well as transfer his parents’ money to his name in the bank.

Next, Darry searches for a job. Something physical, or something to do with numbers. He was going to be an accountant after all, might as well make some use of the few months he spent studying. After busting his ass hunting and applying, he lands a job at Fitzmorris Roofing and starts as soon as he can. The pay is decent, but not enough, so he keeps looking. Eventually he finds out about a firm at the edge of town looking for a bookkeeper, so Darry goes in for an interview and walks out with his second job.

Then are the bank statements. Darry gets issued a copy of his parents’ bank statements from the previous month and spends entire nights going through them. After crunching the numbers twice, he finds out that in two months from now, they’ll have to go without paying the electricity bill for a few weeks while Darry’s paychecks catch up with expenses. Better than going hungry. They’ll just have to deal with the dark.

So far, they’ve been feeding off the numerous donations from families around town. Lasagnas and casseroles and meatloafs, that’s what they’ve been pushing around their plates for the past two weeks. Darry surmises they have about one more week to make those last, then he’ll need to crack open a cookbook or two.

He meets with the funeral director. He advises Darry on what graveyard to pick, what kinds of caskets to hold the bodies in, how much of the burial will be covered by insurance. All Darry understands is that this is money he’ll need to cut from their budget. It eats at him.

Darry blinks and a week has gone by.

He doesn’t really remembering seeing Pony and Soda during it. Everything’s a blur. But he looks at a calendar and realizes with a seize of his heart that their case manager is supposed to meet them for the first time in—an hour and a half.

Shit, he hasn’t even gotten to cleaning the house yet. There’s laundry on the fucking couch, for Christ’s sake. Darry snatches it up and bangs down Soda and Pony’s door, dumping it on the bed. He sees a lump under the blanket and a jolt rocks him—that’s your brother, that’s Ponyboy, he’s grieving, he’s in pain, he needs help—but all he can do is kick the mattress and tell him, “On your feet, Ponyboy, Mrs. Mulligan’ll be here for dinner.” Pony doesn’t move, but there’s nothing else Darry can do, so he rips the blanket off Pony and leaves, slamming the door behind him because his own strength has become unfamiliar to him.

Soda’s in the backyard doing whatever the hell Soda’s been doing while Darry was out, and he’s called in but he comes trailing in like a wet dog. Darry doesn’t know what he’ll do if this meeting doesn’t go well, if Mulligan says Darry is not suited to provide for his brothers, how he’ll possible be able to live by himself knowing his brothers have been separated, so he snaps for Soda to stand up straight and fix his hair. Soda looks at him blankly, and again there’s a voice in Darry’s head—Sodapop’s not alright, he’s not talking, he’s not smiling, he’s not laughing, you have to fix this—but all he can say is “Now, dammit” and hits the countertop, spooking Soda enough to get him to flee, and Darry’s alone again, cleaning the table of the bills and documents, pushing them on top of the icebox and out of sight.

Darry’s prepped one of their last donated meals, macaroni salad, and set the table as nice as he can.

Fifteen minutes before Mrs. Mulligan arrives, he checks in on Pony and Soda. He stands outside their door, hand raised to knock, but he can hear them talking.

Talking about him.

“He’s gone crazy, Soda, I swear. When’s the last time you saw him stand still for two seconds? If you’ve seen him at all.”

“Dunno, Ponykid.”

“I miss Ma. I miss her and Dad. It’s like Darry hasn’t even noticed they’re gone.”

“Naw, baby, don’t say that. He’s trying, I think. He’s trying awful hard. We just don’t see it.”

“You don’t even know that. What if he’s making plans to shove us in a boys’ home?”

Darry can’t take it. His breath is lodged in his throat, but he can’t go falling apart right now, not when he’s come this far and still has a long way to go. He just knocks and calls them out to the living room.

Darry can’t meet their eyes when they sit in the living room. Pony’s lean on Soda’s shoulder but Darry can’t think about that, he’s got to put the macaroni salad in a bowl and clean off the utensils and “Pony, I told you to wash the dishes this morning.” With his back turned to his brothers, Darry winces. Anger never used to seep out this easily. But everything was enough of a threat to push him over the edge. Everything everyone said to him pierced him like a hook, made his tongue feel heavy and his blood feel hot. He needed to put a lid over it tonight.

Mrs. Mulligan’s eyes don’t rise to Darry’s when he opens the door for her. She looks behind him at their living room, at Soda and Pony on the couch, makes a funny noise in the back of her throat, then extends her hand out to Darry. Immediately Darry knows he’s going to be on the defensive the entire night. This woman does not approve of where Soda and Pony are being raised. Whether that means she doesn’t approve of the East side as a location or Darry as a guardian, he isn’t sure.

She drills him, but it’s disguised as gentle. Darry does everything slowly. Serving the food, making small talk, discussing Pony and Soda’s grades. Mulligan switches to speaking directly to the boys, and Darry’s not hungry, but he pretends to enjoy chewing the rubbery macaroni and keeps his head down.

Despite their reservations about life without their parents, Soda and Pony defend Darry to the case manager. It goes smoothly enough that she leaves Darry with a smile and a promise to stay in touch.

When the door clicks shut, Pony is gone in the blink of an eye back to his room. Soda just stalks into the kitchen and starts wrapping up leftovers, cleaning off the dishes. Darry tries to get Soda to sleep, but Soda turns to him.

“I’ll do the dishes, Darry. Just don’t get mad at Pony.”

“No, Soda, I’ll do it—“

“You’re tired, Darry. Let me be useful?”

Soda always knew how to spin the conversation in his favor. He was right. Darry was tired. He was just… tired.

But there’s a reason Darry hasn’t given himself a restful night yet. He doesn’t trust himself yet.

“Give me the sponge, Sodapop. Pony needs you.”

Darry’s had sixteen years to learn how to outmaneuver his kid brother. He’s not in the mood to fight fair.

Soda concedes and draws away from the sink, but he lingers in the doorway. “We need you, too, Darry.”

“I know. I’ll be here in the morning.”

He wouldn’t be. He’d be gone by the time they woke up, on top of a roof with bundles of roofing slung over his shoulder, but it wasn’t his physical presence that mattered. He was going to keep their heads above water, no matter what it took.

“When’s the funeral?” asks Soda.

“Friday.”

Two days. Two days until it was official and their parents were covered in dirt. Darry just needed to keep it together until then.

“G’night, Darry.”

“G’night.”

When the funeral comes, Darry’s quiet. Pony and Soda are weeping, unashamed by it, so Darry’s the one people feel comfortable giving their condolences to. He shakes a lot of hands, feels disgusted by it, like he’s collecting germs and other people’s bad luck. The gang is there, even Dally, but they hang in the back of the crowd, discounting Two-Bit, who’s up front with his ma and sister.

After Darry gives the eulogy he doesn’t remember writing, he watches twin caskets get sunk into the ground, dirt spilling on top of them, and Darry is officially alone. He leaves the ceremony, goes and sits down on a bench outside the fencing.

Not yet. Don’t break yet.

A shadow falls across his own. Dally’s taking drags from a cigarette at his side. He’s just as quiet as Darry, but offers the cancer stick. Darry accepts it, taking a few puffs. He’s out of practice and coughs the first time. Dally just pats his back and waits for him to try again. It feels good, but not the kind of good Darry knows he can depend on. He’s still got to stay healthy if he’s going to be trudging around in the sun for half his day and sitting around doing math for the other half.

“Do what you gotta do, as long as it’s nothing permanent,” Dally says.

“Couldn’t if I wanted to,” Darry replies, handing back the cigarette. His eyes sting.

It’s like the world’s stopped rotating after his parents are put to rest. Not when Darry actually expected it to. He closes the door to his parents’ bedroom, the room he’s been sleeping in for the past… however long it’s been.

He doesn’t even make it to the bed. The moment the door’s locked behind him, Darry’s loosening his dad’s tie from his neck, yanking at his dad’s collar to untighten his airways, but it doesn’t work. He slumps against the door and slides down, messing up his hair and crying into his arms, only as hard as his silence will allow. Pony and Soda are in the next room over, still teary, consoling each other. Darry won’t steal their reprieve.

He falls apart alone, wondering how he’s meant to wake up tomorrow in a world he doesn’t want to live in. And when he picks himself up and puts himself back together, he’ll do that alone too. He doesn’t have a choice.

istg sometimes yall just gotta LET ME COOK 👩‍🍳 can u tell i got super into it the longer i went on for lmao

oh btw this doesn’t scratch the surface of everything darry prob needed to do. he would have had to choose what his parents wore in their caskets, dealt with the scrapping of the car, assumed responsibility of the real estate deed (the house), communicated with pony and soda’s high school, communicated with his parents’ former employers, etc etc. the break was uncatchable i fear

[sepublic]

I hope King got to reclaim the bones of his siblings. After reclaiming his mother’s body from further exploitation and misrepresentation for power and genocide by Belos, it’d have been nice to see him do the same with the Titan Trappers’ gross misuse of his siblings’ bodies. The fact that King fell for the intended purpose of this misuse and almost died because of it…

Between the nightmare sequence and the Collector learning what death is, and the Titan Trappers being incapacitated by them? It’d have been really great to see King and the Collector clear the deal; That the ‘Grand Huntsman’ does not approve of Bill’s lies, and anyhow they will reclaim these remains by force if necessary.

Given the setup for Tarak and the other Trappers to realize Bill is a liar, plus their Grand Huntsman revealing they were misused in a similar way by Belos, whose reign they at least understood was faulty? I could see a shift in them renouncing these ways, esp since they never actually killed a Titan, we had Tarak’s guilt over having to sacrifice King, etc. It’s easy to advocate for the genocide of a dehumanized ‘evil’ race until you actually encounter one of them and realize, Oh! That’s a real person!

Tbh given the parallels between Bill and Belos? I can see Tarak, possibly the entire Titan Trapper community, being akin to Caleb; We already have Tarak’s previous bonding with King, which led to some hesitation! Dana confirmed Caleb and Evelyn initially met one another under the guise of Evelyn being human, so I wonder if Caleb had a similar moment to Tarak in EotW, where he was gung-ho about killing witches, realized this friend of his was a witch, hesitated… But unlike Tarak, didn’t go through with it and even defied the group.

Maybe Tarak eventually does this during the timeskip, at least for the practical reason of realizing Bill is a liar. Of course, Tarak still tried and King is a child to him, unlike peers Caleb and Evelyn; So I don’t expect King to forgive and accept Tarak as family the way Evelyn did Caleb. Who knows…

Regardless; The mother was laid to proper rest and no longer had her grave desecrated. Given King got closure and even revenge over that, it’d be wonderful to see him get the same for his siblings, since brotherhood with Luz is just as important as his parental figure in Eda, the two other main characters of the show! King already got back at Bill by destroying his teleportation gate, and with the Collector ‘collecting’ him and King not doing much to stop it? He could always go further…

Just, man; I have to mourn the siblings. We know the Titan at least, people revere her. But who were the siblings? Only King and his family will mourn them. What were they like? Were they like King with Eda, in their relationship with their biological mother? Were they artists, goofballs? Bill at least confirms similarities in being big tyrants with appetites who go WEH! How young were they when the Archivists and Trappers killed them, before their mother, in grief, had to escape? Did they cry out for their father, were they murdered in front of him?

It just really gets me man. One genocide may have been averted, but another has not been fully avenged or prevented with the Archivists still out there, and there was simply no room to address that with everything else. And King learned all of this, just when he actually began to consider the idea that he has other siblings he doesn’t know about, and begins to miss (and then mourn) them too…!

[cantgetworsethanthistbh]

ford’s character arc speaks to me so much. i actually fucking love 30s! & pre-weirdnageddon ford sooo much, he’s so petty and the entitlement is just. chef’s kiss. esp in a stancest context (but also b/llford & ford^2) like this man has fumbled the bag so hard so many times with so many people, yet he still gets the guy in the end. he still gets to come back home, he still gets to be the one who pulled the trigger on bill cipher, he gets to be the one to go on wacky adventures and make crazy inventions and get 12 phds and—

It’s just like no wonder he has an ego!! No wonder he’s self-assured to the point of arrogance! And the fact that it’s stan who humbles him in the end, not through scathing words or bruising fists but through the selfless sacrifice whereas ford couldn’t even stand burning the instructions on how to summon bill cipher because he was the one who wrote them… stan as the one who grounds ford, no matter what…

do you. do you see my vision.

YES ANON I SEE YOUR VISION SO HARD. ive said it before but ohhh my god stan is fords anchor, ford is a boat who gets caught up in storms without him. and YES youre so right. i love 30s and pre weirdmageddon Ford, he has such a special place in my heart. I love his anger, his resentment, his pettiness and his entitlement (honestly i get it i would be like that if i had his iq) only to have to face his worst fear caused by his own actions: killing stan by his own hands. and he still gets his gay little happy ending too with stan after being filled with regret.

also anon dw, theres NO b*llford or fidda*thor context without stancest, that incest shits pivotsl to fords whole character

[wachtelspinat]

Hey ! I’ve been seeing your art going around since your midnight crew stuff and I just recently stubble across your tumblr, thank to your beautiful overwatch art for our beloveds junkers ! I’ve been scrolling through your account and read about your experience of being a former graphic designer who is a doctor now. And damn. I can’t emphasize how much I admire you, especially as someone who is struggling really hard to choose between 2 careers paths ( with one of them being art related ). This is why I was wondering if you would be open to talk about how and why you switched from art to medecine ? Especially because most of the time I feel it happens more the other way around ? ( If it’s too personal just ignore this ask + sorry if you already talked about it before )

hey ! no worries, i don't expect ppl to scroll through my tumblr to find an answer for a question they might have. first of all thanks for your nice words, means a lot <3

i switched from art to medicine because my early 20-something-self was even more anxiety-ridden than my present-self, and being in art school and having to "perform" regularly was a nightmare. i'm talking about a time in which i was so scared of being perceived that i often skipped grocery shopping, just so i could avoid being around people. so like, pitching art related projects to peers and profs was eeh... especially because art is so personal oh my god. i still hate it when someone tries to sneak a peek while i'm drawing, makes me wanna throw my sketchbook and myself off the bridge. anyways so i always felt a 110% inadequate (plus i got a gf during that time who was so good to me and tried to get me out of my funk on multiple occasions (she was and still is an artist and has now a career as a freelancer and i'm rly proud of her) but i couldn't see that because i just compared the two of us all the time and sabotaged any attempt she made for having fun with drawing with her) that i sat down at some point and asked myself if i could do this any longer, and i came to the conclusion that no, it really kills me rn.

what made me go into the health sector? i don't even know anymore, i think it was a mixture of "i loved biology, esp. the human body in school" and "my mum is an icu nurse and talks a lot about hospitals, maybe i should check it out"... it was not a well thought through decision, which is so funny because studying medicine was a hell of a meatgrinder ride (also my anxiety and self hatred? still there, but now i wasn't judged anymore because of my art but instead being called a dumb idiot collectively with all the other students because nobody likes med students) and for some reason i was able to get through that despite it not being my passion at all, but i couldn't stand up for myself in art school. i don't even know if i could work through it nowadays, but the good thing is i don't have to ask myself this question anymore, because being a doctor pays the bills, and ever since i left art school i was able to just draw without consequence. which is nice to a degree, my artistic output is not tied to the means of generating money. on the other hand... idk, in another life with more confidence and less worries, i'd love to be some sort of character designer T_T

so yeah that's basically it. at some times i cherished my career decisions, at other times i regretted them deeply, worst thing is i know it has a lot to do with personality, but the fact that we can't change who we are with a blink of an eye gives me the framework to think that the path i took was ok. as in. things happened for a reason and maybe i'm just not cut out for that kind of work. you have to be aware of the conditions of a job to decide if you are up for it. because being an artist doesn't end with "just draw". i myself had an unrealistic view of the job back then too. and the fact that i could not seperate between personal aspects and "doing a job here" was crucial.

yeah, idk if this is helpful at all. i think the one thing that is super important here is to have a realistic view on the conditions of work you are about to head into, and i know this is mostly very difficult to aquire. because unless you really work in a sector there is often no way to fully grasp the situations you can find yourself in (this applied for me also in the health sector, which made me fall into a depression a year ago, but what do you do after you spent 6 years of studying :') ). doing internships and just trying to get to know a lot of things really helps. and - idk how old you are, but if you're really young: it's ok to switch careers at some point. it's even ok to do so when you are older (trying to end on a positive note here because it feels like i just said a lot of depressing things... like don't get me wrong i like my job, the conditions are just fucked up, and again my personality prevents me from switching again but it's also not that easy in germany, BUT it's a valid thing to do, being versatile is good! just... make sure you don't end up with a job that you absolutely hate because that kills it all)

[verdemoun]

Sean, who still sometimes calls Kieran “O’Driscoll boy”, accidentally slips up and reveals to Mac and Davey that kieran used to be an O’Driscoll before joining the Van Der Linde gang.

also i want to specify mac would rank in one of kieran's top 5 favorite people because mac's intimidation factor means whenever they are out in public people give them a wide berth and mac is always down to talk about horses even if it's just cool horse facts

sean definitely slips up but when mac asks he frantically covers his ass like aha yeah we call him o'driscoll boy cause he was killed by the o'driscolls and all ahahahaaha. mac thinks that's fucked up even for sean but rolls with it

makes a comment he doubts kieran likes being called o'driscoll boy which kieran can easily agree with. he still hates it and sean is trying to break the habit. it never completely goes away esp when they're bickering because there's still something deeply funny about how whiny kieran sounds when he says i ain't an o'driscoll

mac doesn't find out until a solid 2-3 years after mac and kieran become friends and mac is living at the ranch with bill for completely non homoerotic reasons. mac suggests they invite kieran out because he gets to ride a horse and also mac in certain he would enjoy the open space

not only does kieran love it but being on a horse is such a comfort for him he's thriving. anxiety gone, no overwhelming modern sensory issues being out on the land, and he's having the time of his life and casually bragging he already knows how to herd because he was quite the accomplished livestock rustler in his canon era days

bill, being relaxed and and having a tentative friendship with kieran, laughs and makes a comment 'not bad for an o'driscoll'

kieran pales and baulks meanwhile bill is yet to realize he fucked up. when mac immediately asks about the 'an' o'driscoll part bill starts laughing about how they found him in colter and how nervy he was. did not realize it was a secret until seeing the look on kieran's face. starts backpedalling: talking about how kieran saved arthur's life at six point cabin and he really wasn't much of an o'driscoll or at least not a very good one

just before kieran decides yeah this random horse probably trusts me enough to jump the fence and i could go live in the woods mac snickers and just says he's glad he didn't run into him in the old days because damn straight he would've killed him before asking his name. admittedly makes a lot more sense than sean trying to make a joke out of the gang that killed him, and agrees kieran doesn't look much like an o'driscoll at all

before long mac and bill are laughing so hard they're spooking the sheep at the idea of kieran in full o'driscoll garb trying to rob them and mimicking his voice trying to say 't-t-this is a robbery' meanwhile kieran is trying to argue he can be intimidating when he wants to be which just makes them laugh harder.

it's so unbelivable the idea of kieran duffy horsegirl o'driscoll, mac becomes one of the few who will correct anyone who slips up and is very effective at it with just how ruthless and terrifying he was and still is

when davey finds out it's the first time davey tries to have an actual conversation with kieran, asking him what it was like. kieran replies hell and davey's laugh is a lot less comforting. says he reckons he could've ridden with the o'driscolls if they weren't a bunch of teagues but appreciated colm's leadership tactics

kieran made the decision to never be in a room with davey again unless the gang kids were there because while the slur made his skin crawl, anyone who would even joke about riding with the o'driscolls is not someone who should be around children ever. he will very intentionally pull the kids close to stop them going anywhere near davey. the gang don't know why kieran has decided davey is a threat but find it very endearing how protective he is over the kiddos, including adult aged jack and isaac

[tangents-within-tangents]

The thing about the "Clone Rebellion" show

I've become a lot more critical of The Bad Batch lately and I think I realized that’s because it’s over. 

That means that 1. I can look back on the whole show retrospectively, and 2. any issues or hopes I had no longer have a chance to be addressed or resolved.

I realized I’ve been very caught up in thinking about the missed potential of the show, and a lot of my disappointment/frustration with the direction TBB took (esp in regards to the "reg" clones) is coming from the fact that a Clone Rebellion show does not exist to make up for it. For now this is all we have, and it’s hard for me to just accept TBB for what it is, because I at least have been operating under the assumption that this is all we're going to get, that this fabled spin-off show is just not going to happen. 

Because here’s the thing: We all kinda talk about it as if it's a given, a not if but when, but as far as I can tell the concept came entirely from the fans. Just speculation and wish-fulfillment. I don’t really keep up with news/interviews/behind the scenes stuff, but I’m pretty sure there have never been any mentions from official sources (y'all freaked out about one animation job listing that could be for literally anything). If there's something I’ve missed let me know, but for now at least there have been no announcements or plans or anything.

The only thing really is that the gaps left in TBB feel like intentional setup (we never got an Echo and Rex solo episode like we did with Crosshair and Cody which feels like they are saving it for something else, Echo’s fate was specifically left open-ended by not mentioning him (for better or for worse) in the epilogue, Emerie joins them at the end setting up for a female character to be in the main cast, etc) but that still doesn’t guarantee that we will ever actually get a show. That feels more like leaving the possibility open, not necessarily making plans. Especially since TBB actually puts any potential Clone Rebellion show in a really weird position:

There's a lot of important clone-relevant stuff going on during TBB (like Order 66, Kamino, the stormtrooper bill, Tantiss) but I doubt they would go back and show that again since it would either be repetitive by rehashing TBB’s timeline, or confusing by relying too much on people having watched another show. Yeah most people probably would have, but that still doesn’t work very well narratively if your important beats are just implied and happening offscreen. Like I would kill to see more of Nemec and Fireball but then they would just disappear after being killed off (for pretty much no reason) in another show! Hemlock and Tantiss base were designed specifically to be clone-centered threats, and the underground network were the ones who actually spent time searching for it, but then they weren’t there for the rescue so there would be no resolution. But if we instead pick up at the end of TBB it seems like most clones have already been phased out of the Empire by then anyway. Yes you could still make things work either way and come up with new plots and stuff but it’s still a tight spot to be in and it doesn’t really feel like the writers took that into account.

Whether we do get another show or not, I think it still had a negative impact on TBB though. Like that show already had a cameo problem, but 'setting up potential future show at the expense of the current one' is such an issue in any media (esp Star Wars and Marvel these days). Since we got pieces of both 'important stuff happening to the clones' and 'fun mercenary adventures with the Batch' rather than just committing to one or the other, or equally to both, it just causes issues for both shows. I’ve been working on a full post about the lost potential, but for now I’ll summarize as:

It hurts TBB bc we get these glimpses of a more meaningful story that our main characters, the ones the show decides to dedicate screen time to, choose not to participate in. It’s like that trope/bad writing thing where the story they mention (Budapest, or like the Cullens' backstories) sounds more interesting than the one they are actually showing us. Like it’s okay that the Batch didn’t take the same route as Echo and Rex, but the route they did take should be of equal or greater importance/intrigue, and it just really wasn’t. It was mostly directionless side quests and that made the characters seem selfish and a lot of the plots feel filler-y because there are so many important things going on elsewhere. 

It's just starting to feel unlikely that we'll get TWO post-RotS "clone-centered" shows, so why waste the one we did get avoiding the more important clone-centered storyline? Why not at the least equally divide the time you did have between the Batch and Echo and Rex? Why make an ensemble show if you're not going to try to actually balance all the characters? Why bring back a fan favorite clone just to push him to the sidelines and ignore all his potential? Why focus on the "clones" who aren't affected by/don't care about clone issues?

Believe me, I still want a show focusing on Rex and Echo's efforts to save the clones (I just wish it was the show we got in the first place)! I genuinely hope that we will get this show someday, not just because I love clones and this concept, but because I really see a need for it, there's a lot of gaps and potential to be filled there (which is also why I'm okay waiting bc frankly I don't trust the current state of Star Wars writers to properly handle that potential). But I’m treating it with a more “not until proven otherwise” approach (because we all know what happens when we get our hopes up lolll). So for now this is what we have, and unless that changes, I think we should treat it as such.

A lot of times when I see people mention the idea of a new show it's as a way to fix any issues within TBB. Like ‘this wasn’t resolved that well, maybe in the clone rebellion show…’ ‘Maybe Tech could still come back in the clone rebellion show’ ‘Maybe Crosshair’s character arc could be more complete…’ etc. But again we don’t know for sure if there ever will be another show, and even if there is, TBB should be able to stand on its own. There are some things I think another show could do (like address the plot hole of why the Empire never came back to Pabu, or actually doing something with the CX troopers) but narratively it does not work for major plot arcs or character development like that to be resolved elsewhere (like how a major Mandalorian plot point happened in the middle of TBOBF???). If we do get a Clone Rebellion show I don't think it would make much sense for the Batch to play much of a role in it. TBB ended with a clear send off for those characters, whether that was fully satisfying to you or not, that was the narrative intention. The Batch could show up as cameos, but this wouldn’t be their story anymore, and we know it couldn’t be because they were very intent on retiring and clearly never cared much about the regs or Empire so why would they suddenly change their minds?

A Tech lives plotline would have to be centered on the Batch, that’s his family, but that would just be really out of place in a separate show, especially post-finale (which confirmed that Tech did not come back in canon (at least until Omega joins the rebellion, if you want to be nitpicky ig)). There always could be ways to make it work anyway if you really wanted to, but we saw what retcon battles did to the Sequel Trilogy, and it still wouldn’t really fix any problems in TBB as a show. I’ve said it before, but if the writers were going to bring Tech back then they simply would/should have (they knew season 3 was the final season and they had plenty of time which they spent fighting space gators and whatnot instead).

I'm not saying this to spoil the fun or like dash anyone's hopes or anything. I don't actually know any more than anyone else, I have no impact on what Disney and Lucasfilm do (and clearly they don't really care about making narratively functional choices anyway, get roasted). For all I know this post could age horribly. I just had some thoughts to get off my chest, because I think it’s unproductive to judge TBB based on the idea of an unconfirmed potential other show--that does not (yet?) exist and wouldn't be about them--instead of looking at it for what it is. 

TBB is over. Canon happened, what we have is what we got. We can love it and hate it and critique it and write our au’s and fix-its, but I really think that it’s done. We have to make space for endings, that's an important part of storytelling (which is also why they need to be well-written but whatever). And we also have to make space for other stories to be told. The Batch had their show, they spent the screen time they had on what they did. Those characters got their time and they got a happy ending wrap up, and now it's (hopefully) time to let some other clones take the spotlight.

[bat-gwuck]

lmao so these two games have like nothing in common other than they’re both in my top 5 re-occurring hyperfixations but idc I’m having fun 😼👍

ong rdr2 and dragon age (esp origins) are my two all time FAVOURITE games so I thought ykw fuck it im gonna make a crossover AU - never done an AU before so NGL there’s a lot of kinks to iron out but I’m kinda digging it

started off with a lil’ character sheet for Arthur - I flip flopped between what I would make him (Templar, warden, keep him as a street thief/outlaw etc.) before finally settling on a mix of both warden and street thief/outlaw!! idk Arthur just gives me really strong Grey Warden vibes - a tragic hero (sometimes on a path of redemption depending on the origin/how they played it) who also has smth in them that will eventually kill them, despite having some weird benefits (in Arthur’s case, mentally)?? they’re twinning fr

I also just fucking LOVE the grey wardens so…

so it starts off relatively similar to normal: Arthur joins up with the gang at a young age, becomes a thief yada yada, and after a disastrous robbery, they end up camping in Ferelden, just before the Blight starts (unlucky)

for the purposes of this fic, the gang is only comprised of the camp girls (minus Sadie, for now), Dutch, Hosea, Arthur, John, Jack, Swanson, Pearson, Micah, Bill, Sean, Lenny and Javier - Sadie and Charles appear a bit later!!

shit goes down as normal but for story purposes, a heck of a lot faster, and the gang starts to fracture

seeing this, and wanting better for everyone, especially in the midst of the now upcoming Blight, which Dutch, for whatever reasons, does not acknowledge the danger of, Hosea (WHO LIVES IN THIS SCREW YOU ROCKSTAR) gathers as many people as will listen to him (everyone minus Dutch, Micah, Bill, Javier) with him and splits from the gang and heads towards Denerim in hopes of finding safety/starting anew

during their travels however, the group ends up getting caught up in a battle between a group of grey wardens and dark spawn - in which, because he has the worst luck, Arthur is nicked by a darkspawn which only means one thing: death.

(Literally just realising this is basically carver in the deep roads)

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you view it, the grey wardens offer to take Arthur back to Ostagar with them, they were impressed by his fighting skills, and arguing that the only way for him to live was to become a grey warden

after a lot of hesitation, and a bit of arguing, as he doesn’t want to leave his family behind, Arthur agrees to go with them and parts ways with the remains of the gang, promising that, once this was all over, they’d find each other again

SO I feel like this is enough for now! I definitely have more to write on this and NGL I might even write a full blown fanfic of this BC ITS SO MUCH FUN??

if anyone is wondering, Arthur will meet Sadie n Charles at Ostagar

I’m not entirely sure if I want Arthur to be the HoF in this AU?? I am very much planning on him being a prominent figure in the fight against the Blight and the Archdemon but idk?? ALSO there will be characters from both games in this AU bc I love some of them too much to leave out (I’m looking at you Morrigan and Shale…)

I did kind of want him to be a Blackwall type figure but like if Blackwall acc became a Grey Warden 💀

I hope you liked this and if anyone has any ideas for this AU PLEASE let me know I’m so lost 😭

I’ll be doing some more of these character sheets so keep an eye out for them!!

also Arthur absolutely nicked the fur collar off a rich noble

[doberbutts]

hey so feel free to delete this if its inappropriate/not the right time to share it

i’m a trans woman and (obviously) i can’t get pregnant, but i did get sexually assaulted by some guys trying to show was one of them. and also having an m marker has caused issues with trying to access resources and shit.

idk this isnt the same thing and all but my point is that im standing with u as some random trans woman with vaguely parallel experiences and im sorry to hear its somehow even worse & more likely for some of yall.

I wanr to preface this with a disclaimer, to get things out of the way first.

I am not trying to say that trans women do not experience devastating sexual assaults. They do. Quite often. Though to me, even once is too often. Rape and sexual assault are terrible, awful things. It's horrible that anyone has been made to go through this.

Nor am I trying to say that your M marker doesn't get in the way of things. When it comes to the domestic violence you experience, or the homelessness rates, or a determination of what prison you go to (esp since y'all are more likely to be wrongfully accused and arrested), or the various aspects of your own reproducive healthcare, your agab and gender marker is absolutely used as a weapon against you.

The question was asked for a unique example. Unfortunately, the conversation around reproductive rights is much different for me than it is for you. But it's also much different for me than for cis women and cis men as well. Those without a functional uterus cannot get pregnant. Those who cannot get pregnant are not forcibly married off to be raped until pregnant as a means of detransition and correction. This misogyny we share with cis women.

However an added aspect of that is that if this happens after we've changed our legal documents, an additional layer of transphobia occurs when insurances and doctors see our M or X markers and deny us care out of hand. Now we are stuck with a pregnancy we don't want and constant reminder of what happened to us, or a huge medical bill with devastating financial consequences.

And that's just for those who got out safety- for those who rely on shelters, again the choice becomes detransition for safety at a woman's shelter, or struggle in silence as a man. That, we share with you, though for different reasons.

A unique interection of transphobia and misogyny specifically experienced by trans men was asked for. That is what I provided. Much like how in Crenshaw's essays one could not provide a complete understanding of "because woman" or "because black" because neither would show the full picture of "because black woman", it is not possible to describe this fully as "because trans " or "because man" because the complete "because trans man" must be provided.

I am of the opinion that there is very little "unique" about oppression- mostly that the various points of intersection change its face. In other words, I think trans men share a lot with trans women, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I also think that doesn't disclude something from earning its own name or having its own place to be talked about.

I have hesitated to post those statistics because they can so easily be twisted to say "trans women don't experience these things" or "trans men have it worse". But, a look at the graphs say the first isn't true, it just happens at a statistically less rate. The second, well, I personally don't think it's useful to quantify who has it worse. I once was in that mindset, apologizing to my mentor (an older trans woman) for complaining about my problems because obviously she had it so much worse.

She told me she doesn't like to think about it like that. For her, she would rather be raped than killed. For me, I would rather be killed than raped. Who has it "worse" depends entirely on perspective. Murder and rape are both terrible crimes to be a victim of. Rather than weighing this violence in a scale, more effort should be put into stopping it from happening in the first place. I think she was very wise. I'm lucky to have known her.

I'm sorry that happened to you. I would like to reach across the table and take your hand, to walk forward into the future together. I think we are stronger when united in this world that hates us. You are my sister. We may fight like siblings, but you're still family.

[iamnmbr3]

what are your thoughts on a Deathly Hallows AU where draco joins the trio on their quest? plausible/not plausible? more interesting for draco or no? i honestly wish sometimes jkr had branched out from the trio and brought draco in, but idk if it could've been pulled off.

I think that would be delightfully great fun. (One of the many things that could've also spiced up canon a bit and broken up the interminable camping scenes with a bit more drama and tension). I've even thought of writing one. If we're sticking to canon I could see it happening after the Manor sequence.

Like maybe Dobby shows up in the cell a little earlier, while Draco's down there to get Griphook. At which point Harry realizes that in order to stop the alarm being sounded they will have to put Draco out of commission. Of course he also realizes that this means he will take the brunt of the blame for the escape. So naturally he opts for the incredibly impractical solution of overpowering Draco and grabbing his wand, but then stunning him and having Dobby take him along to Shell Cottage too as their prisoner. C'mon Ron. He can't just leave him there to die. He would do the same for anyone. No really. Ok maybe not Wormtail or any of the other Death Eaters but honestly there's nothing special or different about how he feels towards Draco. There isn't.

And then of course they can't send him back because he'd be in even more trouble. But surely they can't take him with them. Even if Harry's sure deep down he's feeling conflicted they can't trust him. But he is a Black by blood. And maybe they realize he could be useful in getting into Bellatrix's vault. And besides, they can't really leave him with Bill and Fleur; that puts them at risk and this was Harry's stupid decision so they shouldn't be stuck with it. Cue uneasy alliance and growing bond and Draco eventually making his choice and saving Harry. Bonus points if in this version of the Room of Requirement Sequence Draco chooses his side and hurls the diadem into the fire.

Alternately, another way it could go down is Voldemort figures out the the stuff about the Wandlore much earlier in canon, and unlike in canon he makes the connection that Draco is the Master of the Elder wand, not Snape, because he disarmed Dumbledore. So he decided that obviously he needs to pop into Malfoy Manor for a quick spot of murder. And Harry sees this in a vision. So when they stage their escape he takes Draco with them because of course he does. Now that he's disarmed him he's pretty sure he's the Master of the Elder Wand and that's fine because Voldemort already wants to kill him. But he's also pretty sure that Voldemort will still kill Draco, esp bc he's 1) really mad about Harry's escape 2) because he now suspects Draco of maybe helping Harry Potter and 3) because he wants to kill all potential claimants on the wand just to be sure.

Obviously he doesn't want to tell Draco any of this so at first they keep him tied up and blindfolded and under the Imperius Curse. But Draco's fighting it and Harry hates holding someone under and Unforgivable like that. And it's not practical. But they also can't have him pressing his Mark. Eventually they do start loosening some of the restrictions. And also tell him enough to get him to believe Voldemort will murder him if he finds them. And again. Cue uneasy alliance and redemption and eventual drarry.

And there are many more ways you could do it as well. So yes. Very here for it.