#“lost” in BIG ol quotes there

[aquamonstra]

I caved and bought an Xbox Series S (bc it was the only system i could barely afford that can run Veilguard) and it was supposed to get delivered today but now I'm worried Fedex lost it 😭

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 9/1

Anonymous asked: has sally been introduced to cursed tavros yet?

[ cursed tavros jumpscare :D ]

Cursed indeed - but mind you, I don't think I could do much better. My handcraft skills are nonexistent!

Anonymous asked: ol tavvy is down with the clown ;o) Anonymous asked: Please, if you will, imagine if when Vriska kissed Tavros, he told her that he was already dating Gamzee.

Heh. I really do think Gamzee x Tavros could have worked out, at least until Gamzee lost his shit. Hell, even if Gamzee did lose his shit, he'd probably still be less of a threat to Tavros than Vriska was.

Anonymous asked: Did you notice Gamzee referenced Earth in his rap? ("6 trillion hemos all up on one rock bleeding as equals") How do you think he learned about it? Some weird pre-game precognition or just his stoned mind being accidentally right?

This isn't necessarily a reference to Earth - but it wouldn't surprise me if it was, because Gamzee's cult seems fully aware of the existence of Earth.

The 'paradise planet' referenced in Gamzee's intro is stated to not exist yet, which is exactly how the narration refereed to Earth in Hivebent's intro. I believe that the 'rowdy minstrels' he's talking about are literally ICP, although he clearly isn't aware of that fact.

@wizardlyghost asked:

A sentiment shared by Eggman, every Space Player, and the villain of Muppets Most Wanted.

Anonymous asked: Now that you've passed where fedorafreak's gray, serviceable hand-held computing device's battery has died, you might appreciate the following short piece of fan art: www tumblr com/vastderp-placeholder/7741061457/savior-of-the-texting-world-rise-up

The fucking implication that the phone is the Player in this scenario is obliterating me.

Also, its God Tier form has wings. Was it a troll all along, or are wings a symbol of divine apotheosis in phone culture, too?

@clueless-rarito asked: Heeey paranatural reference! Hell yeah!

Is anyone else totally stoked to see Eightfold again? I know I am!

Anonymous asked: bilious sick 😭

English's trick made our Bilious sick. :(

Anonymous asked: One of, if not my absolute favorite, quotes/moments in Homestuck is Karkat’s speech to Jade about his failed frog breeding here. Just such a wonderfully tragic moment that stuck with me since the first time I read it.

In a comic chock-full of great lines, that last one might just be the best so far. This was one of the last scenes before Act 5's true finale, and it was an excellent pick.

@drakethedeep asked: One theory I've heard about the Denizen's Choice that tend to headcanon, Is that the choice is to be happy/free or to matter. That much as how God-tiers only grants survival by never having an impact, the denizens have thier playes coose between seeking their happiness and survival, or to struggle to achieve things that while objevtivly monumental, might not be worth the sacrifices needed to achieve it. I like this theory because of how it themes to fit the themes of Sburb.

I really like the space you're playing in, but I'm not so sure if all the Choices we've seen would necessarily fit this interpretation. After all, Davesprite implicitly chose the 'survival' option when he first met Hephaestus, and he's not exactly a happy camper. He didn't end up particularly free, either, since he was almost immediately bound to a Sprite, and later to the Battlefield.

I guess you could say he 'mattered', because he is he reason the Alpha Timeline exists the way it does - but, technically, everyone's actions contribute to the Alpha Timeline being the way it is. I definitely think there's something to this theory.

Anonymous asked: Without the Door to actually enter the universe, all you've done is make a really big frog.

I guess, when you think about it, there's not really anything they can do with their universe without that door. I suppose they could just fly towards their frog and hope for the best, but somehow, I don't think that'll achieve much.

@morganwick asked: Of course, even though he wasn't fooled by Gamzee using Terezi's "voice", Karkat still showed up on the roof anyway. Perhaps he decided he couldn't take the risk that Terezi was actually there and Gamzee might catch her unawares.

Gamzee's been having a lot of fun 'impersonating' Terezi lately. Just like before, I don't think he ever intended to fool Karkat with his transparent ruse - he just wanted to unsettle the guy. It worked.

@morganwick asked: If Typheus is the mailman, does that make him PM's favorite Denizen?

Maybe it makes him the head of her mail service!

We never saw any other mail Carapacians, and I kind of love the idea that they were operating out of a Denizen's Palace the whole time.

@bladekindeyewear asked: You said: "Mind you, I don’t know if it’s necessarily always a good or heroic thing to allow a Sburb Player full agency over their actions, nor is it necessarily a bad thing to restrict them, in certain cases." Oh I'm completely with you there. In fact, you might DEFINE Heroism as denying agency to those who would do ill, in part. This would make both "Heroic" and "Just" deaths result from trying to stamp your own intentions upon reality, halted by others. Neutrality would be ineffectual.

That's certainly part of heroism - but to me, it's not even close to all of it. A firefighter, for example, is heroic in ways which don't involve another person, as their only real 'opponent' is nature itself.

I personally define heroism as the will to do good, in situations where doing good requires bravery. 'Good', of course, is a fairly slippery concept, though, so that definition is just as ambiguous as any other.

Anonymous asked: Doctor Who anon here. Doctor Who has no canon for purely practical reasons. It's so massive - there's the show, but there's also the Big Finish audio dramas, the DW magazine comics, the Radio Times comics, the IDW comics, the Titan comics, the Virgin novels and short stories, the BBC novels and short stories. And no one owns all of it. The BBC don't even own the daleks or K9. And each piece of media will freely contradict others. No one has the right to decide what's canon, so they just don't. It's also because the people running Doctor Who the show have a deep respect for the extended media. In the 90s, it was the non-BBC licensed, fan-led projects which kept DW alive. Russell T. Davies, first showrunner of the modern era, wrote Virgin novels, so did Mark Gatiss. Nick Briggs, modern voice of the daleks, is the head of Big Finish. So they didn't want to decanonise that stuff, but they also don't want to be beholden to it when writing their own stories. So the fanbase tends to operate on tiers of canon. Basically something can be assumed to still be part of the show's continiuity until the show contradicts it. Big Finish would generally be considered the next highest "tier" of canon. The Doctor Who magazine comics probably wouldn't contradict the show, but the show could contradict them any time. The old books and comics are dubious. But that's all just fan categorisation. Officially, nothing has been deemed canon or not. In fact, rather amusingly, the only thing that has been explicitly deemed "canon" by the BBC is the Doctor Who: Battles in Time card game. That's officially canon. Nothing else. Not even the show.

I think I've heard of 'canon tiers' before, in the context of the Star Wars fandom. I think it's a good way to delineate how 'true' a given event is considered to be, especially in a large, complex shared universe - but at the same time, being consciously aware of these tiers might hurt your investment a little.

You'll never be able to escape the fact that your favourite stories or characters are effectively fanfiction, at least from the perspective of higher tiers. They have no influence whatsoever over the more ''real'' part of the story, unless they're promoted its tier some day.

I do like the idea that all the other Doctor Who stories are fanfiction of the card game, though. That's definitely going to be my canon, from now on.

@morganwick asked: Well, back in Act 4 you said that John and Dave would make S-Tier if and when "John [threw] aside his passivity to do something heroic, and…Dave [would] finally drop that poker face and do something sincere", which is why I pegged the suicide mission conversation as when Dave might make the jump.

I think, on reflection, it's almost always a heartwarming event that catapults a character into S-Tier.

In my opinion, that's one of the most impressive feelings that a work of fiction can inspire in you, mostly because it's really hard to get you invested enough for it to hit properly. Homestuck's pulled it off an extremely impressive number of times already, and we're only halfway finished!

Anonymous asked: It is so fucking awesome to see a new reader in the year of our lord 2024 2025 who's actually like. Engaging with the themes of the story. Lotta people just see it for the memes or the "totally random" plot but some of the shit you're reading into what's happening is like. Eerily similar to actual Hussie commentary. Gold star for reading comprehension, you do not piss on the poor Anonymous asked: Your homestuck liveblogs are lovely and insightful and make me remember a lot of details of the comic that have been lost to time. You will comment on something and I'll go "oh huh homestuck was better than I remember it being." Thank you <3 @honestlyvan asked: Truly your liveblog is the best kind of re-experiencing the experience. I'm surprised at how much your thoughts and reads parallel mine, it's kind of fun to see someone else's deductions go along the same routes. I can't wait for you to get to the Truly Horseshit portions of the plot (and I say this lovingly, I think you're in a great position to give us a real raw read on them without having to deal with the various Mega and Gigapauses) Also -- you keep pointing out a shitton of foreshadowing I didn't catch until my second readthrough. I can't wait for you to get to the bits where it applies and be like "son of a bitch", I think where I'm in the reading of your backlog and where you're in the reading of the comic you've passed at least one of those bits already :D @worldweary-walker asked: The liveblog is so cool. It's a lot of fun seeing you put things together, and the posts where you come up with three completely right conclusions and two wrong ones always amaze me. Impressive work!

Thank you so much! I know I say this a lot, but a lot of these sentiments are exactly why I like reading liveblogs myself. I'm just really glad I can do that for others.

I can totally understand why someone would just read Homestuck for the memes. I wouldn't have been nearly as analytical if I'd read it as a schoolgirl, and a lot of the 2010s fandom were even younger than that!

@divineerdrick asked: Now we have multiple explanations for what is wrong with the kid's session. Vriska has made herself responsible for Jack's rise to power, Karkat believes he gave Bilious Slick cancer, and Gamzee created the harlequin doll that would torment John and prompt Jack's rage-fueled act of rebellion. You've already suspected that Doc Scratch probably has multiple plans in play at once, and we can see that here. It seems he insured, through multiple causes, the kid's universe has always been doomed. Gamzee, as usual, seems to be the wild card. But he's acting out during a crisis of faith, a faith tied to Alternia's twisted social structure, which Scratch seems to have had a hand in. So despite how random Gamzee's actions appear to be, it's possible Scratch managed to seed even this seemingly unpredictable action.

I think Scratch probably did 90% of the work in making Gamzee go ballistic, from multiple directions at once. Looking back, it's shocking just how much of the comic was Scratch's doing.

'Caused' is a loaded phrase in Paradox Space, but what's happening is definitely what he planned.

Anonymous asked: It kind of seems like Rage as an aspect is evil, no? Do you think an aspect can carry an inherent moral weight? If not, what are the neutral meanings of aspects that seem to, and if so, how do you feel about it?

Personally, I doubt that any of the Aspects have a moral alignment - not even the scary-sounding ones. After all, you can Rage against tyranny, or bring Doom to a corrupt institution. Yeah, Gamzee is using Rage for evil, but his perception-shielding could just as easily be used to hide an innocent bystander from an aggressive Underling.

I think that more or less any ability can be used for both good or evil. The only real exception would be a power that's deliberately designed to be irreparably, comically evil. 'The ability to torture everyone for all eternity' would be one of those powers, but Homestuck's Aspect abilities would not.

@worldweary-walker asked: have you read Kill Six Billion Demons?

I have not! It's on my long and constantly growing list, which means I'll get to it between now and, uh, 2096.

Anonymous asked: re: the ancestors' story. WHAT IF WE ALL JUST CRIED like. the sheer transition from inane antics to the. that @corporalotherbear asked: There's a very popular fanmade version of the sufferer's final sermon and following vast expletive, voiced by a man that would go on to be the english voice actor of Izuku Midoriya. I can't add links to asks but if it's spoiler-friendly then your vetter can probably send you "The sufferer's last sermon"

Oh, I kind of love this interpretation. It really sells just how unwinnable the Sufferer's rebellion truly was.

@wolygan asked: I forgot how she is so happy when she is running away. This Girl is still able to believe that good is coming. Except Lord English won't let that happen, no matter what. @wickedsick asked:

That was possibly the fastest you have ever been proven wrong about something

That poor girl. She suffered just as much as the Signless did, but she'll only be known to Alternia as a monster - and unlike Troll Jesus, no one will ever mourn the Handmaid.

Anonymous asked: the sufferer cult is definitely independent of the juggalos! the use of the word sectarian to describe the war waged against the signless's beliefs is not a coincidence, imo. (we also see that highblood is most often used to specifically describe purplebloods). they're just two different religious organizations. given that the grand highblood was a juggalo man/subjuggulator and occupied significant power it seems to suggest that clown religion was a Big Thing among the purplebloods, which would not truck with the signless' cult being so small and secretive. there's one theory that part of the reason the neophyte was sent on mindfang's case was bc the GHB (given that mindfang mentions the neophyte was sent by subjuggulators specifically) knew she was a secret sufferite and wanted to get rid of her. mindfang does talk about how it seemed like they were giving up on her case entirely by sending just one neophyte (granted this is partially bc she underestimated her). it would track that while they definitely wanted to get rid of mindfang, they also were fine with the neophyte dying. this also follows with the fact that after mindfang gets out of that trial, she manages to persist without being caught right up until her death at the hands of the summoner. were they happy that the neophyte got killed, enough to stop putting much effort into mindfang's capture?

I think the Highbloods probably did set Redglare up. I speculated that it was possible when we first heard about her death, and that was before we knew she was a Signless cultist.

Also: lmao, do you remember when Hussie told us that the Juggalo Cult was 'obscure'? That's starting to feel like something that was quietly retconned offscreen.

@clueless-rarito asked: In case you like to know, "Dolorosa" is meant to evoke the spanish word "Doloroso" meaning painful but changing the O for an A turn it feminine.

Dolorosa; in other words, the woman in pain.

Fucking hell, she deserved so much better. It's amazing how much bleaker the Ancestors' lives were, compared to their descendants. Modern Alternia is bad enough as it is!

@lon-kasi asked: Fanwork recommendation: The same guy who did the EoA5 reanimation just did Intermission 2 as well. Like, less than six hours before I sent this ask. It's incredible.

Yessss! These are amazing.

My favorite parts are all the extra touches that weren't in the original animation, such as Rose beginning to realizing how badly she was tricked - or Jade, unused to her own powers, almost knocking John on his ass while she teleports him.

Anonymous asked: Now that you've seen what a Reckoning on Skaia looks like, you can see why Karkat was rushing Kanaya to get their frog done. Despite jumping the gun, skipping the lore elements and just killing their way to the end, the troll kids never had enough time. Especially since, now that I'm thinking about it, if it wasn't the Reckoning then it probably would have been Jack as the "time's up, now turn in your work" event. @marinerofthestars asked: With the revelation that Alternia was built to and ended up speedrunning an Sgrub/Sburb session to catastrophic effect (great job reading this far, btw), how long would you expect a “standard” session to take?

We've got two different asks here - one saying that normal sessions are meant to be shorter than Hivebent's, and the other saying they're meant to be longer.

I honestly don't know which I believe. It feels unrealistic for a Sburb session to take months, but Scratch really did seem to be saying that the trolls were extremely effective Players, implying most sessions take longer to beat. Maybe the reboot session will clue us in a little?

Anonymous asked: “How do you expect to out run me, When I Am Already Here.” Is such a hard line, and it’s completely missable in the alt text for the site banner. I know a lot of people missed it when these panels dropped. I remember HS being considered super unique because of how much the comic messes with formatting things like that.

I was super close to missing some of that scene, even though I'd already been warned about the alt text. There was just so much going on at the time, I almost didn't think to look at the banners.

@royalvorpal asked: "I thought words would be exchanged" How do you expect them to talk when they are in person?

pffffffffffffffffffft

Alright, that one fucking got me.

@bladekindeyewear asked: "But no, apparently not, because it took Karkat zero words and sixty seconds to completely shut Gamzee down. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s incredibly impressive - but what did he actually do?" If you look back IN RETROSPECT at some of what Gamzee has been telling Karkat, it almost looks like pale flirting, like he was actually WANTING him to do this behind his threats. p3361: "FTC: i wonder if you can all be at with me in time and make me get my reconsider on?" Anonymous asked: You may not like it, but this is what peak moirallegience looks like.

Yeah, this really does make that exchange read as a little flirtatious.

Still, is this really how a moirallegiance is meant to work? Are moirails really expected to risk their lives to halt their prospective partner's rampage? This is starting to sound more dangerous than a kismesissitude!

@bladekindeyewear asked: I'm not sure how well it applies to the revised Homestuck website and it's probably impossible in the collection, but you could view any past/future page in any CSS format the site gave you with a keyword, like the black-on-green Doc Scratch format. So when Andrew did the "SNOP" to SBAHJ-mode, he was intentionally giving us a tool to view the ENTIRE SITE in SBAHJ mode.

There's a 'theme override' button, but I need to finish Homestuck to unlock it. I guess the comic's theme will change in more spoilery ways, later on.

Anonymous asked: Dolorosa/Mindfang is the true kicker of the “vriska keeps ending up in mirror relationships to her ancestor” belief, bc its the one where there is NO way vriska could know that shes in a mirror relationship. Eridan- orphaner dualscar and mindfangs romance was in the journal. Tavros- she knew about the summoner. But while there are hints to the dolorosas identity- sharp teeth, lower blood color, and a very vague if you stretch it hint about horn shape- no way vriska could have put those pieces together!!!

Man, it's still so fucked up that the Dolorosa went out like that. I still think it's at least remotely possible that she revived as a vampire, but I'm not gonna kid myself - her story is over. We're not gonna see her.

Anonymous asked: You've mentioned "ratfic" and something called "the Methods" before, is that something you've read?

If I could write an essay about Steven Moffat, I could write an entire thesis about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - but it'd be radioactively critical, and it feels mean-spirited to just post a rant about something unprompted.

If people want my thoughts in detail, I might stick them on the sideblog later - but for now, I'll just tell you that if it wasn't for that fic, XAE A-12 Musk would never have been born. Not a joke.

Anonymous asked: i love the complete about face on gamzee lol. "clearly the fact that he's gone nuts is something wrong with the timeline" gamzee is revealed to be responsible for lil cal "actually fuck this guy"

If we do ever recover the original Gamzee, it's going to really suck for him to face his friends. After everything he's done, will anyone ever really trust him again?

@elkian asked: Love the Exiles. So glad nothing bad happens to them, ever, (I assume the pause before the third s175 post is bc you, like me, took a break to cry over AR hesitating to kill his friend :,(

I was so bummed, guys. Carapacians don't have ghosts, I assume - so the Exiles, sans PM and maybe WV, are gone forever.

The Red Miles will probably have obliterated their corpses, so we can't even prototype most of them - but I'm holding out hope for Waywardsprite.

Anonymous asked: heh, you aren't alone in preferring god tier dave without his hood. i was around for when cascade dropped and wasnt able to watch it straight away due to the various troubles, but one of the first things i heard about it was people talking about how stupid they thought dave's hood looked.

I know, right? Like, yeah, it definitely says 'knight', but Dave's got great hair, and it feels like a shame to cover it.

@bladekindeyewear asked: "PCG: SHE WAS CONSTANTLY FIXING MY FUCKUPS. PCG: ROBOTS FROM THE FUTURE ALWAYS COMING BACK TO TELL ME HOW SOME HASTY SHIT I DID WITH FROG BREEDING OR WHATEVER WOULD MAKE IT BE IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN. PCG: MY OWN PERSONAL MISTAKES PROBABLY ACCOUNTED FOR MORE DOOMED ARADIABOTS THAN ANYTHING ELSE." Now that the Tumor's revealed for the precision device it was, it's also clear that Aradia, likely following the Horrorterrors' instructions, FORCED them to breed the frog JUST RIGHT to create the Sun.

Yeah, the existence of that precision device really fucking threw me. Whatever it did, the frog cancer probably was deliberately engineered to cause it - and I think it was engineered by Scratch, rather than the Horrorterrors. He was also talking to Aradia during the session, and this event was key to his plan.

Anonymous asked: (And one more ask from the person without a tumblr. -DJ) The thing is, Scratch could have just said "you must create the Green Sun, it is essential for the existence of the multiverse, not doing so will create a paradox". But either he chose to trick them, by only but saying "true words", just for fun…or there is some reason telling them about their true mission wouldn't work - RM

Either is possible, and it's pretty much impossible to say. That said, the Vast Glub is proof that he does just like messing with people, so I'm going with the former answer.

Anonymous asked: (forwarding another ask from the person without a Tumblr account -DJ) Do you think there are interesting parallels between Scratch and Tarquin from OOTS? - RM

Well, they are both meta-aware villains with extremely wide-reaching plans, and they're both pretty weird about women. Hopefully this means that Scratch's much cooler son will kick his ass in a later Act.

@bladekindeyewear asked: One tiny cute detail in Cascade I love is how when the Green Sun lights up in the distance for the trolls, Terezi tries to point at it, and Karkat gently takes her arm and re-points it in the right direction. XD

Shoulda brought the Smelloscope, Terezi!

Anonymous asked: The first time i read homestuck my shit bugged out and I literally just missed the entire scrapbook section and cascade. The SECOND time I read homestuck cascade gave me such a neuron firing high that only harrow the ninth has ever gotten close to

That's exactly how to describe it. Cascade blasted my neurons, in exactly the same way that part of Harrow the Ninth did.

@rwbypro asked: Ngl one of my favorite parts about homestuck is the fact that Doc Scratch Won, like he got Exactly what he wanted, and he played everyone like fiddles, one of my all time favorite villains in anything!

He did, the bastard! Scratch managed to pull it off without a hitch.

These are the exact kind of convoluted masterstrokes you want to see in a time-travel story, and I think English's machinations will only grow more intricate, going forward.

@sanctferum asked: The juggalo cult believes in a pair of mirthful messiahs rather than just the one, so if English is one of the messiahs, that's only half the equation. Presumably, the other messiah would be Scratch.

That works! I originally thought that the Messiahs were the two members of ICP, but let's be honest, they still could be. I absolutely would not put it past this comic to reveal that Lord English was Shaggy 2 Dope the whole time.

@sanctferum asked: So now that you've seen Lord English's true appearance: he's got a peg leg, and that peg leg is a golden cuestick, filling in the last missing piece of the Felt analogy - the one that moves the billiards around in the first place. For good measure, English's peg leg, single golden tooth and his garish coat give him a stereotypical pimp appearance, which is fitting given his treatment of his female servants so far (not to mention Scratch's own treatment of both the Handmaid and whichever female player he is manipulating at any given moment. He even explicitly uses the word grooming to describe raising Handmaid!). If there was ever a pimp for Dave to lock in his own crib while dropping it like it was hot, this would be him.

Ayy, you're right! I've been waiting for the Felt's cuestick since the Intermission days!

You're also right about the comic's villains. Scratch and English aren't just screwing over female Players - they've also been fucking with Mindfang, the Handmaid, the Condesce, and even Snowman. It's absolutely a pattern.

These guys aren't just cosmic villains, they're misogynist cosmic villains. Mundane evil and supernatural evil, all together in one convenient package of shit.

Anonymous asked: Now that we've gotten past this point in the comic- I just wanted to say I forgot Expatri8 was ever a name used to refer to Darkleer- mainly because all I ever see people refering to him as is Darkleer. And at first it kinda threw me for a loop when you called him that even though it's the only name you knew for him- Anyhows- You probably noted this at some point but only upper middle class to high blood colors seem to have name names, with some exceptions. Like, they're weird, but Mindfang, Redglare, and Dualscar are all fesable names. Meanwhile the lower bloods just have titles.

It is absolutely in character of Alternia not to allow lowbloods to have names.

Anonymous asked: Just read your liveblog over the last two days. I adore your analysis! I second that one person’s reccomendation of In Stars And Time. Also I reccomend the Blue Lips homestuck video, it’s lived in my head for ages. I’m 99% sure it’s safe to watch now? It’s about the events of murderstuck and I don’t THINK it references anything you don’t know. Anyhoot! I know you mentioned vriska being like Azula when you first started getting to know her. Now that you’re as far as you are, I’d like to argue… Vriska is more like Zuko, in a way? Like. The way she wants to wipe things clean, the way he wants to restore his honor. The way they both have a “parent” that leads them to how things are, and for a while they cling to that as “right” and how things should be… One time I saw a post that Vriska is girl Zuko and Eridan is boy Azula and all the comments were arguing that no, vriska is Azula, but lowkey that post changed my brain chemistry and idk why people were SO vehemently against changing the genders of the characters in the comparison

I think Vriska works well as girl Zuko. You're right - they both started off under the thumb of an abusive parent, and they both try to 'fix' their past mistakes without understanding the wider context behind why they made them. Now, does this mean Vriska will also be getting a kickass redemption arc, which turns her into one of the comic's most straightforwardly heroic characters? Possibly, but I ain't holding my breath.

It's a little harder for me to see the second comparison, though. Like her brother, Azula was made into what she is by her horrible father, whereas Eridan became what he is on his own, with some assistance from Alternian culture.

Perhaps there are layers here that I'm just not seeing. I haven't read the Avatar sequel comics yet, so they might do more with Azula's character that I don't know about.

@mrjocrafter asked: I was trying to think about what the characters' moon alignment means in terms of their characterization, thought "Prospit dreamers are relatively passive while Derse dreamers are relatively active", then realized that's only true for the humans, the Post-Scratch Trolls' 6 Prospit dreamers (excluding Sollux, as his 'official' alignment, according to the Extended Zodiac, is Derse) are the more active characters. Then I realized that on Earth darkness and dark-associated characters are edgy and countercultural, while on Alternia light and light-associated characters are countercultural instead! Goddamn this comic just keeps coming back for more themes Also, I know you've compared Taylor to Vriska in the past, but she really strikes me as more of a Terezi. Beyond the surface level stuff (like going blind and then relying on a supernatural sense), Taylor, like Terezi has a strong moral compass but will twist it into pretzels to do the most horrific shit and there's a 50/50 chance she even regrets it afterwards. Meanwhile, Amy, who I think makes a much better Vriska, does her atrocities either under manipulation (like Vriska) or just does it without thinking about it and feels bad about it later (hey, also like Vriska). Also, Taylor Hebert and Amelia Dallon are coincidentally both valid troll names.

Yup! Which means Kanaya is a troll goth, which is still amazing.

And... hmm, I'm not sure whether I'd call Dave active or passive. He certainly acts more on his own initiative than John, but he also spends a lot of time getting bossed around by Terezi. He's kind of in the middle, really.

I do think Terezi's reframing of her violence as 'justice' is very Taylor-coded - and Amy is absolutely a Vriska, if we're working off the 'female, controversial, and morally ambiguous' definition given by a previous asker. Plus, well...

...yeah. And let's not even talk about Ward. (Because I haven't read it.)

Really, all these characters are multifaceted, and you can draw many different parallels in many different directions. If I had the time, I could probably draw lines from each of the trolls to a different cape in the Wormverse - but for now, we must continue!

@morganwick asked: Bec's influence on Jack is so strong that not only is he reduced to following Jade around like a puppy, he kills CD for completing the mission he gave him and leaves Jade, one of the players he's supposed to be killing, on her quest bed, the nature of which he didn't seem to know about when it came to John. Bec = absolute king.

Bec is a king.

It really does seem like his influence over Jack is increasing as time passes. Is Davesprite going to get more birdlike, as well? Or is Bec just a special case because he's a First Guardian?

Anonymous asked: oh my god you really just cleaned the board with the last minute Dave+Rose quest slab guess??? Like. You were going on about other things and then you just casually mention "oh I guess this could happen too" like okay!!! Seer!!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that one. I was just thinking about how Aradia might help the Derse kids, once she'd met them at the Sun, and then it hit me: she's been in exactly the same situation, in exactly the same place, because of exactly the same sun!

Anonymous asked: dogtier IS in fact what the entire fandom calls her, if you came up with that yourself congrats on the authentic 2011 homestuck experience, move over carcinisation this is the new big thing in convergent evolution

I did, but come on. That pun makes itself.

Anonymous asked: Fun fact: the music used in [S] Begin Intermission 2, "English", is the same when reversed. It is an EXTREMELY excellent detail. And another example of Toby Fox being a brilliant composer. @sanctferum asked: English by Toby Fox is a really cool song in that its a musical palindrome, playing the same both forwards and backwards, as befits the titular entity. The whole Felt album it's from is based around creating songs with time gimmicks in them, so it serves as a very good semifinal track to almost close the album out. @emotionallyglued asked: You finally got to the part where our big bad man appears! Simple question to ask but I'm looking forward towards the answer: what do you think of Lord English's theme? Grandiose enough to fit a villain of his caliber or did you expect something more/else?

Oh, shit, that's cool!

I liked the song a lot. Sure, it's not as bombastic as the boss theme I went with myself, but it is much, much scarier. It was the perfect way to remind us that this wasn't really a victory - that English's plan went off without a hitch. Our heroes are still in terrible, terrible danger.

@morganwick asked: post/756751870755733504 Still think of Doc Scratch as "Big Cal"? @sanctferum asked: You've heard of Lil' Cal and Big Cal, now get ready for the deadliest and dastardliest villain of all: Biggest Cal. Anonymous asked: you've seen lil cal, now get ready for BIG CAL @lon-kasi asked: finally, Big Ca- well. actually. Scratch was Big Cal, wasn't he? so finally, Bigger Cal

This is the real reason Scratch wouldn't tell Rose his boss's name - because if she'd known her manipulator worked for Bigger Cal, she'd have been too god damn scared to go grimdark.

Anonymous asked: T1ck T0ck goes the God Tier Clock. Its chime signals the Br8k of Scratch's H34D. And with the arrival of Lord English, he lets loose two great, Vast honk HONKS. Anonymous asked: Did you notice something about the English sequence? First, we see Scratch's clock. t1ck, t0ck. Then, his head breaks. 8r8k H34DS. He releases the Vast Honk. honk HONK.

This motherfucker died to the very words that birthed him.

I guarantee you that this was deliberate on Scratch's part. He didn't need to foreshadow his plan so blatantly - but this horrible little troll knew that nobody would get the joke until it was too late.

bladekindeyewear asked: "S u c k e r s ." The bioorganic-looking Tumor opening up to reveal a precision device. Twice the mass of a universe. Doc Scratch fucking played EVERYONE SO HARD. We couldn't believe THEY CREATED THE GREEN SUN, so hard many of us watched without REALIZING IT. If you reread the talk Doc and Rose had from p3627 onward, the amount of TRANSPARENT DODGES AND WEASELING he did in that conversation to mislead Rose and the entire readership is so blatant and shameless, oh my fucking god!!! Anonymous asked: Not only did Scratch never said the tumor would destroy the green sun, he also specifically said they would travel to the green sun LOCATION, not to the green sun itself.

God damn it!

Scratch may have been stoic on the outside, but you mark my words: he was absolutely roaring with laughter on the inside.

@sunbluethinking asked: Regarding 'a dozen or two sweeps,' you do have to remember that it seems like one sweep is roughly equivalent to two human years? (See Terezi's and Dave's 'I'm six' conversation, or whatever it was.) So my impression is that a dozen sweeps would be equivalent to 24 years and two dozen sweeps would be equivalent to 48 years. Still really short, but not quite as absurdly short. (Which actually reminds me of the question of the problem of rate of maturation in fictional races with different lifespans. (Dungeon Meshi touches on this, but) in the case of Homestuck, I think it seems like the trolls mature to adulthood at about the same rate. It's just their adult lifespans that are different.) @bellcarved asked: If my math is correct, "a dozen or two sweeps" is a range of 26 to 52 years. Still not great, but 26 would be the low end of the life expectancy, while they tend to live around half as long as a human.

So either Aradia was about to die, or she wasn't - but either way, she was always going to die young.

We still don't know whether God Tier stops you aging, do we? I have to assume so, because death by old age isn't really Heroic or Just, but I'd feel a lot better if it was 100% confirmed.

Anonymous asked: And here we learn the story of Jesus and the second coming- @bellcarved asked: Now you know the truth: Karkat Vantas is the second coming of Troll Jegus Christ. Anonymous asked: I doubt I'm the first to say this but, the story of the Signless is undeniably based off the story of Jesus Christ. @skelekingfeddy asked: you do realise that the sufferer is Troll Jegus right. the irons/cancer symbol is the crucifix. his method of execution turned into the main symbol of a religion. the dolorosa is mary. karkat is the second coming. hes literally just Troll Jegus lmao @sanctferum asked: turns out, Terezi was right all along. troll jegus was real after all, and he was indeed the best jegus. shame on you for not believing, Dave

God damn it, Karkat. You hate yourself so much, even though you're literally the second coming of Christ.

And really does add weight to Terezi's claim that Alternia had the 'best' Jesus. Sure, says she's joking here, but... well, her Ancestor was a follower of the Signless, wasn't she? Could Terezi have inherited more of Redglare's legacy than we thought?

Anonymous asked: now that you know about the signless i recommend you take another read of karkat's long password on page 3972

...huh.

It almost makes it seem like Karkat's vaguely cognizant of the Sufferer's life, the same way the Sufferer was cognizant of his pre-Scratch incarnation. Funny, that.

@morganwick asked: "For a bisexual alien, his shipping is awfully straight, isn't it?" Well, consider that when he drew that he was trying to adhere to the human model of reproduction with its explicit requirement of one person of each sex, as best he could from his alien perspective. Note that in the same conversation he's struggling to understand the "human taboo of incest". @manorinthewoods asked: Karkat's humanshipping is straight because John told him he wasn't gay, and presumably, he extrapolated. ~LOSS (28/12/24) Anonymous asked: Karkat's very straight shipping chart is the way it is because John's Not A Homosexual:tm:

I totally forgot I came to the same conclusion, back in that legendary group chat.

Man, Rose x Kanaya is really going to throw Karkat for a loop. He'll probably think that John was just bullshitting him.

@skelekingfeddy asked: steven moffat is a valid troll name Anonymous asked: You've brought it up too much not to ask, what did Moffat do that pissed you off so badly?

Once more, I am very tempted to make this a full essay, but I'll save time by just pointing to Hbomberguy's famous Sherlock video, which I agree with, like, 80% of - particularly the Doctor Who segment that I've timestamped.

In a nutshell, Moffat was always really good at generating intrigue, and building hype for future events - but as a showrunner, he never really delivered on his promises, and was very fond of handwaving established canon to the side. Pet peeve of mine, as you can imagine.

@rwbypro asked: We warned you bro, we warned you about the most important character @skelekingfeddy asked: carcinoGeneticist may have engineered the cancer…but terminallyCapricious was the one who made it terminal. ;o) @capribornio asked: Honk, honk :0) Heyyyy you reached the part where Gamzee became my favorite enemy. Forget Vriska, Jack and Doc Scratch - Gamzee may have his buttons pushed by the good ol' Doc, but he managed to make things worse than even Vriska got to (and killed more main characters, too!). Anonymous asked:Congratulations on reaching this point. So, Gamzee chucklefucked the universe. Crazy, right? @bellcarved asked: Gamzee's "Bard of Rage" title is looking more accurate than ever, now. His own rage lead him to put the clowns in John's dreams, which ended up inspiring the rage that made Jack Noir go to the lengths he did. Bardic inspiration, if you will. …also, this makes Perfect Jack a collaborative effort between Vriska and Gamzee. @capribornio asked: I feel like you get Gamzee much better than most livebloggers (and a part of the fandom, too). Gamzee is an orchestrator, on a much bigger level than any could have predicted. The silly little troll dissappeared once he got off the slime, got his religion destroyed, and got Lil Cal.

I told you, guys! I told you Bards were overpowered!

Yeah, he's already getting pretty crafty, isn't he? Maybe, instead of manipulating Gamzee like he did the girls, Scratch has actually been coaching him. After all, his own manipulating days are over, so maybe he saw fit to train a successor...

Anonymous asked: if vriska was presented with a choice about the creation of bec noir, it would have had to be before the veil because the trolls only flee into the veil AFTER bec shows up and wrecks their reward- and that's their first introduction to him. any choice she could have made about bec/jack after that would result in a doomed timeline, because it would break the loop. that's why it has to be before the veil. @manorinthewoods asked: What I mean is that the Choice that would have prevented Bec Noir is something that would have made Vriska change who she was, in such a way that she wouldn't later make Bec. Vriska's Choice that made Bec can't have occurred in the Veil, because there wasn't a Denizen to give it, so whatever it was, it must have been something to do with character growth that she failed to do. ~LOSS (28/12/24)

Oh, right, that makes sense!

Yeah, poor Vriska simply wasn't self-aware enough to make such a Choice before the Veil. It's interesting what-if, though.

@flambeaufelid asked: ICP albums liveblog maybe??? (Do people liveblog music reactions? They should.) Anonymous asked: Since you mentioned the possibility of having to listen to ICP albums to understand Gamzee better, I figured I’d better let you know that while reading a bit about juggalos, ICP, and ICP’s music does help with understanding Gamzee better if you’re unfamiliar with them (though I wouldn’t say it’s crucial), I don’t recommend listening to their music unless you’re comfortable with graphic depictions of gore, murder, and other forms of violence. (Speaking from personal experience here; I tried listening to them because Gamzee’s my favorite character and quickly realized I didn’t enjoy that.) Anonymous asked: I would say listening to icp is not necessary… I tried myself and failed not even half way through one album so I admittedly could be wrong but… I think it was never intended to be THAT serious

I checked out Miracles, back when ICP was first brought up, but I haven't seen any of their other music. It's probably not actually necessary to listen to the band to understand Gamzee, but I might still do it for fun, since the graphic content wouldn't bother me much.

@skelekingfeddy asked: according to hussie the fifth wall is what divides two narrators/authors @sanctferum asked: According to Hussie's comments, if the fourth wall is the wall between the character and the author/their audience, then the fifth wall is specifically the wall dividing omniscient narrators from each other. or something like that

I, uh, guess that makes sense. Presumably Scratch would be our second 'author' in this scenario, even though he's not literally another author of Homestuck.

[etraytin]

Postcards From the Dusty Mountains

Took the kiddo out yesterday with me when I went a-volunteering because he is getting very tired of not having anything to do. You know it's getting bad when a guy misses school and is tired of being on his computer all day. I'm not being sarcastic either, I'm deeply sympathetic to his plight and I wish he could get back to school and the friends he was making and the brand-new boyfriend he's been taking those first cautious romantic steps with. He already had to live through COVID homeschooling for two years, and now this. Ugh. I have heard rumors that they are hoping to open the schools back up on October 21, which means two more weeks closed, but it could be worse. So many places still don't even have power, much less water.

Anyway, I took him with me and we went down to a food distribution in Swannanoa. They got hit very very hard, and we spent a couple hours helping a Chick-Fil-A volunteer team from Atlanta hand out hot chicken sandwiches and bottled water. In normal days I don't have much to do with Chick-Fil-A because I don't like their politics, but when the matter at hand is giving hot food to people who've lost their homes, you put the politics aside. I just wish the rest of the country was able to do the same, because I am extraordinarily tired of people thinking of North Carolina as a "battleground state" when the battle we are fighting right now is to keep people alive as the weather starts to turn cold and the water lines stay broken.

Today was busy because I actually managed to keep a doctor's appointment I have been waiting a month for, which was quite a pleasant surprise! The doctor's office is in Hendersonville, so the fact that they were open for business and that I was able to get there are both things that I might have doubted a week ago. I also had an appointment with a local HVAC outfit about getting a whole-house standby generator installed so that next time we have a power outage, we can at least power the fridges, the well pump, the dehumidifiers and my CPAP, with maybe some left over for laptop charging. The price he quoted me for everything except the propane tank and line was $11,000, which was not exactly unexpected but still a big ol' yikes. The good news is, his company bought several of the right size generators before the storm so they would have an inventory, so I could theoretically have a generator before winter really sets in. Highly tempting.

In the afternoon, kiddo and I went out to do more helping. If nothing else has become more apparent over this week, it's that we were and continue to be so, so lucky. Of all the teachers at my husband's school, we are the _only_ family who are still in our own home with all our utilities back up. We are the only members of our extended family in the area who have power. We are part of a tiny fraction of households in the region who have potable water coming from our taps. Given all of that, we decided that we were going to take my final paycheck from canvassing and put it into a community that was not lucky at all. Our Lowes got restocked big time this week, so I was able to go in and get a propane tank, a gas can, a huge box of contractor bags, a straight rake, a shovel, and a gas-powered chainsaw with two cans of fuel for it. We also raided our own house and took our own three shovels and straight rake, our garden cart, some very cute hiking boots I bought but hadn't worn yet, eight packs of bath wipes and two of our cell phone power banks and drove the whole thing down to Black Mountain.

Black Mountain is very close to Swannanoa and was also hit extremely hard by the storm. We didn't go around touristing, but even on the main roads we took we could see devastation everywhere. Everywhere the water touched was drenched in toxic mud, which has dried over the past two weeks into an awful choking dust that covers everything. It blows on the wind and rises with every passing car. As we drove I took the opportunity to explain how the search and rescue paint marking system works to Kiddo, because their bright green graffiti was on all the half-destroyed houses we were passing.

There's an outdoor music venue in Black Mountain called Silverados that has been turned into a massive distribution center. Hot meals were being passed out in the front, while the rear was a busy hive of organizing and distributing supplies. We went there and dropped off all our items, where they were carted away into an absolutely teeming hub of supplies and volunteers. We asked if they needed any more help today, but they definitely had enough willing hands. I think my dad will laugh because I finally did get the chainsaw he talked me out of, but then gave it away before it even left the box.

With a little time on our hands, we went back up north and visited our favorite grocery store, the one that sells lightly-expired canned and boxed food at greatly reduced prices. We were very happy to see that they'd come through the storm unscathed except for a lack of internet, and stocked up on more of the seemingly endless supply of Old El Paso meal kits that they sell two for a dollar. Cheaper than buying tortillas and taco seasoning, lol! We also visited the local record store, which opened for regular business hours despite the circumstances as well, and bought a couple of records because we want them to stay in business even though times are tough. It was, overall, an extremely successful outing.

Sometimes the world here in our house feels tantalizingly close to normal, an endless weekend where we are just waiting to go back to school and work. But just driving into town and seeing all the places closed for lack of water is enough to destroy that bubble, and driving thirty minutes in any direction is like stepping into a different world. Marshall, Spruce Pine, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, the River Arts District. Dozens more places that I have not seen and probably couldn't even get to if I tried. I'm very afraid for what is about to happen in Florida, for their sake and for ours. Appalachia has a long history of being forgotten about when bad things are happening. I really hope it doesn't go that way again.

[writtenbychris]

Toyota Corolla

A/N: i don't know if any of this turns out weird, im tired of proofreading 😭✋️ also how do you make text gray, I'm sick of tumblr only giving me 7 generic ass text colors

warnings: none if you're okay with weirdos in a car

Chris x reader

(Name) had a habit of holding Chris’ hand when she was scared. Sure, she did it with everyone she was comfortable with, but since Chris was her boyfriend, he was mostly on the receiving end of it.

Today was supposed to be a chill car video day. Matt had parked at a convenience store where they got snacks after buying McDonald's. (Name) was excited, she rarely ever got to be in a video with her boyfriend, especially not in the car videos. She was sat in Chris’ lap (his idea, not hers) in the front seat, right in front of the camera.

“Do we even know what we’re gonna talk about?” Chris asked, ketchup all over his fingers from his burger.

“We can talk about the fact that you eat like a fuckin’ two-year-old.” Nick retorted.

“We can talk about the fact that you’re a fuckin’ bitch,” Chris shot back as a gray Toyota Corolla that nobody noticed rolled past them in the back window.

“We can talk about the fact that your forehead is so greasy that you could probably cook that burger you’re eating on it!”

“We can talk about the fact that you always make fun of the way I look even though we’re triplets and we all look the exact same! We can talk about the fact that I can actually pull and you can’t, we can talk about the fact that you’re always so fuckin’ loud that I can hear you from 5 states away, We can talk about–”

“So how was your day, Matthew?” (Name) asked in an attempt to tune out Chris and Nick, stifling a laugh as she ate more of the chicken nuggets she was sharing with Chris.

Matt simply just shook his head and continued to stare ahead, his small smirk and slightly trembling lips indicating that he knew if he opened his mouth the only thing that would come out is a big ol’ laugh. The sight of him fighting for his life made it that much harder for her to do the same.

(Name) absentmindedly looked into the camera’s viewfinder, only to see a gray Toyota Corolla roll past again.

“Another gray Toyota? Must be popular in this part of LA,” she noted in thought before quickly forgetting about it.

By now, Nick and Chris were done with their argument, it was Matt’s turn to speak, and the topic had changed to something else. (Name) just kept on eating, not necessarily adding much to the conversation.

“Well I feel like if I were to do that people would say it’s weird or *air quotes* ‘out of character’ *end air quotes* but everyone just expects Chris to be a protective boyfriend I guess?”

“Oh fuck yeah, don’t touch my girlfriend.” Chris said nonchalantly, taking a long sip of his Pepsi.

“Oh wow, how tough are you? Watch out everybody, we got fuckin’ Mike Tyson the second on our hands,” Matt mocked.

"Oh you think I'm tryin' to act tough? Come fuck with my girlfriend and find out."

Before Matt could even respond, the gray Toyota rolled past again. And (Name) was sure it was the same one. She immediately grabbed and squeezed Chris’ hand, and he clocked her fear just as fast.

“What’s wrong, (Nickname)?” he announced, rather than asked, all the attention in the van now on her.

“That gray car drove past us like three times..”

“Are you sure it’s not a diff–”

“No, it’s the same one!”

Matt tried dismissing her concerns, “Maybe they’re just lost, don’t overrea–”

“Matt I love you, but do not piss me off. Nothing grinds my gears more than when I’m scared, worried, or concerned and somebody tries to tell me that I’m overreacting.”

As she was finishing up her rant, the car came back, but instead of lazily rolling away like it did the past three times, it came to a full stop right behind the van for a split second before speeding off.

Matt turns back to (Name), his expression now mirroring her fearful one.

“You were right, that was so fucking weird..”

Nick was still staring out the back window and was the first one to see the gray Toyota coming back into the parking lot and as soon as he did, he immediately flipped off all the interior lights.

“Is it coming back?” Chris asked.

“Yes dummy, that’s why I turned off the lights.”

“Guys, not right now, please.” (Name) said, stopping them before they could start.

The car stopped right behind the van again and for a longer period, 10 seconds, and then parked right next to the van, triggering the fight, flight, or freeze response from everyone.

Nick immediately pulled (Name) off Chris’ lap and into the middle row with him. In the process, he knocked multiple things over, including the camera, prompting Matt, Chris, and (Name) to yell his name in irritation.

“Yeah fuck no, that’s it for tonight, I love you all so much, thank you for watching– Matt kiss the camera, (Name) get back in your seat–”

“Why did you do that?!” (Name) yelled, still on the floor.

Matt started the car, kissed the camera, ended the video, and peeled out of the parking lot before anyone was even buckled in and before (Name) was even seated.

“Matt what the fuck are you doing I’m still on the floor!”

“Well then you’re either stayin’ there or gettin’ up cuz I’m not slowin’ down!”

“Hey, stop!” Chris exclaimed. “And besides, you’re goin’ like 42,000 in a 55 so you’re gonna slow the fuck down unless you wanna get pulled over or get us all wrapped around a fuckin’ tree.”

Matt slowed down without saying a word, clearly annoyed.

“Yeah, that’s what I fuckin’ thought.”

“Shut up, Chris.”

Chris ignored his Mattitude (heehee) and turned around to make sure his girlfriend was seated and buckled in and as soon as she was, he took her hand and turned back to the road ahead, kissing it ever so often.

“(Name), I pulled you up because I didn't think it was safe for you to get out of the car with that weirdo creeping around,” Nick finally answered the question that she forgot she even asked.

“Oh, thank you Nick..”

There was a long period of silence as everybody mentally processed whatever had just happened. How did things turn sour so quickly?

“Do you guys think we should stop doing car videos for now?” Matt asked after a while.

“Stop??? Bro, they’re our best videos our fans are gonna–”

“Chris, our well-being is more important than whatever the fuck our fans are gonna think. And if they really care about us then they'd rather see us be safe and comfortable.” Nick said, knowing he was absolutely correct.

“Yo you're right,” Chris smacked Nick's hand because the latter didn't open up his hand for a dap up. “Yes Matt, I think we should take a break.”

“Guys, make sure they're not following us,” (Name) said, all of them now scanning the rearview mirror to see if the van was being followed.

“There is a gray car, but it's an SUV so I think we're good,” she reassured.

The tension eased slightly as they spotted the SUV in the mirror, but no one fully relaxed. The memory of the Corolla’s strange behavior stayed with them.

“I never thought I'd be so happy to see a fucking SUV,” Nick said, causing everyone to laugh.

Chris turned around to look at (Name).

“You and I are having a self-care night.”

(Name) smiled softly. “What’s the plan?” she asked, the edge in her voice starting to dissipate.

“Anything you want. Face masks, movies, snacks, video games, literally anything”

Nick piped up immediately, “Can I join?”

Chris chuckled and took his girlfriend's hand once more.

“Ask your boyfriend.”

Taglist:

@ariestrxsh

@chaeryeos gets the credit for these dividers.

[voidcat]

— embrace the poison

characters: dazai osamu, you

notes/warnings: implied toxic relationship, dazai and you being exes and getting back together, dazai implied to be manipulative from the sidelines and basically make one person leave your life.

this is technically a follow up to the fic ‘mutual intoxication’ self-indulgent fic as always !!

The calm of the day and the idle rush of the city, the unkind breeze of the winter strokes your cheeks, further making you tense up and smallen.

With the cold and a fiery mind irritated at things one too many, the state of your shoulders– or the rest of your body for that matter, do not come into your attention until you feel a pair of hands there, slowly kneading the flesh under layers of cloth.

At this point, you do not need to turn to confirm this is Dazai, just as once before.

So much for moving on and pretending he doesn’t exist– that the two of you didn’t exist. He has taken root once more and does not seem to be willing to let go.

Not just yet, not until he has all of you to himself, your undivided attention, your touch, your warm breath, your cold gaze and empty smiles as well as the rare occasions you let go of the mask.

Maybe that online gimmick you pulled wasn’t all for vain after all.

Sure, you are annoyed at how dense one can be, the sheer audacity of their words– or, at least your interpretation of it, but how can you not, when it was all talked and agreed on before, stated on clear terms? What does that make you then, what position does that put you in? Some sort of indecent person maybe, take things a little further, reach a little longer and call it being an attention whore, worse things if you get creative but you doubt that would be needed in their case. They can assume whatever the hell they want for all you care.

Dazai was right, you hate to admit it, as his fingers dig into your skin, it is lost on you entirely when the two of you made it back inside.

The cafe under the agency is as welcoming as ever but it is the work of dazai’s skilled hands that has you melting into the cushions.

In the heat of ranting, quoting whatever you could recall from past conversations and messages  and good ol’ hypothermia setting in, you hadn’t even noticed.

It doesn’t matter any longer, for Dazai Osamu is here– by your side again, with all the mess, and how tainted your souls can be, for all the toxic purple ooze born from your unison, this feels better– right.

Though you’d rather be caught dead than to ever say that in his vicinity. Spoiling the man too much could always blow into your face, and nobody wants a face all blown up, exploded and has nothing left but the distorted bones.

Dazai Osamu was right once more, you deserve someone to match your wits and pick up on your meanings before you can even finish the sentences. Someone to clash your teeth with, baring your fangs, all claws and snarks when needed, to keep up that excitement, never tame, never settling down, do not show mercy nor compromise.

Gentle hands massage your scalp, leaving you at a loss for a moment. After so long of just clashing and crashing, then avoidance and playing pretend, you have forgotten underneath the demon, the prodigy, the fallen angel; Dazai Osamu can be kind and gentle, radiating comfort with his very existence. 

In the blink of an eye, everything returns back to ‘normal’– or what you may call that. It takes a while to not care about anything again but once the seed is planted, the deed is done.

People at the agency have missed you, they say and you accept their exclaims with open arms and a big smile. 

It hasn’t been the same around without you, Dazai hasn’t been the same, blah blah blah, same old same old. 

What catches your attention though is that Dazai has begun spending more time on work, or so Atsushi says. You cannot blame the kid when even Kunikida takes his extra hours on the device as working.

But you know a fire when you smell incense in the air. 

And above all, you know Dazai Osamu.

So you do not pry, you do not bother checking his devices this time or to see if the end of his  hard worker period aligns with the time they have started dating someone.

Why should you bother, poke the hornet’s nest when this is all working in your favor? 

If your suspicions are true, Dazai is only helping you out in the long term really, it is but a technical detail that just happens to redirect your attention and thirst for it back to him.

What good comes from a person who makes you want to rip your hair off, strangle yourself and gag for a good decent of the time you converse with them after all? And it’s just cherry on top, for you at least, that suddenly their way of acting and talking switches and even labels an innocent thing you’ve said as flirtatious. 

Their loss, not yours, it was them who talked of people acting all close and all only to leave, ask you to not leave their side after all. If they care so much, they would’ve acted smarter.

Then again, how much can you blame this on them if they are incapable of the act itself? 

It doesn't matter, you can hear Dazai’s honeyed voice whisper into your ear– the small Dazai in the back of your head, not the real one, for the real one does not even require to state the obvious for such a person.

Shooting a glance around the office, you see their most treasured detective taking a nap, Kunikida across you typing passionately on his computer.

A moment’s breath later, Dazai reemerges from the kitchen, holding two mugs of hot beverage.

From the scent alone you can tell it’s your favorite, made to perfection, as always.

As difficult and complicated of a person Dazai Osamu may be, he has his ways of showing he cares, no matter how… concerning some might be, or even obsessive– as some might have called it if they knew the depth of things.

Dazai’s love is twisted, his display of it, his way of declaring, acting out on it; and so is yours– all leashes and grips.

It is beautiful in a tragic sense, really, how the two of you make it work, the harmony of this darkness intervening, enabling one another.

Not as bad as it sounds when it scratches that itch in your brains and hearts– the two of you were respective wrecks on your own already– crashing into one another meant no harm, only casualties.

When Dazai wraps an arm around, you lean back, your hand placed on his.

Why deny what you had and settle for something inferior to your tastes when Osamu always brings a mouthful of excitement to the way of things, the dull stream of river called living?

[hey-august]

250 Followers Prompt Event - Done!

AHHHH YAAAYYyyyy, time to celebrate another exciting milestone AND have an excuse to do a follower event!!

Over the weekend I got 250 followers!!!! 🌟 Welcome welcome and thank you all so much!!

To celebrate, I have a list of Buggy x Reader SFW prompts to pick from. 😊 They are more on the fluffy side of things, so this sorta doubles as a Valentine's event, although this will probably go past Feb 14. 🩷

👀 There are a few rules for making a request, so be sure to read through this post before sending a request.

((BTW, I just adore this gif. The lips, the big ol' grin with smile lines, crinkles around his eyes. And I swear it looks like his pupils increase as he smiles. 😩😩😩❤️❤️))

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

How to:

Pick a prompt. - Prompts will be filled in the order they come in. Once a prompt is selected/fulfilled, it can't be chosen again. I'll update the prompt list as soon as I can and I'll still respond to duplicates, they just won't have another story. - Some prompts have additional choices (like picking between Reader or Buggy), so please be sure to include those details. - The final prompt (14) will be available once all the other prompts are complete. Choose a quote or two. - These will be incorporated into the prompt and can be reused multiple times. - You can request if a quote is from Buggy or Reader. I might not be able to make it work perfectly in each story, but I’ll try my best! Send your request here!

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Pick a prompt:

Touch Posted! ⭐

Rock Posted! ⭐

Portrait Posted! ⭐

Matching Posted! ⭐

Bottle (Pick a color) Posted! ⭐

Petal (Pick a flower) Posted! ⭐

Snack (Sweet, spicy, salty, or sour?) Posted! ⭐

Sing (Pick a song/genre) Posted! ⭐

Cat / Dog (Pick one, feel free to choose a breed!) Posted! ⭐

Land* (Pick weather) Posted! ⭐

Heat* Posted! ⭐

Dream* Posted! ⭐

Lost* Posted! ⭐

Treasure - 🔒Locked until all the other prompts are complete Posted! ⭐

*For prompts 10-13, also pick Reader or Buggy.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Pick 1-2 quotes:

“Give me that.”

“Wait, I’m sorry.”

“It’s nice.”

“What are you looking at?”

“Where are you going?”

“I like this.”

“Come back.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“You’re annoying.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

“You’re gonna make me cry.”

“Knock it off.”

˗ˏˋ See fulfilled prompts here. ˎˊ˗

[imminent-danger-came]

Do you think monkey MK is like a retcon or that it was planned from the start?

Monkey MK is one of the things I'm most confident about being planned from the start! I'll just quote my "Eldritch Abomination MK Theory":

"Obviously we have Wukong's "Not just anyone can wield my staff, but you did" from A Hero is Born and "The staff's just a big 'ol stick bud! It takes someone special to wield it" from 3x03, but there's also something in 1x09 Macaque (in regards to MK not being human):

Macaque: "Your staff kinda gives you away dude, not just anyone can wield that thing."

-

Macaque: "Ohohoh no, can't you hold the magic staff anymore? Well, you know what that means—there really isn't anything special about you. You're just a kid with a heavy stick."

-

-

The sweet irony of "There really isn't anything special about you. You're just a kid with a heavy stick!" followed immediately by MK lifting the staff again is not lost on me.

So, from s1 it was pretty obvious that Wukong didn't "give" MK any form of power, but we knew that already with MK being a monkey demon and all."

(and I'll stop quoting EAMK here!)

All the way in s1 the writers had a character question where MK's powers came from, and after supposedly "stealing" his powers, say "there really isn't anything special about you"—from that alone we could assume that yes, MK's powers really did come from Wukong. BUT, MK is then able to lift the staff again, which Wukong encourages him to do! Wukong knew MK could do it and knew that Macaque didn't steal all of the kid's powers (how could he when MK has so much of it lol).

So, I think it's pretty safe to assume monkey MK was planned from the start!

I also think the line "Not just anyone can wield my staff, but you did" from A Hero is Born is really telling. That's not a comment someone makes when they know the individual they gave the power to lift the staff lifts the staff.

[wirewitchviolet]

Controlling the Narrative of Your Own Life

I'm thinking about a lot of things tonight. In no particular order, I'm seeing footage of Elon Musk giving straight-up nazi salutes at Trump's inauguration while he praises him as some kind of genius programmer for "knowing how those voting machines work" and other people talking like he's actually going to put people on Mars despite being quite possibly literally the stupidest and least competent person to have ever lived. I'm seeing just the worst and most badly informed takes on the whole thing with Tiktok's owner putting on a show of shutting it down for a day and pretending this is something he was forced to do but then Trump magically saved it, and that was the day BEFORE the inauguration. I nearly bumped into one of my scariest stalkers, and of course there's the big ol' incident that inspired me to sit down and write this, but I'm building to that one. The point to keep in mind here though is just how absurdly much of a difference it makes when you do and when you don't have control over the narrative about your own life.

Back when I first came out as trans, most people were cool about it and/or thought this was the most obvious revelation ever, but one close family member really could not handle it, and shouted at me, word for word, "I know you better than you know yourself!" Doesn't get much more straightforward an issue than that, does it. Here's me saying "hey, so I've actually been a girl this whole time and just have this hormone imbalance making me look weird and I need to start taking a medication to deal with that." "No you aren't." And there's so many other things like that I've had to deal with. I have so damn many stalkers with so damn many utterly absurd conspiracy theories about me, and I've lost more friends than I can count from them catching wind of those and not bothering to take a moment to verify if there's even the slightest bit of truth to them, but there's one in particular that keeps cropping up, and it sucks in a way you probably wouldn't think it would.

Once upon a time, about a good decade ago, someone who is fairly famous around the world for... reasons that have shifted over the years, had the most massive embarrassing crush on me. I didn't clue into it at the time for quite a few reasons. This guy is a couple decades older than me I'm fairly sure, was married at the time, and lived on the other side of the planet. I DO NOT share photos of myself, so there's nothing to go on visually. And this guy developed this crush RIGHT after I came out as trans, and the concept of anyone being into me was just the most alien concept in the world. And I mean honestly, after a decade on HRT, walking around as a super tall redhead with a chest so big I can't really wear a bra, I still never register that the cat calls I get when I actually leave my apartment and walk around could possibly aimed at me. Plus I'm pretty openly asexual. Everyone should know they're barking up the wrong tree.

But yeah, this guy was totally obsessed with me for the longest time. Did the Twitter equivalent of following me around like a lost puppy, quoted basically every post I made, shouted out to his followers how they should all follow me, constantly DMing me to see what I'm up to, fished for approving comments about the time he wrote a hot trans girl into a TV show of his (this is the first thing he was famous for) despite it never airing in my country, and talking about how he liked protecting girls like me from bullies when I asked why he was always fawning over me (and several other openly trans women). All of whom incidentally were constantly talking about the trans experience, and several of whom also did sex work, promoting it through the same channels.

I'm emphasizing that last bit because the next thing this guy became known for is being just a huge foaming at the mouth TERF. What people generally assume happened is trans people chewed him out for that TV episode with the trans woman I mentioned earlier, but that's straight up untrue. Like I said, at the time, he was fishing for approving comments on it, while also promoting the work of multiple trans women. Cis guys with entertainment connections willing to promote the hell out of trans women's causes and personal writings are precious unicorns so rare and useful as to be practically unheard of. The idea that any of the trans women he was talking to back then would burn their bridges with him for the sake of griping about an episode of an old TV show he's already riddled with anxiety about is such an utterly ridiculous tactical own goal that the only reason this rumor ever got off the ground is that there's this longstanding bit of propaganda that trans women are all super angry and combative... which, you know, you're perpetuating when you spread this lie here.

The actual story is a bit of a two-parter. First, he got suckered in by some other TERF writing this "feel good" work of fiction about "tough love" causing her trans son to "realize he wasn't trans." The actual story there if you read between the lines just a little, waited for her son's side of the story to come out a bit later, or even just ask her about things like two weeks after the fact was of course that she enacted some straight up child abuse until her son stopped bringing the subject up and just quietly transitioned without her input, but there was a brief window there where someone not paying attention could be taken in and talk about this heartwarming story, get rightfully called out for boosting child abuse advocacy, and get love-bombed by a hate group. And honestly, that really was the whole thing, this second part only exists because nobody's going to tell you they were radicalized into a hate group because they celebrated child abuse then kept doubling down about it.

What came next though, and the reason this creep will cite TO THIS DAY as what flipped him... not even when asked, he regularly records videos just rambling about it even, was me... kinda. Like I said, guy was crushing on me HARD at the time, and still boosting my stuff while he was still getting indoctrinated into this crap, and the rest of the hate group didn't like that one bit. Not only was he mooning over a trans woman, he's signal boosting the stuff I'm writing about the alarmingly high percentage of these people buttering him up involved in CSA crap and acts of domestic terrorism and such. Apparently talking about that constantly was my irresistible siren's song and all.

So the absolute scum of the earth set about trying to find some dirt on me to show this guy to maybe make him stop jerkin' it to my essays or whatever, and when they couldn't find anything (turns out I'm pretty boring) they made something up. That one site that does this sort of thing put together some sort of "dossier" on me that just sort of filled in arbitrary garbage for where I lived, my dead name, etc. etc. and included a photo of... mid-90s anime convention regular "Sailor Bubba" in full costume. And then of course they started bombarding this guy with it. Also me. They really don't get how the whole stalking thing works and assume people will be terrified if you "prove" you know where they live by messaging them an address in the wrong timezone and a picture of some random guy dressed like Sailor Moon.

This absolutely got the job done. He was properly horrified and disgusted by this "revelation" and... still hasn't stopped publicly freaking out about it. I kinda wish the photo they sent him really was me so I could joke about having the face that launched a thousand ships in the wrong direction. As is your guess is as good as mine whether he actually disapproved of this random congoer's appearance that much, just didn't want to picture me, the woman he's been obsessing over for like a year or two looking like that, or it's just a big act to distract people from what actually turned him to the dark side, but he was apparently so horrified by this "revelation" he burned his last bridges with decent people, lost his wife, lost his job, and lost whatever was left of his humanity. The other thing he's famous for is trying to get the British government to cut funding to a children's charity. Long story. Involves Donkey Kong somehow.

But point is, he's still screaming about this to this day. Mentions me by name, sorta. It's the one I used to use for this blog, and he intentionally always gets one word slightly wrong because he REALLY doesn't want the few TERFs who are still even willing to speak to him to look this up and see that no, he didn't ever think that woman he was obsessed with was cis, or that there's a dozen other such.

To finally get to my point though, I enjoy telling this story. It's weird, it's baffling, it's damaging to a huge bigot's ability to do harm, and it's pretty funny. BUT, this is my story to tell. It's not at all cool for anyone else to tell it, and they do. Often. I swear at least about once a year, someone with a huge platform decides it's time to rehash this loser's weird public meltdown. Sometimes they just tell the myth about the angry reactions to a TV show, which again is harmful to trans people generally, sometimes they get it mostly right, or they just stare at a recording of him explaining it himself. And these are the times when I really suffer for someone else's entertainment.

They don't know who I am. Their audiences sure as hell don't. If I'm lucky, they play a clip of this creep's disgusted ramblings about some random dude's photo and awkwardly try to say something nice like "there's nothing wrong with a woman having a big beer gut and a full beard by the way." And if I'm unlucky, things go all telephone game, and I suddenly have some unstable weirdo from halfway across the country trying to rally up a lynch mob against me because "wouldn't just take one for the team" or that I DID (never enough showers to scrub away that mental image) or otherwise hold me accountable for the sins of some creep who used to stalk me. And even if I catch these and try to offer up some corrections or bonus anecdotes, people using my weird story about this creep (or vice versa) to make jokes never want to change their material.

I don't ever want to be talked about like that, thanks. If you want to tell people how much this particular creep is a pathetic monster, I'm all for it, but you have to invite me along. You get a better version of the story, I don't get a fresh wave of weird stalkers and I get to feel like I have some measure of control over my own life for once. You know?

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "A Fool's Hope"/"Family Reunion And Farewell"

*singing*

~I'm glad that you were here with me/Here at the end of all things.~

Live reaction version.

Yeah be prepared for a lot of Lord of the Rings quotes and song lyrics in this one, lol.

Hey, don't blame me, the writers were the ones who made it clear they were hopeless Tolkien nerds.

And yes I am packaging both (all three?) episodes together. This is how it was aired, this is how it was experienced, you're gonna get the full treatment.

This does mean though that I will be very stingy with the pictures. Apologies. Blame Tumblr, not me.

Anyway, we start off the finale by gathering all the disparate parties that we completed the Friendship Fetch Quests for. Rex, Kallus, Gregor, Wolffe, Hondo, Melch, and Ketsu are all Back For The Finale. Which is a trope that I absolutely love in all shapes and forms, and it's even more appropriate for this show given that Ezra's main character "superpower" is literally making friends.

The connections and bridges he built all come back to aide him, not for any selfish motives of their own or because "the enemy of my enemy", but simply because Ezra has asked them to come.

"It's for Ezra," is all Hera has to say, and Hondo is immediately, genuinely pledging, "For that boy, there is nothing I would not do."

It is... incredibly heartwarming.

And I told y'all Hondo was a romantic at heart, and genuinely misses the days when the Jedi were around. And also that in the Rebellion Era, the Jedi still represent the nobility and goodness of the past.

After the titlecard, which still has no fanfare, we get this scene:

Come, you all knew I was going to cap it. Sabine's concern is so soft, the hand she places on Ezra's shoulder and the way she asks if he's okay so gentle.

The visual similarity in this scene and two scenes prior to this are interesting. This scene is firstly visually reminiscent of the Kanan-Hera scene in the beginning of "Kindred" (inviting comparison to the main canon ship of the show), and also the Kanan-Ezra scene at the beginning of "Jedi Night" (which emphasizes again that Kanan and Sabine are the two Most Important People in Ezra's life).

Ezra sits in the exact same pose, in the exact same place, that we saw Kanan meditating at, suggesting that he is also hearing the echoes of things to come, having similar visions of the future. This is certainly supported by his dialogue, where he mentions, "Something's changed... Something's happening." and that he's had a vision of Palpatine sending Thrawn back to Lothal.

Honestly I'm surprised it took Palpatine so long, lol. Thrawn: Treason supposedly takes place over the course of... a week? And the events of "Rebel Assault" to "A World Between Worlds" can't have been more than three or four days.

(This is why I reject the official canon timeline for Rebels, Season Four's events are crammed into the space of a month or two AT BEST.)

But anyway, Palpatine is pretty pissed off about the whole Temple thing so yeah, he's sending Thrawn back to retrieve Ezra personally. This seems to be a big ol' sticking point for our favorite blue bastard because he is NOT HAPPY when he turns back up.

You can't blame him really. He'd barely left Lothal and his TIE Defender project got literally blown up, so he had to spend the budget meeting arguing for what was essentially a smoking crater, and the wager he made with Krennic et. all. ultimately went nowhere because he lost on a technicality, and then the Emperor starts questioning his loyalty because his old Ascendancy friends showed up during the shenanigans, and then Palpatine dismissed him to go clean up the mess on Lothal and fetch him back a teenager for Sith sorcery bullshit.

...He'd had a very bad week, is what I'm saying.

I got off topic there, where was I?

Oh yes, Ezra's risky gamble. Fun fact, that was the original title of the episode, "Ezra's Gamble". I assume they axed it because it would give too much away. And like I've said before, if they could have avoided showing Ryder in footage taking the Dome for the finale previews, they could have really sold his false betrayal.

Pryce does not look like she's having a good week either lol.

Ezra continues to be cryptic about things, yet another hint to us that he's gotten "insider information" from the Force, as it were, and has made plans according to multiple possible outcomes. This is just one of the reasons why he outmaneuvered Thrawn, the other major one being that there was no possible way for Thrawn to predict Ezra throwing space whales at him lol.

This interference by the Force could have been a bit of a Deus Ex Machina but I think it's pretty clear that the Force only shared what might happen and left Ezra to figure out a solution on his own.

And his solution was space whales. XD

That comes later though, after this very risky gambit with letting Ryder broadcast their location to Pryce. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Hera might not have made it back in time. Ryder could have decided to genuinely betray them. Rukh could have gotten in a lucky strike and incapacitated him.

We are apparently putting a LOT of trust in the Force today.

This action setpiece is a great one so I'll just cover a few of my favorite highlights:

All the shots that track Sabine as she jetpacks around the battlefield.

Ezra versus Rukh.

Zeb going full feral with the minigun.

And of course on the other side of things Hondo trying to count the number of times he'd been collided with pulling off this exact maneuver they're using lol. The blockade seems to have thinned from "Rebel Assault", not as many capital ships?, so maybe I was right in that Thrawn called for reinforcements to repel the attack. Still gives Ezra the highest kill count by proxy at the end of things.

Oh and once again there's a moment where someone threatens Sabine in order to force Ezra to surrender. <3 Love that.

Pryce is awfully smug until the Ghost shows up, lol. (To heroic Main Theme fanfare into the Rebel Alliance theme of course.) Someone on the writing team understood the power of a good Eucatastophe. (Tolkien term, it means "the sudden happy turn to good".)

The clones also get a leitmotif fanfare as they debark the Ghost.

And we get a lovely Force Theme as Ezra gets his most badass shot.

Hell yeah.

The wolves sequence is amazing. The dramatic chorus, the chaos, the wolves skirting the veeeeeeeeeeery boundary of what's allowed on a Y7 show lol.

You know some of the troopers got ate.

One last shoutout to Hera using the Ghost to straight up smack a gunship out of the air and now we've come to the end of the setpiece. It can be hard sometimes to fill a full episode with one action sequence but this episode pulls if off perfectly. It never feels stale or boring, there are multiple bits and moments that just work. (I've always loved the moment where Ezra lunges for Ruhk's energy staff and uses the momentum of Rukh lunging for the same to straight up yeet him off the platform.)

Ezra's completely nonphased at Hondo's slung arm shoulder hug now aww.

Moving right along into the next segment...

This soft intro with Ezra talking to his parents' picture, telling them they are the inspiration behind his actions, how he wishes they could meet his new family, how he knows what he needs to do, but he's afraid. T_T Hgn he's precious and so mature and I love him so so much.

He knows what he might have to do, guys. He knows he might never actually see Lothal again and he's still prepared to make that sacrifice if he has to.

He's SUCH a good Jedi you guys I can't.

Kallus gets a token line here about his defection which is... okay. But again, really needed more from this arc for it to have a full impact.

"We come to it at last; the great battle of our time."

One casual wolf threat later, Pryce has agreed to transmit the victory codes and our heros fly off to the capitol to pull off their boldest venture yet.

I will never ever get over this moment. Sabine so attuned to Ezra even without the Force that she can tell just by looking at him how distracted and sad and scared he is.

How Ezra so clearly wants to tell her but holds back, and substitutes instead a declaration of absolute faith and trust.

And how she sees right through that and knows Something Weird Be Up With The Boy, Yo.

But like so many other conversations between the two, things are left unfinished, the mission and circumstances taking precedence.

Love the two quipping back to Pryce tho. <3

Still a crapton of air pollution over the city. This would clear up dramatically in the climax, for a bit of a symbolic moment.

There are SO many callbacks to previous moments in the show in this sequence, I noted a couple of them in my original liveblog but I'm certain there's a few I missed.

The music cue is great too, as is the effective silence once they've taken the bridge. A little bit of musical breathing space before things get hairy again, courtesy of Rukh ambushing the others back at base and stealing a gunship.

You know? I'm not quite sure what the plan was for if they managed to destroy the Dome before Thrawn got back. Seems a little shortsighted to blow up all the fighters and equipment and your city shields. A single Star Destroyer is more than capable of leveling cities and there are several in orbit around Lothal.

This honestly lends even more credence to the idea that, Force visions aside, Ezra was largely making this up as he went and had NO idea what he was doing lol.

Indy Ploy versus Xanatos Gambit. Indy Ploy wins by virtue of there was no way the Xanatos Gambit could predict the level of crazy Ezra's ideas were.

Amazing how empty the streets are when they've been emptied of Imperials.

Thrawn arrives, per schedule, and parks right over the Dome so that can't launch, lest they create catastrophic collateral damage. Important to note, for the people who want to nitpick No Endor Holocaust scenarios, the show specifically details that the city shields put out by the Dome deflected the Star Destroyer wreckage when the purrgil came, and that the Rebels directed the Dome to explode over the bay, not the city. The Cadet Academy is also a completely different building.

I mean, sure the debris from the Dome probably isn't great for the bay's ecosystem but honestly the water was probably already super polluted from the factories, they had to clean it up anyway.

Where was I? Right, Thrawn getting to be really awesomely creepy. The placid, "Are you quite finished?" gives me chills every time. Once again let me praise the expression work on this show because Ezra's soft Oh Crap look is amazing.

The dawning horror on Sabine's face too.

And then this music cue! The tension is drawn out just long enough for us to fully appreciate the horror.

:((((((

They even give us a nice wide-shot to appreciate just how much damage just those few seconds of bombardment did.

I had a rant here originally about the dumbass headcanon that Thrawn targeted empty buildings in this sequence (that may or may not have originated from Timothy Zahn himself) but if you've been following me you already know how I feel about it. It's asinine and I won't entertain it. Moving on.

Backed into a corner, Ezra knows he has no choice but to give himself up to Thrawn. This track in the score, "Sabine Sees Ezra" perfectly captures the sorrow and drama. It starts with a strained version of Ezra's theme, that doesn't resolve, fading instead into mournful original strings. Hera's entreaties for him to stay are painful, we can't help but think of what must be in her head--she just lost Kanan, she's afraid to lose him too. But Ezra is a Jedi. He is the guardian of Lothal. So he must make the sacrifice no one else can. He can't choose to be selfish.

So while Hera and the others try to figure out a way around the problem of Thawn, Ezra goes to confront it head on, secretly signaling to Chopper, who has been entrusted with so much of this plan.

And Sabine sees him.

It's a consistent theme throughout their relationship. She sees him. She notices him. She's attuned to when he's upset. She perceives him in a way that's unique from everyone else.

And he trusts her so implicitly that he silently asks for her help here, and after a moment of agony she does it, because she trusts him too.

These two just break my heart. :(

Sabine keeps looking back at the empty spot where he had been. T_T

There's a theme here about attachment and loss again, and it comes from Sabine. Like a Jedi, she's able to let go of her fear of loss and trust Ezra, whatever happens, and is able to encourage Hera to do the same. Her theme plays out here, strongly, before giving way to an excerpt of the Main Titles theme, uniting the Rebels in their heroism.

Ezra's theme playing again here, skittish and frightened. Once again the expression work is heartbreaking. Ezra looks like he's steeling himself, holding back his fear. He's resigned to his purpose, but that doesn't mean he's enjoying it.

AND NOW WE GET MY FAVORITE HANNIBAL LECTURE/SHUT UP HANNIBAL EXCHANGE! :D

The dialogue between Thrawn and Ezra here is so good.

"You could have chosen to let your people die. However... you chose to be a Jedi." Jedi cannot help what they are, the Jedi Code is like an itch he cannot help it *sobs in Kenobi feelings*.

Thrawn pontificating about how petty things like ethics get in the way of being efficient. He picks at Ezra from several different angles in this conversation, first by deriding the moral code of the Jedi, then by pointing out that their righteousness did not save the Jedi in the end, all that's left are frightened poorly trained children--a clear dig at Ezra himself. He laments what a shame it is that the Jedi didn't apply their powers in a way he deems would have been effective, implicitly suggesting that the Jedi should have used their power to dominate and conquer--Might Makes Right, after all, if you have the means to achieve a certain end you should use it.

Ezra tanks that calmly, pointing out that the Force isn't a weapon.

So Thrawn switches tactics, now lamenting that he must destroy Lothal (no you don't you asshole you can literally just disobey orders and defect, the total genocide of Lothal is entirely within your power to prevent) and oh, isn't it such a shame about Sabine.

And that hits Ezra's berserk trigger lol.

He snaps back at Thrawn. You're a tyrant, a bully, you didn't make or earn any of this, you just took it because you could, because you think your strength makes you right.

Thrawn essentially confirms that, "Yeah, having power does make me right." before leading him down to where the Temple doors have been set up for his meeting with the Emperor. Which kind of makes me think Thrawn wanted the opportunity to dress Ezra down and soften him up for Palpatine's manipulations because he could have just had the troopers shove him into the hanger first thing.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra keeps looking around in astonishment, wide-eyed, at the sight of the Temple doors.

Palpatine cloaks himself in white like an angel of light for this final temptation, wearing the guise of a friend or kindly old grandpa. It's every bit as unsettling as it seems.

Meanwhile with the B-Squad, Mart reveals that--like Chopper--he has also been entrusted with a crucial part of Ezra's "Just in case" plan. (Theirs is an underrated friendship, fanficcers you have let me down, again, why do I have to write all the things I wanna see more of?)

That shot of the wolves running alongside and under the Ghost. *chef kiss*

I have no idea when Ezra found time to figure out a signal the purrgil would respond to but I very much want to see that scene.

Sabine: "He [Ezra] knows what he's doing." Lol are you sure about that, 'bine? I think he had no clue the whole purrgil thing would work.

Palpatine is so slimy here, ugh. Acting like he did Ezra a favor by desecrating the Jedi Temple. Ezra's all ready to fling back anything ol Sheev throws at him here until Palpatine takes aim right at the heart of his greatest weakness.

Because after all this time, Ezra has never quite fully gotten over and accepted the loss of his parents. He's still at heart a lost little boy who misses his mom and dad.

The score goes almost Stravinsky-esque here, suggesting the Faustian nature of the deal Sidious is offering.

Meanwhile down in the gullet of the Dome, the Rebels are working feverishly to regain control of the the shield generator. There's some great coordination here between the teams and the control, Sabine really shines as a leader.

Word of God behind the scenes confirms Ezra is seeing THE day his parents were taken, his seventh birthday, when he could hear his mom and dad calling for him but didn't come because he was goofing off.

Hey uh, can this boy's life stop being ENDLESSLY SAD please? That'd be nice.

Love how Gregor calls for "something drastic" and Zeb immediately thinks, "Right, yeeting myself at the enemy." lol.

Gotta respect a man whose strategy is to fling himself full force at the enemy.

And the obligatory Make TCW Fans Cry Moment with Gregor here.

Palpatine keeps digging. This is your heart's desire isn't it? Don't you deserve this? All you have to do is open this one little door. He tries to keep Ezra's attention and focus on himself, even when Ezra asks what will happen to his friends if he makes this choice.

You can undo their deaths, Palpatine promises, about Ezra's parents. You can save them. I can help. It's the exact temptation he offered Anakin all those years ago.

"I have the power to give you what you want. You won't have to face this loss."

Like a devil, what he offers is a two-edged sword. What he is offering can't actually exist. Because if Ezra goes to be with his parents on the day they were arrested, how will he be able to make it here to open the door for Palpatine? Will Palpatine have to trap him in a closed loop, retrieve him from wherever he will end up in the alternate timeline, to ensure he can't fix this one fatal mistake?

See Palpatine doesn't care about breaking the timeline, he will gladly do it and rule over the ruins. But if Ezra reaches for this vision, he dooms his friends. He allows Palpatine to gain power beyond his wildest imaginings, turn himself into lord and master of time itself, a physical god.

So Ezra must deny himself, accept the loss, and let go.

And he does.

The Emperor's hologlamour flickering and failing as his rage ascends is really effectively creepy. Also HOW ABOUT THEM RETURN OF THE JEDI PARALLELS?

Years down the line, yet another pure-hearted Jedi boy will stand before the Emperor, throw his offer in his face, and tell him where to shove it. Even the dialogue mirrors Luke's.

"You're wrong. I have a family. I don't need anything from you."/"Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

"Unfortunate. Destroy him!"/"So be it, Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed!"

Poetry. Pure poetry. <3

Ezra gets a nice little face off against the Royal Guards, with some lovely whump in the form of whatever those pikes are doing to him, but manages to weasel himself out of the situation. And then somehow fights his way all the way up to the bridge. So proud of him.

The Rebels get the shield up just in time to prevent Thrawn's full scale bombardment, Rukh frying rather dramatically in the process. Lol and ouch with how irreverent Zeb is over the comm.

So now all that's left to do is break the stalemate and remove Thrawn from the chessboard.

HELL YES.

Oh hoooo man this twist isn't even really a twist it just makes too much sense for Ezra, for his character, for the themes of the show, for how to take Thrawn out as a threat while respecting his acumen as a strategist. (Gotta throw something at him he would never suspect lol.)

The musical build-up is amazing. Dooming low bass notes, drolling percussion. The strings build up, crescendo-ing.

AND THEN THE "WRATH OF NATURE" CUE FROM "THE CALL" COMES IN WITH GLORIOUS FULL ORCHESTRA.

The Hyperspace theme comes in as well, and the purrgil proceed to utterly decimate Thrawn's fleet. By proxy this gives Ezra probably the highest kill count on the show, as the purrgil must have taken out the orbital construction stations, a good chunk of the Star Destroyers up there, and all three of the ones above the city. (Somehow Palleon survives to join the Council of Evil in Mando Season 3 lol.)

Sabine looks SO confused, ha ha.

What a great shot.

Thrawn tries to get in a final, Taking You With me speech only for Ezra to be like, "Joke's on you that was the plan all along. You're not taking me with you, I'm taking you with me."

I do love Thrawn's increasingly panicky WTF expressions as things progress.

THIS ADORABLE #MARRIED BANTER BETWEEN EZRA AND SABINE AND THEN HOW THEIR THEMES ARE TONALLY INTERMINGLED IN THIS CUE.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra's left arm hangs limp after Thrawn shoots his shoulder and the pained grimace he gives when he turns around to seal the door behind them.

He looks exhausted.

Pained grimace number two as Ezra raises his injured arm to wind up IN AN EXACT TABLEAU OF THE POSE KANAN HAD AT HIS OWN HEROIC SACRIFICE.

HELLO YES, ALSO ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS BETWEEN EZRA AND SABINE AS SHE BEGS HIM TO GET OFF THE CHIMAERA.

ALSO IT BEARS EMPHASIS BUT LOOK HOW THE GLASS SHARDS STILL WHEN EZRA RAISES HIS OTHER ARM.

EZRA IS LITERALLY HOLDING THE OXYGEN INSIDE THE BRIDGE WITH THE FORCE, WHILE HOLDING THRAWN AND THE DOOR IN PLACE, WITH AN INJURED ARM.

Ezra Bridger is the greatest shut up.

The purrgil charge up. Everything goes white. His theme bellows at full heroic volume and then...

Quiet.

Utter awed quiet.

Right, so you wanna know the other of the two times I cried at this show? Ezra's sacrifice right here. Waterworks.

"We set out to save the Shire, and it has been saved. But not for me. I have been too badly hurt. The last pages are for you, Sam."

Sabine is handed Ezra's lightsaber by Chopper, and takes up his mantle, finishing his mission and leading all the rest of them to safety as the launch the Dome and blow it. (Her journey to becoming co-protagonist is complete.)

Chopper gives us a final goodbye message from Ezra (that makes me sad again), and they soar over a triumphant freed populace.

Fade out and then...

*SOBS ABOUT THE BOOKENDS FOREVER*

Shot for shot. Shot. For. Shot. And I am UNDONE.

Lothal is free. The Empire never had a chance to retake it. Likely couldn't spare the manpower from the rest of the galaxy, first off, also replacing all those ships they had in orbit has gotta be expensive, and I suspect Palpatine just put glassing Lothal on hold until the Death Star was completed. And well... we know how that turned out lol.

The Fellowship broke, but they seem to all keep in touch, if Sabine's voiceover is any indication. Kanan's legacy lives on. Our crew found peace.

And last...

A sworn promise to find a precious friend and bring him back home.

The finale of Rebels is near perfection. With a very few quibbles here and there (the purrgil could have been just a smidgen more set up, Kallus's arc still needs to have some decent onscreen content for his redemption happy ending to be earned) it is the best Rebels has to offer.

The callbacks and bookends undo me. The music is full of wonderful dramatic cues. The animation is gorgeous. Everything comes to full completion and it is a very satisfying end.

Overall Season Thoughts:

Season Four is almost a bit nostalgic, returning to the tightly written narrative of the first season, but even more tightly tied together. None of the episodes feel wasted or superfluous. The major character death midway through is given plenty of narrative weight and time for the characters to adjust and grieve. Objectively it's probably the best season overall, none of the episodes are misses.

Even with the unanswered mysteries, the season feels solid, and a fitting conclusion to the overall Rebels saga.

---

And that was Star Wars: Rebels, the little show about a Found Family that could. It is my favorite new Star Wars content and what actually dragged me back into fandom after years away. It is heartwarming and exciting, poignant and hopeful and I'm so so glad I was taken on this journey.

Here's hoping the lost son of Lothal can make his way home soon.

[rosalind-hawkins]

🐧🦃🐦‍⬛ for the ask game

For THIS ask game! I decided to dig deep for these! All of these are excerpts from an unpublished fic rewrite/continuation about the Legendary Knights of Atlantis: Secrets & Lies.

🐧 a funny quote (silly! laughs! jokes! puns!)

Oof, had to dig deep for this.

~~~~~

"I have quite a few tales from my journeys," Hermos said one day when he feared that Drustan was about to ask a personal question. "Would you like to hear one?"

"Maybe." The brunette smiled. "How embellished is your story?"

"It's stretched long enough to reach nose to tail on a draft horse." He grinned wickedly.

"Then of course I want to hear it," Drustan laughed, settling back in his chair for the story. He didn't particularly care if the story was true, a good story is a good story.

🦃 a big, meaty quote (JUST A BIG OL PARAGRAPH YOU WANNA SHARE)

Bruh, YOU ASKED FOR IT.

~~~~~

"I've lost strength, Timaeus."

"What do you mean?"

"When I had almost reached Soleanna, I was robbed on the road. My sword was stolen from me and my right arm was injured. The wound has healed, but the healers told me that the wound was so deep I would not be able to recover my former strength. I'm no longer fit to be a knight of Atlantis." Hermos closed his hands into a fist. "I was barely fit for the role in the first place."

"That's not true." Timaeus' statement was full of conviction.

"I was lucky to make the rank of knight at all." Hermos's voice was bitter and sad. "I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they partnered me with you two. Even at my best, I was barely half as good as you."

The sound of steel sliding against steel made Hermos look up. Critias had unsheathed his sword.

"Duel me, Hermos. I will assess the strength of your sword-arm for myself."

🐦‍⬛ a great quote of dialogue (maybe you're proud of how in-character it is, or how sharp the back and forth!)

I was tempted to post this whole scene, but that would have been way too much. I promise I'll post this fic someday.

~~~~~

“Get the hell out of here, Critias.” Hermos turned his back on him, facing the dragonsteed again as he tried to keep his temper under control. He wasn’t sure how much more ridicule he could take before he threw himself at the blond with both fists raised.

Critias took a few steps away, then turned back to speak over his shoulder.

“Who stayed up with you that night, Hermos?”

His tone had completely changed.

“That night, after Maiya turned down your proposal, you drank half your body weight in ale, and Timaeus passed out trying to keep up with you. Who stayed up with you all through that night until the dawn broke?”

The silence was long and deafening.

“You did.” Hermos’s answer was barely a whisper.

“That’s right.” Critias looked away from him again. “You didn’t sleep a wink that night, so neither did I.” He left then, and neither Hermos nor Drustan spoke a word until the blond knight was long out of sight.

"Wow. He's…" Drustan was at a loss for words, but Hermos wasn't.

"Pigheaded. Obnoxious. Self-righteous. Overbearing. Pick one." The former knight waved a hand demonstrably before he resumed petting Persephone.

"Intense," Drustan chose instead.

"He's the firstborn son of a noble, it probably comes with the silver spoon."

[burnin0akleaves]

He shrugged, a little embarrassed that he had exposed that aspect of his life. “I guess I was happy enough,” he said. “But all the others in the ward—Horace, Alyss, Jenny and George—they all had family names. They might have lost their parents but they knew who they had been. They knew where they came from. I didn’t and I guess I felt... I don’t know... left out somehow.”

This is literally just me practicing how to draw kids, added the quote because its a rare Will remembers his problems moment and it feels relevant.

Anyway I've come to the conclusion that I hate drawing small children! Toddlers barely have any of their facial features developed. I can't give Alyss or Horace bigger noses, I can't give Will his nose bridge, they all have big ol eyes, thin eyebrows and soft features. Its like having same face syndrome but on purpose. Also George is there.

A lot of blondes in this kingdom jesus christ

[mrstsung]

My hc mk12/mk1 shang tsung self ship au quotes:

*note i only do my hc version of mk12/mk1 shang tsung. This is also just for fun. So canon divergent extreme. Because i have kollectively decided that the storymode is shit,the narrative is shit,and my hc verse is just a young master shang tsung in outworld during his time under the corrupt regime of edenia and outworld. Under shao Kahn's heelboot. That being said enjoy.*

Cw:language,(also it's mortal kombat you should know better),canon divergence,some nsft implications,some angst,self indulgent to hell. Not an x reader. If there is anything i forgot lemme know so i can properly citation this. <3

Green is shang

Purple is me

💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚

"If you can be anything,be a menace to them my dear,much more fulfilling"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why should i trust you?"

"The question you actually wish to ask my dear,is why not? But also can i afford not to? What alternative is there truly? The emperor cares not for earthrealmers,i should know. I was once one of them."

"Fair point. I don't like anyone here. And i need to get back home somehow. So im stuck with you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're lucky he's dead,he would have eaten you....though you have a sweet little soul. I think he may get cavities" *chuckles*

"Are you always this a sarcastic insufferable dick?"

"No,but for you it's just too fun not to be beautiful"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*scenario: hiding from warrior guards. Me n shang unfortunately are hiding in a compromising position. And he's kinda feelin the cobra rise*

"I think we lost them shang"

*notices somethin be poking me back*

"Wait...is that....*whisperes heavily* SHANG!"

*blushes and turns away* "apologizes my dear"

"Ugh" *blushing*

"Could you really blame a man though?,you do have a rather...pleasing posterior"

*blushes harder and gets more mad n flustered* (look im tsundere af im easy to tease. Shang would have a field day with me)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*shang reading a book. Sees me walk into his bed chambers with nothing on but a big ol shirt.*

*puts the book down*

"Oh my,well well. Don't you look delectable ♡"

"It's nothing really. I mean it's a simple big black shirt i had in my backpack,Nothing special. I mean i packed very lightly before i fell into this weird mess of a realm."

"Even so. It fits you oh so nicely. Shows all of your greatest....assets."

"Stop shang,you're just trying to make me feel better" *looks away,kinda feeling low about appearance*

"No,no i mean it. You're beautiful. You think of everyone but yourself. Take care of everyone else but you. You deserve the best in life. And i wouldn't settle for less than. Neither should you."

*sits me in front of a mirror in his bed chambers*

"My dear look at your curves,your hair how it flows. Your beautiful lips. Your dark eyes with yearning. A fire and passion burns in your soul,waiting to be free. And if you let me,and ask of me. I shall help set it free. Free from worry,pain,never again will you doubt yourself."

"I dunno shang,i just think of myself as well...me. nothin really that special."

*shang thinking he needs a better approach. As he realizes flattery can get so far. Though he genuinely means every word. He thinks to himself "this woman has a worried mind,and has been hurt before perhaps." *

"Nonsense! You look at me *lifts my head with finger under my chin* you are special. I have seen into your very soul. You are unique. Every one is. But you,see me as i am. Not as i say. With you i dont need to hide. No honeyed words can sway you,tho your face blushes red. Nothing that i have done so far strays you from me. Even now i show you my place of dwelling and though i am but the emperors courtly mage i still am forced to live in a more less than ideal home. All the gold and treasures you see before is through tournaments in the Coliseum. Nothing but trinkets either from the emperor for being a "good dog" or from the crowds to see slaughter for the bloodsport of the gods. Yet this doesn't frighten you,or turn you from me. I know that feeling of not liking what you see before you. But believe me when i say. A body will rot. But the soul....ah the soul my dear lives on for eternity. It's the truest of ones self. And within you i see a rose among the gardens of weeds and pompous fools gold. A heart that i honestly and deeply can say is Phoenix like. Noble,beautiful, and rising above such insects below you."

"Shang...i...dunno what else to say,i mean I'm flattered but.... Did you mean all that?"

"Every word my dear,every word. But dont just take my words,believe in yourself. Please. I dont like seeing you be so hard on yourself. A man such as i,can not truly pass. But you do,and can. Wish not for a life not worth lived. And loved."

"Shang,i....thank you"

*embraces shang in a deep hug*

*shang embraces back*

(Oof sorry i got carried away there. 😅 but i thought of a scenario where in all honesty i may feel a lil inadequacy in edenia/outworld. Because everyone there looks "appealing" while i feel like an outsider, which i am technically. But fr it would feel awkward. And basically shang telling me. That my looks dont matter my heart and soul does. And edenians and outworlders have a tendency to be fake af and he likes my honesty and down to earth vibe. In other words shang likes my homilyness and none of that "person who tries to hard to look good but has a shitty personality and only likes him for what he can give them and not him for him,even when he is old and grey and low on souls and not doin so hot. Etc" crap he may have gotten before with others.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You will not fucking dare harm her!"

"Less you lose your head reiko"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Shang....what are you doing?"

"Clearly smoking and pondering the universes secrets" *takes a hit from his hookah*

*snickers* "what does the universe tell you oh wise and deep one?"

"It tells me that if you keep up that snark you may find yourself on the receiving end on my dragon's claws" *gestures with clawed rings*

*blush*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ah fuck, quick! what do i do now shang?!"

"If you Kill their pride they'll usually fall down"

*hits the opponent in the balls so hard that it would make 95 johnny cage proud*

"Not exactly what i ment but that'll work"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*me n shang bathing together*

"You know,I've noticed that your sweet side is you best side"

"Well that's a Good thing to hear,because you're the only one who's seen it"

*kisses my forehead*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*this is suggestive.

So take it as you want.>:3c hee hee*

"That's....like a lot shang."

"Apologizes dear,it's been a while"

"How about i clean that up for you? *flirty look*

"I'd like that very much ♡"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well that's all for now. May make some more later.

💚🐍💋

[fearxtoxfreedom]

NAME : Alessio AGE : 19 GENDER : Male SEXUALITY : Bisexual ENERGY : Martial Arts HEIGHT : 183 см REGION : Sunset IDENTITY : Protector of the Outer City QUOTE : "I once forgot about the person behind the mask...Now I remember."

WORLD CONNECTIONS :

MILADY : Alessio lives in the liberal Outer City, and was only vaguely wary of the ruler in the Inner City. However, since Biron lost an arm in a run-in with Milady, she became one of Alessio's enemies. BIRON : They met over trying to save a cat, and became blood brothers. They always talk as if they don't like each other, but Alessio works very hard on Biron's mechanical arm, and Biron often accompanies Alessio on his voyages. MAYENE : An ally in the journey to find ol' Captain Red Hawk. It'd be nice if she could work a bit harder though. ALLAIN : Allain's new job is to keep an eye on the Red Hawk. What will happen between him, Mayene, and Alessio? The story continues. DOILA : "She snuck onto my ship and hid in a crate until she was discovered. Turns out that our stowaway is of the merfolk mentioned in the logs. Incredible!" MARCO POLO : Alessio encountered Marco Polo, an anomalic lordling, while investigating the Red Hawk, and learned more about the ship as well as the old Captain. HEINO : Alessio initially thought that since Heino's a member of an Arkana clan, power and profits would be the only thing on his mind. Much to his surprise, Heino's as passionate as Alessio when it comes to protecting Navenia, and even might have a hint of that Red Hawk spirit. LUNA : Alessio once saved a cat and befriended it. Later on, he found out that the cat, Bailey, belonged to the Moon Clan. Bailey often goes to Alessio for free food, and Alessio escorts Bailey home each time, and happened to meet its owner.

BIOGRAPHY :

Alessio, who lived in the Outer City of Navenia, was but an average individual, till in a life-changing moment, he took on the commission from the legendary Captain Red Hawk and started on a new path as a hero in disguise. The real legendary "Captain Red Hawk" had single-handedly protected the Outer City from pirates. Although Alessio had an ingenuity that provided him with a few tricks up his sleeve, he knew he was a far cry from Captain's fearsome reputation. To put on a perfect hero act, Alessio honed his skills tirelessly, doing his best to imitate the old Captain in every way possible, but he still fell short. That is, until one day, when his mask was shattered and his cover was blown. Only when the folks in the Outer City still accepted him despite not being the real thing, did he realize that a hero is recognized not by their name, but by their deeds. Today, folks in the Outer City continue to call him Captain Red Hawk. Though he had now officially inherited the name, he was no longer interested in trying to copy the original Captain. Instead, he began to accept himself and started exploring ways to become a unique Red Hawk. With his mask strapped to his waist, he continued to patrol the Outer City every day with his cannon on his shoulder, researching newfangled shells and unique combat methods in order to protect the peace. Anyone in a tight spot could be sure to rely on his kindness and determination, even if it meant confronting the powerful and ruthless Governess. And thus, in the sailors' shanty, a legendary new Captain Red Hawk was born... But deep down, Alessio continued to look forward to the day when he would see the old Captain again to tell him that he had not dishonored the Red Hawk name.

SHORT STORIES BENEATH CUT

IMPOSTER :

Alessio once chanced upon a counterfeit at a flea market.

It was a shell bearing the name Captain Red Hawk. It bore a high price tag, he bought it anyway, and it became his prized possession. Little did he know that he had gotten his hands on a ticking bomb—one that literally blew up half his room while he was asleep.

Half a room wasn't such a big deal, and even if it had blown up the entire room, there wasn't much that needed saving. But the shrapnel from the explosion was clearly engraved with "Property of the Arkana Navy," tying it to the powerful consul and her arsenal. This meant that it had nothing to do with Captain Red Hawk from the Outer City.

After that, he gathered his few remaining possessions and went to stay with his brother-in-arms, Biron. At that time, Biron hadn't yet lost an arm or earned the nickname "Steele."

This also gave Biron, always the butt of Alessio's jokes, the opportunity to poke fun at him instead.

"Well, well, since you've only got fragments of that ridiculously expensive cannon left, isn't it high time you let me have a look at your precious treasure?"

The words of gloating reached Alessio's ears as soon as he stepped foot inside. He hurled his possessions in an attempt to shut Biron up, then made a beeline for the bed, immediately making himself at home.

"Alright, so I got my hands on a lousy counterfeit."

"Just admit it—there's no difference between an impostor and a lousy counterfeit. They're both fakes."

"Of course there's a difference!"

Alessio took the shrapnel from around his neck and showed him that the words "Arkana Navy" had been sanded down, as if they had never existed.

"A great impostor always means business. If you're going to fake something, you might as well go all the way."

"Who cares what the truth is as long as it's buried deep enough?"

Alessio never thought he'd see the day when he'd become an impostor.

Dressed in a red coat and Captain Red Hawk's mask with a cannon tucked under his arm, he bore a striking resemblance to the man who had single-handedly repelled a fleet of pirates. Little did anyone know that under that familiar outfit was a complete nobody.

Threatening gangs, defeating pirates, and driving away ruffians... Getting started wasn't hard at all. Just the sight of Captain Red Hawk coming their way was enough to scare off troublemakers. Before, he'd jump right into the fray to defend the weak, but more often than not, he'd be the one getting beat up. Performing heroic deeds was much easier with this new hero getup. Every time he set out in his Captain Red Hawk mask, his disguise was foolproof, no matter who set eyes on him.

Only he knew just how much he lacked.

To truly impersonate a known hero like Captain Red Hawk, he needed the strength and skill associated with the name. This was Alessio's second task in becoming a great impostor.

He'd encountered the most ferocious predators in the waters, witnessed gladiators in the arena, seen every Sunset sunrise while honing his artillery skills, and even had his explosives blow up in his face. Through intense physical training, imitating all known mannerisms, lowering his voice, sharpening his artillery skills, and implementing any and every possible rumor... His muscles grew and he gained a few more scars. His good-humored smile disappeared beneath the mask, replaced instead by a tense and unsmiling mouth.

He grew accustomed to playing the part of Captain Red Hawk, so much so that Alessio became a distant memory.

"Where's the Red Hawk, Captain?"

"The crew took her out on an expedition. When they return, they'll come bearing a treasure that'll amaze the Outer City."

—He hoped that they would return with good news for the Outer City. And when that happened, he'd be able to return to his life before he took the Captain's name.

"Captain, fancy a drink?"

"Thanks, but I've got something to attend to. I'll be off."

—Alessio had never gotten drunk before, and the Captain's drinking capacity wasn't something he could fake... More importantly, it wasn't worth risking his disguise. He had to remain watchful.

"I recruited a lad with good mechanical skills and sent him on an expedition with the Red Hawk."

—No one had asked why the real Alessio seemed to have disappeared yet, but Biron and his mercenary buddies were bound to return at any time, so it didn't hurt to set some groundwork.

"Don't worry, Red Hawk is here!"

—Even if it was uttered by an impostor, it would still bring some measure of peace to the Outer City.

In the early morning on the pier, a determined figure leaped down into the crowd. Through the sudden haze, the ruffians had only time to make out a flash of red before being blinded by cannon fire. As soon as they came to and opened their eyes, they'd become sitting ducks in the water.

Though the haze still lingered on the now calm bay, Captain Red Hawk was long gone.

A great impostor, having been in disguise all day, will remain in disguise.

Before the old Captain returns, he'll keep playing his part to protect the Outer City. After all, did it really matter who was behind the mask?

This was something he had come to realize as an impostor.

THE REAL DEAL :

Alessio never expected that his cover would be blown, not by the pirates attacking the Outer City, or by his frequent shooting practice, but by his brother-in-arms.

After returning from his six-month stint, the mercenary must have read the farewell letter Alessio had left for him. He seemed to have bought the story, because he had gone around the Miracle Tavern bragging about having a "promising brother-in-arms who hung out with Captain Red Hawk."

After Alessio found an abandoned house by the seaside to live in, he never once returned to his old house or showed his face around his old neighborhood.

In order to perfectly imitate the old Captain's mannerisms, he even went to painstaking lengths to lower his voice. On time after a fight, even Biron joined the crowd in shouting "long live Captain Red Hawk!"

No matter which way you looked at it, his disguise was foolproof.

That was, until his brother-in-arms confronted the Governess Milady about the contamination.

When Alessio heard that Milady had hacked off the mercenary's arm, and that Biron, who hated mechcraft, had been fitted with a mechanical arm, Alessio saw red. In his rage, he forgot that he was still wearing Captain Red Hawk's mask. Without a word, he grabbed his cannon and prepared to bombard the tower of the inner city.

But when he opened the door, something blocked his path. It was a giant mechanical arm, unfamiliar to both him and its owner.

"Hey, steady there. Captain Red Hawk doesn't have a mercenary brother-in-arms, remember?"

From then on, Biron coined the name "Steele." With it and his new mechanical arm, he set off in search of the source of the contamination. Of course, there was no conceivable reason for the real Captain Red Hawk to send him off. Nonetheless, Alessio stayed up several nights studying the arm's technology, and finally, when the mercenary group arrived back at the pier, he pretended to approach them casually, dark circles around his eyes.

"Hey, I just found a copy of Maintenance Manual for Mechanical Arms. Is it yours?"

When Biron returned from the Sunset plain, Alessio had already lost his mask and had his cover blown in a confrontation with the Bullhead Shark pirates. He'd lost the Red Hawk Cannon left by the old captain, but he'd also found himself again. While playing the role of protector of the people, he in turn received their support as the new Captain Red Hawk.

The broken mask had been glued back together, and the small cannon, developed by the new Captain Red Hawk himself, leaned against the bed. With his leg in a cast and his hand tapping on the mechanical arm, Alessio couldn't resist asking:

"How on earth did you recognize me? What gave me away?"

The mercenary replied: "Look, there's cat hair on your coat. Who else could it be but you? No one ever mentioned the old Captain Red Hawk fancying cats."

He went on to excitedly recount his first meeting with Alessio: A young Alessio, wearing a crude mask, was curled up on the ground surrounded by a group of thugs, tightly holding a kitten in his arms. The kitten, struggling fearfully in his arms, had rubbed white hair all over him.

"If I hadn't jumped in to rescue you, you and Bailey would've been in for a whole new world of bullying!" Biron exclaimed proudly.

"Oh wow, I sure am extremely grateful for that..."

Alessio couldn't help but smile as he lamented the cat hair detail he had overlooked, and at the same time, another version of the story played in his mind:

At that time, he had curled up not out of defeat, but because he was buying time to think of the best way to protect Bailey and get away from the thugs. Just when he'd finally gotten his plan and managed to leave the crowd, he ran headlong into a big fellow who'd appeared out of nowhere. With no choice but to fight, he took several more punches from the big fellow.

Many years passed, and he'd been too lazy to tell him what actually happened. Plus, he didn't have the heart to ruin his brother-in-arms' memory of having saved the cat.

From outside the window, Biron heard the footsteps of Alessio's visitors. Looking at his half-finished sketch of a new cannon, he came to a conclusion.

The cat hair was but one giveaway. It was the stories circulating through the tavern that had led to his investigation. During the six months he was away, he'd heard that the pirate Blackbeard had been itching to duel Alessio and finally had his challenge accepted. Blackbeard set foot on shore only to have his ship blown to pieces. By springing a trap in the bay, Alessio had used its unique terrain to trap an entire fleet of pirates. Plus, he'd recently heard booms in the early morning, and it turned out to be Alessio practicing on the beach. It was definitely the sound of a cannon firing. Stephan had lost his cat the day before yesterday, and it was “Captain Red Hawk” who'd found it and given the thief a hard lesson...

Others couldn't understand, but Biron knew that Alessio only took the lowest paid commissions from the group. Not because he was lazy, but because the more mundane injustices were often ignored. He'd lost count of the times Alessio dived headlong into danger, thus gaining familiarity with all manner of escape routes and ambush spots. Eventually, he learned to come up with new ones on the go.

It wasn't until he saw Alessio intent on confronting Milady that his suspicions were finally confirmed.

"I'm not fixing you up again the next time you act recklessly, you tin can." Alessio tapped Biron's mechanical arm.

"What? Has the new Captain Red Hawk found a long-term funder for his shells?"

"Oh, please. The money you make is barely enough to cover your arm repairs."

"Come on, take me to the tied-up pirates. They seem to have fought the old captain, and their weapons look advanced. I'm sure they also have a base somewhere... And I need to pry something out of them before I empty their den."

The mask, the coat, the cannon, the name, the voice, and the dwelling; they all added to the finished act.

Though Biron had no absolute proof at the time, the courage to stand up for the smallest of troubles, the conviction to march into danger, and the ability to somehow win battles that seemed utterly lost—

Who could it be other than his brother-in-arms, Alessio?

This must certainly be the real deal. No doubt about it.

VOYAGE LOG SNIPPETS :

In the Red Hawk's captain's cabin, many maps and voyage logs could be found on the bookshelf. Even though much time had passed, records of the past were still kept in a neat and orderly manner. Among them was a row of logs organized in chronological order. Though some of the records were hardly legible, one could still learn much of the past through them.

Voyage Log #3

3 August

Finally, the Bullhead Sharks have been driven out... They're definitely the worst pirates I've ever come across.

But there are still too many troublesome factions in the Outer City...

6 October

I met an interesting kid today. He was just a little taller than my knees, yet he fought off some miscreants picking on younger kids he didn't even know.

Though bruised and battered, he refused to stay down and kicked them as he struggled.

He was wearing a mask that looked like mine, and even after I saved him, he refused to admit that he was pretending to be the Red Hawk... Looks like he wasn't an easy one to budge.

Voyage Log #6

4 August

I didn't expect to save a nobleman from the pirates. It was the world renowned Niccolo... If I hadn't heard Estella mention him before, I would have thrown him right off the ship.

5 August

Contamination, the Forgotten Scrolls, and the great shadow lurking beneath Sunset...

"If the source of the contamination is not found and resolved, then sooner or later, everyone in Navenia will suffer..." Looks like he was after something different from the power-hungry Arkanas.

If such a danger exists, then the Outer City, being right next to the ocean, will bear the brunt of it. I must do something...

8 August

Before parting, I accepted Niccolo's gift of gratitude, an oceangoing ship: the Red Hawk. It is fitted with Navenia's secret device and powered by fluorescent stones. In return, I promised to deliver a letter to his son.

All because I was in need of a sturdier ship.

2 December

As of today, 21 pirate strongholds have been eliminated. Therefore, I believe the people in the Outer City will not be troubled for the next six months.

I woke up this morning and found a transformation plan on the bow of the Red Hawk. I couldn't help but wonder who left it. Meanwhile, the mechsmith was overjoyed upon seeing it and jumped right to working on it.

Voyage Log #7

29 April

It's been four months since we set sail. Apart from eliminating a bunch of pirates and discovering a treasure, we've come up empty-handed.

20 May

We were heading back the way we had come when a strange colored mist obstructed our view, throwing us off course. I thought I saw something huge and glowing in the middle of the mist. It looked like coral...

Then a storm came upon us without warning. That was a strange one... Fortunately, by the power of the Red Hawk, we narrowly escaped the whirlpool...

When I opened my eyes again, the mist and the glowing coral were gone. The sun was shining brightly on the deck, and the ocean was calm as ever, as if it had been just a dream.

21 May

Things haven't been right... Recently, some of the crew have been hallucinating, and the mechsmith nearly smashed his head with a hammer... There's even a faint fluorescent blue coming from the veins under my skin... I must prevent this from happening to all of Navenia!

Whether or not this is the source of the contamination, it must have something to do with the danger Niccolo spoke of.

We must be prepared before coming back.

10 September

Even after speeding up the return trip, we're still far behind schedule. In the meantime, the troublemakers were looking to cause trouble again, but fortunately the crew's symptoms were gone.

The nobles of the inner city never lifted a finger in all of this.

But it seems a masked young man trapped a group of pirates and even blew up one of their ships. Well done!

Voyage Log #8

25 December

From what I gather, we must have encountered the Misty Seas... None of the ships that went in ever returned. All that was found were glass bottles containing this name and the words "Storm," "Danger," "Hallucination," "Rampage," and "Turn Away." Seems that it wasn't just us who experienced these symptoms.

Looking at the unfading fluorescent blue in my veins... I seem to recall seeing a seabird with feathers of this color at the pier this morning.

Finally, the Red Hawk has been fully transformed. Now the crew and I have nothing to fear. We have to investigate this contamination, even if it means never returning.

But I still can't stop worrying about the Outer City.

If I don't make it back, can the Outer City defend itself without the Red Hawk?

3 January

I didn't expect the peace to be broken so quickly.

News of the Red Hawk's departure somehow reached the pirates' ears. On the eve of the Sea Opening Festival, while the crew was gathering florescent stones on the island, the Bullhead Sharks sprang an ambush.

I didn't expect anyone to turn back and save me. After all, the Captain Red Hawk everyone knew could take on a whole fleet of ships by himself.

The young man who should have retreated with everyone else will never know the importance of the bullet he had stopped. The enemy had come prepared, and I was at a disadvantage. If he hadn't appeared in front of me out of nowhere, I might have gotten killed without a chance to fire that decisive shot.

In all my years as a hero, it was the first time I was protected by someone. Perhaps I'm getting old.

When he turned around, I realized that he was the boy I had once saved.

He was almost as tall as me now, and still he still stood firm against the pirates, even though he was at a disadvantage. Looks like the tough talker never changed.

I guess if it were him, he could protect the Outer City well enough.

5 January

I met up with the crew and set off in secret.

After so many years, I was unaccustomed to going without my mask and leaving my weapons behind. The kid gave me a bunch of weapons he had developed for me. There were cannons, mortars, smoke grenades, flashbangs, a hammer, and even a lucky conch he had bought off the street.

Anyhow, I guess I should go destroy a pirate den and replenish our supplies. After all, the kid's weapons aren't half bad. The only thing they lacked was ammo capacity.

Most of the logs had been brought back to the tower by the Arkana Navy, so Alessio could only see the last remaining log. It had fallen, and most of the pages were soaked in the fluorescent blue seawater. Only the last few pages were barely legible.

Voyage Log #10

XXXX

The weather's even worse than the previous.......... the storm lasted three days and nights, and the hurricane.......... tornado.......... the mast nearly snapped and was temporarily restored to some semblance of functionality after emergency repairs. ..........

XXXX

.......... the rudder was completely out of order.......... ran aground.......... tornado.......... an island to land on.......... coral.......... fluorescent stones.......... I thought it would be best to abandon the ship..........

XXXX

.......... if I don't make it back.......... the Outer City.......... Little Red Hawk..........

I guess the next time I see that kid, I should probably ask him for his name.

Hopefully we'll meet again.

[yayforocs]

Ohhhhhhhhhh My God okokok i'm going to be unpacking a lot here and i'm. oh my goodness i'm so excited there's stuff here i FORGOT about!!!!!! never posted anywhere would have been lost forever if i hadn't saved it on this flash drive!!!!!

OLD UNPOSTED ART LET'S GO (pt 1) (yes i'm doing multiple parts bc u can only post 30 images per post)

ohhhhhh man oh man ok i'm looking through and checking on like Each And Every One Of These to make sure they're not actually posted anywhere and m a n

ALRIGHT, cranking the clock alllll the way back to the start of my main blog, july 2012!!!

God ok this is fanart for a slamacow video, it's the like one music video he made :VVV good ol Cube Land!!

shadow of israphel!!!!!! what a series, my brother and i still quote a few lines from it. i actually did draw quite a lot more SoI fanart that never got posted, i'll have to go digging around and see if i can find it.... BUT atl now i know like!! timestamp for when i drew all that!!!

moving on to august 2012!

herobrine in a cloak ig

dklsfjsd did i not feel like drawing regular clothes or.

september 2012!!

genuinely i don't remember if i traced this over my laptop screen or if i just copied it down bc i was pretty good at just like lookin at stuff and replicating it, but it's erza from fairy tail!

october 2012 :V

i opened up a requests thread on the craftedmovie forums, and lookin back it looks like i only ever posted one of them, wack

so here's the rest!

we've got a gamzee makara! we've got 'a brown haired girl (brown eyes may have also been specified? i don't quite remember but i'm p sure brown haired girl was) standing next to fluttershy'! who i actually, since no other specifics on the girl were given, drew to be the protag from the animation Crayon Dragon! and then the third one is the requester, trixomaniac, sitting on a rainbow :VV

november 2012!

we've got more requests!

first one was i don't remember if it was just 'chicken man' or actually the requester's (gafloff was the name) skin but the request was for the person to be holding a butter sword standing over a zombie piglin or something along those lines :V i had no context of skydoesminecraft so i remember being very confused like. why a sword made out of butter XD

and then the second is shadowflare86, holding a gun pointing at the viewer :V whiCH! i had no idea how to draw so i did my best to imitate a pose from this wonderful animation called Serenade to Miette

...looking at this now tho i think it just looks like it could be a fantastic reaction image klshdg

speaking of

i also. did this? i don't remember any context for it tho, i think it may have been another one of the requests?

on to the next folder! here we skip december, then looks like i've posted everything in january, then there's no february folder, so on to march 2013!

starting out strong with this one lskdfjs

so i did actually post like the big middle drawing there, but it was posted before i colored, and also before i drew the other stuff on the page, but yes cue the homestuck art >:J starting with some runawaystuck fanart (and actually i know i added in a little jade and karkat to that page at some point, not sure if i scanned it again later after i added them or not)

copied the talksprites for funsies :V rip jade ig

ohohohoho i don't even remember what the context for this one was but i do definitely remember that i had fun with it X)

OH RIGHT THIS ONE YES IT'S NOT HOMESTUCK BUT!!

FAIRY QUEEN LADY!! THE ORIGINAL DRAWING OF HER!! she was based on a Really Funky Graph i made one time messing around with inputs:

i had a sliding phone so that's unfortunately as good a picture as it's gonna get bc i don't think i can recreate it 😅

april 2012!

cleverbot doodles! kldsfjs i found the post i'd made of the colored drawing i did, and saw in the tags that i'd said ''#website characters #yeah i think there's a name for it but idk what it is'' gijinka friend. the word you are looking for is gijinka

and i had a lot of fun with this gijinka :V

GOD SS PAINT!!!! i think i never posted this bc i was worried it looked too much like he was choking her skdlfj

-oh wow this is. this picture is a lot smaller than i thought it was. slkdfj. anyway another that i can't remember if it's a trace or a replication but it's a yellow from the pokespe manga! please go read it if u haven't it's so so so good

skip to july 2013!

i'm like 90% certain this is a replication. but there's still a 10% of uncertainty. regardless, it's de nam from final fantasy crystal chronicles!

next up is august 2013 :V

ib time ib time

i doodled an au where garry was also a kid :V i think we (mogi and i) also joked around about like. a teenager au? they're both teens? i don't think any doodles came of it tho

october 2013, featuring doodles i know i drew in july bc i remember drawing them sldkfjds oh well

these are a bunch of random ocs i came up with as like. a. ok it's not like a homestuck au bc it doesn't involve any of the comic characters in any way but this was a group of ocs i came up with that played through their own version of sburb and. everyone died but one person. i never came up with names or anything for any of them, it's literally like just what is there visible on the paper is all i had for them 😅 i'm p sure i redrew these guys a few years later, but i don't think i ever scanned it.

-ah i cannot upload any more, let me. multi-part this.

[savebatsartedition]

Whumptober 2024 Day 22

Summary:

Peter gets a big ol’ shock to the nervous system. Prompt piece used: "Oh that's not good."

Notes:

Erm so that line/little scene made me lose my actual mind. Unfortunately I can write Peter about as well as I can draw him. Which is to say not at all. I tried. Content Warnings: Being tied to a chair and later to a wall, mentions of drugging someone to the point of passing out, guns being pointed at people, torture I guess? Loss of memory (it’s temporary but isn’t fixed in this oneshot) Words: 2,835

(Fic also under the cut!!)

Peter did not struggle against the rope that bound him. To be honest, he and his bandmates got kidnapped so often that it was becoming more of a monthly hassle than a once in a lifetime terrifying event. Though, he couldn’t say it wasn’t still terrifying. (They hadn't even made their name out of the city yet. Whoowie. Imagine if they actually did get famous.) He watched the two men, Bruno and Marcovich, giddly talking.

Something about losing good scientists? Something about banquets?

Professor Schnitzler (who had made a very good speech earlier in the night) lay across a medical table, unconscious due to some kind of drug that Marcovich had administered to him. Peter tilted his head slightly and opened his mouth. If Professor Schnitzler was going to be taken out of the country, what about him?

Marcovich and Bruno finished their laughing, and Peter didn't have to ask the question of his fate because Bruno asked it for him. The man's accented voice dropped lower, and his eyes shone dark with malice as he pointed at the tied up bass player. “What about him?” he asked Marcovich, looking Peter up and down.

“Yeah, what about me?” Peter added quickly, not wanting to lose the chance of the moment.

Bruno marched forward, his shoulders wide and threatening as he stared at Peter. (The musician felt his heart jump in his chest, and he instinctively tried to shift back and out of his chair. This, of course, did not work. He was a bit tied up.) ”Shut up!“ Bruno hissed, growing closer by the second.

Peter felt quite a bit scared, but he decided to mask it. He set his eyes as sad as he could make them, and began to quote the first thing that came to mind. Something about sadness and mothers. Bruno and Marcovich looked at each other, and then back at Peter, obviously lost on the reference.

Confused, Marcovich questioned him on it, and Peter grinned. He had successfully distracted Bruno away from him, even if he still didn't know what  was going to be done to him, he at least had accomplished temporary safety.

“Ben Casey,” he told them, tilting his head instead of bowing (because the ropes were too tight and he was too scared), “act one.” He smiled and fiddled his hands slightly. They didn't move enough to be of help.

Instantly he knew he'd messed up. Bruno and Marcovich's faces contorted in anger, and without giving it even a second of thought, Bruno was pointing a revolver right at Peter. His eyes were darker than before, and even Marcovich looked at him in some surprise.

This wasn't by any means the first time Peter had gotten a gun pointed at him, but he still hadn't expected it. He tried his best not to whimper in shocked fear. As it was, it was all he could do not to throw himself and the chair to the floor. He tried to raise his tied wrists to protect himself, but his hands only twisted, and they didn't make it very far.

Thankfully, Marcovich didn't seem to want him shot (yet), and quickly pushed the gun down and towards the floor.  “What are you doing with that?!” he asked, voice at a level that could have almost been an attempt to keep Peter from hearing it, if Marcovich had been a little less upset.

“He knows too much,” Bruno hissed back, his eyes still locked onto Peter's, but his gun thankfully pointed towards the ground. His hand was on the trigger, and Peter shifted his feet uncomfortably in their binds. They would not move any easier than the rest of him would. Scared Bruno would take that as an opportunity to shoot, he did his best to smile.

“Thank you,” he said, though his voice might have been shaking. He tried to appear genuine, but his smile twitched and faltered as Bruno's shoulders heaved in rage. (Peter was just picking all of the wrong options today. If he ever made it back to his bandmates, and if they ever made it to stardom, this was going to be some story to tell the masses.)

”We can't afford a murder here,“ Marcovich explained to his still seething partner, grabbing the gun to steady it towards the floor. Peter felt relief flood him, though it disappeared as Marcovich's face twisted into an evil sort of smirk, “Besides,” he snickered, “I have a better plan,”

Peter felt his heart jump, and he pushed unconsciously against the ropes once more. Uh oh. Better than murder at keeping someone quiet? Hadn't he already been kidnapped today? What more was there to do to him?!

The two kidnappers turned and walked away, Marcovich laughing and whispering what were undoubtedly evil plans of injury and insults, and Bruno still taking backwards glances over his shoulder as they went. Bruno's gun was at his side, but Peter knew it could shift quickly, and he would be nothing more than a blood splatter on the yellowish green wallpaper of the hospital room. He swallowed hard, searching his mind in vain for some way to get out of this situation he found himself in.

If only the guys were here, they always knew what to do in times like these. What was it that Micky had told him about kidnappers? That they always tied the ropes tight so it was good to puff out your chest when you were being tied up? ...no that wasn't it. It was too late for that.

Too bad Peter hadn't been able to keep his breathing in check when Bruno and Marcovich had tied him, he'd been far too out of it to try, of course, but now he was kicking himself for it anyway. If Davy had been the one hit on the head and brought to the hospital, he never would have stayed out for long enough to be tied up like this. He would had broken out, or kicked them with his strong jockey legs, or withstood the pain of the hit to the head and not passed out in the first place. Micky could have talked his way out, Mike probably could have slithered out between the gaps in the ropes, if he had so wanted to.

Really, it was just Peter who couldn't figure out a way out, which is why it sucked so much that he was the one who had been taken, and why it sucked so much that he was alone. (Every other time he'd been kidnapped he'd at least been with one of his friends, even two or all three if he was really lucky.)

But now he was alone with the unconscious form of Professor Milo Schnitzler, and he didn't see a way out. He jumped in his chair with all of his might, shifting it closer to the mirror but not enough to figure out a way to break it. He stared at himself and the reflection of Professor Schnitzler in the broken mirror. They looked pathetic.

In the hall, he could hear whispering and footsteps, but then they were gone, and he heard nothing more.

He kept fighting against the ropes, but by the time Marcovich and Bruno returned, he had not managed to even loosen any of them, and he was tired. His chest heaved and his hair fell into his face. Oh this was so not good.

”Ugh,“ Marcovich sounded disgusted with Peter and the sweat that dripped from his twitching nose, ”get up kid,“

Peter didn't really have it in him to answer, but he still frowned, confused and scared. ”I can't get up,“ he tried to explain, not really realizing that Marcovich hadn't been asking, ”I'm tied to the chair.“

”Yes yes, whatever,“ Marcovich continued. Peter's eyes caught on Bruno's hands. They were still fiddling with the gun at his side. (How he had been getting around the hospital with that thing in full view Peter didn't understand, but there was a lot he didn't understand, so it wasn't that surprising, really.)

”Bruno, hold him,“ Marcovich commanded, reaching out to undo the ropes around Peter's midsection, ”We need to move him into the other room,“ he winked at his partner, ”the one with the machine.“

Bruno seemed very excited to do that, and he held Peter's shoulders with such gusto that his arms got bent a bit behind the frame of the chair back. They ached and Peter almost thought they broke. He whimpered. He wouldn't have tried to run anyway, these guys were armed, and he was not. And- and- well. He wouldn't get very far without the guys away.

”Don't make us look suspicious,“ Marcovich hissed, ”or you'll regret it I swear.”

“I won't,” Peter promised quietly. But it wasn't enough and he was soon crying out as Bruno squeezed him even tighter. His newly freed hands twitched and his legs kicked against the ropes that Marcovich was working on. “I said I won't!“

”Good,“ Bruno muttered, ”Because we've got ways of dealing like snoops like you.”

Without much more fanfare, the two men had pulled him to his feet, and Peter was soon getting bundled out of the room. Bruno had one hand on Peter's shoulder, though he stood slightly behind him. Marcovich led the pack.

Once or twice, the three passed a nurse or a doctor in the hall. A few even shot Peter a smile. (He must have looked like a patient being led out to freedom by two very qualified helpers, and not... whatever was actually happening.) If Bruno's free hand hadn't been resting on the handle of a gun in his doctor's coat pocket, Peter might have thought about asking for some extra help in his walk. But it was, and he didn't.

They reached another door, and Bruno roughly shoved Peter through it. The blond bassist stumbled and almost fell, but managed to catch himself before his already shivering body hit the cold tiled floor. (Sure, he may have been shivering in fear now, but it surely wouldn't have helped him.)

“Over here boy,” Marcovich said, sounding remarkably cheery. Despite himself, Peter felt his terrified heartbeat slow a bit, and he tried a bit of a smile. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Or maybe he just told himself that.

Slowly, carefully, taking in the surroundings like his life depended on it (which, honestly, it kind of did), Peter walked towards the man. Marcovich was standing by a weird green board leaned against the yellow tiles of the tiny room. He had a short line of white rope in his hand, and was smiling in the direction of a strange black machine. It looked like some new kind of medical technology.

Peter tried not to hesitate too much, and made his way over.

“Bruno,” said Marcovich, “as soon as I'm done you can go back to the others, but we have to make sure he's secure first.“

Bruno nodded, still standing protectively by the door.

”The others?“ Peter asked. Did Marcovich mean the other three Monkees? Oh he hoped so, he could use the help. Err... he hoped not! He didn't want them in the same trouble he was in!

”Yes,“ Marcovich said, pushing Peter up against the green board and winding the rope around him, securing him in place once more. Though it was with slightly less attention to detail than the first time, Peter still guessed that he could get out easily, the rope bit into him to the point where he doubted even ducking under it would work, at least not without catching his neck in it first.

Seeing that the blond kid was secure, Bruno nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind him. (It clicked shut, and Peter stilled, realizing that he was locked into the tiny space with Marcovich and his mystery medical device.) 

Marcovich smiled, and Peter did his best to smile back. He doubted it was very convincing though, even for a dummy.

”What is that machine?“ Peter asked casually, gesturing with his nose towards the black object that Marcovich was now fiddling around with. He blew some blond hair out of his eyes, his arms too bound down to adjust it the normal way.

”This instrument, Mr. Tork, will cause temporary amnesia,“ Marcovich explained, sounding rather excited, ”It will erase your memory.”

Peter's eyes widened and his heart sped up again. His memory? He needed that!

“By the time your memory will return, we will be safely out of the country with Professor Schnitzler,” Marcovich finished, sounding very pleased with his little plan. He adjusted the machine, turning it slowly so a piece oddly reminiscent of the barrel of a gun was pointed right at the musician. He grinned, and his teeth showed.

Peter tried to shift against the ropes, but it was no use. Marcovich was right at the controls of that thing, there was no way he could move fast enough to get out of range before it was fired. What should he do? Panic? Cry? Beg for forgiveness? Stall?

Stall, yes, maybe he could even get some answers out of the man.

“How long before I get my memory back?” he tried, only stuttering a little bit. His hair fell back into his eyes.

Marcovich thought for a second, looking towards the ceiling for just a moment before finding his answer. “A normal brain should be out of commision for three days.“

Peter laughed uncomfortably. Normal? What did that have to do with his question? Plus, that was a really long time to be without one's memory, even though Marcovich said it like it was nothing. And, extra plus, Peter didn't very well like the idea of what would have to happen to him for something like that to happen.  He tried to smile and struggle against the thin rope at the same time. It didn't work very well at all.

”But in your case,“ Marcovich added, his eyes growing brighter with each word, ”We are safe to say until early spring,“

Peter blinked, hardly hearing Marcovich's next words as scrub wearing man moved to set the machine up. He was laughing, but Peter's heart was beating too fast to even effectively struggle. Until early spring? What would have to happen to break him until EARLY SPRING?! Three days had sounded bad enough, but now it sounded like practically nothing.

Peter had heard that a shock to the nervous system could induce temporary amnesia. How bad was this going to hurt?

He swallowed hard, but there was no more stalling to be done. Marcovich had already completed the checks on his dials, and he had set all the switches the right way. He was laughing even louder now, eyes bright and full of a joy that said he enjoyed the entire interaction much more than as just a necessary part in covering his tracks.

“I will erase your memory!” he cried, laughing still. Peter couldn't say anything, even if he had been given time to. His throat was so dry with panic that it hurt.

...but that pain was nothing compared to what he felt when Marcovich flipped the switch on the side of the instrument. First a red beam hit his face, and he cried out, but he could not escape it. He was tied too tightly.

Suddenly it didn't matter that the smart Professor (Peter had already lost his name in the agony of the moment) was drugged to the point of passing out somewhere in the hospital. Suddenly it didn't matter that his friends weren't there to help him. (He couldn't even remember their names, or how many there were meant to be. Three? Two? None at all?)

All that mattered was the burning behind his eyes and the ringing in his head. He screamed, but it probably didn’t even sound that out of place to the people around him. (Where was he? There was a reason why that would be, but he couldn’t even figure out what that was anymore.) He thrashed against whatever it was that was holding him. (He couldn’t focus enough to figure out what it was under the blinding pain he felt.)

The air felt like fire, and his body felt like a roasting piece of meat on that fire.

He screamed and screamed and screamed, and his mind felt more and more stripped as he did.

In fact, by the time the beam had clicked off and the pain had stopped, it didn’t even register that the man didn’t even remember what he was doing there, or what instrument he was supposed to play, or that he was even supposed to play one at all. It didn’t even register that he wasn’t even aware of his own name, much less that he was supposed to have one.

The man who had forgotten that he was Peter felt his eyes flutter shut, and he collapsed into the wall behind him.

[dufrau]

This is mostly an excuse to put bird more emojis in your inbox but🦩🦚🦃

🦩dealer's choice (choose any quote at all! or the summary / ao3 tags thing! whatever! wild card!)

(this is from a different wip, it feels like a wildcard to me i guess)

"You come in here like five times a day, Officer," she reminded him. "I'd think you'd know my name by now."

"Hey hey hey wait," he called out. He whispered- "You know I like it when you put the sugar in last so it doesn't melt all the way and I get the, you know. The little crunchy bits." He raised his voice back up to normal. "I come in here like five times a day, I'd think you'd know my coffee order by now."

Robin snorted. "I know your order, I just object to it on principle. This barely even qualifies as coffee anymore."

🦚 a sexy quote (spicy, outright nsfw, etc--if you're not comfortable with this one specify in the tags!)

Okay I know this is probably very hard to believe but I do not currently have anything even vaguely sexy written in any of my wips. What am i doing with my life??? This line is legit the closest thing to even vaguely suggestive I have right now:

Robin thought about going in. She watched the shape of a woman leaning an elbow on the bar, one slim finger tracing against a glass of wine lit bright red, and she twisted the ring on her own finger. She thought about acquainting herself with scrod and whatever the New England version of townies might look like, but then she caught her own reflection in the window, and she remembered how tired she was. She wouldn't be good company tonight. She could only get herself in trouble.

🦃 a big, meaty quote (JUST A BIG OL PARAGRAPH YOU WANNA SHARE)

This is the longest paragraph I own:

Robin had gotten on a plane in Indianapolis and gotten lost in the airport in Boston for an hour before getting on a train, and then she'd had to figure out how to switch to a different train just to go one stop before switching to yet another train, and then she'd sat around for another half hour in the too-hot sun in a bus station that smelled like garbage and she'd lost count of how many people she'd had to tell Sorry, I don't smoke when they asked to bum a cigarette, before finally she'd gotten on a bus that let her off at a quieter station to wait for another bus. And that bus had taken her along a sad looking stretch of marshland and inlets and then past an ancient carousel and a sea-bleached boardwalk, past families carting coolers and chairs and umbrellas and toddlers across the one street on this peninsula over to the seawall and the sand on the other side, and the ocean that went on further than anything imaginable. Past a traveling carnival set up in a big grassy field that would probably be gone in a week to make room for more beach parking when summer finally got around to digging its heels in.

(questions)