#… is this an au if it’s just a personal interpretation of canon?

[hopediamondart]

I know you’ve never been big on Shamgoat but with the COTL account posting it I’d like to hear your thoughts on the ship? Does it just disinterest you? Are you neutral on it? Some people like Shamgoat but I’ve seen some fans disagreeing with the pairing

I absolutely love shamgoat and I love everyone’s interpretations of shamgoat. Especially the headcanon of Goat being Shamura’s vessel instead of a white Narinder. Shamura being the Bishop of War and Goat’s personality depicted through canon really fits well together. Plus, it’s hot.

I don’t think I’ve ever shown disinterest on Shamgoat, I just don’t give much attention to it because of my focus on goatlamb/narilamb. When I saw the video from the COTL account I SCREAMED with happiness and immediately showed it to my moots who also love shamgoat.

People can have their opinions about the ship but I don’t think it should deter you from shipping it at all. Hell, I’ve been seeing discourse on goatlamb but that doesn’t stop me from shipping it. I’m pretty sure there’s a few people who don’t even like Narilamb. Ship whatever you want, just as long as it isn’t problematic.

Now have this Shamgoat drawing of @ccarmody101’s Shamura kissing my Soulmate au Goat from my goat kissing booth

Besides, I’ve been thinking about my Goat Relic AU and Shamura’s influence in it, who knows. Maybe I’ll put Shamgoat in there 👀

[wickjump]

i really dont like cream because i think it literally messes up cross’ entire development as a character and would not be healthy for him. i am so sorry cream loving mutuals but this is on the MIND.

i just. primarily don’t like cream because cross always falls under power imbalances. he needs an equal in his life rather than someone he will deem as above him, someone whose aura canonically directly affects him and influences how he feels about dream. he would canonically struggle to dislike dream despite how he wants to because dream’s aura literally shoves comfort down his throat, even if dream doesn’t intend that. there is an old comic about exactly that. dream’s aura is not what ‘made’ cross love him, but it would influence how cross feels about him and would urge him to stay if he ever wanted to leave.

but honestly the thing that drives me crazy the most is how in SO MANY (as in, like, most nowadays) interpretations dream is shown as cross’ knight in shining armor, his angel, his savior. someone cross reveres. dream is his ethereal lover and cross is someone who cannot compare, in his mind.

but what cross needs is an equal, and characters like dream (or nightmare) have such a big power imbalance between them and him. dream is the guardian of positivity, he will outlive cross for likely hundreds of years and cross is aware of this, and the mindset that he’s only a temporary lover would mess him up a bit too. and again i really really hate seeing cross reduced to dream’s anything. dream’s soldier, especially dream’s dog (note that i love dogboy cross but combined with the power imbalance and how cross often is shown to view dream as someone above him it feels yucky to have cross be dream’s dog)

cross’ entire story is about him becoming his own separate person! being with equals and not surrendering to those with more power over him and instead fighting back!! this is also why i like ships like crepic and kross and recently whatever color x cross is called a lot better. because they’re equals to him. and he sees them as equals, too.

cream is. fine to ship. its just not my thing. crossmare also isnt because of the same reason. in a bad sanses setting he would view nightmare as his superior, hell, he even calls nightmare ‘boss’ in these kinds of settings a lot of the time when with a romantic relationship established between them. nightmare owns him. even in a fanon setting where nightmare doesn’t beat the shit out of everyone, nightmare still holds cross’ life in his hands. cross has nothing in return.

in aus where nightmare and dream are made to be equals (such as modern aus) i can see ships with them! the pet peeve isn’t as present. still don’t like cream thoguh im sorry as a cross obsessor it’s just not something i think he would be healthy in,, he’s gotta have an equal not someone he views as above him which he always will because that’s how he was raised and trained to be his whole life.

him fighting to be free from that cycle only to just fall back in the position of being under someone again, REGARDLESS of how comforting or good they make him feel while he is, isn’t healthy for him. they can be excused as fine because dream is loving and kind to him and cross is very receptive to it, and it does help him with some things, but cross can’t handle constantly being around that. i hate that this is always ignored. i hate that cross being reduced to something someone owns, dream’s dog, Dream’s soldier, Dream’s, is just constantly a thing that people are totally chill with. no matter how much Dream could insist they’re equal, Dream isn’t, case closed. he is immortal and cross isn’t. if Dream lives for thousands of years there’s a likely chance he’ll enter another relationship a while after cross dies. cross would be aware of this. cross would be aware that the multiverse reveres dream and would feel a duty to feel the same. dream is a guardian, and cross can’t even fully free himself from his father’s control.

idk i just think cross should not be in relationships with people who have power over him, at least not as much as dream/nm do. it makes me sad because i like cross a lot and him being in relationships with people above him, no matter how nice they are or how reassuring they are, is not something he would ever be able to healthily handle or accept. he was raised to have an inferiority complex about himself and he will continue to have that unless he is surrounded by equals who support him in fixing that and don’t fuel it, even without wanting to.

but honestly tho overall ship what u like. hell if i care these guys ain’t real. u do u man. plus a lot of cream art is cute. it’s just a pet peeve of mine :’)

[michaelmilligan]

The Jonmartin manifesto no one asked for but needed to get out

So, I've not been in the tma fandom for long yet, having only listened to it for the first time a few months ago. But from browsing the Jonmartin (and teaholding and jmart) tag regularly, it seems to me like most jonmartin shippers fall into one of these two categories:

They would find each other in every universe; or

It's a miracle they even got together in this universe

(Obviously, that's an oversimplification, and people who express one view in one post can easily hold a different view at another time - these are fictional characters we're talking about after all, and headcanons don't need to be consistent and can even contradict each other. This is just the general vibe I got so far.)

Anyway, I wanted to add my own two cents on the topic, because while I understand where both of these views are coming from, I think neither of them is ultimately correct.

(Putting the rest under a read more - be warned that this is NOT a spoiler-free post, so if you haven't finished listening to TMA yet and you want a spoiler-free experience, you probably shouldn't read this.)

So, before we get to my own opinion, let's first look at where the two options I mentioned above come from, shall we?

"They would find each other in every universe"

Obviously, this view is highly romantic - star-crossed lovers, finding each other again and again. It is both a good foundational basis for AUs, and a ray of hope in the face of the tragedy that is the tma finale.

Of course, concerning the finale, this is a rather different take than concerning AUs (since it would mean the very same characters finding each other again in a different world, not fundamentally different characters, shaped by said other world, also finding each other). And maybe when people express this view, they mean more the finale fix-its than AUs, though I suspect that plenty of people mean both.

It's a nice, comforting thought. And don't we all need some comfort after the finale? Yes, we certainly do. (Except for the people who read only hurt without comfort and angst, I guess. You do you, and I'm glad you're having fun, but personally I do desperately need some comfort, lmao.)

Is this view supported by canon though?

Cynical minds would say no, and personally I'm more inclined to agree with them, though as I've said, for me the truth lies outside of those two rigid stances (somewhere in between, I suppose).

I don't see much in canon which points to Jon and Martin falling in love under any circumstances/in any universe, especially considering their... let's say difficult relationships at the start of the show. But of course we must also take into account the specific circumstances in canon (more on that below) and interpretations vary, and I do very much enjoy AUs, so I'm certainly not trying to throw shade if you're on this side of the 'divide'.

Mostly, I think there CAN be other circumstances in which those two get together, outside the canon ones. (I'm writing a canon-divergent jonmartin fic myself, lol.) Let's get into that while we look at the other view, shall we.

"It's a miracle they even got together in this one"

Ah, the Martin-approved stance. One could say 'well, they literally said it in canon' and be done with it. However, that would require us to believe that the opinions of the characters are always true and correct, which. Lmao. We only have to listen to season 2 of tma to know that this is very much not the case.

And even if S5 Martin is not S2 Jon at the height of his paranoia, he's still very much a man shaped by his own life and experiences. I'm sure he would call himself a realist, but he honestly seems more like a pessimist to me. Which is understandable, given his life, and his association with the Lonely, which has often been (in my opinion accurately) compared to depression.

The thing is, Jon did treat Martin horribly in S1, and then he admittedly treated everyone horribly in S2. It was only in the course of S3 that their relationship got more, let's say, equal, with Jon no longer thinking Martin would be 'contributing nothing but delays'. (And then of course we have S4, which I LOVE even though it hurts me deeply. Then again, that's the whole show. And, obviously, S5 my beloved.)

So. Jon seemed to hate Martin in S1, while Martin was arguably already in love with the man. (Arguably. We do know that he acted catty to Basira in S2, so it's reasonable to assume that he started liking him at some point in S1, or even before the show started.) Then a lot of traumatic things happened, and they got together.

This means it must be the traumatic things that made them compatible, right? Just like Martin says in S5?

Well, one could see it that way. Jon certainly changed over the seasons, coming off his high horse and such. (In S5, he arguably gets back on it quite a bit, but then he IS the Eye's specialest little princess in a world that's literally ruled by it. And also he is slowly losing his grip on his own humanity. But I digress.)

And I do think that the trauma channeled a lot of those changes - the first time we see Jon being actually emotionally open (something he still struggles with over all seasons, because people don't just change fundamentally that quickly) is during Prentiss' attack on the Institute. They're in a situation where they might reasonably die (they even expect it, because they don't know that Elias is just rubbing his greedy little paws as he waits for things to get worse before he saves them with the gas).

I do think that moment could have been a big turning point for Jon and Martin, if it hadn't been immediately followed with the discovery of Gertrude's body, and Jon's subsequent descent into paranoia. Jon opened up, and also saw that Martin was rather competent during the attack, which could have led to them becoming closer, respectively having at least something like a normal work relationship.

But then Jon got paranoid and interpreted everything he saw negatively, including Martin's competence, which was twisted in his mind to 'What if he's just been pretending to be incompetent and is actually an evil agent out to kill the archivist'.

(Big sigh.)

Anyway, before I lose myself in the red string as well: Yes, Jon seems to 'mellow' over the seasons, especially with regard to Martin, at the same time that he's going through terribly traumatic events.

But does that mean that it's actually the trauma that's changing him and his relationships? Partly, certainly, but I would argue that trauma doesn't make you nicer or kinder. It might make you realise some things, but that doesn't mean that you can't realise those things in other ways.

And does it means that they couldn't have come together if they had met under different circumstances? Also not necessarily! I would even argue that the specific circumstances they met under were detrimental to Jon's first impression of Martin. And yes, this goes beyond the dog story.

So let's try and dissect their relationship from the start.

A theory of... something like nuance, or whatever

The starting situation

(Yes, I did have to use a Supernatural gif, thank you for asking. No, I will not apologise. <3)

Alright. So let's start with what we actually know about Jon and Martin's first meeting. Obviously, there's the dog story, though as far as I know that's not 'canon' because it wasn't actually in the podcast. I still like it, and think it adds another reason to Jon's behaviour, though I don't necessarily think it's necessary, because Jon already had lots of other reasons to tell himself that Martin wasn't worth his time.

1.1. Jon has issues. More at 11.

First of all, we learn throughout the podcast that Jon doesn't actually have any qualifications to lead an archive. He's probably 29 when the show starts (in 2016, going by the fandom wiki stating that he was born in 1987, which is reasonable given everything we learn about his age).

So, he's 29 and suddenly appointed, after four years of working in one department, to become the head of a completely different department. He does not have a degree that would give him credentials for leading an archive, nor are we told that he has ever even worked in an archive. For all we know, and that he knows, he is woefully underqualified. (This is also, I think, highlighted in S2 when Jon threatens to resign, only to then be baffled by Elias saying that he would be difficult to replace. Elias means something completely different than his skill set as an archivist with a lower case 'a', presumably, but then Jon doesn't know that.)

This means that Jon is in a highly stressful position, because he's trying to do a job he doesn't actually know how to do, while also trying not to let on that he doesn't know how to do it!

It doesn't help that Jon is also terribly scared of what all might be lurking in the shadows (or even in the light), as he himself admits during the Prentiss attack. He is extremely high-strung from day one, basically a wet chihuahua shaking in a slight breeze, while trying to seem like a strong bulldog.

We also know that Jon asked for two people to be his assistants: Tim and Sasha. They both worked in research, and Sasha also briefly worked in artefact storage, making them both qualified to help Jon with following up on statements. But I think more than their qualifications, Jon probably requested them because he knew and got along with them.

Imagine: Your boss tells you that he's promoting you into a position you're not qualified for and which you have no real clue how to do. Wouldn't you rather have people around you who you're already friendly with, and who are likely to cut you some slack if you're not perfect on day one? I know I would!

1.2. Elias is a little shit and I want to kill him with hammers (affectionately)

And then Elias transfers Martin.

I'm going off the dog story again, because again, I like it, and I think it does fit neatly into canon. If this story is to be believed, Elias neither asked nor did he tell Jon that he was giving him another assistant. He apparently simply told Martin 'you work at the archives now, congratulations' and then went back to his office to smile smugly to himself.

This is a VERY bad start for a working relationship, because not only does Martin come in unannounced, this also comes off as Elias not respecting Jon, or potentially even sending someone to report back to Elias (because Martin is the only one who doesn't have an established rapport with Jon).

Jon never verbalises this suspicion, so maybe this is too much interpretation on my part, but in any case it's cause for a lot of resentment on Jon's part, and since he can't exactly let it out on Elias (who is rarely there, anyway), he simply lets it out on Martin.

He finds reasons to do so, of course, insulting his work and all that. It's probably easy, especially in the beginning, because not unlike Jon, Martin doesn't have any qualifications to work in an archive! He worked at the library before, and we know that his degree is made up (which we can only assume Elias knows, considering he can know almost anything).

(I actually find the question on why Elias transferred Martin in the first place extremely interesting, and might get into that in another post. But this one is already too long, lmao.)

1.3. Martin is too nice, aka Jon has even more issues

This is mostly my personal headcanon, though I do feel it fits Jon's character - which is that he doesn't know how to deal with nice people.

Not kind people. Not friendly people. But nice people.

People who do things seemingly out of the mere goodness of their heart. Like bringing their mean boss tea when he never asked them to do that. Like being friendly even in the face of insults. Someone who constantly takes himself back in favour of other people and their opinions.

People like Martin is appearing to be. Appearing, because Martin isn't actually like that. He does have his opinions, and he could probably grumble up a storm in S1 about Jon, but Jon is his BOSS, and so he plays.

Martin also IS genuinely a nice person most of the time (when he's not on a revenge rampage, making his boyfriend murder people). He doesn't have to do nice things for Jon like bring him tea in S2. But he does. Because that's Martin's way of trying to reach out, to show other people that he means no harm (and that he can be useful).

(I also think that Jon's snappish behaviour, where Martin never quite knows what will set the man off, might remind him off his mum, but again I digress. :))

But I think Jon doesn't know how to deal with that, because even when he's not in the height of paranoia, he still suspects that people who are THAT nice (especially when they have no reason to be nice because he's being an arsehole to them) have a secret agenda. This is playing into what I said under 2 (the part that might be too much interpretation on my side lol), because if Jon suspects that Martin is reporting back to Elias, or is at least someone who would not be friendly if he found out that Jon doesn't know what he's doing, then he can't allow himself to relax around him, and he certainly can't allow himself to be lulled into false security (as Jon would think) around him.

Tl;dr on this point: I think Jon is wary of Martin's niceness because he thinks he might be fishing for gossip/anything he can use against Jon. And even if he isn't, Jon thinks he would be likely to use anything he learns against Jon, because they weren't friends to begin with, and Jon's behaviour has made them anything but that.

(We have to remember that this is the guy who says in S2 that he knows what it's like to 'lack the respect of one's peers', aka the kid who got bullied by at least one older kid, and likely had no or very few friends - plus he believes in the supernatural, which doesn't exactly lend itself well to getting academic respect.)

1.4. They were fucked from the start, your honour

Basically what the meme says, but yeah. The they were put in practically guaranteed that Jon would be wary of Martin, and that Martin would be trying extra hard to make friends with him, which in turn would make Jon even more wary/hostile.

And Elias made it worse, either knowingly or by negligence (not telling Jon about transferring Martin).

If we add the whole dog story to it... they were fucked. I do actually wonder if, assuming we take the dog story as canon, Elias actually somehow managed to set that up. Or whether he was at least cackling (sorry, smiling ever so silently, but smugly) in his office as it happened, or whenever he ended up knowing that it happened.

2. Yes, we've had one starting point, but what about second starting point?

As we have established above, the starting situation for Jon and Martin was... not ideal. So, would they have gotten together easily given a different starting point, like in a cute coffee shop AU?

Eh.

It's true that the specific situation they were in made it a lot harder for them to actually communicate and see each other as they are than it had to be. That doesn't mean that a different situation would have made it easy, though.

Their personalities still make it hard, though, as even without the added stress of a new job, Jon is still a little chihuahua shaking in the corner, who tries to make up for it by barking at everyone, and Martin is still the guy trying to approach him with treats and getting his hand bitten.

There are certainly specific situation that could make it easier, especially if Jon isn't scared as hell, and has maybe already learned that not everyone who does something nice for him wants to just pull on his strings. (Yes, I do think that the thing that makes Martin, according to Annabelle, suited for the Web, is the thing that put Jon on edge at the beginning. I don't know if this was intended at all, but it makes me cackle.)

The beauty of fanfic is that we can do whatever the hell we want. But I think the most fun thing an AU author can do is think 'What would have to happen, in this specific scenario, for these two to get over themselves and get together?'

Excursion: Martin, my beloved depressed blorbo who I am certainly not projecting on, haha

Because it IS both of them who need to get over themselves. Of course Jon's issues are the most obvious, and I've certainly expanded on them enough. But Martin also has a problem, and it's that he's constantly hiding his true feelings and opinions, especially anger and fear.

That makes sense, perhaps, in a workplace, though considering he's dealing with a walking, talking worm hive and a stalker boss... Let's just say it probably would have helped Tim, too, if Martin hadn't been so desperate to make everyone be friends again.

Because Martin is always TRYING to make everything better for everyone, but he's actually not helping anyone. Being nice to Jon and bringing him tea doesn't help battle his paranoia. And trying to tell Tim not to be so angry at Jon, and can't they all be friends, doesn't actually help Tim with his anger.

All Martin is essentially doing is making himself small and saying 'let's get along, pretty please' every now and then. I don't know if it would have helped if he had expressed his own fears and anger, and maybe Jon would have misconstrued that as well, too deep in his paranoia already. But at least Tim might have realised that he was not alone in all this. (His biggest problem, as he says in S2, is that he feels that no one has his back, which I think at least partly results from no one expressing the same anger, aka no one validating his feelings.)

Anyway! (Jon voice) Excursion ends.

3. (To the melody of 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor') What shall we do with these total idiots?

So, how ARE these two going to get together, if they're so woefully unequipped to deal with each other?

Well, first we need to give Martin a good helping of self-confidence. Then we need to kind of give Jon the same, since his problem ALSO is that he's unsure of himself, he just tries to make other people small to cover it up, instead of making himself small. (And isn't that a funny thing to do for someone who we know was bullied. To become a bully himself. Oh, the snake, biting its own tail...)

The easy answer is, of course: You can come up with your own version, get creative. <3

The more complex answer is: A lot of stuff, probably. Jon and Martin will certainly need time to get to know each other, and of course it depends on what situation you put them in to start. But there will be misunderstandings, and there will be hurt feelings, and I am going to soak it up all like a particularly slowburn-greedy sponge.

I feel like there are probably five million ways to get them together, and some might be cute and fluffy (if they go to therapy first, I guess, lol) and many will be full of tears. <3 (Jon voice) And I want to see them all on my desk by Friday! So get to it!

In all seriousness though, yeah, I think there's not one right way for them to get together (though canon did it well imo). But it's also a little more complex than we might give it credit to (very much including me).

4. So what now?

I don't know. I'm not your dad. Write a fic. Draw a picture. Put down your own thoughts on the matter. Or take a shower and clean up your room, young Padawan!

(Though actually, if you've read this post from start to finish in one session, what you should probably do is get up and stretch and get some water.)

And above all! And this is imperative.

Have a good day. <3

[starry-bi-sky]

wolfpack. aka: if not friend, then why friend-shaped?

"Hey-- uh, Danny?" There's an almost imperceptible tremor in Tucker's voice.

Danny doesn't look up from what he's doing, his pencil scritching across his notebook as he tries to do another quadratic formula question. "Hm."

"What's -- uh -- what's with the dogs?"

He looks up now, and finally sees where Tucker is -- standing in the doorway of his room with an ashy look on his face and a skewed, nervous smile. He's got a white knuckle grip on the doorknob. Sam is wide-eyed behind him, and using him as a partial meat-shield.

Danny looks down to the two giant ghost wolves sprawled next to him lazily. One large green one with his head in Danny's lap, letting him use him as a prop-up for his notebook. Another equally large black one splayed against his hip, sleeping on her side with her head tilted inward to his calf.

Automatically, a grin tilts across Danny's face, and he lifts his notebook up to scratch behind the green one's ears. He opens a lazy eye, one that is bloody red with a ring of yellow around the pupil, before slipping it shut and leaning his head into Danny's touch. "This is Sirius and Procyon," he says, and reaches down to scratch Sirius' belly. "And they're not dogs, they're wolves."

"Great," Tucker says, his voice suddenly much smaller and faint, "Love that distinction."

Sirius makes a great big groan, and Danny's grin widens, his heart swelling with fondness. His hand slips away from her belly, and before he can put his notebook back down, Procyon pushes his head up his lap until his ear is against his stomach, demanding pets now too.

Sam peeks her head up from over Tucker's shoulder, "I think what Tucker's asking here is what are they doing here, Danny."

He shrugs, scratching under Procyon's chin. "They kinda just showed up. I tried sending them back to the Zone, but they keep returning." And they were weirdly intent on just following him around, which is the only reason he gave up on returning them. They weren't causing trouble, and they knew how to hide around the living. Plus, he just loves dogs. "So now I have two wolves living with me."

This, oddly enough, did not do anything to calm Sam and Tucker down. Tucker's mouth purses into a thin line, and he presses the sides of his palms to his lips in prayer. "How have your parents not found out about this?"

Danny wordlessly raises his hand, and his sleeve slides down to reveal a thin chain bracelet hooked around his wrist. He whistles sharply, and both Procyon and Sirius jerk their heads up to look at him, ears pricked up and eyes alert.

Silently, he points to his wrist and rattles it twice, and in unison both wolves stand up and pounce. Instantly, they turn into a respective, opaque black and green mist that swirls around the bracelet and forms into two, flat wolf charms.

Both wolves are posing in the stereotypical wolf howl, with little stars indented on the sides. Procyon's charm has the Canis Minor constellation engraved on it, while Sirius has the Canis Major.

Danny faces Sam and Tucker, and points at his wrist. "Like this."

[ohgreat-moretapes]

-Tim

[firstborn-au]

Punished for the actions of someone else.

Searching for a humanity that was never yours.

Wandering halls filled with music you cannot replicate.

Your life has been nothing but a cruel joke.

Day 12: Copy.

I love you dearly, ink clone Sammy, and I’ll never shut up about you.

[never-ending-pizza-time]

I think some people forget that peppino can be kind of a jerk. He's not your perfect awkward nervous guy who can do no wrong, he is not perfect, but that doesn't make him a bad guy. He has flaws, because thats a normal human thing to have.

Sometimes he gets angry and a bit mean, sometimes he takes joy in beating the shit out of the tower residents, sometimes he gets selfish or says something mean to someone. His anxiety is not his only flaw, please don't forget that. He is not a perfect sunshine boy who can do no wrong. He is not nice and friendly 100% of the time. He is a human person, he is a complex being who cannot be easily defined as completely good or completely bad.

Sometimes good people do shitty things. Sometimes a person will not act in the kindest way possible. Sometimes someone will do something not realising (or caring) how it makes others feel. Sometimes people have bad days. Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes people are wrong.

Peppino is a human, he is not immune to being a jerk sometimes. Again, this doesn't make him a bad person, it just makes him human, and I don't want people to forget that and misinterpret him as being someone whos only flaw is his anxiety. Yes it is a key part of his character, but theres more to this guy than that, thats not his only flaw or imperfection or whatever you want to call it. He's not 'kind perfect guy who also has anxiety', theres more detail to who he is than that.

Peppino can be a bit mean, Peppino can be hotheaded, and you know what? Thats okay because thats what a person is like sometimes, and that is a sign of a complex and realisticly written character (even if he is a cartoon guy, his personality still feels realistic). He's not the same guy all of the time, he doesnt respond to every situation in the same way, he's not a one note character. Sometimes he sucks as a person, but its okay because despite all that, he's a loveable and endearing character, and he isn't a horrible terrible person, he just is human, and thats okay.

[justaz]

pan merlin and gay arthur no one understands you like i do

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

My favorite funny thing on occasion is to imagine sugar baby/daddy dynamics with Tails ships

Something so comical about the fact that Sonic the hedgehog (hedgehog without a home) would be sugar baby to Tails (fox who has so many labs. Like who needs to worry about money when your little buddy pays for stuff heroing doesn't and keeps his bases fully stocked with ingredients for your favorite food

Or like, Tails, who basically ended up being Sonic's sugar daddy, accidentally gaining more sugar babies by virtue of making sure certain characters don't inconvenience people (basically playing damage control)

While I think it's Rouge mainly who would probably suppliment the money for Omega and Shadow (if need be) and play this sort of role for them, it's still funny to imagine Tails insisting on setting them up in hotel rooms because Shadow was just about to sleep outside and saw no problem with that (and because Tails can't very well just let Shadow do that)

A friend of mine also moved that, under this framework, after the idw issues where the Chaotix took a job helping Knuckles get an artifact back, Tails would just silently patch them rent money as an apology for the whole thing.

Rich inventor Tails accidentally gaining bfs out of the main cast as his sugar babies because he's assumed responsibility for their antics and cares about them too much to just let them live life the way they have been. Do you see my vision?

[coffinsister]

it's more like: Ashley WANTS her mom to hate her. i need to make a whole separate post about this and how this ties into his mentality but Ashley has basically adopted some of his core beliefs: that EVERYONE is bad and rotten and horrible and shitty deep down. that's just how being a person is. he adopted that mentality being the sole child of Mrs. Graves. so Ashley herself is trying to desperately convince herself that her own mother ALSO has to be a bad person deep down (AND SO IS ANDREW FTR THATS A BIG THING FOR HIM) and wants her to hate her. saying she's a fat old cow? saying her self-harm scars are fucking hideous and she should finish the job?

if Julia hates Ashley it just proves everything right: everyone is awful and terrible and bad deep down and that includes her and Julia. that's just how the world works!!!!

Andrew Graves out here teaching his daughter that she's a bad person just from birth and giving her the strangest fucked up core beliefs what a man

Her desperately trying to make sense of the world and to ally what she believes to be true with what she's seeing in front of her knowing she's not hated and trying to make herself be hated with all she's got because nothing else makes sense !!!! That's so good !!

Now I'm wondering if Ms Graves has like any involvement whatsoever with Andrew's and Ashley's lives

[scover-va]

Hey does anyone know any like. Good security breach rewrites w/ Vanessa being the protagonist while keeping her and Vanny as the ‘same person’ (<- wants to see of anyone else has picked up on the missed potential that is the psychological horror of it all) (if not i can and will start going into depth on my rewrite sooner. Because i am deranged)

[sqlmn]

by the power of modern day AU, I am delighted to announce that Fulj can have a girlfriend ! I haven't named her yet but have a few in mind so ... soon (TM). She is the one that she loved in canon before the whole memory wipe and as you can see, penchant for black, black hair, brown eyes, and prone to weird statements. Perfect balance to Deacon's weird questions.

HOWEVER ! I mentioned the problem of Deacon still having facial blindness to someone and how there is no glow from the deities for him to identify them. And her solution is the funniest thing ever so I have to do it. He identifies people by smell. So when he is in the same room as Ymber and Oh when they first cross paths, he doesn't really think about it. But later when he sees Ymber alone and gets the same kinda scent, same cologne or something, he knows that's not the taller guy therefore that's his scent ! Perfect!

So... unfortunately.... Deacon really can't beat the weirdness allegations in AUs...... he's stuck like that. Fulj has referred to him as a guard dog in canon and now he's a tracking dog. RIP to him.

(and because Deacon gets my facial blindness I am giving Fulj's girlfriend ANOTHER trait of mine I wouldn't wish on anyone because it's also really funny. She can't smell. She can taste ! She just can't smell. So she loves talking to Deacon because he explains smells as foods for her to get the vibe across. Which are REALLY weird conversations no one else wants to hear.)

[jack-kellys]

actually i’m gonna speak on the “versions” of newsies for a min

the only two “versions”. are broadway and 92sies. we do like actually know that right. because those are two different plot lines with different events and entirely different songs.

west end? not a version. it’s a production. it’s new staging and orchestrations which is different for us, and certainly fresh character interpretation, but at the end of the day that’s what it is— interpretation.

so the “livesies and west end are diff versions” (which already doesn’t make sense because then wouldn’t bway and tour be slightly different as well with that argument) is kind of. just. a weird separation in the name of—speaking as a writer here—maybe “keeping the work we already have”. like oh i wrote racer this way but now he’s this way.

guess what! doesn’t matter. it’s a character. there’s no- like no version besides bway script and 92sies script. what you draw character from are the actual words spoken- and yeah, staging will influence you bc if it doesn’t that’s weird, but it’s not a different character. are we. do you get me.

mainly my worry is othering, and personally this fandom cannot afford to do that w/ michael’s jack kelly, because then i’ll become violent and no one wants that :/ a new person playing jack doesn’t make it an other, different jack it just makes it yet another millionth interpretation of jack. yk. like do we get what i’m saying here

[sing-me-under]

Take the idea that “Bruce Wayne is friends with most of his Rogue Gallery”

and shift it into “Batman doesn’t kill because he believes in second chances”

and then you get something along the lines of “Even when everyone believes they are irredeemable, Bruce personally knows his Rogue Gallery and genuinely cares about them and their well-being, so he’s willing to give the benefit of the doubt and second chances to even the worst of the worst because he can’t be biased and believe the best only of the people he is friends with. Everyone has the potential to do better and do good and be kind even when it’s not obvious because Bruce personally knows the Rogues that have that potential.”

And also “Bruce’s goal later in his career isn’t to pursue revenge but to prevent crime and save as many people as possible, including his rogues. He can’t reverse the damage and the lives taken, but he can try to make things as livable as possible. Batman is a symbol of fear, a deterrent of crime, and a front-line first responder, but Bruce Wayne is the one actively helping Gotham.”

But I also raise you “Gotham is legitimately cursed” and “Joker is the only Rogue who Batman doesn’t know the real identity of. Batman is partly convinced that Joker isn’t even a real person but the physical manifestation of a curse that will forever plague Gotham”

[starlytenight]

How do you feel about Galactadad? Galacta Knight being a dad to Meta Knight?

For me personally, in my brain I already mentally distinguish between the various canons of Kirby and my own and anyone else's variations.

Since there's no stated canon relationship between Meta and Gala of any solid degree at this time, it's kinda free game and I've never been off-put by different interpretations. If anything, I embrace it.

I think it's cute, I just enjoy a more romantic angle between the two of these dorky knights, especially with how I characterize them.

I also have friends who do either Galactadad or something similar (brothers, close friends, ect) and we're all good with joke interactions between our characters.

Fun side note actually! I do actually have an off-shoot AU where I explore Galacta NOT getting sealed away. More below the cut.

SO obviously romance with Meta and Gala would not operate in this world due to a massive difference in life experience/physical age and Galacta basically knowing Meta as an egg/knowing his parents (and kinda saving their lives and taking a more reluctant teacher role for Meta when he gets a bit older.)

I call this alt "Happy AU" because basically Galacta's wish goes without a hitch and he kinda becomes the universe's ultimate guardian. He bears the weight of it well and basically prevents Nightmare's uprise and anything else with relative ease. Everyone's just enjoying life while Galacta occasionally has to go kill a bitch. Even when Meta grows up, he basically just vibes with Jecra and Garlude in what they always wanted, even with Kirby.

Though Meta DOES kind of want to be Galacta's replacement if something were to ever happen... Like say a certain butterfly swinging by buuuut these guys have NO CLUE about that.

I feel like ASM:Я!Galacta would find the Happy!Variant interesting since he's basically living the dream with all it's rewards and consequences. Watching his friends grow old while he stays young and continues fighting, embracing the satisfaction of giving everyone comfort and safety... While lonely in its own way, he succeeded and is satisfied, albeit a bit melancholy and slightly detached/aloof from things from time to time.

One of his only close friends would be Artemis in this world since she is basically immortal as well, and like a sister to him.

Won't stop him from enjoying life in a different way though. He doesn't mind showing a very stubborn baby Meta how to fight, even if he doesn't have to.

And for anyone who does have a more strict Galactadad thing, uh I present my more terrible jokes for our respective worlds/stories/headcanons. Take it away, Vlad:

This is what my friends put up with.

Please remember this is just a joke ahhh

[braisedhoney]

So you said a while ago underfell was your favorite au before. Is that still true or?

Also who’s your favorite character from whatever au you like?

damn, you were around for that? :'D

yeah, underfell used to be my favorite! i think it was smth about being really edgy as a kid, or maybe it was because red was my favorite color. idk man, even now i gotta admit those designs slap really hard.

i'm not really sure if i have a favorite au now though. i do have some ideas for underfell that i like, but i think i see the appeal of most aus bc i just like making new scenarios.

i like the big three a lot (classic, fell, swap). sans is my favorite in classic (predictable i know) if you're not counting gaster, since he isn't technically a canon character. i like both fell paps and fell sans equally, and swap paps is cool. i'd be buddies with that guy.

(i also really like asgore in undertale. the tragedy of the grief-stricken ruler who kills even though it's against his nature for the freedom of his people but also because he's long past convinced he's in too deep is really compelling to me, and by proxy i'm interested in the theoretical stories of all the fallen humans including frisk. also the whole thing with their broken family and chara and—

—whoops the ask is about aus not canon lmao, sorry!)