#AND don’t put effort/build relationships on hating things/people

[lildoodlenoodle]

When you totally missed the ‘spn cult that has apparently been active for years that felt apart a couple months ago’ existence and then the subsequent call out posts that are currently happening because:

You are not on twitter(not getting an account was one of the best decisions you’ve ever made)

The only spn people you follow all have names like CastielsPussyLips and BarbieBimboCas

You’ve been hyper focused on non-spn things for a BIT

And you only find out about all of this because you follow ONE big creator who was apparently APART of this cult and later became a victim of said cult and was one of the people who left before it fell apart, who posted an apology post.

So naturally, out of pure curiosity(mistake), look up the situation(Mistake) to see what people are talking about on tumblr(MISTAKE) to see some people comparing this discord(?) group to evangelical Christian cults and SCIENTOLOGY(also POLICE BRUTALITY???) only to click on some of their blogs to find mostly winc*st or see posts defending one of the actors for getting a second amendment g*n tattoo.

The mental whiplash was INSANE. To be clear, I only have a v vague understanding of what the fuck happened and I have no plans to learn more but yea crazy crazy crazy.

Lesson of the day for people new to fandom that we ALL are still learning: Don’t build relationships on hating someone/something.

[01zfan]

haiiiii everyone. took a little bit of a break just because.

i don’t really wanna get into all of the accusations and anon hate so we are going to keep everything on an IF-YOU-KNOW-YOU-KNOW basis. i am going to be operating on the assumption that if you follow me you know how i feel about riize. people who are irrationally angry at me and the creative liberties i exercise as a writer will simply just be speaking into the void from here on out.

i want you guys to know i truly didn't take a break solely because of that. if anything i find the situation humorous because i've been having a ball on this account. the people who have been rocking with me from the start know my heart, the people that read my initial post and understand me (even if they don't necessarily agree, which is okay!) know my heart. that's good enough for me. outside voices are just that--OUTSIDE! no one is penetrating this peaceful community i have made for myself and hopefully others on this account.

what i do really really want to say is that being a writer for fandom is hard! this is the first time i’ve ever been a writer for a group so consistently (also ironically the first time i’ve been so busy in my offline life) so i want to say it requires effort. even though i love to write, i love riize, i love to fulfill commissions and requests, and i love to talk with you guys about riize, it does take work. if you have read my fics you can tell i don’t want them to be just straight smut. i like to give you guys stories. sometimes with a themes and hopefully always with a narrative. that's why i don't normally post blurbz...i personally don't like to just get out a quick horny scenario i need PLOT i need ANGST i need SOMETHING TO SINK MY TEETH INTO! part of the reason why i started this account was to hone my creative writing skills and build my chops so i am really story centric.

i take pride in what i put out so it takes work. i try to not be repetitive. i try to give you guys something new that really feels real and also true to the individual members of riize. so even though i am crazy (what writer isn't) and will always write (even if the audience is just me, myself, and i) it is nice when the work is acknowledged! even if it is work i love, it is still work. i know it is hard to imagine someone puts effort into fanfiction, especially as a reader, but i never try to write anything half-assed. maybe i'm burning myself out by writing stories constantly but who knows. what i do know is that feedback and comments and thoughts make me happy! i seriously kick my feet and go back and reread the comments and tags i get on fics constantly! knowing you guys take as much care in reading as much as i take in writing makes me feel so fulfilled. it's the reason i became a writer and it's motivation for me, even beyond this site but in real life too.

i am of course not obligating you guys to interact with me. my milestone post when i hit 1k followers i think i said something along the lines that i remember the people that like my posts often and that is still very much true heh. i recognize people in my notifications, all the years i spent on the internet makes usernames lock in my head like a steel trap. sometimes i post thinking to myself oh so-and-so is gonna love this.

i am rambling but all in all i have amassed a following more than what i expected and i have made a community on this account too. i hope that you guys as part of this community know i am a person behind this account. i like to be told nice things, i like to be judged fairly, i like to be talked to, i like to not be treated like a machine, i like to be respected. the relationship we have as writer and reader is a very beautiful one in my opinion. it's like we are feeding eachother we are not parasitic but mutualistic. bees and flowers. clownfish and sea anemones. humans and gut bacteria. you get the gist. lets just continue having a good time on this account together🫂

[blairsanne]

I just finished my first rewatch of taj. This time around, I noticed more than the first time I watched. I was actually paying more attention to the storyline instead of just watching Dean in every scene and how good he looked lol.

I felt bad for Anders and how everyone treated him, even up until the last episode. Yeah there were times when he acted like a prick but hey that’s his character and I understand him putting up a wall and acting the way he does because if how others treat him. Still loved Ty. Yeah at times it was a little creepy with his approach to Dawn but I love the ending how it all turned out for them. Still cried. Mike, still can’t stand him. I think this time around I found him even more annoying. I almost got to the point where I had to wither mute when he was talking or just outright skip it lol. Axl was better this time around. First time I found him really annoying but this time he was better. Love Zeb, hilarious! Love all the goddesses still, except Gaia. Don’t even get me started on her! Especially the storyline with her and Anders. Nope hated that part, couldn’t watch it this time.

I loved it even more this time around! Since finishing it, it got me thinking about it they did go ahead with a season 4 and what would play out. I would’ve loved to see how each of them adapted to their life now without their god powers and who would embrace the new change, who would struggle the most, would they change anything about their life or try and keep it steady? Who knows!? And then what about Axl moving back in with Zeb, do you think he’d eventually start telling him everything or just leave that all in the past and build a new friendship? What are your thoughts on if they did another season and what they would tackle?

Yay, talking about TAJ is one of my favourite things!!

I fully agree re: Anders. I often feel sad for him when people who watch the show accept his brothers' opinions of him as fact, despite Anders himself repeatedly trying to tell them that he does the right thing often, that he's trying to protect them, etc. -- and the audience even being shown that effort on his part multiple times. It grinds my gears that other characters thinking Anders is a shallow jerk is taken as a statement of fact from the writers and not, y'know, the character's opinion.

Anders may not have the same set of ethics as Mike, but he clearly has his own set of ethics (which he brings up in S2 when he's uncomfortable with Helen's ideas for his powers, in S3 with Colin's ideas for his powers, etc...) and doesn't see his own actions the way his brothers interpret them, and I think it's a very uncharitable reading of his character to think of him as flat and selfish, instead of the very complex character that was actually written into the show, with flaws and good points and complicated family dynamics where mostly there's a lot of misunderstanding of each other going on. I could probably ramble on about that forever, but I'll refrain.

Mainly I wish that viewers would take Anders word for it what his own motivations are, because he does outright state them at multiple points, right from the first season where he explains that the thing that got him BANISHED FROM HIS FAMILY was done in an attempt to protect Mike.

I really disliked Mike my first viewing, because I felt like he caused a lot of strife for other characters by being inflexible and believing he knew best. As I've rewatched, I've come to better appreciate his character and the immense burden he bears. I think his attempt at controlling his family is his own way of trying to protect them, and that this was caused by the events surrounding both the toxic relationship of his parents and that he was forced to be the head of the family at age 21. (I still get annoyed with him during the S3 Odin contest stuff but I also headcanon that it was a "fate" thing to force Odin and Frigg together.) I try to remind myself that every character on the show thinks they are in the right, and why that might be.

I have a theory about Gaia, but that's a whole other essay lmao.

My answers to your questions re: S4 will be somewhat colored by the deleted scene from the final episode, which reveals what Colin was doing tossing a red gem on the ground before the Ga.

In the deleted scene (which they filmed in case they got renewed for S4), Loki comes out of the gem, and we were left with Loki and Colin standing in the woods, apparently about to cause some problems.

With that in mind, I have to assume that the Johnsons would discover Loki was in Midgard and try to do soemthing about it. I further assume that at least some of the other characters would have god spirits inhabit them again (mainly because that's more interesting than them coming back to Earth on their own and interacting with mortal Johnsons).

I think it would be REALLY interesting if they didn't necessarily get the gods they had the first time around. Maybe Odin doesn't want to leave Asgard, so Axl becomes another god. Maybe Freki, just for the lols. Maybe they find some new McGuffin that allows other mortals (liek Zeb and Dawn) to take on god spirits!

Re: Zeb and Axl living together, given how long their friendship was, I headcanon that - much like Dawn - Zeb would eventually start to remember Axl, and maybe everything. Alternatively, maybe part of the season is Axl finding a way to make Zeb remember!

Just re: the Johnsons being mortal in general, I have a bit of a hc where, since Mike's career wasn't based on his powers, he'd go back to construction (maybe rebuild the bar to sell it), and Axl would work for him. Anders (who I assume does know how to do his job, despite no longer being able to just Bragi his clients) might even do promo for the construction business. Ty could still be a courier, and as the only one to actually live as a mortal since turning 21, I think he'd have the easiest time of it, especially with Dawn remembering him and all.

I think initially there would be a lot of razzing Mike by challenging him to games and beating him, but overall I think Mike might actually feel really happy to get to be included in those games again after so long. I think losing Ullr would really help Mike chill out. Or, at least, I hope that for him.

I don't really see Michele and Anders working out long term unless Michele started to take Anders seriously. She didn't really seem to understand him very well even in S3. I did feel like Anders seemed to want a more serious relationship (not necessarily that he wanted what Ty or Mike would want, but just that he seemed to be looking for emotional connection in S3, and not only physical, perhaps because of the whole Idun plot?) so I could see with not having Bragi anymore that he might settle down a bit and get a gf. I've always sort of thought maybe mortal women didn't seem like suitable gf material to him because they couldn't know about everything going on (like he saw how being with Val was complicated for Mike) and that's why they're always little flings. We do see him treat Michele and Helen pretty well imo (not cheating on them, taking them seriously as people, etc.), so I thought maybe he would do better with a goddess gf. (See Lofn fic lmao)

Ahhh that was a lot of rambling, but I'm always happy to talk more about TAJ!! Thanks for the ask :)

[lover-of-mine]

The thing I find fascinating is that the show runners are fully capable of writing engaging couples. Henren, Bathena & Madney – their relationships are beautiful. And then we have Buck and Eddie with their respective LIs. It’s almost as if they want the relationships to fail.

This season, they had every chance to set up Tommy as a suitable LI for Buck. But they didn’t? They didn’t even have to show a grand love confession or the likes, but at least some small gestures. Them holding hands in the hospital, Tommy dressing up for the bachelor party, being a little more sensitive when they ran into Eddie during that first date… Just a few simple things that would have made all the difference.

I feel like most of the love for Tommy comes from headcanons the fandom accepted as universal truths, while there isn’t much in canon to support it.

This isn’t meant to be hate on the character (though it probably will be taken that way by certain people), it’s just that I don’t think he is a good fit for Buck. He’s guarded and deflects with a dry sense of humor, when Buck needs a person to be vulnerable with. You know, someone who is so soft and sickeningly sweet with him. So far, I didn’t get much of the sorts from Tommy. But then again, we didn’t get to see a whole lot of the relationship actually playing out on screen, so who knows.

And the other thing that started to bother me is about the daddy issue thing. There is nothing wrong with showing (or alluding to) a couple having an active/kinky sex life. In general, I’m all in favor of it.

But looking back at season one, Buck used sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism to feel a connection to people. And he doesn’t have the best relationship with sex to begin with (Remember 7x05 and the talk with Eddie, where it hadn’t occurred to either of them that saying no is an option? Doesn’t sound healthy to me.) If they wanted to set Tommy apart, they should have put all their efforts into building an emotional connection between the two. I’m not saying that sex can’t be a part of it - not even that it can’t be kinky - but that the show should have put much more emphasis on the emotional aspect of it rather than the physical attraction.

Maybe it’s just wonky writing due to a shortened season but the relationship between the two isn’t half as good as it could have been.

No, but I made a post about this during the s6-7 hiatus, because it's not like the show doesn't know how to establish a love interest, bathena and madney work because all of them exist individually and Henren was introduced to us in a way where we would side with Karen, so even tho Karen only exists to be Hen's wife we care about her in a deeper way because Karen has never done anything wrong in her life. With Buck and Eddie all of the love interests are presented to us with something wrong with them. Shannon never had a fighting chance because she left and Eddie himself was never sure about her, Eddie was dating Ana and Marisol because he thought he had to, and I'm not even gonna go there with Kim. Abby breaks every possible protocol to call Buck, and she's never in it in the same way Buck is, Taylor tries to take advantage of Bobby's addiction for her personal gain and continues to take advantage of him to get ahead, Ali is never there, Natalia is too interested in Buck's death and Tommy is callous. There's a weird metaphor in there, but the basketball scene, the way Buck hits Tommy and ricochets back and Tommy doesn't even flinch. Buck needs someone who will bend. But the show didn't even try to establish an emotional connection between the two of them, everything comes back to the physical and with a character like Buck, who was shown using sex as a bad coping mechanism, to constantly make it seem like this new relationship isn't going beyond the sex is concerning. There were better ways to imply they are having sex. Even more considering the way the show had the opportunity to make it seem like they are building some sort of emotional connection and just chose not to. Every scene we had with the 2 of them could be rewritten adding the idea that they actually care about each other beyond the attraction, and that's a choice. To go the route they went is a choice. I'm still not over the way they had Tommy not dressing up and then Eddie suggesting matching outfits in the next scene. Like, it was that easy because they showed Eddie doing it. And I don't wanna compare, but with the constant triangle formation and the way they were showing Eddie as the person who understands Buck and Tommy as the dude Buck is fucking, we have nothing happening in our screen that makes it seem like Tommy is even a little fond of Buck and all I can think about is Buck standing in front of a hot air balloon with a huge bouquet of flowers for a woman who referred to him as a boytoy. Buck deserves someone who's gone for him and none of his canon love interests gave me that impression. And they make a very explicit choice to not make that implication. They could've been something, but right now they aren't. If you just watch the show you don't know why they are dating. They are just there. And coming from a show that wrote bathena, madney, and henren, and the way that Tommy being a firefighter gives him a fighting chance because it's real easy to make him exist outside of Buck, it's on purpose.

[nanaooyoo]

enhypen jay oneshot

You and Jay are trying to stage the perfect dinner party for the gang. It’s the first event you two are hosting in your new place after moving in together for the first time. Anyways enjoy ✨

warnings/headsup: slight angst • miscommunication • petty relationship fight • 50% fighting 50% fluff • kissing • 2.2k words • light proofread • mentions being high

Dinner Party: Jay x Reader pt.I/I

“Staring at it in the oven won’t make it cook any faster…” Jay grumbles for umpteenth time today.

“I just don’t understand why you won’t let me crank the heat up.”

“That’s not how slow cooking works! Or any cooking for that matter. Cranking the heat up four hundred percent doesn’t mean it’ll cook four hundred times faster.”

“It quite literally does!” You scoff, annoyance only building in your body as the day goes on.

Jay wants so badly for you to just let him cook in peace. “Well it won’t taste good! It’ll burn, you wanna eat a burnt dinner?”

“I wanna eat something…” You clutch your stomach in self induced agony as you curl your knees into your chest. “I’m starving”. Of course you weren’t actually starving, you’d been snacking on bits of everything your boyfriend cooked all day. You just hated the idea of waiting around for something that didn’t feel completely necessary. “I wanted to order a pizza”…

“We can’t just order a pizza every time my friends come over” Jay sighs. “We’re adults now, not every hangout can just consist of pizza, or fried chicken and beer…”

You and Jay had been going back and forth like this for the past couple of hours with only little bits of passive aggressive silence sprinkled in every once in a while to punctuate the tension in your brand new apartment. Jay had invited all six of his best friends over to your new place as a sort of rite of passage for taking the next step and moving in together. You liked Jay’s friends, they were your friends too. Something about having people over in a new place however, that wasn’t just yours or just Jay’s made it all feel a little different… It made it feel like there was something to prove. Not like you liked having people over at your old place anyways.

You absolutely hated hosting! It was all your least favorite things combined and packaged up with a stress colored bow. The excessive cleaning, the sometimes days long preparation, the social anxiety, the scheduling, the cooking… It all made you just want to curl up into a ball and hide under your covers. Of course your boyfriend wasn’t going to let you hide under your covers, so you chose to curl up on the floor instead.

Occasionally, He would look down and behind him to your scrunched up form on the freshly installed kitchen tile. He knew it was mostly just the stress of having people over that made you so irritable and combative, but he also wanted to know why you chose to do your wallowing for the day on the freshly installed kitchen tile. You looked liked a sick kitten laying on the floor by his feet and as much as Jay wanted to just put down the knife and cutting board, and let the vegetables chop themselves, he was equally if not more stressed about tonight. For some reason he felt an even more intense pressure than usual to get everything perfect for this one dinner. It was as if this new place, this dinner, and everything surrounding it was going to be the determining factor in the course of you two and your relationship. He felt a sense of responsibility in making sure everything was just right. No matter how hard he planned though, if this night already wasn’t going smoothly, what did that mean for the two of you?

“‘We’re adults now’… Says who?” You mutter under your breath mocking Jay’s tone. You’re almost close to writhing on the floor in pure agony at the thought of going even another second without one of your favorite low effort comfort foods. You shift your weight so you’re practically laying flat on your stomach like the outline of a body at a crime scene.

“Says who? Says me.” He quips back.

You groan. “You’re actually starting to piss me off.”

“Really I thought I officially pissed you off like three hours ago.”

You ignore his comment and take another peek at the oven before lying back down. “You did. Then I got over it and now you’re starting to piss me off again”.

“Well you’re not exactly being a peach today either. Is it too much to ask for your cooperation for just one day.”

“It is too much actually.” You say raising your voice a little.

“Why are you yelling at me?” Jay turns around and gives you and incredulous look.

“I’m not yelling…” you say getting up to take a walk around the place and hopefully blow off some steam.

Jay’s lips form a tight line as he watches you, and is left again in awkward tension filled silence.

𖦹

A few hours later you’re back to your cadaver like position on the floor. You could only take so many laps around the apartment before it got old. Of course you wanted to ask Jay if he needed anymore help, but he had insisted a while ago that all the cooking would be done by himself. You didn’t want to fight him on it since the last time you tried to make toast you almost burned the entire building down. Putting aside your lack of culinary skills, you were still getting increasingly bored. You needed something to do!

Jay notices your restlessness and the way your jaw moves as if chewing on invisible food. “Are you high right now. You kind of act like this when you’re high.” Your partner asks sarcastically.

You think you sense a tinge of genuine curiosity in his voice but can almost imagine the sly smirk on his face and push that thought away.

“I wish I was high… that would make this dinner so much more fun.” You retort. “And a pizza”. You say the last part as quietly as you can.

Jay looks over at your seemingly lifeless form on the ground and scoffs. “You’re practically like… in junk food withdrawal. You’re a junkie”. Jay snickers to himself laughing at his own terrible joke. Eventually, he’s pulled out of his own amusement when he hears what sounds like muffled sniffling coming from your spot on the floor. “Y/N, hey are you okay?” He stops what he’s doing and kneels on the floor next to you and shakes your shoulder lightly. “Hey look I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you upset, I was just playing arou-”.

“You’re an idiot.” You say through involuntary giggles.

He pulls you shoulder back peeling you off the floor like a strip of painters tape. As your cheek lightly sticks to the tile he’s reminded of how cute you are, even in contentious moments like this. Jay lightly hits your shoulder “You scared me! I thought you were actually crying. What’s wrong with you! You never laugh at my jokes…”

“I don’t know. I think I’m laughing at how bad it was! Also I think laying next to this hot oven is making me a little bit delirious.” You say finally sitting up and placing a hand on your forehead.

Jay moves your hand so that he can feel your temperature himself and pouts a bit in minor worry. He pauses for a moment before leaning over to give you a hug. He wraps his arms around your shoulders in sort of a clunky but loving way as you two are crouched on the floor. He pulls back and gives you an apologetic look. You return his gaze and give him a small embarrassed smile.

“Sorry for being immature… and annoying”. You look down at your hands and avoid your boyfriends almost glassy eyes.

“You’re not annoying or immature, if anything I’m being the annoying and immature one”. Jay pouts.

“No it’s on me really, I should be acting like more of an adult.” You feel a sense of shame in your inability to match Jay in this specific area and it makes you feel like you’re maybe just missing the maturity it takes to make this living together thing go well.

Jay feels a fleeting but piercing sting in his heart at the thought of his words potentially making you feel that way. “You are an adult. When it really matters you’re always an adult. I just really wanted to impress the guys tonight.” He rubs your shoulders in remorse. “Can I admit something kind of embarrassing?”

You nod.

“I just sort of convinced myself that if tonight didn’t go perfectly we’d like… eventually break up over it or something.”

Jay watches your expression as your face contorts into a look he can’t quite decipher. “I only invited the guys over because I wanted to prove to them that we’re really meant to be together. Like I know they already really like you and stuff… I just… I was stressing myself and you out for nothing”.

You huff and see that Jay looks worried until he sees your confusing expression turn into that of an unmistakeable smile. You’re beyond relieved. “I was stressed over tonight too. It’s not embarrassing. Well it is but I was embarrassed too. You know how I get with stuff like this. My brain just forgets all logic and I convince myself something is life or death when it really really isn’t…” You give your boyfriend a kiss on the forehead and ruffle his hair a bit. “I’m sorry Jay! I should have just talked to you earlier when I was starting to feel bad.”

Jay smiles “I should have told you last week when I started freaking out… I’m sorry too.”

Both of you had been acting just a bit over the top today, letting each of your personal feelings get in the way of just having a good time before your friends came over.

“You were right too, about the pizza. Woulda been much easier.” Jay says.

“No way! It smells great in here and you’ve been working so hard the guys’ll definitely appreciate it.” You reply “Heeseung will probably eat the whole thing if he gets a chance.”

Jay chuckles “It does smell really good in here… I did sort of do a really good job today.”

You roll your eyes but can’t help but be charmed by his statement “that’s the confidence that made me fall in love with you.” You say.

Jay pecks your lips and puts a hand to your cheek “I love you too. I really should finish this meal though.”

He watches as a small smirk creeps its way across your face and the mischievous little glimmer in your eye shines brightly for a moment. “What?” He asks just milliseconds before you’re pulling him onto the floor and peppering kisses onto his face (no pun intended) instead of letting him get back to cooking.

𖦹

There’s quite a few minutes (maybe longer) of playfully making out on the kitchen floor before there’s a loud chorus of dings heard in the distance.

“Is that the oven or the doorbell?” Jay pulls back and sits up.

You glance around and see the timer on the oven has sounded. You sigh as it’s time for you to end your fun and you stand up to turn the oven off. As you press the button and go to grab an oven mitt to get Jay’s creation out, there’s another loud crackly ringing throughout the apartment that causes you two to wince.

Jay checks the time on his watch “fuck!” He mutters under his breath and scrambles to stand up, socks slipping a bit on the shiny tile as he rushes to the door. He can just imagine his friends behind the door giggling and repeatedly pressing that godforsaken deafening button. He runs to open the door and immediately sees Jake and Niki swatting each others hands away and fighting for who gets to continuously ring the door bell.

“Could you be any slower?” Sunoo complains half in jest half in true annoyance. “It was freezing out there and then we had to walk all the way up to the top floo-“.

Jungwon elbows his friend in the stomach. “It was really nice of you guys to invite us over”. He smiles and Jay opens the door more to let everyone in.

Jay’s face reddens a bit as he looks back to you taking dishes out of the oven and rearranging things on the table, counters, and island. “Sorry we’re not exactly done cooking everything, we got… distracted…”

“That’s okay, we can help you finish right?” Heeseung pipes up as he finishes taking off his coat and shoes. He wastes no time walking over to the kitchen to greet you and give you a big hug. “What still needs done?” All the guys nod in acknowledgment.

“Oh you guys.. that’s really sweet! I’m so bad at cooking I could barely help Jay at all today”. You say returning Heeseung’s embrace and slowly doing the same for all the others.

“How about those of us that are good at cooking help Jay out and Y/N, you can give the rest of us a tour of the place”. Sunghoon says.

“That’s a good idea man. There isn’t room for all of us in there anyways.” Jay smiles and closes the door, kicking a few Nikes out of the way in the process

Sunghoon leans over to Jay before making his way to the kitchen where everyone is catching up. He whispers through light chuckles “You have lipstick all over your face by the way”. He laughs and walks away.

You can see your boyfriend out of the corner of your eye frantically wiping at the sides of his mouth before making his way over to the rest of you. “Okay guys let’s split into teams”…

[bobbybutterfly]

Oh my goodness! This took me almost 7 hours. I ended up having to re work the perspective. At one point he looked like he was going to fall off the building! I’m satisfied though. Just don’t think about the anatomy much. I’m putting more effort into my composition and colours. I mainly do it by stealing, I mean studying, composition and poses from League of Legends splash art I find on Pinterest

I watched Arcane and my brother played it when I was small all the time. A. K. A. I don’t know much about the video game other than the art (look my relationship to modern digital illustrations is complicated because my art teachers really hate it and I can see why) implements certain art techniques quite well. That was a long sentence! Anyway back to my painting? Drawing of Mulmangcho?

The improving in composition and colour go hand in hand. Different colours got different values. Meaning that if you switch the image to black and white certain colours are going to be darker or lighter. Your job as an artist is to make the piece be readable even if it was switched to black and white. With readability helps out composition! Composition is placing objects and colours in a certain way to guide your eye through the image.

As you can see the image still looks good in black and white. I made the parts I wanted the viewer to focus on the lightest. Like mainly the face, the gun and sort of the rest of the figure. I made the background darker so the lighter parts would stand out even more.

Now this is a piece I done a day or two ago. Um. Ignore the shadow not making much sense. I drew it like that so it goes in the same direction as the hand. I still did the thing of making the parts that are in the front the lightest. But the contrast isn’t… contrasting that much.

Here I added some screen tone. Much better no?

Hope you didn’t mind my monologue about art. I wanted to show off a bit to non artists just how much goes into making art. And trust me. There’s way more you got to keep in mind when doing an art work. If you get a lot of practice in, or just have talent (most people have a mix of both) it comes naturally to you. Kind of how you don’t need to think about how to take a step when walking.

If you’re an artist and I peaked your interest in art fundamentals I would recommend the YouTube channels Sinix Design and Proko. Bet ya they will explain everything far better than I can. Lastly it helps me out to recap what I’m doing. It gets stored in the head better. I never would have realised, just how much I know about the anatomy of an ear, if I didn’t explain it to a kid in a language I’m slowly forgetting all my vocabulary for. Sorry Slovak teachers, you tried your best.

Originally I wanted to talk about how I’m rewatching Squirrel and Hedgehog. It’s far better on a rewatch. The plot is very complicated. I still feel like I have to open up a word document and take notes. But at least I have an idea what is going on. I think I will talk about that more in another post.

[and-the-flame-burns]

ok so um…. My thoughts. My thoughts and my opinions on both the 2004 and 1990 films for POTO. I do heavily criticize the 2004 film so there’s that warning for you if you like the 2004 film more than I do.

this is a long post

The 2004 poto film is ok, not the best thing in the world. I don’t like how Erik (I think he’s called Merik by the phandom, I also like how y’all started calling yourselves the phandom instead of fandom) acts. Tbh there’s not a single joke in that man, he’d hate Cherik (1990 Erik I think).

2004 Erik or the film in general as an off feeling to it but then again idk if this is true to the actual story or not because I haven’t read the book. Also my explanation as to why I absolutely do not like 2004 Erik or the film in general.

Erik is a bitch, I’ll put that up first. He throws a toddler fit every time something doesn’t go his way (tbh Cherik does this as well but his fits feel “toned down” but at least he didn’t actually burn down the building). Merik, which is what I think y’all call 2004 Erik, his character feels stiff for some reason? It feels like he only has 2-3 emotions throughout the entire film, anger and “hubbhuh I’m sad” and “haha I love Christine”. Which those are just anger, sad, and love.

but he just feels stiff

The movie is great, I can appreciate all the costume design and effort that went into it in general, the singing is great and I can appreciate how they put effort into song writing as well. Personally sing songy movies aren’t for me but I can appreciate the music and the songs by themselves. I love the effort that they put into the movie itself because when Erik brings Christine through that hallway of arms holding the candle thingies, I actually really liked that part and how they revealed that the whole thing wasn’t even real later on. I have a hate love relationship with that scene reveal if I’m going to be honest because “erik wtf you walked her through there” and “did he cause those effects???? That’s so cool”

final thoughts on the 2004 film, I can’t really get a clear story on the film. I know what it’s about but the story it’s trying to tell doesn’t feel finished. Sure it tells you what happens between Christine, Erik, and the rest of the opera house, but the only “story” I get is how Erik got there. At the beginning I got confused because Christine already knew Erik, I don’t remember the film having a clear scene on how they met.

moving into my thoughts on the 1990 film, I enjoyed it a lot more than the 2004 film. I feel like it builds up who The Phantom is a lot better and why people fear The Phantom and how this story of The Phantom of the Opera even came to be. It’s because he was born there in the opera itself and according to the movie, his wails as a child started the whole thing in the first place. It also shows other things like why he was put in the opera in the first place. It also tells how tf he was even cared for! He has a father who raised him there and told him why he must never go outside. In the 2004 film it feels weird that he just *stayed there* instead of escaping to a much farther away place in the middle of the night.

in the 1990 film, it feels like I can sympathize with Erik a lot more. I’m not sure if you’re even supposed to sympathize with Merik, but if you were, then I can’t. Cherik on the other hand just feels tragic tbh because he didn’t have to be put down here, sure his face is kinda horrendous but there were so many more options of where he could’ve ended up. With Merik? I cannot sympathize with him, he’s honestly too much of a bitch and I can’t sympathize with him over “he didn’t get the girl” because she doesn’t deserve him.

with Cherik, there’s a reason for why he loves Christine but he does initially take it too far by trying to force her to stay down there with him. I also don’t like when she’s first “I’m worried about him!” Because girl, he tried to trap you down there. Her love for him feels forced because he did indeed hurt her in ways. I’m pretty sure most people don’t like it when you throw them in a cage as if you’re swinging a softball as hard as you can.

Other than that little section of where Cherik tries to trap Christine and where her love and worry for him feel forced? I genuinely like this movie better than the 2004 film

It feels like there’s more overall story to it, how Cherik got there and why, how him and Christine met, how The Phantom of the Opera legend got there, and to me, the story concludes nicer. I meant that it concludes nicer because the 2004 film doesn’t feel finished, to me it feels like everything that could’ve been finished and fleshed out, wasn’t. Sure you don’t have to show *everything* to the viewer because in the 1990 film they could’ve shown Cherik’s face but didn’t, but the 2004 film still feels like there’s holes in the story.

I think that’s all I have for my thoughts on the 2 films I watched

[freakshowtwopointoh]

I Won't Pretend That I Won't Miss This

Jordan stared at the offer letter like it was their death warrant. Six months ago it had been everything they wanted. But everything changed in six months so why did they have to get this job now? Different parts of themself pulling in different directions, pulling so hard they might actually become two people with the intensity.

UCLA. R&D intern for a Vought subsidiary. Brink had pulled a few strings for them, wrote a killer recommendation, and they wrote a stellar essay. At the time, they were sure they would get the job. This was the first time they hated being right.

The small voice in the back of their head, the golden butterfly of hope, reminded them that they could make it work. That plenty of people managed long distance relationships, and that the internship was only 9 months long. And then they thought about watching Marie walk away from them at the fucking JFK departure lane and the ache in their chest was enough to cause them to shift involuntarily. They thought about how her voice doesn’t sound quite right through the phone. How her eyes don’t shine as bright through a camera lens. And how hard it was to fall asleep without her next to them. 

The louder, darker voice in their head reminded them that she probably wouldn’t want to wait for them anyways. It’s one thing when they live just a few buildings away from each other, but multiple time zones? She would be going to sleep around their dinner time - if they were even out of work. They would be waking up when she was already in classes. When they imagined making their way through the UCLA campus, there was that sickening lurch in their stomach as they realized she wouldn’t be in any crowd. They would be alone again.

And it would be selfish of them to even ask her to wait for them. This is college, and she’s just starting. They’d be limiting her, hurting her, by asking her to put in all that time and effort for them. But if they were truly honest, it was cowardice. They didn’t think they would be able to stomach it if she rejected them. She was truly going places. She had this ease about her, an earnestness to her that drew people to her like the sun. She was a true star - and they were never going to break out of the background.

They didn’t hear Marie come in, but they felt her stand next to them, forcibly unfurling their tightly clenched fist to hold their hand. She didn’t say anything, just stood there holding their hand until they realized tears were falling from their eyes onto the offer letter, which they hadn’t stopped staring at since they opened it. 

“So. What’s our next move?” They had to push her away. She deserves so much more than them. 

“This was fun, Moreau, but I think-”

“Are you serious?” She snapped, cutting them off. “If you think I’d rather lose you than wait nine months, you are actually an idiot.”

“I-” They went to argue with her again, but her eyes made it clear she wasn’t interested in dealing with their shit.

“If you actually want to end things now, go ahead. But I can feel your heart pounding, Jor. And nine months is nothing.”

“You could have a whole ass child during that time.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a half ass child, but I guess it’s possible.” That got a chuckle out of them, in spite of everything. “Stop trying to protect me from yourself, Jordan. You’re not as dangerous as you think you are. I’m not afraid of loving you.”

Afraid? Of loving Marie?

“I’m afraid of losing you, Marie!” They yelled, unsure of what she was accusing them of. Did she think they were afraid of loving her? No. They were afraid of losing her, they were afraid of hurting her, but loving her? That was as easy as breathing. But breathing wasn’t always easy, was it. Like now, the fear corrodes the love until their breath is tangled in their tongue and nothing makes sense anymore. 

“Isn’t that the same thing?” She spits back. They don’t have a response to that. They’re glaring at the letter again, as if that would help anything. Marie breaks the silence again.

“Just... love me anyways.” She said softly. “I’m scared of losing you too, baby. But don’t stop loving me just because you’re afraid of getting hurt.”

Love me anyways. Wasn’t that what true love was? Loving each other even though it might actually kill us. Facing every one of their fears would be worth it if they could be by her side, right? They finally looked at her, finally met the big brown eyes that had made them fall in love in the first place.

“I’m so fucking scared, Marie. Wh-” They were about to launch into the series of what ifs that had been plaguing them all morning when her lips met theirs and everything faded away. Their hand shook slightly as they cupped her face, trying to put as much love and courage and care into the kiss as they could. Because when she was this close to them, when their lips met, it was almost like they had never been afraid of anything in their life. When she pulled away, she met their eyes with a soft smile. “Ok. I love you, Marie. Let’s figure this out.”

So they did. They planned out when Marie would be able to fly out to UCLA. They scheduled weekly video calls. They fell asleep on the phone with Marie every night - her soft breathing becoming their own white noise as they worked into the night. They never stopped looking for her in crowds, even when they knew she wouldn’t be there. So when she surprised them at their big presentation (despite it being a couple weeks before exams) they noticed immediately and nearly cried on stage. But it was the best presentation they’d ever done. 

And when they finally landed back at JFK, ready to start their senior year with Marie by their side, the reunion was sweeter than they could have ever imagined.

[occulthours]

out of curiosity, are you a hosie or a hizzie? you're pretty loud about your dislike for handon, but i rarely see you post either hosie or hizzie.

Honestly, I had to think hard to answer this because I really did enjoy aspects of both ships. Short answer, I like both but don't love either. If I had to choose I would likely say Hizzie.

With Hosie I feel like they lacked a lot of the depth despite them being the most popular ship in the show. Ironically enough, they followed in KC's footsteps in that sense. They never really had enough build-up for them to start a relationship at any point in the show and it didn't help that the writers seemingly put a ban on them in s3. After being called out for queerbaiting the audience they just decided to completely cut Hope and Josie off from each other, even in situations that would've called for them to interact (s2 literally ended with them having an episode heavily centric on their dynamic, yet there was no follow up in s3?).

Their dynamic for the most part bored me, even as someone who enjoys the friends-to-lovers trope. Often times their scenes felt a bit empty, which definitely could’ve been intentional on the writers part to dissuade people from shipping them to be fair! They just didn’t get enough content for me to fully jump on board. I do think that out of Hope's popular ships, they had the best chemistry. They felt very natural in the scenes they shared and could've been great in canon. Had DRR and Kaylee been given the chance, Hosie would’ve been one of the few canon Legacies ships that had real romantic chemistry.

Hope and Lizzie’s relationship very clearly the star of the show. The best elements of the show were jumpstarted by their relationship (their rivals-to-friends era in s1, their hilarious scenes in s2 and 3, and their tribrid/heretic, sirebond, and enemies era in s4). The writers put more effort into Hizzie than any other aspect of the show, including Hope and Lizzie's canon relationships with their boring boyfriends. Typically, Hizzie is the thing the Legacies writers are praised for the most, and the praise is deserved.

Based on the writing alone Hizzie would've gone down as one of my favorite TVDU ships, maybe even one of my favorite ships period. But I don’t think DRR and Jenny have much romantic chemistry. Very close friends and platonic soulmates, yes. Girlfriends... I'd have to actually see it to believe it. They had the potential to start something, especially in season 4, but I’m not sure how it would feel to actually watch them have romantic scene.

It’s hard to say which I'd rather have been canon because of this. I can't see how Hope and Josie’s relationship being entertaining to watch (assuming that I can't go back and rewrite their relationship) and unless DRR and Jenny were specifically toning down whatever romantic chemistry they may have, I can't see myself rooting for them to kiss on screen. If I absolutely had to choose? Before s4 I would’ve said Hizzie by a long shot, but s4 gave Hosie an edge (I love ships where one or both of them are obsessively down bad and s4 Josie fit that to a T. Josie caring more about the girl that beat her father nearly to death, threatened to kill her mother, and actually killed her sister? EAT EAT EAT!), but also the sirebond gave Hizzie a bit of an edge (how could you not get even a little buzz from “I hate you for making me love you”?)… Hizzie was the first Legacies ship I fell for so I feel like I’m always gonna be a bit bias towards them.

I’d choose either one of these ships over the train wreck that was Hope and Landon in a heartbeat though! Both had potential to be excellent in their own ways if H.ndon wasn’t shoved down our throats.

[kiriiqt]

can i request xiao with reader who cuddles plushies for comfort /as a coping mechanism :) (modern au)

very random i know 😭

plushies for comfort

characters: xiao x reader a/n: I couldn't really think of a way to turn this into a full blown fic so headcanons it is! i assume you meant xiao in a relationship but you didn’t specify so i just made it kinda vague. consider this my...attempt at becoming comfortable with writing and posting again :) warnings: none

At first, Xiao might give you a few odd looks for your extensive plushie collection, but it's all in good fun; he doesn’t actually care, and I don't mean that in a bad way, he just doesn’t see it as any of his business. You’re not hurting anyone, so why should he pay any mind to it?

He’s quite relieved to know that you like plushies, because he often struggles to think of gifts to give (or he overthinks it a bit). So you can expect a lot of plushies from him (he makes sure to not overdo it, though).

Xiao is definitely the person who offers to take you to Build-A-Bear for your birthday so you can choose everything about it.

Honestly, you might rub off on him. He’ll slowly start buying plushies for himself; not a ton, but you’ll start seeing a few around his room.

I can see him collecting ‘novelty’ plushies. Limited designs, handmade ones, merch from brands that don’t normally make toys. For him, they’re for aesthetics, but when it comes to you he makes sure to find designs that are actually comfortable to cuddle (and aren’t so fragile that they need to sit on a shelf).

Qiqi eventually catches on and begins to ask Xiao to bring you some plushies of hers. He tends to just put them back on Qiqi’s shelf, knowing that she’ll forget which plushie it is. But the sentiment makes him smile.

If you were to express any kind of insecurity about it, Xiao would be quick to correct you; He’s never understood people who find having plushies to be immature, and he’s generally of the conviction that, as long as it's not hurting anyone, it's not really other people’s business. Really, what do people even expect? That you’ll throw them all out once you reach a certain age?

If you’re ever having a bad day, he’ll just quietly sit with you while you cuddle your plushie, as long as you don’t mind. He’s pretty good at sensing when something is wrong with the people he cares about, so he just offers to listen and provide quiet comfort. And if you want him to, he’ll gladly join you in cuddling.

Overall, once Xiao realizes that you find genuine comfort in cuddling plushies, he makes a mental note to never really mention it in a way that you could perceive as negative. He’s just happy that you have a healthy way of coping with things, and he’d hate to be the cause of you stopping that. He’s not very expressive, and normally not super careful with his words, but he makes an effort for you.

Also, naming one of your plushies would be an honor for him, even though he’ll pretend it’s not.

[armageddon-generation]

Justice For MCU Hulk: Everything cut from The Incredible Hulk (2009) that saves its characters

After She-Hulk renewed criticism of Bruce Banner’s characterisation in the MCU, I looked back at The Incredible Hulk. It’s the shortest MCU movie (1hr 52 mins) so this extra 25 minutes of footage would bring it to about the same length as The Winter Soldier, vastly improving Bruce’s characterisation, his romance with Betty, and General Ross as the villain. 

Alternate Opening in the Arctic (2:16)

The most famous cut, Bruce’s attempted s*icide referenced in The Avengers. Strong, shocking character beat to open the film

Hulk’s origin

The film’s 3-minute title-sequence condenses “40 minutes” of Hulk’s origin & its aftermath. This was mostly unscripted (Norton contributed a lot) with “points of entry” for flashbacks throughout the film that unravelled the mystery of what happened..  

In an interview, director Louis Leterrie explained:

“[the Arctic was] a few months after the incident … afterwards we were flash forwarding to Brazil … a few years later ... then afterward you were getting flashbacks—that’s the way the script was structured—to tell you the story … everything you saw in the credit sequence. People hated it … what the hell is this? Is this a sequel? Is this a re-boot? We don’t understand anything.”

Building the Lab (1:07)

Most of the cut Brazil footage is filler, but I like Bruce dumpster-diving to make DIY lab equipment

General Greller (2:28)

Ross’ motivation. He’s the true villain! 

I’d cut the 1st exchange between Ross & Greller, moving straight from the plane to Blonsky entering the office. 

Nice character-building (‘is there any medal you haven’t won?’)

Greller criticizing Ross’ supersoldier program ties into the wider MCU (Hulk as a supersoldier attempt was only later established in The Avengers) & makes Ross more culpable

Bruce Delivers Pizzas (0:36)

The girls’ dorm should stay cut, but Bruce helping students with an experiment at his old university is a lovely character beat

Betty and Leonard (0:30)

Doc Sampson!

So the love triangle doesn’t seem quite as lopsided

Bruce and Betty Talk (3:18) 

Sets a clear timeline for Bruce

Sets up an ‘ethics cloud’ around Sterns/The Leader, and suggests he turned Bruce over to Ross in Brazil

Betty is proactive. Her arc becoming disillusioned with Ross starts here. Her keeping their data in an ornate jewelry box builds the Bruce/Betty romance

“Hope comes back so quickly” is a strong character beat

Dinner with Bruce (1:30)

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt a light” is a nice character beat: Betty’s house is the eye of the storm in Bruce’s journey

Leonard characterisation!

The Orchid (1:27)

Betty is proactive again!

The Orchid as a metaphor for their love

Bruce and Leonard (4:17)

Leonard: I’ll confess something to you if you clear up some things for me. First, I confess as a man, Betty’s lover, that I’ve always hoped you were dead. Not because I don’t like you but because I love Betty. And I’ve known that unless you were really gone, or she believed that you were… there’d always be three of us in this relationship. I dreaded the thought of you walking through the door. But… now that you’re here, I have to admit I’m very happy about it. Because I’m also a psychiatrist. And I’m very committed to putting light into dark corners, so to speak. Betty has a very dark corner that I’ve never found my way into, despite considerable careful effort. And the only thing that I know about her dark place is that you’re in it. So… Why are you something that she won’t talk about?

Bruce: There are aspects of my personality that I can’t control. And when I lose control it’s very dangerous to be around me. I hurt Betty in a way that I will never forgive myself for.

Leonard: You don’t drop your career and fall off the face of the Earth for 5 years because you have an anger management issue, Bruce. You see a shrink.

Bruce: It’s a little bit more complicated than that.

Leonard: Trust me when I tell you I’ve heard them all.

Bruce: Not like this.

Leonard: Completely honest and yet avoiding the heart of the matter. Exactly like her.

Leonard’s big moment! He’s an actual character! Learning Bruce hurt Betty motivates him turning Bruce in

Chatting to a psychiatrist about the Hulk like a real-world personality disorder is gold

Lots of work on the romance, the ‘Dark Corner’ in Betty’s mind that Bruce inhabits.

Justification for Leonard ratting Bruce out. It's implied Leonard deliberately drains the car battery to discourage Betty going with Bruce

Motel Room Conversation (1:14)

Bruce: I’m sorry.

Betty: It’s okay. It’s so mysterious, this thing inside of you. All the other scars have healed.

Bruce: Not mine. His scars heal but mine don’t

Betty: Yes they do. They leave a mark, but they stop hurting [exposes a scar under her fringe, from the Hulk accident. Bruce turns away.] Look at me. That pain didn’t last. Not knowing was so much worse. I looked for your face everywhere. I never stopped.

Proactive Betty again. Real meat for the romance, addressing their shared trauma & Bruce’s guilt

Nature’s Mystery (3:02)

Ross: Major, a great writer once said, "There are clefts in the rock, where we see the back part of God, and tremble." There's no training for what you saw out there because it's not an enemy that confronts us, it's a new power. Let loose through a crack in the cliff of Nature's mystery. How many times do you think that's happened in all of human history? Fire. The splitting of the atom. The universe unveils a secret and people recoil, cowering in fear and awe. And then comes the person who stops trembling. Who steps forward to face the flame, and seizes the burning stick and says "This will I master and use."

William Hurt gets to act. This monologue is the best dialogue in the film. Ross’ motivation is so well-expressed here

On the Hulk Hunt (1:07)

Builds Blomsky’s frustrations with Ross and motivation to become Abomination

Ross and Sparr (1:40)

Betty: I will never forgive what you've done to him.

Ross: He's a fugitive. He made choices.

Betty: You made him a fugitive. To cover your failures, and protect your career. I know what you said to him after the accident. Before I woke up, what you proposed? That's why he ran away and gave up.

Ross: His work, his blood is the property of the United States Army, and my duty precedes my personal feelings in this matter.

Betty: Freedom, democracy, our way of life.

Ross: Something like that.

Betty: You believe in so much. But we have to start with truth or the rest of it doesn't work. Don't ever speak to me as your daughter again.

“If you took it from me I’m gonna put you in a hole for the rest of your life”. Ross is the villain!

Cut the Major, but Betty confronting Ross re: weaponizing the Hulk is a strong cap for her arc

Bruce Confesses in the Helicopter

In the novelisation:

“on the helicopter, prior to jumping … Banner admits to Betty that because he thought he killed her when he first became the Hulk, he tried to kill himself. The Hulk wouldn’t let him, which is why he thinks the Hulk will save him from the fall.” 

Leonard Calls Betty (1:40)

Follow-up on Leonard and Betty. Nice moment for her

Tldr; This extended version still wouldn’t be *great*, but it’s a significant improvement from mediocre to good, especially in hindsight with how Hulk has been treated since AoU. 

[crazylittlejester]

I was thinking about your FH9 and how he’s a lifeguard in it and then how in your other fic, Of Officers and Stuffed Elephants, he’s a cop and such, so then it got me thinking as to why Warriors chose to go to the fancy college with being a lifeguard as a way to gain money instead of going into law enforcement.

And while I still don’t know why he chose to go to college (maybe because that means more jobs with more money), but I had a thought:

When Wars was with Cia, imagine him thinking his only way out was to enlist in the military, but for whatever reason he couldn’t or was talked out of doing so.

ooooooh!! interesting!

OOaSE and FH9 have different characterizations of Wars, partly because he had very different childhoods in both of them and the trauma he has as it exists in a modern au is a bit different than it is when i write him normally alskkdkf. OOaSE Wars was tossed around a foster care system and met someone who saved his life who inspired him to join the force, FH9 Wars lost his parents but was able to stay in a safe home with his aunt, though they had a lot of financial issues and he had to get a job and help as best he could. OOaSE Wars has absolutely experienced violence and had to fight for his life before, FH9 Wars hasn’t seen fights with weapons the way OOaSE Wars has but he’s experienced an abusive relationship and has had to fear and fight for his life

OOaSE is also an au where I really wanted to modernize hyrule kingdom, so the police force in that fic isn’t 100% like a modern police force, it has some similarities to the knights and the military in Wars’s era :) (and Legend has his reasons for being there which will be explored, I haven’t abandoned that fic don’t worry alsdkkdk). For FH9 Wars i leaned a lot more into how intelligent he is and his celebrity status more so than hid military background, and for him building things is an escape from reality. He built his project, Wolfie (who is baymax), as a way to help people. With Cia being his ex, he was in the spotlight for quite a bit, but he was also on track to be a huge, well known scientist and engineer. The public eye has been on him for a bit and he was certainly feeling that pressure

A core part of his character in ANY au or fic I write him in is his urge to help others, whether by physically defending them with his own body and becoming part of an organized system (hyrulian army/OOaSE police force) or by using his intelligence to create potentially life saving technology. He also needs the security of structure, which both the army/police force and a college course provided for him. In both au’s he’s very ambitious, and while he HAS definitely considered saying “fuck it” and joining the army in FH9 that was never something he’d seriously do because it would mean giving up his dreams and ideas. He’s a bit more… not selfish, there’s a different word, but he’s more determined to get what he wants for himself in FH9. He had his eye set on being an engineer because he wants to know how things work and he wants to build things that can help serve humanity and use his talents for good, and no matter what he wasn’t going to let anything stop him. No matter how miserable he got or how much he hated himself, he refused to stop chasing his childhood dream

and the surfing thing is honestly just something he liked to do and was good at, and because he became such a good swimmer in that au, he became a life guard because it was another way he could do something to help someone who needed it :)

i put… way too much time and effort into every single different version of wars i make alskdkd 😭

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK AND FOR ENABLING ME TO YAP I HOPE ITS COHERENT

[blnk338]

COD HEADCANONS 2

Here's the link to the first b/c y'all loved it sm ty <3

Go read my Ghost x Reader on AO3 | Reap What You Sow

Relationship hcs!!!

Gaz:

Undiagnosed dyslexia

Soap will say some dumb shit about it and Gaz will fire back with something like “you need autocorrect irl b/c no one can fucking understand you”

Hates winter; this is a summer boy!

Ghost told him that Soap’s Halloween party was a dress-up party, but Gaz took it as a sexy dress-up party and came in a slutty nun outfit

Ghost had to go to the bathroom because he was tearing up from trying to hold back his laughter

Can’t pull all-nighters

This bitch NEEDS 8 hours or he’s not happy

Like… he can pull them, but you unlock this secret character trait of “ultimate fucking bitch Kyle”

Got really into Overwatch and then didn’t tell anyone after it died (pre OW2), then was fucking insane at every character when OW2 came out

Soap hates his ass for this

Flexes, only character he doesn’t like is Hanzo (still upset about the scatter arrow removal)

Tinyass bladder

“I have to pee”

“WE LEFT EIGHT MINUTES AGO WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”

Really gentle with his friends, him and Soap’s bromance goes crazy like they’ll do that thing where they almost kiss and they pull back and go “WOAAAAAAH WOAHHHHHHH”

Thinks hairless cats are gross

Ghost:

The kind of guy to sit back and watch shit unfold unless the person who (is getting / is about to get) their shit rocked is someone he respects

Previously had an allergy to shellfish

Raw dogged it until the allergy literally went away

Exposure therapy, man

Knows what “L + Ratio” means and HAS used it against Soap once

Soap and Gaz lost their fuckin beans when he said it and they’ve never forgotten it

Sorta plain texter – really just like “K,” “Ok,” “Did you eat.”

Doesn’t use a lot of question marks

No question marks or really any punctuation other than a period at the end of EVERY text

Doesn’t use Apple emojis or Android, but the text version

Like :)

BUT ALWAYS ENDS THEM IN A PERIOD :).

Eventually unlearns this but ending everything like a sentence lasted for a while

He won’t say openly if he’s annoyed, but will add a little extra sharpness to his stare

Great at FPS games, chooses to not use the mic because he likes shitting on dumb mfkrs and listening to them bitch when he wins 1v1’s

Played OW for Soap and Gaz and got really fucking good at Zen, but almost always plays DPS

Learned how to build computers and finds it really relaxing

Soap and Gaz both asked for him to make them PCs and he said “no,” then did both of them in the span of one 3-week break cycle

Knows everyone’s addresses

How the fuck does he know everyone’s addresses

Definitely the guy to say a random set of numbers pretending like its someone’s IP address

“The Riley Murders” is a popular true-crime segment; literally avoids all true-crime media because of this

Not really a fan of the holidays, but he does put in the effort to be at the 141 parties and get-togethers for his team

Panic attacks for him aren’t obvious. He just stands there, holding his gaze at one spot while he clenches his jaw/fist, trying to push out the ringing in his ears

Doesn’t dress up for Halloween or does the bare minimum (antlers on top of his head, a single bowtie, etc)

Alejandro:

Uses all emojis

ESPECIALLY THE CATS

Weird about how much he likes Minions

Fucked up knee from tearing his ACL as a kid

Like his knees pop when he kneel down and shit

Bros so anti-drug he doesn’t like prescription drugs

*Bleeding out* “Tylenol? Why would I need that?”

His whole house is carpeted aside from the kitchen

No, you don’t understand. Carpeted bathrooms

Man has cold feet

Socks and indoor slippers but he’s got those luxury Ugg slippers that he wears religiously

Hates it when people chew with their mouth open

WILL MENTION IT

Plays Candy Crush

Owns an old Dell laptop, doesn’t play PC or console games

Price:

POP POP POP his joints are shit but good enough for the army ig

Tried yoga, didn’t have enough motivation to keep going, but still says he does yoga (it’s been like four years n Laswell gets on his ass about it)

“Overwatch? We’re off right now, why are we talking about this?”

“You have three guys on you? What are you talking about?”

Confused dad

Heavyweight drinker; man likes his beers

Gaz called him "dad" once and he owns it like a fucking medal

Says “back in my day” to fuck with everyone

Sings the Star Spangled Banner in the most heinously British accent he can

He only knows “Oh say can you see, by the dawns early light, oh so proud…” and then bullshits the rest

Soap:

Bisexual. No preference.

Not really a “will kiss anyone” but more of a “please let me kiss someone”

Flirts with fuckin’ anyone and everyone but the issue is that he just doesn’t stay in one place because of work, so unless he’s dating someone in the field (which is super rare), it’s mostly just flings

“Guys, let’s do the brown note endurance contest.” (Google “brown note youtube”)

Spells Spongebob like “Spunch Bob”

“I am not paid enough to do that.”

OW junkie, but likes story games a lot

Support/Tank main (Mercy and Reinhardt)

The Last Of Us fucking ended him; fav character is Joel :)

Hard of hearing in his right ear

Yells “WOT?” all the fucking time

[robertdowneyjjr]

In recent years, Tony has taken using the Robert Pattinson interview technique ie: lying about answers because he’s bored. Fav movie? Footloose. Fav food? Spaghetti. Fav band? Steely Dan

Again, non of these are true and he changes the answer so often people catch on he’s lying, which wasn’t a problem until he got a new set of friends that want to get him a birthday present and if they google anything about him the get…conflicting info. And asking him about what he wants makes him go all awwww no need i don’t need presents. Which is unhelpful

Unfortunately Steve is still too new to the future to catch the issue and give Tony some very thoughtful gifts based off his recent answers and Tony smiles and says he loves them and oops he’s committed

(Also please picture Steve planning a first date with Tony with them watching Footloose and eating spaghetti while listening to Steely Dan. And Tony did not hate any of them but they weren’t his actual fav but now they might be???)

And Steve does find out the problem on his own but makes Tony continue to pretend he enjoys his fake favs until he confesses lol

LMAO oh my god yes absolutely all of this.

to be fair, tony had never really given the press real answers whenever he was asked things that were too personal, even back in his younger days. he was already in the spotlight enough, he didn’t need the whole world to know every single thing about him. but he always had the same scripted answers just for consistency’s sake, and he always had some bullshit reason to explain it all. favorite food? new york pizza (because new york will always be home). favorite movie? the godfather part ii (because it reminds him of his mother’s stories about immigrating to america, and he doesn’t get to visit his grandparents nearly enough). favorite band? abba (who doesn’t like dancing queen?)

but after he comes back from afghanistan, after the ultimate wake up call, he just can’t be bothered with keeping the press happy anymore. he still doesn’t much care for letting people know too much about him, but he also doesn’t put too much effort into appeasing the press because he has other things to worry about. so the next time he gives an interview and the reporter asks him one of these inane questions, he tells her his favorite band is steely dan. then twitter goes wild. his ultra fans pull up the receipts from his past decade of interviews and calls him out on it. “i thought it was abba??” someone tweets, and it gets thousands of retweets. tony replies simply with, people change ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

from then on he makes it a point to give a different answer every single time he gets asked something personal. in 2008 his favorite band was steely dan. he was paramore’s biggest fan in 2009. in 2010 he became the world’s first and most famous directioner. 2011 rolled around and he told some random reporter on a red carpet that he only ever listened to duran duran. then in 2012 he wore a black sabbath t-shirt and everyone figured out that was his “favorite” of the year.

then he meets steve. sweet, wonderful, thoughtful steve, who has finally built up the courage after four years of friendship and asked tony out. steve, who wants nothing more than to impress tony and show him that he pays attention and wants to make this work. although tony had told steve early on that he should never trust what he reads on the internet, steve is adamant about planning the perfect first date. he wants a second date. and a third. and a fourth. you get the point. he needs tony to know he’s serious about building a relationship together.

so he googles. he bypasses all the opinion pieces and the articles that are clearly from gossip rags or less-than-credible news sources. but he figures official interviews that tony gives should be fair game, right? and man, does steve find out a lot about tony and the things he likes. he figures out quickly what he should cook for dinner: singaporean chilli crab (people magazine circa 2009). he sets the table with the loveliest carnations he could find (reddit ama circa 2014). he queues up footloose to play on the tv while they eat a homemade chocolate soufflé (vanity fair circa 2011 and tonight show circa 2015). steve’s done the research. he knows tony will be happy he’s put so much effort into this night.

and tony, well. he doesn’t hate all of those things but they were never really his favorites. his real favorites? his mama’s carbonara. ac/dc. back to the future. sunflowers. but he doesn’t want to burst steve’s bubble. none of that matters, anyway, when he gets to spend time with his ultimate favorite person.

(steve finally figures it out when rhodey comes to visit one day with a box of tiramisu from the hole-in-the-wall he and tony used to go to in boston and tony lights up in a way that he’s never done when eating steve’s chocolate soufflé. he still keeps making the soufflé though, just to see if tony would ever confess)

[wrenb1rd]

Complete unknown criticism rant v

Obviously the trailer is out and the movie isn’t even in theatres yet although I’d like to make my point about the movie as someone who enjoys studying things and forming opinions.

First of all, I must state that none of the actors look like the people they are portraying. You could state that the actors won’t ever look like those they are acting as but I’m very sure they at least need to take some consideration for that and make sure they look somewhat similar but it took me a few minutes to realise that the woman playing Joan Baez is supposed to be Joan Baez.

Also the actor for Johnny cash looks nothing like Johnny cash, you can stick a hair do on a guy and call him a name but it won’t work out unless you put a reasonable amount of effort into it.

Now I’m not a film major or anything of the sort, I don’t even take any film related subjects so my opinion simply does not matter however there are certainly some things I believe that should have been approved.

I remember when pictures for the movie was first released and one of them was the woman who’s playing Joan walking out a building. The way it was portrayed was genuinely so odd to me, they made her look like a newcomer as if she wasn’t on the scene before Bob. I feel as though they’ve kept that in the trailer, putting her as a background character or a sort of ‘damsel in distress’ that’s head over heels for the main character. Not to say Joan didn’t have that kind of look to Bob but the way they portrayed it was almost like simplifying a very complex relationship.

Another thing I pointed out was the way they seem to villainise Pete Seeger in the folk fest scene. I mean that’s a very common thing with news papers but if you’re making a biopic that’s not even creatively written at least stay on track. From the things I’ve read Pete Seeger was not upset at Bob playing ‘rock’ music, he wanted people to hear the lyrics but found the instrumental to be too loud so he wanted to cut the cord as none of the instruments were plugged in / set up correctly, not that he disliked bob’s electric guitar.

The way they made it seem in the trailer was that he hated it and yelled ‘turn it down’ now I must admit that I am aware they did something similar in I’m not there although that is a creative movie based around Bob Dylan, not a straightforward classic biopic.

The line ‘who wrote this’ ‘he did’ was genuinely so corny to me, it reminds me of all those awful biopics that are so off topic from the actual life of the person they are portraying. It literally brought me back to that Elvis parody biopic.

Overall the trailer is ok, it’s got its ups and downs, I wasn’t really even expecting woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger but yk it looks cheaply made and an excuse to add some famous names onto a movie.

As much as I may dislike it I will still be watching it simply because I am a big fan of Bob Dylan and have been for a long while but it will be very obvious as to who’s there for timothee and who’s there for bob.

Thank you for reading if you’ve got this far 🫡

+ Bob Dylan picture for the troubles

[ropebunnykant]

if people spent less time hand-wringing over ray saying something politically incorrect maybe we could have an actual conversation about his a clear pattern of defaulting to throwing around tangentially-related accusations about how people engage with sex whenever he's having a fight with someone he cares about. boston's a slut who'll sleep with anyone when the problem here is that he betrayed their friend by sleeping specifically with his boyfriend. sand's a whore when ray's real issue with him is that sand was manipulating ray, using him to achieve a greater goal. mew's refusing to put out when ray's actual complaint is explicitly that mew is refusing to emotionally commit & make a good faith effort towards building a real relationship with ray. there is a genuinely interesting pattern here of ray struggling to articulate his true grievance & falling back on these far more easily expressed & understood stock judgements about people's sex lives -- personally i think that years of listening to chueam & others openly be judgey like this & never get called out on it have had their effect on him -- but people are so focused on how terrible it is that he's saying shitty, largely unjustified things when he's mad -- yeah, no shit he gets ugly & mean when he's angry & hurt, especially when he's under the influence, that's what people do -- that they don't bother asking themselves why he's doing that or what it actually means. it drives me fucking crazy

i’ve found that when it comes to ray, people either have a deep understanding of him and analyze him a great deal OR they take everything he does at surface value and miss so much of his character as a result. which is deeply frustrating because exactly as you said, this is a pattern for ray! and it makes perfect sense because ray fucking sucks at articulating his feelings. sure, he SAID he understands his feelings better to sand, but that doesn’t mean he actually is able to articulate any of it and explain what the real issue is. it’s why mew had to be the one to call him out on actually loving sand but not him! ray is an extremely complex character and yet so many people just gloss over so much about him because they hate him (and usually it’s because he’s an addict but we don’t have to get back into that)