#Also 'two drifters off to see the world there's such a lot of world to see'

[pant--eater]

The feminine urge to have enough energy so I could make an Apple Pie with Cheese animatic to Moon River 😩💅

[scoobydoodean]

I see people saying there is evidence dean is bi all the time but I don’t see it? he only sleeps with and kisses women

Maybe I shouldn't, but I'm going to take this ask in good faith, and assume that you're either very young or very straight. Two general comments first of all.

First, if you are in fact looking for someone to fight with about "proof" of Dean's bisexuality, I don't give a shit. I think bi dean and acespec dean are fun and enjoy thinking about them and I think there is plenty of ways to build out narratives on these. I am not going to bandy words with someone over whether they think Dean is bi or gay or straight or whatever and what does and doesn't count as queer "evidence" because that isn't what sparks joy on tumblr for me.

Second, I'd be remiss not to point out that treating kissing or sleeping with people as the only way someone's sexuality can be known is a very narrow view. Bisexuals are always bisexual—not just when they're in same sex relationships. Under your sexuality test, someone who's never had sex or kissed is automatically ace, because there's no evidence that they've acted on attraction to others in a physical way.

Thinking from a bi perspective, your test ignores that socially, expressing attraction to the opposite sex openly is accepted in a way that expressing attraction to the same sex simply isn't (and DEFINITELY wasn't in 2005). No one will bat an eye at you for going on a date with someone of the opposite sex. But if you go on a date with someone of the same sex, you take on the risk of that being a problem for some of the people around you. It might be a problem for family members, an employer, neighbors, people in your local community, a stranger who you pass on the street, friends you grew up with, etc—maybe even the government. It's easier in a lot of cases to avoid mentioning your sexuality, and it's actually easier to find people of the opposite sex to date since most people are heterosexual. So you will often just not mention your sexuality, and while not necessarily being closeted (though that definitely happens too) just let people assume (as they often do) that you're straight until/unless you hit it off with someone of the same sex. Bisexual people almost always realize they're attracted to the opposite sex first, because they're socialized that way, which also means they can typically mask their sexuality more easily.

Your test also ignores censorship. What society perceives as socially acceptable impacts what you see in media. Openly queer characters were not common when Supernatural first began airing, and even now, a lead is very rarely queer, and it's nearly unheard of (until 911 like a year ago afaik) for a main character to be explicitly revealed to be queer late into a show's run, because networks care about profit and are afraid of losing mainstream audiences. As times change, those concerns mellow out, but the 2000s were absolutely steeped in homophobia and it was perfectly socially acceptable to hate gay people, think people of the same sex shouldn't be allowed to marry (still pretty common thinking tbh), and to believe that same sex romance is a form of sexual deviancy akin to pedophilia and incest and that it should get you thrown in jail or into a treatment center. That's the world Dean Winchester—a drifter who is already looked on with suspicion and would do well to avoid drawing any further attention—finds himself in, and it's the world that Kripke and the other writers knew when they started writing. Execs were not going to greenlight a bisexual lead. And they also weren't going to greenlight explicitly making a character bisexual late in the show's run because they'd fear losing mainstream audiences.

So if the only thing you'll accept as evidence of someone's queerness is kissing or sex, then Dean will never be queer to you and there's no "evidence". But if you're actually willing to think more critically about the queer experience and censorship, there's a reason that Dean can easily be read as queer and why it is incredibly common to perceive him as queer.

One of Kripke's inspirations for Supernatural was Jack Kerouac's "On The Road". Dean was named after Dean Moriarty, a bisexual man in the book. The book itself was originally censored by publishers to omit Moriarty's bisexuality. You can still read the censored version, or the "original scroll" that is uncensored. Considering that Kripke named Dean after a bisexual whose bisexuality was omitted for publishing, it isn't at all unreasonable to conclude Kripke was inspired by more than the road trip aspects of the story and this character study of Moriarty.

Add that Dean has multiple interactions with other men feel flirtatious (look at Sam as contrast), that Dean tends to have very deep and emotional bonds with other men (again in sharp contrast to his brother), and that Dean says things that lend to queer readings constantly. I have a bi dean tag--#swayze always gets a pass if you'd like to see what I've collected (note this is a tag for dean's overall sexuality which means I include his interactions with women as well, and haven't actively gone about seeking out gifsets and such to add to it as much as i've reblogged stuff that crosses my dash for the most part) but more specifically, we could look at:

parallels of Sam with women and Dean with men

Dean's infatuation with Dr. Sexy (coupled with mocking from Sam about Dean being a girl), it being made very clear that Dr. Sexy is the one Dean is infatuated with when he clocks the absent cowboy boots, and even how Gabriel tries to become his fantasy.

Look at Dean's bashfulness! Romantic harp music plays over Dr. Sexy's approach.

Dean giving three people the "last night on earth" speech

Dean looking appreciatively at a soldier in uniform

Dean helping Charlie flirt with a man after she explicitly says she can't flirt with a man because she's gay.

Kripke's comments on what Dean would be romantically attracted to in another person

Dean's gay thing and Ben Edlund and Phil Sgriccia making commentary on it.

Fun deancassie/deancas parallels

Cas lives in Dean's ass (and when Cas starts to deny then falters?)

Dean mentioning that he believes Bert and Ernie are gay, then immediately swearing Cas won't die a virgin.

Triplets

Crowley and Dean's summer of love

Dean's affinity for dorky little guys

That's very non-exhaustive, but some of the things I think are fun.

[poorlittlegreenie13]

thoughts on Lottie’s death? bc me personally i found it unnecessary

I can't even bring myself to care about it to be completely honest lollll. I love Lottie, she's probably my forth favorite character (Tai, Van, Misty, Lottie, & Nat are my top five) but her entire adult storyline felt out of character to me & something just didn't click about her adult self so I never found myself particularly emotionally invested in her :( even though I wanted to be! I guess the shift from weird rich girl with a legitimate mental illness/perhaps clairvoyance ? to like goop yoga guru with an awful & pointless cult just didn't ever speak to me. My dream version of adult Lottie is like a dysfunctional drifter girl who never really grew up and can't keep any friends... she seemed way too competent & with-it in the adult timeline. Her talking abt carbs the episode before she died gave me the biggest fucking ick in the world, nobody who nearly starved to death would be talking about intermittent fasting to clear out lard that was so disgusting and out of character.

I would've loved to see more of her grief explored & her sense of guilt or lack thereof. It would've been cool to see her introduced into the story at a point of desperation as she was in season three — needing a place to stay, not having anyone, instead of showing her as so put-together. I would've imagined that she would be living a kind of unsatisfying adult life, isolated from her family and anyone who could really understand her post-rescue and post-discharge from the mental hospital. I like the idea that she's stuck in the mindset of having to lead people to their purposes, but it felt weird that she was so shifty about it, I feel like young Lottie could totally start a cult by mistake but she wouldn't be taking people's phones & money in such a calculated way, I think she would be kind of latching onto people the way she latched onto Travis & Akilah—intending to do good but functionally bleeding out their life-force.

So... her dying... feels like they just wanted to introduce drama in season two by having a new character, and then introduce more drama in season three by killing her off. You can tell the Yellowjackets writers don't love their characters by the way they treat them. If you look at shows like Twin Peaks or Succession, there are ways to make characters unhappy while still showing them a lot of grace and love. You can tell David Lynch loves his characters, even the ones he kills off, it's so calculated & respectful. Yellowjackets doesn't show their characters a lot of respect in death at all. They don't seem to care about resolving people's arcs or storylines which bugs me. Idk, I like watching the show & didn't care too much about adult Lottie anyway, but Nat's absence this season is a gaping hole they're failing to fill in. I don't have a lot of faith in their ability to wrap up storylines & I DON'T believe that they have a plan. I also just didn't believe Lottie was actually dead for several weeks bc her death scene was so stupid & unconvincing.

It's extremely sad to think about both Nat & Lottie's lives and character arcs, and also to think that we won't be able to see their psyches explored more going forward, but the teen versions of them are very compelling so I just focus on them.

But we'll see where it goes! If nothing else, this season is keeping me entertained so... I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until the series finale airs. There's always a lot to complain about, but I do really love the show and think this season has been pretty excellent. I've been getting asks abt my negative feelings which is fine & I love complaining, but I have a lot of positive thoughts too.

Sorry if this was insane and rambling, I wrote it in the library instead of writing my paper which is due in less than two hours <3

[artofmyraid]

Hi, I've been a little busy, but I was struck by a sudden wave of inspiration that landed squarely on @anxiousapplepie 's Rose knights story. I've been enjoying it a lot for a while now, and I always planned to do this, but the inspiration to do it has hit me just now, lol.

Anyway, meet Myraid, Desire, and Tatsuo! Their actually OCs from my own stuff, but I routinely like to toss them around different worlds and adapt them into it! These three are my favorite little guys~

Now that's basically the summary of it. Under the cut-off, I'm about to fly off into a large ramble about each of them.

Myraid is a shaded red rose that grew up in a wild rose community until they eventually decided to get even more wild by leaving their community on a journey of re-self discovery! In which they have a clone and adopt, pick up a very confused coloured dragon/green rose. :3

Along the way they've been working on how much they can improve their magic as they travel, they refuse to settle for middling magic and when their not out exploring particularly dangerous areas, their trying to improve their stats as much as possible.

At first glance, Myraid seems to be a very typical red rose, they always appear passionate about what their doing, and are clearly devoted(obsessed) to desiree and Tatsuo. But that's just what they want you to think, ever since they first became a red rose, they've put a lot of effort into being an over the top, passionate, red rose (because the truth of the matter is, they haven't really felt all that passionate about anything theyve done in their life), it's almost hard to believe desiree is their clone since their so much more subdued than Myraid to the point their already gaining a completely diffrent colour.

This behavior has no consequences whatsoever. What? Doodle on the ref sheet, you say? Why, I dont know how that got there! :)

Next up, Desiree, the teeny tiny clone of Myraid. Their still quite young, but their already forming a very different identity to Myraid. But for now their being dragged around by their overzealous parent, they mostly don't mind all that much, but they do become way more bothered when Myraid decides to pick up Tatsuo. They were perfectly fine when it was just the two of them, they cannot believe their stringing along someone else.

As you can see, Desiree has chosen to speed run as many colours as they can in a short time period, going from gaining their first colour of shaded red to almost immediately picking up black! Going so fast the white hasn't even had a chance to fade away! (Eventually once the white does go away, they'll end up being multicolored with both red and black.) Which is also the case with their stats, Desiree's current stats are the ones with decimals and the brackets are their stats after they transition colours fully.

Finally, Tatsuo, our little coloured dragon/green rose. Why both? That's because Tatsuo can't decide if they want to be more rose than dragon or more dragon than rose. They feel pressured to choose a side, but every time they feel like their ready to commit to being one or the other, their hit in the face with another realization that makes them fall back into uncertainty. Maybe they'll learn that they don't have to choose... Eventually.

Before Myraid and Desiree came along, Tatsuo was a drifter, exploring different rose and dragon settlements to learn more about them and the many different lifestyles of the races. They were hoping that if they could learn all they could, that maybe, just maybe they'd find something that felt right...

Throughout their time studying the two races and finally planning on maybe settling down as more of a dragon than rose, they get swept up by Myraid and Desiree, making them back pedal once more! How fun!

As you might have noticed, despite placing numbers by the stats for healing magic and power share their crossed out. This is because Tatsuo basically can't really use them (for healing magic I crossed it out as their healing is basically nonexistent by rose standard healing and probably about normal healing for dragons?) I was really interested in playing around with the coloued dragon/green rose's being able to have a mix of the abilities, which was really really hard to figure out how to balance, but it was fun to play with!

Well! That was even more than I first expected, I kinda went a little crazy with it! I didn't expect my original idea for the characters to change so quickly. They each basically went through two iterations before I decided on this one for all of them!

Close ups

[the-violet-galaxy]

I don’t want Old Moon to come back to life -- and I REALLY hope this arc doesn’t end with him being alive again, in any capacity.

In my opinion, bringing Old Moon back to life would be a terrible decision for everything, on all narrative fronts.

It’s true a lot of characters come back to life in TSAMS. When Lunar died, him getting resurrected was part of the story from the beginning (Monty located part of his nanomachine body and started work right away). Solar coming back to life has been a key point of this arc. Etc

But Old Moon's death was permanent. The story was that it couldn’t be undone.

So much of the story, angst, and arcs (New Moon’s entire life; Sun in so much pain from losing his brother) centered around Old Moon being gone for good.

What made Old Moon’s death so impactful WAS that it was permanent. He made the choice to die and Sun would never see him again. He would never meet Earth or bond with Lunar or Solar. The whole painful denial of closure.

But -- to be able to just… BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE, it cheapens everything. It retroactively makes everything, all the angst and character development involving the memory of Old Moon, lose what made it so good. (And now knowing it was possible from the very beginning??? Doubly so. So many sad moments are tainted knowing that Monty was sitting off to the side, awkwardly whistling and twiddling his thumbs.)

Because the story was written this way, bringing Old Moon back is one of those things that shouldn’t be touched. Some characters need to die and stay dead.

(I was even hesitant when Monty first brought up that Moon could talk to his old self. I was worried this meant Old Moon was still “technically alive”, which would lead to the cheapening of things. But, when they said Old Moon was just an “instinctual copy”/comatose at all times, I was a little reassured; that was manageable. The show even stressed that Old Moon wasn’t actually alive; Monty said it plainly that he couldn’t take over, he was just an instinctual copy. New Moon himself said “he knows he’s dead. He knows he's isn't going to come back.”

So…

Why are we playing with the idea of him coming back now!? After all that!?

And bringing him back wouldn’t FIX anything. Not for Sun or the family --

Recently, Sun disowned New Moon, and started talking about how toxic Old Moon really was towards him.

And we saw how Old Moon acted while comatose. Even in DEATH, Old Moon didn’t really want to change who he was or how he behaved. He even says he’s afraid of talking to Sun because of what he might say. If he won’t change after experiencing death, he is probably never going to. If he comes back, he’ll most likely go right back to being the exact same asshole.

And we know that Sun has developed enough to finally not take it. He would NOT let Old Moon treat him like that anymore. He is willing to cut a toxic family member out of his life.

So, what -- would the story just bring Old Moon back, have him be the same asshole that Sun has moved beyond, and then have Sun put his foot down and do a second disownment? I just don’t see the point in that.

Even if something really dumb happens, like Old Moon is given a SECOND BODY so that there are both Moons at the same time… are they just gonna have Old Moon be exiled from the family and become a drifter side character out in the world, who only shows up to cameo once in a while? That would not be satisfying --  and I doubt Old Moon would be happy being away from the family, seeing how the show hammers in how his family is the only thing he cares about.

(And you can’t have him hanging around as a permanent member of the cast alongside New Moon – you’d have to juggle two Moon characters, which just seems like a HUGE headache for everyone and could get confusing for the viewers trying to keep who is who straight. I’m sure that acting for two Moons in every scene would also be a pain in the ass for the voice actors. Plus, New Moon is just THE MOON of The Sun and Moon Show now; are they going to alternate between which Moon is doing the gaming videos??? That’d be a mess.)

(The only other option is to fuse both Moons into Moon-V.3. which is. Please no. We’ve already had a Moon reset, and this would essentially be the same thing, creating a whole new person. It’s redundant, we’ve done that before. Please do something else.)

New Moon is a real piece of work right now and I don't like this arc, but this is his story to conclude. Not Old Moon's. New Moon has to deal with the repercussions of what he's done to the family (and it's looking like Dark Sun has been controlling him or nudging his personality, so he might not be as guilty as we initially thought; we'll have to see the extent of how much control Dark Sun had). New Moon has to face the consequences of his actions himself. In a way, Old Moon ran away from his consequences when he let himself die, he never had to face up to what he did or atone with his own hands; New Moon needs to stay and face what he's done in this story, he needs to face what happened to the family. Even if it's revealed it's not entirely his fault, he needs to stay. (If he does stay, he will actually be better than Old Moon, who ran away.)

If Old Moon HAS to come back, there’s just one way I can think of that I’d want it to go, but this is already long enough, so I’ll save it for later. I just wanted to throw my opinion out here.

TLDR: I don’t want Old Moon to come back to life AT ALL because it will cheapen the story and his death, and if he comes back to life there’s no satisfying place for him.

[shienn-sao-rean]

My drifter profile

Birth Name: Shienn Sao-Rean

Titles: Drifter, Stardust, Brother, Space trauma

Nicknames: Eagle, Shi, Babe (thx to Quincy), Hey you redhead freak!

Sex/Gender: Male, but he is... explorative.

Birth World: Earth, Kyoto

Home World: Earth

Current Residence: Höllvania

Birthday: 8 May

Height: 195 cm

Weight: 92

Eye Shape and Colour: Deep set, chrome diopside or grass green, not emerald, warm shades with radioactive-like glowing.

Skin Texture and Colour: freckled, even if it is practically invisible, black, but his face features are more close to half-Japanese, half-Italian. Thin, unlike his father, most of his weight is bones. A lot of scars, but thank gods, most of the scars from Duviri did not survive constant time looping. However, he has a lot of scars from New War, cross chest by archon Amar, two bites from Nira, left forearm and hip. A lot of cuts and scratches from survival around Ostron colonies. Also have some small tattoos, mostly words, names.

Hairstyle and Colour: Shaved sides, Carrot-like orange with intensive greying, almost always braided.

Style/Fashion: 

casual wear:

Natural fabric, not super tight, not too loose, he gladly adopted 1999 fashion, mostly in gothic style. Black and green, as his signature. Has troubles with all clothes that are too tight around the neck, so he cut collars off all his T-shirts and never zips up a hoodie or jacket all the way.

battle fit: Classic Dax armour + Dax syandana + Feldune waist + some attachments like Protovyre and Riv.

Age: He was 15 when Zariman got stuck, he never counted ever since, but looks somewhat around 35-40.

Personality Traits: Diplomatic, honest to the point of bluntness, reckless (but usually it pays off), flirty literally with everyone, probably completely insane (like Cpt. Murdock from the A-Team remake 2010), often behaves like a clown who amuses everyone while being completely broken inside, because he is really space-trauma, protective and caring in his special way, ex - drug and alcohol addict (now clean for 1,5 years), still a sex-addict, tho. Gambler, local cuisine enjoyer, superb at survival.

Likes: fresh fish with rice and soy sauce, good tea, smoking, cooking, his co-drifter, Aidan (his partner since Zariman), Komi, Teshin, silk, Quincy, music, dancing, especially traditional with fans.

Dislikes: prejudice, orokin in general, Ballas personally, hunger, stupid people, manipulations.

Pet Peeves: Texture of Zariman food. And some foods still, like any fat outside bacon.

Habits: Smoking is one of the obvious. He also starts humming or even singing when listening to a song he likes. If he is comfortable enough, he's dancing, but mostly if no one sees him.

Morals: Very ethically ambiguous. Can kill someone if they behave like shit, because this is the easiest solution. Can steal, but not from those who are also in need. Long story short - "Eat the rich" can be his motto. But he never refuses to help for the people who need it. Vengeful, will gladly participate in orokin genocide if the possibility presents itself, especially for all this shit that Orokin ever did to Dax or people like his mum.

Phobias: seeing people he loves die or get hurt, spiders, creatures and seaweed in the water that suddenly touch him while he swims.

Pros: Protective, funny, generally loving person with huge amount of patience. Really awesome cook, food is one of his love languages. He really knows a lot about the Japanese traditions of his time, a lot of stories. Knows how to calm, comfort people.

Cons: ex-addict who could relapse at any moment of critical mental instability. Hard to be shaken off. If someone reaches his boiling point (which is hard) speaks his mind with no concern about reaction or feelings, especially to someone he cares about. From time to time too direct, rude even. Swears a lot. Really a lot. In multiple languages, often at the same time. Now in a few more!

Personal Glories: don't tell Arthur right away on which exact axis he spins all of his threats, and that he sleeps with someone who behaves exactly like Arthur. And he knows very well how to make Arthur's life miserable with one sentence in front of Quincy and Amir. Because he noticed all "things" in Arthur's behaviour from the first look.

Personal Trauma: Survivor's guilt. Loss of a twin brother because of a stupid argument.

Powers: Operator void stuff that he keeps forgetting about, time-looping, attempt of using void tongue filling words with power. So far - so good. Specific Dax ways of using the inner energy. (Some witchcraft, if you'd like I can share my Dax head canon.)

Abilities: Melee, mostly Teshin's daishō + Dax armour require special training to effectively wear it, not the worst bowman and shooter, but prefers good ol' sword fight. Void stuff, time-stuff, some traditional Dax witchcraft.

Weapons: Sun and Moon, Sirocco, Nataruk.

Combat Affinity: From flexibility to classic Unairu endurance. Recklessness, inclined to protect others before himself.

Warframes of choice: Kullervo, Cyte-09, Koumei, Mirage Prime, Dagath, Baruuk Prime.

Social Skills: Friendly, but from time to time too flirty. Struggles with understanding some concepts like grief. He cannot process grief, doesn't show "proper emotions" and people think that he is a heartless jerk. His only one coping mechanism before he saw Quincy the first time was drugs and alcohol.

~Relationships~

Lovers: Aidan Hirayoshi, Fenris (his fellow drifters now), Quincy, Amir.

Family:

Parents: Rissa Rean and Hondo Sao, Rissa was a geiko, Hondo - a descendant of noble Dax family. (So, posh)

Grandparents (known and remembered well): Sheina Rean (yes, he was named after her, granny from mum's side), Katsui Sao (father's father)

Twin brother, Satori (yes, it's also not a real name.)

Eimhear, Aidan's sister, who is also like a sister to Shienn.

Kahl and the guys are super close friends.

Friends:

Aoi: He understands her deeply, especially since he realized about their relationships with Arthur. (He wanted to punch His Maj in the face for it, but Quincy was first.) They share tea and music.

Eleanor: She reminds him of one man, from a long forgotten story. Theatrical, deep, fragile. He cherishes her, and makes her feel seen.

Lettie: One of his favourites, really. They became friends super fast. They often speak about death and scare everyone around.

Arthur: He reminds Shienn of Aidan, so they became friends quickly. And now they constantly share some recipes and other cooking stuff as well as sword fight. By brute force - Arthur wins, but technique... This is Shienn field of expertise after all this Teshin's and Umbra's lessons.

Amir and Quincy: For Shienn it was from first look with Quincy, but Amir was close nonetheless. He understood that he can't choose, they both are absolutely his type, even since they are like a cat and a dog. So, he decided to tell Quincy first-hand that he is polyamorous, and he also likes Amir. Surprisingly, Quincy agreed. So, they have their triple cuddles now, and when they come to Shienn and Aidan's old camp, they have even more cuddles. Quincy seemingly has no interest in Aidan and Fenris, but Amir is still a wildcard.

Teshin: Deep trust, even deeper respect. He is a mentor Shienn was supposed to have one day on his Dax way, but never had. One day, Shienn will bring his new partners to Teshin.

Operator: They are like two sides of one coin. Operator Shienn is deep in his healthy way of life, meditations, training, very serious with his Unairu way, General of the Steel Meridian and clan leader. Drifter Shienn is a complete opposite. But in the roots - they are both the same, family-guys, willing to do everything to save their little world.

Ordis: His Ordis reclaimed his Ordan part, and now they are a system. And both Shienns spend a lot of time with both Ordis and Ordan.

Loid: Shienn really wishes him a better husband.

Theme Song: I have a whole playlist!

What voice I imagine him having: the only person who comes to mind is Liam Neeson.

Biography: For his bio I really need to explain our whole headcanon, so, I'll save it for separate post. Tbh, it's simply too much.

Other notes: strictly homosexual, has no physical attraction to women, but this rule didn't affect intersexual Fenris, who looks like a man, but has a vulva. Highly probable that he is AuDHD, but who cares about such things as a diagnosis in the future and especially in a super strict Dax family?

------

Character sheet courtesy of @ashandshy https://www.tumblr.com/ashandshy/772406073411960833/drifter-character-sheets-of-2025

[mephiles97]

Murder Drones AU/Fanfic: "Through The Looking Glass"

AO3 summary: What happens... When you look through a mirror and find out the world is reversed? Is it like looking at the same world but completely different at the same time? Is it like you're looking into a window to a different world? What happens if the world as you knew it was completely flipped upside down? What happens if you look in that mirror and the same person staring back at you... Isn't you anymore? But is someone completely different living life in your shoes on the other side of that mirror?

Beau Doorman is what he'd call an average worker drone... Except maybe not so average by the time you factor in the weird dreams and the crazy over the top inventions. Okaaaaay maybe not as average or as normal as he thinks he is. Any semblance he had to normal flew right out the window with the reappearance of the colony's local drifter, a fateful scavenging trip, and three new friends haunted by their ghosts of the past. With the reemergence of a terrifying program from the past, everyone finds themselves being thrown into a story about found family, loss, grief, and recovering from that grief.

Information about this AU and a link to its fic's first chapter below the cut!

"Through The Looking Glass" (abbreviated to LG from here on) is my personal take on a swap AU! In this AU, MD canon as you know it has been taken and flipped upside down or perhaps more aptly, run through a cracked mirror. This is a character swap AU but the characters and roles have been shuffled around in deliberately wacky and wild combos and not every character/role has a clean 1:1 swap or direct mirror to their canon role

Since LG is a swap AU, this is set to retell all eight (yes, I am aware only seven are out at the time of writing) episodes of Murder Drones but with the swapped characters. Do note this is not just a 1:1 retelling of canon and some scenes are entirely new or have been twisted upside down and all around compared to how they went down in the actual episodes to the point they're almost unrecognizable unless you notice the roots of the scene

As you can see from the AO3 summary I copypasted... This AU stars Beau Doorman as our main character, taking the place of Uzi's role. He was born and raised in Outpost-3 by his parents Alice and Khan Doorman. Unlike canon Nori... Alice did not meet the business end of nanite acid in this AU and has lived to the present day/the fic's start. She is well known around the colony for being a bit of a menace with her hobby of making all kinds of scrap inventions and weaponry

Beau is joined by his childhood best friends Vivian (V) and Thad who happen to be the two most popular kids and the power couple of the school. He has also managed to befriend the mysterious borderline feral drifter named Uzi that's been randomly turning up at his colony for months now before disappearing without a trace again. Nobody knows why that mysterious purple haired girl seems to crawl around on all fours or make warbles and chirping sounds... Or why her systems are seemingly constantly running at feverishly high temperatures

There's also those three disassembly drones that haunt the vertical corpse graveyard outside Outpost-3. Let's take a look at them now, shall we?

Serial Designation B (Braiden) is the appointed leader of the disassembly drone squad and the pilot of their crashed landing pod but he's... sort of known for not feeling much like a leader. He struggles with a lot of fears over failing the squad and letting the people around him down. In fact, he worries so much about letting people down he felt bad when he tried to scare off a certain worker drone he had befriended for their safety...

Serial Designation C (Cyn) is the fastest but physically weakest of the squad due to her body and core being prone to malfunctions. She has good days where she can move about normally but on her worst days she is prone to motor malfunctions as well as voice box malfunctions leading to her voice skipping words or getting stuck. She seems to harbor a lot of guilt over some ghost of the past...

Serial Designation D (Doll) is the strongest of the squad and in a way the secondary leader because B asks for her input or suggestions often when it comes to planning or hunting tactics. She carries the weight of the squad on her back most days and tries to keep B and C from falling apart on her, but she seems to know a lot more about things than she lets on...

None of the three seem willing to mention or talk about the missing fourth drone of their group... None of the three seem willing to discuss the mysterious three-pronged symbol that's popping up on the visor of their new worker friend either. Gee, I wonder why they look so scared...?

Visit the link below to read the first chapter of the AU! Do note this AU is still ongoing so it's not finished yet but I am working on it and post chapters as they're done. Also! My ask box is open if you want to throw a question or two my way about the AU (or my other AUs!)

(And one more quick note: LG here was the first fic I started writing if we don't count two quick shorts I did so the earlier chapters read a bit roughly. If you can bear it, I swear the formatting and wording gets better in the later/newer chapters now that I've had some practice. I will one day go back and edit the earlier chapters of LG to make it easier to swallow but I haven't done that yet at the time of writing this so you have been warned)

[skrevel]

I really need to info dump about my rooks so badly. Idk if anyone else will read it but I run this blog for me so I'm making it. I'm doing three different playthroughs at the same time, because I'm crazy. I have my blind first time playthrough which I have done with all the dragon age games. I progress a bit with this one then catch up to it with my other playthroughs. Then I made my lavellan playthrough because I didn't want to make myself wait until I finished my blind playthrough to get more content for that. I didn't plan to make a third character but I loved the crows so much I NEEDED to make a crow rook and to my surprise it has turned into my favorite of the bunch.

Nyxi is my blind playthrough rook. She's a human, a Lord's of Fortune treasure goblin, and a mage. I like to think she's a real girls girl. She's romancing Lucanis and I like to think she makes Solas listen to how attractive she thinks he is before they discuss anything concrete about saving the world. She's a lot like Kelly from the office, if kelly wasn't as self centered. I think she's been a drifter most of her life and while she likes traveling and hunting treasure, I also think she's really jealous of people who have a place they feel like they absolutely belong.

Sorcha is also a mage, but she's an elf and a shadow dragon. She's very involved with the anti slavery movement. I headcanon that she had a brush with slavers herself and got help from them. Then, she realized later on she could do a lot more with her magic. She realized she could actually us it to do something worthwhile. She's romancing Davrin, grumpy man taking care of a cute animal was too hard to resist. She has less headcanons than the other two but I still really love her.

Finally, there's Acanita 'Nite' for short (named after aconitum which is the scientific name for wolfsbane and also poisonous). She's my crow, and the only non mage of the bunch. And honestly she REALLY wants to be able to do magic. Who wouldn't honestly? She's been fairly happy with the crows and her life with them. But there are things about being an assassin she doesn't like and has always wanted to do something more worthwhile. I think that's part of the reason she's sent off with Varric in the first place. I think Viago was at least aware of this to some extent. I think she's probably more lonely than she let's on. People rarely see her as her, they see a crow or more recently "Rook" but they don't see HER. If that makes sense. Which I think makes even more sense for her to be the character who romances Emmerich. He is a very warm person from the start and is very interested in asking rook if they would tell him stories about themselves and their travels. She's also absolutely DELIGHTED to help with any kind of rituals or rites. She loves magic and he's very open in including her in it tangentially and sharing about it, he's literally a teacher. She doesn't care that it's necromancy, she's a crow a dead body is a dead body it doesn't really freak her out.

[haz3-daz3]

Here I'm then with a drifters request ^^. What about some fluffy Naoshi hc's? I need some fluff in my life right now haha (tell me if it's too vague!)

I did it. idk if this counts as fluff however :/

I hope it's enough though!

lots of swearing because hey it's not a Naoshi fic without the swearing

Naoshi Kanno x F!Reader Fluff Headcanons (SFW)

So being stuck in the woods where a bunch dogs and cats walking on two feet referring to you as some weird-ass “Sky God” or whatever the shit they decide to label you as definitely going to grate on a guy’s nerves. Especially if your name is Naoshi Kanno.

Why in the hell is he even here? The man remembers seeing the blue sea fuckin’ plummeting into it in high speed and suddenly he’s in somewhere else where dragons and shit are hogging the sky who then burn a bunch of people to a crisp. Which Naoshi took care of because fuck that shit messing up with his head.

And now he’s in said woods, or jungle, he can’t fucking tell all he knows is that it’s hot as summer dog shit. Which wouldn’t surprise there’s way too many dogs in this place. And not to mention a goddamn Italian who can’t speak Japanese. Asshole.

So when you appeared all stupid with that dumb airheaded smile and speaking in his tongue he had to take a double take because what in the fuck, why the fuck was there some chick here??? Also what translation charms?? This world is too damn confusing he sometimes thinks he’s drunk too much and is dreaming at some bar or in the barracks drooling on the floor.

But ever since then, you’ve, for some reason, decided that you found him fun and have been following him around because…well fuck if he knows. This entire follow-Naoshi thing has been going on for some weeks now and…it’s not unpleasant. Not that he’ll ever admit that to you. Tch.

It’s not that Naoshi doesn’t know how to interact with women, he’s certainly asked his friends and comrades in the 343rd Air Group to send gals his way on account of him wanting to settle down after the war but you’re quite different from those more demure dames that he’s used to, huh? He finds it weird that he’s just accepted that he was kind of being pursued instead of being the pursuer. Not the kind of things a man thinks about while speeding through the air trying not to get killed before taking down everyone else with you but then again, Naoshi rarely thought too deeply besides where he’ll get his next meal, lay or drink. Or all of it.

In other words, Naoshi’s dumbly staring at you all unsure because for some reason you thought it’d be great to cut up those apples and peel mangoes you keep asking the Italian to help you get and feeding it to him because he was apparently being “too cranky”? He was pissed off because damn bugs keep getting stuck to his scarf and what the fuck keeps biting him?!

“The fuck do you mean cranky?! This hellhole’s got mosquitoes everywhe—“

That was the sound of you shutting Naoshi up by shoving a bunny-carved apple into his wide, spitballing, ranty mouth.

“You’re not you when you’re hungry.” You said, snickering like it was supposed to mean something but really it just made him chew on his fruit more, enraged. But just as he was about to speak, you shoved more fruits into his mouth.

The entire afternoon was spent with you being your weird 2024 self asking shit about him and his life and…being interested. Which he won’t lie was refreshing, but he hated the fact that it left him feeling unsure since his previous flings would ask him shit too but never with that look in your eye.

Naoshi still can’t believe you’re from a hundred and so years after he was born. “Are all the women in your time this forward?” He snorted, willingly snagging a bite of the mango you’ve peeled for the nth time, he doesn’t know nor care. It just feels oddly nice sitting down under a tree and not think about whether he’ll be sent to a mission that might mean his last, whether he’ll even have the chance to say goodbye to friends and family.

But your reply threw him off balance more than the first time his Kawanishi N1K failed on him and he thought he was gonna die.

“Only to the men we like.”

…Huh.

“The fuck?” Naoshi muttered, his voice not that loud, belligerence-laced tone that it usually was as he looked at you and oh shit, that blush is cute.

You only smiled to yourself all coy and bashful and he doesn’t know how the fuck you manage that but he stayed frozen on the ground, mango juices staining the corner of his lips while he watched you walk away.

And then his brain finally caught up with what happened and he scrambled to his feet, sprinting after you, catching your wrist.

Pulling you to him, your body pressed against his chest as he decided “fuck it” and smashed his lips against yours.

Was it uncoordinated as shit? It was but that didn’t matter.

Not when you tilted your head and your hands went up under his aviator’s cap to grasp at his trimmed black strands.

[doctorstrangereview]

0064: Doctor Strange #169

Cover Date: June 1968 On-Sale Date: February 29, 1968

Doc is finally in his own magazine at last. Dan Adkins continues as the artist in residence while Roy Thomas takes over writing duties. We pick up directly from last month's Strange Tales story, but Victoria Bentley, while mentioned does not appear. For his first solo outing, Roy chooses to rehash Doc's origin with a bit of elaboration. I can't decide if this is lazy or brilliant. Lazy because it's a pre-written story that Roy just needs to throw in some additional details. Brilliant, because it reintroduces that character to what is a new magazine and offers a jumping on point for readers who haven't seen the character in Strange Tales.

In the last instalment The Ancient One told Doc to take a nap and that's just what he's doing here. Doc is ruminating about how tired he is, how he must be forever vigilant, how be many never see Clea again and also Vicky, for some reason. As he does this, Roy and Dan treat us to a nice candlelight striptease as Doc gets ready for bed.

Doc has some doubts as he falls asleep. This is actually an important little detail that will be made clear later.

Then Dan treats us to a lovely full page image that doesn't really provide any new information.

While the origin rehash may or may not be lazy this definitely is. We burn an entire page of real estate without moving the plot forward. Maybe Dan REALLY wanted to draw some clawed monsters.

As his self-doubt grows, we discover something a bit startling. Doc still smokes!

This seems to drive him to recall his past. We start in an operating room much like Lee's and Ditko's original version. Doc makes a callous remark about where to send his bill and walks out of the theater. Doc is approached by a Doctor Benton about some charity work. The doctor isn't named in the original version, but it becomes a plot point in the near future so pay attention! Doc scoffs and takes a call from a wealthy potential client, Mrs. Van Heusen. Perhaps she is the heir to the clothing company. I always liked their shirts. Mrs. Van Heusen needs a minor operation and this is the perfect networking opportunity for the world's greatest neurosurgeon who happens to like money more than anything. The ladykiller elements of Doc's past won't show up for quite some time. Doc is distracted by his thoughts of rolling in piles of green and his fancy convertible is suddenly plunging off a cliff. This is a bit more specific than the original origin, but Roy and Dan do have more pages to fill.

Doc gets beat up pretty bad in the accident. Next thing he knows he's waking up in a hospital bed.

This doctor has bedside manner just as bad as our magician. I don't really think it's wise or empathic to give such bad news to your patient the moment he wakes up! The origin proceeds like the previous version. Doc is too egotistical to work for anyone else, is unemployed, has a bunch of operations to try and restore his hands, becomes an alcoholic and a drifter.

The alcoholism isn't specifically mentioned in the original version, but could be implied by Doc's sorry state. Doc then eavesdrops on a pair of sailors talking about a mysterious old duffer called The Ancient One who can fix anything without using duck tape. I gotta say, Adkins' sailors look a whole lot cooler than Ditko's. Adkins pays homage by using some of the details from the original image although he switched those details around a bit. The giant earring is a nice pirate-y touch! Doc even has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth in both versions.

You and Dan then insert some details of Doc's journey to The Ancient One's pad. He includes a beautiful two page spread that is unfortunately broken up by a border through the middle. I don't know if this was an artistic choice or was the cheap printing process used at the time not precise enough to line things up correctly over the spine.

Doc makes it to the old guy's pad. The Ancient One is presented as much more sinister and he has a more impressive throne. He also gets much more dramatic lighting. Was Adkins a frustrated cinematographer at heart?

The Ancient One then levitates Doc and reads his mind. This version is told in a more linear fashion so the preceding events weren't a flashback. The Ancient One says he can't heal Doc's hands but offers to allow Doc to study with him. Doc naturally refuses, but is stuck at the old guy's pad until the snow falls. The Ancient One's attempt at a joke is omitted in the retelling.

The Ancient One then summons the receptionist, er, his student Mordo to take Doc to his room. Mordo is definitely more intimidating than in the previous version highlighting his greater size.

As in the previous version, Doc is bored and wanders around when he stumbles onto Mordo being a bad boy. Mordo realizes this isn't a good thing and casts a spell to prevent Doc from ratting him out. As before, the spell can't stop him from talking about everything or else the old dude will get suspicious. Mordo proceeds with his attack on The Ancient One. The mode of attack changes from The Vapors of Valtorr to The Flames of the Faltine and Adkins uses an entire page to depict this.

The order things changes a bit here. In the Ditko version, Doc sees the attack on The Ancient One first and then stumbles across Mordo being naughty which is when he casts the gag spell. The reverse happens in the retelling. The Ancient One dispels the flames. Doc is like "I gotta get in on this" which the old guy accepts and removes Mordo's spell. He then reveals that he has been aware that Mordo is a bad little boy and it's best to hold onto him where he can keep an eye on him. Doc's reminiscing ends as he hears The Ancient One scream. It was very polite of him to wait until his memory reached the end of the tale. What is in store for Doc next issue?

Like I mentioned at the start, I don't know if this is lazy or brilliant, but it is very well done. It's mostly faithful to the Lee/Ditko original with enough embellishment to make it more realistic and flow better. There's only so much that can be accomplished in eight pages. Adkin's illustration's are more than Ditko's using more shading and abstract color. His more imaginative panel layout also helps and gives us more expansive views of the action. This story being mostly grounded in a real location plays to Adkin's skills. Ditko still wins by a mile when it comes to weird. Roy Thomas inserts a few elements that will grow to plot points in future arcs. It's a great job overall.

I can't wait for the return of Nightmare. It's been far too long since we've seen him.

[solarpunkani]

Sonic the Hedgehog and Solarpunk Ideals

Alright, it's June 23rd which means not only is it Solarpunk Aesthetic Week, but it's also Sonic the Hedgehog's 32nd birthday. Let's all say Happy Birthday Sonic the Hedgehog.

Overall, that means it's time for me to do something I usually don't do on this blog--talk about Sonic the Hedgehog, one of my favorite series of all times. Specifically, how I feel it embodies Solarpunk at least a little bit. Hopefully you'll see where I'm coming from by the end of this.

Real quick though, special shout out to @modern-solarpunk for being my beta reader 100/10 owe you my life.

Alright let’s make one thing clear. I’m a Sonic nerd. I’ve been a Sonic nerd since at least the 5th grade. Sonic the hedgehog is one of My Things. IDK if I’d call it a hyperfixation, but it’s definitely one of My Things, and it’s been one of My Things longer than gardening or even Solarpunking and all the other stuff y’all know me for has been. I am about to talk y’alls ears off. Buckle up.

With that in mind, I’m not going to pretend that the Sonic franchise is a perfect franchise made by perfect people working under a perfect corporation. Even ignoring the timeline disasters, retconning, and rushed projects (*cough cough Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom cough cough*), Sonic the Hedgehog is made by a corporation in a capitalistic world who has done some… iffy things in the past, present, and likely the future. We are, here, today, strictly talking about two things--the creation of Sonic and the creation of Dr. Eggman. There will be a super special third topic I bring up later, but that's gonna be its own post. I’ll bring up a handful of things from the shows, comics, movies, etc. If I finish writing and editing and posting this whole lengthy diatribe and someone ignores this paragraph and brings up some inane unrelated shit that the Big Corporation Guys did That One Time Months/Years Ago I might snap. Yes, corporations are bad. Yes, I like Sonic. Let’s establish that.

Ok let’s actually get started.

Sonic the Hedgehog the Dude, Tiny Rebellions, and Freedom

Alright, so Sonic the Hedgehog is a series of games, movies, comic books, TV shows--it's a whole thing, it's an entire franchise. The basics of what you need to know here is that a little 3’3” superpowered anthropomorphic blue hedgehog dude and his array of equally-animalian and equally-colorful friends are ruining the robotics-based evil world takeover plans of a 6’1” egg-shaped human dude on the regular. Occasionally, there are other villains, and other storylines, and sometimes the motivations change, but that sentence boils down the Sonic the Hedgehog storyline to its base essentials. 

The Sonic franchise was dreamed up in 1990 when SEGA needed a new mascot to compete with Nintendo’s iconic Mario. Personality-wise, he’s said to have been inspired by “a modern sensibility of wanting to get things done right away, righting wrongs as they presented themselves instead of letting them linger.” As we currently know him, with Sonic “What you see is what you get--just a guy who loves adventure.” He’s a free-spirited drifter who goes with the flow, valuing freedom above all else and wanting nothing more than to live by his own rules and whims rather than bowing to the expectations of others. He loves interacting with the many cultures on his planet (which we mostly see in Sonic Unleashed, but still), trying local dishes with friends frequently. Overall, Sonic is driven by a strong sense of justice and fairness, fighting for the ideal of freedom rather than the name of the law--and he always fights for the underdog. He likes to handle things on his own, but he isn’t above looking to his friends for help when needed--and acknowledges their role in his life and achievements regularly (if he can be a bit smug at times). He appreciates scenic views and nature, with a special fondness for places filled with plants--we see him do this lots in the series--and he hates when people destroy it for their own gain. He doesn’t hate cities, though, and finds they have their own beauty.

So what’s Solarpunk about this? In my eyes, a good bit. If you don’t know what Solarpunk is, it’s described on Wikipedia as ‘a literary and artistic movement that envisions and works towards actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community.” Aesthetically, I like to describe it as a mix between sci-fi and cottagecore, with a particular leaning towards some steampunk and some cyberpunk elements, but in a brighter, cleaner, more hopeful way. It's important to note, however, that Solarpunk is also a practical and political action mindset--as much as Solarpunks dream of a hopeful future and work to visualize it, we also work to learn the concepts and take the actions needed to make it a reality. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Sonic is super politically revolutionary, I’m here to talk about how Sonic fits into the aesthetics of Solarpunk.

As such, lets get into the point--I feel like Sonic is pretty Solarpunk, personality-wise. He just fits a lot of the core tenants--wants to right wrongs ASAP, whether they’re his wrongs or wrongs of the past. He values freedom, traveling, and beautiful natural places--a big chunk of Solarpunk is learning to appreciate and protect the natural species around you, and plenty of people have dreamed up nomadic Solarpunk societies. Even Sonic living by his own rules instead of bowing to expectations fits in Solarpunk--A Solarpunk Manifesto states that “the ‘punk’ in Solarpunk is about rebellion, counterculture… and enthusiasm. it is about going in a different direction than the mainstream…” People in the Solarpunk movement care deeply about freedom, justice, fairness, and fixing the broken systems we deal with today--and often start the legwork by forming or taking part in community-based movements and initiatives. We lean onto those around us for strength and courage, to work as a group to think of solutions to problems, whether that be something small like trading DIY patch instructions to bigger things like planning and creating community gardens to even sharing news about unionizing and more. There’s acts a Solarpunk can do alone--like guerrilla gardening, or moss graffiti, or drawing and writing concepts of a brighter future--but we all know we’re at our strongest when we’re not just one, but many. 

But one of my biggest arguments to Sonic being Solarpunk actually centers around his nemesis--Doctor Eggman.

Doctor Eggman as the Antithesis of Solarpunk

After all, it’s pretty hard to talk about how a hero of a series is Solarpunk without discussing the people and forces he fights against, and most of the time that’s Doctor Ivo Robotnik--better known to most as Dr. Eggman. He was developed more or less directly alongside Sonic the hedgehog, and as such the notes about his creation not only influence his character, but the character and vibe of most of the franchise so far. So who is Doctor Eggman?

Doctor Eggman is often described as the World’s Vilest Person--he’s evil, mean, cruel-spirited, and a self-proclaimed genius scientist who only really thinks about what he wants and what he needs to do to get it--getting pleasure in crushing anything that gets in his way. His main goal is to establish his Eggman Empire across the entire planet and build his own version of a utopia, Eggmanland--usually taking the form of a polluted, smog-filled city or a robotic theme park. His plans have varied from excavating natural spaces and turning woodland creatures into robotic slaves (Sonic 1, 2, 3), using doomsday devices to threaten nations and blow up the moon (Sonic Adventure 2), tie down planets for his own purposes (Sonic CD, Sonic Colors), or even using cosmic forces beyond his comprehension to flood metropolises or literally rip the planet apart (Sonic Adventure, Sonic Unleashed). In the comics and some shows, he even takes it a step further--a common theme with him is Roboticization, wherein people are forcibly turned from organic beings into robot slaves. Sometimes its a machine fulfilling this sometimes-irreversible process (Archie Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog Cartoon, Sonic Underground), while other times its an all-consuming virus that grows out of his control and turns almost the entire planet into raving robotic zombies (IDW Sonic Comics issues #12-29). He’s fueled by delusions of grandeur, believing that all of the world’s problems would be solved if he specifically were in charge of everyone all the time and had things his way, and makes robotic inventions and weapons to obtain power. He’s overflowing with self-confidence and pride, highlighting his ‘scientific genius’ whenever he can. He’ll leave temporary allies to rot if it gives him a chance to take all the credit and power for  himself, he looks down on everyone else and sees them as insignificant, only interested in what benefits him. Fairness and community? With Doctor Eggman? Forget it, he’ll steal candy from a baby and then turn it into a robot if given the chance. And even with robotic helpers he makes himself, he quickly gets sick of them--Eggman doesn’t do friends. 

I’d compare him to Elon Musk, but at least Dr. Eggman is actually a genius.

A Solarpunk Manifesto was published in 2019, describing Solarpunk as “A movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion, and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question ‘what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?’”. Eggmanland is not how we get there--Doctor Eggman is an embodiment of everything the Solarpunk ideology stands against, and not entirely by accident. Here’s a quote from Yuji Naka, one of the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog.

“Robotnik was created to be the opposite of Sonic, and to be the bad guy. At that time, there was opposition between "developers" and "environmentalists", and Robotnik was created to represent machinery and development.”

He represents it pretty well--his common motifs are imperialism and pollution, and his version of a utopia is often reminiscent of pre-EPA photos of US cities. Sometimes its done to a cartoonish level--but the point still stands. Whenever we catch glimpses of Eggman’s ‘Home Bases,’ whether its Scrap Brain Zone in Sonic 1, Chemical Plant in Sonic 2, Metallic Madness in Sonic CD, or elsewhere, we’re always seeing tons of mechanization, smog, pollution, and death robots.

Solarpunks aren’t opposed to technology--not in the slightest. But I feel its safe to say that any Solarpunk would be opposed to the over-industrialized, hyper-mechanized, pollution-riddled empire hellscape that Eggman would call heaven. (And you know damn well he'd be all over those Boston Dynamic robot dogs if he were real). To me, Eggman represents the grim-dark futures that apocalyptic stories tell us we’re barreling towards--the darker, less sunny side of the already dystopian cyberpunk genre. Solarpunk is the sun that burns away at smoggy futures, the light that reveals what we can have instead, the ideas that lead to actions to secure it. Its hope in a bottle--hope that we can enjoy and add to, a dream that we can help make into a reality. The ideals are chock full of resisting the real-life Eggmans who want to send humanity into a nose-dive of mechanization and energy-burning self-destruction for the sake of short-lived profits and smug ego-trips. 

Is Sonic a strictly Solarpunk series? I wouldn’t necessarily say so. But I think if the themes and terms had existed in 1990, it certainly would have been cited as a bit of an inspiration. Whether the Solarpunk community would have been chill with a corporation citing the term as inspiration is a whole other deal.

Stay tuned for this posts' sequel, where I talk about how I feel my favorite game in the series--Sonic Colors--is Solarpunk.

[corvidcrybaby]

I must know more about Judah and Rabbi Loew! Please tell me who they're all about. What are their connections to Zemira?

EEEEE TYSM FOR THE ASK I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LATE ASS RESPONSE.......!!! I'm glad someone finds them interesting, they're easily the hardest part of Lesions of a Different Kind to write but I find them so deeply moving and fun to explore. I'm gonna copypaste some info from a fucking essay I wrote a friend regarding Judah.

JUDAH

Judah the Hammer is based directly off of the real historical figure of Judah Maccabee, the inspired guerrilla commander who was the mastermind behind much of the Jewish victories during the Maccabean Revolt. This was a real historical event in the 160's BC which saw a Judean revolt oust the Hellenic Seleucid Empire from its control over Judea, and an end to their Hellenization policies which threatened to erase the lion's share of Jewish traditions and identity at the time. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates this story and the miracle of the oil.

In my Hellsing fic, Judah is the primary antagonist. Rather than dying in his suicide charge at Elasa, this version of Judah was turned into a vampire, and still walks the Earth. This event thoroughly shattered his worldview and his understanding of his role in it. As the antag, he forms an important foil with Alucard, because Alucard did much the same shit that Judah did - guerrilla warfare waged against a larger, more powerful empire, complete with being remembered as a total brute of a man - with the major difference being that Judah's war was victorious. He just didn't get to live to see it.

When I set out to design the prime antag for Lesions it was a tough call. I knew I wanted it to be an 'ancient world' vampire, and I wanted to keep up the trend of a historical figure being a vampire such as with Alucard and Erzsebet - which, yes, I like Hirano's other project Drifters quite a lot, don't @ me LOL. But then I also decided I wanted it to be personal to Zemira in some way, shape or form in such a way that would challenge her in a meaningful way and also be her worst nightmare incarnate. I was really hesitant to go there with this character for obvious reasons, but then I remembered that part of why I love Hellsing so much is that it isn't afraid to go there and tackle the uncomfortable topics in these big grandiose orgies of violence and philosophizing and grand tragedy. And I got to wondering about the dynamics between a medieval warlord like Vlad III and a warlord from antiquity like Judah Maccabee and how they would differ and relate to and from one another, and decided that that topic and the way people lionize historical figures and re-interpret them to fit the needs of their time. I've always found that topic intriguing as a historian because I first and foremost consider it folly, no matter what argument you're trying to make with them. But on the other hand, these were real people whose actions shaped the world we live in now, and I suppose I wanted to explore with the horrific matrix we call vampirism might do to a man like Judah, and how it would highlight and distort his character traits. I also, of course, wanted to make him a foil that Alucard could face down that would enhance his appreciation for Zemira's traits that are so distinctly hers (her rebellious attitude, her tenacious-to-the-point-of-stupidity tendencies, her disregard for power structures that don't respect her, et cetera) while also giving Zemira a "this you???" kind of antag that will make her question herself and grow into a stronger person.

Judah is an embodiment of Jewish rage. All the trauma, all the anger, all the suffering and all the cruel irony of two thousand years of antisemitism coalesced onto the shoulders of a single man. A man who, to his own community, is controversial and complicated. A cautionary tale to some, an inspiration to others. Sometimes for good reasons, other times for bad - but always drawing from the same core story of who Judah the Hammer was and what he did.

So from the time of his turning, Judah took it upon himself to wander the Earth as a foul-tempered arbiter of retribution for the horrors the Gentile world inflicts onto Jews. For every Jew murdered in a hate crime, he would take the life of a Gentile - with a particular hyperfixation on Europeans, as these were his sworn enemy in life, and that hatred extends particularly to Christianity, who he views as the torchbearers of Hellenic influence and outright calls them cultists; he's definitely disappeared plenty of villages throughout the rest of the world, mind you, definitely destroyed some mosques, but his main tunnelvision is upon Europe. I feel like if he were to put forward an insane Old Man Conspiracy Theory, it would be that Jesus was actually a Hellenized Jew or some shit like that and therefore a Greek and therefore the enemy. He is an ancient vampire and every bit the giga-powerful behemoth you'd expect from a being his age, but he chafes at the body he inhabits and has never fully accepted that he is what he is now (meaning he and Zemira both know what it's like to exist in a body that isn't home to them). He exists in the role of a spirit of temptation, but is in fact ace, and generally hates being touched. Oftentimes he wouldn't even kill for food, and in fact, still despises drinking blood and has never truly acclimated to it, only drinking from people he considered deplorable enough to take into himself and weaponize against their kindred, be it as a thrall or as something to simply sustain his existence. He prefers to carry and eat bones, as he dislikes waste and excess, and considers drinking blood to be a gross indulgence.

Is he grandiose, or pathetic? Tragic hero, or petty opportunist? DId he truly take up this mantle of being a spirit of vengeance out of a belief it was G-d's intention for him, or did he window-shop a hypothesis for an event (his turning) that he had no control over and traumatized him deeper than he could ever hope to recover from? Is he to blame for his callous reduction of peoples' lives to political 'gotchas', or is that a product of his time that anyone on a high horse about their morals would have fallen into as well? Does his vampirism make him a monster, or was he monstrous before an infectious Nosferatu's fangs got anywhere near him?

There aren't a lot of clear answers in the text about this because I mostly use him to pose difficult questions to the cast of Lesions, and how they react to him determines much of who and what they are. He's extremely difficult to write well and I've rewritten his scenes more often than any other characters, but I love him.

Yet even with all this grim characterization, Judah is a character that is just an endless blast to write for and daydream about. Whereas Alucard is all pomp and circumstance, elegance and dramatism, Judah is rugged, foul-mouthed just like Zemi, and with a crotchety old man mean streak a mile wide. When he moves about, his body acts like it's being controlled by a drunken puppeteer - very 'HOW DO I DRIVE THIS THING???' energy, because vampirism in Hellsing is often framed in Christian terms. Therefore, as a Jew, it's really hard for him to acclimate to it, and his fight scenes have major Drunk Monk energy. The text calls him "a boulder of a man" as opposed to Alucard's gracile and lanky build, and is shorter than him at six-foot-even (since people used to be smaller in the ancient world, generally).

He's an angry old man, he's a dude who's sad that his little brother died in front of him, he's your orthodox uncle with a bad attitude who tries to corner you at the family function to tell you how you're off the derech, he's Oscar the Grouch in vampire form, and his fight scenes are shockingly violent. Alucard kills people and makes a spectacle of it, but Judah's kills read like you found a video of a guy bludgeoning a fellow inmate to death with a lead pipe in a high-security prison that got released on Liveleak or something.

Also, my voiceclaim for him is Brok from God of War: Ragnarok.

He's a dick, but it's hard to look away whenever he's talking. And I love him for it. <3

RABBI LOEW

Shifting gears here, Rabbi Loew is, much like Judah, the very same Rabbi Loew as the real person who is fabled to have created the legendary Golem of Prague - in my Hellsing fic, he's done just that, and still resides in what looks to be a decrepit old mansion in Prague, but will reveal itself as a safe haven for Jews who are in a bad spot. He's essentially the Prophet Elijah figure of the story - he appears to people along with his golem in scenarios where they are deeply and truly lost and in need of guidance, giving them a comforting nudge in the direction they need. He's a repository for endless depths of knowledge, and opposed to the rest of the Hellsing cast who are so fond of carrying themselves with over-the-top aesthetic maximalism, Rabbi Loew is very simple, very soft-spoken, and although he can absolutely get angry and does so in the story, he hardly ever raises his voice. He's part of an important web of foils that includes Rabbi Loew & his golem (simply named Guard in the text) versus Integra and Alucard, as well as how he represents a defunct, dead-in-the-water version of the Integra/Alucard boss and servant bond due to his complicated and fraught relationship with Judah.

Rabbi Loew actually contributed some of magical binding seals used to tie Alucard to the Hellsing family, which furthers the golem parallel so core to the story. But the elephant in the room here is that Rabbi Loew does not have Judah bound in a similar manner. Judah comes and goes from the mansion in Prague at random. Usually, he swings by just to rest for a bit, and maybe pick a few obnoxious arguments with Rabbi Loew. There is a great deal of uncertainty in how they interact. On the one hand, Judah is four times Rabbi Loew's age, but the latter actually looks like an old man, where as Judah looks around his mid-to-late-fifties, and is found of calling him "Old Guy." Rabbi Loew is, well, a fucking Rabbi, and therefore commands a certain kind of deference and respect amongst most Jews, especially as a legendary figure - but Judah is a figure even more legendary in Jewish history, and comes from a time in which Rabbinic Judaism was not the standard (Second Temple Judaism, to be specific), thus meaning they are separated by time in more ways than one. I think secretly both persons look to the other for inspiration, but are always saddened and frustrated by what they find. Judah finds Rabbi Loew to be overly passive and toothless, despite their first meeting being Rabbi Loew coming upon the Hammer brutalizing and torturing a Cossack to death in a shockingly violent manner, and saying "Not that I'm opposed to cracking a few skulls when push comes to shove, but don't you think this is a bit much?" And despite Judah's dislike for the old Rabbi's attitude, he often finds himself yielding when Rabbi Loew checks him on his brutality. But when his Rabbi isn't around, Judah continues on his usual sporadic outbursts of vengeful violence on Gentile communities, believing that if he was cursed with vampirism, then he must become like one of the Plagues of Egypt itself. HaShem did terrible things in the name of justice then, and Judah sees himself as one of those further terrible necessities, instead of his own person.

Rabbi Loew hates this.

Rabbi Loew looks at Judah and thinks of how much good a person like him could do with the mind-blowing powers of vampirism at his disposal. The lives he could save, the atrocities he could prevent, the connections he could build and foster, if he so chose to do so. But Judah doesn't do that. Judah is resigned to being the Hammer of Israel, the Lion of Judea, the Beast of the Levant. He is so deep in a haze of dissociation that he sometimes believes everything around him is the nightmarish hallucination of a dying man (as though he's on an acid trip that never ended) that he doesn't at all consider that maybe he could make this extended lifespan of his mean something. He doesn't consider that wandering the Earth and murdering Gentiles to "keep the score even" isn't actually helpful. He thinks it's beyond his purview. And Rabbi Loew can't help but keep trying to Uncle Iroh this touchy motherfucker into a healthier headspace, but I think both men know that the old Rabbi doesn't have what it takes to truly get through to Judah. And so, detente. They share space and company and do care for one another, but it's a doomed friendship that can't go much deeper than that.

Because at the end of the day, just like any real Rabbi, Rabbi Loew is just a man. There are bells and whistles that call it into question (such as his unnatural long life, which I won't address here due to spoilers), but he's just an old fellow, doing his best to make the world a slightly less cruel place.

He gets the least engagement, but I love him too.

[karekuat]

A continuation of the Axi ask for @arcaneglitch (and anyone who maybe possibly is interested in my made up stories)

So let's talking about Destiny 2 Axilaes =)

For the basics, he's a warlock, broodweaver specifically, he was revived in the dark ages (OLD), and he's human (albeit with cybernetics in him)

I feel like there's a lot to talk about so I'll break it down via different segments

His Timeline & History

Axi was revived in an old Braytech facility in the Dark Ages before there was any sense of a collective humanity during the time where warlords controlled land used their Light for power. He noticed he was capable of some of the same things they were, rifts, floating, and being essentially immortal as long as his Ghost was alive. But unlike the other risen he noticed his light didn't seem to manifest as any particular element, all he was really good at was making rifts, and any time he tried creating any of the other elements he saw it ended in failure. He stayed like this for a while.

Along the way he got a travelling companion, who was another risen with the same kinds of powers as him but was able to manifest a fire element power. They wandered together and exchanged their healing powers for food in the settlements they visited, but eventually they had a falling out and Axi went out on his own. He met the Drifter a few times.

He made a habit out of stalking warlords and scavenging the carnage after battles for supplies, so in legend he became kind of a ghostly figure who haunted the scenes after wars broke out. He unintentionally befriended a dog, ended up with a pack, and used his pack to help him scavenge and vulture off others. Sometimes he'd even purposefully create hostility between two opposing powers just so he could steal and pillage unnoticed. He also started to see little green wisps appear when it seemed like something important was about to happen.

When the world started shifting into a place that had more order and discipline he kept his routine by joining up with a rogue crew of Eliksni pirates. When they eventually all died, he retreated back to earth alone and decided to live isolated in silence for a while.

On his travels with the Eliksni on other planets he'd taken an interest in the foliage and flora that existed in the Sol System and especially with paracausal plants, taking note of certain kinds that would be imbued with Light or Darkness. He studied them and learned to extract and use their powers. Some risen, and guardians at this point with an interest in his work would ask him for the consumables he made, which he offered at a price. Over time he started becoming a name associated with Dredgens since they would use his concoctions to commune with Darkness or overexert their Light. At this point he'd also began understanding the green wisps and learning to control them

Drifter asked him to join in on Gambit when it started, and he refused at first. Eventually he lost a bet and was forced to play a game, and he realized he loved it. He remained a consistent player and made a slight name for himself amongst frequent Gambit players.

When strand was revealed to the cast of the game he had finally stopped hiding the fact that he'd already learned about it and managed a basic level of control over it up to that point.

Cyberware

When Axi was revived he was already equipped with a strange type of cyberware replacing his arms, lungs, heart, eyes, and parts of his spine. Despite having cybernetic eyes his vision is QUITE BAD, which was odd, until he managed to find some information at Braytech about an "experimental aquatic proto-exo" meant to be exos designed to fully inhabit water. Sure enough, underwater he's able to breathe (though not without a little discomfort) and see perfectly.

He doesn't know why he's not a finished prototype and was left primarily organic, but it doesn't bother him either way.

Personality & Relationships

At his core Axi is the type of person who just wants to live a peaceful life. He has hobbies and interests, but he's not ambitious with his work. Unfortunately (as he sees it) he's had a bad track record of getting really attached to people. Some kids back in the Dark Ages, his old dog pack, his former Eliksni crew, Lucius (who belongs to @light-thedar-k), and Elijah (who belongs to @thetruenightzedge)

Axi doesn't have much empathy for humanity in general and only wants to keep himself and those in his circle cared for, so he's very willing to jeopardize others for the sake of his own needs and feels no guilt about it. He's emotionally stunted and has a harsh personality, he scolds a lot, he's bossy and strict. With strangers he's often cocky and always unintentionally (and maybe sometimes intentionally) carrying an air of "I'm better than you" with the way he holds himself and smiles condescendingly. When he feels like he's lost control of a situation he's quick to anger and over-dramatic frustration (and frankly just going fuckin feral). He loves games and gambling and bets, and he's a real sore loser lol. When people hurt the ones he cares about he tends to go overboard with the revenge.

Lucius he met in the Reef when he lived as a pirate, and her death was one of the first to affect him as much as it did, he saw her as a sister. Elijah he fought against a few times in Gambit, and they developed a very intense horny enemies to rivals to lovers dynamic.

Extra Trivia

He's gay and transgender, and transitioned before he was revived

His Ghost is named Anem

Since the dark ages he's always been able to have visions or gut feelings about the future, so in some degree he's like a psychic but he has low control over his ability unless he meditates consistently. He often has visions of the future while he's sleeping that feel very real, and also has dreams of parts of his life in the past, so oftentimes when he wakes up he has a hard time knowing whether he's in the present past or future, and gets really disoriented. He hates sleeping.

He doesn't like to cook

He adopted two golden age sentient AIs he found and named Ćiknawi and Hari and input into his jumpship and sparrow/skimmer respectively

He's really lazy

and you can have a little half assed drawing I did of him

[vindieselsfacebook-blog]

You know, I was reading your post about the way ASP chose music for the show, since my head has been full of ANOTHER ASP interview about Rory's relationship with Logan lately, I started thinking about Moon River, which is the song they dance to at Richard and Emily's vow renewal. And "Two drifters, off to see the world/There's such a lot of world to see" is really such a perfect fit for what ASP said about them, and how Rory's never not known where she was going before, but she's kind of at a point where she just wants to... drift for a while and see where the current takes her. And that's Logan's entire ethos, which is really appealing to Rory at this point. (Also I could get into the contrast between Sabrina (what Miss Celine calls Rory) and Holly Golightly, BUT I'll refrain. For now. 😂)

Oh man yes yes thank you for indulging me and tingling my brain about this!!! Hahaha over-thinking the music of GG is a dear past time of mine and I can go on and on... I think I'll try to keep making posts about songs as I think of them! I know we all like to (rightfully) rib ASP for stuff she gets wrong or seems sloppy about, but there's really sooo much she gets so right and I do think the writers in general are more thoughtful than some fans think. There's a reason we're all still so stuck on this shit!

Anyway, yes, Moon River is such a beautiful, perfect choice! So is Wedding Bell Blues, the "Bill song" and namesake of the whole episode. The bittersweet overarching themes and foreshadowing about Lorelai's tragic love life parallel the similarly misplaced wedding song choice Sookie makes with I Can't Get Started - also I'm sure very purposely the namesake of that episode.

"I love you so, I always will And in your voice I hear a choir of carousels Oh, but am I ever gonna hear my wedding bells? I was the one who came running when you were lonely I haven't lived one day not loving you only But kisses and love won't carry me 'til you marry me Bill I love you so, I always will And though devotion rules my heart, I take no vows

Oh, come on, Bill (come on, Bill) Come on and marry me, Bill I got the wedding bell blues Please, marry me, Bill"

[smash-64]

2023 Game of the Year Countdown Honorable Mentions (part 1)

Money Puzzle Exchanger Arcade and NeoGeo, 1997

After adoring Panel de Pon last year, I have kept an eye on various older puzzle games just in case I end up liking them. This one transports me back in time to the old school arcades in every aspect. It’s available on the Switch eShop and they have updated literally nothing. Sounds super 90s, looks super 90s, and has awkward translations like so many of those rare arcade cabinets in the 90s. Charm is off the charts, but wow is it difficult. It doesn’t have the same learning curve that Panel de Pon does, and I have not been encouraged to sink as much time into it as a result. It’s clear that it’s meant to be played against a friend, and while I did convince two friends to try it, they both agreed that it was going to take too much time to learn the game and we haven’t done any VS mode. I doubt I'll ever be a huge puzzle game fan, but it's cool to find one occasionally.

Wild Arms 3 Sony PlayStation 2, 2002 This was the game I played this year with the most mixed feelings. I ended up not really liking the combat, the extremely high rate of random encounters, or the story that went way too hard in the sci-fi direction for the type of atmosphere the game originally sets. 

However, the music was enjoyable (Secret Garden!), the ending was actually perfect for the genre (I’ll get to that), and the setting was something I never knew I needed before: a wild west JRPG. I dabbled with Wild Arms XF for the PSP a few years ago, but I’m not a big fan of non-Fire Emblem tactics games, so I dropped it. But both games have made me really want more wild west JRPGs. The setting already allows for all the tropes and story devices that JRPGs require, but is essentially untapped. Fantasy has been overdone in the genre. And sci-fi is less and less unique as many devs are turning to that genre, too. But the wild west already has the mysterious drifters, the native tribes, the outlaws, the lone lawmen, the legends, the unexplored territory, the rivalries, and the hidden treasure. And that all just comes with the territory of a wild west setting so none of it feels convoluted or overdone. I’m not quite sure why we haven’t had more set in this type of world, especially given how popular the American West is, or at least has been, in Japan. 

I also really like Virginia Maxwell as the main character. I’m a sucker for female protags, and apparently this game suffered for it back in 2002 because teenage boys were too insecure for that type of thing, I guess? But Virginia also just looks like a super cool western chick who dual wields revolvers. 

However, as I said earlier, there were a lot of aspects I just grew sick of and I actually dropped the game somewhere shortly after the midpoint, turning to YouTube to see the rest of the plot. And if I had wanted an absurd sci-fi story, I would have played a Xeno game. It seems very weird to create such a great wild west setting, and then just pivot to so much sci-fi. Even more so when you give the game a VERY wild west ending to boot. I actually adored the ending/epilogue to the game because it’s as perfect for a wild west story as the Mexican stand-off was in the opening sequence.

So yeah, very mixed feelings on this game. I’d love to hear what other people thought of it, if they’ve played it.

[mariatesstruther]

Do you think Maria and Tess would immediately get along, or would it be a process to become friendly? Not due to woman vs woman bullshit but due to both having overly protective natures and Maria being (rightfully) hesitant/suspicious around Joel at first for his past actions that Tess has been his partner in all ways in?

yes! very much so! (full disclosure i have only watched gameplay of tlou and tlou2 and it was a while ago so im gonna be show specific here): i think if tess survived and made it to jackson to meet maria as she was in the show, it would be extremely tense—but still definitely smoother than it was in the show because of how much better tess is with people than joel.

her and maria would essentially be in opposing positions. maria would be protective of tommy and tommy first and tommy’s trauma first because that’s her mf husband, her partner, her everything (and i know most people assume from what is said in the show that tommy has only been in jackson for maybe a year or shorter or since he stopped contacting joel—i actually suspect he stopped contacting joel because/after he found out maria was pregnant. it makes communicating over the radio way more of a pressing risk. considering tommy and maria are MARRIED and she’s already months along, id think they would have been partners for a few years, if not at least half a decade. that’s a long mf time in the world they live in, even in the place as nice as jackson. so yeah maybe her and tommy haven’t been through quite as much as joel as tess, but they’ve definitely been through a lot and enough—so much so that they got married and are excited to raise children together. they’re a team).

and of course, tess would be protective of joel and joel first and joel’s trauma first because that’s her mf husband, her partner, her sub, her everything. she’d be pissed at tommy for leaving joel and then even more pissed at him for not radioing, mostly because it puts her partner in distress.

i do however think tess would be less combative with maria and more just cautious, because i do think she’d be objective enough to understand why maria feels what she feels. she’s heard how people talk about her and joel around the QZ, and she knows how threatening and dangerous they seem: it’s literally by design. she’d probably think maria would be an idiot to not be cautious of her and joel, honestly. i don’t think she’d be offended by it, moreso impressed.

i also think maria would’ve been far less cautious of joel had tess been there, because let’s be real—those two situations would look very objectively different to maria in terms of ellie’s safety, which is what she was concerned about in the first place.

and furthermore, i think maria would hear enough stories about tommy’s time with joel and tess to understand where tess is coming from, as a woman who also needs to do what she’s gotta do to survive. i think they’d see a lot of themselves in the other woman in almost an instant

so ultimately, there’d always be respect between them

also, i know i just mentioned them but @hypnotisedfireflies wrote a chapter of The Ensemble (so sorry im unable to link rn!) that i think covers this dynamic beautifully, based off a prompt i wrote to them on anon because i was too shy to tell them how amazing drifters is and didnt have this blog yet 🤪 i really recommend it to anyone wanting more maria and tess!!