#I also just wanna introduce more people to the plays if they haven’t seen them before

[krismatic]

who wants to watch revue starlight the live #4 climax (eng subs) with me

[cynical-cemeteries]

okay soooo since it’s basically been confirmed that all 12 WoT heroes will be available in the game at some point

i wanna propose the idea that i think heroes are getting banners in order of story appearance,, but if the hero up next is someone who Died,, then that specific character will be skipped & they’ll go to the next one who Survived

so like for reference right. syphfride was the first person we met back in chapter 1,, and she was Also a hero who survived the war,, so she was the first person to get a banner. ondal was supposed to be next,, but since he’s someone who’s supposed to die,, he got skipped and they went straight to brandon

after brandon’s banner ended a few days ago,, raligon would’ve been next,, but since y’know. he died at the end. he got skipped,, and now dragon knight helga is up and running

i’m assuming that young walther & aslan will be coming after helga leaves,, and then arkanath will probably be skipped after those two since She Dies,, and then we’ll see whoever else gets introduced after her

the thing is…i don’t know how they’re gonna do banners for the people who died. i’m guessing that after all the people who Survived are finished,, they’ll introduce the remaining heroes at the very end. maybe it’ll be a special kind of link across timelines since they’re no longer living,, like we link to them when they’re still alive?? there’s a lot of possibilities with this but i think it’ll be interesting regardless

[greynatomy]

vogue

kyra cooney-cross x reader

been in a bit of a writing slump and haven’t written anything until last night when i couldn’t sleep

something a bit different

———

Your eyes flutter open, adjusting to the sunlight that’s peaking through the curtains. Grabbing your phone, seeing as it’s seven in the morning. Rubbing a hand across your face, you sit up with your back leaning against the headboard, you start to record yourself on a camera you were given.

“Hey, guys.” You whisper. “It’s currently seven o’clock and i just woke up. Vogue had asked me to show you all my morning routine. So let’s get started.”

The video cuts to you standing in your bathroom.

“Okay. As you can see, I am now in my bathroom. I gotta still talk quietly though, so hopefully you can hear me.” You grab some things and lay them out in front of you. “So, today is a pretty chill day. I’ve just finished up my tour and I am back to living that domestic life. Since I don’t have any interviews and all that jazz, I’ll just be washing my face with this CeraVe face wash.”

A song plays as you put a headband on to keep your hair off and you wash your face, making sure it suds up nicely.

“Gotta make sure you get every crevice and have it nice and bubbly. I’ve seen other videos of people washing their face, but they’re not? Like I don’t even think they used any soap.” You laugh, rinsing your face with water and wiping it with a towel.

“Okay. Now, I’ve got this moisturizer. Also CeraVe. Love this brand, not sponsored by the way. Once that sets in my skin for a bit, I use this sunscreen that I got from Trader Joe’s. It’s my favorite because it doesn’t leave your face feeling oily.”

As you’re putting your sunscreen on, you fail to notice the door of the bathroom open.

“Darling.”

Turning around, you see your girlfriend slowly shuffling her feet towards you.

“Hey, babe. Finally up are you?”

“Mhm.”

“I’m filming that thing for Vogue. Wanna introduce yourself?”

Kyra pulls out the stool she kept in the bathroom, grabbing your waist to sit you on her lap.

“Oh, yeah.” Kyra is now more awake, now aware of the camera in front of her. “Hello, Vogue. My name is Kyra Cooney-Cross.”

“This is my girlfriend and now it’s her turn to wash her face.” Kyra washes her face as you talk to the camera, getting off her lap for a little while. “She uses the same products I use because she said ‘I know best’ and she didn’t know which to buy.”

Kyra sits back down on the chair so you sit back down on her lap, a routine that the viewers could tell that’s been going on for a while with how fluid the actions were.

“And now she’s going to put whatever products she chooses on my face.”

“Very needy this one is. I usually sit on her lap a different way, but let’s keep it pg.” You put the same products you put on you on her face.”

The video cuts to you in the kitchen.

“Now, it’s time to make breakfast. Kyra isn’t allowed anywhere near the stove because of an incident that happened a while ago.”

“At least I didn’t burn the house down.” Kyra walks up behind you, wrapping her arms around your waist and hold you close. She was now dressed in her training kit.

“But I will be making some avocado toast with an egg for the both of us. This is all we’ve been wanting to eat for breakfast lately so I’m making it again.”

A time lapse shows you and Kyra eating with music playing.

Now back in the bedroom, with clothes all over the bed can be seen.

“Okay. Today Kyra has an open practice meaning that fans are allowed to be there while they practice. I’ve chosen to wear something comfortable so I went with some joggers and one of her jerseys. I was gonna go with a ‘Russo’ jersey but she threw a fit.”

“I did not!” The faint sound of Kyra’s voice was heard.

“She did.” You cup a hand around your mouth, whispering to the camera. “And this bucket hat to hopefully keep me incognito.” You take a step back to show your whole outfit.

The video cuts to you in the backseat of a car.

“We are now on our way to training. I will not be training but they are.” You flip the camera towards your girlfriend, Katie, and Caitlin. “Kyra doesn’t have her license and I refuse to drive on the other side of the road so we’re carpooling! Yay! Guys say ‘hi’ to the people.”

“Hi, people.” “Hey, guys.”

“Katie is the one driving us and Caitlin is the other one.”

“Wow! I’m just the other one?” Caitlin places a hand over her chest, feigned hurt by your words.

“Yup. And that’s really all for my morning routine. I’ll be doing some work on my laptop that I’m bringing and watching all these athletic people workout and make me feel bad about myself. So, yeah. Thanks for coming along this morning. Say ‘bye’ guys.”

“Bye!”

[highlordofkrypton]

ACOTAR FANDOM ANALYSIS

…because apparently I miss academics?

PART 1 - CONTEXT & FACTORS TO CONSIDER

This was originally supposed to be an addition to @praetorqueenreyna’s post, but it started to get long and I didn’t wanna clutter your post. If you haven’t seen her essay on ACOTAR fandom culture, please do check it out because she made amazing and very valid points that I’m just gonna ramble on top of.

OKAY, APPARENTLY, THIS IS GONNA HAVE MULTIPLE PARTS. AFTER I WROTE THIS I REALIZE THERE’S SO MUCH.

I do want to disclaim that this isn’t targeted to any one part of the fandom, merely observations from someone who is relatively new to the ACOTAR fandom (around April-ish). I’m also way too lazy to get sources and stuff. I’m also missing a lot of fandom history.

ABOUT FANDOM CULTURE

At its core, fandom culture is niche. It’s strange, it’s not cool in a popular way, it’s geeky, it’s awkward, it’s community-oriented and a place detached from the mainstream. Hobbies, interests and discussions that you couldn’t really have these conversations with anyone in your day to day because they needed to engage with the piece of media and even then, they needed to care about it enough to create, deconstruct, reconstruct, and contribute to the fandom.

Fandom comes with a sense of belonging. It’s about liking the media, yes, but it’s about liking the media enough that you want to immerse yourself in it. You want more than just the book, the show, the song, etc.

With fandom, especially on Tumblr, there are subcultures within fandom, based on a character, a ship, a spinoff, etc. Fans can find (or create) a community to connect with on specific parts of a media, and that’s a beautiful thing. While fandom is not perfect, and it has its dark, embarrassing, painful moments, over the years it’s developed its own unspoken rules. Most of the ‘subcultures’ stay among them, and even with drama, the overlap isn’t as constant as ACOTAR. Usually, it comes in waves, and evens out eventually.

Most importantly, fandom is a place where you can just be yourself. You can shake off the weight of the outside world, and just do your thing! There are so many politics at play and rules in your day-to-day life, why not get a little weird? Fandom is a place where you find your other weirdos, and the judgmental people are usually a minority.  It can also be really small and you know everyone in the fandom—shoutout to my other 4 Orm Marius homies!!

POST-PANDEMIC CONTEXT AND THIRD PLACES

When the pandemic hit, in places that were locked down, habits needed to change and there was nowhere to go. You couldn’t really escape, so online was the best place. You had people returning to old hobbies, such as crafts, gaming, reading, etc. You also had people searching for new things to partake in. Either boredom, coping with the new way of the world or just finding people to talk to, those are valid reasons.

I’d like to introduce the notion of third places. Third place is considered to be a place that is not home, work or school. It is a place where you can get out of your routine and decompress. Libraries, coffee shops, going to the bar, or anywhere else where you can just step away from the grind and the routine. These are social spots that help alleviate the weight of your daily pressures. For some, their third place was strictly an in-person event.

With the arrival of the pandemic, these third places became inaccessible and even after lockdown was lifted, some of these places were irrevocably changed—either they closed permanently or the hours changed in such a way that they were not accessible. For example, I used to spend a lot of time in my favourite bookstore because it would open at 8AM and close at 10PM. After the pandemic, it opens at 10AM and closes at 5PM. For someone who works, I can no longer use this as my ‘third place’.

For many fandom members, their third place was online. They already know the rules of etiquette from observing, and joining out of their own curiosity. Time spent in fandom teaches you the unspoken tenets of interaction. ‘Don’t like, don’t read,’ is one example. Additionally, being part of a small fandom, but loving something so much that you want to connect with someone, anyone, teaches you to be a lot more respectful of the space you’re entering. You may not like everyone all the time, but ultimately, your enjoyment of your fandom should precede everything else.

Joining a fandom on your own, or with a small group, is completely different from joining en masse. Now, you have many people seeking a place to ‘connect’ coming in with their preconceived notions learned from other places. Maybe a different subculture that isn’t fandom. Maybe an assumption of how fandom should be. 

BOOKTOK VS. FANDOM - CLIQUES VS. COMMUNITIES

I’ve heard the argument that the ‘popular kids’ joining fandom is ruining fandom. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, trying to look at the demographics of BookTok and the patterns of behaviour that are associated with BookTok vs. fandom. I’m on BookTok, but I look for smaller communities, but I see all the drama, all the time.

Here are a few of my assessments:

All social media platforms allow you to cater your page and feed to what YOU want, but not all social media is community based. It is geared for content to consume, and feeds the algorithm to keep you on the platform, so that companies can pay the platform for advertising.

Most other social media encourage you to use parts if not your entire identity (photos, video, name, etc.) and I believe that creates a direct correlation to a person’s sense of validation when receiving likes, comments, engagement. Tumblr, on the other hand, rarely focuses on the identity of the person behind the screen, but rather you build your identity through what you share, the posts you make or reblog. It has shifted to be more similar to other social media (for moniessssss) but it wasn’t like this years ago. Over a decade ago, Tumblr used to be the only place where I could get fandom stuff and Deviantart.

Other social media platforms emphasize that you are the product. With the success of influencers, many people try to replicate the same success by using themselves, their talent and most importantly, their opinions on social media. BookTok is essentially an online book club, which means that it’s mostly sharing thoughts, and less about creation.

Content on social media, put out by influencers is created not with the intention for interaction, but rather, reach. People aren't used to the pushback and continuous discourse that happens on Tumblr where many people can chime in at once.

The desire to belong compounded with the impact of influencers on social media naturally sets people into two categories: creators and consumers. Content creators who have achieved success are placed on the same pedestal our modern society places celebrities on. Due to their following, some people might believe their opinions are more valid because there is a large number of people following them. Some people might be influenced by the ‘majority’ they see following an influencer, which is part of the course. That’s why they’re called influencers.

As a former marketing specialist, I’d like to assert that there are so many more factors in play than a valid take. Aesthetics are a big part of it, and charisma. Both of which fall under the same attributes as the ‘popular’ kids in school. As someone with a lot of charisma in person, I know for a fact that if you package something prettily enough, you can get away with anything.

The problem is: fandom doesn’t work like that.

Fandom is a place where unpopular opinions and niche things thrive. It’s the place where no one cares if you’re cool, and the pretty things come in forms of art (crafts, visual art, writing, etc.). It’s also a place for discourse for those who enjoy that, digging deeper into themes and what not.

The problem is: you have a subculture that is largely an echo chamber and largely one-sided 'community' entering a space with an established dynamic with a lot of back and forth. Sometimes, the rule in fandom is that the rules don’t apply. 

I believe that this isn’t the root of the toxicity, but elements to consider when speaking of the ACOTAR fandom which, like Reyna said, feels like an amplification of the worst elements of fandom.

It's super late here, so I'll come back to actually start saying something LMAO CAUSE THIS FEELS LIKE A WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING.

[rrenzwrld]

secreto de amor IX

chapter 9! read chapter 8 here

i’m sorry yall!😭we’re slowly getting back to business

after you finished, you had decided to let connie take you to your appointment with his car. you’ve never been in it before but it looked really new, even had the smell and everything. but that could’ve also been because of the car fresheners he had strung up on the mirror.

once you got there, you texted the braider to let her know you were there. you’ve been to her quite a few times so the interactions were routine.

“welp, i’ll be back in about.. 8 hours.”

“8 hours?”

“it probably won’t take that long, she braids fast. i thought you didn’t have anything to do though?”

connie cleared his throat. “i don’t.” you didn’t really want him waiting in the car all that time so you asked if he could come in and sit with you. the braider approved before allowing you to enter the small shed.

you introduced connie to your braider as your friend and the two of them conversed while she started on your hair. since you weren’t much of a talker, you only had input for the conversation occasionally. when you hair was finished and it was time to leave, you reached in your purse to give her the cash but connie beat you to it.

“why did you do that?”

“do what?”

“pay for my hair. i didn’t ask you to do that.”

“i know, silly. i just wanted to do it.” you felt bad because you knew you would want to do something in return. when people did stuff for you, you just had a desire to return the favor even if they don’t ask or expect it. “i don’t want anything in return by the way. you have that guilty look on your face.”

“thank you.”

connie shrugged. “no problem. you hungry?”

the two of you decided on a burger place and since you didn’t wanna eat inside for some reason, connie parked in an abandoned parking lot and you two ate in his car.

“can’t believe you let me eat in this nice ass car. i must be special.” you smiled as you put fries in your mouth.

“you are.” you were joking but he wasn’t. you didn’t know what to say exactly so you looked away from him and out the window as you sipped on your sweet tea.

“anyways, you going home after you drop me off?”

“depends. do you want me to go home?”

you shrugged. “don’t really care. do what you want.” a smile crept into connie’s face.

“i guess i’m not going home.” he took another bite of his burger and a sip of his drink. you nearly smiled but fixed it right when you couldn’t realize why you were smiling. you probably knew why but didn’t want to admit it.

“cool.”

after eating, the both of you went back to the apartment.

“i hope you know i’m going to my room sooo, i don’t know what you’re gonna do.”

“we can’t hang out?”

“hang out?” you turned to him. you were about to be mean until you realized that you were working on being nicer to him because he wanted to get to know you more. sometimes you really hated making new friends.

“yeah, like watch a movie or sum.” you looked around before agreeing.

“sure. what movie?” connie took off his shoes by the door before plopping onto the couch and grabbing the remote. you followed suit.

“encanto!” you looked at him like he was crazy. you thought he’d say something you know kids haven’t seen a billion times.

“really?” his smile faded and you immediately felt bad about your reaction.

“yeah…what’s wrong with encanto? you’ve never seen it?”

“i have but it was a while ago—“

“well we’re watching it again c’mon.” he wrapped his arm around your shoulders to pull you in closer. you were gonna resist but you accepted it, resting on his chest throughout the movie.

you and connie sat through an unintentional disney movie marathon with one movie after the next. while you were awake and paying attention to princess and the frog playing on the screen, connie was steady dosing off.

“connie.” you nudged him and his eyes opened slowly. “you wanted to sit up here and watch movies and you falling asleep?”

“i-i’m not sleep…just resting my eyes.” you rolled your eyes as you looked back up at the tv.

“you wanna lay d—“ you were interrupted by his soft snores. you watched a bit as his chest silently rose and fell. his long eyelashes still and his left arm draped lazily over you while his other propped up his head on the armrest of the couch. you got up to go get a blanket before sitting back down and carefully moving connie’s body to where his head rested comfortably in your lap and you placed the blanket over the both of you before watching the rest of the movie. you fell asleep too after a while

you woke up the next morning before connie because you had to go to work that afternoon. connie was still sound asleep in your lap so you were careful not to wake him as you moved his head from your lap to a pillow before adjusting the blanket over him. although you weren’t too sure about connie and the person he was in the beginning, now you were starting to realize that he wasn’t that bad. just like he claimed.

you took a shower and did the rest of your hygiene stuff before putting on your clothes for work and heading out. on the way, you called jean.

“hey, i tried calling you last night.”

“what happened to hi? hello? good morning?”

“sorry. good morning, my darling sister!” jean raised the pitch of his voice and you instantly winced.

“don’t ever do that again. i was watching a movie with connie and we fell asleep.”

“…together?” maybe you should’ve kept the falling asleep with connie thing private.

“um.. we were on the couch and we just fell asleep.”

“together though?”

“yeah?”

“did you do anything else?”

“nope. just a movie.” jean had no choice but to trust you. if something happened, he couldn’t do anything about it until he got back.

“what movie?”

“encanto.” jean laughed.

“i bet he picked it out.”

“he did. but we watched a bunch of other movies too.”

“cool, i’m glad yall are getting along. you miss me yet?”

“not really.” you joked just to hear his reaction.

“liar.” you and jean continued your conversation until you arrived at the workplace.

you got home later that day to see connie still in the apartment, laying on the couch.

“why are you still here?” you asked as you took your shoes off by the door.

“why did you leave me on the couch last night like i was some whore?” he whined and got up from the couch, walking towards you.

“you were sleeping so good, didn’t wanna wake you.” connie didn’t know if you were trying to be sentimental on purpose but he liked it.

“sure. well if you want me gone so bad, i go to work later on tonight.” a part of you was relieved that you’d finally have the place to yourself again but the other part of you was a little sad because you were starting to like having him around a lot. which was weird because you thought you didn’t like him like that. thought.

“like actual work or…?”

“actual work. i work at amazon, remember? thought you were a good listener.”

“i am. want some noodles?” you offered, getting out bowls and noodle packs out on the counter.

connie shrugged. “sure.”

you and connie sat down and ate, then after you ate, you talked and watched tv with him until it was closed to the time he had to leave for work.

“y/n…” connie nudged you softly as you slept on the couch while he was on the way out. “i’m gone.” and with that he left. connie didn’t wanna leave you and all he could really think about was coming back to you when he got off.

by the time he came back to the apartment, you had gotten up from the couch to get in bed. he went to your room and knocked on your door before opening it slightly when you hadn’t came to it. you were sleeping hard so he went to jean’s room to sleep himself.

[kteezy997]

My Boy // T.C.

Plot: y/n sees Bones and All with Timmy for the first time and has a hard time recovering.

Warnings: sad reader, BONES AND ALL SPOILERS, reader being scared, major fluff and smut mixed together, breast play,mention of cum, Timmy sucking reader’s breast as he goes to sleep

Author’s note: Maybe don’t read this if you haven’t seen Bones and All yet!

(I mean it’s also a book so the story is already out there but if you haven’t experienced the movie, you can read this fic later (;)

Walking out of the theater, y/n was visibly stoic. She wasn't showing much emotion, and she was almost completely quiet, except for small talk with people Timothée had introduced her to. Finally, they got into the car to be driven home and he gave her a look of great concern as they were now alone.

"Y/n, are you okay, baby? Something's wrong, what's going on?" He put his hand on her hair, tucking a small piece behind her ear. She was definitely sad, and relieved to not have to act fine in front of so many people anymore. "I'm just... upset, I guess." "You didn't like the movie?" "No, honey, of course that's not it. The film was…a masterpiece.”

"What then; was it me being with Taylor? You didn't like seeing me with someone else?" "No, no it's fine. You're an actor, that's just part of it." Timmy then took ahold of her hand on her lap, "Okay then, just please tell me what's wrong, I don't like seeing you like this."

"That’s just it, Timmy." "What is?" he frowned. "I don't like seeing you be sad either. And you suffered so much in this movie. I know it’s just acting, but I still hate seeing my boy like that.” her voice broke as she continued on and she teared up, "And the ending…I mean, I read the book of course, but nothing could have prepared me for that-" her breath got caught in her throat as she began to sob.

"Okay, hey, hey, come here." Timmy cooed, pulling her into his arms. She cried into his chest, just letting it all out. "Baby, I'm so sorry. I should have prepared you better for it. It is really heavy. The book was tough, but to see it acted out on a great big screen is totally different.” He grabbed her face delicately with both hands and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry you’re so upset, baby. I love you so much.” He took her hand in his once again, intertwining their fingers together this time.

“I don’t even wanna see you cry, but seeing you dying Timmy…it was too much..” she shook her head, tears continued to fall onto her cheeks and down the bridge of her nose. “Oh, my sweet girl.” He pulled her onto his lap, not caring about proper vehicle safety, and put his forehead on hers.

“It was just a movie, darling. I’m right here, with you.” He held her hand tighter, “I’m not going anywhere.” Timmy then kissed y/n softly on the lips. He wiped her tears away. She exhaled deeply, “I know it’s probably stupid, and I’m just being a baby.” “No, honey, you’re not either of those things. Not at all.” he assured her with a smile.

Later that night, or early the next morning rather, Timmy had gotten out of bed. Y/n was awoken as she had felt the movement and the emptiness in the bed when he was gone. It wasn’t uncommon for one of them to wake up when the other went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. They were just that in sync with one another.

Y/n had turned on her side and closed her eyes. Her back was to Timmy when he returned to bed. He moved his body flush against hers under the covers. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder through her T-shirt and put his hand on her side. “Mm, Timmy.” she cooed.

Timmy smirked to himself, and snuck his hand under her shirt, instantly palming her breast. “Hey, Mr. Handsy.” she giggled, grabbing his hand. “Sorry.” he pouted, then he nuzzled his face into her neck. He left little apologizing kisses on her skin. “I should have been more respectful.”

“It’s okay, sweet boy. You can touch me wherever you want to.” she stated, letting go of his hand. “Oh?” he said, moving his hand back to her breasts, “Here okay?” “Yes, baby.” He hummed contentedly, and continued to massage her breasts. He ran his fingertips over the swell of them and rubbed her nipples, making her whimper.

“Feel good, Princess?” “Yes. I love it.” she moaned, biting her lip. Timmy softly pinched his fingers on her nipple, then was a little rough with the other and she gasped in response. His hand left her breasts, and he slid his palm down her smooth tummy and his fingers dipped into her panties.

As he slid his fingers into her folds, he said, “So wet, baby.” He left a wet kiss on her cheek. “Lay on your back for me, my love.” He removed his hand from her momentarily and sat up. Y/n did as she was told and lay flat on her back. Timmy took ahold of her legs, parting them and resting them on either side of his hips.

Timmy held his cock in his hand, letting the tip come into sensual contact with her clit. Her breathing became uneven with anticipation. Her toes curled as he slowly rubbed the head of his cock along her opening. She moaned, softly bucking her hips. She felt adrenaline running down her body and hitting right at the spot where she needed his cock to be.

“Fuck me, Timothée. I want you to fuck me.” “As you wish.” he said simply. With one thrust, he was inside her, pushing in as deeply as he could. She gasped loudly, and moaned as he retracted. He pulled his cock out completely, then pushed into her again, feeling her tight clenching around him with every inch.

“God, so fucking good.” he huffed. He grabbed her by the hips. He found a rhythmic pace to make her moan and arch her back, not too slow, not too fast. He used her shirt to grab onto as an anchor, then thought it’d be better to just push her shirt up to free her breasts. They both knew it was a necessity during sex for him to see her breasts; or to touch them or put his mouth on them.

Timmy palmed and squeezed her breasts and somehow even with the distraction of her tits, he was able to thrust faster. There was more friction between their bodies, more harsh, wet sounds filling the air. “Yes, yes, Timmy! I’m so close, baby. Just like that, baby.” she whimpered her sweet praises to him, lulling the both of them into their sweet releases.

He coated her belly with small streams of his cum and left the room to quickly get a cloth to wipe her clean. He cleaned her thoroughly, and they cozied up back into bed. She closed her eyes once again, feeling ultra relaxed after their love session. She felt the warmth of Timmy’s body on her backside. “I love you, baby.” she said, resting against him. “I love you too, Princess.”

But just a few minutes later, she felt Timmy’s fingers, which were cool to the touch, trailing up her shirt, across her warm skin. He pushed her shirt up, bunching the fabric up and out of the way. Her nipple hardened almost instantly as it was exposed to the cool air of their bedroom. She moaned instinctively at the sensation.

She then felt him shifting a little bit, and he moved downward slightly. The next thing she knew, Timmy’s warm mouth wrapped around her nipple. He closed his eyes, relaxing against her body comfortably. He started sucking ever so softly, barely applying any pressure to her nipple. It was just enough to be latched on to her.

“Lover.” she whispered with a tired smile. Gently, she placing her hand on his silky curls. He responded with a tiny, muffled moan of his own. His hand rested on her rib cage and it was clear that he was content, and he intended to sleep this way. Y/n carefully pulled the covers back over them, cautious to not sheath his face at all. Then, she went back to idly petting his hair and shut her eyes for the final time that early morning.

She went to sleep feeling butterflies swirling in her stomach, just thinking about Timmy and how much they loved each other. He knew now, after seeing Bones and All, how terrified she was of losing him. Therefore, he fell into one of his little habits to let her know that he was there. It was just for them, no one else would ever know of his endearing suckle on her breast as they slept. It was one of his many ways of showing his love to her, and she felt loved every time he did it.

[noelwho]

Ultimate Chronological Order Imodna Playlist!!!

Hello! I feel like I have to introduce myself ‘cause I’m barely on Tumblr. I’m still learning how to use it, I posted a couple of fanarts and they went really well, so I want to try and make myself a spot in here. My name is Noel (they/them) and I’m a big fan of Critical Role. I started watching a few months ago, with Exandria Unlimited. Once I was done I went ahead and started Campaign 3. I’m currently on episode 49 (I know, I have a lot ahead yet). I also watched the first season of Candela Obscura and a couple of One-Shots.

Today I’m here to talk about the Lesbian Southern Gothic Witches. Earlier this week I started to obsess over a playlist. An Imodna playlist, to be more specific. It started with me listening to one I found on spotify (I will credit below because it’s been a huge inspiration for this project) and I got the urge to make my own. At the beginning it was something chill, something normal…until it was not. Over the course of the last 3 days I haven’t thought about or listened to anything else. I got the idea of making the playlist in chronological order and I started to take it very seriously. I divided their history in 10 different chapters and assigned each song to the correct time period. At first it was just gonna be into chapters, but then I started to put them in order inside the chapters too, and it became very personal. For real, this playlist has been the one and only thing I wanted to talk about for days. Last night I finally finished it. I’ve played it for run tests several times and I think it’s finally ready to see the light (kinda feels like the project of my life even though I only spent a few days working on it).

After all this brainrot it didn’t feel right to just tweet a link to the playlist, I wanted the world to know everything that went through my head in the process of making this. I also don’t have many people around who care about Critical Role, and I thought it was a good opportunity to connect with the fandom. So all of this took me here, to tumblr. All of a sudden it became very clear that this was the perfect place to set my baby free.

There’s some things I wanna make clear before you start reading, the first being the classic: english is not my first language. Sounds like a joke at this point but for real, it’s very likely that this thing is full of grammatical mistakes and I want to apologize in advance (specially about the in/on/at situation, I’ve been having lots of trouble with those for some reason) This is also the first time I do something like this so it may not be perfect. The second thing is that this will obviously be filled with spoilers. In fact I actually haven’t even got to The Scene, I saw it around on Tumblr and Twitter (impossible to avoid that spoiler, but I don’t really care). I’m aware that there’s a lot of Imodna moments that I haven’t seen yet, but I couldn't wait to start this playlist. I don’t know if the episodes I have left to watch will translate into new chapters or into new songs for the chapters I already have but either way, I will keep this post and the playlist updated.

With that being said, welcome to this ride through an unhinged mind. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy!

The tether scene is one of my favorite ones. I love that metaphor with a passion. That’s why I chose this name for the playlist. With the photo I wanted to make an allusion to the red thread myth given that Laudna herself carries around a spool of red string. I even edited the picture so the hands on the right are slightly gray like Laudna’s.

There’s not just one specific vibe to this playlist, but I find it to be a very calming one, with the exception of some specific moments that we will talk about later. I tried to avoid strong and distracting beats so I could keep it a little ethereal. Lots of acoustic guitar (which I love). I’m not going to talk about every single song because some of them have pretty obvious meanings. Usually the songs aren't a 100% match, but they do have a part to it that speaks to me and to the story on a certain level.

× Imogen and Laudna’s separate lifes ×

At the beginning of the journey that is this playlist, I wanted to introduce the characters. Intertwining their songs, we get to know Imogen and Laudna’s pasts, before they have each other to face the terrors of being witches in a world that doesn’t quite understand them.

Delilah - Florence + The Machine (Laudna)

I sometimes wonder if Marisha has ever listened to this song, because oh my fucking god. I wanted to start the playlist with Abbey, I didn’t because with the intertwining I couldn’t make it fit, but this one is a very good start as well. This song shows perfectly how it must have been being brought back by Delilah and having that power all of a sudden.

Abbey - Mitski (Imogen)

Matilda - Harry Styles (Laudna)

Imogen - Nick Mulvey (Imogen)

Laudna's lullaby - Ginny Di (Laudna)

Time comes in roses - Bess Atwell (Imogen)

The Tradition - Halsey (Laudna)

Burn it down - Daughter (Imogen)

There’s several songs from this album on this playlist. It couldn’t fit better. It reflects perfectly the moment Imogen started to develop her powers. It even refers directly to the way she parts ways with her town (which doesn’t happen for a few chapters but still I felt this one belonged here). Her fear of being a disappointment, her father becoming absent, the feeling of being cursed. It’s all here.

The hanging tree - The hunger games (Laudna)

Still I wait - Anna Leone (Both)

Even with everything they had to go through, they both still wait and cling to hope.

× Imogen and Laudna meet ×

Finally, their paths cross. They experience the feeling of warmth for the first time in a long time. They both feel the need to keep the other one close and begin to appreciate the little things in life, learning how to be taken care of. Goodbye loneliness.

Season of the Witch - Lana Del Rey

I'd like to walk around in your mind - Vashti Bunyan

How important is this song knowing what Imogen can do…

Comfortable Silence - Bella Porter

Without you without them - Boygenius

A hole in the earth - Daughter

That Moon Song - Gregory Alan Isakov

Love brought weight - Old Sea Brigade

That distant shore - Steven Universe

Sick of losing soulmates - Natalie Dawn

I Hear a Symphony - Cody Fry

Sidelines - Phoebe Bridgers

The bug collector - Haley Heyderickx

Sometimes I feel that it’s always Laudna taking care of Imogen, as if she didn't have anything on her own plate. It can't be easy to live with a voice in your head and paranoia. This song shows how Imogen is there to hold Laudna too when it becomes too much.

Look up - Joy Oladokun

If the last one was an Imogen’s POV, this one is totally a Laudna’s POV. Her and her silly little pep talks. “You’re so capable”.

Daylight - Taylor Swift

I love the idea of them learning that life can be good if you find someone to share it with. This song encapsulates that perfectly.

Spell - Dora Jar

I wanted this one to be the last one of the chapter because it introduces the idea of leaving together.

× Imogen and Laudna run away together ×

“Would you run away with me?” They learn what it’s like to have a home that’s not a place, but something entirely new. The past still follows but they’re no longer crushed by it, because they don’t have to sustain it on their own.

Departure - Daughter

Second child, restless child - The Oh Hellos

Just the two of us - Grover Washington, Jr.

I really like to imagine Imodna slice of life scenes when I listen to this song.

Dandelion Wine - Gregory Alan Isakov

Homesick - Dwara, Khotton Palm

Graceland Too - Phoebe Bridgers

When I realized how much of a Laudna's POV this song is, I almost cried.

Telepath - Manchester Orchestra

I really really like Manchester Orchestra, it's one of my favorite bands. I never let go of the chance of spreading them around, and this one is the best song they have. Laudna's POV for sure.

everything i wanted - Billie Eilish

With songs like this one and Intertwined, I wanted to introduce the idea that even though they're definitely better off now that they left the town, that doesn't instantly solve all of their problems. As I said before, the past follows, but they're no longer alone with it.

Savior Complex - Phoebe Bridgers

Intertwined - Dodie

Nothing else matters - Phoebe Bridgers

As long as they're together, nothing else matters.

× You lied ×

Even though I only have a few songs for this precise moment of the story, I thought that it was very important to include their first fight. The gem is broken and Imogen feels betrayed. Laudna is left abandoned and thinks she deserves to be punished for Delilah’s wrongs. We explore jealousy for the first time.

Witches - Daughter

The silence at the end of this instrumental song represents the loneliness that Laudna felt when Imogen left her alone after her incident with Delilah

Landfill - Daughter

There are two possible ways of reading into this one. This is in my opinion a Laudna's POV. She could either be talking to Imogen, expressing her deep rooted desire for a punishment for what she’s done; or to Delilah, alluding to the attachment she has to her own powers (that at least as far as she knows are there because of Briarwood) opposed to the hatred she feels for her and for herself for wanting those powers (this is a theme that they explore later on future chapters)

Are you okay? - Winnetka Bowling League

Afterglow - Taylor Swift

The archer - Taylor Swift

× Laudna’s death ×

Otohan Thull relentlessly kills three members of Bells Hells. A coin is flipped and Laudna is gone, again. What awaits beyond the afterlife? Perhaps a little girl, a monster and a tree.

DVD menu - Phoebe Bridgers

If death’s not exactly DVD menu by Phoebe Bridgers, then someone tell me what’s like because I can’t imagine otherwise. I freaking love how this song connects with Daffodil.

Daffodil - Florence + The Machine

Death with dignity - Sufjan Stevens

Bells in Santa Fe - Halsey

I like to imagine that Laudna didn't appear in Nightmarish Whitestone immediately. Up until this point, she's in a limbo, accepting her own death. Bells in Santa Fe marks the moment she sets foot in that Upside-down kind of world. The constant repetition of “All of this is temporary” is like a mantra for her, the only hope she has of getting through it with her sanity intact is believing that this will also end and she will finally find peace.

Willow Tree March - The paper kiss

Hard times - Ethel Cain

Tether me - Galleaux

With this song and the next one, I wanted to express desperation. We don't get to know in the series how she feels throughout all of this, but I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been. There's a point where anyone would have started begging for help.

Matilda - alt-J

× Imogen’s grief ×

“Is she your favorite?”. Imogen feels deeply guilty for what happened. The possibility of bringing Laudna back is the only thing that’s keeping her from losing it completely. All the regrets, all the words she wishes she said before, all the times she didn’t approached her when she wanted to, come afloat. Grief, disassociation and sorrow.

Words - Storefront Church, Phoebe Bridgers

This song is meant to represent the exact moment of Imogen floating and losing control, with Otohan in her head pushing her to let go.

Goner - Twenty One Pilots

No other song in existence can express better the moment Imogen realize Laudna's gone for good.

Lanterns lit - Son Lux

True Faith - Ashley Johnson

Hurt for me - SYML

Carry you - Novo Amor

My love - Florence + The Machine

Lucky for you - Novo Amor, Gia Margaret

Killer + the sound - Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Gundersen

Should have known better - Sufjan Stevens

Ya'aburnee - Halsey

Show you a body - Haley Heyderickx

Imogen (even Laura) loses hope for a moment during the ritual they do for bringing Laudna back. The end of this song summarize this repeating a lyric over and over (you can clearly see through this playlist how much I love repetition).

× Back together ×

After Bells Hells confront Delilah at the Upside-down-Whitestone of Laudna’s nightmares, Pike manages to bring her back to life. Imogen and her are back hand by hand, and nothing can ever tear them apart again. Here’s where I think something awakes inside them, but they are far from realizing it.

I am the Antichrist to you - Kishi Bashi

Like an angel “fallen from the sky with grace”, Laudna’s back on Imogen’s arms.

Darling - Halsey

This love (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift

Now that you're home - Manchester Orchestra

Lose you again - Manchester Orchestra

Halloween - Phoebe Bridgers

But not kiss - Fayer Webster

Like I said, something changes after this. What they’ve been through is not nothing. This song is here to show that something is born deep inside them, on their subconscious far from their reach yet

× Back to Gelvaan ×

Same as with the “You lied” chapter, I felt that this one was important even though I just have one song for it. It just matches perfectly. Imogen and Laudna visit Imogen’s hometown and the place where they met, searching for answers. Old wounds, some closure and an emotionally absent father.

My tears ricochet - Taylor Swift

× Tethered ×

In this chapter the platonic bond is peaking. It takes place right before The Unraveling, giving in to the “Can I kiss you?” phase and becoming romantic. They’ve been through hell and back just to stay together. This is my personal favorite bit of the playlist, everything is extremely intense but not yet explicit.

Tethered - Sleeping at last

I Will - Mitski

Anchor - Alli X

Don't let them see you cry - Manchester Orchestra

Crosses - José González

Quietly - Manchester Orchestra

Francesca - Hozier

Moon song - Phoebe Bridgers

Capital Karma - Manchester Orchestra

Everywhere, everything - Noah Kahan

In a week - Hozier

Monster - King Princess

j's lullaby (darlin' i'd wait for you) - Delaney Bailey

I will follow you into the dark - Miya Folick

I wouldn't ask you - Clairo

× Can I kiss you? ×

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The beggining of something new, the next and most logical step of this journey. The platonic becomes romantic and they get to truly explore the feelings they always had, and some novel ones. This is the moment I know less about, but I’ve used my imagination and my own headcanons.

Can I - Genevieve Stokes

I debated a lot whether to put this one at the end of the last chapter or the beginning of this one because I don't know how relevant Laudna's death is up to this point, and there's a huge reference to this in this song. I know for a fact that the Delilah’s plot is not over and things will change, but I couldn't resist the urge to put it in here, given the name of the song and its obvious connection to the chapter.

We'll never have sex - Leith Ross

Wading in Waist-high Water - Fleet Foxes

This is the last time - The National

All my ghosts - Lizzy McAlpine

Prière pour la nuit - Barbara Pravi, November Ultra

Chewing Cotton Wool - The Japanese House

Bandages - Rachel Bobbitt

This is it, this is The Ultimate Chronological Order Imodna Playlist. I don't know if I'm the first one doing this, probably not, I don't know if this has any value to anyone beyond myself, but I had a hell of a lot of fun. If only one person were to read this till the end I would be more than satisfied.

I’ll link here the playlist that started all of this. Massive respect for this person whoever it is, I took lots of the songs from here

Infinite thanks to anyone who gets here or saves my playlist, feel free to respond with any song that you think adds to the story!! Something tells me this isn't the end of my Imodna brainrot so,,,, more things could be on their way (a fanfic, perhaps?).

No idea how to end this so… long live Lesbian Southern Gothic Witches!!!

[villain-school]

Chapter 3: Old Friends, New News

An old friend visits Proton, but she's unaware of his current situation...

(crossposted from ao3!)

--

It had been a few days since Caesar joined Proton and Switch’s friend group. They had all quickly gotten acquainted with each other, and now they were hanging out at the local mall’s food court.

“So, Caesar, I gotta ask,” started Switch. “What’s it like being the son of two super-famous villains? I mean, your parents are the Rogue and Maelstrom, right? That must be insane!”

Caesar shrugged at the question. “I mean… To me, they’re just my mom and dad. Sure, we have a bit of fame and more money than a lot of people, but…other than that, I have a pretty normal home life. I guess sometimes they get a little busy, being professional villains and all, but they make time for me still.” He gestured back to Switch. “What about you? You’re…interesting, to say the least.”

Switch sat up a bit. “Oh, me? Well, both my moms are scientists, and I wanna be just like them when I grow up! They actually created me in a lab all by themselves!”

That sent a shock through both Caesar and Proton, their jaws dropping.

Proton was the first to address it. “Switch, you’re a test tube baby?!”

Switch simply giggled and winked. “Yeah! Hehe!”

Proton rubbed his neck. “I mean… I guess that checks out, now that I think about it…”

“Proton?”

A voice from behind Proton caught his attention. He swore he recognized it. Wait, could it be…?

He turned around, confirming his suspicions. Standing a little ways away was a girl about their age–she wore fairly neutral clothing, including a pair of glasses and a hijab. Proton knew exactly who this was, and he lit up visibly. “No way! Winnie?”

Winnie smiled as Proton made his way over to her, and they hugged.

“It’s so good to see you!” Proton said excitedly. “I haven’t seen you since sixth grade! How have you been?”

Winnie smiled as they stepped away from each other. “Oh, you know! Just fine. I’m in town for the weekend. I’ve missed you since you moved! How have things been with you? I heard you finally started hero school!”

Proton suddenly seemed a little awkward at that, but he played it off.

“Uh… Yeah, haha! In fact, I want you to meet a couple friends I made there!” He turned around and gestured to his friends at the table. “Winnie, this is Caesar and Switch.”

Caesar nodded to her. “Hello.”

Switch gave an enthusiastic wave. “Hidey!”

Proton was very happy to introduce his old friend. “Guys, this is Winnie! She’s my childhood best friend. She moved away when we were in sixth grade, but we’ve been talking online ever since to keep in touch.”

Winnie waved back to them. “Hi there! Proton says you’re his hero school friends? What’s it like there?”

Caesar and Switch exchanged glances, and Caesar was the first to speak up. “... Uh…”

Switch chose to hold up his finger to correct her. “Well, actually–”

“Uh, hey, Switch, weren’t you working on something cool?” Proton interrupted quickly. “Why don’t you show Winnie?” He turned to Winnie. “He’s sort of a scientist.”

Winnie seemed interested. “Oh, cool.”

Switch blinked, suddenly remembering his project. “Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me!”

… He then proceeded to pull an actual for real bomb out of his pocket. It looked pretty haphazardly thrown together with mismatched parts here and there, but it also looked very functional.

“I actually built this bomb with things I found lying around the house,” he explained. “I need to go test it out before it expires. Time to find a toilet to blow up!”

As he got up and ran off to find a restroom, everyone else watched in confusion. Proton looked more horrified than confused, though…

Winnie also looked a bit concerned. “Uh… Is he going to blow up the bathroom?”

Proton tried to save face. “Don’t worry, he’s just joking! He’s the, uh, local prankster. It’s not actually a real bomb.” He hesitated. “It’s uh…a bath bomb?”

Winnie didn’t necessarily buy that completely. “It looked pretty mechanical for a bath bomb…”

Proton grimaced a little. “He’s…creative. A-anyway, why don’t I get us some snacks? I’ll be right back!” And with that, he hurriedly made his way to another part of the food court to get something to share with everyone. Maybe he could just avoid talking about this until Winnie wanted to leave.

Winnie took this opportunity to sit down with Caesar at the table. “So, how did you and Proton meet? Do you share a hero class?”

Caesar just sighed. “Not exactly.” He decided that if Proton wasn’t going to say anything, he’d have to do it. “Winnie… I think Proton’s a little nervous to tell you what’s going on, so I guess I’ll have to be the one to break it to you.”

That only served to worry Winnie. “Why? What’s wrong with Proton?”

“Nothing’s wrong with him,” he reassured. “It’s just…he’s not actually enrolled in a hero school. In fact, it’s the opposite–he goes to a villain school. All three of us do.”

Winnie was confused by this. “Huh…? How did that happen? I swear, all he ever talked about was how he wanted to become a hero. Did something change?”

Caesar shook his head. “No, actually. He’s still planning to become a hero. For the record, so am I. We both kind of got stuck in villain school one way or another. But, trust me–he’s more determined to become a hero than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Winnie frowned just a little. “Then why would he lie about that…?”

As if on cue, Proton returned with a tray of loaded fries for the table. “I got us some cheese fries!” he announced. When he saw the look on Winnie’s face, he slowed to a stop. “Uh… Is everything okay?”

“Proton, why didn’t you tell me you were in a villain school?” Winnie asked gently. “That seems pretty important.”

Proton looked like he’d seen a ghost. Then, he sighed, deflating. “Sorry, Winnie,” he apologized. “I guess I just got nervous about what you might think.”

Winnie looked a little surprised for a moment, but then she smiled warmly. “What do you mean? You’re my best friend. Anything you do, I’ll be behind you no matter what. Plus, Caesar tells me you’re still trying to be a hero even in a school for villains. That’s amazing!”

Proton looked up from where he’d been gazing at the ground. “You think so?”

“Of course!” Winnie reassured. “Don’t ever be afraid to tell me things, okay? I got your back, even if we’re far apart!”

That made Proton smile with relief.

However, that relief was short lived, because there was suddenly a huge explosion from the restrooms off to the side. Eventually, Switch returned to their table covered in debris, giving a thumbs-up. 

“It worked awesomely!” he confirmed with satisfaction. “We should probably leave now, though.”

Proton just kind of laughed nervously at Winnie, who warily smiled back at him. Caesar just covered his face in exasperation.

–

Later at school, Switch was walking to one of his classes with a tall stack of books in his arms. He seemed to be in a hurry, but he was careful not to drop any of his haul.

Suddenly, a foot jutted out of nowhere and unfortunately tripped him, causing him to drop every single book he was holding. He fell onto the ground as well, and he sat up in confusion. It wasn’t long before he realized who had tripped him, and that it was definitely on purpose.

Above him stood Cindy Rockette, the local school bully. She was smirking down at him with her arms crossed, satisfied with the outcome of that action. Behind her stood her lackeys Lizzie Evermore and Sol Draconia, who were both giggling.

Cindy stuck up her nose at him. “Going somewhere, lab rat?”

Switch nodded. “Uh… Yeah! To class!”

Cindy rolled her eyes. “It was a rhetorical question, idiot. You’d think someone with super intelligence would know that.”

Just then, Proton suddenly stepped in to defend his friend. He looked serious. 

“Hey, back off!” he said sternly. “What’s your problem, huh?”

Cindy seemed interested to see him. “Oh, there he is–the hero kid. Come to save the day?”

Proton clenched his fists. “I’ll say it again–back off, or I won’t hesitate to shock you.”

“Oh?” Cindy lifted her head in amusement. “I’d like to see you try. C’mon, give me a little static and see what happens.”

That garnered a frown from Proton, but he decided she was giving him no other choice. This was to defend Switch!

He stuck out his hand and shot a little bit of electricity at her–it wasn’t a lot, and it was just to make her go away. However, her form was suddenly engulfed in rocks, which totally surprised Proton. She had become some sort of rock creature, and Proton’s electricity had no effect.

“Don’t you know?” she teased. “Electricity can’t hurt stone.”

“But wind can.”

Everyone looked to the side as Caesar made his entrance. He stepped between the two groups, giving Cindy and her friends a threatening look. “Stand down, or I’ll erode you away without a second thought.”

Cindy scoffed, but she returned her form back to normal. “Tch! The mighty Caesar Truth defending some nobodies? I guess you really are a loser after all.” She gestured to Proton, who was glaring. “You know Sparky here is spouting nonsense about being a hero, right? You look crazy hanging out with him.”

Caesar took in a breath, which sort of made his chest puff out. “If he’s crazy, then so am I.”

He proceeded to raise his voice just a bit so that anyone in the near vicinity would hear him. “I’m going to be a hero, too!” he announced confidently. “No matter what anyone thinks!”

Everyone around them seemed rather shocked to hear this coming from the son of Maelstrom and Rogue, but Switch and Proton only looked at him with proud smiles. Cindy didn’t really know what to make of this, but she ended up backing off finally.

“Fine,” she said lowly. “I can’t wait to see your reputation crumble to dirt.” With that, she turned and walked off with her group.

Caesar let out the breath he’d apparently been holding. He was a little nervous about what would come from his confession, but he’d made his decision, and it was final. He turned to his friends and smiled at them, and he and Proton proceeded to help Switch pick up his books.

It seemed as though a new wind was blowing through the school, and these three were the source of it.

[writingforfun0714]

Y’all….that new Peter Pan and Wendy movie…looks bad.

Before everyone comes at me for being racist, lemme explain.

I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO problem with a POC Peter Pan. I have NO PROBLEM with a black Tinkerbell. I don’t mind a scraggly/hobo Captain Hook and I liked Ever Anderson from her role as Young Natasha Romanoff in Black Widow so not that my expectations for her are high, but I know that her acting can be pretty good for a kid. And as a POC myself, I’m all for representation.

But the track record for successful Disney remakes (of their animated movies) isn’t high. The remakes are kind of like this generation’s animated sequels from the 2000s. Some people really like the live-action remakes (just like there are some that love the animated sequels), but lots of people seem to hate/dislike them. I’m weird I guess..I like lots of the animated sequels but don’t like most of the remakes.

That’s one of my problems with this movie (at least from what has been shown so far). There isn’t anything new (besides designs/looks of the characters) introduced.

Personally, I really only enjoyed the Cinderella, Pete’s Dragon, and Jungle Book remakes (Maleficent/Cruella/Aladdin I thought was ok. Could’ve been better imo but definitely not as bad as some others). Cinderella, Pete’s Dragon and The Jungle Book remakes are the only ones I’ll actually rewatch.

I’ve seen most of the remakes (except for Pinocchio w/ Tom Hanks) and don’t like Lion King, Mulan, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, and Beauty and the Beast. I’d heard the Pinocchio remake was terrible so I just didn’t even bother.

I’m skeptical about The Little Mermaid remake (again, not because of a POC Ariel) but Melissa McCarthy has always been a fav of mine so I think I��ll see it (unlike Pinnochio. Guillermo Del Toro’s version on Netflix is so great and definitely superior).

But another problem I have with this new Peter Pan and Wendy movie is the color. Everything looked muted and not bright (even on Neverland). The Little Mermaid has this problem too. The lighting makes it look dark (yeah it’s deep in the ocean but even Finding Nemo did a better job w/ lighting). That’s the same thing with this Peter Pan remake. Everything looked a little saturated too, if that makes sense.

Now I wanna get to one of my main problems with this movie. The Lost Boys. I have NO PROBLEM with people identifying the way they want. Whatever makes you comfortable. But my problem was more with the delivery of the lines. Wendy looked over and said “wait, but you’re not all boys.” And one of the girls snaps back with a ‘so?!’

While I can’t exactly explain why I dislike that particular exchange, I just thought it didn’t sit well with me. I’m wondering because of the addition of girls that the way to become a ‘lost boy’ will change. In the book, Lost Boys were male babies that would fall out of their prams. I believe they said that only happened to boys because they weren’t as smart as girls or something (it’s been 20yrs so please correct me if I’m wrong).

I just don’t think we’ve seen enough at this point for it to be good. I’m really hoping that once other trailers are released, my opinion will change. I really think we just haven’t seen enough.

Also does the actress that plays Tiger Lily look a little too old? Idk I just thought she was supposed to be like a teen girl. The actress looks to be late 20s-early 30s maybe.

I’d also like to point out to those saying they hate the movie because there are girls that are Lost Boys. My problem was the delivery/acting of the lines, not that there are girls with the Lost Boys. Saying only boys are stupid enough to fall out of their prams is just untrue because that’s something that can happen to any baby. Plus those that say that Wendy being female is special because she’s a mother figure to the boys? Like do girls not deserve a mother figure too?? Disney has historically avoided mother/daughter relationships so this would be a great opportunity to switch it up.

And people have a problem with a black tinker bell like she isn’t some sort of made up magical creature. Like c’mon. Plus people saying Hook doesn’t look ‘hot’ anymore. Guys I don’t think he was ever supposed to be good looking. I’ve never seen any of the live action peter pans, but I know Jason Isaacs plays Cap Hook in one movie and yes, he’s good looking, but if I remember correctly, in the books, Hook used to be in the navy or something and eventually went crazy and started tracking down/hunting the kids. He’s supposed to look…like a hobo.

So yeah, in short, my problems are with the acting so far and the lighting/saturation. The effects look decent but again, I think I really need to see more footage and I hope my opinion will change cuz I really enjoyed the animated Peter Pan as a kid.

[offbrand-deltatraveler]

Final Thoughts:

Though this season had more writing issues than the seasons I watched previously (Common Star Twinkle W), those issues are far and few and mainly only showed up after Cure Muse’s debut. So it was still good overall

To be honest I kinda went into the season with a bad first impression after hearing that it went with the “Mind-controlled villains trope” from somebody on Twitter, which is why I was initially so negative towards Siren’s character development always being undone by the Noise of Evil, but seeing it for myself the execution overall blew my expectations outta the water. The introduction of Noise and the incredibly slow and steady build-up to the reveal that the same evil that took over the Wicked Forest is what corrupted Mephisto was amazing. From the introduction to the concept of the Noise of Evil that made me question why Meohisto & Trio The Minor had thosw headphone things on at all times, to the introduction of the idea that Meohisto isn’t really his true self via the fact that he doesn’t seem to fully remember certain things, to the monster of the Wicked Forest using those same headphone things mentioned earlier to attempt to brainwash the Precure coupled with the fact that Mephisto went into the forest once and that’s as far back as his memory goes, to the actual reveal of the full significance of all that info. Suite really is the goat

And not to mention Suite isn’t subtle with when it wants to keep a secret too, the Crescendo Tone literally tells you over and over “Oh don’t worry you’ll find out in a few episodes” and somehow it still feels seamlessly paced

And perfect pacing aside I also liked Ellen’s arc of learning to forgive herself for her past mistakes and how that plays into the Precure’s desire to save their enemies rather than defeat them. They always say their actions are “Unforgivable”, but then they ended up making friends with said unforgivable people and realized. maybe people who have done bad things can be worth protecting too

Though they didn’t address how using music as an allegory for happiness kinda discounts the necessity of sad music, which. Kinda sucked but not really a cardinal sin I guess

Onto characters though

First of all friendship ended with Rabirin now the Fairy Tones are my friends (/hj I could neve rend a friendship with Rabirin /lh),

And there’s not. much to say about this season’s cast that I haven’t said for others. It had a completely new and equally lovable cast of characters that were really fun to get to know and see in action. Though not quite as silly as the Healin Good girls. Siren losing her ability to transform into a cat really sucked though. And I would preferred if Ako used her weird rainbow piano ability more after her proper debut

What I really wanna talk about is the side characters. I’ve always been talking about how this season had big Onegai My Melody vibes and it especially shines through with how the side characters in this season are such a tightly-knit cast. Not only do I not think there’s a single episode where at least one of them isn’t on-screen, but they’re the main reason why Episode 41 is peak fiction and they’re all just as uniquely charming as the main characters

And not joking about the Episode 41 thing, if you plan to introduce this show to a friend I highly recommend using that as a pilot because it’s literally just everything there is to love about the season in one neat little package

And again all the Fairy Tones are really fun. Though I would’ve preferred if we could’ve seen them interact with Dodori Hido more

And the music,

Need I say more? (I have been singing the Melody of Happiness for three minutes please send help)

Overall, 9/10. It was as good as stated above but a few writing flaws hold it back from being a perfect 10/10. Though either way it’s definitely made my list of favorites so far

Also special thanks to whoever the Anon that was keeping track of my viewing of the show is. Your commentary on my commentary made the experience just that much more enjoyable

It would be cool if you could tell me who you are so we can be friends, but I also get it if you don’t wanna do that. Either way though you seem like a delight to be around and I hope to see you again soon

And with this post up, now all I have to do is watch the Movie and then I can fully move in to my next season: Kira Kira Precure A LA Mode

[midnighttheroies]

Helluva Boss Post “Millie’s Development”

iv’e seen alot of comments about millie’s character being underdeveloped and such, and while i agree with that, i’ve also seen comments about how people claim that vivzie has no idea what she’s doing and such, which i think is ridiculous and i wanna make me points here

1: the show is going be a slow pace show, and i think alot of people forget that and start to think that viv and her team have no idea what their doing, and also, people forget, they just finished the 1 season, the 1 season typically isn’t supposed be the season were we see characters grow and change, we’re introduced to them and get to know them a little

2: i don’t know how true this is, but i saw a comment on someone saying that on subreddit that viv said that millie will be getting more arc to her character, but to be honest, I already have a strong feeling that Viv will give all the characters some kind of arc, also it’s very rude to just assume that she doesn’t care about her characters when we haven’t seen everything, i’m not trying to speak for viv, that’s just what i feel about the whole thing

3: I would argue that loona was like Millie t one point, she didn’t have a lot of character arc, she was just known as the hellhound with severe temper issues, for the longest time we didn’t see much of her until S2EP2 when her bits of her past was somewhat revealed to show their was more to her then just an angry aggressive hellhound, this just proves me point about the show being a slow pace storyline, it’s a slow burn so it’s going to take time to develop everyone

4: to everyone getting vivzipop shit and saying she has no idea what’s she’s doing, you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and the how everything is being made, and also, it’s only the first season, THE FIRST SEASON!!, it literally JUST ended, and so far, we’ve haven’t seen any major character development, just things about them that are now revealed 

Millie’s arc in the show

I think Millie’s arc can go a lot more differently then what me might expect, Her character development is backwards

In Moxxie’s flashback, we see that shark idiot Chaz betraying Moxxie and that’s how he met blitz, for a the longest time people thought (including me) that Moxxie and Millie were married well before joining IMP, now it’s been revealed that Moxxie joined IMP before ever meeting Millie, I think before Moxxie met millie, she had a lot of trouble controlling her anger and violence, she was literally banned from the harvest moon festival games because nobody could compete with her and was too blood frost and violent to play against

Plus whole her family is loving, they are a bit judgemental and then to be dismissive and critical of millie, like how they shamed her for letting striker getting away despite literally being her leg cooped up in a bear trap and stabbed in the arm, and you can tel she was pretty frustrated at her parents over that, so she had to deal with a lot of built up wrath, Around this time, millie met Chaz and hit it off for awhile, until Chaz must’ve done something to hurt her and that caused her to become more angry and violent

Then she met Moxxie and that’s when she began to change for the better, she learned to somewhat control her anger, (you can tell when Millie was in a. Full rampage back at the office, Moxxie wasn’t afraid of her, at most just a little taken aback, and given his abusive childhood and how scared he was of his dad that is HUGE), I think Moxxie taught her how to be less angry and to be the best version of herself, and has now developed into the Millie we all know and love

edit: okay i just saw a tweet from viv explaining the whole millie situation!, and quite honestly i’m very excited, she has confirmed that millie will be getting more character development and will even have a couple of millie episodes in the future, but she won’t necessarily have a angst or a tragic thing, viv stated that she wants millie’s character to go in a different direction, which i am very excited for, because it would be refreshing to see a character have an arc without a tragic backstory or a traumatic incident, considering that almost every character in the show has some sort of traumatic event that happened to them, not hating on that obviously, but it would be cool to see millie’s arc going in a different direction 

Edit 2: okay, i just wanted to add this in as well, in season 1 epsiode 5, and in season 2 ep 3, people were arguing that they should’ve been millie’s episodes, for the ep 5 i can kinda understand, since it was the episode we saw millie’s family and her roots, but i still argue that would’ve kinds ruined the epsiode since it gave insight and foreshadowing into moxxie’s character, but for ep 3 in season 2, ..literally no!!, just fuck no, because 1, the whole episode was about moxxie and his dad, focusing on millie and her previous relationship with chaz in that episode instead of moxxie’s childhood would’ve made an horrible epsiode, it would’ve been so out of place!!

Let me know what you guys think

[inkrabbit]

Hello, hello! I was wondering what your ideas are on Dewdrop turning into Ember? As in how he changes from water ghoul into fire? I know that in irl it’s just part of the motifs they had with the guy going from bass to lead guitar but I was more wondering how you’d think it work in the story/lore? I’ve seen some write it as him undergoing a ritual to change his element and body. And I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone write them as separate ghouls yet. I feel like I’m starting to ramble so I’ll leave you with a “have a good day!” :D

this is going to be one of those... longer answers because I ramble way too fucking much

I know the basics of what happened irl. I didn't dig too deep because... it's not really any of my business. whatever happened between the musicians happened between them. I dip into the irl side a little bit because, obviously, we did lose Alpha and then got Ifrit, and then we lost Ifrit and got Sodo and Rain. I know we also lost Omega and got Aether, but we're not gonna look at them for this.

before I get into my variation of everything, I just want to put up this reminder: everyone is gonna be different. that's just the beauty of all of this. like I've said in the past, there is no right or wrong way to do any of this. what one person says, another person might not. and that is A-OK. you do whatever you like and whatever fits you. I just always wanna add this in because no matter what I do or say for my fics, I don't want people to think that it's like... what you need to follow. I want everyone to remember that they have freedom with all of this and they should have fun. because that's what this is all about.

now, onto my bullshit and how I go about the whole Dewdrop/Ember thing.

so I have it that every Papa summons their own ghouls. these ghouls will match their energy/personality, normally with one of them matching them to a T. with Terzo, I had seen there was a... I guess description Tobias had given about him during an interview: "He represents this frustrated old guy who hates everyone, especially himself." It does also touch on the more happier side Terzo lets out, but I focus on this part because I use this as... it's why we ended up getting new ghouls. I have it that there was a falling out between Terzo and a few of his ghouls, leading to him having to summon more ghouls to take their place. and because of this, we're eventually introduced to Dewdrop.

I take it as Dewdrop (who I call Sodo) is both a fire and water ghoul, though his fire side dominates the most. I hc he's maybe... 25% water ghoul. and it's why in one of my requests, I say that his fire only burns red/orange and not blue or white like the other fire ghouls. his fire isn't as hot because of this quarter water ghoul in him.

so when Terzo summoned him, Dewdrop was... in a way, a "mistake" from Terzo not being 100% all there emotionally and, possibly, mentally. Dewdrop could play bass, yes, but he also liked to show that he could play the guitar, as referenced here. I like to think that, while he also played bass in the practice room, he could mainly be found playing a guitar. and in the beginning, Terzo was surprised and confused. but he also picked up the hints. Dewdrop (also introduced as Water in the video) would've preferred being a guitarist. so when Ifrit's contract ran out and he decided to retire, Dewdrop was appointed new lead guitar and it just worked for him. and, after this, Rain is summoned to take Dewdrop's old place as bassist

TLDR: basically I keep it that Dewdrop doesn't really change much. he's just a mixture of a fire and water ghoul, so when Ifrit left, Dewdrop took his place as lead guitarist

I sincerely hoped this answered your question. my brain is still pretty fried, so hopefully my tangent made some sort of sense <33

[morathor]

Pokemon: Lancer Theory

That title sounds way too self-important but it is the phrase that stuck in my head.

I’m actually not sure why this concept is so stuck in my head, maybe it's what I've seen of Scarlet/Violet and gym leaders terastalizing their ace pokemon.  But I need to babble it out, so here we are.  I wanna talk about type-themed trainers like gym leaders, elite four members, etc having off-type Pokemon.

It seems like they try not to do this anymore, and I get that, because people complain about it whenever they do.  Which I also get, I guess.  But I dunno, I think it's kind of cool when even a themed trainer has a somewhat diverse team.  The central type should still be visible as a theme, of course, but I don't think it's inherently a bad thing if they have an off-type here or there.  It makes the battles more interesting, it makes the characters more interesting by introducing a little more nuance.  It also plays to the idea of these trainers being talented, which they are supposed to be--I think every pokemon game I’ve ever played has some NPC to tell you that using varied types is the best strategy (even though I recognize a lot of people just bulldoze the game with an overleveled starter).  But when gym leaders and even the elites ignore that beginner advice, it makes them feel a little less competent, a little less threatening.

That said, I think this is more effective if it is applied consistently.  So in the same way that every major trainer needs their "ace" pokemon, I would love to see every major trainer have a "lancer."  Just one off-type pokemon (and the team would need to be a minimum of three so that it's not an even split), probably their second to last/second strongest.  They might fit the aesthetic of the type without being of that type--like how Lance classically has pokemon like Gyarados or Charizard (although I'd want him to pick just one).  Or they might be more focused on the aesthetic of the trainer.  Bonus points if they're a type that helps cover the weaknesses of the main type, but that can be reserved for the higher ranks.

So because I am, one, bored, and two, Like That, here's what incorporating this lancer idea might look like in kanto games/remakes.  Just because they feel like the characters people are most likely to be familiar with.  (And also some other changes because why not.)

Brock's Team

Kabuto--I'm really on the fence about this, but there are other NPCs with fossil pokemon, and Brock uses Kabutops and Omastar both when he shows up in later games.  Besides, type diversity isn't just for the lancer.  And even though you can't catch Kabuto in Mt Moon, you can at least get the fossil there, so we're kind of still showcasing a local pokemon?  Ish?

Cubone--Not a rock type, but not straying far from the mold for this early lancer.  I thought about a Zubat to showcase a local pokemon (plus he has one in the anime) but it's too far outside his tanky preferences.  Actually, if we wanted anime influence, a Vulpix would be a great call, although haven't Bulbasaur players suffered enough?  Anyway, Cubone is neat because it's sturdy and looks ominous, fits the aesthetic, but when you find out more about its Inherent Tragedy it maybe makes Brock look a little more gentle in retrospect.  I think that's neat.

Onix--Ace unchanged, no notes.

Misty's Team

Poliwag--I actually prefer not to have multiple members of the same evolutionary line in one trainer's roster.  I won't always have a good alternative, but there are so many water types.  Also, when possible, I do want to have one mono-type pokemon on the team.  (Not possible for Brock, there are no mono-type rock types in the Kanto dex.)

Dratini--I'll be honest, I'm stupidly proud of this lancer.  Dratini is aquatic without being a water type, and aesthetically fits very well.  In Gen 1, I think Misty is the first trainer to get "good AI", which really isn't all that good but it still shows they wanted her to represent a step up in terms of tactics.  So giving her a lancer that specifically resists the weaknesses of her main type is very cool.

Starmie--Ace unchanged, no notes.

Surge's Team

Magnemite--Not a lot of type diversity for electric types.  But if this hypothetical game is a later generation remake, at least this throws in a steel type.

Mankey--A fighting type seems like a good companion for a military man, and as Surge likes his pokemon fast and hard-hitting, Mankey seemed a better choice than some of the other options.

Raichu--Really considered Electabuzz instead; the stats are incredibly similar, and I feel like it fits Surge's aesthetic slightly better.  But only slightly, not enough to change out such an iconic ace.

Erika's Team

Tangela--Don't know if I have much to say, other than please make sure this has grass moves.  Thank you.

Butterfree--A butterfly pairs real well with all these flowers.  Additionally Butterfree's access to powder moves and its special attacks make it fit Erika's strategy even though its not a grass type.

Vileplume--Really torn between this and Victreebel, since I'd rather not have two grass/poisons if I can help it.  I often here Victreebel presented as more of a threat, since it's more aggressive, especially in Gen 1.  But Vileplume is tankier, so it might hold out a little longer, and I think that gives it more of a presence.

Koga's Team

Tentacruel--Koga is spoiled for choice on poison types, and something menacing that lurks in the water fits his ninja theme pretty well.

Golbat--It was this or Beedrill, but Golbat's access to confusion moves makes it fit Koga's tactics better.

Magmar-- Originally I was thinking Scyther; as a fast blade-wielder, it's more of a ninja than anything else on Koga's team.  But for Koga, that theme is all about debilitating foes with smoke and poisons, so a pokemon that packs the poisonous fumes of a volcano is a good fit.

Weezing--I could easily have dropped Weezing and elevated Muk to the role of ace, but I don't feel strongly enough about either to drop his classic.  Plus, and maybe this is just me watching too many solo runs, the looming threat of self-destruct carries more menace than anything Muk has ever packed.

Sabrina's Team

Mr Mime-- There are so many psychic types in these games, I don't want a Kadabra and an Alakazam.  Honestly I don't even need two mono-psychic types, I could have gone with something that adds more type diversity, but strangely I do like Mr Mime for Sabrina.  Plus in later gens, leading with a screen setter might be a pain for the opponent.

Slowpoke-- There's that type diversity.  I considered a Starmie for that fast, hard-hitting feel that Sabrina tends to go for, but let's not step on Misty's toes.

Venomoth-- I thought about giving her a Haunter, but nah.  Venomoth is a non-psychic type that can pack psychic moves, and I can kind of see a connection to Sabrina's sort of aloof, otherworldly vibes.  Moths are creatures of the night, dancing on the edge of the light... it kinda works.

Alakazam-- Ace unchanged, no notes.

Blaine's Team

Vulpix--Thought about a Ninetails and an Arcanine, but I kinda feel like that diminishes Arcanine as the ace even if its higher level.  Still, replacing Blake's leading Growlithe with a Vulpix gives him a little more diversity in his team.

Rapidash--Speaking of diversity, I really thought about Charizard.  I did.  It and Moltres are the only Kanto fire types with a second typing.  And while there are other NPCs who have starter pokemon, I feel like giving one to a gym leader felt a little off.  So it's gonna have to be all mono-fire types except for the lancer.

Exeggcute--Eggs equals bald?  I dunno, Blaine doesn't have strong theming to me, but what he does have is a role as the second-to-last gym leader, one the game expects you to treat as a major threat.  Honestly we're here more for a move than a pokemon--solar beam, which both fits a fire theme and covers fire's weaknesses.  And Exeggcute is like the only Kanto mon to learn it at a level Blaine is likely to pack.

Arcanine--Ace unchanged, no notes.

Giovanni's Team

Dugtrio--Moving this to the lead, who needs Rhyhorn AND Rhydon?

Sandslash--I really thought about keeping both Nidoking and Nidoqueen, they're not quite the same evolutionary line.  But they're close enough, and I have... other plans, for her majesty.

Nidoking--I love how over the course of the game, this ground theme gradually crystallizes, without Giovanni dropping too many pokemon.  This started out as just a poison type, which most Team Rocket members lean towards, and only for this final fight is it evolved into a ground type.

Kangaskhan--You could go with Persian here if you wanted to emulate the anime, but in most of the games Giovanni uses a Kangaskhan prior to this point.  Whichever one you have him use for the rest of the game, I'd want him to keep it till the end, but now it's reframed as not even his final form--I mean, strongest Pokemon.

Rhydon--The fact that rock/ground doubles down on so many type weaknesses almost wants me to let Giovanni keep his old Rhyhorn and elevate Dugtrio (or maybe Sandslash?) to ace.  But neither of those match Rhydon's raw power, so I don't think we need to change this.

Now, as for the elite four...

Lorelei

Dewgong--Not a lot of ice types in this game, and Lorelei already has all of them (except the legendary).  So there's not much room for me to improve on anything but the lancer.

Cloyster--No notes, move along.

Jynx--Originally Jynx was the only break from the water types, and her psychic type could be a good counter to any fighting types giving you trouble.  Problem with that is, Lorelei's Jynx doesn't typically have psychic moves.  I know in Gen I the learnset was bad, but suck it up and give her psychic or something.

Nidoqueen--A surprise I'm sure, but hear me out.  As I just noted, three of Lorelei's ice types are also water types, and adding in Slowbro made it four out of five.  That meant that, one, she was just as much a water type trainer as an ice type, and two, water was her more exploitable weakness.  Grass types might have struggled, but electric types could sweep her pretty easily (Jynx isn't weak to electric, but she's a glass cannon and not too much of a threat).  Adding in a bulky ground type that can learn ice moves and fits Lorelei's color scheme seemed like a good call.  And yes, this is part of the reason Giovanni doesn't get to have the queen.

Lapras--Ace unchanged, no notes

Bruno

Hitmonlee--I'd have Bruno lead with Hitmonlee just because it's one of the more straightforward fighting types.  Hits hard, but doesn't have a varied move pool.

Hitmonchan--Obviously we can't separate Hitmonchan from Hitmonlee, so here we are.  

Poliwrath--Doing what we can to get some type diversity into this roster.  Plus Poliwrath's access to hypnosis and halfway decent special stats (sorry Hitmonchan) represents a pretty sizeable tactical shift.

Pinsir--This one does not represent a tactical shift.  Big and bulky, well known for moves like seismic toss and submission, Pinsir feels like an honorary fighting type.  A bit of a straightforward lancer, but Bruno's a bit of a straightforward trainer.

Machamp--Ace unchanged, no notes

Agatha

Gastly--Okay, this one's a problem.  Ghost and dragon are supposed to be rare, mysterious types, each represented by only one evolutionary line.  I don't mind that in theory, and I also don't mind showcasing the rare mysterious types within the elite four.  But boy does it make it hard to have a varied team.  Gastly's move set should focus mainly on spreading status more than inflicting damage--hypnosis, confuse ray, maybe toxic or in later gens will o wisp.

Haunter--Same evolutionary line, but now focus a little more on damage, and maybe coverage.  You can keep hypnosis and maybe confuse ray, but moves like night shade are keepers, and maybe throw in a TM move like psychic.

Haunter--Now we have two of the same exact pokemon and I hate it.  At the very least give this a different moveset.  Maybe mega/giga drain, dream eater, and hypnosis as its core?  Let its focus on life drain set it apart from the tactics of the first haunter.

Hypno--Finally a break from the same evolutionary line.  This team already has more poison types that Koga, so I didn't want to double down with Golbat or Arbok.  Hypno's emphasis on status moves and dream eater fits well into Agatha's theme, while providing a good wall against psychic types that may have been giving you trouble.

Gengar--In gen 1 at least, Agatha's final Gengar didn't have hypnosis, which kind of meant a sigh of relief when you reached it.  And while I do want the ace to be threatening, I kind of like the idea that you've gotten past the worst of the debilitating effects and are ready to square off in a more head-to-head battle.  Nightshade, thunderbolt, maybe keep dream eater even if you can't put things to sleep yourself.

Lance

Dratini: Yep, same problem as Agatha.  I have similar ideas for solutions, just trying to keep the movesets distinct.  Dratini's a little bulkier than Gastly, but doesn't hit very hard.  Dragon rage doesn't depend on stats, so that's a good attack.  Then throw around thunder wave, maybe set up a reflect.

Dragonair: I think Yellow had more or less the right idea for the Dragonairs.  This one can focus on electric moves, but make sure not to entirely give up on dragon moves.

Dragonair: And for this one we'll focus on water and ice moves, though again try to keep at least one dragon move.  We want to show off the diverse move pool of these mighty dragons.

Gyarados: There are so many pseudo-dragons to choose for the lancer.  No Charizard for the same reason I didn't give Blaine one.  Aerodactyl is really neat, I think it's something no other NPC in the game has, but it also really doubles down on the ice weakness, and if we're talking about a Gen I version it doesn't even have rock moves.  Gyarados offers good bulk and is at least neutral to ice, so a player just spamming ice beam or whatever will have to be a little more tactical for a bit.

Dragonite: We had one dragonair focused on electric and one focused on water/ice.  For the ace, pairing fire moves with dragon gives it solid coverage and a strong turnaround on ice types (though many of them are also water, but still a neutral fire blast from a powerful pokemon can be scary).

That's it for Kanto.  I uh.  My brain is already buzzing with Johto.  So that might be a thing.

[enchantinglyjade]

Milk & Honey - Ch. 18

Austin!Elvis x Black!OC

Masterlist

Previous | Next

Summary: Honey and Pearl finally have a chat

Warning: Swearing(?), racial issues, pregnancy,

Note: Okay, I know how many people HATE when babies are added into fanfics, but I am trying my ABSOLUTE BEST to make this actually enjoyable and kind of put a twist on how I typically see children being introduced in writing, so please trust the process. 

Also, I hope this chapter isn’t too confusing. It switches between present day and flashbacks

Song: Mary Don’t You Weep - Inez Andrews

Playlist

-

Every day that passed only became harder. I went through all of Ma’s belongings, staring at them for hours while I reminisced on the past. Most days I was living in my memories just to get myself by.

“Well, ain’t she just precious, Loretta.” Gladys says admiring the young little girl in her new Sunday dress.

Loretta huffs adjusting in her spot to find a more comfortable position against the hard, wilted wood of the porch. “Been drivin me crazy these past few days, won’t let me get through her hair or nothin.”

“Hey, new girl! Nice dress.” A boy pesters from behind the fence. 

The girl turns, wide eyed until crossing her arms upon seeing the owner of the voice.

Gladys smiles at the sight. “Look at that, they’re tryna talk to you, Honey. Why don’t you go along and play with ‘em. And boys! Make sure you include Honey this time!”

“We don’t wanna play with a girl!” Thomas whines.

Loretta shoos away his complaining, kicking out her bare feet across the sand. “She’s the only girl you ever gone see if you keep that up. Just play one game with her, please.”

The three boys groan their way to the backyard, where a ball is left on the ground from their last session. Elvis begins kicking the ball around with Thomas, while Michael walks up to Honey. “Just stay over here while we play. Don’t get in the way.” He commands.

She crosses her arms. “What makes you think I wanna play with you anyway, ugly boy.”

Thomas and Elvis pause their game to hold in their laughter. “Psh, you couldn’t play even if you tried.” Michael sneers.

Honey smiles. “Scared you’ll get whooped by a girl?”

“OOO!” The two boys shout, laughing at Micheal’s upset and embarrassed face. “I want her on my team!” Thomas raises his hand. 

Michael groans. “Come on, foo’s. She can’t play with us.”

Elvis pats the shoulder of his friend. “Nah, she got you good. She can play.”

Pearl and I haven’t talked since that day. Originally I thought about moving away and never speaking to her again. I wanted so badly to just disappear from the world, I already had so much to figure out about the future, I couldn’t stand her attitude on top of it. But a few days after the funeral, I made dinner for the two of us. We sat at the table in silence. I had so much pain in me, but looking at her that night struck something. 

Her eyes were dull, hair unbrushed, sadly picking at her food. She looked worse than I had ever seen her. But what hurt the most was that I remembered she was barely 18. She’s just a kid that lost her daddy too. I was the only family member she had left, and same for me. I’m not much older than her, but enough that it felt like my responsibility to step up as the big sister and take care of her. Take care of her and…someone else in the future now too.

Honey and the boys sit outside under the hot sun, church bells ring in the near distance. She grazes her fingers through the grass, snapping up dandelions from the weeds and weaving the stems through her tangles of hair. She keeps a handful of dandelions in her hand to bury her face into every now and again to take in their sweet yet earthy aroma.

“Would’ya quit sniffin them things. You already know it don’t smell like nothin but grass and dirt.” Elvis teases her. She pouts, throwing one towards his face. He laughs at her attempt, catching it before it can hit his cheek. “Keep stickin your nose in them things and we’ll have to call you Bumble.”

Her eyebrows furrow. “Bumble?” She questions.

“Yeah, you know, like the bee. Those big fat ones that pollinate on them flowers. Hey! You’re even fluffy like one too!” He states excitedly, reaching out to rat her curls.

“Does it taste okay?” I ask Pearl.

Her head snaps up, shocked that I just spoke to her. She falters for a moment. “Yeah.”

I nod, swallowing down the lump in my throat. Oh god, what am I doing? I drop my fork onto my plate, resting my forehead in my hand. The loud clank startles her, causing her to stare in uncertainty. 

“I’m pregnant.” I blurt out. I stare deep into the grain of the table with a dry, sarcastic hum of a laugh. I didn’t have much else to lose, who cares if she knows? She’s bound to find out eventually anyways. My lip quivers as I gather the strength to continue. “Elvis. He doesn’t know.” Finally I look up at her, tears rolling down my numb face.

“Michael, stop. She ain’t all that bad.”

“Nah, she’s always tryna do what we’re doin and be like us, but she ain’t.” He says, before storming off in a fit.

Honey stands behind one of her porch’s pillars, hiding her glistening eyes. Elvis sees this and immediately walks up to her. “Honey, don’t cry.” But him taking notice only made the tears come out faster. “It don’t matter what he say. I think you’re fine just the way you are.”

She sniffles. “But you’re always making fun of me too.”

He smiles. “Aww, you know I’m just teasin. We all do it all the time. We don’t mean nothin by it. ‘Side, I really like you. I wouldn’t hurt you like that, I’d much rather be your superhero.”

Honey rubs her red eyes, a weak smile tugging at her lips. “Like Captain Marvel?”

His eyes brighten. “Exactly like Captain Marvel.”

She giggles. “What would that make me?”

He thinks for a moment, stroking the nonexist hairs on his soft chin. “A princess.”

She raises her eyebrow. “A princess? That’s not fair, I wanna be someone strong too!”

“You ain’t gotta be strong when you got someone like me.” He teases, kissing the muscles on his scrawny arms.

She rolls her eyes. “Well, even if I’m a princess, I wanna help save the world too.” She demands, arms folded sternly.

He flashes her a generous smile, giving her a promise to hold deep within her heart. “You and me against the world.”

It was from that day forward that their entire view of each other had changed.

Much to my surprise Pearl has an actual sympathetic look on her face. She reaches across the table, grabbing my hand. “I’m sorry.” She says, already choking up. “For everything. My grandparents- Our grandparents used to tell this story about a colored woman that tried to seduce Daddy with her ‘dark magic’, wanted me to think colored folk were all sorts of evil. But you and your Mama are some of the kindest people I have ever met and I feel horrible bout the things I did. I thought acting like grandmaw would help her live on or somethin, but I wasn’t thinkin with my own head.”

She sniffles, rubbing her nose into her sleeve. “I never even liked Elvis, it was all just to make you feel how I did everytime Daddy paid more attention to you. Every time I talked to Elvis all he’d go on about was you. I ain’t never had nobody that talked about me like that or looked at me that way. He really loved you Honey. I thought what y’all were doin was real brave and I can only hope to be as strong as you one day. But I promise you I didn’t call the cops that day!”

Suddenly, she stands up, getting on her knees in front of me. “I’m gonna help you take care of the baby, okay? U-Unless you don’t want me to…?” She pulls her hands away, looking for signs of anger or resentment in my eyes.

I bite my lip, holding back a sob before I pull her into a hug.

She smiles. “I’m gonna help you through this, Honey. We both need each other more than ever right now.”

Pearl and I became incredibly close after that. Pathetic it took something so tragic to finally bring us together, but I was so grateful to have someone with me on this terrifying journey.

Small bike wheels track through the dirt path, coming up to the neighborhood of their owners. The boys catch a glimpse of her at the end of the block. 

Honey sits on the porch between her mama’s legs, painfully getting her head yanked back each time her mother starts a new braid in her blonde hair.

The three boys smirk, hair still wet from swimming in the waterhole earlier that day. They quickly adjust their shirts, taking off a strap from their overalls and throwing it over their shoulder to give them a ‘cool’ and uncaring bad boy look. Then they fly by, pedaling fast and talking loud to ensure they caught Honey’s attention.

Elvis pops the wheel on his bike, lifting it in the air for half a second. He smiles, satisfied when he sees a small smirk appear on Honey’s face.

Eventually, I could no longer work and we had no choice but to sell the house and move into one of the poorer neighborhoods on the East side of Memphis. When I said I missed those shack houses in Mississippi, I didn’t know how much I actually meant it until moving here.

Most stores in the area were adorned with broken or boarded up windows and fallen signs. Streets were littered with garbage, rusted cars, and dead trees. And our house was complete with wilted wooden panels, peeling wallpaper, and a smell I could never put my finger on. It was no place to raise a child, but it’d have to do. It’s all we had.

Unfortunately walking and bus taking was something we still had to do since Dad’s car was in the accident. Obviously, I didn’t want Pearl walking alone, so I’d have to make grocery trips with her, baby bump and all.

‘You’re a strong woman, Honey. You’ll get through this.’ Mama’s words haunted me every single day, and every hour that passed it became even harder to believe.

It was hard, for the both of us, but it brought us closer until I finally felt like I had a real sister by my side.

I sit on the couch, rubbing at my sore and stretched belly.

“You got a name yet?” Pearl asks from the floor in front of me.

“Charles.” I say sadly.

She smiles weakly. “And a girl?”

I shrug, with a chuckle. “I don’t know. Maybe somethin original like Maple or Vanilla, like Mama did with me.”

Only a few days later, would I find myself crying and thrashing in the most pain I had ever felt in my life, wishing I had Ma by my side to help me through it. A few months after that, our newest addition to the family ran wildly through our home, ransaking everything in sight and bouncing around with his head full of big blonde curls.

“Charles, baby. Be careful. You’re gonna hurt yourself.” I grab him, picking him up to hold in my arms.

I stroke his soft, puffy cheek as he blows spit bubbles, which naturally pop all over me, but I was used to it by now. He’s got his daddy’s same bright blue eyes and a complexion that would’ve made Ma proud.

He was such a little angel, with an occasional tantrum here and there of course, but he was a smart boy, and a fast learner too. I was so grateful everything turned out easy and peaceful since I hadn’t caught a break for the past year.

Still, I had a big choice to make. Do I tell Charles who his father is? I can’t be like my Mama. I know how much it hurts to have something so personal be kept from you, but now I understand her struggle. Will he try to go after him one day? Will he be disappointed that Elvis is his father? Will he hate me if I never tell him?

Which brings me to the flip side of that issue; Do I tell Elvis? How do I tell him? Will he be disappointed with his son? Will he hate me for not telling him by now? What will happen between him and his new girl if I tell them?

My head hurt just thinking about everything.

On the bright side, I guess my wish of having kids with Elvis came true after all, but I didn’t have my Elvis to share it with.

“Come on, Bumble! Go up there with me!”

He tugs on her arm, but she panically plants her feet right into the ground. “Elvis, I don’t wanna go up there in front of everyone!”

“It’ll be fine. Come on!” With one hard tug, she falls forward, stumbling towards the stage with him.

The choir smiles at them, as well as their mothers. The reverend shouts a heavenly cry, preaching up to the sky.

“Come on, dance! Don’t you feel it?” He asks.

She did feel it. She felt power and dreams course through her veins from their singing. She looks around nervously, before Elvis makes an effort to bring her attention back over to him. His smile eases her little heart. Slowly, she lets his energy infect her, matching his rhythmic jumping and throwing her hands out to her sides.

‘Mmm Mary, don’t you weep

Ohh, Martha, don’t you moan

Pharoah’s army drowned in the Red Sea.’

Eventually all that I had saved up from working at Handy quickly dwindled away, and Pearl and I had no choice but to take up jobs again. Pearl was the first. She easily came by a nice job at one of our local groceries stores, I on the other hand had a few issues to work out. After days of searching I finally came across the church. I applied for their choir, which luckily I was hired for. I was nervous to start singing again, but at least I could build my voice back up without being heard too upfront, not to mention it was the only job that came with daycare.

I grew up on the music and loved it, but honestly, being back in the church was hard for me. I was anything but pure, and people knew it.

Night had fallen. They should have gone back home by now, but they were too entranced by the bar that was more lively than ever. Peeking into the window, the two find a scene that blessed their senses. This was something different, something they had never heard before, something they knew they shouldn’t be seeing.

“We should try that.” The boy says.

Honey jumps down from the window to face him. “I don’t know how to dance like that, Elvis”

“Neither do I. I just copy what they do.”

She falters for a moment, unsure if she should give in to the things she was feeling, but puts her hands on his shoulders no less. They sway back and forth to the music that muffled through the poor sealing of the window. She lifts her head to peek through the glass every now and again to make sure she’s imitating the adult woman correctly. 

Then she sees them do something she knew her mama wouldn’t like. The dancer twirls her hips, reaching up to leave a heated kiss against the man she was with.

Honey shrugs. Well, if it was what they were doing.

She moves closer to Elvis, reaching up until-

A gasp fills the air, loud above the blues music coming from inside the building. The two children part from each other in horror, seeing Ms. James towering above them. 

“Go on back home, boy, ‘fore I tell ya mama what you been up to.” She threatens. He swiftly scurries off, leaving Honey to her mother. She grabs her childs hand, marching back to their house. “Honey, if I ever catch you doin that again, I swear-. You ain’t listenin to anymore of that music!”

Oh, I got plenty looks when people saw Charles and I, ‘specially when I’d have to explain the whole father situation. My usual story was that his dad went into the army, but as time rolled by, everyone began to realize how unlikely of a story that was. For those that cared enough, rumors were passed around. Some say I slept with so many men that I didn’t actually know who the father was. Others think he was born from a one night stand. Obviously, I couldn’t tell them Elvis was the father, and I doubt that would HELP to ease all the rumors anyway. Regardless, I quickly became the epitome and walking consequence of lust.

Honey’s mother didn’t let her leave often after that, leaving her silenced in her room. Only occasionally would she be allowed out to play with the boys, including the day she finally got to share a special kiss with her especially favorite friend.

She was excited to see Elvis again, hoping to have another moment like that again as soon as possible, but when she sees him again she’s met with something that breaks her heart.

“I ain’t got no idea what you’re talkin bout.”

She crosses her arms, hoping and praying he was just pulling another prank on her. “Yesterday…when you kissed me…”

He chuckles in a sarcastic tone. “I don’t remember nothin. You musta been dreamin bout me.” He says with a smirk, the other boys snickering behind him.

She had never felt so embarrassed in her life. Betrayed by someone she thought was her friend.

I ran into B.B. King a few times at the church, who became a frequent visitor after that, when he wasn’t on tour anyways.

He came up to me on my way out one day. “Honey, long time no see.” He says, hugging me.

I squeeze him back, so very happy to see a familiar face after so long. “It’s so nice to see you, King.”

One of the girls brings Charles into the room, playfully chasing after him and his sloppy, bow legged steps.

He pulls away with a sad look. “I saw about E.P.” He awkwardly tucks his hands into his pocket. I respond with a defeated sign. “Now, it ain’t none of my business, but if you don’t mind me askin, what happened between you two? You both seemed real happy together, besides the whole jail thing, which I assume played a role in all of this.”

I let out a weak chuckle. “What? He never told you what happened himself?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, we lost touch a while ago.”

Charles stomps his way over to grab onto my leg with a toy in his mouth, his wet hands instantly getting slobber on my shin. I pick him up, awkwardly turning back to King.

“Honey, I’m sorry about all the things I said to you before.”

“It’s okay, Michael. I know you were just jealous you weren’t as good at playing ball as I was.” She states confidently.

He laughs, neither denying nor confirming the accuracy of her words, but instead fumbling with his fingers. “It’s just that- Honey, I-”

“What are you two doin?” Elvis interrupts.

They both look up at him, neither pleased by his presence. Honey crosses her arms, turning back to Michael. “You were saying.”

“Well, I, uh…” He swallows, nervously.

Honey waits for him to answer, but Elvis catches on fast, pushing Michael off of the bench before he can spill his next words. Elvis throws punches at him, but Michael throws them right back. Honey jumps up, attempting to push them away from each other, but it does no good.

“You never even liked her!” Elvis shouts.

“Man, you don’t either, remember!”

“Boys! What the hell’s going on here?!”

It takes their mothers to finally pry them away from each other. They breath heavily, eyeing each other while they get dragged away.

King raises a confused eyebrow. “That baby yours?”

I nod. “Yeah… His name’s Charles.”

He takes a closer look at him, taking in his lighter complexion, blonde hair, and baby blue eyes. He cranes his neck back in thought, before hesitating out, “E.P.’s?”

I stay quiet, biting at my lip and bouncing the baby on my hip. He takes this as a yes.

“He know?”

I shake my head, still not trusting my strength to admit anything out loud just yet.

He pulls me into another hug. “Look, anytime you need anything you tell me. You know us Handy kids will always be a family.” He pulls away, smiling at the baby. “Besides, you’re too talented to lose.”

“Oh whatever.” I laugh out, before taking on a sympathetic tone. “But thank you.”

“We’re moving away.” He says, glooming under the warm, sunny day.

“Okay, Elvis.” She states doubtfully.

He’s always saying him and his family are gonna travel the world and do this and that, but he never does, nothing but little lies and big dreams. The boy who cried wolf. It’s not until she looks outside her window the next morning that she realizes for once he was telling the truth. 

Elvis sits in the back of his family’s car, his father packing the final bag in the trunk. 

Her heart quickens. She speedily races outside, standing on her lawn as the family drives past her. Elvis watches his friend from the window, waving. She was in too much shock to wave back, but she’d regret for years that she didn’t. Her friend was gone. And she’d never see him again.

Or so she thought.

The days became an endless game of survival, trying to keep Pearl safe and Charles happily fed. Always felt like there wasn’t enough of something. 

Life felt like nothing but a yellow brick road, except there was no good witch, no singing or dancing, no powerful wizard to fix all my problems, just an endless road that once led to my dreams, but after years of walking, I had long given up hope of ever finding my way home again.

.

.

.

- Taglist -

@tearupmyhead @chouetteschaussettes @il-giardino @theliterarybeldam @re3kin @anangelwhodidntfall @felicityroth @crash-and-cure @mama-pankow @tzillas @wonderlandlovelove @mirandastuckinthe80s @queenslandlover-93 @coconutessential @pumkiinpasties @buckybarnesbitch00000000 @biafbunny @darkestbeforethedawn16 @dollfaceyourfear @adoreyouusugar @hails-schae @spacegh0ul @im-lame-irl @sargspiderbarnes @whisperily @whatawildone @lukasdreamland @carioquisse

[yjwhatif]

YJ EPISODE 14 NOTES… let’s do this (spoilers below)

Dick shows some serious growth since S3. I love that opening scene - Dick asking Kaldur how he’s doing then pointing out that he might need to take a break before his unprocessed emotions break him. He literally says all the things I said in my Kaldur post and I was very happy to hear him say it. Also I really like how dick acknowledges the dick move he pulled of essentially dropping out after Wally died - pointing out how selfish it was of him to leave Kaldur to deal with everything - despite Kaldur going through the same tragedy and more. Dick shows so much personal growth in this scene - he was still not over losing Wally in S3 and it showed in his behaviour - to avoid his grief he focused on the mission. It took Will, Conner and Artemis talking to him at different occasions to help him realise avoidance and detachment doesn’t make the pain go away — and I think that’s what Dicks trying to do for Kaldur now. I love their bond - it’s not seen enough.

Ok this is definitely gonna end up being really long…

I’m so glad I read the tie in comics set in Atlantis before watching - it made things so much easier to follow and more impactful than if I hadn’t. Again I wanna reiterate, if you haven’t read the s1 tie in comics - especially the two set in Atlantis then you really should - 1, because they’re great, and 2, because all these characters are introduced in them and a lot of the dynamics we see in this episode are established from those comics. (Heads up I will be mentioning things from those comics plot in the points below…)

Topo and King Sha’ark are unlikely besties and I’m here for it. A bond established established in the comics after topo saves Sha’arks during the purists ambush - and its a well known fact that saving someone life creates a forever bond - whether you like it or not Sha’ark.

La’gaan playing with Artur is the cutest thing ever and is then immediately out cuteified by the way La’gaan interacts with Coral and later Rodun - seriously how do Grandon do this - I never used to care about romance in media and now - ever since that 7th wheel comment - I can’t get enough of it. They’re throwing all these adorable AquaFamilies in my face and I’m rooting for them all — but that means I’m terrified for everyone because I know something bads gonna end up happening. Just let them all be happy please 🙏

This shot is just so pure 🥺

GROWTH!! There is so much growth present in all these characters - it shows how times change and so too do people. (This will probably be getting its own post at some point)

Ronal definitely has some sort of feelings for Lori - he’s a pompous jerk but always a little smitten around her. These two definitely had a dynamic in the comics - he seemed to have a particular distain for her and she certainly wasn’t afraid of fighting back his attacks. Maybe the hate he thought he felt towards her was really unrealised attraction corrupted by learnt prejudices. There’s also a chance she saved his life in the comics when Sha’ark tried to eat one of the hooded purists - though I don’t know if that was actually him since he was still hooded - but maybe he feels a sense of loyalty or indebted to her. Either way, Ronal intrigues me.

I have already posted something about this but since the general consensus was Delphis is around 20yo I’m gonna add some stuff to it… Garth seems to show the smallest bit of interest in Delphis as he’s leaving the council - it’s blink and you’ll miss it but by the rules of animation it’s there for a reason. Someone pointed out on that post that Garth and Dolphin have been together in dc canon so maybe it will become something in yj. I honestly can’t imagine Kaldur taking it too well if they do - it might be a bit cliché but I would totally buy Kaldur still holding a bit of resentment towards Garth for dating Tula after he became Aqualad - now he wants to date his adopted sister — the nerve of him.

Wyynde, Kaldur & Delphis remind me of Conner, M’gann & Gar. I’m living for all these family dynamics — they’re so pure!

I am very glad to see Conner is in fact still wearing underwear - because that would have been a really awkward conversation when Ghosty wakes up — oh and Phantom Girl will now and forever be referred to as Ghosty - because it’s really hecking cute.

I really love all the Phantom zone content we get - it’s really cool to see Conner doing stuff on his own - he tends to be a character that’s always grouped with others and acts as the voice of reason. Here he’s isolated and stuck in the unknown with nothing but his mind - so we’re seeing him in a who new light as he essentially has an existential crisis.

I am here for Wyynde constantly trying to get Kaldur to relax and not focus on work stuff when he shouldn’t have to. I truly love him with all my heart and am absolutely terrified something very bad is definitely going to happen to him and that’s gonna be Kaldur’s breaking point and I am NOT OKAY WITH THAT!! Please don’t hurt Wyynde!🙏

Is Arion following Kaldur ? he was in the algae bar sat at the table next to them - angled perfectly to watch them… what is he up to

Wyynde going from flirty winky face at Kaldur to sad guilt ridden face as he notices Lori sat alone at the bar. I’m gonna keep saying this - but I love him! I also love this whole scene at the bar and I’m gonna go into that in a separate post.

Kaldur punching Sha’ark and no one batting an eyelid because that’s the only language Sha’ark listens to — “I respect your strength, schoolmate”

Nice touch having Samad’s new job being on a fishing boat and loving it while the Atlanteans are almost at war with each other because of the effects of human pollution and overfishing — kinda plays into that perspectives thing that’s through the episodes

It’s nice to see Violet helped Gabriel’s family get out of Qurac and is staying connected with them - or at least with Madia anyway. It’s nice to see Violet has found trust in her - after everything that happened with Jace that psychotic witch, it wouldn’t be surprising if Violet had some serious trust issues.

Conner and Ghosty are really adorable - I love that he’s just talking to her even though she’s unresponsive - he’s a good little soul.

HALO CAN HEAL OTHER PEOPLE!!! This is so cool - I can’t wait to see how else their powers have evolved - I knew rainbow powered Violet was gonna be epic.

I’m here for Lori calling Ronal out on his rudeness and him immediately backing down and apologising to her - these Atlantean dynamics are really compelling and I want more.

The only content I’ve been exposed to which depicts a polyamorous relationship is in the Les Mis fandom so it’s pretty cool seeing an official explicit representation on screen. I already posted something about my immediate reaction to the relationship reveal (here) but I wanted to add on that I love that this is a show where polyamory makes more sense than adultery - and I’m here for it. So much romance in media revolves around jealousy and cheating and confrontation and I just can’t be arsed with it — but La’gaan and his growing family are just so wholesome and loving and sweet and I honestly can’t get enough of it. I wish more media depicted relationships like yj - where they’re not just created for passion and conflict but to actually develop and strengthen the characters — it’s way more compelling. Ok I’ll stop ranting about romance now.

I love how respectful the tone of Violet and Madias conversations are as they explore Islam together. The pacing is soft and light, there’s no sense of an overload of information is being thrown at you - it takes the time it needs. They are really calming moments. I also like that Madia is constantly reenforcing the fact that one must follow their heart when it comes to faith - she doesn’t expect anything of Violet because it’s their decision. I really hope she shows the same respectful positivity around Violets gender identity when they finally choose to open up about it.

Ronal definitely has some unspoken feelings for Lori - he goes to help her up after the attack - I want to know more!

Return of the forehead touch!!! 🧡💙

KALDUR YOU ARE NOT FINE AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE!!

VIOLET HARPER IS OFFICIALLY THEY/THEM NON-BINARY AND WE LOVE THEM

I kinda figured the promised LGBTQ+ rep would probably turn up in the second half - that is what happened last season (though it was still very light in S3 and I think the Bart thing caused a lot of problems). I think all of it was written well - nothing felt out of place or there to tick a box - everything felt grounded in the canon and not just written to make someone happy (I don’t know if that makes sense). Nothing stands out in a harsh or cringey way (like the beach scene we don’t talk about). This is honestly shaping up to be my favourite arc so far - the pacing is great, we’re exploring and discussing the things I’ve been wanting to see and personally, I like that we’re continuing the other plots as well as - I never feel like they are taking time away from Kaldur and Atlantis.

Over all this was a phenomenal episode back and the other two are just as good. Stay tuned for my notes on episodes 15 & 16, and also some others I’ve got in mind. If you read all this then thank you - I’d love to hear what everyone else thought of this episode, the arc or anything yj.

LB

[zachsreaderinserts]

sleepy boys inc x gn!teen! reader headcannons

trying something new! i like bbs and all, but i wanted to write for other youtubers! lemme know if yall wanna see more content like this lol.

this takes place in a minecraft au!!! also, mentions of bad parenting/abusive parents

wc: 2,319

okay the sleepy boys

chaos incarnated, all of them. you can’t deny it

so, when tommy invites a friend from a local village, at first, everyone else is skeptical. since when has tommy made a friend who didn’t hate him within 20 minutes from all the screaming and insults he spewed?

unlike his friends, phil is more excited than anything. though he isn’t tommy’s dad, he feels like it sometimes, so he really wants to meet this new person who has caught the youngest’s attention

techno is very much not on board. he has a hard time trusting people at first glance and having been friends with tommy for the longest, he knows that tommy readily jumps the gun and attempts to befriend literally anything just because he can

and wilbur? indifferent for the most part. yes, he feels the need to make sure tommy is protected and cared for, but he also recognizes that this situation is out of his hands. the best he can do is hope that their friend isn’t an absolute asshole

so, it’s saturday. all three men are sitting on the couch in phil’s cottage, talking amongst themselves as they wait for tommy to come back. techno makes a joke about murdering them, which leads to phil scolding him about his violent tendencies

“you haven’t even met them yet, techno, what the fuck.”

wilbur is simply adding fuel to the fire, making little remarks here and there and watching the whole thing escalate to phil lecturing the piglin hybrid.

because of this, not one of them had noticed that tommy returned, with his newest friend. they both stopped at the sight of phil in dad mode, tommy considering just turning around and taking his friend as far away as physically possible

too late, since techno’s sixth sense made him whip around and stare at the newcomer. this made phil stop lecturing and wilbur quit giggling long enough for tommy to introduce his friend

after saying their name, the friend lifted their hand shyly, face burning from slight embarrassment. their other hand was latched onto tommy’s, feeling intimidated.

can you blame them? the fucking blood god looks like they wanna skewer them and cook them over a campfire.

tommy took notice of their shyness and cleared his throat, “we were planning on going to the carnival in their village if you three assholes feel like tagging along.”

like there was any way they were gonna let tommy and his friend go out without chaperones.

tommy turned back to his friend, “give me a second, i’m gonna go grab my sword just in case.” and proceeded to run up the stairs and towards the guest bedroom in phil’s house that he claimed.

the millisecond he was out of earshot, techno grabbed his friend by the front of the shirt.

“what are your intentions with tommy?”

the friend blinked once, twice, then bit back a smile. “you’re asking that as if i’m about to date that motherfucker.”

this time, it was wilbur who bit back a grin of his own. who would’ve expected the originally shy kid to have replied like that????

techno’s brain short circuited and his grip on their shirt loosened slightly. did.... did this kid just brush off his question???

“can you put me down? you’re gonna stretch my shirt.”

techno’s brain blinked back into focus and he gripped the kid’s shirt harder, shoving them against the nearest wall. “i asked a question, kid.”

“you know, tommy told me something like this would happen. i’m glad i came prepared.” and then, tommy’s friend sucked in a deep breath. techno leaned back, expecting the worst...

“MWISTER TECHNWOBWADE, PWEASE PUT MWE DOWN BEFWORE I SCWEAM”

oh god, this was far worse than anything he thought of.

he dropped the teen out of disgust more than anything, reeling backwards. if there was one thing that haunted his dreams, it was uwu-speak.

phil started howling of laughter, clutching his stomach and hunching over. originally he was going to stop techno from threatening a literal child but this outcome was so much better than anything he was anticipating

wilbur was no better, already tearing up from how hard he was snickering. he started choking on his own spit at one point, smacking his arm against the couch.

tommy was so fucking confused when he came back down the stairs, seeing the mayhem that was, for once, not caused by him. he glanced at his friend, who had the world’s biggest shiteating grin.

yeah, they were gonna fit in just fine.

and they did! phil took them under his wing (both physically and metaphorically) and allowed them to come visit his home whenever they wished. and whenever they did, phil was the first to ask how they’ve been and what they were up to

to phil’s surprise, the kid was overall calm in their choice of activities. things like playing soccer or drawing or figuring out how to learn instruments in their free time. it seemed like they were desperate to get their hands on anything and everything just to learn

he found it funny, though, when their chaotic side shone through. they easily were on tommy’s level when they got into that headspace and it was so hilarious to him.

his favorite memory of the kid was when they walked into the house and marched right up to where techno was reading idly in the corner. planting their hands on their hips, they spoke.

“if you were to fuck a clone of yourself, would it be masturbation or would you be considered gay?”

phil, who was washing the dishes six feet away from them, just about crumbled into a ball on the floor from how hard he was laughing and sobbing.

of all questions, that was the one that came out.

but he had no idea that the chaos was a coping mechanism. he just thought they were naturally like that in their free time.

he soon found out the truth when they came home with tommy, who was cursing up a fit, visibly angry. his friend was slumped over, as if trying to hide themselves from the world

when phil asked what had happened, tommy exploded.

“their fucking dad took all their money from their savings! said he needed it more than them and when they asked for it back, he called them a fucking disappointment! that fucking bitch--”

phil can count very few times when he felt true anger and he can confirm that when tommy had told him what had gone down, he saw red.

but he knew better than to outwardly show it. judging by how hunched over and defeated the kid was, what they needed was a stable support system

so he walked over and shut tommy up with a hand on his shoulder, “why don’t we take the rest of the night to build up that game room you wanted in the basement. i’m sure if we knock it out before techno and wil are supposed to be back, we can all play something like monopoly.”

seeing where phil was headed, tommy nodded and brushed away his anger. he knew that what his friend needed was a serious cheering up. tommy ran towards his guest bedroom, claiming that he was going to find his blocks.

phil crouched in front of the teen, tilting their head up to look him in the eyes. “you’re not a disappointment. you’re an amazing person with a chaotic joke machine going 120 kilos over the speed limit in your head and you are talented. your dad doesn’t know shit about what you’re capable of doing.”

oh boy, the kid’s crying. those are tears, full on tears.

that night was one of the best nights of their life, however. they enjoyed the entire three hour long game of monopoly where they watched the light leave everyone’s eyes. it was funny when wilbur lunged across the table when he landed on a railroad, out for phil’s blood.

speaking of wilbur, he enjoyed every minute in the kid’s presence. they often asked creative and random questions and went along with the abstract jokes he made, the two of them laughing heartily the entire time.

when the kid first mentioned wanting to learn how to play the guitar, he practically burst through the wall of the room next door, breathing heavily and exaggeratedly.

“did someone say guitar”

yeah, he’s feral. that’s canon.

they proceeded to spend the entire day in phil’s garden, each of them equipped with a guitar. despite their outwardly smooth brain and stupid demeanor, the teen was a fast learner and could play the most basic chords by the time the sun was setting.

wilbur’s favorite moment was the first night they met, when they went to the carnival. there was the game where you shoot the water and fill up the balloons and the kid was going head to head against techno and tommy.

it was when techno won that the teen turned to techno with murder in their eyes and spoke in a deadpan tone of voice,

“you’re lucky you won this time, you gentrified mayo monkey.”

wilbur’s jaw dropped, as did techno and phil’s. tommy was already in hysterics, smacking his hand against the counter that held the guns.

needless to say, wilbur found his favorite, not-quite sibling in a heartbeat.

techno was the last to come around with the child. can you blame him? every time he tried to threaten them or had beaten them at something, they would respond in a cryptic threat--

“i’m going to pee your pants if you don’t let me win”

or just brushed him off. without a second thought.

“anyways, i was murdering a chicken the other day, and the fucker had the audacity to ribbit at me.”

to say he was confused was an understatement. he was terrified of the fact that a literal child held so much power and disinterest in things like their own life. so for the first few months, he avoided them.

but he had seen past that when it was around midnight on a weekday. tommy was hanging out with tubbo and ranboo in their village miles away from the area. wilbur was out drinking with schlatt, niki, and fundy, and phil was already asleep.

techno wasn’t too far behind, sitting in front of the fireplace and staring out of the window that showed the front yard. it was only then when he saw the flash of a familiar face and looked closer as the teen walked up to the house quietly. their head was down and they carried a small bag with them.

techno opened the front door with a long creak as they reached the porch steps. it was only when they jumped and looked up in surprise that techno had noticed a deep bruise on their left cheek in the moonlight.

despite the fact that he kept away from them, techno was very protective and territorial of tommy, phil, and wilbur. and since they were attached to the teen, he became protective of them as well.

so all the voices in his head went quiet for a second. before exploding into a mixture of screams and threats, all leading back to protecting the child in front of him.

without thinking, he reached forward and cupped their face for a better view of the bruise. at the warm and soft touch, tears slipped down the kid’s cheeks and they sniffed pathetically.

the voices quickly took a 180, all screaming to take care of them. make them feel better. so, techno led the kid inside and let them spend the night in his room, with them falling asleep on the bed and him falling asleep on the rocking chair in his room.

phil did not hesitate to officially declare himself as the teen’s official father, saying that their biological father was a “little bitch”

now somewhat living with the teen, techno found an appreciation for their quieter moments, when they were reading or simply daydreaming. it was cute, in his eyes. but he also grew to enjoy when they were absolutely feral, especially toward tommy.

his favorite moment with them was when they had gifted tommy a music disc for his birthday. it was sweet and sentimental and tommy just about burst into tears when he saw it.

all of the sappiness quickly vanished when tommy put it into a jukebox.

“FUCK THIS PUSSY, BOY, FUCK. FUCK IT RIGHT, BOY--”

tommy had let out the most terrified scream and it practically engrained itself into techno’s brain. it was the first time he ever laughed at something the teen had done and the teen felt proud of themselves.

and finally, tommy. he was already happy to call himself a friend of the teen’s. they were like peas in a pod, working together.

tommy came to them when his insecurity felt heavy and they came to him whenever their dad’s words got to them. they had a nice system of dependency on one another and neither of them would trade it for the world.

tommy’s favorite moment of being friends with them was during their first birthday living in phil’s house. it was a birthday befitting their personality, with brightly color streamers hung and confetti all over the floor. he knew that they enjoyed it severely and once the cake was cut, the kid turned to phil.

“phil, where’s the big tiddy strippers i requested?”

tommy was GONE

he all but choked on his slice of cake and walked away, shaking his head while trying to stifle his giggles. but when he heard phil’s scream of “WHAT”, he just lost it.

all in all, his friend had made a fine part of the sleepy boys. they were a happy face in an otherwise somewhat bleak and dangerous world. and all four men appreciated it.