#I have so many machine uncles and dads etc etc and they all love me

[starlight-diesel]

Appreciation post for some of my Sodor machine family bc fuck it I've got a whole s/i universe just for TTTE because it's such a warm fuzzy comfort to me. I love u forever and ever cgi Thomas & Friends. I wanna post about them and unfortunately if you follow me you're subjected to my odd f/os.

[star-going-supernova]

I will now talk about the work of Miracles (And Those Who Make Them). I didn't know where to say it. But I think that tumblr is the best option among them than the ao3 comment (although I will write it too, but later).

I'm just wondering if it go sideways out for Joey that his daughter creates (and apparently will create) by Henry. We don't know many of Joey's facts, actions, or thoughts since the story is told from Henry's point of view, but I don't think Joey is as in awe of Audrey as Henry is.

Joey only helps him in some aspects, such as sending him a professor to learn more about human anatomy, but he himself is not involved in the actual process of creating Audrey.

Henry devotes all his time to creating Audrey. Henry created a separate anatomy for her and thought of all the smallest details, down to growth and appearance. He even managed to burn out once. Henry reacts more emotionally to some kind of failure (the first failed attempt and bickering with the Ink Machine) or obstacles in its creation (problems with anatomy, teeth, etc.). He reacts not as if he is creating a daughter for Joey, but as if he were creating his own daughter.

He will literally be the creator of Audrey.

Joey said that Henry can be considered not just an uncle, but also a second father to Audrey. But also remembering how Henry loves to be in the ink realm and talk/play with its inhabitants and plus the points I mentioned above....

I'm not saying that Joey is going to be a bad father or anything like that. I'm just curious...

Will Audrey unknowingly be drawn to her true creator? Will her inky essence understand this? (Because Audrey was created with an ink machine using many of Henry's detailed drawings, which he put a lot of effort and soul into.) Will Audrey get along more and be more open around Henry? Will she become an animator in the future because Henry was one too?

I've been haunted by these thoughts ever since I read the first two chapters. I could talk about this for a long time but the characters limit stops me haha.

Miracles (And Those Who Make Them)! Oh, friend, thank you for this ask, because right now, Miracles is my baby and I am so happy to talk about it! 

First and foremost, I can assure you this is a happy story. I have no intention of turning this overly angsty or anything. Like you said, we’re seeing things from Henry’s POV, so we don’t know a ton about how Joey’s feeling right now. In the upcoming chapters, Joey’s excited nerves about being an expecting father are more obvious, and we get some of his POV in chapter 5 as he deals with anxiety. 

Joey really can’t be any more involved in creating Audrey than he has been. We’ll see more of that reasoning as we go, but the main point comes down to only Henry being able to use the Ink Machine correctly. As Creator, the toons and the inky realm are very much his in a way no one else can match. This is his speciality, and as such, he understands it all in a way others don’t. The anatomy and details have to come from him because someone else might not have thought of it. We see that with the Ink Demon—he wasn’t created with a heart at first. 

(This is also very slightly meant to parallel the… standard creation of a child. Dads’ involvement only really goes so far before it becomes support and preparation, lol.)

Henry will literally be Audrey’s Creator, and she’ll know that. All the toons know that; they can feel it from the beginning, which we’ll see especially with the other girls who precede Audrey. But we’ll also see through the upcoming chapters that, when it comes from Henry, intent means a lot. We’ve already caught a glimpse of that: “No pain,” Henry murmured, hand pressed tightly against the Ink Machine. “Whatever else, she will not be born in pain.” And whatever else, Beatrice never felt pain. Audrey will know who her father is, Henry will see to that. 

And as a matter of fact, Joey’s really worried he’s going to be a bad father. Does he have a lot to learn compared to Henry, who’s got a whole bunch of inky kids? Yeah, but he won’t be alone, and he has his friends to not only help, but to remind him of that.

I don’t want to spoil anything too much, but I promise a lot of your questions will be answered at least in part. I certainly don’t mind answering questions or talking about this story (or any story of mine). I hope you’re haunted a little less as we go, haha! 

(To escape character limit, going to my ask box via the dashboard and not my actual blog page gives you much more space. I can confirm that at least 1,200 words can be successfully asked, probably more, lol.)

[incorrectbatfam]

Can I get headcanons for an au where Bruce adopted the kids when they /were/ babies, please?

Use the bathroom, get comfortable, and maybe have some tissues on hand.

For these headcanons, we’re gonna assume they were adopted in order of age, and that they’re all under 18. So Dick and Babs are 16 (with Babs being older), Harper is 14, Cass is 13, Jason is 12, Tim is 7, Steph and Duke are both 5 (with Steph being older), Carrie is 3, and Damian is 1. Yes, I’m aware that it diverges from canon age gaps but once you keep reading you’ll see why I did that.

Now for the headcanons (in no particular order):

Alfred is “Grandpa” and Bruce is anything from “Dad”, “Pops”, “Old man”, “Baba”, etc. All the other adults, like Kate or Clark, are aunts and uncles.

Steph and Duke compete over everything, like who can tie their shoes the fastest or learn to ride a bike first. Steph makes a point of letting everyone know she’s older, but Duke fires back with the fact that he’s taller. They’re both at the top of their kindergarten class and are known for butting heads, but God help anyone who decides to pick on one of them.

Harper got her first period at school while wearing white shorts. Thankfully, Dick and Babs came in clutch.

At school, Kon told Tim that he got ten dollars every time he lost a tooth. Tim tried to hack the system by pulling a bunch of teeth out at once (thankfully to no avail) until someone caught him.

Babs has a different secret handshake with each person.

When Damian first came along, everyone expected Carrie to be angry or jealous since she’d no longer be the baby of the family. And she was a little jealous at first. But the moment she saw him, her eyes went wide and she whispered, “He’s so tiny” and vowed to protect him with everything she had.

The last business trip Bruce took was when Cass was a baby, and the reason why it was his last one was that while he was abroad, Alfred sent him a video of Cass taking her first steps and he burst into tears in the middle of a meeting because he wasn’t there to witness it in person.

Dick once used Damian as a wingman to pick up girls. It worked so well that Jason tried the same thing, only to have it grossly backfire on him.

Whenever Bruce needs a break, Alfred will call everyone to the living room for one of his infamous spy stories.

Cass is the queen of April Fool’s.

Tim, Steph, and Duke regularly climb on each other’s shoulders to try to reach the cookie jar.

Harper is a pro at getting gum out of people’s hair. Tim is a pro at the exact opposite. 

Bruce gives Dick “the talk”. Dick then gives it to Harper who gives it to Cass who gives it to Jason and by then it’s so misconstrued by then that Bruce has to re-give it to all the kids.

One time Jason lashed out at school and it led to the teachers referring him to a therapist. Bruce stayed with him during the first appointment and Jason admitted to feeling unwanted because of what some kids at school said. Meanwhile, back at home, all the other siblings were trying to get their names to be Damian’s first word, like a competition. None of them ended up winning because when the other two came home, Damian called out to Jason. (And Jason cried on the spot because it didn’t matter what people said at school, he was wanted by the right people).

Group outings with the Kents or the Allens are a normal occurrence.

Harper gave Bruce a heart attack when she DIYed her hair dye and piercings.

The first time Tim saw a shooting star, he was convinced that aliens had arrived to take over the world. His conspiracy-driven panic spread to his younger siblings and that’s how Alfred found them all hiding in a blanket fort wearing saucepans as helmets.

Steph once got lost at the mall and the first thing she did was buy ten Build-A-Bears. 

Cass regularly carries her younger siblings like suitcases.

Bruce never rushed Dick into getting a license or helping out around the house.

Harper once snuck on a train to the next town without telling anyone because she wanted to ask Kate advice on coming out.

Nobody got any sleep for the forty-eight hours when Damian’s favorite stuffed animal went missing.

Duke is a LEGO kid. Carrie is a horse girl. Together they created the ultimate toy equine sanctuary.

Bruce can’t ground the kids. They’ve unionized.

Jason is no longer allowed to pick movies on account of the time he chose an R-rated slasher.

It’s an open secret that Cass accidentally left Tim at a haunted house once. 

Alfred custom sews a ten-person "get along" shirt.

Duke once snuck Damian to school for Show And Tell. Steph ratted him out almost right away.

Jason tried to make his younger siblings reenact Shakespeare. It lasted a good thirty seconds before it dissolved into people hitting each other with props.

As a big mystery/conspiracy theory person, Tim was wholly convinced that Damian was an extraterrestrial because the first time he saw him, it was at the hospital where Damian was hooked up to a bunch of machines after he was born. It wasn’t until after three different people explained the concept of preemies to him did Tim finally get it.

Carrie loves to play dress-up and will rope in anyone in the vicinity.

Bruce’s favorite song to sing to someone when they’re upset is Lean On Me by Bill Withers

Cass taught everyone obscenities in sign language and it was all fine until someone caught Babs at school and she got detention

Alfred can’t remember the last time the house was not babyproofed.

Between birthdays, holidays, Gotcha Days, and other special days, there’s always a reason to celebrate at Wayne Manor.

Whenever they fly on the private jet Duke's in the cockpit insisting he knows more about airplanes than the pilots (Alfred or Kate) bc he watched the Planes movie.

Harper got matching leather jackets for all the sisters.

Bruce gives Tim "coffee" that's 90% milk and a splash of coffee for flavor.

Cass and Jason communicate solely in inhuman grunts.

Carrie can and will latch onto the first person she sees like a koala bear.

There's a running gag among friends on how many siblings Dick has because he tells stories without ever using names.

Bruce comes home after a long day of work and everyone drops what they're doing to dogpile on him.

Harper only got an after school job to pay for her Club Penguin membership.

They all make snowmen in descending size order with Bruce's being this huge towering one and Damian's being like three inches tall.

The girls have a "no boys (except the baby) allowed" zone.

Carrie can't pronounce the letters "R" or L".

When Damian learns to crawl suddenly all the other family members become a jungle gym.

Bruce doesn't notice when someone invites a friend over without permission because what's a few extra kids anyway?

Harper comes out and for a week people wouldn't stop making bi puns.

They try to do that thing where each family member puts a different colored handprint on the mailbox and they end up running out of space.

As the oldest Dick gets stuck with babysitting or he's forced to let Jason tag along when he goes out (bc all parents make their older kids do that) and he resents it but at the same time no one can talk trash about his siblings.

Damian's animal collection begins when he brings in a mouse from the yard. (Cue the hilarious siblings-helping-him-hide-new-pets montages.)

Someone beat Bruce for “World’s most attractive man”, but that’s okay because he was voted “World’s happiest man” instead.

[cooltrainererika]

A Star Wars Noob’s ideas for fixing the Disney sequels

Okay so just to get this out there, because it won’t leave my mind.

So I’ve been binging on SW lately and the sequels only annoy me more and more by the day. So just wanted to throw my character ideas out into the world. Focusing on characters because I like writing characters way more than plot. Hopefully if I ever actually write this thing, or even somehow pitch it to someone with the right connections to animate it with the actors as voice actors, this wouldn’t have gone viral. But since no one looks at my blog it probably won’t lol. Hopefully.

But just in case, I’ll say that this will probably contain spoilers for a story which may or may not exist by the time you read this.

I’ve deliberately been trying to avoid as much emotional spoilers and normal spoilers as I can before the sequels despite the temptation, so sorry if some stuff is a bit off. Augh I hope I can get the time to watch the full OT and PT soon. I was too tired from hiking when I watched SW4 and I now really wish my dad didn’t show me when I was half-asleep.

Rey: Rainbow of possibilities; Cynical Scavenger, Adventure-seeking Audience Surtogate Geek, or Lawful Good to the core Paladin Padawan with a personal grudge, and may be descended from a family line, maybe not, but currently most likely a Skywalker by blood. Story and other character arcs change dramatically depending on which route chosen.

Finn: Stoic soldier man learns power of friendship, finds meaning of life, causes Stormtrooper mutiny, probably becomes a Jedi and second main character and hooks up with Rey. “What‘s a joke?”. Awkward dork and stunted socially but doing his best. May instinctively find it hard to disobey orders. He may be the one wanting to find his family; but that’s dropped soon enough to focus on what’s ahead. 

(Alternatively: Proud warrior guy who acts like a stereotypical North Korean soldier who finds himself outside the First Order, learns power of friendship etc. The rest is the same)

Poe Dameron: What we Japanese people call The Aniki. The funny charismatic ace pilot who keeps everyone sane, overall bro. Wholesome but a bit rough, that guy you would want to share a beer with. But within that easygoing nature burns a hotblooded, determined, dutiful streak, and an even stronger snarky streak. The one with the social skills. Loves his droid like his son though Cynical!Rey and Finn find that initially kind of stupid/strange. 

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo: Appears to be yet another quietly imposing Star Wars villain with added edgelord factor, but actually a mentally unstable, borderline yandere berserker of a man crushed under the weight of a legacy, with a horrifying inferiority complex, identity issues, and an unhealthy obsession with familial honor, constantly stuck between Dark and Light. Despite his high rank, basically the First Order’s attack dog. Usually has the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old, if not younger. If anyone is, he’s the damsel in distress of this story.

Luke Skywalker: Cuddly sunshine headmaster sage doing his best, has been on many adventures before that are hidden ads to future Lucasfilm projects. May have gone to search for answers as to what is causing recent events, or is still present at the beginning. May survive at the end. He could be anywhere from kind of jaded but at his core still that sweet optimist, to Basically Uncle Iroh, to can-literally-summon-Porgs-by-whistling/Space Sage Mr. Rogers.

Han Solo: General of the Republic Armed Forces or courier who decided military life just wasn’t for him and now delivers important messages through still unstable areas of the New Republic, a war hero, and a dad doing his best. Wants to hold hope but may have at least outwardly given up on Ben, with Poe filling in the void. Has gone clean from his life of crime and still married 30+ years strong with Leia. He would be the one who is the closest to Poe if he’s still in the military and Leia is a Jedi, with Poe being seen as his likely successor. He might die at the end of 8? Maybe Hamill and Carrie would somehow talk him into sticking around past 7? He might still die in 7?

(Side note: I wish we could have seen Old Harrison Ford in a military casual coat-cape. He would have looked awesome in it. I mean no one would really complain that he plays fast and loose with the dress code if there even is one, he’s Han freakin’ Solo and he gives no f*cks.)

Leia Organa-Solo: Preferably a Jedi Knight, leader while he’s away if he’s away as well as their tactician, or senator considering her personality; maybe have basically what Colin Trevorrow planned for her (I mean… why not just use CGI at this point? They’ve done it before. I’m sure Carrie wouldn’t have wanted her swan song to be such a passive role either), with her bond with Luke being a major factor and us actually being able to see it in practice. May have outwardly given up on her son as well, but still is at the end of the day a mom doing her best. Basically a strong, smart lady like how she’s always been.

Chewbacca: How he always is, but he plays more of a role than basically the guy bussing the cast around, an active combat role definitely. Han’s second in command and maybe fellow dad. Possibly the part-time chaperone of the mess that is the new main duo. Also was Ben’s first friend, and you bet there will be drama here.

Lando Calrissian: Business mogul who probably helps the heroes out, maybe by selling them stuff and using his many connections to get information. And/or he’s basically an economic diplomat for the Republic. Has known Ben since he was a child and may have snuck him on too many joyrides without telling Leia, to her chagrin and Han’s amusement. 

Grand Admiral Armitage Hux: Basically how he was in SW7. Calculating, manipulative, coldhearted, intelligent, and ruthless, the brains to Kylo’s brawn. Son of former Imperial officers, killed his own father to get where he is. Gives no f*cks, except when he goes full ham. Maybe even he goes cold and pale if Kylo starts getting angry, just to show how terrifying he can be, but I also like the idea of him being one of two people who can manipulate Kylo out of a tantrum and not end up a pile of flesh or choked to death. 

Captain Phasma: How she is in supplemental material probably. A walking chrome machine of merciless death. Probably not very talkative, and probably does not take defectors lightly. She may defect at the end or not depending on how truly evil she’s portrayed to be, but I’m thinking she’s likely this cruel disciplinarian who expects complete and utter, machine-like obedience to the end, and Finn flinches at the mere mention of her, though she herself is equally as extremely loyal to the cause.

Snoke: A mysterious being, the likes of which are not of this galaxy. Probably some kind of ancient eldritch abomination who can torment vulnerable minds with an untraceable curse. Not your average Sith, and despite how it may seem it may not be connected to them at all… Or perhaps it is. Or perhaps it itself serves a larger master. It wants to use Kylo Ren for… something. Just what it is is what Luke has been trying to find out for years.

Knights of Ren: Idea borrowed from Thor Skywalker (check him out on YouTube!); possibly a military cult of Sith/Vader worshippers who see Ben as the second coming of Vader, and have aligned themselves with Snoke. Probably basically Kylo’s personal guard and troops. Or possibly directly liked to whatever otherworldly entit(ies?) Snoke is, not being of this galaxy themselves.

Anakin Skywalker: Determined grandpa doing his best for his kids, grandkid(s), and the galaxy. Doesn’t appear often, but plays a major role in the story; maybe he’s the one who led Rey to his lightsaber, and maybe he advises Luke while training Rey, or secretly follows Kylo, trying to speak to him but unable to be seen or heard by him. He’d be the one who ultimately convinces Ben to return to the light, and to, in an echo of the words Ben heard when he was being impersonated, “finish what I started”.

Rose Tico: A probably relatively new, wide-eyed young recruit in the Republic Military, and maybe seeks revenge on First Order for killing or kidnapping her sister. Not sure if she will be needed, but if there’s room for her she might be interesting. Maybe she’s one of Poe’s friends or part of his squad. She could also be the resident girly girl because there aren’t many of those here. 

Vice-Admiral Amberlyn Holdo: She’s in the Aftermath books, and those seem pretty good, so she’s probably how she is there. A quirky mostly background character that is probably at most there for Han and/or Leia and Ackbar to give commands to and salute back, but most importantly she actually does her job properly, even if she’s still a bit of an odd person. Also Poe knows her and they have a way more amicable work relationship. Also give her something which actually looks like something military personnel would wear. She could even be a legitimately good tactician who comes up with off-the-wall tactics.

(Side note: I heard that she basically has the Star Wars version of Autism, and while I’d appreciate that as an Aspie myself, I’ll also have to say that Autistic people would probably be terrible military leaders due to us not being able to adjust to sudden changes well and our bad communication skills. So yeah, sorry, unless she’s recast to something like, say, a mechanic or logistics or medic or any other more Autistic-friendly job, that’s going to have to go)

Maz Kanada: …Admittedly not sure what to do with her. But she’s more likely to be an acquaintance of Lando before Han, if she doesn’t know both. In fact, Lando may be introduced early alongside her. But she would still have the important role of keeping Anakin’s saber; how she has it, either Lando found it, or basically what was cut from TFA showing that she’s indeed pretty awesome. 

BB-8: BB-8 doesn’t have to change. He’s perfect as he is. Maybe what he can do should be more consistent though. Poe and him are basically Ash and Pikachu, they stick together whenever possible. If Rey or Finn need a droid to tag along and Poe isn’t in the party at the moment, R2 is right there. I once read a fanfic in which BB-8 was actually a droid Luke made for Ben and I liked the idea… though it probably would be a bit of an unnecessary detail in practice.

R2-D2 and C3P0: They’re basically business as usual. They would still have that boke-tsukkomi dynamic they had going on, sometimes with the added childlike cuteness of BB-8 in the mix. If there’s any extra time left for comic relief scenes, or if they’re sent on some kind of mission together, I can see these three messing around doing their thing (or rather, BB being childlike, cute and curious, Threepio being overly nervous, and Artoo being too old for this sh*t and/or BB’s cool uncle/older brother) being both cute and hilarious.

Also Worldbuilding stuff will be featured at the bottom

Elaboration on the “big four” of the sequel cast:

Rey: Aged 19, speaks with Daisy Ridley’s normal accent, not RP (I mean really, her accent isn’t that hard to understand). A whole rainbow of possibilities with this lady, though many don’t realize it. I might be leaning towards her being Luke’s daughter, though her being Just Rey may also be interesting, and her still being a descendant of Palpatine or the main villain could also have potential, though if Finn is a Jedi I don’t think there’s any need for her parents to be nobody. But the three main routes I can think of for her are these three: Cynical!Rey, a Rey with a backstory identical to the canon Rey from her abandonment onwards, Fangirl!Rey, a sort of estimation of a dorky female Star Wars nerd in-universe and the most lighthearted start out of the three, and Padawan!Rey, a Rey who is already Luke’s Padawan at his academy. Maybe making her starting point less crushingly bleak and Fangirl!Rey could work, but it might dilute both ideas, and that characterization might be a bit too similar to ANH Luke. 

As is apparent, Cynical!Rey, is, well, cynical. She’s strong and independent, but extremely distrusting, on-edge, and not used to friendly interaction. Think Female SW4 Han Solo but even more antisocial and probably not even bothering with the bravado, and basically with Anakin’s upbringing except she doesn’t even have a loving mother like Anakin did. Fangirl!Rey was my initial idea but I’m starting to become less partial to it because of the aforementioned similarity to ANH Luke, but my idea was she’s basically Harry Potter, living with stepparents who hate her, or she’s still used as basically child labor but her conditions are nowhere near as bad as Cynical Rey’s, and she would have grown up on stories about the Rebels and the Jedi and everything else in the past movies, collecting every single bit of memorabilia she can get her hands on. If one wants to go for very lighthearted and slightly meta for SW7 this is the route. Padawan!Rey could go anywhere, but I’m thinking she would basically be our D&D Paladin; ever since Ben Solo went berserk and ran off to join the First Order, she’s become very protective of her fellow students and has a really understandable personal grudge against him. She might be the strongest pupil left after the Second Jedi Massacre, and by the end maybe she becomes the successor to headmaster of the academy. It is possible that she was found abandoned on Jakku or Luke’s doorstep, however, so the theme of growing up lonely is there, and because being a Jedi is what has given her meaning in life it means a lot to her. But while I don’t want her parentage to be revealed early if it is Luke, it does raise the massive plot hole of why this was never disclosed to her or to Ben. 

And yes, I did say fellow students and academy. Wiping the new Jedi Order feels really cheap and it makes the whole hopeful Jedi Starting Anew implication that I’m 90% sure the OT ended on feel very pointless. I’d prefer them still being there, though their inclusion would be obviously way more natural in the Padawan Route. This also has tons of marketing potential for Disney, because I wanted to take IRL realism into account; what’s in it for Disney? Maybe potential to expand on other students and Luke’s academy? It could be like a smaller Jedi Hogwarts/Xavier Institute basically. Though the survivors wouldn’t be too numerous; just, like, four at most. Maybe there would be elements of an Avengers/Infinity War/Endgame-esque team movie, even if the rest are a bit out of focus.

I did think maybe the heroes would still go to Ahch-To after SW7 where Luke would have been hiding with his students researching the new threat, but maybe I could have him stay and sort of take a few cues from Harry Potter by introducing the heroes to the world of the Jedi early and giving them a break in the action as they settle in their new homes, so there’s more time to develop the padawan side characters, what the academy is like, and Luke gets to appear in SW7 as well so there can be a OT trio “reunion” (not a reunion in-universe). Though that kind of messes with other parts I want to include like Rey and Finn having to take on Kylo and getting completely whipped because he’s a rampaging madman before having to be saved by Luke. Also Rey getting kidnapped has potential for developing her trust in others, and her and Finn getting a breather moment at the Republic after the heroes and Han regroup would kind of remove a point where that could be easily slotted in the story. It would also require everything before this to be crammed in the first act. 

(Newer edit 5/27/21)  I also like her getting a golden double-bladed saber like many fans depict her. It’s not only awesome looking (because she only gets her own saber at the end of TROS… Why?), but it’s more toys for the moichendise! It fits her starting with a staff, it has more reach, and it would fit Cynical Rey especially for her to have a style centered around keeping as much of herself defended as possible. Watching Battlefront 2 footage has made me think about fighting styles a bit, and if she and Finn are a duo how their styles of combat might compliment each other, especially as their relationship develops (coincidentally she and Finn apparently are a very good combination in BF2). A Cynical Rey would probably contrast the most, with a fighting style based on keeping enemies away, trickery, and defense (a good choice for a blade made of light), maybe a bit wild at first but initially her goal in fighting would be to hold out until there is an opening to get the hell out, only staying to fight if she has no other option. Fangirl Rey wouldn’t really have a fighting style initially, and it’s gonna be very dependent on where her arc goes. Padawan Rey would have the most Prequel Jedi-esque, choreographed style, showing a lot of skill though not quite mastering it and with tons of openings at first. A Cynical Rey may have an uncanny skill to detect suspicious people, which would make her trusting the heroes easier, and though this ability isn’t super strong and is more “a slight gut feeling but it could be nothing” than “human lie detector” it could maybe be honed more. And while not quite wall vision like in BF2 (because wat? Where do they come up with this stuff?), maybe she’s good at detecting people’s presences too. These are very apt ambient skills for someone in her position. Meanwhile, Fangirl!Rey would have probably suspected she had the Force already, and her ambient abilities could be whatever, just rather passive abilities unless trained. 

If she is Luke’s daughter though, that would open up the can of worms of who her mother is. Just making it so that she died before the events of SW7 might seem a bit… unfortunate? I kind of want Luke to have found love sometime (and seriously with how much of a bombshell young Luke was, in addition to him being such a hero, I’m shocked that he never got one. I can see why Mara Jade wanted a piece of that. *wolf whistle*), but then I’d have to figure out how to incorporate her in this already character-dense story without her having cheaply died offscreen. I might be able to think of something? I could always go digging in the dusty pile of old fan theories, I might find something good. Thor Skywalker did hint at her but his story stopped at the end of where SW8 would have. If I do name her Mara there’s probably going to be extra pressure to do something with her. …But I can’t be the only one who thinks that Daisy Ridley kind of looks like Natalie Portman. Then again I’m pretty face-blind. I guess blond hair and blue eye color genes are also recessive traits for Star Wars humans. Though it seems the height genes skipped a generation because she’s actually pretty tall for a woman at 170 cm - I’m sorry what. That’s as tall as the average Japanese man! Holy sh*t Daisy! She only looks a bit small because she’s often depicted with Kylo and Kylo makes everyone not Phasma look diminutive. I guess Ben would get it from Anakin and Han (though he’s still taller than both of them…), so maybe a taller actress would be cast as Mara (?). And despite Rey’s malnourishment in the Cynical route, this actually isn’t that implausible, because stunted growth apparently only happens if children are deprived from gestation to about 2 years of age. 

And again, why wouldn’t Ben know about this? But if this isn’t the Padawan!Rey route (the hardest to incorporate Rey The Actual Skywalker into), maybe Ben took Rey’s assumed death as even more of a reason to burden himself with the entire Skywalker legacy? This would give him a reason to already care about her.

Further edits: According to the Aftermath books, Jakku was a “Lightside Nexus” planet. Maybe this has to do with her powers? (Perhaps she was kept sane by the Force speaking to her on occasion, in dreams or as she lies staring at the ceiling after a long day, showing her the loving life she used to live and unknown to her she will return to someday). Or why she was dropped there? Maybe she was supposed to be living with Lor San Tekka (the old guy Kylo kills at the beginning of TFA), but got lost one day or was kidnapped by bandits to be a scavenger because her small size would have been perfect for getting loot from small spaces? Why not take her back then? This probably is one of the biggest plot knots in the Cynical Rey Skywalker route, alongside who her mother is.  

Small detail lightning round before moving on: I once read a Japanese fic, and in it she mentioned she hates alcohol because she saw how it turned people into monsters. I actually kind of liked this headcanon, and maybe a bit unexpected. Though there’s also the route of her just being too used to it, setting her apart from previous more wholesome protagonists even more.  Also Daisy would have to start hitting the gym and protein shakes because I think her character design evolving from her thin build to a very athletic, Wonder Woman-esque body type would be pretty good in representing her growth as a character, and combined with her height she would be so very badass looking. 

Finn: Probably around 23? Infamous for lost potential, so his backstory is the same. However, I’m thinking that due to his dehumanizing upbringing, he’s a bit robotic and pretty stoic initially, a total opposite to Poe. He doesn’t understand jokes or sarcasm, and now that he’s completely left the life he’s always known, he feels pretty lost. He would basically act like a male Rei Ayanami, though I was going more for Drax at first. Alternatively, he’s a proud warrior type, imagine a stereotypical North Korean/Prussian soldier. He’d be a bit more emotional and probably less cartoonish here (I mean I have compared Star Wars to anime but full-on anime tropes in live action probably looks super corny), and he’s a massive hardass who also doesn’t get sarcasm or jokes and fanatical and would have thought of his fellow soldiers as a collective as his band of brothers and comrades, collectively serving the FO like a smoothly running machine. My initial thought was that after a life of war crimes and the influence a certain pilot whose cell he was guarding who gave him his name, and maybe witnessing the death of a comrade, he had defected from the FO, but I started thinking it would be plausible if he defected from the FO probably by accident. Highly likely to be the second protagonist, if not POV character, and if so I think it’s logical that it’s Finnrey that becomes the canon ship here. In the Padawan!Rey route, he’s the newcomer protagonist, not Rey. If they’re shipped, or even as friends, they may bond over their dehumanizing, harsh backgrounds and the feeling of being lost in the world. Also he likely starts a mutiny. Like it was such an obvious plot point but they never use it for some bizarre reason. It’s like the DM didn’t read his character sheet at all. Actually one didn’t and the other kept forgetting it in the third campaign.

There’s two ways I think his arc could go; first would be a focus mainly on his search for identity and becoming his own person. Second, his guilt about having done the First Order’s bidding for so long. Probably a combination of the two, though I’m not sure how to address them both. He also wants to see his colleagues free from slavery. But I am sure about I’d that he’d have to overcome his conditioning, learning to regain his humanity.

Especially if Rey is a Skywalker and he becomes a Jedi, he’d be the one who the movie makes a point about being from nowhere. He has no idea who his parents are, but it would not even matter in the end, it’s what he makes of his life from here on out. And if he and Rey end up together, which is extremely likely in this scenario, he not only finds his family in the figurative sense with the other Jedi and his new friends plus girlfriend, but in the literal sense as well, going from nameless Stormtrooper FN-2187, to just Finn the ex-Stormtrooper, to Finn the Padawan and then Jedi Knight, to finally, Finn Skywalker, Jedi Knight; maybe the last movie ends with one of them proposing to the other, with SW8 having previously ended with the climactic big damn kiss that cemented that they are a thing now. (Cue Luke jokingly asking when he’s getting grandchildren and How It Should Have Ended!Anakin squeeing over him getting great-grandchildren lol) His name would have this real symbolic value to it with how it changes as he goes from nobody to somebody. Not to mention “Finn Skywalker” is just a freakin’ awesome name. If they make up the leading duo, he and Rey may have some kind of inherent connection, or they progress into two parts of the same whole, even attaining something like a Dyad.

I thought an interesting thing to do if Rey is a Skywalker, and this is Cynical Rey, is a twist on the expected pattern by making him the one who sees the good in Kylo, not Rey. Because while Rey might be his cousin, she’s also a very distrustful person who couldn’t afford to think deeply about people act the way they do when she was growing up and fighting to survive. Meanwhile, Finn knows Kylo, and he also knows what it’s like to be determined to be a killing machine from a very young age, and if he has to forgive himself, or if he’s able to see the light, that Kylo deserves a chance as well. It would be the ultimate show of kindness from him, to show him forgiving the man who works so loyally under the same organization that enslaved him. I can also see Kylo being angry at himself for being unable to sense the Force-Sensitive in their midst. 

Maybe he was born on a “Lightside nexus” planet too so that it makes sense that he can keep up with other characters? Presuming he’s in his early 20s, I don’t think him being raised by the Order since he was a baby is that plausible, so maybe he was already an orphan? I can see the First Order spinning their Stormtrooper program kidnapping street orphans as “rehabilitating” them, which combined with good old Victorian style citizen apathy to street children allows them to get away with it. But if he was, say, around 6 years old when he was taken away, it would make sense why he was able to break out of his programming. Perhaps Poe showing him friendship awoke the humanity long dormant in him. But on the other hand, the younger, adolescent soldiers may be beyond saving, and I can see that being absolutely heartbreaking. 

I can see his fighting style with a saber being direct, forceful, and pragmatic, but unlike Rey the emphasis would be on engaging and keeping up the fight, and be very disciplined, calculated, and controlled in contrast to Cynical Rey. At least he’d attempt it while he gets used to the properties of a lightsaber, before there would probably be a lot of awkwardness as John is directed to swing this weightless prop blade with a weighted hilt like he would a club or sword. If he isn’t a Force Sensitive, he’s a good sniper just like in BF2, in fact this would be his primary combat ability, though still able to hold his own in melee combat. Though even as a Jedi he’d probably still use a gun as a sidearm, and his good aim would also translate to him being very good at spotting openings and spotting danger from a distance, as well as enhanced ability to dodge. 

Poe Dameron: Age 29 (?). A total bro. I’ve kind of come to think of him as this embodiment of the good, wholesome side of traditional masculinity. I can best describe him as the guy you expect to think of when you think of the guy who takes the boys to the bar for beers on the house and hosts Super Bowl night (for the Americans out there). Basically just that big bro/cool uncle everyone likes. I think he’s the least changed from how he is in SW7; he’s a laid-back pilot with no special powers, and while he’s probably the most static and admittedly flat character (and unfortunately more minor than the other two) he has tons of charisma and optimism to compensate, though being the one who keeps everyone sane definitely helps. Not to mention his piloting skills; which, note, are never eclipsed by Rey, because that’s dumb. His skills are a bit more downplayed here, but he’s still extremely good, especially for his age. Despite being the pilot he’s the most down-to-earth, and may be the only one of the big four with any social skills, even if he’s a bit dorky, especially regarding BB-8. 

Son of Rebel pilots, graduated top of his class in the Republic Flight Academy, and his background is squeaky clean, no drug trading involved, though he spent a lot of his adolescence and his adulthood in the Academy or in the military, just like in pre-TROS supplementary material. He’s the main source of jokes and wisecracks out of the trio in all but the most dorky of Fangirl!Rey routes probably, teaching Cynical!Rey and Finn what it’s like to smile and laugh. He still has a close relationship with Leia and Han; possibly closer to the latter due to the latter being a pilot and likely still a General. Not sure about him keeping his rank because him starting and staying at the top might mesh awkwardly with the rest of the trio, but maybe he’s still a Commander; whichever makes his inclusion in the main cast most plausible. Due to an adorable Pixiv comic I found he may have been inspired to become a pilot by Luke or Han. I’d like to think that he breaks the hotshot pilot cliché a bit by not being too overly arrogant, immediately setting himself apart from Han by being a wholesome guy there for his buddies from the start, even if he is fond of wisecracking and snarkiness (probably from hanging around Han and Leia), and inside that laid-back personality lies a hotblooded, passionate, unwavering core. Like, he’s not exactly hotheaded like a Latin stereotype (*ahem*), but he’s got this more subtle, but still apparent, underlying fiery hotbloodedness to him, something that especially makes itself apparent in high-stress situations and when it comes to his loved ones. He’d also be Rey and Finn’s mentor of sorts in stuff that doesn’t involve the Force, being their role model for what a functional member of society is. He may make some self-depreciating jokes about being “normal”, but I think mostly he’ll take it in stride. Though I can see him and Han having a chat about this in a more quiet scene. 

Ironically, out of the trio he could maybe be said to be the most suited to be a Jedi personality-wise, despite the fact that he has no Force Sensitivity whatsoever; he goes with the flow, he isn’t troubled, he’s happy with the simple pleasures in life, he’s just a good, genuine guy who does good things, passionate but not obsessive, and he’s forgiving, willing to give even an enemy soldier a chance, appealing to the humanity in him. The last one is particularly Luke-like, don’t you think? Oh, to elaborate on the escape; I still like the idea of him giving Finn his name (though another idea I love is a fallen friend giving Finn his name, that would change stuff around a lot from what I am thinking at this moment). I also think that perhaps supplemental material or some flashbacks, or even an animated short could be made showing just how Poe broke Finn’s programming; by showing him genuine kindness, because somehow, despite his lack of Force Sensitivity, he saw that FN-2187 could be talked out of his programming if he was constantly nice to him, befriending him, starting up casual chatter with him, and after a while the trooper starts opening up to this pilot. …Yeah, Luke-like indeed. Though since there is the plot hole of why Finn could be convinced in mere days and why he’s the only one guarding such a high-profile prisoner, a more realistic idea may be that they talk to each other this way a few times, then Poe escapes and Finn goes after him before they both crash on Jakku and have to work together, with Poe immediately being friendly with Finn and later Rey, to his (and her) confusion. (I can just imagine Poe being all chipper and trying to engage Finn in conversation, or telling him “Good job, sport!” after they fight off bandits or something, and Finn just is all deadpan and “We are enemies, we have no reason to fraternize” and I find that kind of cute).

He may ultimately be the most static of the main cast, but I can see him having a huge impact in more subtle ways; like maybe Rey and Finn think of what Poe might do in a given situation in their training, and he could be the catalyst behind why Finn thinks that Kylo can be redeemed, just like how Poe was able to light another way when it felt like there was only one path for him. He also definitely wouldn’t be the type to be so reckless with his men like he was in TLJ, if he’s still a Commander; he cares about his men a lot, and in fact they may be the reason why he tends to act like an older brother. I can imagine a pretty poignant scene with Finn where Finn sees Poe by himself and BB-8 paying respects to his fallen comrades by this handmade cenotaph, as he sets some flowers down and pours a drink to them, and Finn once again is able to see how different the culture outside the First Order is, as he would have never been mourned like that if he died on the battlefield, nor can he imagine he ever would have done so himself. Or maybe Rey is there too, because if this is Cynical Rey she’s only known a life where people exploited each other. Maybe other characters like Jessika (who he’s already close to I think? Did she show up in the movies though?) or Rose would have the opportunity to be more than background characters by being part of his crew, and we’d get some charming scenes about the bond he has with his squadron.

Again, admittedly he’d be the least deep character out of the big four, with his feelings not being explored nearly as much. But he probably doesn’t really hide his feelings much anyway. For any supplementary shorts involving him, they would be mainly lighter stories about his relationship with the OT cast and their families and his friendship with BB-8 and his crew, or action-y ones about missions he’s gone on; as opposed to, say, Finn, which would show his life as an expendable trooper who knew nothing but war, Cynical!Rey and her crushing loneliness and growing disillusionment to the world as she struggles to survive, or Padawan!Rey and her anguish and grappling with the Dark Side in the aftermath of the Jedi Massacre. 

I can also imagine him being this adorable Shipper On Deck for Finnrey lol. Just looking at his two friends, all proud, maybe even tearing up like “*sniff* I’m not crying Buddy, you’re crying!” when the inevitable big kiss scene happens. I can also imagine him being the one to tell Finn that “Hey Finn, what you’re feeling is love!”…And then he has to spend hours trying to explain what love even is to him lol. He always has his friends’ back after all. Again, he’s most likely the one guy who isn’t completely socially inept among these dorks. I’ve also had the potential idea that he could maybe be a good cook, and he’d be the one who introduces Rey and Finn to actually good food. Some fics I’ve noticed tend to show him cooking stuff probably for that reason. It’s just kind of cute, and it sets a good example if despite his traditionally masculine, salt-of-the-earth character, he likes some less “manly” stuff like such and sees no shame in it.

He may sacrifice himself in a blaze of glory towards the end, especially because quite frankly he may lose his plot relevance as the story goes on, though it would definitely be way more respectful than a lot of deaths were treated in the sequels. But I also want him to stick around because I want to imagine him being all proud of Rey and Finn after they propose to each other and giddily planning their wedding, and I feel he could have some very good interactions with Ben to build on for any spinoffs taking place after the trilogy. Speaking of…

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo: AKA Yet Another Ball Of Lost Potential: Anti-Villain Addition. This is gonna be a doozy, so strap in. He was probably the most developed character here but that just makes his lost potential stick out even more, so I have so much to say about him.

About 27 probably. While people complain about it, I actually like him being a manchild. It makes him a bit unique in this series. It’s kind of like Vader if he didn’t get stuck in that suit and kept acting like Anakin. In fact, that could make him even more terrifying if that feeds into how destructive he can be; at first he seems like your typical intimidating SW villain, not even that bad a leader with a seemingly calm if tense, imposing air, but it eventually becomes clear he’s this terrifying, volatile berserker who can throw some of the most destructive tantrums ever, and is ultimately a pathetic, broken, pitiful shell of a man. …He just happens to be a very powerful shell of a man. Maybe if he becomes emotional or angry enough, he can unleash powerful shockwaves that basically blow up everything around him, or cause mini Force Storms, or cause any number of unpredictable effects. Though he’s not quite constantly raging either; these berserk states are indeed triggered by anger, but I’m thinking that they are also basically weaponized panic attacks, there’s a sense that it’s also a self-defense mechanism that he lapses into when emotions overwhelm him or when he otherwise feels threatened (though whether it’s necessarily involuntary all the time I’m not so sure; but while he’d definitely want to be able to trigger them voluntarily, there will always be some sense that he doesn’t have full control over it). Also a lot of his rage is directed inwards as well, much like with his grandfather. I thought that maybe his unpredictability in these rages would be the key to his destructiveness, though I can see how someone who is out of control would also pose a problem, no matter how powerful; so maybe this is when he becomes the most focused, becoming locked onto the elimination of the perceived threat at all costs, and/or he can be controlled by his Master more directly like some kind of attack animal. 

Luke’s first padawan, or at least after Leia or Grogu (I might make him show up as Luke’s first knighted pupil and allude to this, providing more exposition on Kylo, and being one of the Jedi who help fight in the final battle as the Skywalkers go on to take on the final boss (and Grogu’s name being revealed would be a massive hype moment in The Mandalorian)). Due to his storied family, plus the name of his uncle and grandfather’s own master, he had heavy expectations on his (at the time) small shoulders from an early age. However, he had long been tormented by the Dark Side due to an untraceable curse placed upon him by Snoke, and probably a pre-existing anxious personality. The expectations placed on him, or maybe perhaps just self-imposed expectations, only worsened his turmoil, resulting in a festering mess of self-hatred, extreme perfectionism, and an obsession with familial honor and obsessive attachment to his family, especially Luke, that is a nasty combination of hero-worship and the abovementioned complexes and may border on almost incestuous.

There’s three ways for his backstory to go; “Underachiever Ben”, where Ben is either mediocre as a Jedi or still good but outperformed by others, or “Elsa Ben”, where he’s basically like Elsa from Frozen, possessing an extreme amount of power but barely able to control it, possibly due to Snoke’s curse, and a sort of middle ground, where Ben was super strong and a quick learner, but the dark side in him made Luke feel mixed about Ben’s increasing power, which Ben sensed. If the former, Ben becomes increasingly frustrated at himself for being such a “failure”. If “Elsa Ben”, there’s that, and also the added pain of him growing up terrified of himself and able to sense the terror he causes to those around him, so he was taken in by Luke so hopefully Luke could figure something out; he could have been destructive from the start, or maybe he started to become increasingly destructive despite his training. If the middle ground route, he takes Luke’s mixed emotions to mean that he doesn’t think he’s good enough. How severe Snoke’s curse would have been I’m not fully sure on; he could have voices in his head and nightmares keeping him up for days, chipping away at his sanity, tempting him to accept the darkness, or it may have just been an amplifying of his already unstable emotions. They could have even started as the latter and escalated to the former. But I’m thinking that to best explain his behavior I’m leaning towards the Elsa route. Eventually, his nightmares morphed into repeated visits by Darth Vader, his grandfather, who told him about the truth of his lineage and how he became Vader, slandering everything and everyone he ever admired or loved, telling him of his “true” destiny, and how he should give up and embrace it; unable to hear the real Anakin’s ghost screaming at him to not repeat his mistake. This extended campaign of mental torment stunted his emotional growth in many aspects, and at times he may seem to regress even more. Maybe other padawans were afraid of him because of this dark side presence, avoiding him, and/or were jealous of him because of his lineage and relation to Luke. He often felt entitled to be Luke’s right hand, getting jealous at other students and taking any reprimanding, no matter how gentle, extremely personally. Luke would have needed to struggle between not seeming to be biased towards his nephew and giving him the attention he needed, especially because Ben would feel like Han and Leia abandoned him because they weren’t able to help him, but considering how attached he is to Luke this would hurt him. So when Luke went to speak to him one night, or rushed in sensing an overwhelming dark side presence in his room, and was suddenly attacked by Snoke with a vision of what his nephew would become and making him go into fighting mode for a split second, drawing his weapon to protect Ben, and/or earlier admitted in anguish that he had no idea what was tormenting him despite his efforts, the straw broke the pedestal and he resigned himself to his “destiny”. Ironically he’s just exchanging one sky-high ideal for another, but he’s too emotionally immature to realize this, nor does he fully realize the fact that Snoke merely sees him as a malleable, gullible means to an end. Yet he still feels that pesky pull to the light, and he becomes increasingly frustrated with himself that even as a Dark side user, he still can’t be “perfect” or “worth” anything, not even able to sink himself into the darkness and finally rid himself of his pain. For all the privilege and power he has, or because of it, he always feels worthless. 

Basically I want to break him down and make his pitifulness obvious, but that’s what makes him sympathetic. He’s nowhere as far gone as Vader, even if he wants to be, kind of like a reverse Jekyll and Hyde situation where the Hyde is dominant but Jekyll hangs on, so to speak? Maybe? Is that the right analogy? Or I guess it is kind of like Anakin but sort of not, but he’s rapidly going down the same route of hurting his family like his grandfather. 

From researching a bit, his proposed behavior seems pretty close to the symptoms of BPD, which is actually pretty fitting because I was thinking Luke’s philosophy on the Force would be influenced by a more modern understanding of psychology, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy actually seems pretty in tune with what I understand to be how the Light Side of the Force works (I mean it even has basis in religious meditation…). Perhaps a mystical version of DBT was one of the things Luke was studying in exile. Though obviously it isn’t exactly BPD; portraying an actual, named mental illness not only has way too much baggage behind it, but it breaks immersion. And with him a lot of it will be the influence of the curse, though I think I would rather him have a personality that made him vulnerable to it from the start, so the curse had something to latch onto. 

Going with the “Elsa Ben” scenario, his “real” personality is anxious and even a bit shy. While I like the idea of him being cheerful when he was very little, the shyness always being there is also a characterization I like. Combined with his lumbering physique from his teenage years onwards, this made him a kid who gave off an impression of being extremely dorky (an act that would probably be very natural for Adam Driver to pull off lol) and/or withdrawn and aloof, the latter of which may have made some other padawans think he thought highly of himself and start to resent him. Unlike Anakin he’d be probably a dutiful student, almost creepily obedient, probably actively distancing himself from rebellious behavior, though his way of speaking isn’t exactly super formal either because of the influence of the adults around him. In his obsessions lies a genuine love, even if twisted, of his “favorite person” so to speak. He was also a genuinely sweet kid who wanted to please these special people in his life. He could be said to be actually really selfless in a weird way, because ultimately he values familial honor and being “good enough” for whatever higher purpose more than he values himself. TROS implied some sassiness with that Han-like shrug, and while I can maybe see some of Han rubbing off on him like that, that might be something that started from him trying to copy his parents’ air of confidence, and another coping mechanism. He might, like Vader, have a 501st legion 2.0 which Phasma is in charge of and Finn is part of, and show a more nicer side to them. Perhaps he opened up one or two times to Finn specifically; I can see this image of him venting to him while Finn stands still like how someone might vent to their dog, not really expecting Finn to be listening (also sarcasm might help Kylo obscure his true anguish from Finn, because FO troopers don’t understand sarcasm probably).  

He will be redeemed at the end… and live. Even if not necessarily paired with Rey. I’m neutral on Reylo (though admittedly I have a weak spot for pairs involving a strong woman and a troubled guy, so it’s kind of growing on me), but I really think this ship, or even centering the story strongly around a platonic relationship between these two, could have worked if it was built up strongly (Though if I were to go this route Finn would have to be established as a secondary character from the start, with Rey as the definitive main character, to focus on this). But either way, he’s definitely going to have to face the consequences of what he’s done, make up for his atrocities at least somewhat, and think about what he truly wants to do from now on. I can imagine him quietly reading stories to younglings as Rey, Finn, and Luke train some other pupils outside, or thanklessly working behind the scenes in other ways. For his haters out there, I could make the pill easier to swallow not just by making the reasons for his fall and how he was slowly and meticulously gaslit more clear, but also making him not as awful. Yes, he’s extremely destructive, but he could show more reluctance, or pause after his berserker rages, staring at the destruction he’s caused as the weight of what he’s done sinks in. He’d of course resent that he still has mercy left in him though. I don’t think that there will be a Starkiller Base, but even if there was he might argue with Hux a bit over whether it’s really necessary, until Hux sneers at him for having mercy, saying that Vader never hesitated when blowing up Alderaan, and Kylo reluctantly backs off.

…Actually, what about making him and Rey cousins? On one hand, if Rey is a Skywalker by blood, a direct daughter of the Master himself no less, Ben is now suddenly freed from carrying the weight of the family legacy on his own. On the other hand… He basically loses the thing he has spent his entire life building his identity around; since his fall would have partially been because of his obsession with Luke, he may become jealous and extremely resentful of her, and/or take this as even more reason for Luke to not “need” him anymore. Or perhaps, he pulls a reverse of “I sense the conflict in you” with her, wanting to “save” her from embracing the Light and wanting her to embrace the “true” Skywalker destiny with him. He could even be overjoyed that he could have someone else alongside him to carry on the legacy with; in this scenario he could have an unhealthy obsession with her that might also start crossing into “are you sure this isn’t incest?” territory. Yeah it’s a “join me and we can rule together” scenario again, but it would be done differently. Or perhaps it’s a mix of some of those. Exploring that and how he chooses to take it could be extremely interesting. Maybe it’s resolved when Anakin tells him to “finish what he started”… not just by saving the galaxy, but by also living the rest of his life loving his family not as an ideal, but as family, like Anakin wasn’t allowed to. And platonic Reylo sounds nice too. Though that’s going to make all that shipping fanart so awkward lol. Well it’s not as if Star Wars shippers haven’t been cockblocked by incest before (though his obsession with family and extremely questionable mental state would probably make such shippers go nuts anyway…). 

And going off of Poe being close to his parents, while the main interactions with Kylo from the heroes would be Rey, Finn if he’s the second protagonist, Luke, and his parents, I can see potential for an interesting dynamic and some interesting conversations between them too. Much like how he might react to Rey being Luke’s daughter, I can see him being jealous of Poe and resenting him for being his “replacement”, but after his redemption I can see potential for seeing the start of a friendship between them in epilogue comics, novels, or a mini-series. It would be pretty in-character for my version of Poe to want to help rehabilitate his sort-of stepbrother. Also I now have the adorable mental image of Ben quietly helping Poe (and maybe the rest of his squad) decorate and arrange Rey and Finn’s wedding, or the two surprising Finn with a very elaborate bachelor party, though I’m not sure if those exist in this universe. And because of a certain Inside Llewyn Davis scene I’m also imagining Poe getting Ben to sing with him and BB-8. It’s adorable. 

Also if both Rey and Finn are the main heroes, he might have some kind of link with both of them, and the main duo would both contrast him in their own way (lonely scavenger who no one expected anything of and nameless trooper who defected from the First Order vs. someone who grew up in greatness but seemingly threw it away and chose to be in the First Order; and much like Kylo Finn in particular has been manipulated from childhood to do heinous things, so he may sympathize with his situation). Maybe he’s the missing piece needed for both him and the leading duo to reach their full potential, or the main duo are the last piece needed to finally break Snoke’s curse on him, or something. Or it could simply just be Finn showing his growth and strength of character by understanding and forgiving Kylo, despite him now understanding just how badly the First Order treated him, which makes Rey (who, again, might start as this super cynical scavenger or may have seen Kylo go berserk and massacre her friends and betray her Master) come around to the idea. In this scenario it may actually be even more important to emphasize that Rey and Finn are two making up a whole, so as not to bog stuff down. It’s possible to ship Finnrey and want Kylo to have a better ending, what a shock! 

Maybe Rey and Kylo could switch places, and he comes back to the light in SW8, which is an idea I’ve seen floated and is something that would make the story truly unique. He would seem like basically a less stable Vader 2.0 at the start, but over SW8 he could be seen breaking more and more out of his own terrible mindset, coming to a head in a cathartic realization that bring him back into the arms of his beloved family. It would also add an interesting dynamic that he and Finn have to be equals now. But that may mean that Rey would have to be killed off and I’m not so sure about that. 

Though speaking of her, since in all these scenarios a common thread is that she understandably doesn’t like him, it would be a bit of a twist if Finn sees the good in him but Rey, if she’s a Skywalker, his cousin, doesn’t. 

And to bring up Poe again, I also really like the idea of them having been childhood friends and thus knowing each other before the events of SW7; after all, they’re around similar age, it isn’t that far-fetched to think that former Rebel families would be still pretty close to each other, and I’ve seen some adorable fanfics with the concept. It also adds connection between them and adds even more tragedy, even if this relationship may have to be elaborated more in supplementary material due to time. I can definitely Poe speaking like an old friend to Kylo and constantly calling him “Ben”, to his irritation. The abovementioned feeling of being replaced could be what caused Ben to suddenly break off the friendship. And making the main cast kind of tight-knit like this might also help make the cast easier to manage. 

Granted, there is the possibility of killing him off, though. I heard that one of the initial ideas for TFA was apparently that Kylo would be a reverse Vader, falling deeper and deeper into the Dark Side as the trilogy goes on. In fact, this may have been where Kylo killing Han may have been leading to. This actually sounded like a super cool idea, but considering the backstory I laid out I thought it would be way too bittersweet for the concluding movie of the saga, and if one were to say Kylo basically has BPD… That might lead to some unfortunate implications. I mean nothing is stopping me from not using the Elsa backstory, and if I didn’t use it maybe this route would be pretty viable, but I’m kind of starting to get attached to it. 

—

Other characters:

Hux: I’ve never really been a villain person. I mean I liked sympathetic villains, yeah (but even then I preferred anti-heroes for a while; I’m talking like nothing beyond N from Pokémon levels of “evil”), but straight-up villains I just have merely seen as obstacles. Like back in my Smash fic days I was often like “Eh… They’re there… Because they want to take over the world I guess?”. It’s why I’m having trouble with Snoke probably lol. But for some reason Hux interests me. If I take a guess it’s probably because of the potential he had as an actual foil to Kylo in his own faction. He had so much potential as a villain, and in having this tense dynamic play out. In fact he does seem to have been set up that way in SW7. But yeah, I imagine him as one coldhearted bastard. His backstory, though not elaborated on in the movies, would be much like TFA supplementary material set him up; he’d still have killed his father, but while yes, Brendol was abusive and strict, Armitage didn’t kill him completely because he was a young man who wanted to break free from his strict father, but also genuinely because he knew doing so would be good for his standing. Unlike Kylo when he (most likely) kills Han, he doesn’t regret killing Brendol at all. While he might have a tragic backstory kind of explaining his behavior, it doesn’t bother him at all, while Kylo, who considering what happened to him and how he’s literally under a curse you’d think would have a much steeper fall into unabashed evil, is constantly conflicted. It’s a very Sith Lord-like backstory funnily enough… In fact I’m pretty sure that Palpatine had a backstory very similar to this with his parents.  

He’s a very logical, analytical, brutally pragmatic person, and he looks upon Kylo’s emotional state with condescension. I’m increasingly starting to like the idea that he’s somehow able to talk Kylo down, while still being hardly nice. Perhaps he preys upon Kylo’s constant need for approval from others, even if he doesn’t like the person in question (this may also be why Kylo reacts so strongly to Finn escaping as well, in fact. He genuinely cares about people’s loyalty, even from literal no-name soldiers). Though I can’t decide whether he’s this deceptively charming snake or basically an evil Spock. I also can’t decide between him being in this constant state of “Why do I have to babysit this manchild” or giving absolutely no visible f*cks around Kylo no matter what happens, or even straight-up trolling him often, toying with his emotions because it amuses him; preferably two or a bit of all somehow? I can see him using having met Vader as a child to mock Kylo for how much of a pale, childish imitation he is, or reminding Kylo of how much better he is as a leader objectively; perhaps that’s what he holds over Kylo’s head. Or him explaining to Kylo how he was raised by less than stellar parenting and tried so hard to live up to his strict father too… So he brutally murdered Brendol in cold blood (possibly with Phasma’s help), became a better admiral than he ever was, and got over it “Like an adult. Unlike you.”. They’d be in this constant state of delicate, tense equality; Kylo can easily overpower Hux if he pisses him off a bit too much, but Hux is able to walk that fine edge seemingly without much effort. 

But when he realizes whatever grand cosmic plot he and the entire First Order has been participating in this whole time is when, ironically, there would probably be a really dramatic villainous breakdown from him. It’s kind of a Zuko and Azula situation with Kylo and Hux perhaps? Or is this Hux more a mix of Azula and Zhao’s roles rather?

——

Worldbuilding stuff: Since I’m more a character person, there isn’t much here, but because the worldbuilding was another issue in the movies I’ll also be adding these.

The New Republic isn’t nuked in the first movie. In fact it stays there for the duration of the trilogy and the hero faction is now its armed forces, not The Resistance (Also that name makes no sense. Seriously. At least name them The Peacekeeper Corps or Vigilantes or something, or since they’re basically Leia’s personal military maybe the Organa Free Army or Organa Corps or something of that sort. No wonder people mistakenly call them The Rebels sometimes. It’s a similar setup to Chrom’s Shepherds in Fire Emblem Awakening, albeit with a better relationship with the kingdom; it would be downright strange if the Shepherds called themselves The Resistance despite literally existing with the queen’s permission, and it still is here. Hell, Leia’s Shepherds is a better name). There would be elaboration on the political stuff going on behind the scenes, and if Leia isn’t a Jedi that’s her plotline probably, though a big part of me wants her to be part of the action instead of being stuck on the homeworld. 

Meanwhile, The First Order is made up of Imperial Remnants and people and planets who were unsatisfied with the democratic but still new and fragile New Republic. Basically think White Russians if the Soviets weren’t also awful. It happens a lot in history. While it may have some mining planets in its orbit (not literally, you know what I mean) so it can plausibly refurbish anything Kylo wrecks with his tantrums, Starkiller Base is probably a bit much, and a lot of their equipment might be old Imperial or Rebel stuff, or stolen from the New Republic, with new stuff being produced but not in overly high quantity. Some of the equipment deemed less important might even be kind of crappy due to how old they are. They’d probably be at most an equally powerful faction to the Republic, if not smaller than them, seeming more like a terrorist cell. I don’t have much of an idea why Snoke would want to be involved in it yet though. 

But while the First Order might be smaller, the New Republic is hindered by it just now finally gaining its footing, and the military previously only having been used for peacekeeping and sniping stray Imperial remnants. Because it’s peacetime, it might have been kept pretty small, and also the military academies are literally not even 30 years old at this point, so new that it’s possible Poe, despite his youth, was one of the earliest graduates; one of the military’s most high-ranking officers is literally a scoundrel with no formal training - even if he is good at his job - it isn’t exactly a well-oiled machine, though its less rigid, casual structure also does benefit it in some aspects. Also the FO can easily use Kylo as intimidation, and its upper staff is nothing if not driven and motivated as well as ruthless. They may engage in more underhanded actions like sabotage and suicide bombers, or rely on small elite units like the Knights of Ren or small companies of troopers, to poke holes in the enemy just as much as open combat. And maybe if all else fails Snoke causes something really bad to happen seemingly out of nowhere. 

While I do think that making the baddies an Empire 2.0 is an… uncreative decision, I want to keep Finn’s backstory, plus it fits Kylo’s story too so blah, I kind of have to keep it. Plus I want to do Phasma and Hux justice. Maybe Snoke or whatever it serves turns into a giant Eldritch abomination and have no use for the FO anymore. And again, reactionary forces are a thing that have existed throughout early modern history. But as already mentioned, due to the nature of the First Order’s existence, maybe the Stormtroopers aren’t kidnapped, but they were orphans picked off the streets, and/or some more dedicated Imperial parents gave them their children? I had the idea that Troopers like Finn are “Junior Troopers”, the child slave type, while older members, “Senior Troopers”, would be legit Imperial revanchists and former troopers. Maybe there’s a separate company of Juniors who think they’re cool by fighting for the First Order, but generally Juniors would be the lowest on the social rung, though some might make it into higher positions, and don’t know any other life than what they have now. Though I also like the idea that Finn was part of an elite unit directly connected to Kylo Ren like the 501st, so he has a reason to be particularly hurt by his betrayal (but that could throw a wrench in the whole Finn was a faceless cog in the machine thing). They’re pretty Prussian in command structure; officers work under mission-tactics, but the rank-and-file are machine-like in their discipline, more than even some actual droids. The Republic’s forces also probably engage in mission-tactics a lot, except how far it is acceptable goes way further down the chain of command, so stuff like the Holdo situation doesn’t happen. If that situation were to happen when mission-tactics were to be expected Poe’s independent action would be seen as reasonable. This would have potential for very interesting battles and tactics, though I’d need a lot of help with those because I’m the furthest thing from a tactician you can find (but even I can tell the bomber scene from TLJ was dumb, which should say something).

I kind of realized that it’s possible that the four OT legacy characters may end up basically representing four major aspects of the New Republic; the Jedi (Luke), law and justice (Leia, if she’s a senator), the military (Han, if he’s a general), and economics (Lando). I think some worldbuilding into how the republic functions should be explored through these characters as they move the story forward, except for the Jedi since they’re obviously a central focus, and Luke might very well be introduced after them, and the military will also get focus for obvious reasons, and Poe exists. The information definitely needs to be conveyed as efficiently and organically as possible through the story, because there’s two, likely three, equally important main characters and an unholy amount of secondary characters who aren’t exactly minor. 

May write more later idk. I need to be doing other stuff…

[yamchaas]

I'm so curious, and not for any reason at all but would you mind giving your opinion on bulma? Just your general thoughts on her?

Bulma, Bulma, Bulma.

Where would I start? I'll be 100% honest I'm not a huge Bulma person (or Vegeta) but I also totally don't begrudge anyone their love of either character because we all see things differently.

First, I love Bulma’s character design, she’s very cute. I love her hairstyles, I love her outfits. I think she was well designed and I do appreciate that the ladies of db aren’t insanely proportioned? I really like that they made her a tech genius who actively enjoys building and experimenting, rather than just making her steal stuff off her scientist dad. She has an inquiring mind of her own. Also I grew up with Tiffany Vollmer as her va and I love how she voiced her, that will always be Bulma’s voice in my head.

Bulma is undoubtedly given the most of any of the DB ladies and I do appreciate that Bulma is just apologetically kind of an erratic person who is very smart but still just does whatever the hell she feels like. In a lot of ways Bulma is given the same leeway that a lot of male characters are, where they make some choices that are kinda shitty and can be assholes without the narrative constantly punishing them. I don’t give Toriyama credit for that though, because I’m kinda certain it wasn’t a thing he purposely did.

Almost every female character in db, other than like Suno and maybe Videl is kinda given the same unrelenting cold personality and I can’t help but to side-eye everyone involved with the writing for that. If we got more of an array of personalities for the ladies like we do the guys I wouldn’t be so annoyed about it, but we don’t. A character like Chichi is fairly well used as a little more than a nag, whereas Bulma gets to do stuff, go on adventures, etc. so it makes sense that people feel more warmly toward Bulma, because she is actually given the opportunity to spread her wings in a way that Launch or Chichi just aren’t. I mean they literally dropped Launch and pretty much never mentioned her again.

My favourite Bulma dynamic is probably her and Goku, I genuinely find their little brother/big sister dynamic so good. She’s so often exasperated by Goku but at the same time has total faith in his abilities and I just really enjoy that.

One of my favourite Bulma moments is on Namek when she comes across the slain village and is genuinely horrified and cradles one of the little kids and is just like how could anyone do this, I appreciate when we get to see Bulma be a little bit soft. I like seeing her as a mum and I appreciate that being a mum did soften her edges but not too much, she’s still sharp. Also Future Bulma invented a time machine? how cool is that? She was very enjoyable in the one off future Trunk’s special and I also love future Bulma’s look.

Ultimately I think a lot of my feelings toward Bulma are sorta akin to burn out, like there is so much love for Bulma and Vegeta, so much content around them, so many hottakes about how they deserve better in the narrative, which just kinda personally confuses me because they have been given better story lines than pretty much every character other than Goku, whereas most the other ogs are totally sidelined. Then theres the whole long running thing of shitting on Yamcha constantly, by both Bulma in the actual story (made a post about that already) and then the Bulma/Vege fans. Fanon bleeding into peoples memories of canon which tries to turn Yamcha into this terrible, shitty person who’s obsessed with Bulma and I’m just a bit tired, like the dude calls himself ‘uncle” to her kids, I don’t think he’s holding a grudge lol

tl:dr my feelings toward Bulma are a mixed bag, I guess? But thanks for asking!

[szopenhauer]

Have you ever seen a black rose? online only

Is your coffee machine plugged in right now? we don’t own one as we don’t drink coffee Do you write words on your knuckles? I tried few times for fun XD Have you ever been a SCUBA diver for Halloween? wtf Have you ever taken a picture of a sandwich? sure Have you ever seen elephant droppings? I haven’t  Would you like to visit Play Dough Land? :o What’s your opinion on Katy Perry? copycat Who was your favorite character from the cartoon Recess? Spinelli, then Gretchen

Have you ever lost your parents in the grocery store? yeah, I still do and I hate that  Have you drawn a star today? not today but when I was in hospital this week Are you older or younger than fifteen? much older If you can remember, what was the last thing that made you feel nostalgic? Recess being mentioned Are you the type of person who prefers to stay in or go out? stay in Do you plan on sleeping in tomorrow? yep Are you starting to realize anything? sigh... Would you live with someone without marrying them? why not Who was the last person you talked to in person? *mom enters my room*

Who were the last 3 males you talked to? dad and two doctors

If you have a pet, when did you last pet him/her? omg I realized I was so tired that I didn’t even say hello to my dog wtf... What genre is the song that you’re currently listening to? indiepop/electropop Does the person you love/like have a car? What colour is it? nope Have you ever received a compliment on anything you’re wearing? plenty of times Which word(s) do you generally use to describe someone attractive? (e.g. “fit”, “sexy” etc.) wow beautiful, pretty, attractive, cute, adorable, piękna, that she looks amazing/awesome/great, śliczna, urocza, słodka, cudowna...

*it reminds me of one very embarassing high school story: były wigilie klasowe i wyszliśmy rozbawieni z sali, a na korytarzu stała śliczna dziewczyna i na cały głos powiedziałam “ale laska” potem zorientowałam się co właśnie zrobiłam i robiąc facepalma wymaszerowałam ze szkoły, a za mną śmiejące się przyjaciółki, nie dały mi potem o tym długo zapomnieć, a E.W. nawet obczaiła kto to i próbowała się dowiedzieć, czy jest ona lesbą, ale okazało się, że ma chłopaka i demonstracyjnie całowała się z nim na moich oczach parę dni później Have you had any caffeinated beverages today? just water Have you eaten any chocolate today? What kind? I haven’t Name something you like, that starts with the letter ‘L’. lamps I’m not a moth tho :P When was the last time someone wanted you to do something, and you refused? not sure when was the last time and/or what it was about How many people have you hugged today? 2 Do you have a favourite hair colour or eye colour on your preferred sex? been really into very dark brown eyes and arm lenght or a bit shorter brown hair mostly like Rosa Salazar (latino and asian women) that’s why Sarah been so my type

but my biggest tumblr crush was Raquey Strange

and my youtube one - Rachel Maksy

*vintage ladies <3 The last song you listened to – does it remind you of anyone? it doesn’t remind me of anyone, it’s from K-12 album

What was the last compliment you received? mom complimented my hair today

Are you more prone to being the social butterfly, or the wallflower? wallflower

Would you rather go to a Katy Perry or Taylor Swift concert? none but Swift if I had to choose

What pattern do the sheets on your bed have? no pattern this time

What languages can you count to ten or higher in? englihs, polish, russian Where did you get the underwear you’re wearing? Auchan

Are you good in painting yopur nails with your left hand? not even with my right one lol Do you feel uncomfortable sharing drinks with other people? very Do you call any of your friends by their last name? that would be weird How long does it take you to get out of bed in the morning? long? Have either of your grandparents ever told you a sexual joke? I don’t recall Would you rather give up the computer or the TV? gave up TV Which room in your house tends to be the coldest in the winter time? bathroom Are you trying to grow out your hair? need to cut my hair but not bangs

How many times does the letter ’t’ occur in your full name? once

What brand is the shirt you’re wearing? I cut the tag but I believe I bought it in Sinsay First person you spoke to today? my mother Name of first boyfriend/girlfriend? dunno who to count First place you lived? same as currently Who was your 1st teacher? not counting pre school and Mrs. Alinka - my aunt  Last person to call you? labor office Last song you heard? Melanie Martinez - Bombs on Monday Morning Last thing you bought? silver glittery ugg slippers :3 Where was your facebook display photo taken? hospital How many people have you kissed in the last 2 weeks? nobody What were you doing at 10 this morning? waking up Have you ever dated an Emily? umm... How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 0 What is the weather like right now? perfect - hot, zephyr, clouds :D why am I not outside?... Where was the last place you went that was more than 30 minutes away? mall Something you wear all the time that you’d feel naked without? panties, unless I’m sleeping

Do you live within an hour of the ocean? not even sea Do you ever do things even though you know you’ll regret it later? sometimes I might :( What are you currently sitting/laying on? my desk chair Have you ever dated a friend of one of your siblings? no but I had a crush on one of them for a moment What do you plan to be doing 2 hours from now? eating? Have you ever been a clown for Halloween? not Halloween What time did you go to bed last night? early and immediately fallen asleep which never happens to me but I was so exhausted that I was falling on my face while I was blow drying my hair When was the last time it rained? yesterday or day before Have you ever made yourself throw up?  no way in hell When was the last time you went camping? middle school? Are you currently wearing anything orange? am not Do you know anyone who is a nurse? neighbor Would you prefer to own a lapdog or a bigger dog? lapdog Are you currently wearing any jewelry? nope Was any of it given to you? - What was the worst thing to happen to you today? health issues, annoying people, nothing new? Do you know anyone who plays guitar? I tried myself Did anyone tell you that you looked nice today? mentioned that in this survey so look above How many missed calls have you had today? two Did you graduate high school within the last 3 years? it’s been over 5 years  If not, will you graduate within the next 3 years? not applicable as you can see Which is coming next: Christmas or your birthday? Christmas Do you have any money on yourself at the moment? mhm Do you sleep in the nude? nope Do you ever walk around the house naked if no one is home? neither What is your favorite way to spend a cool autumn night? sleeping duh! Where was the last place you slept other than your house? hospital Do you have any big plans for the weekend? work in progress, we’ll see, deciding  How many relationships have you been in so far this year? like 1 Have you ever dated someone who had a child? pfft, I dislike kids so... Are you taller than 5'6"? I’m smol 

When was the last time you saw someone you went to high school with?: this year

How long have your parents been together (or how long were they together, if they no longer are): 30+ years

How long would it take you to walk to the nearest store?: ~10 minutes

How old were you when you got your first smartphone?: 25 or something

Have you ever had a parrot sit on your shoulder?: monkey for a second

Has anyone in your life ever treated you abusively?: majority of society

Do you like The Rolling Stones?: prefer Depeche Mode

What’s something you’ve been struggling with lately?: life

How old were you in 1996? 4

How old will you be in 2026? won’t live that long but 34 What song is playing? Mosimann & MARUV - Mon Amour

Are you better at math or art? art Science or History? science, I’m bad at remembering dates and names

Where did you go to pre-school, if you went at all? my town

Have you ever dated someone & then dated their sibling? I wouldn’t be able to do such a thing What do you think of the 1980’s? cool :) Is their anything living (plant, animal, etc) in your room right now? me and plants How old is the cellphone you have right now? couple years old What are your initials, using the last letter of each of your names? AA as I’m a woman - dodaj jedno A i będziemy anonimowymi alkoholikami

Are both your parents still living? they are  Can you do a handstand? used to Is it after 11am? it’s almost 5 pm What’s the longest time you’ve ever spent on the phone? talking or doing other stuff? How many pairs of brown shoes do you own? do I even own any?... Are you on any prescribed medications? plan to be sadly Would you ever or do you have a nose piercing? doubt it, thought about septum as a teenager but no longer want it

How many days until Christmas? months Is your mom over 50? she is  How old were you 7 years ago? 21 Do you know what ‘C'est la vie’ means? even tho I don’t know this language  Are you wearing anything red? leggings Do you live in an apartment? house Do you wish on dandelions? I blow them but don’t wish on them Are you drinking anything right now? I’m going to  About how tall is your father? taller than me Do you know anyone who has lived to be 100+? not personally Have you had your birthday yet this year? in February Do you read your horoscope on a regular basis? nah Do you like the color yellow? it’s one of my fav colors Are you an aunt or uncle? yes What is your hair like at the moment? fine What would you name be if your last name was the color of your shirt? Black If you could find out how you would die, would you want to know? yasss but what about date? Has anyone ever told you you should be a model? with my height? r u serious? Who is the artist/band you’re listening to at the moment? Boy Epic Is there a calendar in the room you’re in? pocket and poster type If you’re single, do you wish you were in a relationship? am in a relationship Were you born in the 1980’s? 90s What was your first favorite movie? animated Robin Hood with a fox and Jumanji also Goonies What was your first trip to the emergency room for? not counting being born too early - I was choking due to the fact I got wrong meds for my lungs, later I ended up in ER as an adult for stomachache (took me in an ambulance) Where was the first place you went today? store What was the first thing you thought about when you woke up? dream that I had Do you remember the first time you spent the night away from home? grandma’s apartment but not exact night as I was just a child What was the last movie you rented? I srsly can not remember Why did you last get angry? neighbor is mowing grass... every single day for whole day long How long ago was your last birthday? half year ago Do you enjoy helping people move or do you not like it? I’ve never helped anyone move 

Have you been taking more or less surveys as of recently? less as I was absent

[mafiamamaj]

Here's an Endgame fix-it I would love but don't have the patience to write.

So, Steve goes back in time. Everybody's all pissed because its so out of character, and why is Peggy worth more than Tony or Bucky, all that. But, hear me out.

Steve goes back and the first thing he does is find Peggy and Howard. Convince them its really him, somehow get them to believe the time travel nonsense, all that. They play it up like he survived the crash and found his way home because it's only been like, a week, if that, since the Valkryie went down.

Steve gets Howard and Peggy to help him look for Bucky. He has a vague idea of where he should be at this point, but no solid details, so it takes a little while. This derails any interest Howard had in the Manhattan Project, especially since Steve is Very Vocal about his hatred of the idea.

(Now, I dont have the knowledge to even begin to theorize what would have happened in a reality where Steve Rogers was around to Loudly and Publicly as Captain America declare his disapproval of something as huge and significant as the Manhattan Project. For the sake of my brain, we are going to say that they met a lot more resistance than they otherwise would have, but it still happened because the American Government is awful.)

They find Bucky within a few years of Steve's crash and survival. Obviously he's still all kinds of fucked up because of torture, experimentation, cryo, etc. But 5-6 years is a whole he'll of a lot different than 70+. Shield still gets built, honestly Steve couldn't imagine it with any other name, but Bucky's return reveals that Hydra is still around and that Operation Paperclip was a bad idea (Zola). So they clean house early. Peggy becomes Director because Howard is to busy with his tech, and Steve and Bucky both said no. They do work for the newly built Shield though, running ops and hunting Hydra. They also might as well be married. Its still illegal for the time, so they're careful, but all the people who matter to them know and none of them care that the Captain and his Sargeant are doing the horizontal mambo.

Steve was friends with Tony, even if it didn't work out that well. And for all their differences, well earned and understandable, Tony and Howard had a lot more in common than Tony would ever want to admit. So Steve learns from the mistakes he made with Tony, and keeps Howard from turning into the monster he was in Tony's memories.

He mother hen's Howard into drinking less, drags him out to socialize more(Bucky is a huge help with that), calls him out when he's being a dick, and puts him in his place when his ego, or his head, gets too big for his britches.

Howard gets Steve to actually sell his art, builds him neat gadgets and armor, teases him to no end about Bucky, and is consistently endangering both of their lives on his never ending quest to get Steve drunk. (Bucky might have more sense than both of them, but he's also an adrenaline junkie with a hard-on for mechanical anything, so he is no help whatsoever and Peggy constantly despaired that the fate of the world lies with these overgrown children.)

When Howard marries Maria, Steve stands up for him at the wedding. The first time Howard made Maria cry because he ignored her/forgot something important/said something mean without meaning too, Steve beat him over the head and gave him a Captain America lecture, made Howard bake an apology cake himself, then dragged Howard back to Stark manner to apologize. The second time it happened, Bucky showed up in whatever place Howard had fallen asleep, dressed in full combat gear, cussed him out in Russian and threatened to shoot him. The third and last time it happened, Peggy showed up in Howard's lab, had him tied up before he even new she was there, and calmly informed him of exactly how she would torture him into a slow and agonizing death, as well as how exactly, she would get away with it.

Howard still forgot things, and could be careless with his time, but they never let him get bad, never let him forget how much he Did Not deserve Maria. And when Tony was born they were there for him. Steve refused to let Howard ignore his son, dragged him (figuratively) the first time Howard showed any sign of jealousy towards Tony. It wasn't perfect, nothing could be. But this Tony would grow up with a bumbling inventor of a father who was only forgetful and easily distracted, rather than an alcholic with a mean streak. He would have a mother who wasn't afraid of her husband and would love him even if she didn't always understand him.

He would have a godfather, his Uncle Steve, who would teach him to fight, to stand up for what was right no matter what, who would play games with him, paint with him, love him.

He would have his Uncle Bucky, who would share his interest in all things mechanical, would listen to music with him, take apart and build machines with him, teach him dirty jokes and play pranks on his Dad or Uncle Steve, who would listen to all of his ideas and tell him he could do anything.

He would have his godmother, Aunt Peggy, who would teach him how to play the game that is high society, would teach him how to charm the socks (rather pants) off of anyone, male, female, or otherwise, who would help him when emotions got to difficult, or people didn't make sense the way he thought they should.

Steve would find the others too. Phil did alright on his own, but everyone else...

Shield would be looking for the Red Room from the start. Maybe they find Natasha as a child, or a teenager, but they would find her, because Steve would want to save her after all the times she saved him. She would get placed with a loving family, probably a shield agent and their spouse. She would have therapy, but even a couple of years with the Red Room would mess her up. She would eventually end up an agent herself, still the Black Widow, just a little less damaged. A hero because she wants to be, knows what it means to be saved by one, rather than a way to repent and repay the lives that she took.

They would find Clint probably around the time Barney and Trickshot turned on him, before he had a chance to start on his mercenary career. Therapy, maybe a shield agent foster parent for a year or two depending on his age. They would make no secret about recruiting him, but he would jump at it. Nat would probably already be there, and nothing would stop that friendship. Coulson is probably a few years ahead of them, though not many, and if there is anyone who could reign in Hawkeye, even a slightly less damaged version, it would be Phil Coulson.

Tony meets Bruce. Howard takes Steve's admittedly limited knowledge of Bruce's past and tracks down the kid. Creates a scholarship to get him to a private school and away from his dad. They meet at a Stark expo in their early teens and immediately hit it off. Bruce is one of the only people who can keep up with Tony's genius. When Tony ends up at MIT (sometime between the ages of 14-16) Bruce ends up at Harvard. They share an apartment, because the dorms would have been a disastrous idea. Steve and Bucky live with them because they might be super geniuses but you can't send two teenagers to live alone in another city Howard! Especially not when they have access to dangerous and/or explosive chemicals/tech!

Likely, Howard will still die at some point, probably from all the liquor. Fury will probably still end up as Shield's director because neither Steve or Bucky will want the responsibility. Tony will take over SI, but will still eventually hire Pepper, and eventually promote her, because running a company is never going to be his thing.

Bruce will probably still end up at Culver with Betty, if only because he's actually halfway decent at the whole teacher thing, and the Hulk incident will likely still happen one way or another. Having Steve Rogers alive would not stop men like Ross from wanting the serum. Instead of disappearing for years on end, He'll end up in Tony's tower in NYC. Tony will likely still be kidnapped, though he probably would not have the Obadiah Stane factor involved, and would still end up as Iron Man.

They would "find" the Steve still frozen and thaw him out around that time. Play it off like they found someone for Old Steve to pass the mantle onto. Give Young Steve a new identity, and a family in Old Steve and Bucky.

Young Steve would make friends with Tony, would have time to grieve his lost world without an alien invasion. Would move into the tower and mother hen Tony the way Old Steve used to do to Howard. Tony would not have all the Cap resentment he did in the original timeline, so he would get to know Young Steve as just Steve. Would be able to see him as an entirely seperate person from his godfather, because they are two separate people. Young Steve and Tony would fall in love.

Even if they weren't running it Old Steve and Bucky would still have a hand in Shiled. Would keep an eye on Natasha and Clint. They would have likely met Tony, Bruce, and Young Steve. So when the Chitauri roll in, the only one that wouldn't already be a part of the group is Thor and he fits in seamlessly. Coulson might still get hurt, but Fury wouldn't have to fake his death, because the Avengers would have been a team years before they were needed.

And when the time came to face Thanos again, they would do it as a united front, and they would win. Because together, they are unstoppable.

[gore-hovnd]

So a few days I posted that I’d outlined my headcanon for Jack’s life up until the events of TWS and I got some good advice to post it. So I prettied it up and fleshed out a few concepts and now I’m throwing it at tumblr

Now, these are just my headcanons, and yes I’m forcing HH into it bc I love the ship and even though it’d never happen in canon, it was fun to kinda toy with the whole “how they met” idea. So yeah, here’s this and I’m gonna go lay down lol

I’ll see about doing one for Brock too? Just depends on how long it takes for me to think of stuff up for him. 

Jack’s Timeline

      • Jack Rollins was born in 1974 to John and Leanne Rollins in the mountains of Colorado, right outside of a major city

      • At the time of his birth he was their fifth son but would end up being the middle sibling of nine

          ◦  The reason Jack’s parents had so many children was because Leanne had grown up an only child and recalled how lonely it was. She never wanted her kids to be lonely so she decided she wanted a lot of them. Originally, she’d planned to stop at five but Leanne and John decided they wanted to keep trying until they had a girl.

      • Jack’s siblings consist of: 

          ‣  Matthias - 1964

          ‣ Titus and T.J. - 1966

          ‣ Lawson - 1970

          ‣ Cooper - 1980

          ‣ Benjamin - 1982

          ‣ Samuel - 1983

          ‣ Annalise - 1985

      • Jack was born premature and doctors didn’t think he would survive

          ◦ Because of this, Leanne favored him and always kept a close eye on him

      • During Jack’s early life, his parents thought he may have had a learning disability due to the fact that he rarely, if ever spoke. 

          ◦ It turned out that Jack was selectively mute

      • John didn’t take well to this diagnosis and wanted to try to force Jack to speak

          ◦ He suggested doing this by forcing Jack to verbally ask for things like food, water, bathroom breaks, etc. 

                ‣ Leanne rejected this and instead decided that Jack would be treated by a therapist

      • Jack began to speak more in middle school

          ◦ It started out with asking / answering questions in class, asking to borrow a pencil from classmates, etc. 

      • By the time Jack was in 8th grade, while still shy, was able to speak with relative ease

      • In 1987, when Jack was 13, his mother passed away due to an ongoing heart condition

          ◦ Because of this, Jack’s family feared he would stop talking again

      • While Jack didn’t stop talking, he also didn’t seem to mourn the loss of his mother either

      • Concerned with this, John had sent Jack to a new therapist

          ◦ The new therapist claimed Jack was going through a period of dissociative shock 

                ‣ It took years of therapy and counseling for Jack to open up and properly grieve 

      • Jack ended up going to a different high school than most of his peers from middle school and had to basically start over. 

      • For a little while he would keep to himself and didn’t really take the steps to make any new friends

          ◦ Until three months into the semester when he was paired up to work on an assignment with a boy named Dalton

      • Dalton took a liking to Jack and introduced him to the rest of his friend group; consisting of Cole, Braxton, Lucan, and Matt

      • The boys grew close together; they would hang out after school together and Jack would go to their drama club performances even though he was too shy to be in one himself. 

      • During spring break of his freshman year, Jack found out and met Braxton’s two dads, Arthur and Christopher

          ◦ Before this, Jack had never met a gay couple before

                ‣ Meeting them sprung questions of Jack’s own sexuality

      • When Jack’s dad found out about Braxton’s parents, he reacted very negatively and this scared Jack back into his shell

          ◦ He rarely spoke to his father about anything after that

      • For the entirety of his sophomore year and the majority of his junior year, Jack tried to ignore his sexuality

      • Until finally, nearing the end of his junior year, he came out to Arthur and Christopher and asked them for advice

          ◦ The two of them told Jack he could always confide in them

      • At 18, Jack developed a crush on a new student who’d moved to Colorado from Los Angeles

      • This boy’s name was Christian and the two of them began to date soon after meeting

      • Jack told Christian that he didn’t want to go public about their relationship, basically stating he liked to keep his personal life private

          ◦ Christian agreed not to say anything

      • The two of them dated for a few months but that all came to a screaming halt during winter break

      • Christian had gone over to the Rollins’ home asking for him and responded with “Jack’s boyfriend” when John asked Christian who he was. 

      • John was absolutely livid and kicked Jack out without a second thought. 

          ◦ Jack and Christian got into a huge argument over this and broke up due to it

      • Jack’s uncle, Mike, had offered a place for Jack to stay

          ◦ He slept on Mike’s couch for the final semester of his senior year

      • Once Jack graduated, he enlisted in the Marines and disappeared without telling his family anything. 

      • Six weeks into boot camp, he’d given into the guilt and wrote letters to T.J., who was the only one of his siblings who still spoke to him, as well as his uncle

      • While in the Marines, Jack pretty much shed his childhood shyness entirely and grew to be more self confident. 

          ◦ He also became a trained sniper and demolitions expert

      • In late 2000, Jack was in an unfortunate accident while on deployment that left him blind in his left eye

          ◦ Because of this, Jack was discharged 

      • After being discharged, with pretty much nowhere to go, Jack spent 9 months on the streets. 

          ◦ But in August of 2001, when Jack was 27, an agent got in contact with him and told Jack he worked for a government funded agency that recruited and rehabilitated veterans for reenlistment. 

      • Jack agreed to sign a contract and go with this agent

      • During training, which was long and grueling, he met a man named Ellison Lomack and the two of them quickly became friends.

      • Jack spent five years going on missions for this agency, assuming that he was once again an active duty Marine

      • In 2006 he was given the opportunity to be brought onto an elite STRIKE team that could earn him up to $95,000 a year. 

          ◦ Jack was chosen to be the Second in Command of STRIKE Team Alpha

      • His orientation to this team was when he’d found out he was part of HYDRA

      • Being told, essentially, that he would either continue working or be killed, Jack chose the former

      • Being the chosen SIC, Jack had to go through extra training and bonding with the STRIKE team’s commander, Brock Rumlow

          ◦ Brock told Jack when they first met; “I trust you with my life, you gotta learn to trust me with yours.” 

      • In the first few months, Brock was almost glued to Jack’s hip any time they were at work or in the field

          ◦ Including times when Jack was diffusing bombs, which freaked Jack out

      • Over time, Brock and Jack began to work together like a well oiled machine, Jack’s calm and calculating personality working well with Brock’s brazen and abrasive one. 

      • And in 2009, while drinking after a highly successful mission, Brock and Jack had drunk sex in the hotel room of the British Prime Minister, hardly slipping away before they got caught

      • Jack began to recognize his feelings for Brock after this night but refused to pursue anything, feeling as though it would be safer to preserve their established relationship

          ◦ Everything pretty much went back to normal

      • Two years passed and their relationship grew stronger, but never took a romantic turn. Until one night on a particularly difficult mission where everything had gone tits up and they only had 24 hours to fix it. 

            ◦ Brock is stressed out about it and laments that he isn’t afraid to die, but admits he wished he could’ve spent more time with Jack before he did

      • Brock and Jack share a kiss under the stars in a desert and fuck on the hood of their military issued Jeep while their team sleeps in a safe house 20 feet away. 

      • After this mission, that they were able to pull off by the skin of their teeth, Brock and Jack make things official. 

          ◦ Both of them lead relatively private lives and don’t make it known to the rest of the team that they’re seeing each other

      • Three years pass and six months before Project Insight, Brock brings up the idea of getting married for the sake of spousal immunity just in case things don’t go as planned.

          ◦ So they get married, something simple at the court house and neither of them change their names. 

      • Afterward, Brock and Jack are living happily as a married couple and they fantasize about what kind of life they hope to share when Insight goes through and they’re finally free from HYDRA’s demanding grip

      • Project Insight comes along and Brock and Jack meet the infamous Winter Soldier

      • Project Insight launches and things go horribly wrong

      • Brock splits up with Jack at the Trisk, telling Jack to head back out and that he’d meet him outside. 

          ◦ Initially, Jack follows the instructions given. But a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach has him turning around to go and get Brock 

      • The helicarriers crash into the building and Jack gets caught beneath the rubble

      • He’s stuck there for two days before he finally succumbs and the entire time, all he could do was fiddle with his ring and think about Brock.

[bravadoseries]

All the evens for Audrey and all the odds for Margo!

thank you!  this got super long so i’m putting it under a cut hehe

audrey: 

2. why is your oc problematic?

audrey is problematic because she has no clue what she’s doing when it comes to anything and when it comes to being a hero, she relies almost entirely on trial and error.  

4. what crossovers with other ocs have you talked about?

i have talked about crossovers with you for leila, @emiliachrstine​ with jacqueline, and @notaboutcat​ with grace barnes!!!  

6. if your oc were to have superpowers, what would they be? if your oc has superpowers, what are they?

so audrey has super soldier strength as her primary superpower, and also there’s some other stuff that will be revealed during the thor: tdw arc

8. alright, be honest—whether or not they get the chance to prove it, is your oc worthy?

so i think that audrey does become worthy eventually during endgame, but i think that all the avengers are.  

10. what’s your oc’s fight song? (e.g., immigrant song for thor, just a girl for carol)

girls just wanna have fun!!! i think is the biggest one.  but i have actually picked out songs for the main fights in all of the movies audrey is in: 

avengers battle of new york: “mama talking” by parov stelar

moscow fight against bucky: “bad guy” by billie eilish which i know wasn’t technically released yet but it’s okay

thor: tdw final fight: “big god” by florence and the machine

tws final fight: “seven nation army” by the white stripes

avengers: aou battle of sokovia: “glass & patron” by fka twigs

captain america: civil war airport scene: “bad blood” by taylor swift

angels of mercy final fight: “tomboy” by princess nokia

thor: ragnarok: “the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades” by timbuk 3 

avengers: iw: “yellow flicker beat” by lorde

avengers: endgame: “girls just wanna have some” by chrormatics and “lights up” by harry styles and “boys wanna be her” by peaches 

12. what was your oc like in high school?

audrey didn’t officially go to high school because she was tutored privately until she started just going to college but she was generally bored with her tutors.  when she went to high school in the 80s, she was jarred.  even though she’d gotten several degrees by that point, she was like freaked out by being with other people and having to have a social life because in college she just didn’t talk to anybody.  so she was nervous and quiet but she did have one good friend!

14. your oc meets thanos. what’s their first move?

omg audrey’s first move is to spit on him, i think, and then she just like attempts to tackle him and scratch his eyes out ngl

16. your oc gets married. which canon characters are in the wedding party?

yesss braudrey wedding time!! natasha is one of her bridesmaids, tony is the officiant, and both steve and darcy walk her down the aisle.  steve and darcy have a young daughter by this point who is a flower girl with morgan, and they’re super cute.  i could talk about the braudrey wedding for so long though i have so many little plans

18. what are your oc’s bad habits or vices?

audrey loves sweets, i think is one of her vices. she also tends to know she’s making bad choices but go through with them anyway. 

20. your oc wears the gauntlet (without any detrimental effects on their health) and gets one snap to wish for anything they want. what do they ask for?

audrey asks to destroy the infinity stones, i think most likely.  she doesn’t want that energy to be condensed into such a powerful form because that’s like a nightmare.  i think it changes from film to film, but by the end, her final wish is for everyone to not be so powerful all the time

22. what does your oc’s bedroom look like?

audrey’s apartment is very minimalist, because it’s easy for her to get overwhelmed.  before she moved into the tower, she was a workaholic because she would get so bored with her freetime that she always had case files everywhere.  once she joins the avengers though and kind of like starts building a life for herself, she starts to settle into her place more and have details that reflect her life more—photos on the walls, little things that she collects from good memories, and a lot of books on the shelves!  audrey likes big windows and keeps them open, but the space is mostly like white with dark blue accents.  

24. which characters from other movies or shows is your oc a combination of?

excellent question!  so audrey reminds me a lot of like the most chaotic combinations of mike schur main ships?  she’s both chidi and eleanor, and both jake and amy.  she’s anxious but also impulsive, awkward but also extremely loving, strong but also scared.  

26. which canon character would they go to for advice? why?

audrey goes to different characters for advice about different things!  with moral problems, she goes to steve.  with fighting advice, she heads to natasha, obviously.  with relationship advice, she heads to darcy.  and later, post aou, audrey actually spends a lot of time with wanda and pietro becoming more politically active.  

28. what’s your oc’s biggest flaw?

audrey is scared of everything! i think is her biggest flaw.  it’s hard for her to overcome that fear.  

30. what movies or shows is your oc featured in?

audrey is in agent carter, she has cameos in iron man 1+2, thor 1, captain marvel, and captain america: tfa.  she’s a main in avengers, thor 2, tws, avengers: aou, captain america: civil war, thor 3, and avengers iw and endgame!

margo: 

1. how did you pick your oc’s name?

margo is short for margaret! i think peggy is kind of an old-fashioned name (technically so is margo) but margo is cute and short too 

3. besides their main ship, who else do you think they would work well with?

i think margo could have a relationship with magnus (thor and jane’s older son) but it probably wouldn’t be super healthy.   also i think she and calliope could have had a cute relationship which coulson would have lost his mind about lol.

5. what’s a crossover with another oc that you’ve wanted to do, but haven’t officially discussed or planned?

i feel like it would be cool to talk about margo with @cassercole​‘s queve family ! i think an audrey and q crossover would just slap in general because i think it would be angsty and cool and i can imagine q being like . i did not sign up to be a stepmother, but thanks, but then the two of them actually becoming friends eventually.  

but anyway, i can imagine bonnie and tristan teasing margo and making them call her aunt and uncle but them all getting along well and hanging out at family reunions and getting into trouble . having a vision of the three of them stealing a blunt or something from tony’s jacket pocket at thanksgiving and then all of them being high and paranoid about getting caught by steve. 

q catches them and margo is like please don’t be mad and please don’t tell my mom and q just rolls her eyes and closes the door to the room they’re all in after telling them dinner’s in 10 minutes, and she won’t tell but it’s up to them not to get caught.  

7. rank their compatibility with the marvel teams: avengers, guardians of the galaxy, agents of shield, defenders, runaways

okay so: 1) avengers, because they’re her family.  2) gotg, because she thinks they’re all super weird and cool.  3) runaways, because i think she’s scrappy and has a similar sheltered background to them.  4) aos, just because found family time.  5) defenders.  super brutal and she’s just like ummmm i am scared . 

9. which other mcu characters would your oc really get along with?

i think gamora and margo would get along super well.  also margo’s close with carol because she likes how she’s not too serious about herself as a hero.  i think she’s also probably gets along well with wanda and pietro.  she’s super close with her dad, also.  

11. post a snippet of the next chapter of an oc’s fic!

okay to be honest i have not written any of margo’s fic yet so i will have to pass 

13. what’s a secret about your oc that they would never admit? feel free to be as angsty or as silly as you’d like!

margo would never admit it but she has a slight schoolgirl crush on thor, who is one of the strength instructors slash english teachers at the academy.  

15. if your oc has a costume/were to have a costume, what does it/would it look like? what colors? cape or no cape?

no cape, but sometimes she ties a towel around her neck and dances in her dorm room.  margo’s costume would probably look a lot like helena bertinelli’s costume on arrow—very classic, infinity mask, etc. 

17. after a battle, how does your oc recover?

she cries into her pillow for several hours and enters a period if intense self loathing and eats ice cream.  

19. what were some other faceclaims you considered for your oc?

when audrey was shipped with pietro, margo was played by josefine frida petersen!

21. if your oc survived the snap, who do they miss the most?

in an au where audrey has margo before infinity war and the snap, margo would be devastated to grow up without her mother

23. what’s their love language? what’s the love language of the character they’re shipped with?

i think margo’s is words of affirmation, and leo’s is quality time! 

25. which characters annoy your oc? why?

margo gets annoyed with her mom, a lot.  audrey and bex are really close and so she feels left out of that relationship.  i also think that margo doesn’t get along super well with pepper because she thinks pepper doesn’t like her.  she doesn’t like peter quill that much, even though she likes the rest of the guardians.  and she never meets loki, but i think she would absolutely hate him.  

27. what’s your oc’s biggest strength?

i think her biggest strength is her big heart!  she feels a lot and she’s kind of intense but she’s a very loving person.  

29. team cap, team iron man, team i don’t care, or team please stop fighting?

team please stop fighting!! she’s like why is my life an episode of family feud . i know she doesn’t exist then but she looks back on it and brings it up sometimes and they’re both deeply embarrassed about it in hindsight and also like . okay BUT and she’s like okay nevermind!!!!

[avani008]

More Top Fives...

@ratnananda requested top 5 Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam movies, Bottom 5 Tamil Movies, Top 5 Mani Ratnam Movies, Top 5 Kandukondain Kandukondain moments, and Top 5 Nidhana-verse Amarsena Moments.

(below the cut, because long.)

top 5 tamil/ malayalam/ telugu movies

(not counting Baahubali and KK because you guys already know about that)

1. Mahanati -- Such a wonderfully shot and acted movie, and so full of brilliant Easter eggs that yield it to repeat viewings. Also, both couples are amazing and shippable (well, until Dulquer! Gemini has his breakdown, but he’s still very compelling in the first half)

2. 24 -- This is a totally bonkers movie, but I love the aesthetic, and I love how unapologetically OTT it is--our hero has a time machine! He looks exactly like his uncle who looks exactly like his twin brother/the hero’s dad! At given moment, one of the three main male characters is pretending to be one or more of the others! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE SUCH A THING.

3. Thaana Sernda Kootham-- Cons with hearts of gold! A really fun and catchy musical score! Ramya Krishnan having a great time!

4. Urumi -- Oh, this is such a flawed movie, but still! I love it for the cameos alone: at any given moment, any famous actor could pop up. Also, it’s by Santhosh Sivan, so very very pretty to look at.

5. Dumm Dumm Dumm -- second favorite Tamil rom-com of my soul. *weeps*

(EDIT: How could I have forgotten Size Zero??? Most charming rom-com heroine I can remember in a long time bottom 5 tamil movies

1. Iraandam Ulagam-- you will be tempted to watch, because Anushka Shetty has a sword, and Arya is prancing around looking heroic and tragic. DO NOT. Rage inducing “ all women just need a man” and “literally rapist hero” abound.

2. Kochaidaiyaan -- the terrible CGI scares me, and I often have reasonable tolerance for that sort of thing. I think I lost it when the dolphin showed up in teh fight scene.  

3. Dashavataram-- “Oh, okay, Kamal is playing a priest in the flashback and a scientist now, and wait, why is he a random white dude, and a grandmother, and a Punjabi singer whose throat cancer gets cured by a bullet, what the hell, and --WHY IS KAMAL HASSAN PLAYING GEORGE W. BUSH???”

4. Kandasaamy -- ....Who decides they want to be a CHICKEN-themed superhero? I mean--I understand the religious references, but the man is still...a CHICKEN-THEMED SUPERHERO. Also, the “Mambo Maamiya” song makes me laugh myself to the point of tears, and not in a good way. 

5.Enthiran -- Look, you lost me when the female lead turned out to be a ditz (who CHEATED! on her EXAMS!), when the narrative actually excused honor suicides, and when the whole thing turned into a bizarro Ramayana ripoff that....was not good. 

top 5 mani ratnam movies

1. Alai Payuthey -- Can one really grow up listening to/watching “Pachchai Nirame” and not consider it the height of romance? Also I love Shalini’s prickly, passionate Shakti (one of my favorite Ratnam heroines), and also young Madhavan, OMG. What’s not to love?

2. Thalapathy-- The one sympathetic-to-Karna take that gets me (because it doesn’t gloss over the bad stuff the Karna- and Duryodhana- equivalent do, while getting rid of the very worst things wrt Draupadi. Also it doesn’t demonize Arjuna & Kunti, either.) So brilliant--and why Raavanan was so disappointing for me.

3. Roja -- I always wondered why I liked this movie, despite the chest-thumping patriotism and the kind of skeevy reluctant arranged marriage -- the gorgeous visuals and Rahman’s music could only do so much, you know. And then I read an article somewhere that pointed out it was actually a modern day take on Savitri and Satyavan, and then it all made sense, you guys. 

4. OK Kanmani -- Dulquer and Nithya just might be the most adorable couple in all creation; and this is such a lovely, frothy, lowkey romance that I can’t help but root for!

5. Yuva/Aayutha Ezhuthu-- is this cheesy? Probably. But I love idealism, and people coming together to become better, and my goodness, does this movie deliver. Also I really appreciate that the heroines are just as diverse--and usually have their own lives going on, separate from the heroes’ stuff--which is a nice change from the usual movie plotline. 

top 5 amarsena  (nidhana verse ) moments

(FWIW, this is mostly from the what was fun to write from my standpoint, and might not coincide with what anyone actually thought...)

1. Devasena’s rant in Chapter 3--I am on “team I can see why Devasena wanted to set Amarendra on fire in that scene where he’s refusing to acknowledge her feelings of confusion and betrayal” so I really wanted to write a scene where he does better, and, if not exactly agreeing with her, at least doesn’t just...sort of laugh it off?

2. The beginning of Chapter 6? It’s honestly as close to anything ~scandalous~ as we ever get, so....

3. The little conversation on the arrival in Kuntala that goes way over Mahendra’s head. This is largely because Mahendra’s confusion at and misinterpretation of pretty much everything he hears is the heart of “Nidhana” *nods gravely, collapses into giggles.*

4. The outright argument right before the battle? Because I actually really like it when couples can manage to have an argument and it’s not the end of the world--even Mahendra is upset but not, say, terrified that his folks are splitting up, and I wanted to show that they’d managed to model healthy relationships for him, as well. 

5. ...And pretty much all the domestic fluff in Chapter 1. If you haven’t noticed, domestic fluff and established relationships are some of my favorite things to write, and especially in that chapter, I felt free to let myself go wild and write all the cuteness I wanted. 

top 5 kandukondein kandukondein moments

(this is difficult! because 90% of this movie just makes me happy, and it is probably my one great comfort watch. But offhand:)

1. Konjam Minnakale is a delight, and never fails to put me in a good mood. Not only is the cinematography beautiful, but the music makes me feel as though I, too, could frolic in fields with perfect choreography while looking AMAZINGi.

2. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “North Indian actresses are the worst” joke at the very beginning, because yes, Tabu and Aish are both technically South Indian by birth but obviously also required dubbing, etc. 

3. THE CAT WEDDING. So random; so funny. 

4. Manohar and Soumya’s first meeting. Starts off with a classic misunderstanding where both parties are having two different conversations, but then manages also to get across Soumya’s very real guilt and grief, as well as Manohar’s automatic sympathy and feelings for her.

5. Manohar and Soumya meeting again in Madras. In part I love it because Elinor and Edward actually don’t get very much relationship development in Austen (we’re told they like each other by the narrator, and the rest of the time they’re together, it’s pretty much just angst and pining), but Tabu and Ajith sell me on their chemistry--but moreover, how much do I love Soumya just....ignoring Manohar in favor of doing her job? (and, even when just working as secretary, being very good at it. I would mention the part where she gets prompted due to sheer awesomeness, but it’s not really....one scene....but I still adore it and her so much.)

Bonus. EVERY TIME NANDINI VARMA IS ON SCREEN. FAVORITE LUCY STEELE EVER. 

[minyboy]

I got a request to make some non-muscular male Martial Arts Kids. Well that's as un-buff as I can make a team of crime fighting marital artists. Their scrawny arms are about to fall off.  and now bios, but first a word from our sponsors... me! Disclaimer!  I wish to assure everyone that all the Martial Arts Kids I make are friends and are friendly towards each other. But they also are human. They are diverse set of characters with different backgrounds, beliefs, and upbringings, yielding unique points of views. That's why we have diversity. Like any group of friends, there will be conflicting points of views, it's not malleolus, it's human. To have the world be perfect and everyone always liking everything everyone else does is bad writing and badly reflects on the creators. So there is no ill intent in the characters, they are just people trying to figure their way in the world just like anyone else. Thank you. Bios from left to right.

Jaymore Holmes (Jay) Age 9:

Jay is a smart but sometimes timid person. He will fight when he must, but often does his best to avoid conflict, and thanks to his creativity and intelligence he’s pretty good at avoiding them. Since he is a 9 year old child, this kind of makes sense. Jay can get very shy at times and stammers when he is nervous, it can make it difficult to talk to him. Jay hides a huge rock collection from his peer, he is too embarrassed to show them for it is incomplete and maybe a bit silly to him. Jay is trying to find his way in the world, but it’s a big and scary place and he’s just a kid.

Likes: playing video games, running, listening to the radio, mayflies, his grandma attending museums, going to the movies, charity work, podcasting, travelling, reading, walking away from the market

Dislikes: the color blue, being outdoors, bugs, open flower fields, loud people, dinosaurs, tea, eating fish and telling bad jokes

Ryan West  Age 12:

Ryan used to have a passion for art, but one day seemed to lose all his love for it. He is not wandering from place to place in life trying to find a new passion (besides the Martial Arts Kids, of course). He's a brave boy, kind, caring to his fellow humans, but he often has a bit of distrust toward them and snakes around people he can. When he can’t he can become very grumpy when talking to anyone for too long. For some reason he blinks excessively and is always on the lookout for… something.  Sharon Briggs keeps on trying to set his single dad on random dates. It’s a kind thing, but she’s not very good at it because she just chooses at random. He appreciates  it, even if it makes him concerned from time to time . Ryan has a poor judgement of character and often misunderstands or makes incorrect presumptions, which can lead to trouble. Ryan is a  kind, brave person, but wishes to find his purpose in life without too much social discomfort.

Likes: butterflies, boxing, Sharon, barges, art, waking up early, bees, birds, talking cows, crystal balls, his mom, volcanoes, extinct animals and wandering around aimlessly all day long laughing.

Dislikes: horror books, his art, Valentines Day, Shakespeare, cosmetology, Nightwing’s red costume, squids, indie music, Sherlock Holmes later books and guitars.

Ziggy Williamson Age 14:

Lab technician by day, surfer dude by afternoon, he goes to bed at night.  When Ziggy’s not surfing the afternoon away or kicking bad guys' butts, he helps Nunu in her laboratory as a technician. While he works more on the biological side of things he does have an interest in the machines he uses and that’s why he partners up with Nunu. She can be cold to him but they work well together and enjoy each other's company, usually. But one can not be friendly to another all the time, that would be pure madness or pure apathy.  Ziggy is a more laid back dude but He has big hopes and dreams for this future, but very few believe he wants to do anything about  them. Sadly sometimes he believes  these people. Nunu is some of the few people who believes in him, or at least what he creates.  Ziggy hosts a local surfing club with numbers like Aina, Maeve and Celesta. He wishes to use what he learns to help fight evil and clean up the local beaches, then he plans to sell his inventions for profit. Most don’t take him seriously, but he’ll work hard to one day prove them wrong, or right.

Likes: wild life, swamp scum, Nunu, traffic signs, people with manners, inactivity, surfing, the beach!, strategy games, lizards, and waking up early.

Dislikes: magic shows, noses, patterned socks, long fingernails, cold days, hard work, not beginning believed in, his will power, blepharism,  and willow trees.

Myong Si-U Age 16:

Myong is a young aspiring film director, but he has not filmed anything… yet. He has many plans for stories he wants to tell and he wants big local names in them, like Kerry and River. Not Brandy, for she is too popular and legendary for him to have a chance, or so he thinks. Myong comes from a poor family, he lives with his uncle and aunt because his parents passed away at an early age. He is friendly to all he can, trying his best to make the best impression on everyone, for that is the best way, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. He plans to know all the important people, if they like it or not.  Myong has a severe phobia of sharks, no one knows why, he loves to go swimming often, but he can’t stop talking about them in horror when they are mentioned. Coming from a poor background  Myong will do anything to get ahead and that can make him very untrustworthy and a bit standoffish. He wants to make his dreams come true, but can Myong not stare in the abyss to do so?

Likes: movies, Kerry, musicals, dandelions, shiny things, sandwiches, camera, getting free stuff the movie Treasure Island, Christmas, extravagant period clothes from the 1870’s, oceanography and Dominos Pizza.

Dislikes: sharks, being ignored, his teacher Ms. Quinn, stand-up comedy,  hot water,  candy-making, stories about plucky young magic-users, purple bread, candles and sharks.

Oliver Canmore (Ollie) Age 18:

Ollie is a immigrant from Belgium, he moved from a younger age. He is a very calm person, he speaks the same despite being angry, upset, happy, etc. often looked at by other members as a  big brother. Ollie has a passion for cooking and soap making. They often spend their free time making soap. When he’s not being creative or kicking butt he is a groupie of Brandy, for she has many groupies. In fact Brandy sometimes loses track of  who is her groupie and Ollie can feel that. Ollie will defend Brandy from any criticism and  will look out for the other members, often looked upon as the big bother of the group, he can never escape that image and he’s ok with that even with River’s friendly teasing of it. Ollie has trouble focusing on one thing and often aimlessly goes from one passion to  the next never truly mastering any one of them. Ollie is kind and has many passions, but can he focus on something that matters to him or forever stay adrift on the Lost Potential Sea?

Likes: Brandy, duh,  sound of a ticking clock, deep sea diving, cooking, singing, caring for people, soap, shampoos, Skyrim,  parasols, fast cars, breakdancing and snow globes.

Dislikes: hand fans, fantasy books from the 1940’s,sensation of heavy bass, fireworks, loud noises in general, manga,  gnomes, musicals, and the sensation of the color yellow.

[punkbuttt]

I’ve been going back and forth in my mind about whether or not to make a post about the days leading up to my grandfather’s death, mostly because a.) I don’t want to relive it, and b.) who else will even care, but I think it’s important so I’ll put it under a read more thing

We called my grandpa Popou; it’s greek for grandfather. He was one of eight children born to greek immgrants from Icaria. Anyways, he was scheduled to have open heart surgery on March 1st, and even though he was 89, and his health wasn’t great, no one seemed too concerned, at least that I saw. I was visiting my parents and brother president’s day weekend so my dad, Popou���s youngest son, suggested we go see Popou at the senior home where he was living since it would be my last chance before the surgery. His room had so many pictures, plaques, awards, etc. hanging up. He told me “All I have now are memories. Almost all these people are dead.” He told me about his favorite award, a certificate from his first wrestling tournament, which he won. (He was kind of a big deal in the wrestling world. Not WWE wrestling, but traditional wrestling) No one knew he went, not even his parents. He had to ask the officials of the tournament for the certificate to prove he had actually competed and won. He also told me about this flag he had. It was red and white, with 5 blue stars on it. He said each of the stars represented his brothers who had all returned alive from WWII. It was a miracle that his five brothers all came back. He didn’t know anyone else’s family who were that lucky. Popou kept asking my dad about the sugery; what day it was, what time, how long would the recovery be. I told him when he was recovered my dad would take him to Philly to come visit me. He’s from Pittsburgh so he always liked to tease me about living here. “You still like that city? You still living there? This is a Pittsburgh family!” I just wanted to give him something to look forward afterwards. He said he would. We said goodbye and he told me he was so happy he got to see me and that he loved me. I realized that he was scared of the surgery. But it still never crossed my mind that he would never wake up.

I feel so guilty because in the days leading up to his surgery, I didn’t really think about it at all. I didn’t even really have anything going on that week. I just... didn’t pay attention. Popou went into surgery on Thursday, March 1st. I don’t know what time exactly, but it was late morning I think. Around 4:30, I got a text from my dad saying that the surgery was taking longer than planned, and the doctors were keeping him on the heart and lung machines longer. He called like 10 minutes later and told me that the surgery itself went well, but for whatever reason, his heart was just not strong enough to beat on it’s own and the doctor’s were worried. The next day my mom told me I needed to get to the hospital, which is in Lancaster. I was supposed to go to a work event that night but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. The earliest train that wasn’t sold out was one at 8:15 pm, so I got a ticket and spent the rest of the workday internally freaking out. I had to walk back to my apartment in high winds and sleet. (I tried to call an uber or lyft but they were both around $30 for what normally would have been a $5 ride, and they also would’ve taken about 25 minutes to pick me up and it takes about that much time for me to walk anyways) I packed up some stuff for the weekend, and luckily I checked the status of the train I was supposed to take myself instead of relying on Amtrak’s delay alerts. All trains were canceled because of the weather. My brother volunteered to drive out to Philly to come get me, which freaked my mom out, but he did it anyway and got here without too much trouble. When my brother got here, he asked me if I was going to our neighbor’s funeral. I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently my neighbor (I don’t want to use his name) had died in his home of a massive heart attack the previous Sunday. My mom, who tells me everything, didn’t tell me about this. I babysat this guy’s kids, watched all of his family’s animals when they went on vacation, and I had just seen him that last time I was in Lancaster.  That really caught me off guard.

So we got home without incident, and my dad was already asleep. That is unlike him. He usually stays up late, especially now that he’s retired, and normally would have waited up for us to get home. That alone told me something was not right. I just went to bed too. We all got up early the next morning and immediately went to the hospital. we had to be at my neighbor’s funeral that afternoon so we wanted to get to the hospital ASAP. On the way up to his room, we ran into my aunt and uncle, my dad’s sister and brother. The doctor had told them Popou was showing small signs of improvement, and they were going to clean out his incision the next day to give him more time to rest. My dad told me that Popou had all sorts tubes and machines attached to his body, so it would be overwhelming to see him like that. It was. I don’t like hospitals to begin with, so seeing someone I love and care about in that state was really hard. The last time I saw him he was telling me stories and cracking jokes. It was really, really hard. We hung out in the waiting room for a few hours with some relatives, occasionally going to his room to let him know we were there and he wasn’t alone. Eventually we had to leave to go to my neighbor’s funeral. That made everything worse. My neighbor was around the same age as my parents, and with everything going on with Popou, I started to become worried that this could happen to my parents. It still really scares me. I know it could happen to anyone and there’s nothing I can do about it but I’m really scared that will happen to my parents and I won’t even get to say goodbye.

Anyways, we went back to the hospital and more of my relatives were there. We all talked and reminisced and tried to keep our minds off of what was happening. One of my aunts pointed out that this was the first time all of Popou’s children had been together in years, so they took a picture together. Then my cousin came with all five of her kids. The ICU has a rule that kids under 12 are not allowed in the room, but she didn’t care. She started going off on the nurses about how important it was that her kids see him and they had no right to deny them from seeing their great grandfather. This was not long after one of the nurses told us that if any of those tubes became dislodged, Popou could bleed out in under a minute. And she thought it would be fine to bring young children who want to touch everything into his room. She got her way in the end, and when they came back to the waiting room, it was clear her kids were pretty traumatized. 

The rest of the night went by uneventfully, so we went home around 10pm. The next day we got to the hospital early again, but we didn’t get to see him before they took him to the OR to clean out his incision. So we waited again. My one aunt said that Popou would be so mad at them when he woke up, because they promised him he would be up by that Friday. Around one the doctor finally came out to talk to us and I think he was overwhelmed by how many of us were there. All six of Popou’s kids, two of their spouses, seven grandkids and three of their spouses and my brother’s girlfriend. The doctor said that they were cautiously optimistic about his improvement, but it would still be a while before they felt confident enough to take him off the machines for good. He also said that they didn’t want to keep him on the machines for too long, because neurological function would start to get worse the longer he was on the machines. The planned to try to take him off the machines that Tuesday, and hopefully he would improve. When he was ready, we visited him again. I noticed his arm swollen but otherwise he looked fine. We told him we would be back the next day, and left. 

The next day was Monday, and I had to get back to work. My dad and I went to the hospital to see him, and the doctors were still pretty happy with his improvements, even though they were small. Popou still looked a bit swollen, but the nurses said that was normal. After about an hour of visiting him and talking with one of my aunts, my dad took me to the train station. Normally he would just drive me back to Philly himself, but he obviously didn’t want to go too far from the hospital. Getting on the train was hard. When I sat down, my dad was looking through the windows for me and when he saw where I was sitting, he drew a smiley face on the window. I think that was his way of staying with me on the trip back. It made me feel better. 

I didn’t go to work that day. I was emotionally and physically tired. My sleep schedule was (and still kinda is) thrown off from not being able to sleep and having to get up early to get to the hospital. I basically just slept the rest of that Monday. I woke up Tuesday unusually early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I just started getting ready for work. Around 9:30 that morning, I got a text from my dad that said “Popou is taking a turn for the worse. The nurse says it looks like his body is shutting down.” I called out of work (I was crying on the phone and it freaked out my co worker) and got a ticket for the next train to Lancaster. I called a lyft to take me to the train station, and on the way there, the driver hit a curb. Everything was fine but he was freaked out and said when we got to the train station he would have to check it out. I had my phone in my hand the whole time over just in case my parents tried to call me, and when I was getting out of the car, I thought I put it in my pocket. I didn’t. I took five steps into the train station and realized I didn’t have it. I ran outside because I thought the driver would still be there, making sure his car was ok, but he was long gone. So I went to customer service and explained (through sobs) that I left my phone in a lyft and I needed to use their phone to try to get in touch with someone to get my phone back. The women at Amtrak’s customer service were so incredibly kind and understanding and helped out so much. It turns out Lyft doesn’t really have a call center though, so the only way I could get a hold of them was through email. Luckily I had my laptop, and they actually responded pretty quickly. Also, on the receipt that is emailed to you, you can get in touch directly with the driver. It just took like a half hour for them to actually email that receipt to me. The customer service woman gave me the direct phone number of the customer service desk so the driver could get a hold of me directly, and luckily he did call and came back with my phone. There were no calls or messages so I took that as a good sign.

I had to get a later train because of the whole phone debacle, so I got back to Lancaster much later than I intended. My brother picked me up from the train station and we went straight to the hospital. My dad was in a meeting with his siblings and the doctor, deciding what exactly to do next. I think my mom and sister had gone fore a walk or something. When we got to his room, the first thing I noticed was how grey he looked. He looked so much worse. Part of me really wishes I hadn’t seen him that way. It’s going to be with me forever. His breathing was so... mechanical. I know he was on machines but it was like animatronics at Disney or something. It was too much. I finally found my mom and asked her what they were going to do next and she just shook her head. The doctor said they did everything they could and despite the surgery going well and the improvement he had made over the past few days, Popou wasn’t going to recover. It was just a matter of time now. 

I know he wasn’t young by any means, and his health prior to the surgery wasn’t great, but like I said, the thought that he wouldn’t make it through the surgery had never crossed my mind. I was shocked. I shouldn’t have been, but I was. It was and still is so hard to accept. He’d been around my whole life, and now he was about to be gone forever. 

My dad told us we didn’t have to be in the room when he passed, but I didn’t want to leave him alone and I don’t think my brother and sister did either, so we stayed with him. We waited. My one Aunt, who had power of attorney, didn’t want to wait too long, but my one uncle really wanted him to pass on his own, rather than turning off the machines. So we waited. At one point, my aunt played Happy Trails by Roy Rogers, which was Popou’s favorite song. He grew up in a greek orthodox church, and when he married his first wife, started going to a catholic church. When he moved out to Lancaster, my uncle and his wife started taking him to their evangelical church. When my one aunt and my dad asked for a priest to come give him last rites, my evangelical aunt and uncle were not happy about it. I don’t understand why. He was catholic for the majority of his life and went to their church because it was convenient. Anyways, the priest came, gave him last rites, and very, very soon after, Popou’s heart rate began to decline. It went from like 75 to 45 in a minute. I think maybe he was waiting for last rites to be performed. 

We told Popou it was time for him to go. He had to see his parents, his brothers and sister, his two wives, and his granddaughter, my cousin, Carmen. We sang to him and prayed for him and for us. His heart rate continued to go down, but not as fast. My one Aunt was getting impatient. She told my uncle he was being selfish she was giving him 10 more minutes and then she was telling the doctors to turn the machines off. My uncle said she needed to stop beating a dead horse and that he just didn’t want her to make that decision, he wanted Popou to choose to go by himself so she wouldn’t have to live with that. They fought for a couple minutes and my dad and other aunt had talk them down. It was already tense in there and while I understand both sides, I don’t think they needed to get nasty with each other right by their father’s death bed.

After another ten minutes, his heart rate was so low that the doctors knew the only thing keeping him ‘alive’ was the machines, so it was agreed they would be turned off. We said our final goodbyes, and it was so fucking surreal. Everyone was crying, obviously. he stayed with us for another few minutes. At one point, his eyes actually opened. I thought my dad was going to pass out. My aunt almost screamed. My uncle was calling out “Dad, come back”. It was such an indescribable moment. 

He passed away at 5:18 pm, March 6th, 2018.

Leaving the hospital after he passed was hard. I kept going back into the room, just to see him one last time. I accidentally went in when they were taking all the tubes out. I wish I hadn’t seen or heard that. I didn’t want to leave him there alone. I didn’t and still don’t like the thought of him going to the morgue. But I can’t stop thinking about it. My dad told us not to remember him like that, but to remember the good times. While there are so many good times to remember, I’ll never be able to get that out of my head. Still, I’m really glad I was there; I would have definitely regretted it if I hadn’t been. 

My mom suggested I make memory boards for Popou’s funeral, like I did when her mom passed in 2014. I didn’t want to at first because I knew my cousins had probably had some similar plan already. But my mom convinced me to do it anyways. I’m glad I did because it helped lessen those images of him in the hospital bed. But I also realized that I didn’t really have many pictures of myself and him. That’s really upsetting to me. I think it’s because of my extremely poor self image, which makes it worse. I always wish I hadn’t let that hold me back from taking pictures of myself on vacations or out with friends, and now it’s kept me from having pictures with my Popou. Everyone of my cousins posted all these pictures of them with Popou and I have none, except a few from when I was a kid. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.

Popou’s funeral was in Washington, PA, or as he called it, Worshington. He grew up there, and he loved it. My dad showed us where his childhood home was (it was torn down to make room for a grocery store), his high school where Popou worked as a teacher and a wrestling and cross country coach, and the store/house where Popou grew up. He had to have a closed casket. He looked so bad in the hospital, and according to the funeral director, he looked even worse since then. That makes me so sad. We couldn’t even see him one last time, without all the tubes and everything.

At the wake, so many people told us how much he inspired, influenced, and supported them. I wasn’t really ever aware of how many people’s lives he was a part of, whether it was through teaching or wrestling. I heard so many stories about him. Whole wrestling teams of young kids who didn’t even know him showed up. It was remarkable. He was always just Popou to me. 

My dad spoke at his funeral service. He could barely keep it together. He said that the first year would be the hardest because we’d have to get through the first round of holidays and birthdays without our Popou. I’m worried about my dad. Since he was essentially forced into retirement by the school he taught for, taking care and visiting his dad kept him busy. Part of me wants to move back home just to cheer him up. His mental health has not been great since he’s retired and he’s not the type to go seek out help. He loved his dad so much. I love my dad so much. Going through this, seeing my dad go through this, was so hard. I’m so scared of the day I’ll have to be in my dad’s shoes.

Anyways, here, here, here, and here are some obituaries for Popou.

μπορεί η μνήμη του να είναι αιώνια, και τη ζωή σε σας

[boystownbirdie]

LMWTV4U: GOT S7E4

Welcome back to let me watch TV 4 u! I watch TV so you don’t have to!

Today let’s explore Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 titled: The Spoils of War. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure that’s the name of a Clint Eastwood flick, no?

Today’s recap will be a quick one (due to my own time constraints, not for lack of DRAMA) so let’s go! 

First, we watch Jaime and Bronn marching away from Highgarden, fresh off of poisoning Gma Tyrell…

Bronn is like, why the long face bro? We know that Jaime is having #emotions about Gma Tyrell’s confession that she poisoned Joffrey. Jaime is like I CANT SAY. And he gives Bronn some cash money for his services. We get a shot of the giant truck of money which is important to the later scenes. Then Jaime tells Bronn and Sam’s Dad and Sam’s bro (lol his name is Dickon which is ironic because he is not really a dick but his dad sure is) to go collect the harvest from the local peeps.

Next, we stop in to see QPC talking to her banker friend in King’s Landing…

She mentions said truck o’ money and is like ITS COMING, DUDE. CHILL. And he’s like let’s discuss stocks and bonds. And then they have a discussion about investing. It’s kind of boring.

Next, we see Littlefinger giving Bran a knife…

Which is the knife that was used  to try to kill Bran waaaaaayyyy back in season 1. If you’ll recall in season 1 ep 1, Baby Bran saw Jaime and QPC boning and Jaime pushed him out of a tower causing him to be concussed and paraplegic but also gain some of his vision-abilities. While he was still concussed, QPC (we assume) sent someone to kill Bran to ensure he never told their secret. So Littlefinger (LF) gives Bran this knife and is like, let me know if I can be of any assistance. Then Bran quotes some OG LF (“Chaos isn’t a pit. It’s a ladder”) and LF is clearly freaked because this means Bran could also know about his betrayal of Ned Stark in season 1.

Meera comes in to check out Bran’s new wheelchair and to tell him she’s heading back home. Bran is like kewl bai. And she’s like srsly? I risked my life for your and my bro died for you. And he’s like I’m not Bran anymore, I’m the 3 eyed raven. I no longer have feelings.

Speaking of no feelings, we see our old pal Arya roll up at Winterfell and we feel ALL THE FEELS. She’s stopped at the gate by 2 very salty doormen who are like naw bitch, private club, members only. And she’s like I AM AN OG MEMBER OF THIS CLUB. After some cajoling, they let her in and she sits in Winterfell for the first time since she left back in Season 1 and then disappears. Was anyone else worried that she’d left? I was. But fear not.

The doormen go to Sansa and they’re like umm some bitch who says she’s your sis is here but now she’s gone? And Sansa’s like, I know where she went, TO THE CRYPTS! So Sansa goes downstairs and finds her sis and they reunite and hug and it’s adorable. It’s esp adorable since we know that IRL these actresses are besties but they haven’t had a scene together since S1, so to see their chemistry as real life friends play out is so sweet. Arya tells Sansa she’s just been bopping around killing people and Sansa is like LOL WUT? And Arya is like hahahaha jk. Did anyone else shed a single tear when A and S were discussing their past traumas and A says “Well, our stories aren’t over yet” ?!?!?! Cuz I shore did.  

Then they go to see Bran who is still being real creepy and #nofeelings. Sansa tries to warn Arya that Bran is a real bummer now, so Arya’s like hi bro, I haven’t seen you in a million years. And he’s like yes you were heading to King’s Landing to kill Cersei but changed your mind. And she’s like ummm, k? And Sansa helpfully tells her that Bran has “visions” now. But then Bran basically spills the beans that Arya was not JK-ing about being a trained assassin now. And Sansa is a little creeped. Then Bran gives Arya that same knife he got from LF cuz he’s like...  you know how to use it better than me.

Ladyknight sees Arya, Sansa, and Bran walking through Winterfell together and Pod, her squire (which is basically like an apprentice?) is like YOU DID IT YOU GOT BOTH GIRLS HOME SAFE. And Ladyknight is like naw it wasn’t me, but Pod is like take some credit, hun. And she’s like K thanks. Later, we watch Ladyknight and Pod sparring. Arya meets Ladyknight again and is like can I train with you? And they have a cute lil’ sparring scene in which Arya shows off her skills gathered over the past 7 seasons and Ladyknight is like WOWZA! Meanwhile, Sansa is watching and she seems kinda jelly? Or maybe she’s just nervous about her sis being an assassin? Sansa is watching this all with LF, and as they leave we’re reminded that Arya doesn’t like the looks of this guy.

Next, we stop in on Dragonstone, where things get HOT AND HEAVY

Khaleesi is heading to meet Bae and chatting with her hottie translator, Missandei (Missi) about Greyworm. Missi SPILLS THE TEA and is like we did EVERYTHING BUT. And is like it was goooooood. And Khaleesi is visibly shook but in the best way. They meet up with Bae who’s like lemme show you some caves. The last time Bae went into a cave with a beautiful lady, he lost his v-card so this has got us thinking. Khaleesi is like I’m not scared of Bae I’ll go alone. Bae shows her that he’s got enuf rocks for his rock collection (aka project to save everyone from the ice zombie army), but he’s like, there’s something else you should see. He shows her these cave paintings from children of the forest (CoF) who we basically like neanderthals in GoT-world. He’s like look, the CoF’s drew pics of them working TOGETHER with humans to defeat the ice zombies.

While he’s giving the tour, he touches her hand to guide her flashlight. AND IT IS SO HAWT I nearly exploded. He’s like, we must all work together to fight the ice zombies, and she says, “I will fight for you, I will  fight for the North.” But first you gotta #bowdownbitches. And he’s like ummmmmm can’t? And she’s like please, let’s work together. And they truly almost makeout right then and there it’s so hot.

When they emerge from their cave of sexual tension, Tyrion is there to tell her about recent battles. As you’ll recall from last week, things did not go as planned with taking over Casterly Rock, since Jaime diverted the army South to take Highgarden. Khaleesi is like I’m starting to wonder if you aren’t actually loyal to your bro and sis, Tyrion. Then she asks bae what to do. He’s like well just don’t use dragons to kill innocent people that’s what the bad guys do.

Next, no-knuckles (NK) and Bae have a discussion about Khaleesi. NK is like, she’s fly, no? And Bae is like “she has a good heart” and NK is like, boi you been checkin’ out more than her heart. They see good ole Missi who asks ‘bout Bae’s name “Jon Snow” and he has to explain it’s because he’s a bastard. They ask her about why she loves Khaleesi so much and she says it’s cuz they chose her as their leader and also knows she could leave if she wanted.

Next up, Previously-traumatized-Theon washes ashore. Bae is pissed at him because he betrayed his bro Robb Stark many seasons ago and killed some people in Winterfell, but Bae says he won’t kill PTT because he helped Sansa escape. PTT explains that he needs Khaleesi’s help to get sis back from their Uncle-Crazy-Pants, but Bae is like, umm…. Khaleesi is gone…

Which leads us to the last scene…

Bronn and Jaime are checking out the people farming that they discussed before. Bronn and Sam’s dad and bro confirm that they were able to collect grains/harvest etc… and Sam’s mean dad mentions that the gold is safely in King’s Landing. Sam’s mean dad (SMD) is like here’s a good idea to get things moving along, let’s flog the stragglers but Jaime is like ummm…..naw. Once SMD rides off, Jaime asks Sam’s Bro Dickon (SBD) how he feels about battles and SBD turns out to be a real sweetie pie just like his bro. He’s like I don’t love to kill people but I will if I have to.

All of the sudden, Jaime and co hear a rumbling far off. The skies are kind of gray and they’re on the wrong side of a hill so they can’t really tell what’s coming, but they #getinformation #beyonce and prep for battle. Then, a BILLION DOTHRAKI (the horse ppl who love Khaleesi) roll up on their horses, raring to fight. Jaime looks, frankly, spooked. His army is like ummm…wtf. AND THEN KHALEESI FLYS OVER ON A DRAGON OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!

Before the Dothraki ride their horses straight into the Lannister army, Khaleesi is like breathe fire, babe, and her dragon scorches a bunch of the Lannister fleet. Then the fighting really starts. It’s a lot of Dothraki really giving it to the straight-laced Lannister army who’ve never seen people fight like this before. And then a lot of Khaleesi telling her dragon to breathe fire and wiping out her enemy. IT IS BADASS and also Jaime looks positively terrified.

At one point, Jaime is saved by SBD during battle scene. Jaime tells Bronn to get the giant dragon-shooter-machine and Bronn is like no way, you do it. And Jaime’s like I GOT ONE HAND BRO, CAN’T (it’s very but-you-ain’t-got-no-legs-lieutenant-dan). It seems like Bronn is gonna just bounce, esp since he loses his gold, but instead he heads to the dragon shooter and gets it locked and loaded.

Meanwhile, Tyrion is watching this mayhem and he seems kinda sad. A Dothraki dude is like wow, your people are bad at fighting and Tyrion sees his Bro Jaime out there and seems remorseful. While Tyrion watches his bro struggle on the battlefield, Jamie also looks around at the destruction and fire and seems deeply sad as well.

But back to the battle, Bronn is firing away at the dragon with the giant-dragon-shooter. After some misses, he finally hits the dragon and successfully wounds him. In retaliation, the Dragon blows up dragon-killer-machine (Bronn narrowly escapes). Wounded, the dragon has to land on the shore and Khaleesi hops off to survey the damage to her baby boi. Jaime sees Khaleesi and is like, well, here’s my chance. He’s riding toward her on his horse and Tyrion sees this all and keeps saying, “flee you idiot” because, presumably, he doesn’t want to see either of these people killed.

Jaime rolls up, about to stab Khaeesi and it looks like it might happen when all of a sudden, the dragon brings his head around breathes fire directly at Jaime. At the same time, someone (it looks like Bronn) grabs Jaime and pulls him into the water to escape the fire blast. BUT THEN we just get a clip of Jaime sinking into the water and MAYBE DROWNING?!?!?!?!?!! OMG THIS EPISODE WAS AMAZING I AM GAGGED.

Let’s recap

Biggest surprise this ep: KHALEESI ROLLING UP ON A DRAGON!! Also, is Jaime dead?!?!?!?!

Biggest letdown: the cave of sexual tension was kind of a letdown but I think it’s happening people, I think it’s coming.

Important fashion moments: I’m loving the little getup Arya is wearing during her sparring match with Ladyknight. Also everything Khaleesi and Missi are wearing is #bomb.

Who died this ep? A bunch of Lannister army people, maybe SMD? Also a bunch of Dothraki too. And then the big Q- maybe Jaime?

Thanks for reading!!! Follow me on tumblr! Tell your friends!

Also, a disclaimer that I posted last week:

You might IDGAF this but just to lay it out there, I purposefully avoid all other recaps/reviews/think-pieces about the latest episode in the time between watching the ep and writing this recap. Sometimes I will hop on to the GoT wiki page to find out a character’s name or check a fact but mostly it’s just my own notes that I reference.

WHY AM I EVEN SAYING THIS? I often will read other recaps/reviews after writing and posting this one and I’m like OMG WE HAD THE SAME REACTION/ SAID THE SAME THING about a scene or a character. So I guess I just wanted to say that any similarities between this recap and any other recap are unintentional and coincidental.

I know what you’re thinking: PROVE IT. Well, much like Bae trying to prove the ice zombies are real, I can’t prove it, I can only state the facts and hope that my time-worn face and honest peepers will be enough :)

[ghoulluck]

Wish That You Were Here

| NOTES: Anything canon after season two of Scream is not included. This is time line and canon divergent. There are MANY mentions and allusions to other pieces of literature and horror films so if you get even a few of them congrats. If It’s reblogged enough, I could make a part two.Be aware there will be spelling and grammar errors. |

SUMMARY: Inspired by Florence + the Machine’s Wish That You Were Here. Audrey comes home to Lakewood after a fourteen year period serving Special Forces. There she has to resolve the demons she thought she buried years ago in her violent military history and realizes her definition of home could be blonde hair and brown eyes. (braudrey. one shot? no rating. warnings for graphic/triggering etc content. if reception is well, there might be a part two or more.)

PLEASE REBLOG, DO NOT REPOST. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL WORK.

Audrey turned the key over in her fingers. She felt the weight of her dog tags slide towards her on the chain. “Here’s your coffee ma'am.” The woman blinked and remembered where she was.

“Uhm, t-thanks. Sorry.” Putting the chain down, she stared at the cup in silence. The diner’s red neon sign washed in through the dirty window casting Audrey a pale pink.She glanced at her green beret sitting on top of a pile of unopened letters. She had never written back, but the letters had never stopped coming even if they had slowed in volume. Nearly every single one was from Brooke.

She let her icy eyes fall on the Christmas card sitting on table as she touched the old house key sitting among the dog tags around her neck. Opening the card one more time, she read Brooke’s near immaculate hand writing.

[WISH THAT YOU WERE HERE.]

Audrey took in a deep breath as she closed it. It had been very easily at least a decade since she had set foot in Lakewood. She hardly ever breathed her home town’s name out loud in fear of it catching up to her.

(“Audrey?” Sheriff Acosta’s voice sounded tight over the telephone. “Did I get a ticket again?” she half joked as she wiped the candy counter down. “I’m sorry for this news.” The teenager stopped a moment as she stared at a scratch on the bright red counter top. Audrey scratched at an itch in her throat that never seemed to go away. “Your dad was hit by a drunk driver off highway 45.” Audrey tried to swallow the itch down. It became a tickle that would turn into a hiccup of a sob.)

She squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears that still burned as if she had heard the news only yesterday. Joining the special forces had never been part of her own agenda. Hell, her agenda had been to get back into film making and not letting anything ruin that for her again. The idea had been a footnote given to her by her Dad. She recalled him laughingly mentioning it while they were making pancakes one morning.

(His eyes were starting to regain a little bit of their light. Her mother had passed only four years before. Audrey was in eighth grade and Emma sat across the table. They were playing footsie and laughing while stuffing their gross pimply faces with pancakes. She could barely hear him talking on the phone with Uncle Mike. He was laughing about her newborn baby cousin, Thomasin. “Our girls are tough, I’m sure Audrey or Thomasin is gonna carry on the Jensen military legacy.” )

At the time Audrey would huff and roll her eyes. She hadn’t gone home since the funeral. She had thought about chucking the house key in Wren lake, but she didn’t have the guts. Her rough fingers hesitantly reached for the pile. She was almost afraid of what they would say. Tearing open the second most recent letter. A few pictures fell out, they were of Emma and a tiny little baby. Turning them open carefully, she read the notes on the back.

[Emma & Eisley].

She picked up the letter for answers.

[Hey its me again. Just keeping you updated on stuff. Emma had her first baby. Her name is Eisley and she’s the cutest. Her eyes look a lot like yours. She’s so lucky to have colored eyes since her dad has brown eyes. Emma was scared she was gonna look more like her dad, but she's a good 50/50. Love ya, hope to hear/see you soon]

It took Audrey hours to sort through the letters backwards. Emma had met some guy in med school. Noah was a big time crime writer -- Brooke was kind enough to include his debut Vanity Fair article about the Texas Debutante killer. She had to laugh about the irony about it all. She touched these items as she read to make their lives more real to her again. Stavo and Brooke had divorced amicably and according to Blondie he was doing pretty well with his foot in the animation department. He was working with Konami for a new generation of horror gaming.

They had done so much in her time away. She touched her split lip which was a reminder of what she had accomplished in her own time away from them. Audrey had polished her steel and sharpened her edges. She had channeled her grief and anger into power and bloodshed. Picking up the letters, she filed them into her duffle bag’s side pocket. Putting a dollar bill under her untouched coffee cup, she slowly moved out of the diner’s booth. Her wary eyes flicked around carefully to take in the people around her.

In her nearly twelve hour seating, the diner had acquired a new set of hard asses. Most of them were from the near by base and Audrey made her way to the restroom with her green beret in hand. The bathroom resembled one she would find at a shitty seven eleven.

Dropping her bag on the floor she took a look at herself in the mirror. She had retained some of her baby face, something she was thankful for. Her blue eyes had gotten paler with age. Maybe it had something to do with extended periods of staring into flood lights. There was a shadow of a black eye around her left eye. Her jaw clicked when her mouth parted to observe the split in her lip.

Shrugging out of her uniform carefully, Audrey noted had more freckles on her bare shoulders probably from sun exposure. She passed a finger over old bullet wounds on her right arm. Some scars were uglier than others. The brunette pulled her white tank top over her head quickly to pull on a loose fitting charcoal colored tee. Her shoulder still ached from tearing her rotary cuff.

Shucking her uniform pants off, she pulled the metal belt from it to lace it through her black jeans and sighed at the new space. Her clothing was cold and at least a few years old. Her jeans were worn at the knees and if she had been a few years younger she would have thought it stylish. She put her arms into her trusty leather jacket before carefully pulling her long brunette hair over it’s collar. She made a note to cut it when she got the chance.

The dog tags clinked as she finished dressing and she put her uniform back into her duffle bag in a neatly folded and now empty corner. She lugged the green bag over her shoulder as she pushed her way out of the restroom.

“Bye ma’am! Happy holidays!”

Audrey cast a glance at the waitress and for a moment she didn’t know what to say as she went out the door, “--T-thanks.”. The cold air hit her and her breath fanned out into the air in cool white clouds. Making her way to her beaten red jeep she threw the duffle into the back seat. The vehicle wasn’t warm, but she had spent time in places colder than hell in less clothes. Tying her hair back, she turned on the GPS to set it.

CURRENT LOCATION - BARROW, ALASKA

SET DESTINATION - LAKEWOOD, LOUISIANA

She gave a white puff as she plugged the key in the ignition and sparked up a cigarette.It was a bad habit she had picked up when she was alone. She let the jeep’s engine warm up before cranking up the heat. The windows fogged and she looked at the gold watch on her right wrist to hide a scar. It was her mother’s, a gift from her dad before she had passed from cancer. The piece was delicately detailed and it reminded her that her parents were finally together somewhere.

Looking at the watch made her feel as if a hundred years had passed since she was eighteen. Covering it up with the leather jacket, she wiped away a spot on the passenger’s window to see the mirror. Her limbs were starting to feel heavy. Rolling her head back against the jeep’s headrest, she debated if she was really going to go home on such a shit impulse.

“Fuck it.”

Audrey glanced at the rear view mirror as she pulled out of the parking lot and made her way down to the first high way. For the next five days, she spent her time seeing things she had missed and stopping at scenic routes to take short videos and quick pictures before coming across a beauty salon.

She put down her camera. She was only about thirty minutes from home and suddenly, she didn’t like the idea of parting with her long locks just yet. Audrey had changed too much to go back to who she was. Entering against her best instinct, the brunette was greeted by a bored looking stylist, “Hi, how can I help you?”

“Uh yeah, I’d like to get a hair cut? Maybe some color?” She had dyed it once a long time ago, a glossy blue black and she was offered an array of books and color samples. Determined not to be overwhelmed, she chose out a short crop that would sit just below her chin and a glossy black color. The process took longer then she had expected and Audrey was starting to feel the nerves when the excess was being washed away.

She closed her pale eyes to avoid looking at herself in the mirror until it was all done. Audrey had to laugh at the stylist’s commentary. “You kinda look like Kate Beckinsale-- what was that movie?” She shrugged, she was laughing too hard at her own reflection to remember as the cape came off. The shorter crop made her feel a little lighter. Not bothering to hear a price, she shelled out a hundred and made her way out. “Happy holidays,” Audrey stated through a sigh before the door closed behind her.

She slid on her sunglasses as she ran a hand through her wet black hair and stared up at the sun with a grimace. She looked back down at her watch. With every step, her dog tags felt heavier and the key seemed to be the heaviest weight on her chain. Climbing back into the jeep with a groan, she sat in the driver’s seat.

The rear view mirror declared Louisana’s temperature at a nice solid 60.

Audrey gave a sigh as she drove her way out of the parking lot. She didn’t have anymore excuses between her and Lakewood. “Fuck --” she hissed under her breath as she sped down highway 45. Out of the corner of her eye she caught her Dad’s worn old cross with fresh flowers. It wasn’t like he was fucking buried there and she made a sharp u-turn to take a good look at it before peeling out.

She stared at her GPS as she navigated the town’s streets. She recognized various things here and there, but it had changed so much Audrey almost felt lost. Who the hell in their right mind had sunk so much money into Lakewood? She spied a street sign [Quinn Maddox Memorial]. It was a grisly reminder of why she wanted to leave Lakewood. It took everything special and turned it to shit.

She raked her calloused finger through her hair as she drove slowly to see what had changed. Maggie had sold her house to be closer to Emma and Eisley from the looks of it. Unfamiliar faces played in the front yard with their children and grandchildren. Audrey found herself driving by Noah’s house to see his dad and mom pleasantly still settled in their house. She passed her house without a blink and sighed as she tried to ignore the weight of the key around her neck.

She found herself navigating to the familiar address on one of the letters. It was Stavo’s old house. When Sheriff Acosta had been fired, he had been relocated and Brooke had followed, initially as her letter depicted and she had come back. It was hard to imagine the Maddox princess living so humbly in the old Acosta house. Bringing her jeep to a stop across the street, she stuck her head out the window to see who lived in the house as she put a cigarette in between her lips.

‘Stalker alert,’ she thought to herself as she put the lighter to the menthol and exhaled it’s poison into the cool Louisiana air. Setting her head back into the jeep, she let her head rest as she watched the house and finished off her cigarette. Lakewood still smelled like Wren Lake and she took in a deep breath of that cold sweet water air. She waved away her cigarette smoke and sighed when she saw nothing moving.

She peered at the bright red envelope sitting in her passenger seat. Taking it in her hands again, she passed her thumb over the date. It was the most recent and the only dated for the current year. She passed her fingers over the glossy picture of Emma and Eisley before sticking it in her in her sun visor like they were going to look over her and hopefully keep her safe, mainly from herself.

Audrey had more than one demon to pick a bone with. She glanced at the gold watch. Slowly she moved to unclasp it. An angry red scar stared back at her. She couldn’t forget how she had acquired it. She closed her eyes a minute and even with all her anxiety she couldn’t ward off the tiredness she felt to her core.

When she slept, she never dreamed and if she did, she never remembered what she had dreamt about even when the feeling of fear remained. If there was anything she hated most in the world, it was the feeling of being powerless.

(The knife slashed at her arm. The burning red pain of it had her gasping as the killer stepped back. She could hear Piper’s laugh ringing in her ears still to this day. “What the fuck, Piper! That’s not funny! I was scared you were gonna kill me!” She hissed this low and under her voice as she clutched her arm. Small rivets of blood ran down her pale skin.

“Audrey live a little, geeze,” Piper stated as she flipped her long brown hair much like Emma did when she didn’t really think about it. It made Audrey think of a shampoo commercial. “What the fuck are you doing with the mask? And dressed like that! There’s a real killer on the -- loose--- ” Her words were starting to die in her throat.

She could see Piper’s visible irritation and also the gaff of a mocking laugh, “Yeah, I fucking know, Audrey.” The slow pronunciation of her name brought chills to her spine. The cold knowledge of suddenly putting everything together set in and Audrey felt the itch in her throat she hated so much. “Y-y-you lied to me--?” 

She hated the shrill sound of her voice as it turned to anger, “You bitch!” The teen froze when she heard shouting. Her first instinct was to protect anyone else from harm and her head shot to the left. When she turned back, Piper was gone before Audrey could give the bitch a piece of her mind.)

Whenever Audrey fell asleep, she dealt with the dark dreams. She would never be fully rid of the guilt. She would always carry it with her like the key around her neck. It was humbling and grounding. She ran her fingers over her chain as she glanced at her watch.

It was almost nine and the sky was dark.

She took in a deep breath through her nose and the cool air had turned sharp in her lungs. Louisiana had always been less industrial then the east and west coast. That was probably why the gulf had always been her favorite. She wiped at her tired pale eyes and glanced at the house. It was still vacant. Her tongue swiped out to taste the scab on her lip as she debated staying the night at the Crescent Palms hotel.

Did the place even exist still? The question suddenly seemed more realistic when she realized that her house had been unoccupied for a few years. She leaned over to turn on the GPS and the headlights of an oncoming car blinded her. The GPS page presented her several options for hotels in the area.

A hard knock on the jeep’s metal jolted her nearly out of her seat.

“Audrey?”

Brooke had changed so much since she had last seen her, yet not at all. She still had the biggest, saddest eyes she had ever seen. Like someone had really gone and broken her heart. Audrey opened her mouth to say something. The Maddox princess was as pristine as ever, dressed in white like an angel and she reached out to touch the birth mark on Brooke’s cheek.

She pushed open the jeep door slowly and Brooke made her way around to meet Audrey half way. The blonde in her arms was a little more filled out then she had remembered and she smelled a little more like sandalwood than vanilla, but she made no arguments against the pleasant scents. She felt Brooke squeeze her back harder.

“I-I I thought I was never going to see you again.”

[thosewhowearmasks]

Of Basilisks

As Recorded By Choi Seonhwa, of the Naga Tribe (who is going to make an effort with proper grammar etc because it's For Posterity)

Intro

No one knows shit about basilisks.

It's not their fault really. I mean it's a super dangerous animal, and it's not like it can turn off its powers or whatever. And because of that, it's really only been bred to be a killing machine. Which is unfortunate, because they're really cool. I'm not saying everyone should go out and get them as pets (and, seriously, um, don't), but maybe stop making them as monsters and just kinda let them be, like other wild animals.

I only have one as a pet because my brother's dog, Chongal, heard a noise in some overgrowth and went to investigate. This basilisk was born blind, and as best as we can figure, was abandoned because of that, because a monster that can't actually kill???? not worth the trouble, apparently. But it couldn't easily fend for itself, and it was relatively harmless, and we couldn't just leave it there, so we adopted it! I named it Yuyaghan (유약한), which means 'milky' or 'glazed', after how its eyes look, but we all usually just call it Yuya for short. Or sometimes Yua (유아), which means 'orphan'. It also means 'tiny', which has just gotten funnier as the years go on.

As a result, I've had a rare opportunity to study the basilisk Wow that sounds so stiff okay so I didn't really study it but I am writing down the stuff I've learned over the years, in the hopes that someone else will get something out of it. I'm gonna try to keep things straightforward but I'll probably make reference to my own experiences, since that is my main source of info. I'll probably go on tangents. This is why I don't usually write academic-y stuff. Ah well.

Also I say 'pet' and that's kinda how it started, but honestly, it's too intelligent - on par with a pre-teen, I'd say - to be considered just that. I've had Yuya for a little over 100 years now, and almost since the beginning, I've thought of it as my child more than my pet. So there's that.

Oh and I guess I should explain what's going on when I mention conversations with Yuya. In the early days, when I mostly lived as a human (being in non-magical Korea and all), one of my dads managed to make a little helmet that would translate and play as audio what it was saying, and it also had a little camera so that it could translate my sign language into something Yuya could understand. But when I'm in my naga form (which I've been living exclusively in for about 40 years now, and experienced intermittently throughout my life before that), we both speak the general reptile language.

Appearance and Biology

Not one of my drawings, but the closest I've found to how Yuya turned out. The most notable features are the horns, sort of in a crown shape - which is presumably how it got a name meaning "little king" - and the crest going down its back. Much like regular snakes, they can sense heat, and ‘smell’ with their tongues.

Size varies. They can't change size at will, but they can just stop growing if they want. While living in Korea, I assumed I'd have to release Yuya after about 10 years, but it never got too big for my house. When I expressed surprise at this, Yuya just explained that it could've gotten bigger but didn't want to. It didn't seem to realize this wasn't A Thing for most species. Sure enough, now that we've relocated and it has the room to grow, it's resumed doing so - really fast at first, but it's evened out.

Basilisks are created when a rooster egg is incubated by a snake or frog. Because of this, there's just one type of basilisk, not male or female. Yuya is perfectly content to go by "it". Although while trying to research, I found a quote that said the basilisk "alwayes, and cannot but be a male, as the more proper receptacle of venome and destructive qualities." Yuya was So Offended by this that it insisted on going by she/her for like the next month, just to prove a point. Not that it proved much because it's not like Yuya is venomous or destructive but it was still adorable. ...this writing is all over the place but to be fair I did warn you.

Personality

Hoooooooooly smokes are they affectionate. Or Yuya is, anyways, but the impression I get from Yuya is that it's the same for all of them. They just don't get to show it much on account of people not really getting close to them. But Yuya, at least, is basically a puppy, loving being pet and snuggling against people and being really expressive about how it feels and even though it can only hiss it has sooo many different ways it can sound, whether happy or angry or sad, and sometimes Yuya even wags its tail and I just. Seriously, everyone should love them.

Abilities

"Anyone who sees the eyes of a basilisk serpent dies immediately. Its touch and even its breath scorch grass, kill bushes and burst rocks. Its poison is so deadly that once when a man on a horse speared a basilisk, the venom travelled up the spear and killed not only the man, but also the horse." - Pliny the Elder

"All flee from it, for it can kill a man with its smell or even by merely looking at him. Birds flying within sight of the basilisk, no matter how far away they may be, are burned up. They are like scorpions in that they follow dry ground and when they come to water they make men frenzied and hydrophobic. The basilisk is also called sibilus, the hissing snake, because it kills with a hiss." - Isidore of Seville

...So a lot of stuff is supposedly going on. The thing is, it turns out these are actually a bunch of similar subspecies. They all get smushed together, because they do look really similar, and people generally can't get close enough to tell them apart without huge risk, whatever the variety. But basically, each subspecies is kind of... focused on a different sense? One attacks with sight, one with touch/poison, one with smell, one with sound. This is why Yuya isn't actually that dangerous, even though people are like "BUT WAIT EVEN IF IT'S BLIND DOESN'T THAT LEAVE A LAUNDRY LIST OF OTHER STUFF-" no it doesn't. All Yuya would've had to begin with is the killer glare stuff, and that's neutralized since it's blind.

That said, all the varieties are strongly connected to the element of fire. They have the ability to breathe fire, like a dragon. I dunno about the others, but Yuya has only ever done this to attack birds for its dinner, and has had no interest in just randomly flaming people otherwise. They're really warm to the touch, and prefer hot temperatures (actually maybe this is why they're so snuggly). The area around their burrow will dry out, but this is from heat rather than poison. And when they die, they turn to ash.

Also, they're all weak to weasels. Something about the smell they give off actually hurts basilisks, so my guess is that there's some sort of pheromone or whatever given off by the weasel that the basilisk reacts negatively to. I dunno for sure, I didn't study it specifically or anything. I just know Yuya was suuuuuuuper skittish around my uncle who had a weasel form, and wouldn't go anywhere near him when he was transformed.

Diet

Birds and eggs. Yuya has never been interested in any other sort of food, meat or otherwise. It's pretty straightforward, there's not much to say here. It doesn't care if it's raw or not, considering its flame would sometimes cook their food in the wild, anyways. Also it's possible for them to take a liking to fried chicken, which I learned thanks to my stupid then-boyfriend-now-husband giving Yuya scraps, leading to a brief time where Yuya refused to eat anything else because it only wanted that.

What it likes best, though, are century eggs - and according to Yuya, this is what all basilisks would eat all the time, if they were readily available, since these eggs fill them up for so long. There are some loose natural magic qualities at play, I guess: The longer the egg has been preserved, the longer it preserves the basilisk. We've heard rumors that there may be century eggs that are literally a century old, making this the best possible food source for a basilisk, but we've never found any so far.

Other Stuff

One thing we accidentally discovered during our time in Korea was the effect of alcohol on Yuya. See, one of the effects on people is that it lowers the body temperature, just a little. This goes kind of to an extreme in Yuya, and switches around its whole nature - instead of being linked to fire, it's linked to ice until the alcohol is out of it's system. It gets chilly to the touch, and seeks out cold places to stay, and breathes out ice crystals. It's not needed much anymore, but it honestly came in handy, because it got antsy in winters in Korea, stuck in its tank in order to keep warm, and this let it get out for a bit. It also took it upon itself once or twice to drink alcohol for the purpose of becoming a cold compress when one of us was hurt or sick. So there's that. Oh, and also, if you have a friend who's, like, an emissary of winter? It will be naturally drawn to them when in this form. Not sure if the same would happen with an emissary of summer in its regular form.

As a final note... Apparently, they normally live for about 1,000 years, and for most, this is enough. But if they want to extend their life, they can, sortof. With the help of magic, they can lay an egg; they'll die shortly after laying it, but the hatchling will have all their memories and personality, even if it doesn't look the same. It can do this as many times as it wants. I can't verify this, since Yuya's only a little over 100. But it nudged me into looking into this stuff, it won't tell me why, and I figure I may as well include everything I can here, because it's not like it's a thing I'd ever be able to see anyways. Maybe someone down the line can add to these notes.

Sources: [x], [x]

[sonofsuperman-archive]

INTERVIEW MEME (Long Post Warning)            

★ pick one of your muses. ★ fill in the questions as if you are being interviewed for an article and you  were your muse. ★ tag some friends to do this meme! tagged by: @the-amazing-amazon tagging: @americanalien, @vcspertiilio, @perfectforayear, @dawnofspeed, @licn, @error1nmycode, @ironmaidenfan, @dxntlikebullies, @prodxgaliron, @telekinctics

1. What is your name? “Superboy, ma’am,” he quickly responded, hand reaching up to bow his cap in greeting but since he was in costume, the boy was forced to comb his hair to act ‘normal’, “pleasure to meet ya.”

2. What is your real name? “Ah... umm...” alien blue eyes darted to the side, glancing around in hopes to figure out what to say. Chewing on his bottom lip, the young hero shrugged before making his excuse, “well... that’s a secret. I ain’t allowed to say it. Sorry!!”

3. Do you know why you’re called that? “Well...” he started, eyebrows scrunching up in thought, how was he named Superboy again? “Dad decided to call me Superboy when I first dawned the costume and it kinda stuck enough that when he introduced me to uncle Br-Batman” Oh Krypton, uncle Bruce would kill him for that slip up, “and aunt Diana, that became my hero name.”

4. Are you single or taken? “... I’M A KID!!” why would they even ask that?? Jon had panicked and shouted a response, hands clutching his chest and staring widely at the interviewer, “I’m single of course!!”

5. What are your powers and abilities? “Uhh..” fingers slowly lifted up as the super son tried to say all of his powers, “I have super strength, super speed, super hearing, heat vision, freeze breathe, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, super well- I can smell really good and from a far distance, I don’t have flight mastered yet but I can hover... uh uh.” Clutching his head, his eyes squeezed shut trying to remember, what else did he have, “Oh I have that super breathe thing where I can shout really loud like Aunt D-Canary and break glass!! So I have 10 I think. Abilities well, I’m great at Kryptonian technology and science, especially aerospace stuff, I can calculate really really fast since my mind processes faster.. is that more of a power than an ability? I dunno.. oh! and I can operate heavy machines, like trucks, tractor, etc. I’m gonna learn how to fly an airplane though. Robin says he might teach me if we could ‘borrow’ uncle Batman’s batplane... don’t tell him though.”

6. What color are your eyes? “They’re blue, I got ‘em from my dad, I think. I mean mom has a human-like blue while I have the same blue as dad, supergirl, and powergirl.”

7. Have you ever died your hair? “Nahh..” he answered, running a hand through his hair and grabbing a few strands to look at it, “I like my hair color. When ya have eyes like mine, ya see each hair’s different color and they look amazing. Dyed hair though, ya’d see the chemical and all.”

8. Do you have any family members? “Yepp!!!” he grinned wide, leaning forward to the interviewer, excited to talk about his family, “I got my dad Kal-El who’s Superman, I got mom who hasta remain a secret, I got my two aunts Kara Zor-El and Kara Zor-L, there’s a difference with one not having the E in El, they’re Supergirl and Powergirl, I got my sister Cir-El, she doesn’t have a hero name yet, and I’ve got my brothers, Kon-El and Lor-Zod, they’re Superlad and Nightwing. Pretty cool, right?!? Not to mention my aunts and uncles in the Justice League and the Batfamily!!”

9. Do you have any pets? “Yepp!! I have two but I can’t name the other one. The first one, ya might know. His name’s Krypto the Superdog.” Placing a cupped hand against the side of his mouth to hide it from the audience, he mock-whispered, “he’s definitely better than Ace the Bathound.”

10. Tell me about something you don’t like. “I DON’T like bullies,” his lips formed a frown to reassure his statement, remembering the bullies in his school and the bigger bullies around the world. “Just cause someone’s smaller, weaker, disabled, a minority, doesn’t mean ya’re allowed to bully him or her or xe!! We should all love everyone and take care of each other!”

11. Do you have any hobbies or activities you do in your spare time? “Yeah! When I’m not trainin’, doin’ missions, learnin’, or doin’ homework, I’m usually watching tv shows, playing video games, or just using the internet. I also take care of a lot of animals in our place and cook or bake. Sometimes I create flying saucers and other things for fun too.”

12. Have you ever hurt anyone before? “I have,” he quietly confessed, looking to the side to avoid the interviewer’s eyes, his hands rubbing up and down his arms for his own comfort, “when I was learnin’ how to use my heat vision, Dad forced me to use it and I accidentally hit him causing him to bleed.” His dad was suppose to be invulnerable against most things but his heat vision was more powerful than his dad’s and so he was able to harm him. “Also I punched Robin a few times before we teamed up cause he was being mean and kidnapped me.”

13. Have you ever… Killed anyone? “Nope. and I don’t wanna. I may be new in this hero business but.. well.. I think every human being is precious and I’d never want to kill one.” Not to mention that the first time he’d seen and smelt blood, he had panicked and ran away, what more trying to kill someone who could be loved by someone and missed by people.

14. What kind of animal are you? “PUPPY!! Definitely!” there was confidence in his voice as he once again smiled, glad that they were out of the topic of harming people. “My sis tells me that I’m like a puppy, so do my aunts. It fits cause dad’s described as a dog.”

15. Name your worst habits. “When mom and dad leave me alone at home, I kinda sorta... eat all the icecream at home. I mean, they’re just there.. expiring.. it’s my duty as an ice-cream lovin’ boy to make sure they don’t go to waste, y’know?”

16. Do you look up to anyone? “Of course!! Dad definitely. He’s the ideal superhero, kind, strong, smart, values equality and justice. I wanna be like him someday and when I become Superman, I’ll make sure to be like him.” Not to mention his siblings, the whole justice league, and every hero he fawns over but that should be kept quiet for now.

17. Gay, straight, or bisexual? “Wait.. wha...” he was speechless, why would they ask this, he was here as a hero and not just any hero, a kid hero. In fact, he didn’t even know that there was such a thing called labels until he was put into school. His whole life, his mom and dad taught him that love is love, no matter which gender the person you loved is. Why would it be needed. “I dunno, nor do I wanna label myself once I grow old. Love’s love and I’ll be open to whatever my heart wants.”

18. Do you go to school? “Yeah, I do. I’m in grade 5 actually. I can’t say which School though but..” he chuckled at his own thoughts, “it’s on Earth, don’t worry. I’d graduate in Earth standards.”

19. Do you ever want to marry and have kids someday? “Hm....” elbows placed on top of his legs, hands cupping to hold his head up high, he’d never thought of such a question before, nor was he asked. Jon’s only started having crushes and was more focused on figuring out how to keep his cool and charm the person. “I guess?!? I mean I’ve always wanted a big family so if I can have kids and someone with me like mom is with dad, that would be awesome.”

20. Do you have any fans? A small embarrassed chuckle left the super’s lips, cheeks turning red, and a hand messing his hair, “yeah,” he spoke in a soft and quiet tone, glancing away from the interviewer and looking at a wall, “I actually just found out recently that I do. I was looking through the internet and found them talkin’ bout me. Conspiracy theories, experiences, etc. They’re pretty nice!! and really sweet.”

21. What are you most afraid of? “Dying.” It was a quick reply, one that weighed heavily in his heart. After that scare with Ruppletat, one where their whole house was being burned down by white flames and him slowly being erased, he had thought that he was going to die and had been to scared to cry. The stress of being in the 5th dimension kept him calm for the most part and angry at the imp but once they got home, Jon had cried his heart out in fear. Unable to stop himself from gulping, he nodded to confirm his answer before quietly whispering, “... being forgotten.”

22. What do you usually wear? “Well I usually pick comfy jeans, white socks, and rubber shoes but... for shirts I go long-sleeves, often white, and some jackets.”

23. Do you love someone? “Of course!! who wouldn’t?” he couldn’t live without loving someone, from his parents, to his siblings, to his many aunts and uncles, even the bat family and classmates. “

24. What class are you? “Ya mean like in richness? Um.. I’d like to think we’re middle class, not rich but not struggling,” they had a farm, had all the eggs, meat, milk, etc. they could have and so they could live by even with dad working as a hero and mom just gaining her Daily Planet work. The truth was, they could easily be rich, dad could make diamonds out of coal easily and Jon plans on learning the same trick soon, but they didn’t do that and it counted.

25. How many friends do you have? “I got a few close ones around my age,” since most of his classmates were just acquaintance or bullies who didn’t like him standing up for those ‘weak’, “and several that I’m friendly with, especially teen heroes.”

26. What are your thoughts on pie? “Dad makes a really good one! I think he got that recipe from Gramma. I like apple pie the most!”

27. Favorite drink? “ROOTBEER!” Jon immediately answered only to cough, welp, there goes his coolness, all due to his excitement of rootbeer. Playing it off, his lips pressed together and formed a smile, nodding at himself, “rootbeer’s the best drink ever! I drink it all day really.”

29. What is your favorite place? “Definitely the Fortress of Solitude!” the crystal-like palace was amazing, even so with his super vision and his ability to pick up colors that normal humans couldn’t see. “I mean, Uncle Batman’s moon cave is great and all but nothing beats the Fortress.”

30. Are you interested in someone? “Interested? Like I wanna learn more about them? or is it the romantic sense? If it’s just interest, well, I find every being interesting, they all have a different life story and its great to hear them. If it’s romance, wait a few more years, or once I’m 20.”

31. What’s your bra size?

32. Would you rather swim in the lake or the ocean? “Lake. It’s safer than the ocean and I haven’t learned howta properly swim yet. Uncle A-Aqua’s gonna teach me once he has a free schedule though!” He was far too excited at talking about Aquaman teaching him how to swim, who could say that the King of the Sea helped them learn how to swim?

33. What’s your ‘type’? “Type? Ya mean what I’d like on a person?” yet another question he never thought about before, his mind started drifting to his crush and quickly talked about what made him like her, “she... or he, I dunno,.. has to be someone I can trust and are friends with, they hafta know how to make me happy, they hafta be happy spendin’ time with me, they hafta be really really pretty, oh and they hafta know how to bake or cook!”

34. Any fetishes?

35. Top or bottom? Dominant or submissive?

36. Camping, or indoors? “Indoors, I like havin’ a good bathroom, internet, and a comfy bed but if I need to camp, I would enjoy the moment too.”

37. Are you waiting for this interview to be over? His grin was a tiny bit forced to hide his embarrassment once more, he could lie but this interview made him nervous and weirded him out... a lot. Why would they ask him about romance? Unless he had preteen fans.. blue eyes widened at that thought before trying to answer, “I.. well.. ya know hero work is never done and I kinda need to do my math homework if I wanna patrol Metropolis later so... yeah kinda. Sorry!”