#I haven’t read that much this year (I’m on book 13) but I have watched a lot of movies soooo take this

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

EWAN MITCHELL PHOTOGRAPHED AND INTERVIEWED FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.

ABOUT BEING RECOGNIZED

Like most people, Ewan Mitchell is accustomed to anonymity.

So during a recent trip to Manhattan, he was surprised by what a hotel doorman asked when he arrived: “You haven’t packed your eye patch?”

The actor is still getting used to strangers making the connection in public.

“I wouldn’t think people would recognize me, but they do.”

“I think it’s because of my strong chin.”

“When I’m dressed up as Aemond and catch myself in the mirror, he scares even me a little bit.”

When he’s not in character, Mitchell is soft-spoken and occasionally flashes a boyish grin, though he retains much of Aemond’s seriousness and quiet intensity.

He is also very private: He stays off social media and in the past has shied away from sharing much with the public.

“Once you lose the mystery, you can’t really get it back.”

HE KNOWS THAT AEMOND'S KEY ROLE IN S2 MEANS HE MUST ALSO EMBRACE THE SPOTLIGHT:

“There is a point where you have to go, now’s the time to pull back the curtain.”

Like Aemond, Mitchell is a second son.

He grew up in Derby, an industrial town in the middle of England, and his parents expected him to follow his older brother’s footsteps and work at Rolls-Royce (the aerospace and industrial technology company, not the carmaker).

HIS INSPIRATIONS AND BECOME AN ACTOR

Inspired by films like “Citizen Kane” and “Taxi Driver,” Mitchell knew early on he wanted to become an actor.

When he was 13, his teacher asked each student in his class what they wanted to do when they grew up.

“Then it came to me, and I said, ‘I’m going to be an actor,’ and everyone laughed at me.”

His family could not afford tuition for drama school, so Mitchell attended a two-year vocational school, where he studied design and technology while working part-time at a restaurant and in customer service at a local soccer club.

Midway through the program, at 17, he was accepted into the Nottingham Television Workshop, a drama group that trains young people in acting.

Through the Workshop, Mitchell landed a leading role in a 2015 short film called “Fire,” about a young man who leaks fire from his hands.

Once the short was released, Mitchell downloaded it onto a dozen CDs, took the train to London and stopped by the offices of every agent he could find, handing them each a copy.

The one person who called back continues to represent Mitchell.

“By hook or by crook, I wanted to make sure that I was going to be in this business.”

ABOUT BEING CASTED AS AEMOND TARGARYEN

Aemond’s growing prominence in the show requires Mitchell to embrace the spotlight as well.

“There is a point where you have to go, now’s the time to pull back the curtain.”

But being cast as Aemond in “House of the Dragon” has been his biggest professional turning point by far.

“Since landing him, I feel like I’m able to now steer the course of my career.”

Mitchell had been rewatching the classic Hollywood adventure film “The Vikings” (1958) and musing about how he wanted to play a morally dark character similar to the one played by Kirk Douglas when he received an email inviting him to submit a taped audition for Aemond.

When he eventually auditioned in person, he left a lasting impression on Ryan Condal, the showrunner for “House of the Dragon.”

“When Ewan came into the room, he just had this presence to him that I can best describe as unsettling,” Condal said.

“It was kind of quietly terrifying the way he performed it, and it was totally different than everybody else. And then he thanked us very politely and left the room.”

Condal recalls asking Kate Rhodes James, the casting director, “Is he always like that?”

She replied, “Oh no, he’s just a very intense northern boy.”

To prepare for his role, Mitchell did not watch “Game of Thrones.” Instead, he read portions of “Fire & Blood,” the book by George R.R.

Martin that inspired the show, and studied the performances of Michael Fassbender in “Prometheus” and Peter O’Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia,” each playing a figure who wields power for his own ends.

ABOUT MATT SMITH AND DAEMON TARGARYEN

On his first day on set, Mitchell consulted with Condal and decided that he would avoid interacting with Matt Smith, who plays Aemond’s similarly menacing uncle and rival, Daemon, in order to heighten the tension between the two characters.

Mitchell had grown up admiring Smith’s performance in “Doctor Who.”

But on set Mitchell avoided any eye contact with him, keeping his distance until the climactic scene near the end of the first season when Aemond and Daemon finally face off.

“There’s this addictive kind of quality when you’re in the shoes of a character.”

“When you lose yourself for a moment, it’s almost like a dream.”

ABOUT HIS HOME AND HIS DOGS

When he isn’t acting, Mitchell still lives at his family home in Derby and spends time with his dogs, three whippets named Eva, Bella and Bonnie.

“Now that I’m on it.”

“I’ve just got to stay on the dragon.”

[pinkasrenzo]

mid-year book tag

thank you @bloody-wonder for the tag🥰

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2024? Dark Heir by C.S. Pacat, positively destroyed me

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2024? also Dark Heir and I cannot wait for the sequel I need. answers.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black, tho I have yet to read the previous book so it’ll have to wait :”)

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2024? Nothing at the moment, but we’ll see if something catches my eye

5. Biggest Disappointment? Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman, it had a very interesting premise but didn’t do much with it? Or at least I feel like it could’ve done so much more cause the potential was there but it didn’t, instead went over the same point over and over again in a fairly boring way so the whole thing ended up falling flat for me

6. Biggest Surprise? Can’t say a book has surprised me yet so far, all have pretty much matched expectations, but there’s still time

7. Favorite New Author? Not exactly new but Pacat did confirm my love for her writing once again, and did not disappoint even with the “limits” of YA target audience which did have me a bit skeptical at first, but boy did she deliver

8. Newest Favorite Character? Will Kempen (Dark Rise) is the most pathetic wettest little meow meow he’ll have to be so strong to withstand book #3😔💪🏻

9. Newest Fictional Crush? I too would be weak for Sarcean (Dark Rise), I get it Anharion I truly truly do🙏🏻

💕Best Ship💕 James/Will (Dark Rise) have me chewing wires they’re so !!!!!! the rituals are so damn intricate jesus chRIST.

10. Book That Made You Cry? Not cry but The Body by Stephen King nearly had me there ngl

11. Book That Made You Happy? The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic, tho arguably not a happy book :”)

12. Favorite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year? oh 3 Body Problem was amazing binged it in one sitting I could not stop watching and I definitely want to read the books some day! Also ofc Interview with the Vampire was insane and unhinged and so so so good and I need season 3 yesterday. and I will read the books for this too, need me more absolutely deranged vampires

13. Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year? I don’t really write reviews but I did spam Dark Rise to @novishu and got her to obsesses over read it so I’m counting that as a very successful review😌✨

14. Most Beautiful Cover? Firekeepeer’s Daughter is mesmerising, love the mirror effect and the colours! Also The Chosen and the Beautiful has very delicate feel to it, and fits the book perfectly so that’s a close second

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? I’m trying to get through all the books/ebooks I already have so that’s a plan. Also I’m currently reading The Goldfinch and if it doesn’t wear me out I might tackle The Secret History next and then Babel as I’ve had those on my TBR for a while now, and I wanted to read Babel after TSH since I’ve seen it described as a critique/different take on the same themes of that (and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I’ve already read)

(no pressure) tagging @fugitoidkry @novishu @montdargent

[lazuliquetzal]

Whee Fight Scenes! (This Is A Seirei no Moribito Advertisement)

For the past couple of years I have been almost exclusively writing fanfiction for action-fantasy video games which has led to me developing opinions on writing fight scenes. I used to hate writing them because what even happen fight, really, like what the hell??? But now I’ve learned to tolerate them! Sometimes I even enjoy writing them! So now I will share my wisdom with you. 

(Disclaimer: This post was written so I could avoid writing a fight scene.)

My credentials: I occasionally write fight scenes in my action-fantasy video game fanfictions, and I have seen Seirei no Moribito the anime several times. I do not claim to be an expert on fight scenes, but I do claim to love Seirei no Moribito to bits.

Part 1. The Set Up

There’s this excellent anime about a mercenary on a life-long quest for redemption who ends up taking a cursed prince under her protection. It’s about unraveling propaganda and colonialism, and also about kicking ass. The first time I watched this anime, when I got to the episode 3 rice field fight, I thought, “holy shit, I see now that a good fight scene requires not only a kick-ass fight, but also narrative/emotional build up in order to give the scene weight and tension.”

Like, lots of anime have excellent and extremely iconic fights, but this was the show that really made the writing aspect of it stick in my brain. Seirei no Moribito is also an adaptation of a book, which might why this stood out to me: the way its fight scenes are constructed are not as reliant on the actual visuals so much as they are on everything else (the animation for the fight is gorgeous, too, like, just watch this show please it’s so good). That said, I haven’t actually read the book. But I have seen this show several times and the rice field fight gets me so hype.

(And also every other fight scene. I’m never over episode 13. If you have to watch only one (1) episode of Seirei no Moribito, watch episode 13. But also, don’t do that. Watch the entire thing you coward.)

Anyway. What’s going on in Seirei no Moribito episode 3?

Part 1a. The Narrative Stage

Ep3 is early on in the series. The rice field fight is not the first action scene, but it is the first fight scene. This is what we know going in:

Balsa, our main character, is a formidable mercenary with a practical mind and a strong sense of honor. She has sworn to protect Chagum, the prince of the Empire. Her goal is to keep Chagum alive at all costs, because saving his life is crucial to her personal goal of redemption.

The Emperor (Chagum’s father) has dispatched his elite warriors to kill the prince, as they believe that he is possessed by an evil water spirit. Their goal is to kill the prince because the evil water spirit is a bad omen for the empire, and they believe that killing the prince will save the kingdom.

Balsa’s spear is damaged, and she is outnumbered. She has the disadvantage.

We are, of course, rooting for Balsa and Chagum at this point in the story. Balsa’s our main character, she’s super cool, and child assassination is a bad look. We know that Balsa is strong: we’ve seen her do athletic stunts, and it’s been alluded to that she is extremely skilled with the spear. This fight is the first time we get to see her use it, so it’s very exciting to the viewer. We want to see her in action.

Part 1b. The Emotional Stage

Chagum doesn’t have much of a personality at this point: we know he’s a child prince, and we know his dad wants to kill him. So we don’t know him well, but he’s already sympathetic due to circumstance.

When Balsa and Chagum get to the rice fields, they are almost home-free. They’ve spent a lot of effort trying to redirect the emperor’s warriors and the plan almost worked. We are extremely close to safety, so the fact that this is when the emperor’s elite catch up is very tense and frustrating.

All this puts the audience in the mindset of: oh man, they’re so close, I really need Balsa to win! I don’t want the kid die! You can taste the safety, you are almost there—it’s the type of tension that gets you invested in the outcome of the fight.

Part 1c. The Physical Stage

The first half, and the faster-paced portion of the fight takes place in a rice field at night (a classic). Wide open, with water to splash in, and nowhere to hide. It’s right on the edge of the thick forest, which gives Balsa and Chagum an immediate goal: get to the denser terrain so that they might break line of sight of their pursuers.

The second half of the fight is less of a fight and more of a close-up, emotional moment of action. It takes place in a clearing by the edge of the forest.

The physical location of the fight ties in with the short-term goals of the characters: the open field forces Balsa into direct confrontation even though she wants to run, and the clearing by the edge of the forest gives Jin (one of the emperor’s warriors) the illusion of privacy when he tries to kill Chagum, and it gives Balsa cover to hide until she can intervene.

Part 1 – TL;DR

Even before you get to the actual fight, the setup of the fight has inherent tension and intrigue. One can reasonably assume that Balsa and Chagum will survive, because this is episode 3 of a 26 episode anime. But you don’t know if her damaged spear will hold out. You don’t know why the emperor wants Chagum dead. You don’t know if Balsa will kill the emperor’s guards, or if she’ll be able to make a clean getaway with the prince. All these uncertainties create mystery, which creates tension. And tension is what makes the fight fun.

Part 2. The Purpose

I mentioned earlier that this is the first actual fight in the show.

It’s the payoff for a bunch of little questions that have cropped up so far. How strong is Balsa? Is she good enough to win, even when outnumbered? What does her fighting style look like?

A lot of action stories have big fight early on, and that’s because a well-done fight scene squeezes in a massive amount of characterization. In this fight, we learn a lot about Balsa, and we learn a lot about the Emperor and the difference between the Emperor and the people who work for him.

Some questions that get explored: How do they think under pressure? What kind of fighting do they do? Are they strategic? Reactive? Brute force or trickster? How do they solve problems? How far are these people willing to go to achieve their goals?

There’s a moment in this fight when Balsa is wounded, and the emperor’s warriors retrieve Prince Chagum. Balsa ends up retreating into the forest. Jin says something along the lines of: she’s a mercenary, she works for money and she’s already been paid; she won’t risk her life to come back and get the prince.

But she does. Even though she’s been wounded, and even though she had the perfect opportunity to walk away, she comes back and saves Prince Chagum at the expense of her own health. Balsa keeps her promises; Balsa’s personal quest for redemption is more important to her than her life. We know her, now!

Fight scenes are great for characterization because it’s a deviation from status quo. A person’s default state is not “battle,” and stories thrive on extraordinary circumstances. “How does this character change/act/perform under pressure?” is a really great characterization question, and a fight scene is the opportunity to show the answer rather than tell it.

Fight scenes are also great for thematic debate. You get the opportunity to literalize the conflict between different philosophies via characters fighting each other. EZ story moment. You know that one Howard Ashman quote about how, in musicals, the characters sing when they’re too emotional to speak? That’s what fight scenes are to me. The characters fight when they can’t talk to each other.

And then, of course, a fight scene is also moving the plot along. The conflict is happening, information is being exchanged/discovered/buried. Some characters life, some characters get hurt, some characters die. A fight scene is a way to physically bring characters to the state they need to be in for the story to progress (in the right emotional state, the right physical state, the right location, etc). Lots of things going on, which is good—you want all of your scenes to be purposeful.

Part 3. The Details

All of that had to do with the zoomed-out, overall story view of the fight (how the fight fits into the overall story). I am now going to continue to gush about the episode 3 rice field fight up close (how does the fight scene work in isolation). Because Seirei no Moribito rocks.

Part 3a. The Setting

I already mentioned the open rice field/dense forest dichotomy and how that affects the characters’ short-term goals. It’s also a great choice to establish Balsa’s superior technical ability with her spear. The rice field is wide open and relatively flat—no obstructions or distractions, with everyone on equal ground. There are no tricks to pull, no environmental quirks to exploit: this is a clean fight between Balsa and the emperor’s warriors. When she comes out on top, it’s because she’s better than them.

Depending on the character, it might be better to change the terrain. Have the stealthy warrior fight in a forest, where they can appear and reappear and use their sneakiness to their advantage. Put a trickster in a situation where they can improvise traps. There is an aspect of your character that you want to show off, so set the stage so that they can show off. It’ll be totally badass and fun.

Part 3b. The Short-Term Goals

When you read a story, you can reasonably assume that the protagonist will stay alive (especially if you are not near the end of the story). Knowing the outcome can make a story stale if you're not careful. You can lose tension if there’s no risk. Some stories try to create a world/tone/atmosphere so that anyone can die. A lot don’t because that’s a little depressing.

My friend @yellowocaballero has an excellent post on this regarding OP protagonists, but to summarize: if you know the protagonist is always going to win the physical fight, you have to make the win condition not about that. Balsa isn’t OP, but giving characters goals beyond “win the fight” can make a fight so much more interesting.

In the rice field fight, Balsa does not have to defeat the emperor's warriors: she has to get Chagum and herself away alive. Her goal is to make a clean getaway. When the warriors show up, she makes the decision to confront them, and her goal is not just to win, but to win so decisively that they won’t be able to follow her. When Chagum gets caught, she changes her goal to ‘keep him safe at all costs, no matter the harm done to myself’, and she gets seriously wounded. She can succeed in some goals, but fail in others, and the story reacts and keeps changing. It’s the same principle behind why rolling a nat 1 is so entertaining in D&D. The more you fail, the more creative you have to get. 

Part 3c. Monkey Brain

There is just something so cool and so satisfying and so fun about seeing a character kick ass. There is also something very cool and very satisfying about seeing a character get beat up. The rice field fight has it all: Balsa kicking ass, and also getting beat up. It’s fun! Fight scenes that know exactly why they are cool are just so good. Hell yeah, overindulge and use every single weapon despite how impractical they are. Yes please show someone pulling off an unrealistic move for the coolness factor. Absolutely include the explosion-that-would-definitely-kill-but-doesn’t. 

Part 3 — TL;DR 

If you want the fight to be cool, make it cool! Set it in a cool place! Give your characters opportunities to show off! Make it interesting by changing the win conditions! Conflicting goals forces characters to prioritize and it makes scenes fun!

Part 4. Words???

Unfortunately, as mentioned, Seirei no Moribito is an anime and I haven’t read the book so I cannot analyze and gush about its prose in this section. Otherwise, the advertisement would continue. You’re safe for the moment.

Re: prose, there’s probably a post out there that goes over the language of fight scenes better than I ever could. I write with the diction of a middle-grade author because I read PJatO too much as a child and it rewrote my DNA. This is not a bad thing, this is just a fact. So I’m just gonna fire off fight scene writing advice I heard from around:

Filter words — if you want a more immersive reading experience, you want to avoid filtering the action through the narration. So use sentences like: “Her arm hurt” as opposed to “she felt her arm hurt”. But if you’re trying to distance the reader, like recreating the feeling of shock/dissociation, then filter words would help achieve that effect.

Make the rhythm of your prose match the energy of the fight. Short and choppy feels fast in the brain. Long and wordy feels overwhelming. Fragmented sentences and run-ons are chaotic. Customize the vibes.

Establish the important details of the setting beforehand so that you don’t have to stop the action to describe the specific placement of a relevant tree stump. I think I heard this one from Brandon Sanderson on a podcast somewhere, but I think about it a lot when I write because blocking is hard enough and it's even harder when you have to stop and attempt to translate the movie in your head into words. I can’t tell you how to block a fight scene. We need to find someone else who is smarter that can tell us.

Part 5. The Point

Fight Scenes are Fun, actually. They can be really effective if you set them up properly! If you know what you want to do with them, you can arrange it to be as cool as possible! You don’t have to be in a visual medium to make fights fun. You just have to figure out how to translate the cool bits into prose, which I think is mostly done through giving your fight cool shit on both the macro story level scale and the micro scene level scale. 

Also, watch Seirei no Moribito.

[theancientmar1ner]

before i started reading conversations with friends, someone told me it was a better read than normal people - but didn’t translate so well on to screen. I haven’t watched the screen adaptation, and i’m not sure that i will - i don’t think I have ever read a character so much in their own head, to the extent where i’m not sure how it could possibly be captured in real life.

I don’t want to find Frances relatable. Bobbi reminds me more of a smarter version of my 13 year old self. Brash, smart, and major man hater. But Frances reminds me of me now. I think she’s just very very lonely. I don’t normally cry when i read sex scenes in books but now i do it seems. It’s like I can feel the intensity, or the hollowness through the pages. In the beginning of the book something is mentioned about Bobbi saying Frances doesn’t have a real personality - which is something i’ve also thought about myself for a very long time. But i disagree completely. Frances as a character is like. the essence of being a young woman learning who they are. I think she knows more about herself than she seems to realise throughout the story, and this makes me sort of feel the same way about myself. Basing my review of a book based on how the characters relate to me personally is far from a sound literary analysis- but all the same. It’s just beautiful and personal in a way I don’t really know how to articulate.

Sally Rooney. You are just everything to me.

[mara-and-its-the-same]

There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort 🌷: maybe a study session turned cuddle with tasm peter parker?

I don't know if you were expecting science but I just cannot. So r has a test on Othello and yeah, it's cute, I like it. thank you for requesting <3 I had fun writing it

WC: 910 (yay my first blurb under 1000 words, improvement)

The very second you sat back down at your desk, half convinced you’re focused enough from another session of pacing around your room, the buzzer went off. You’d almost be annoyed but you didn’t have the time with the half second it took you to realize it had to be Peter. Any other day you’d run over to the door, but today the exhaustion was getting to you. Settling for a rushed walk instead, you leaned down to speak into the little microphone. “Come on up, bugboy.”

“Actually,” you nearly screamed at the voice from outside your half open window. You had your hand over your heart and your back leaning on the wall while Peter watched, hanging upside down with that stupidly adorable smile. “Spiders are arachnids, not bugs.” He lowered himself to the floor and pulled the web down from your fire escape and you practically ran to open the window the rest of the way. You didn’t give him the chance to duck under the window on his own with the way you pulled him down with a hand to the back of his neck. He had to hold himself up with one hand on the sill and the other on the wrist of your hand in his hair. The kiss itself was much gentler than the way you wrapped him into it, but he was alright with that, though with how much he missed you he wouldn’t have minded more. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

“I know, it’s been too long.”

“Mhm, 12 whole hours, basically eternity.”

“If I remember correctly, it’s been 13.”

“Probably right,” he nudged you back a bit so he could climb in and shut the window without turning from you. “And how many of those did you sleep?”

“Hm,” you clicked your tongue while thinking of the best answer that wouldn’t get you sent to bed immediately, but decided the truth was enough. “Um, 5?” Wrong answer, you could see it on his face. “And a half, 5 and a half.”

“And what were you doing all the other 7.5?”

“I don’t know what it is about this essay but I can’t get it right.” You dropped your face into his shoulder and he tried scratching at the back of your neck in an attempt to comfort you.

“For your lit class? When’s it due?”

“That’s the thing,” you rested your chin on his chest and looked up at him with pleading eyes, not really knowing what you were asking for. “I’m just writing it as a practice for my exam, it’s in two days and if I can’t answer the essay question, what’s the point?”

“She gave you the essay question?”

“Yeah. Well, it’s just to analyze a scene and talk about what it means and blah blah blah whatever,” you talked while he pulled you into your room. “But I can’t focus and it’s like my eyeballs want me to fail.”

You stood behind him while he looked over your desk of loose index cards, open binders and notebooks with margins overrun with scribbles, and of course the half written essay on your laptop.

“You wanna sit down and I’ll quiz you on it? So you don’t have to strain your eyes anymore?” He started picking up the notecards before you even answered, just to organize for you if nothing else. You listened and sat on your bed with your back against the wall. 

“Yeah, that’s ok.”

“Good, ok, yeah. These ones?” He held up the colorful neon flash cards. 

“Mhm, Othello.”

Peter hasn’t even thought of Shakespeare since Macbeth senior year. Too wrapped up in more scientific studies and uh, spiderman-ing. But he’d do it for you. 

Three-quarters of the way through the set he could see your breath evening out and your eyes fluttering. 

“Here, lay down,” he guided you forward by the shoulder. 

“Hm?” 

“I’ll read to you.” He slid in behind you on the bed and pulled the blankets over both of you. 

“You don’t have your glasses.”

“I’ll manage,” he reached over to grab the book off the table then relaxed back down to pull you to his chest. 

“You’ll strain your eyes.” As if he didn’t arrive by swinging from building to building, that’s the danger you were worried about. 

“I’ll manage.” 

Your head was on his chest and he read over your shoulder. 

“Start here,” you pointed to the section your essay was focused on, half way through a passage. 

“She gave me for my pains a world of sighs: She swore, in faith, ‘twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful: She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story. And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake: She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have used: Here comes the lady; let her witness it.”

He looked down at you to find you sleeping, happy that you finally found a moment’s rest. He kissed your forehead, wherever he could reach. “I love you.” He wasn’t even sure you could hear, but he needed you to know anyway. 

“I love you,” you mumbled into his chest.

[hay-389]

A little snippet of something I’m working on. It’s mainly supposed to be from Morgan’s POV, but there will be a little of Tony’s, Pepper’s, and Peter’s added in the full story.

So, at the end of the school day, roughly around 12:00 pm, she sat coloring at a table waiting to be picked up. It was a Friday which meant her dad would be getting her. Usually Uncle Happy and her dad rotated shifts and on occasion when her mommy didn’t have any work she would show up and surprise her. Morgan knew the schedule like the back of her hand so she wasn’t surprised when her dad strolled into the classroom like clockwork wearing his usual pair of black shades and baseball cap.

“Daddy!”

“Hey there Morgana, ready to make a prison break?” He knelt down to her level, eyeing the picture she had all her focus on before he interrupted.

“Whatcha got there, kiddo?”

Tony picked it up off the table and held the slightly crinkled paper up to the light to get a better look.

“That’s you daddy,” Morgan informed him, slightly rolling her eyes and huffing because it was obviously him dressed up as Iron Man. She used the perfect shade of red and yellow to color his suit in. How could he not tell?

“Right, of course, that’s me. And I’m totally kicking those guy’s butts because they’re the super villains hell bent on ruining the day.”

Geez, did she have to explain everything to him?

“No daddy, you aren’t fighting them, you’re flying away.”

“Now why would I fly away from them when I have perfectly good repulsors on my hands that can blast them into next Sunday? Hmm.”

“Because, those are the bad people who took you away. That’s you escaping them.”

For just a moment Morgan watched as the wide grin across her father’s face fell into a grim expression. It didn’t last very long, just a few seconds, but she knew she saw it because it was very similar to the one he sometimes wore when telling her stories about her dead brother.

“Who told you that, Morgan?”

“Ethan.”

“Well,” her father spoke, exchanging his rather sad look for a smile. Morgan thought it looked kind of fake. “I think Ethan is too nosey for his own good. Let’s get out of here.”

Her father didn’t say anything else, instead grabbing her book bag and lunchbox from her cubby, then waving goodbye towards her teacher and helper as they left the classroom. She held his hand as they walked to the car and occasionally looked up to see her dad staring down at her drawing. It didn’t seem he liked it all that much. Had she upset him by coloring it?

Morgan stayed quiet as she was buckled into her car seat and even when they pulled away from the school and started heading towards the ice-cream shop she knew he was taking her to. It was normal every Friday for them to stop—it was their own little secret. She would get two big scoops, one cotton candy and one chocolate, in exchange to keep quiet about it from her mommy who didn’t like it when she had loads of sugar.

“What’s wrong, Mo? You're usually bursting my eardrums with all the talk about how school went. Why so quiet?”

“Daddy,” she asked, a serious expression on her face she clearly inherited from her mother. “Did I make you sad?”

Tony startled at the question, his fingers drum, drum, drumming on the steering wheel trying to think back on why she would assume such a thing.

“When you saw my drawing you looked unhappy.”

Huh, maybe she had inherited Pepper’s scary ability to be able to read him like an open book too.

“No kid, your picture didn’t make me sad. I love your drawing. I just…I haven’t thought about that in a really long time.”

“How come?”

That was certainly a good question. A complicated one asked by someone way too young that if she really understood the horrors that went on in that cave in Afghanistan, then she probably wouldn’t have asked it in the first place.

It’s been over a decade since Tony found himself clawing his way out of there, about 13 years now. Since then he’s had so much happen in between that time. He became an avenger then fought aliens. He watched his son grow up into this bright brilliant teenager only to lose him in his arms not long after. He got married to Pepper and had Morgan. He gave up being Iron Man and moved upstate to a quiet little cabin in the middle of the woods. Those were just the major events, not even including all the other shit he had to deal with along the way.

[pandalexoxo]

i can’t stop imaging myself being transported into tokyo revengers. though, personally, i believe it would be bitter sweet.

TOKYO REVENGERS X MALE READER

i’d love to imagine meeting takemichi, and confiding in him that i know about his power, that, i too, have a secret. i would tell him that i’m not even from this universe. he thinks time leaping 12 years is weird? try telling him you’re from another reality (basically) where he’s an anime.

to sum up my thoughts (i wrote 13 paragraphs before deleting it bc this is suppose to just be a ramble lmfao, maybe i’m uploading it later and get your guys inputs) i just feel like i would try to be the sunshine guard dog protector, y’know? not necessarily swoop in to save takemichi (tho, i’d definitely swoop in to beat some characters asses just bc i have a personal vendetta) because damn! look at how badass and hot takemichi is, whenever he fights?! (that ass. thiccimichi 😩😼)

now, here’s where my heart aches and my brain fries from overthinking. do i tell takemichi that i watched the anime (read the manga too) and know who will die in the end? do i tell him that i know of the anime but haven’t seen it or read the manga?

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TOKYO REVENGERS ANIME AND MANGA!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

so, we know that in chapter 275 of the manga (probably season 5 in the anime if we’re lucky) takemichi ends up dying by mikey’s hand, a blade through his chest (heart? stomach? idk i haven’t read the manga in a few months. i sobbed hysterically over his death and refused to open the manga back up. that was until chapter 276 came out, how foolish of me to believe takemichi wouldn’t stand back up like he always does. what a true mc)

funny enough, by using mikey’s hand, he’s able to time travel him and mikey, not just 12 years, but back to when they were kids (i think they were 8 or somewhere around there). thus they are able to help each other create their perfect ending.

though… this “perfect ending” can’t happen unless the characters who died stay dead. shinichiro, baji, emma, izana, draken. with these deaths, mikey indulges in his “dark impulses” and thus the kanto manji gang and toman gen 2 end up fighting to lead to takemichi’s death and end with the perfect book closing page.

it’s unfortunate. it makes me tear up, sob, want to throw up (maybe throw myself out the window) but everything needs to happen. not only the deaths but takemichi’s mental health diminishing needs to happen to. this (others teaching him how to fight and his visions) helps takemichi in the last battle to dodge, punch and get close to mikey.

though, how easily takemichi forgives?! boy just smiles off his pain and forgives others, especially in the final chapter??? he just has his beautiful dopey smile on his face when mikey recognized him and then they ride off into the sunset to save their future??? hell. no. i need everyone to put their fists up, stand in a line, and eat my fucking fist.

i need a takemichi villain arc series. would someone be willing to make that for me? what do you want? a cookie? therapy? a hug? emotional and mental stability? no mommy and daddy issues? (i can’t provide the last two unfortunately, still trying to figure that shit out myself lmfaooo. though, my dms are always open. i love chatting with people and sharing dark humor. muah!)

then again, this is why i whole heartedly admire takemichi. he may not be physically strong like the others but as mikey says, he’s incredibly mentally strong. he gets back up. he stays standing. he’s determined and won’t fall until he wins. he’s too kind. i love him so much guys you don’t understandddd. hina, please share, fuck i am on my knees, foaming at the mouth and barking.

ugh :( it’s okay michi. you get your perfect future, though, are you truly happy and at peace? just keep smiling, okay? anywhooo, you know, i could treat you better anyway! xoxo 😼🕺😽

[reneesbooks]

Damn I really feel you on that one Stephanie Meyer book with the parasitic aliens, like that premise was so interesting, why did she have to focus on the stupid love triangle?!

ok here’s the thing. i could fix her

edit: i'm putting this post under a cut bc it got SO LONG lmao. read at your own risk it's messy and obsessive and a bit unhinged

the movie got so close in some ways and fucking missed in so many others. on the one hand, ian in the movie was imo a lot more likeable than he was in the book. I’m attributing this to less dialogue written directly by stephanie meyer and the actor's face. on the other hand. jared was awful. movie did not fix him even a bit. only thing they fixed was the age gap but not even that was explicitly addressed in the movie. it was just assumed bc the actors looked similarly aged

I should mention at this point that I haven’t actually read the book in a few years but I read it so many times at age 13-14 that it was an intensely formative experience despite being a generally terrible book. I could still probably quote entire passages from memory. I’ve seen the movie definitely more than 50 times, including in theaters w my mom the week it came out. I watched it last week just for something to play in the background while I crocheted. I can and will 1000% quote along with the movie. fucking brain parasite book got me I guess

the book delves so deeply into the genuinely fascinating world building that tbh has influenced me to this day in terms of depth and creativity. that’s where the movie set itself up to fail bc the ONLY redeeming quality of the book was the world building. its perfect for a tv show so that there is time to explore what it’s like for Melanie to live among the souls instead of focusing exclusively on wanderers time among the humans.

ok the love triangle. here's the thing. it didn't have to be Like That. BUT. i remember my edition when i was younger (that has since disappeared but i have a new one on the way bc i miss my stupid parasite book) had a bonus chapter or smth from melanie's perspective after she wakes up without wanderer in her head for the first time and runs into ian and they both have this moment where they reach for each other and there is that moment of horror on ian's part when he realizes that she is not wanda and melanie being so used to wanda reaching for him that she doesn't realize that her body is doing it automatically. and it was just so interesting to think about how that duality affected them and i think the movie kind of tried to do that with the conversation that ian and wanda have on the cliffs but it just didn't make it happen in the right way. so like. having the love stories there are important for why wanda is even willing to learn to be human but the focus on them in the movie and its general failure to properly execute the most interesting parts of them are what kneecapped it imo.

anyway getting back to why despite that the love triangle is literally the least interesting part of this book. starting with the thing that drives me the most up the wall. the fact that the movie didn't include walt at all and glossed over wes's death makes me chew drywall bc that plotline made me SOB. wanda's time sitting at walt's bedside and comforting him through his illness is one of the things that really teaches her about the gentleness of humanity despite their perceived cruelty, and what makes much of the humans actually start to trust her. they see how she treats walt and realize that she has a huge heart and capacity for kindness. so when jared gets mad bc the seeker looking for her has caused problems, and she has the whole compound backing her up anyway, it actually has some weight to it. the movie flattened wanda and her relationships to the others so much it's so disappointing!! she feels grief in a way that's different from how she's ever experienced it before, despite knowing and understanding grief from her previous lives. she is devastated and forever changed by walt's death, and similarly by wes's. i don't remember exactly if he had a partner in the book but i think he did so wanda also had that experience of seeing his death devastate someone else so completely (and for her to be able to connect that to how jared feels about her being in melanie's body). so when she asks doc to let her die at the end, it's go so much more significance because she specifically asks to be buried WITH walt and wes!! she finds peace with death and understands it and wants to be with the people who taught her about grief and love and that just. i'm so unhinged about it. and it wasn't in the movie. chewing drywall.

this isn't like. a big thing. but it's forever a little disappointing to me that it wasn't in the movie either. bc the movie went a more "ethereal being made of light" direction for what the souls' actual bodies look like instead of the book's "segmented body with thin tendrils that attach to the brain of the host" description. this matters to me for a sad reason and a funny one. the sad reason is because when wanda sees the souls that the humans tried to cut out, she notes based on the vestigial feelers of one of the dead souls that it was a baby. horrible and sad detail that makes that scene 100 times worse. the funny reason is because since the humans know what the souls look like for the above sad reason, they refer to them as worms. which essentially leads to them calling ian a worm fucker and that's hilarious on a lot of levels the least of which being that it's true. like while melanie and jared and jamie go looking for a new body for wanda he literally doesn't care what it looks like and just sits holding her containment tank the entire time. worm fucker and proud of it good for him

i could write a whole other essay on the worldbuilding but i don't have my copy yet (and all the library copies are checked out who ARE y'all who else has read this book???) and i can't remember enough of it to really get into it. but wanderer's job was to be a teacher because she'd been to almost all the different planets (hence her name) so there were some glimpses of the fascinating universe of this world. the stories that she tells about the other planets?? unparalleled. wanderer tells this story about an ethical dilemma (among parasitic aliens lmao) because their host species on one planet burns another alive for its food source BUT they had recently discovered that the food source species was also sapient and intelligent so they were trying to figure out a way to handle the situation. that entire thing could be more interesting than the love triangle but instead it was like. a maximum of two pages about that planet and a one-off appearance from another soul that used to live there at the very end of the book. wanda tells the people at the compound about the underwater planet, and the one with the giant blind flying creatures that they call the Bats, and she mourns using the ritual from that species after the whole seeing the corpses incident. all of this gone completely to waste and for what!! for what stephanie!!!

another funny thing that i think might be better left in the book--when they take the seeker out in the book the human that was in there in the first place is so nasty and awful that everyone is lowkey mad at wanda for not just letting them kill her. top tier comedy ngl

ugh i also remember a scene where wanda is going on the long supply trips and sees a couple of souls with a human child who isn't occupied and is like. huh. that could be really indicative of a beautiful direction for humanity to go. could souls and humans live in peace in a real way? and then it's never really addressed again bc sexy feelings about two men oohhhh

so. is she fixable?

yes. i could fix her. a tv adaptation is what she needs. bc then there's actually time to delve into the thoughts and feelings of melanie and wanderer (and you could do that really well if you made a visualization of their shared mindspace--the book talks about how they put up walls against each other, and how they can block each other out or grab at control) as well as the worldbuilding and ethical questions. i have a whole three-season plan for fixing her so buckle up.

season one starts with wanderer waking up in melanie's body and the first half explores their time as a uni professor and the seeker's insistence on trying to find the human resistance through melanie's memories. this is where we really get a chance to see wanda's perspective--not because she's right, but because it's interesting. she is a huge pacifist and is horrified by violence, whereas melanie is used to using violence to get what she needs and tends to jump directly to it as a solution. so before they run off to the desert, when the seeker is still constantly checking up on her, as wanda gets more annoyed, melanie keeps suggesting that they kill her, and wanda has a harder and harder time holding her back. finally at the midpoint, wanda snaps and attacks the seeker, not because melanie made her do it, but because she's finally reaching that point in her journey towards humanity. and of course everybody blames it on melanie and they have to run because they're going to be separated.

then the second half of the season starts with the wandering through the desert. btw. book jeb my beloved. unhinged grandpa didn't get to be nearly as unhinged in the movie. the second half of the season is wanda acclimating to the human environment. i am of the opinion that romance should not happen until the second season at LEAST. obv melanie is pining for jared and wanda is dealing w that but it's not a romance. she doesn't love jared she's just comforting her dramatic roommate. maybe ian is starting to show interest in wanda but she hasn't noticed yet because she's still getting used to being human. season one ends with walt's death, since that's one of wanda's biggest turning points.

so season two opens with wanda understanding humanity a little better. and now she notices that ian likes her. melanie rightfully puts up a fuss about this (because it's her fucking body, steph meyer why did you almost make a convincing bodily autonomy argument and then fall short you almost had it--) and we can have that drama still while setting it up against the backdrop of wanda's journey to understanding humanity and ultimately becoming human herself. this is the first half of the season, and then there is the turning point--discovering that they've been trying to cut out the souls even as she lives among them. this is her major fracture with ian and is when she realizes that she can actually push melanie out of her head entirely and has to scramble to get her back. season midpoint cliffhanger is melanie being gone. and that finally brings jared around about her when he sees how hard she works to get melanie back and help jamie. so the second half of the season starts with healing jamie and how jared being ok with her changes the dynamic. now she's going out on raids, seeing how humanity and souls can live together, starting to come around to being in love with ian maybe, and generally settling into a comfortable existence. and this is when the seeker comes back into the picture at the end of season two, killing wes and being captured by the humans.

and season three. where it all comes together. the seeker represents the biggest obstacle to humanity and souls living in harmony--she is a mirror and a foil to wanda and melanie, two people too stubborn to let the other take over, unable to coexist. when she's captured by the humans, they want to kill her and her host, forcing wanda to come face-to-face with what she hasn't wanted to admit--she has to tell the humans how to remove a soul from a body. and in doing so she has to admit that she's been selfish and cruel by not telling them before. because by now they've more than proven that they can accept her kind under the right circumstances. so she's able to lay that out with the seeker and the first half of the season shows them starting to do it--to take souls out of humans and send them to different planets. the book does so many interesting things with this, showing how some people come back right away, some come back very slowly, some don't come back at all. there's a lot of material to work with (looking at you jodi and kyle and sunny) but eventually we get to the midpoint which is wanda asking doc to remove her and bury her with wes and walt. and then he does.

so the second half of the third season begins with melanie alone. and for the first time ever we don't hear from wanda at all. because she's in a cryotank and unable to have thoughts. so now we have what didn't get a chance to be really explored by the book--the aftermath of wanda's removal and the ethical debate of violating her wishes to put her in another body as well as the fact that when they do put her in one, it's one of the people who never woke up. it starts to get fuzzy here bc there's less original material to work with (and what is there is...not great the body they find for wanda is a 17 year old and ian is like 27 throwing up) and because there are so many directions to go after the book ends-- they find other human groups like they do in the book that also have a soul like her living among them, they try to work with the soul government to reach an agreement for peace, etc etc etc--and they're all so interesting! but the book ends because the love triangle has been resolved and it just doesn't address any of that. shaking steph by the shoulders and screaming

anyway the point of all of this is that this book and movie have been living rent free in my head for over a decade and i would simply like to make the good version of it that lives in my head real.

tldr i could fix her. steph meyer wya.

[dewdropreader]

❦ ➷ get to know your fellow fanfic writers better ༊ ✧.*

I was tagged by @bebx and @loki-is-my-kink-awakening for this “get to know the writer” tag! Thank you! 😊

when did you post your first ever fanfic?

I believe in 2012-2013? I was around 13-14 years old, so around then anyway (my first one doesn’t exist online anymore as far as I know so I can’t double check.) it was the usual middle school fandom girl era lol. First for my current account was February of 2022!

first character you wrote for:

It would have been Rin Matsuoka from Free! Iwatobi Swim Club! Specifically him and Nitori, they were one of my fave ships in that series!

main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

Basically anyone from the Loki series but especially Loki and Mobius and Sylvie, not necessarily in that order or all together but some combo of them 💚

character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

I haven’t written for OFMD but would really like to! I’ve had a lot of feels s2, no solid ideas yet but maybe something will spark some inspiration! Also Red White and Royal Blue! I haven’t gotten a chance to read the book yet but I watched the movie and got hooked and love those boys too 💕 so maybe one or both of them if the Loki series even temporarily gets it’s hooks out of me (with s2 though I’ve been as bad if not worse than before with my obsession so who knows lol)

And for within marvel the ship that got me into fanfic and got me to make this current ao3 account was Stucky so even though I only read for them and never wrote, they always have a place in my heart!

fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

Also just Loki atm! But who knows for the future.

platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Mobius and any of the void Lokis as the best found family ever (Mobius and kid, Mobius and classic, Mobius and all of them my beloveds)

I haven’t written it recently but also wrote B-15 and Sylvie in a non romantic context and even though I think they’re also cute romantically I love them as a platonic pair and want to do more with them too! Similarly Sylvie and C-20, I wish they could have been friends if things had gone a bit differently 🥺

romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Lokius and Sylkius! Haven’t written any pure Sylki but who knows (I just like Mobius too much to not include him atm)

your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

Hurt/comfort, fluff, and hugs 😂 sounds about right to me! I like some pain and crying and working through stuff but need the hugs and comfort alongside it/after it for sure.

your current platform where you post your works

AO3 is the same as my name here!

I try to post my fics links on tumblr too but don’t always remember so ao3 is always best bet if you want to read my stuff!! 😍

snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

Right now I’m most heavily focused on a character study type fic cataloging different moments with Sylvie adapting to her McDonald’s life but specifically looking at her relationship with Jack, I think she would have such a great big sister vibe and they could learn a lot from each other 🥹

“Good job today, Sylvie,” Jack says, his lopsided smile clear even before Sylvie glances his way. He’s always got compliments and kindness at the ready, and he’s young and gentle enough that they’re always believable.

“Thanks, Jack,” she feels a smile curl onto her face. She still, even after knowing Loki and Mobius and B-15, feels like she doesn’t know how to have friends or family or any genuine connections at all. But Jack is the first in a long time to feel so real to her, to feel like a relationship she can stick with, with these new more permanent circumstances and her distance from the trauma of the TVA. She doesn’t remember what it’s like to be a sister, her memories of Thor long gone beyond the occasional glimmers in her dreams, let alone what being the older sister would be like, but this is what she suspects it is. A fierce protectiveness and gentle care, the ignoring of any silly flaws or naïveté because you just care about the person. That’s what she has for Jack, ever since he took her under his wing as an employee, she’s done the same for him as just a person.

“Mind if I stay here for a bit? My ma is going to be a few more minutes.”

Sylvie just smiles softly and scoots over on the wide hood of her truck, gesturing to the empty spot.

Jack nods rather sagely as he awkwardly hoists himself on to the hood of the truck, pushing himself up with his arms and then practically throwing himself on to it.

He pants softly as he adjusts to lay on his back a foot or two away from Sylvie, giving her another boyish grin. “Hey.”

“Very smooth, Jack,” Sylvie snorts.

“Your truck is huge! I’ve ridden in trucks before but yours is massive! I’m not sure how you even get up here, you’re shorter than me!” He laughs.

“My little secret, I guess,” Sylvie shrugs with a slight smile, returning her gaze to the inky sky, dotted with a trillion stars.

I’m excited to keep writing this, I’ve got some Lokius ideas in the works too but this one has been my focus for a few days!!

I’d love to see anyone do this that is interested but I’ll tag my usual group!!

@insert-witty-user-name-here @starport-seven-five @lgwilt @mirilyawrites @cha-melodius @chaos-monkeyy @waterhorseyblues-ao3 @blackbirdofasgard @dreamycloud @queen-of-meows

[wool-f]

29 Lessons from 29 years of living 

Hello friends, 

I’ve spent a little while contemplating on whether or not to create a blog post for this but I figured there is no harm in it, and maybe someone will take something from this the way that I take lessons from other peoples’ confessions. 

I have spent 29 years on this earth so far and only very recently have I started writing myself letters on my birthday, listing all the things that I’ve learnt in the year prior. 

Like most other things I post about on this blog, I’ve made a YouTube video talking about this year’s list and the reasons behind each lesson, which you can watch here, but if you prefer to read through lists and come back to them later etc, like I often do, please continue reading and let me know in the comments if you are going to take on any of the lessons I’ve learnt myself, or if you’re going to start making your own list! I’d love to hear your lessons. 

29 Lessons from 29 years of living: 

1. I am truly capable of creating any life or manifesting any opportunity I want. 

2. I should take as good care of my health as possible. 

3. Always try to learn something from any given situation. 

4. Sometimes, things are just shit and can’t be turned into a learning experience. 

5. Not all friendships are meant to last, no matter how badly you want them to. 

6. Let go of people who make you feel like shit. 

7. Don’t lower your standards - let the good people come to you, they will. 

8. Trust you intuition! It never ever misses. 

9. Read the book, watch the movie and rest when you need it. Enjoyment isn’t always productive. 

10.  Never get tired of going to things by yourself - that’s when you have the most fun.

11. Drink water - as much as you can. 

12. Always wear sunscreen - it’s the reason people are looking younger and younger! 

13. Journalling helps your mental health - keep this habit up. 

14. Moving your body at least once a day and preferably in the morning makes you so much happier. 

15. Keep trying to learn that second or third language - your brain works better because of it. 

16. You are lucky - even when you don’t feel like it. 

17. One walk a day is an act of rebellion against productivity and capitalism! (Read Sarah Wilson’s This one wild and precious life to understand this one) 

18. Look around you - take stock of the beautiful world we are in - look up from your phone!! 

19. Don’t get caught up in what other people think of you - if you’re happy and not hurting anyone, fuck what anyone else thinks. 

20. Some people don’t deserve your forgiveness, your time or your energy. 

21. The love you’ve given others they they haven’t returned is never wasted. 

22. Believe that love is out there - you give it to yourself everyday. 

23. Finding time to be creative is an essential part of your happiness. 

24. Sometimes you can keep a little secret for yourself - it’s fun! 

25. Always looking for a silver lining isn’t weakness - finding a light in the dark is strength. 

26. Meditation is important - it makes you kinder. 

27. If you want to do something, jump at it without hesitation - we only have only life, and it truly isn’t that long. 

28. Find beauty and fun in the small moments in life - the mundane can be the best parts. 

29. Never stop believing that a dream can become reality - what is meant for you will never pass you by and if you’ve imagined it, it is meant to be yours. 

If you’ve gotten to the bottom of this post, thank you for taking the time to read my words and thoughts - these are deeply personal to me, but if you’ve gotten anything from them, I’m glad. 

I hope wherever you are and whoever you are, that you’re having a wonderful day and being your truest and most authentic self. 

Be kind to your self and others. 

See you in the next post! 

Gxx 

[midnightrings]

So, I watched the latest episode and I have a lot of thoughts about it. Tbh, I feel like this should’ve been 2 episodes instead. I really loved Hawk and Tim’s dynamic here, plus I needed more 80s scenes and Markus/Frankie. But anyway … what I was thinking about most is where the show will take it from here.

I was really curious to see how the show manages to show Hawk and Tim in the 60s without revealing anything about the ’57 stuff yet. And I was also hoping they’d show some hints to what might have happened, but … I feel like there were basically no hints at all? At least nothing obvious. I only watched the episode once, so maybe I’ve missed something, but if I didn’t know that they met again in ’57, I don’t think I would’ve assumed that much happened between episode 5 and 6. I mean, Hawk and Tim definitely didn’t talk like people that haven’t seen each other in over 10 years, but it doesn’t seem as if anything drastic happened.

I’ve been wondering for a while now if maybe Tim doesn’t know yet about whatever Hawk did in ’57, and won’t learn about it until some time before the 80s scenes. Mostly because this could explain how their relationship (kind of) continues into the 60s and 70s. Tim does appear to be way more wary of Hawk in this episode than before, but Hawk also doesn’t really seem to show remorse or anything that could hint at him doing something horrible to Tim. It even seems like he wants to get back together with him. So maybe, there isn’t any actual ‘betrayal’ on Hawk’s part.

I haven’t really kept up with any behind the scenes stuff, so I don’t know if there’s anything mentioning that Hawk will betray Tim in ’57. The only reason I thought something awful will happen is because of the storyline in the book, and the fact that the ’57 scenes won’t happen until the last episode. But at this point, I honestly find it difficult to believe that Hawk did something unforgivable to Tim. Though he is a complicated and troubled characters, so maybe he still did – I guess we will see.

I’ve also wondered whether the letter Tim wrote to Hawk might come into play at some later point. I mean, I do hope that Hawk learns about it, but maybe the letter will be overall more important to the storyline. I don’t think that it has to be important – it already functioned as a bridge between this episode and the ending of the last one, and was used to let Lucy know about Tim. But maybe the letter also had some impact on whatever happened in ’57.

I’m not really sure when the flashbacks in this episodes are set. I don’t think there was any mention of the year? (But please correct me if I’m wrong) Considering Jackson is probably like 12/13 in this episode, I guess the flashbacks happened some time before ’57. So maybe Hawk not reading the letter will have some consequences. I don’t think those have to be heavy consequences either. Tim believes that Hawk has read the letter – so if Hawk continues to disrupt his life, despite Tim telling him repeatedly that he needs to leave him alone, I can see how Tim might start feeling resentment towards Hawk. So there might not be an actual betrayal on Hawk's part, but their relationship in the 80s is just the cumulative result of Hawk's actions throughout the years.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is what might happen to Jackson, and how it might impact Hawk and Tim’s relationship. I’m going to assume that he will probably die in the next episode. And judging by what we learned about him in this episode, I think it’ll either be suicide or a drug overdose. And maybe, Hawk will be away with Tim when this happens.

Considering that Lucy (rightfully) called out Hawk for putting his family in danger, and the constant conflict between his family and Tim in the 80s, I can definitely see him not being there for his family when his son dies. Jackson directly talked about how Hawk’s lies (or his parent’s lies in general) affect him negatively, and if Hawk loses his son while he’s with Tim, he will definitely feel responsible for his son’s death, and as a result of his guilt, might decide to cut all ties with Tim. I guess we will see next episode.  

Honestly, I love how there’s only 2 episodes left and I still don’t know what direction this show will take. I really thought there would be a clearer picture after this episode, but if anything, I just ended up with even more theories lmao

[myblogandotherrubbish]

✨9 people you’d like to get to know better! ✨

thank you to @annasinterests for the tag!!!

i can’t lie, i haven’t done anything like this before, so I hope i do it right! there will be a few low pressure tags at the end for people i’m mutuals with!! no stress if you don’t wanna do it! there may also be one (1) person i tag who is not a mutual but who i think is great. just to clarify i also think everyone’s great.

okay here we go.

last song: All Around Me by Flyleaf. No, I cannot escape my 13 year old self. However, I have also been really enjoying synthwave and vaporwave stuff recently, and also getting into a lot of Alex G! 🎵

favourite colour: green all the way, but my second favourite colour is purple!! truly though, I love all colours, but those are my most favourite, they make me so happy 💚 💜

currently watching: i’m currently re watching The Boys! I’m a big fan of that show, I love the whole fucked up evil superhero vibes. i’m also planning on starting to watch Westworld soon, and i need to get back into Hannibal. Also if anyone wants a great detective series to watch, watch True Detective, it changed my life. Okay I’m done now. 📺

last movie: omg i feel like i never watch movies anymore but I have so many that i love, hmmmm i think the last one i watched was probably Little Miss Sunshine as it is one of my favourite ones ever. BUT if we’re talking about movies that i watched in a cinema, i can’t lie the last one i saw was Jackass Forever. love those guys. or was it Halloween Ends. who knows.🎥

currently reading: ohoho!!! i have just finished reading Brutes by Dizz Tate. i would highly recommend it, it’s a wonderful representation of working class girlhood and small town secrets. i also finished Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. all i can say is what a book, it astounded me, 11/10 📚

sweet/spicy/savoury: spicy and savoury all the way babeeyyyyy. i love spicy food so much. maybe too much. my stomach hates me. I do like chocolate a lot, but i can eat more savoury food than sweet which is a win in my opinion. 🌶️

relationship status: in a relationship!! I have been with my wonderful girlfriend for nearly three years. our anniversary is in march. she is the light of my life and my best friend. 💖

current obsession: ah yes. the things i am so normal about. i just very recently got a ps4 from a friend so i have been playing lots and lots of games. my favourites were the last of us, the last of us part two, and red dead redemption 2. especially rdr2. of course, i’m so normal about it, and the ending and story didn’t break my heart into a million tiny pieces. if you’re reading this and want to talk about these games REACH OUT TO ME I am so passionate about them and would love to talk 🕹️(this was the only gaming emoji I could find forgive me)

last thing i googled: i cannot lie it was probably ao3. or like, potato soup recipes. I love potato soup 🍲

currently working on: staying relatively sane. i graduated this july, and life feels weird right now. i’ve started working full time and i am very tired™️ all of the time. i am autistic so life can definitely be very overwhelming but i’m clinging on. unless of course you meant a project i’m currently working on, then i am currently working on trying to possibly start writing fanfiction of my own. unfortunately i also have horrendous writers block and crippling performance anxiety. let’s just say my 13 year old self’s fanfiction wasn’t doing rounds on wattpad in 2014. we shall see we shall see. ✒️

thank you for the tag again!! this was so fun and I hope it was okay and not boring!!! i will now tag some of my mutuals. and also some maybe not mutuals. ignore me if you don’t want to do this. please do not feel pressured. mwah 💋

@beefrobeefcal @fangirl-is-a-lifestyle @ladyoftheteaandblood @saturn-cherries @oblivion-wonderlust @stuffinmybrainhole @toxicanonymity @bil-daddy

[kendall-coded]

thank you to @all-or-nothing-baby for tagging me :3

i’m trying to get back into the swing and these are fun so thank you <3

last song - man of war / radiohead (i have been very very into radiohead this year. i love them. they will for sure be appearing on my wrapped stats come that time)

watching - currently on my third (or fourth?) rewatch of succession with my bf (who is watching it for the first time) which has been fun. otherwise i haven’t been watching much tv. i’ve been consuming a lot of youtube, the errant movie, and playing video games >.<

reading - today i just started a book called white noise by don delillo. i am only about 60 pages in but i’m really liking it so far. yesterday i read tender is the flesh and found it to be a little lackluster but not unenjoyable for what it was. i’ve been trying to read more and i’m currently at 13 books for the year! already ahead of my number for last year (follow/friend me on goodreads or storygraph!)

new obsession - i’ve been really into colorful supplies. which sounds silly when i type it out but i really don’t have much in my life to write home about currently. i’ve been using glitter gel pens in my planner and making bright to-do lists on a special (magnetized) notepad and purchasing loudly colored sticky tabs to annotate my books and make rainbow reminders for myself all over the place. i’m back in college finishing up my degree so it has helped me keep my head on straight. it’s just nice and it makes me feel like i have a grasp on things.

tagging anyone who’d like to tell a little about themself :D

[clockworkowl]

Don’t read under the cut if you haven’t gotten to at least chapter 13 (and moreso for the hidden portion the finale chapter) of Infinite Wealth, I am venting about some things which are spoilers for character interactions at the very least. you have now been warned.

So, I haven’t finished the game yet (should soon I’m finishing up stuff with the Yokohama crew before heading for the obligatory siege of the Millennium Tower ) but I’m still really angry at Kiryu for how he left things with 3Jima. Like really, really angry.

(And to be fair, I was really enjoying Kiryu this game until the bucket list where the further Date went to try to help, the more I too wanted to slug Kiryu (even though, as usual, I 💯 understand exactly what Kiryu was thinking whenever he made a choice or said a thing that made me scream at the screen. This section of the game did really hammer home to me the extent to which I see parallels in my own tragic backstory and how that makes me identify with Kiryu and thus why I get so mad at his decisions in every game. I mean, I kind of knew this before, but he’s more introspective in the bucket list book and hearing my own thoughts on certain events in my life mirrored back has been a little ‘oh…’ ) so this isn’t the only thing that’s frustrated me to watch (but damn was Akiyama’s punch so satisfying. He was all of us in that moment.)

(Do not unhide the next part if you didn’t finish the Date part of the the bucket list and aren’t up to the finale my rant is more specific here about events)

>!What the fuck was with him agreeing to not even talk to or interact with the Ichigang after the mission on top of telling Daidoji he won’t talk to Date again either? How can the Daidoji possibly care that much anymore, at that point chapter-wise the cat is well and truly out of the bag thanks to Tatara channel (so also how does he think that like Haruka et al don’t know he’s alive still? There was video of him on the fucking national news while reporters, who clearly aren’t good at reporting or critical thinking, spout a bunch of completely wrong accusations about his motives.!<

I’m sure I’ll vent further on this but it’s been stewing in me since the chapter, because usually even though we barely get any Majima the little we do get makes me happy, but that was just upsetting on all fronts. The funny thing is, it’s the one and only time in the nearly 20 years since Kiryu first got out of prison that Majima has ever said ‘no’ (though it’s mostly Daigo who says no)

[enruiinas]

𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓: for read/watch progress and AU/verse plotting purposes. I love AUs & verses in general and am always happy to use a fandom we're both familiar with as a starting point, whether it's borrowing the whole setting, elements we enjoyed or both recognize from a fandom, etc. This is a long post so I'll read-more after "currently reading/watching" - a full list of fandoms I'm familiar with or enjoy is available below the cut.

bold - fandoms i'm familiar enough to base an AU on, pull elements from, etc. italicized - fandoms i'm fairly confident on my grasp of. can base an AU on or pull elements from, but might need a tiny bit of time to revisit some things. ★ - muses from this fandom will likely feature on or will soon be tested on the multimuse i'm working on in the background.

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆/𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆:

★ ONE PIECE. (manga re-read): ch. 339/????. I am technically "caught up" through the end of Wano and peep on spoilers for the ongoing arc, but as I speed-read the entire thing in a month last year, I'm not always super confident in my grasp on the second half of the series because I was so ready to be caught up. Wano grasp is particularly abysmal but I'm okay with exploring ongoing Egghead stuff with Law in interactions. [Potential muses: Baby 5, Mihawk, Usopp] ★ FAIRY TAIL. (manga first-time read): ch. 285/545.

★ POKEMON (mostly Kanto/Johto stuff though). I grew up on Pokémon and love lol things Kanto/Johto but haven’t watched, played, or read anything since Ruby and Sapphire were current content. I’m starting from scratch and working my way up again, beginning with Pokemon Adventures (manga) and Pokémon Origins + an original Kanto rewatch on Netflix.

𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐒 𝐈 𝐄𝐍𝐉𝐎𝐘:

Anime / Manga:

★ ONE PIECE. see above. ★ FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD. I haven't watched FMA (2003) in years, but it's on my list to revisit. [Potential muses: Winry Rockbell] ★ DEMON SLAYER. Have dabbled in Demon Slayer muses and plan to bring them back after a rewatch to spark my muse again. [Potential muses: TBD pending revisit.] ★ FAIRY TAIL. Reading for the first time. Current progress: ch. 285/545. Potential muses (once I've completed my read only): Cana Alberona, Loke, Gray Fullbuster, Levy McGarden. CHARLOTTE. Anime. This is one I would love to explore AU plots based on. It's short (13 episodes?) and I would probably revisit before jumping into anything but highly recommend if you're looking for a short anime to watch sometimes. ★ NORAGAMI. I slacked off following the manga there for a bit at the end and would need to revisit, but might add muses after a re-read. [Potential muses: TBD pending revisit.] ★ TOILET-BOUND HANAKO-KUN. Need to revisit, but I loved what I'd read so far and would likely end up adding muses. ★ BUNGOU STRAY DOGS.

★ ANGEL BEATS.

Movies:

LABYRINTH. 1986 - the David Bowie movie. always a fave. ★ DISNEY MOVIES. Pretty much any, but my favorites are Hercules*, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Emperor's New Groove, Lilo & Stitch... HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. (Also reading the book trilogy at the moment, currently on 2/3. Potential muses: Sophie Hatter, Lettie Hatter, Martha Hatter.) SPIRITED AWAY. BARBIE (2023).

Books:

A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES. I loooove ACTOAR but it's admittedly been a while. I want to reread soon! (mun confession: after getting @climatact I realized the full extent to which Law is accidentally/unintentionally Rhys-coded. Oops.) ARTEMIS FOWL My all-time favorite book series. I re-read this at least once a year. I doubt I'll add muses, but I'm definitely familiar enough with it I feel like I could muse almost anyone. PRIDE & PREJUDICE. Won't add muses, but enjoy a lot of themes & character tropes/archetypes here. THE LAST UNICORN. [finished 2/19/2024.]

TV Shows:

★ Once Upon a Time. Other than the last season, probably my favorite TV show, but I'm due for a rewatch. [Potential muses: not sure yet but there will be some.]

Video Games:

LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME. STARDEW VALLEY.

* - I love Greek mythology (or any polytheistic belief system) in general. There are probably plenty of things i'd need to read up on but I am always up for Greek mythology or fairy tale (Disney-fied or original versions) inspired verses/themes.

𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃/𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇:

Inuyasha

Pokemon (Anime? Manga? Games? Where do I wanna start?)

ATLA

Yu-Gi-Oh

Kaoru Hana Wa Rin To Saku.