#I like throwing characters who didn't meet in canon at each other

[mzminola]

On the idea of Jason showing up to confront Tim at the Justice Cave instead of Titans Tower, I actually really wanna see Jason and Cissie having a talk. Because like...she nearly did what he wants Bruce to do. Someone extremely important to her was murdered and she immediately tracked down the killer for revenge. The only two reasons the murderer is still breathing is 1) Superboy's one-off intervention, 2) Cissie deciding, after she's taken the first shot and given the choice of a second, that this is not the right thing to do.

And then she quits being Arrowette! She decides the fact she came that close means she needs to step down from the hero/vigilante life. Like I think whether or not she'd agree with Jason's reasoning for Bruce to kill the Joker, she would think that if Bruce goes through with it, he should stop being Batman.

On a related note I love that Tim is the teammate who doesn't try to talk Cissie into staying? He likes her on the team, they've got things in common as the non-powered heroes, and he's always happy when she comes back for a bit, but he respects her decision to step down. He became Robin to pull Batman back from the edge and he sees Cissie pull herself back and he has so much respect for her and aaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuugh I love the YJ kids and their friendships so much!!!

[baldval]

ART DECO PART 2!₊˚⊹♡

characters: valentino x gn!reader

wc: 1.7k

warnings: cursing, canon!valentino (he doesn't mind vox's bad actions towards other people), insanely angsty.

series masterlist!

You're half awake and disorientated. Valentino got up to find out who was at the door 10 minutes ago, and frankly, you're getting worried.

Against your better judgement, you throw on his shirt from the night before and make your way out of the bedroom.

You enter the living room to be met face to face with Vox.

Shit.

You briefly wonder if you can play it off, fabricate a story, tell him it's not what it looks like!

Apart from, it's exactly what it looks like.

Someone from Vox's assistance team saw you and Val enter his room together after the meeting. And now you're here, in his living room, wearing nothing but his shirt. And your shoes are by the front door. And there's a wine glass abandoned on the counter.

There's no getting out of this one.

Valentino wants to scream, yell at you to go back to his room. He wants to pick you up and throw you out of sight, praying Vox hasn't noticed all the tell tale signs. But it's too late. He has.

"Okay. Uh - what the fuck is going on?"

Vox asks the question while looking between the two of you like some sort of cartoon character doing a double take. It doesn't require a genius to figure it out, but he needs to hear one of you say it out loud.

"Listen, Vox-"

"Vox, don't get mad-"

You both speak at the same time, verbally tripping over each other. You've never actually discussed what you'd do or say if you got found out. You both just always naively assumed it wouldn't happen.

You sit down on the edge of the couch, and look at your boss earnestly.

You had earned his respect with all the years you'd been working for him, creating and animating shows for the Vees.

However, you knew it could all disappear.

It would be a lie to say you didn't see it coming, what was true is that you weren't ready for it.

"Vox, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. It isn't fair. But you can't get mad when I tell you the truth."

"I'll be the judge of that," he mutters sassily.

"Will you come and sit with me, please? The standing is making me nervous. I feel like I'm on trial."

"You might be. I haven't decided yet."

You can't tell if he's joking. He's certainly not smiling.

Vox moves to sit down next you. Val follows, perching himself on the opposite end to give you space. Close enough if you need him, far enough that it won't upset your boss more.

"Start talking," he commands, still confused.

"It's... well I - we - me and Valentino, we're -"

"Together," Val finishes for you. Vox glares at him, and he decides he'll keep his mouth shut for a while.

"Yeah, we're together," you continue. "We have been for over a year. It isn't just sex, or anything. I'm like- in love with him."

It's weird to finally bear this truth after keeping it a secret for so long. It feels wrong, but also refreshing - like a bitter lemon on a hot day.

Vox is scarily silent.

"You're... kidding, right?" he asks, finally breaking through the quiet.

Your silence is enough answer for you as he looks at you incredulously.

"You're so fuckin' naive." He turns over to Valentino. "How can you sit here and act like this doesn't change anything?"

Val tries to speak, but he continues.

"You lied to me, first off. Both of you. For God knows how long-"

"Vox-"

"Let me fucking finish."

You shrink back into the couch, hoping it would swallow you.

"You both lied to me. You broke my trust... and uh, that fucking hurts, actually. And then there's the business side of things. They work for me, they work for the Vees. And, I don't know if you remember, but you are a Vee. That's a conflict of interest."

Val scoffs at him, but then realises he's deadly serious.

"... A conflict of interest?"

"It's against company policy. How am I going to trust you? How is anyone? Information might get leaked. What if I tell you something, and then you tell them?" He points over to you. "And then they tell whoever friends they have, and they post about it on social media, and all of a sudden nothing is private anymore. I. Can't. Trust. You."

Tears are welling up in your eyes quicker than you can control. You're trying to take deep breaths, begging yourself not to cry in front of Vox.

"You do get this is my life right? I get to choose whoever I date," Val whispers.

"Yeah? Well, it's my life. And they're MY worker. And I get to choose whatever I'll do to them."

A choked sob escapes you, and the floodgates open. Fresh, hot tears sprint down your cheeks, landing in your lap.

Vox doesn't care about your suffering, he just wants to punish Valentino through you.

Val can't stand to sit and watch any longer.

"Okay, Vox, that's enough. This isn't fair."

"What's not fair is that two of people I trust the most both lying to my face for a year. That's what isn't fucking fair."

With that, Vox stands up and strides towards the front door, slamming it behind him as he leaves. The minute he's gone, Valentino is wrapping his arms around you, pulling you into his chest.

"It's okay, darling," he murmurs, stroking your hair. "He'll come around. We'll be okay. If we stick together, we'll be okay."

His reassurances are only making you cry harder, sobs escaping you uncontrollably. You eventually exhaust yourself, falling into a restless sleep in Val's arms on the couch.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

You wake up in bed. You've temporarily forgotten the events of the morning, before it all comes crashing back down around you suddenly. Distantly, you can hear Valentino in the kitchen, talking on the phone. You look around the room, and know what you have to do.

You leave the bedroom with a bag in hand, throwing it onto the ground as you grab your shoes. Val clocks you, and hangs up the phone.

"Can I call you back? Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."

He runs over to where you're slipping your heels on, precariously balanced against the side of the couch.

"Honey, where are you going?" he questions, panic washing over him at your frantic state. "Wait, have you packed a bag?"

He's trying to catch your eyes, but you keep looking away, desperate to avoid his unrelenting gaze.

"I'm going home."

A pause.

"... This is your home."

You knew he'd say that. It hurts just the same.

"No, Valentino, this is your home. My apartment is across town."

"You haven't been there in months. All your stuff is here. Baby, talk to me. What's going on? Did Vox get in your head?"

"He has a point!" you shout, trying to pick up your bag. Val gets there first and grabs it, flinging it behind him, out of your reach.

"About what? He's just in shock, baby! He's confused and he feels betrayed. You don't owe him fuckin' anything. Not after everything that he has put you through."

"But I love my job, Val. I can't lose everything I've worked so hard to achieve!"

"You love that piece of shit job? Yesterday you literally had to get up at 6 am just to get here and get yelled at for an hour and a half. Look- I love Vox but he's not a good boss. Hell! I don't even care about that, I just can't stand to see him abuse you and treat you like you're close to nothing. You're better off without him and you know it. You're just too attatched to what you have."

Subconsciously, you know he's right. You're trying to convince yourself he isn't.

"You don't get it though."

"Except I do. Do you think I don't know about Vox's methods? I understand that it's what he needs to do to get the job done, but... I just can't stand him treating you like that."

"You heard what he said! He won't trust you anymore. No one will. Besides, I know it's shitty, but my job is important to me. I can't be forgotten. Known only as an old failed artist."

"Trust me, honey, you're the least likely to be named a failure."

"That's not the point! You're not listening to me. I come from the bottom, I've had to fight for respect every fucking day of my life. I'm finally where I deserve to be. I can't throw it all away for... for love!"

Valentino flinches like you've punched him in the gut. He takes a step back and leans against the kitchen island, trying to keep his balance.

"What happened to 'you and me against the world', huh?" he murmurs.

"I think I got too wrapped up in this - in us. I was stupid to think it could work. We both were."

"I wasn't," he replies defiantly. "I knew exactly what I was getting into. I knew it would be really fucking difficult and I loved you anyway."

"I'm not sorry for loving you," you whisper. "I'm sorry for a lot of things, but never for loving you."

"If you meant that, you wouldn't be giving up."

You turn your head around, unable to look at him any longer.

"This isn't giving up. This is... quitting while we're ahead. If we keep going, we'll just end up having a huge, horrible, public breakup," you stop, and take a deep breath. "I think we were always doomed to fail."

Valentino thinks about the diamond ring that sits in a box in the top drawer of his nightstand. Doomed to fail.

You finally look up at him, and all the air leaves your lungs. You've never seen him look so defeated, so vulnerable. You're the cause of this. And you hate yourself for it.

You pad across the kitchen and pick up your bag from where he threw it, before stopping in front of him.

"I don't regret you, Valentino. I never will."

With that, you stride out of the front door, closing it gently behind you. Val is left, cold and empty, in a room that no longer feels like home.

[yandereunsolved]

Imagine reader being a guide in Linked Maze. They are sort of the protector of people who end up in the maze. They're pretty shy and end up not showing themselves to most, who end up with such a terrible fate. They leave the Links little things to help along their journey, such as food, weapons, and medicine.

Only one of the Links has seen you before—Wind. It was only a brief interaction as well. You guided Wolfie to him using your abilities. Wind only saw you for a moment. You were gone in less than a blink of an eye. He still thinks he imagined it until he actually meets you for the first time. He was overwhelmed with so many emotions. He saw you as what you were for those stuck in the maze—a protector. 

He wanted to throw himself at you and cry on your shoulder. He wanted to demand answers. The first time he met the guide of this place, you didn't even exchange words. You disappeared after a few minutes. He was devastated after that. It was your first official meeting, and he didn't even get to say 'thank you' or ask any questions like, 'why did you help me?' That's when his obsession with you started. It was just an inkling of a need for safety that evolved into a desperate devotion to you.

Wolfie is your familiar at this point. He helps guide the Links through the maze and makes sure they don't end up gravely injured. He hasn't actually ever seen you. He just hears you and follows the scents that you waft into his nose. He's not suspicious of you. Your life force is positive. It reminds him of what he feels in the Triforce.

You guide the Links together and keep those awful monsters at bay. You wish you could warn them about what's to come, but you are unable to. You can only leave clues. You are the guide of the maze—the protector. Someone who was tricked into leaving the heavens by a deity who fell from them. You would tell them everything if you could, but if you did, then you'd reveal your location to the corrupted God. 

One word and it's all over. One word and the Links will fail their mission.

You wish you could tell them that something worse than Demise was plotting to take over the heavens and destroy the goddesses. Alas, you cannot. The evil deity injured you gravely. If you seek refuge in the heavens, then you leave a possible opening for the evil being to sneak in. You have learned from watching Time on his adventures.

So you watch from the shadows and guide them when you can. You don't realize how dependent they are becoming to your presence. You understand how far their yearning goes.

Four gently probes Wind for more information about your meeting with him. Wind shys away from telling him because he wants to keep you for himself. Warriors is a little jealous but keeps the two calm. 

Time knows more about you than the others. He met you once on his journey. So technically, he has met you before, but since you have been forced to take a mortal form. He hasn't seen you since you were injured and forced to look over them in the maze. Somehow, he knows you're out there. He still has that ritual for summoning you. You should've never given it to him. You don't understand how many times he has wanted to use it but ultimately decided against it. He's the Hero of Time! He's the Hero of Time... He's the Hero of Time? 

Why would someone so important, a god(dess), want him bothering them?

The rest of the Links are a bit confused about you. Your presence is enigmatic, to say the least. You are like an unspoken rule among them. All of them need to know more about you, but they refuse to cooperate with each other when they learn something new about your existence. 

The only question that really remains is: will they ever escape the maze? Or will you fail in your mission of protecting them?

Ignore the fact I went so off canon for this. comic & characters — @linked-maze

[silviakundera]

Are You The One very spoilery drama review

"Do you remember the archenemy I mentioned? ...Three years ago I played against (him). I lost that time. It was my first defeat in life. Strangely, I didn't feel sorrowful. Instead, I felt a kind of joy in meeting a worthy opponent. Since then, I've played against (him) several times. We're almost even. Each game is a battle of wits and courage, thrilling and intense. Rather than seeing him as an arch enemy, I consider him a close friend. I enjoy each game against (him). As long as he's my rival, the result doesn't matter."

Imagine you're a protagonist making THAT speech about his nemesis... then encountering said nemesis with injuries & amnesia, presuming this person is actually your nemesis's lover (because rumors/secret identity/sexism), and fake marrying them as a pretense to draw out and capture..... the person who is now your fake wife that you're falling in love with! Cause you were half in love with your nemesis already lmao. 🤡🤡🤡

Welcome to the set up of Are You The One, a costume drama romance with situational comedy and a dark under belly (as both ML and FL are ruthless schemers with blood on their hands).

The circumstances are inherently hilarious and the comedy revolves around the Shakespearean absurdity of the situation the characters find themselves in. This tends to be my preferred style of humor, in comparision to the comedy stylings of pratfalls, pranks, and goofy insults. Anyone who read my fanfics back in the day knows that I enjoy throwing my couples into ridiculous situations and then watching them have to deal with it in all seriousness (and fall in love in the meantime.)

Per usual for me in a narrative that's primary-romance, what matters most is that A) I understand why these 2 people match each other; B) by the time we reach the end, the otp are equal partners; C) BLOOD LUST (look I just enjoy an otp who will both stab an enemy in the gut, it is very sexy of them ok? ok)

Things that make me rabid about this drama:

At first he doesn't even register how beautiful she is, while canonically people are staring at her in the street, she's so lovely. This is because he is so fixated on this rival that he admires, who he has been battling for 3 years, that he only registers her as a pawn in their game

Very romantic & sexy to me that his connection & attraction to her build from him growing to understand her personality and admiring her qualities

Zhang Wanyi handles situational comedy tbh much better than I expected (having previously enjoyed him in a tragic role and then an angsty melo). Both Zhang Wanyi and Wang Churan very much embodied their characters, both the dark and light sides.

True enemies to lovers because he falls in love with all the qualities that he'd admired in his respected enemy: her decisiveness, her clever scheming, her loyalty, her meticulous nature. He is drawn to her as someone who is his equal and could be a true confidant - the same thing she sees in him.

By episode 7, he's started falling for her and the audience can see how it happened and why.

It was so good for me that when her memories secretly awaken, he senses this by observing, "Lately, I've always felt that there is someone who understands my thoughts, spies on my actions, and constantly leads me by the nose. Even if I gain something like today, it's because (he) made me this way. I haven't felt this way for a long time." / "When did you last have this feeling?" / "The last time was when I dealt with Lu Wen. Lu Wen should have returned."

We can also see why FL is falling for this person who lets her take charge and likes it, who enjoys her wits and starts backing her play.

The narrative structure is not just in medias res... It's truly atypical: we're dropped into this story 3 years in and because the perspective in the first third of the drama is the ML's, we share his narrow viewpoint and naturally presume that he's the protagonist hero of this tale, the morally grey but capable prince who is defending his province against bandits while fending off a royal court threatened by his military power.

But oops, what if it turns out that basically you're the sheriff of Nottingham and you've been battling Robinhood, who's actually your hot & brilliant fake-wife. And when you unknowingly captured Robinhood, it was too late -- she'd already been secretly supporting The Rightful King™ for years, and now she's a hero who helped the monarch rise to the thrown, and to an outsider you would be considered the dastardly scoundrel in this tale. 🤡

So IS he a villain? No, not really. He can coldly have his enemies killed and he certainly originally intended to kill FL, and then dispose of her bloodlessly, and then... (ANYWAY, yeah bro is Going Thru It™)

But everything he does is within the rights & privileges of his role, as ruler of the province and subject only to the emperor/empress dowager.

A man accostomed to wealth & power who was jaded and obviously just going thru the motions, fulfilling his responsibilities and resigned to being suspected by a weak ruler & conniving court, marrying a cousin who just wants his title, and protecting his borders out of duty. Until 3 years ago, when he starts battling against bandit leader Lu Wen. Now he's awake, he's excited, he has news to look forward to.

It's hilarious how he doesn't even see it in the initial episodes, the way he's accidentally moved that person in and now he's having to constantly maneuver around this person's decisive actions, and it's invigorating him. It's emotionally and mentally stimulating.

And then it's flipped where FL now has to come to the realization that life is more rewarding when she has ML to plan with, more satisfying than going it alone.

As a hater of amnesia plotlines, why didn't it repel me? 1) when we meet the character, she already has the memory loss; it's a defining trait and 2) she doesn't lose her intellgence with the memory loss and become pliant and just malleable like portrayed in other dramas - what makes the first 17 episodes a cat vs mouse cat game is that even with her memories stripped away, this person who's been told she's a merchant's sickly wife is still clever, conniving, and assertive... and we even see the willingness to get ruthless & violent if needed.

She's understandably infuriated & resentful upon regaining her memories -- such a proud & capable & independant person with big plans just manipulated for a year, tricked into giving care and affection to her enemy. But when she dismisses ML's now sincere feelings as, "What he wants to marry is not me, but the canary he has raised." ....the script has provided substantial evidence that in actuality he has a total complex about his mysterious nemesis; the real her inside, that couldn't be erased, is what he has always liked.

And then he gets the chance to prove it and finally openly express that to her.

After 17 episodes of her under the thumb of manipulation, the drama provides another 15 or so where she is in control of her own life and given the agency to decide if they could work, and she waits to be certain that ML doesn't want the canary in a cage after all. 👌 👌

I just very much appreciate dramas that show instead of tell, and earn the relationship. Convince me! The screenwriter shows their work not just on the main ship and secondary ships, but also the friendship between FL and the He merchant daughter. (The way they shift her from 'love rival' to empathizing w each other and actual friends was great - lol reminds me of Qin Zhenzhen from Princess Royal; sorry not sorry, my love rival actually likes me best now 😜)

Also also the emperor and empress slow burn ship in the 2nd arc of the drama was good stuff, I quite liked them.

Also also ALSO the main otp get 20+ minutes devoted to their (real) wedding in the final episodes. We get a proposal, marriage certificate signing, and one of the longest wedding ceremonies I've seen in a cdrama. Giving the people what they want!

[pjsk-headcanons]

HI ITS GLOBE ANON...SHINONOMES AHHHH (apologies for dying lol kind of wanted to get more art sided stuff done (i didnt))

shinonomes: distant

-basically, it was around middle school ena time when akito had that little line between "real" and "fake" start to blur

-ena knew he hated soccer but couldn't bring herself to say it to him. felt really guilty about it because after a while, she couldn't even look him in the eyes

-mental state was already pretty bad because of this, and then she got "the talk" from her teacher and then her dad confronted her too. she ended up throwing her art supplies out

-akito found out why she was having such a hard time, but he was already so deep into the spiral that the only thing he could do was avoid her

-they ended up just falling apart. they're so distant that they don't see each other at all. no phone numbers, just occasional notes on a counter. no birthday gifts

-can you tell they are my favourites (they are the ones on my display profile....hhhh)

summer festival, rekindled flames - post 1st anni

character boost: ena (focus), haruka, airi, akito, stage miku

-SUMMER FESTIVAL HAHAHA. pretty sure ena is not gonna have a good time. fashion and all

- ena didn't call akito to get her more comfortable shoes this time, who knew if she did what would happen next

-stage miku canonically likes food, like alot, so she is looking around with ena and admiring food

-airi and haruka meet in this one :D airi is preforming a small stand-up play, haruka is preforming a solo show

-akito simply admires the shows. ena sees him once and freaks out

-some enairi (platonic??) bonding maybe. a little bit of shinonome sibling backstory reveal

animal care? kamiyama clubfest! - post 2nd anni

character boost: rui (focus), akito, ena, nene, theater len

-literally what it sounds like i mean. reads i. mean text. i mean looks like i mea

-kamiyama is having a lil festival where clubs hold a lil stand for people to try out something related to the club so people join!!!

-since this is pre-3rd anni, the list goes like this

akito "helps out at various sports clubs"

ena doesn't have one. you gotta be kidding me

nene has film

rui has greening (for anyone who doesn't know, its like making more environmentally friendly stuff)

-rui gets kicked out of hosting the stand (everyone fears he will do something funny) and decides to look around

-animal care happens. seperate timing but this is probably where we learn akito's cynophobia

-meets ena (wanted to look around), akito, and nene seperately. theater len almost gets caught in open looking at a short film but nene gets him to hide right before akito pops up

-silly event, with some sibling mentions

blurry snapshots from that yesteryear - pre 4th anni

character boost: akito (focus), ena, an, minori, city MEIKO

-i love the word yesteryear. it doesn't even make sense (according to the oxford dictionary) in this occasion but i had to use it at some point ok

-akito goes to weekend garage and meets minori and an. minori mentions there being a live concert for stage○•showtime (yapping about how cool shizuku is)

-thinks huh. maybe i should go watch

-thinks for a bit too long in front of the two. an knows its normal behaviour and minori freaks out, talks to city MEIKO

-MEIKO says to keep an eye on him. if its that worrying

-day of preformance. minori fangirling and akito *DROPS FULL SHINONOMES FLASHBACK*

-ena spots him. oh no!!! gotta scram

-event story ends with ena coming home and her spotting a lil gift on the counter. she smiles a bit at it

sibling trust ranks are next + the asks in that one ask from a long time ago (sorry again. school sucks but there is a break soon so more content hopefully)

AAÀAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA have a great day mod!

🌐 anon

[tonhalszendvics]

An Inheritance Cycle story I'll probably never write, but this sucker doesn't want to leave me alone. Long story short under the cut.

Selena was said to be a super spy/assassin type of character, except that people knew about her. I mean, Jeod did, and Brom was a very secretive guy, I am pretty sure that Jeod didn't hear about her from him. And then Galbatorix named his secret service after her, because there was fear connected to the name 'Black Hand'. Thanks, Selena.

Okay, so the AU goes like this: Selena is a super spy/assassin. Nobody knows, who is she, what is she doing, who is she working for. Some people suspect the king, but then she shows up and asks someone else for a favour in a name of a lesser lord or something. She is changing like the weather, nobody knows what does she look like exactly. Want to hire her for a job? Good luck. You were able to get into contact with her? Consider the job as done and yourself as absolutely poor, because even her smallest service costs a fortune.

And then Brom meets her. They don't tell shit to each other, for sure, but the spark is there. So, things are going on their way, Eragon is born, but in this AU, there is no egg-race, Selena just hands the kid over to Brom and says that he'll be more safe with him. Their meetings are scarce, but Eragon gets to know his mama.

Until he's around six or seven years old. Because then something happens in Uru'baen, there is a big boom and a shitton of dead people in the castle. The king and Morzan are furious. A blue egg vanishes.

Mere days later – too soon, so Selena was already on her way when that shit went down – Selena comes to meet Brom and Eragon for the last time, with her eyes blindfolded, because then she'll be able to say that she didn't see them. She tells Brom that she has a husband in Uru'baen. Her and Brom's thing started on the ground that she was missing the night-time company, but she started to have feelings for him. But now, she has to go back to her lord, whom she had sworn to. She has to, because otherwise her other son will be hurt. She doesn't say names. Brom knows, that it's too dangerous.

It also dawns on him that most of the information he's got from her was via her husband. That guy must be a big shot in the Empire. They promise each other that if the Empire goes down by a miracle or something, they'll meet in the end, and if they still love each other, they'll find out what the hell to do.

Then time flies and war-wise most of the canon happens. There aren't much from Selena, but she still succeeds telling this and that to the Varden via secret letters and always changing ways. She was able to hand over some top-secret, very valuable information to the Varden. The communication is one-sided, though, they cannot reach her.

A bunch of victorious Varden are cheering in the occupied capital, when the news come that after the king's death, Morzan put down the sword without anything. He even kneeled on the ground and let himself be tied up, while Brom was trying to avoid having an aneurism. I mean, Brom wanted to kill the guy since forever. Their epic dramatic duel, however, was nowhere near to the end, when the king died. And it wouldn't be honourable to kill a surrendered soldier, especially if his son returned back from the palace right in the moment when he wanted to behead him. Nahh, he has to be the bigger guy.

If Brom is not able to kill Morzan in the battle, then he'd do that through a trial. Everybody is very happy to attend and throw in their two cents, Eragon understands all the hatred, but he still feels very uncomfortable because of all that combined hatred. And Morzan doesn't say anything, he takes it without a word, maybe corrects people here and there when they mess up listing his sins.

And boom, there is Selena. She comes, bows, smiles to Brom then says to Nasuada, that she was promised amnesty for her and her family for her services, and his son is in big trouble because of the occupation, so if they would be so kind to provide her the needed document, she is off already, she and her family won't mess with their schedule for the rest of the day.

Eragon is obviously overjoyed, that A) mama is alive; B) he gets to meet his big brother. So he obviously prods everybody to hurry up with that amnesty.

Document in her hand, the ink still wet, she turns on her heels and in front of everyone, she asks Morzan, that what does he know, where is their son. And Morzan answers. Then with a word, loosens the ties on him, stands up, and when people draw swords, he adds in a mocking tone, that pardon, I was granted amnesty just now via my wife, and as you've heard, my son is in grave danger, if you'd excuse us. Eragon, dear boyfriend-in-law, want to come?

It takes three seconds for Brom to realise, that Morzan meant him, and then he has to try very hard the second time that day to avoid an aneurism.

Anyway, they go, get Murtagh out of that dire situation, because it turns out that little children are actually pretty cute and able to melt a war criminal's ice-cold heart, so Morzan was a good dad this time, and he and Selena were blackmailed with him. That trouble thingy back then, that separated Selena from the other side of the family was when the king found out that his general's heart changed, and that Selena was also a double-spy, so boom, he took Murtagh away, and suddenly the parents were absolutely A-class thralls again. Idk if Murtagh was even out in the battlefield this time, or every stuff he did was handed over to Morzan, while he was in house arrest somewhere. (Does he even know how to fight or is he Orrin No. 2 with all the science?)

Anyway, Murtagh and Eragon bond over dragons in zero second and decide it's the best for them if they just leave their parents to be. Brom needs a bit of time and a bit more cajoling from Selena to loosen up, but in the end they are a traumatised and super messed up polycule. Morzan regrets that in the moment he says something and Brom answers with a mortifying secret from their childhood. They might end up in a fist fight. Selena doesn't say anything to them (too busy getting slate tablets), because in the end they kiss (and she has to make fairths).

That was the AU in a nutshell. I hope this one will leave me alone now. :') Thanks for coming to my story night, take care!

[mehoymalloy]

What attracts you to Imotohan? Idk if I get it yet….

One day I should make, like, a ship manifesto...

Today is not that day; instead, you get a collection of references to other posts that I found when I couldn't sleep last night.

Reason Number 1: I really like enemies to lovers as a trope.

I always have, ever since I started reading fanfic way back in the day with Kim/Shego lol. But I especially love when two characters allow me to totally buck the more traditional power dynamics of one party having all the power while the other has none, which I find boring and not at all fun to explore.

At first glance, Otohan does have the upper hand a lot of the time in their dynamic (I mean, hell, they start out by slaughtering half of Imogen's friends and the love of her life). But it’s pretty easy (and very fun) to give Imogen opportunities to be on equal footing with Otohan or even surpass them entirely. And the Tension that comes with exploring two characters who hate each other but can’t help but be attracted to each other is just what I find the most interesting and fun to explore in my own writing in particular.

Sources (lol):

Cool Art that really HITS with the Enemies aspect.

Would also be remiss if I didn't plug Shamie’s art, who has created So Much art because I throw money at her every chance I get. Just scroll her whole otohan thull tag, you won't regret it.

Good Thoughts with my own tiny addition about shipping culture in general.

A nice little ask about characterization and violence.

Reason Number 2: They’re obsessed with each other.

To the point that the cast themself see it and take advantage of it in-game (see here, when Sam pulled 'the one you're so keen to meet with' out of his ass, assumedly failed a deception check, and yet Otohan still either humored them or just zeroed in on 'Imogen? Where's Imogen? Tell me where Imogen is' anyway like a fucking simp.)

Otohan in particular also displays a frankly terrifying amount of ‘care’ and effort in getting Imogen to exalt in the battle at Bassuras, which I talk more about here. It’s what kicked off my intrigue with this ship and got me to try my hand and writing them (and then never stopped, as you can see).

Imogen, for her part, is just understandably terrified of but also constantly infuriated with Otohan (shitpost that shows that well). She says Otohan’s name with such vitriol and I adore her for it. Very ‘I’m gonna punch you in the mouth with my own mouth’ energy.

Here’s some video clips that show off their actual in-game dynamic really well, this one brilliantly set to My Kink is Karma (thank you @corkulous) and another to Death of Me (a million thanks to @lavendertheys).

Reason Number 3: They push each other’s buttons really damn well.

Arguably the most important thing in a ship for me after Tension.

We saw Otohan lose their patience exactly once, in my opinion, during the final battle when they called Imogen a ‘bitch,’ and as I said in this post, I think Imogen deserved so many more opportunities to rile Otohan up like that, especially in actual conversation as opposed to combat. She’s just so good at it, by golly, and if I can't see it in canon I can at least write about it.

And I mean, Otohan got Imogen to exalt (the only time she has done so, to my knowledge) and blow up a whole city block; I think it's safe to say they can get under her skin if they work at it, and I wish they had even more horrible opportunities to do so in canon before they kicked the bucket.

Anyways, that's the gist of what attracts me to Imotohan. If you don't get it, then the ship might just not be for you, which is totally fine—to each their own! Thanks for giving me an excuse to yap about themb~

[tojisbbygworl]

Just For The Night - Hobie Brown x Black!Punk!Reader pt. 1

Summary: Two anarchists meet at a concert and decide that one night just isn't enough...but one night is all they have.

Characters: Mentioned - Gwen, Pavtir, Miguel. Featured - Miles, Hobie

Words: 3,694

Tags: 18+, 3rd person, Mutual Pining, Suggestive Content (Smut in part 2), Hobie is Whipped, Aged-Up Characters (Miles/Gwen is 17), Reader and Hobie are 21+, Mention of Marijuana, Canon Divergence (Doesn't follow ATSV events/Miles is not an anomaly/Hobie's universe is present day instead of 1978), Hobie and Miles are like brothers, I tried my best with the British slang

author's note: The Hobie brainrot is real. I wasn't planning on writing for ATSV at all, but some of the fanfictions just weren't scratching the itch and you have to be the change you want to see in the world and all that other shit. I don't think that Miles would listen to Rico Nasty, but I definitely think Hobie would. I had to write something putting the two together like it just makes SENSE TO ME!

You don’t have to listen to the music at all I’m not even sure if I want to keep it in there. Anyway, here's the story. More notes abt me at the end.

AO3 version part 2 epilogue

"You tryna' go to this concert with me?"

Hobie stopped playing with his guitar pick to look Miles in the eyes. The day was over, for them at least. Miguel was satisfied with their work and they didn't have to deal with him until it was time to be called back into action. Gwen had already gone back home, something about her band, and Pav wasn't on the schedule for today. It was one of the only times where Miles and Hobie could really work as partners and they cherished it.

Miles was especially glad to have Hobie all to himself, as he felt this question would be a bit more awkward around the others. He waited until they were grabbing something to eat in the food court so he was sure anyone who would overhear his question couldn't. He had always been a fan of this artist, but never really embraced it in fear of embarrassment or rejection.

"Who's playin'?" Hobie asked him, already knowing he was going to say yes no matter what Miles said. He saw him as a little brother, and he was happy that he wanted to spend time together outside of work.

"Her name is Rico Nasty." Hobie raised a brow. Either this artist is only popular in America, or he didn't have her in his own universe. He had never heard of her before.

"Oh? Who's that?" Miles lit up like a fire, excited to show Hobie something new. He hoped to whoever was listening that he would enjoy her.

To say that seeing Hobie begin to head bop with his headphones in filled Miles with joy was an understatement. As the song continued, He began making a stank face and looked at him. He was enjoying himself, clearly, and Miles knew he had him hooked.

When the song ended, Hobie took out his headphones and gave Miles his phone back. "Yeah, I'll go with you."

Miles throws a small celebration. He pumps his fist and says "Yes!" dancing for a second before stopping and clearing his throat. He turns back around to see Hobie looking at him amused.

"Am I the only one going?" He asks him, biting into a burger.

Miles sits back down across him and sighs. He looks down at the table. "Yeah," he says, dejected. Hobie gives him a worried look, which Miles is quick to dismiss. "Oh, no! It's nothing bad. I just...I don't really know anyone else who would come with me and it seemed like music you would like..." He trails off for a minute. Hobie urges him on by gesturing his hand. "And I kind of wanted an actual adult with me because I'm really nervous and kind of scared and I needed someone I could trust completely. You fit all the criteria."

Hearing that made Hobie insanely happy. He gives Miles a sideways smile. "That warms me up inside, you know that?"

Miles lets out a small, breathy, laugh. "Yeah, yeah."

"So," Hobie wipes his hands with each other and takes a sip of his drink. "What's the scene gonna be like?"

"Well...you, really. Your whole aesthetic."

Hobie raises a brow. "Oh yeah?"

~

As a connoisseur of moshing, in Hobie's opinion, the venue was perfect. Big enough to fit scores of people, too small to have any personal space.

It was completely painted black with a black floor as well. Purple, green, and red stage lights shone over the thickening crowd. It was already so hot, a stark contrast from the chilly Brooklyn night air.

That day, Miles had visited Hobie's apartment to get dressed. Hobie gave him loads of clothes and accessories to choose from. Miles, unfortunately, had no sense of style, and everything he chose clashed with each other. Hobie had to completely dress him from head to toe. "You look like a proper rebel without a cause," Hobie had told him, which Miles took as a good thing.

Miles took one look at the bartending stand, gave Hobie a stupid smile, and as funny as it was, he shot him down immediately. "Uh-Uh. 'low it."

It was 7:30. The concert didn't officially start for another 30 minutes, and Rico wasn't going to come out for an hour after that. Miles was taking everything in. He had a look of wonder in his eyes. Hobie found it amusing. Him and Miles have been friends for some time now, but he’s never seen him this relaxed.

“You didn’t think about bringing Gwendy here?” Hobie asked him. Gwen should see this part of her boo thing. (They still haven’t made anything official).

Miles hisses and scratches the back of his head. “Eh…nah man. I’m still nervous about showing this side of me to people. You’re the only person I’m confident enough to show it off to.”

Miles’s sweet words brought a genuine smile to Hobie’s face, and he smiled back. Hobie wrapped his arm around him and rubbed his head. They continue talking as the venue fills more and more and people gather behind him. Soon, it’s hard to move around and the two boys finally notice how packed the floor has become. Miles begins to look a little nervous, but looks up at how chill Hobie is and adjusts himself accordingly.

When he’s done trying to look cool he taps Hobie on his arm. The man looks down at him in curiosity. “Hey, so…what’s your situation?”

“What do you mean?”

Miles makes a fist and punches his palm. “I mean, do you got a girl, bro?”

Hobie scoffs and laughs at his question. “Nah, man. My Gwen Stacy is a capitalist pig. And I don’t know a Mary Jane.”

“Maybe you can have the Gwen from my universe.” Mike’s jokes. Hobie laughs and punches his arm.

“Sorry mate, but if she’s anything like others, I don’t want her." He gets a far off look in his face, and Miles's grin straightens out. "It’s like in every universe, she’s a "good" girl.” Hobie explains his thought process. Miles is greatly interested in what he has to say. Hobie looks up and speaks as if this is something he’s put a lot of thought into. “My person needs to have my ideals. I want her to be loud and obnoxiously motivated. Like me.” He says the last part with a grin. Miles shook his head.

“So you want an anarchist?”

Hobie shrugs. “If she’s not a felon she’s not for me.” They laugh with each other until the opening DJ comes out. It was 8:00 and the concert was starting. He played some popular mainstream music that Hobie wouldn’t otherwise listen to. But Miles had started rapping 21 Savage with some other teenagers around him and he couldn’t help but enjoy it.

Hobie easily towered over the crowd, so he took a moment to take it all in. In his opinion, he had the best spot on the floor. Right in the middle. He could see everything. Everyone had on some form of punk-like, gothic, or emo styling. He saw many spikes, chains, and buckles. So many creative hairstyles and outfit choices. He truthfully felt that he was in his element. It was nice.

Oh! Es-pecially the fine thing standing right in front of him.

Well, he assumed that she looked good. He was absolutely digging her hair. She had large Bantu Knots going across her head. It was was a nice Cajun Spice color. This hair definitely takes the cake for him.

His eyes trail down her body to look at her outfit. She had fishnets on her legs and torso. Over the fishnets, she had on an AC/DC crop top with jagged edges that she probably cut herself. Her bottoms were black ripped shorts. Extremely short, they wrapped around her ass so nicely, and some of the flesh hung out of them. He couldn’t see too much of her feet, but he could guess that she’s wearing Demonias. He really wanted to see the front of her choker.

She was moving to the music and shaking her hips to the beat of ‘The Boy’s a Liar.” It was a cute song in his opinion, and her dance was just as adorable. But it was dangerous how the plush of her ass moved in those shorts.

Her friend who was dancing beside her accidentally backed into him. She turned to apologize and Hobie gave her a nod and a “you’re good,” then went right back to staring at Bantu Knots. The girl peeped him, and she smiled and nudged her to get her attention. She whispers in her ear, then turns back around completely.

When Hobie makes eye contact with Bantu Knots, his heart feels like it’s slowing down. Then, immediately, it runs. She had big brown eyes and the cutest ring on her round nose. Her makeup wasn’t much, but she still looked stunning. She clearly had on foundation, concealer and some sort of powder. She had long false lashes on, sharp wings, and black glossy lips. On the flush of her cheek, there was a small black heart drawn with eyeliner. She was gorgeous.

He was mesmerized, it was like his body did the work for him when he nodded and smirked at her. She gave him a sideways smile back, looked him up and down, then turned back around. The whistle that Hobie let out was long and smooth. Miles nudges him in the arm having been witness to the whole thing. Hobie grins.

He takes another chance to enrapture her. He taps her shoulder than leans down next to her ear. He keeps his voice low, and mutters, “I love your hair.”

He guessed she really liked that compliment, because she immediately lights up and turns around fully to look at him. The girl puts her hand on his shoulder to pull his ear towards her. A shock courses through his body when her breath hits his skin.

“I love yours, too.”

Somehow, her voice was even more breathtaking than she was. Hobie shivers. He resists the urge to ask her if she wanted to use his wicks as handle bars. Then he blinks. He has no idea where that idea came from, but he liked it.

He also liked her voice. She didn’t sound like she was local. Most spidermen in the spider society were from New York or some variation of it. He had heard his fair share of Northern American accents. Hers was more southern. Not nearly as southern as Webslinger’s though. Or, a different kind of southern.

"You’re not from around here, are you?” He asks her.

“Neither are you, mate.”

Hobie chuckled at her joke. Even though she was mocking him, it was pretty good. He decided then that he likes her and he doesn’t want to stop talking to her. He looks to his side to see Miles caught up in his own conversation with his new buddies. Good, he’s occupied.

“I don’t entirely think it’s fair that you know where I’m from and I don’t know where you’re from.” He suggest.

“I’m from Atlanta,” she answers, her deep voice relaxing him. “I moved to Brooklyn not to long ago.”

That was interesting. “Oh, really?” He wondered what might have brought her all the way up here.

She nodded. “What about you?”

Hobie rubbed his chin and quickly thought of a small lie to tell you. “I’m just visiting my bro, he invited me to this concert. I’ve never heard her music before, but I like what he showed me.”

The girl gasped as if Hobie had just told her of a terrible crime. “You've never listened to Rico before?”

Hobie shook his head. “Don’t worry, love. That’s gonna change real soon. Especially when her fans look like this.” He looked her body over and smirked.

She returns his advance with a sensual smile of her own. “Like what?”

His face doesn’t fall. “Like, bare fit.”

“What that mean?”

“It’s UK for, ‘fine as hell.’”

She continued smiling at him. They stared at each other for a second, then she spoke. “My name is Y/N.”

“Hobie.”

Before she could continue talking to him, the music starts to pick up a bit more. The playlist becomes a little more raunchy. She turns back around to dance with her friends and Hobie begins rapping along with Miles. While the music played, Hobie would occasionally catch Y/N’s eyes look at him. She was dancing really cutely, which was absolutely not the vibe of the songs that were currently playing. He could tell she wanted to really move. But, she was most likely afraid of making him uncomfortable.

Hobie had to let her know that he wants it. With all the confidence and audacity he can muster, he rubs his hand on her lower back, wrapping his fingers and palm around her waist. She turns slightly to look at him, and her eyes are full of mischief. Hobie leans over to her ear once again. Her friends are watching the scene somewhat discreetly and giggling.

“You can throw it back on me, love. I don’t mind at all.”

Apparently, that was all she needed to get absolutely loose with it. She beamed at him, caught the beat, then started dancing on him while he held her waist. Hobie’s grip is firm, but he doesn’t force their hips together, no matter how much it would turn him on. This wasn’t the first time he’s been twerked on, but he hasn’t been this into it. He grabs the other side of her hips with his other hand.

She bounces herself on him a couple times, and Hobie had never been more happy that he was wearing jeans. He doesn’t know how she would react to feeling his boner on her. However, the thought excites him. How good would it feel to just start humping into her backside? Everyone is paying attention to themselves. Would anyone even notice if he slipped his finger in between her thick thighs and underneath her shorts?

As she continues to dance on him, his imagination begins to run wilder. He doesn’t even realize how much time had passed and that the opener had already came and gone. There was a new DJ who was to introduce Rico any second now, and all Hobie could do was watch her skin bounce on his pants. There’s only a slit going from the back of her shorts to the front to cover her pussy. He assumes that she has a thong on, or he would be able to see her panties. If she just bent over a little more and stuck her ass in the air, Hobie could play with her for a little bit. And if he just angled his hips down a bit, he could pull it to the side, unzip his jeans, and just…

That would be disgusting. Fucking this random girl in the middle of a mosh pit floor. It excites him. He wonders if she likes that idea too. He doesn’t even realize that she has moved his arms completely to the front of her torso. His hands were gripping her lower stomach. She was practically grinding on him. Hobie’s mouth opened only slightly. He licked his bottom lip then bit it, not noticing the way Miles’s eyebrows lifted in shock.

At one point she looked back at him without stopping with the same bright smile on her face. Just when Hobie was about to say ‘fuck it’, the DJ begins to hype everyone up. He lets go of Y/N and looks towards the stage. The lights are going crazy. So is the crowd.

Miles is shaking his arm back and forth. “That girl was going crazy!”

Hobie slapped their hands together and bumped his chest. “Hell yeah.” He takes one more look at her back. As if she feels his eyes on her, she looked back at him. They smile and she turns around. Hobie doesn’t stop.

Miles squints his eyes. “Wait a minute, big fella.” He holds his arms out. “Whatchu thinkin’?”

Hobie shrugs, but still doesn’t stop looking at her. “I’m not thinking anything, mate.”

The crowd gets louder as one of Rico’s songs finally start playing.

“You ready?” Miles yells at him.

“Ha!” Hobie laughs and grabs Miles’s arms. “Are you? Your first time moshing, big steppa,” He shouts back.

“I’m scared as hell!”

“Don’t be! I got you!”

With that, Rico finally comes out and the crowd screams. All at once, the entire venue starts jumping. Hobie’s eardrums feel like they’re about to explode. With the way he’s moving along with his height and his firm grip over Miles’s shoulders, he feels sorry for the people behind and next to him.

The crowd isn’t pushing so much as everyone is just too filled with adrenaline to stay still. Rico herself is having a lot of fun on the stage too. Jumping up and down with everyone, screaming into the mic, feeding off the crowds amazing energy. Hobie’s really feeling it too. He hadn’t been moshing for a while, it felt good to be in his element.

As the songs change, the crowd gets more and more hype, but it isn’t until STFU when they really start moving.

Hobie doesn’t let go of Miles and pushes people around, almost falling over himself. At the same time, he makes sure to push against Y/N’s back. Everyone is screaming, pushing and throwing themselves into each other. It’s wild, hot, and exciting. It’s the most fun Hobie has had for a minute.

Y/N kept up pretty well, as if she’s true to this too. The concert goes on, and Rico begins to play her more down tempo songs. Hobie and Miles are sweating , but Miles is heaving. Hobie nudges him.

“You alright, bro?” Miles doesn’t stop heaving, but gives him a thumbs up. Hobie groans and slaps his head.

“Bro, so sorry, I completely forgot to bring some water for you. Ay listen, we can go and get some, and I’ll push us back up here, that good?” He suggests.

Miles waved him off. “Nah man,” he says exasperated. “I’m chilling.”

His new group of friends hand him a hydro flask and tells him to waterfall. Hobie thinks it’s gross, but it gets the job done. Miles looks fine again. He sighs in relief and turns back to see Y/N just vibing.

He takes the liberty to tap her shoulder and lean down into her ear. “You doing okay?” She was sweating, so was he, but she was still the most gorgeous girl in the venue.

She smiled at him thankfully and nodded. Once again, placing her hand on his shoulder she talks into his ear. “Yeah, thank you. What about you? You look just as crazy as I do.”

Hobie laughs. “How bad do I look?”

She shakes her head. “I didn’t say you look bad, baby. I said you look crazy. I like it.” Hobie’s heart flutters at the pet name, her southern drawl coming out a bit. He decides then that this can’t be the only time they talk.

“How much do you like it?” Pussy Poppin’ begins to play, Y/N turns around, grabs his hands to put them around her waist and begins to dance on him again. Hobie smiles again. This time, there’s no letting of each other. His hands remain on her waist for some time. She often looks back and stares at him. He knows this girl likes him just as much as he does and if he was only back in his universe, he would have grabbed her and swung her back to his place immediately. But, he can’t leave Miles-

Where is Miles?

Hobie lets go of her and begins looking around in a panic. She becomes worried. “Are you okay?” She yells while placing her hand on his chest. Hobie is too worried to revel in her touch, but one of the boys Miles was interacting with gets his attention.

“Hey, that boy, Miles?” He starts. “He said to tell you he was feeling lightheaded so he went to his dorm.” Hobie closes his eyes and sighs in relief. But he was also upset that he had just left without a word. Then, the kid gets his attention once more. “Um, he also said good luck with your girl.”

Ah, so that’s why. That’s kind of awkward.

“Everything alright?” Y/N asks again.

Hobie’s reassuring smile relaxes her. “It’s fine. Was looking for my bro but he went home.”

That mischievous glint in her eye came back. "So you’re free?”

Hobie pauses. Was this really happening right now? Was he really this lucky? “Yeah.”

“Want to go to my place after this? I got a blunt.”

The night just keeps getting better. Hobie chased off a stupid smile and says a thankful prayer to whatever is listening. Then he realizes. It’s only gone 10:00. The concert can’t be ending for at least another hour.

“After?” Hobie debates his next move, then he grabbed her hand. Without looking away from her, he slowly brings her hand to feel his crotch. Her eyes widened. He was very turned on, he had been since she backed up on him. He rubbed her hand up and down a bit so she could feel his arousal even better. When she began squirming and rocking back and forth on her feet, Hobie's smirk grows. Her legs were clenched shut and she couldn’t take her eyes off his waist. He leans down again, his breath making her shudder. “You see what you did to me? You’re really gonna make me wait, love?”

He stares into her eyes. Hers flicker back and forth between his, and eventually to his studded lips. Hobie anticipates her answer, but from the way she began to grip his member he knows she’ll take him up on his offer.

She takes in a breath, turns to tell her friends that she’s leaving, the grabs Hobie’s arm and starts walking through the crowd.

ending a/n: That’s the end of part one to the story. How did you guys like it so far? I wanted to add a few Rico songs to get a gist of how the concert went, but I didn’t want to overload the story. I hope the suggestiveness is to y’all’s liking. I promise the nasty raunchy sex is coming next. I can’t help but to write lore for every story I write, so you, the reader, will have a little back ground story in the next part. Just a couple of heads up, it will be a little bit angsty towards the end, and involve having sex while under the influence. They’ll be smoking while they’re fucking, basically.

about the author: I do not write for this fandom, this will be my first and probably only story involving spiderverse. I write Jujutsu Kaisen fanfiction, pretty much exclusively Toji. I also don’t write on Tumblr. I will link my AO3 but please be warned that the stories I write have very dark content matter and are angst the whole way through.

[niamhthefae]

i just watched Descendants: the rise of red for the first time and i have a lot of thoughts.

lets start with what i thought was good: the songs for the most part were okay, i quite liked 'love aint it' and that duet they sing then they're trying to decide if they should trust each other. i think the costuming was nice. also, im gonna be real with you all, they made hook gorgeous and i loved how cocky and silly he was in the maybe 2 lines he had. but as a dbd fan joshua colley did throw me off a bit at first, i was questioning how he went from monty to captain hook because thats kind of crazy. obviously that isn't their fault though.

okay. now onto the bad:

first of all, the pacing was terrible. it felt really weird because 85% of the movie was just filler and build up and then the actual climax and ending lasts for 10 minutes. and because it was so short some of the characters they introduced felt useless. i found this especially with the VKs. they're supposed to be the main antagonists but they have barely any screen time and you don't really get a sense of who any of them are as people. they pretty much introduced characters and then forgot about them and had them just linger in the background. same with the settings, they introduce this giant fish thing where the VKs hang out and a whole new school and cinderella's home and things but these will probably never be seeen again unless they decide to set another film in the past. but i honestly don't think they will so these characters and locations are probably going to get thrown away now, never to be seen again.

i think it could have benefitted from being a series, then we could have seen more of the characters and had some development and it wouldn't have felt so... i don't know, simple? the solution to everything seems way too easy for what was happening. at this point i would have even preferred they did a cliff hanger or something so it wasn't so anticlimactic at the ending. the first few movies felt like they really filled the space sufficiently, but this didnt.

i also feel like they completely threw canon out the window. the best example is when in the first movie maleficent tells mal that 'when she was her age she was cursing entire kingdoms' and then in this movie she was a lackey for Ursula's little sister. it doesn't make much sense to me. they also ignored the general canon of disney by giving most of the characters completely different backstories. they basically discredited the entire aladin movie by having them meet at school rather than what happened in the actual movie, same with most of cinderella. also hades is a god so why on earth is he going to a mortal school? he has no need for that. not to mention the fact that morgana/morgan le fay isn't a disney villan. they replaced her in the sword and the stone and even so, with merlin running the school it doesn't make sense for them to allow him to be there since in some versions morgan/morgana was the one who trapped merlin for eternity and even in the versions where that isn't the case she still basically destroys everything.

I also thought the main characters felt pretty weak. Both Chloe's decision to help Red break into the office and their decision to trust each other at the beginning felt like they came out of nowhere, they didn't really have much to persuade them or explain why they changed their minds at either point. and with Red, we dont see anything that would make us assume she's good or bad, we're only really told by red that she thinks she's bad but she wants to be good, and when she suddenly is at the end we didn't really see her be good, they just said she is, and we also literally see her do bad things. she got a bit annoyed and called for cinderella to be beheaded and she wants to steal and threatens to rip out someones tongue. we have only really seen her do bad things and then go 'oh no now i feel bad'. for a movie called the rise of red, they really dont have Red do much rising or really any kind of development, she's pretty much the same person at the start and the end of the movie.

would i watch it again? definately not. but i think if they want to continue with these characters then they could, i just think they should do things a bit differently next time.

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my head while watching this episode: --This was a great episode to notice during the OP that in the clip right after Muichiro throws the sword and Tanjiro goes rushing forward in a strike presumably with that sword, you can see Yoriichi in the back lined up next to Tanjiro--almost like the pose Tanjiro strikes with Pillars in the OP! (Hmm, how are they going to do that for the Pillar Training Arc?)

--Kanamori, in some not very well-placed exposition, says that Tanjiro asked him to be understanding of Muichiro, and that is why as Muichiro's new swordsmith, he looked into who used to smith his swords. First of all, when? We only saw Tanjiro interact with Kanamori the day or two before this all goes down, but Kanamori already has Muichiro's new sword ready and stashed away in the same shop where Haganezuka is busy putting his life on the line for polishing a sword even before Gyokko shows up. The first we see of Tanjiro even hearing of Kanamori being responsible for Muichiro's sword is when Muichiro woke him up maybe an hour or so ago. This means Tanjiro had to have known this and had an opportunity to talk to Kanamori long before he even witnessed Muichiro in the Swordsmith Village. Perhaps Tanjiro brought it up as general advice to Kanamori who expressed feeling pressure for being assigned to a Pillar, and Tanjiro just wanted to be encouraging to him based on what little impression he had of Muichiro at the Pillar Meeting and whatever he heard from Shinobu (and Shinobu did tell Tanjiro Muichiro's name, at the very least). But also, perhaps Kanamori started this endeavor to understand Muichiro after completing his first sword for him, because Tanjiro only said this to him yesterday? In which case, was this truly a matter of Tanjiro seeing that Muichiro is in need of that kindness, or was it Tanjiro throwing his hands up and saying, "I don't know what to make of him, you try!"

--And that, friends, is how you can dig too deep into canon to find fanfic ideas.

--Kotetsu-kun truly is a brave kid whose response to seeing his friends in pain was to attack instead of run away. I love how close-knit everyone in the village is, they all know (and recognize!) each other by name. --Muichiro is the kind of person who would walk around a modern art museum saying, "I could do that." Kotetsu would be the one saying, "but you didn't." Gyokko, of course, is the worst of modern artists. There must be a modern day AU which Gyokko leans a bean in Chicago and Muichiro starts a "paint the bean pink" event.

--Gyokko deserves some credit here for his cleverness! Although what Muzan would have preferred is Gyokko finding Ubuyashiki or the blue spider lilies, Gyokko has honed in the Corp's weapons and focused his efforts on eliminating those. Maybe he was merely lucky to have found a clue about the village, but he developed a technique, I assume specifically, to deprive swordsmen of their Breath.

--Being taunted for having "a dull life" and an existence with no meaning sure adds weight to that "I was born to be happy" statement. --Kimetsu Academy answered some of my wishes by having Uzui-sensei and Gyokko hang out and talk art, but what I really want is to see Shinobu see those fishes.

--I love the BGM and sound effects for Love Breath. Mitsuri is just so special, you guys. I love hearing her in this Taisho Secret showing off her sword skills to Tanjiro & Nezuko, and a sound that lives in my head rent free is the the sound she made in the previous episode's Kimetsu Academy short as she falls to her knees. --One of my favorite background characters in this whole series is the guy who tried to protect Tecchin by charging at the fish monster with a naginata. ----First, naginata. I have bias. ----Second, such upstanding character! That is not a man who runs away even when the swordsmen have been slain. ----Also, while Tecchin and the other guy who got his head bumped are shameless in fishing for Mitsuri's care and attention, this is the guy who had the view up her skirt and who made no mention of it whatsoever. ----That might be because he was so rightfully distracted by the sight of her sword instead, and he gave us some smoother exposition with which to appreciate it. --Another random thing, but I love the nighttime lighting in this season! The BGM in general feels more experimental and sometimes takes me out of it (opposed to how the Yuukaku spin plunged me deeper into it), but when it slaps, it slaps, like on the new variation as Tanjiro attains a lightsaber Red Blade. Also also, there are a lot of characters in this one with peculiar and kind of old-timey ways of speaking (Kanamori, Tecchin, Hantengu's clones, etc.) that are still distinct from other characters (like Rengoku). I don't know how much of it comes across in translation, but my ears enjoy the extra characterization.

--I love--and the first time I watched this, my friends loved it too--how Nezuko and Tanjiro take turns carrying each other when they lose consciousness. It keeps the pacing fast and desperation high, while also illustrating their bond really well. What also gets me is how Tanjiro frets and tells her to let go of the sword because her fingers will get cut. It doesn't feel like a big concern because we know she's already lost a forearm and being impaled through through the torso and neck tonight, but any reasonable brother doesn't want to see his sister's fingers cut off, much less sliced with a sword at all.

--I love how Sekido is the only demon around here whose perspective is worth anything

--Quickly jumping to the end of the episode to note how we see the base of Aizetsu's neck and the top of his head still intact, so that implies that Genya munched on the bottom half of his head. In general I'm not much into ship content, but I know there is a fandom for Aizetsu and Genya out there, and I do find the idea of it being one-sided infatuation on Aizetsu's part an amusing premise. With that in the back of my mind, I could also imagine Aizetsu mistakenly thinking Genya was going to make out with him and how quickly and shockingly he'd have his hopes dashed. --Okay, so, HINOKAMI KAGURA WITH A RED BLADE AND THE MARK, TIME TO DIAL UP THE ANIMATION

--And they do

--And it's so sad Haganezuka doesn't get to see it --Like, after how much the fight with Rui blew up and the internet collectively lost their minds, we tend to just expect this from Ufotable, so the beauty they accomplish doesn't always stick out because they have to work harder and harder to stand out from what they've already given us, but this attack on Karaku, Urogi, and Sekido is a thing of wonder and it is highly worth appreciating.

--The lighting! The fluid motion and changing camera angles! But also the ability to show changes in expression, and to differentiate Tanjiro in the marked state from his usual state.

--But, again, the timeline has me in knots. Tanjiro says he was "always" thinking about that last strike on Gyutaro and how it felt different, but when would he have had time to do that, since he's spend so much of his wakeful life, like, fighting for his life against a mechanical doll? He's of course had downtime, but given the Taisho Secret in the hand-out at the early Mugen Ressha showings, I suspect comatose Tanjiro spend a lot of time analyzing and replaying that moment and doing image training. --On the first watch, when Tanjiro is thinking about how his will is tied with that of everyone around him, and even if he can't do it, someone else will take over for him, it's easy to get wrapped up in "THAT'S RENGOKU" or "this is foreshadowing all the hands in that truly final battle with Muzan!" but, I can't wait to think back to this scene when he's talking to Giyuu in the next season. Giyuu is the first person he thinks of, but also, Giyuu's hand is absent from among the ones on Tanjiro's back.

[tagthescullion]

Unpopular opinion you might disagree with:I don't think Thalia would fit in the throne scene/Luke's deathbed.

She didn't seem to have any complicated feelings towards Luke in TLO and just treated him as an enemy to be defeated. Fair enough,they were at war, and Thalia had a more pragmatic personality than Percy's and Annabeth's. While her perspective was perfectly valid,I don't think it would add anything to anyone,character-wise;

Thalia and Luke had already said their bitter goodbyes in TTC. She tossed him off a cliff and basically said, "I don't know you anymore." If that doesn't signal a bitter ending to a relationship,I don't know what does. There's a chance Luke himself might agree,IMO;

Thalia at the throne room probably would be just someone who hates Luke and thinks he made colossal mistakes. Fair enough,but I don't think he needed anyone else to scream about his bad choices and say he sucks. The guy is plenty aware of his fuck ups,and is suffering the consequences(even his afterlife might be ambiguous. Annabeth said to his face he might go to Elysium,but she also wondered,many books later,if he was at Tartarus).

I do agree that thalia has a much more pragmatic personality than percy or annabeth, but there's also a lot of emotional turmoil to her, TTC shows that well

if you ask me, your takes are very valid, and supported by canon, yet I generally tend to think that thalia's situation with luke wasn't properly solved bc they never really talked. she does push him off a cliff and they throw jabs at each other amidst a battle but.. I need more than that for feelings to be put to rest (consider them platonic or romantic, it doesn't matter)

and then in BotL and TLO we don't get much from thalia.. TLO does have a moment where percy tells her what prometheus made him see, and she tells him "yeah luke was impulsive and irresponsible after that" but, frankly, the way she says that still sounds resented to me, not like she's solved stuff too well

as a counterpoint to my own argument, thalia generally hides her own emotions, in TTC she's reluctant to talk about luke, in TLH she meets jason, speaks for like 10 minutes, then helps him out and that's about it.. she does get angry at times --bc that's what bottling up stuff does to a person-- but I'd have liked a chance for her to speak her mind rather than act out

as for the throne room scene, again, your takes are hella valid, definitely supported by canon, but I can't agree, I feel like thalia would crack if she saw luke fighting kronos, and if anything she'd think more around the lines of "well, we could have brought him back, damn, that'll haunt me for a while..", but even if she was still wary --which is 100% fair, all things considered-- it'd have been interesting to have annabeth telling percy to give luke the knife, and thalia saying "jesus, no, DON'T give him the knife!"

[mollypollykinz]

Hello! I’ve been binge reading Throw Away Your Mask and now that I’m caught up, I’d love to know more about your thought process on how you set up Akechi’s social links if you’re cool with discussing it! Specifically I’m kind of curious about how you chose which characters to have him bond with / how you determined which arcana to use (especially for characters with a different arcana compared to their bond with the protagonist of their respective game).

Ooooo good question! So I did some planning before I actually started writing the fic. There were some characters I Knew right away I wanted Goro to have social links with (like Ken, Shinjiro, and Kanji). Some social links were fill-ins for arcana I was still missing. I also really wanted to write an original character (in the same vein as marigolds), especially since I did want a child classmate character who really displayed childishness in a way that Goro and Ken were never gonna bring to the table. I wrote a list of the major arcana in my notes and then matched the names up like this (i copied and pasted this straight from my notes):

Arcana Social Links for pic -Priestess - Kurusu Akira -Tower - Shido Masayoshi -Fool - “Kurusu Tsuyoshi” Nyarlathotep -Judgement - Velvet Room Attendants -Sun - Dojima Nanako -Fortune - Naoto -Emperor - Kanji -Aeon - Teddie -Magician - Hanamura Yosuke -Star - Narukami Yu -Hierophant - Kanji’s mom -Temperance - Junpei -Hanged man - Kirijo Takeharu -Lovers - Ryoji -Chariot - Dojima Ryataro -Empress - Kirijo Mitsuru -Moon - Aragaki Shinjiro -Justice - Amada Ken -Hermit - Takaya -Jester- Adachi Tohru -Strength - Yamamoto Emiko -Death - Minato -Devil - Ikutski Shuji

I decided who was matched with which arcana based off of the arcana definitions in the persona wiki. The arcana pages in the persona wiki also gives common themes between social links within that arcana, so that impacted my decision too. Sometimes, i looked up the definition of an arcana outside of the wiki tho. My sister also came up with some of the matches when I had some blank spots (like Shido being Tower and Dojima being Chariot). I didn't want all of the characters to have the same arcana as they do in canon because I thought that was less fun than mixing it up. Obviously some arcana were too good to not keep, such as Ken being Justice. Another issue that came up is that I would use the canon arcana for one character (Ken), but then I obviously couldn't use it on Nanako too. When choosing arcana I also didn't really care about the 'gender roles' of each arcana. I honestly had a lot of fun giving Akira priestess (because the arcana meaning really fit the way I was characterizing him in this fic) and Ryoji Lovers (because Lovers always goes to a girl but it represents crossroads and Ryoji is a pretty big crossroads).

For a lot of the social links (not all lol), I also planned out each rank up. I tended to change certain details while writing, so this is what it kinda looked like:

Rank 3: Wednesday 13 May: After Akechi joins SEES, he meets up with Shinji. He asks why Shinji isn’t in SEES and Shinji says nothing. akechi is frustrated by this but drops it. RANK UP Rank 4: Wednesday September 2: Shinji joins SEES and Akechi’s like dude finally and Shinji says something about his past beginning to catch up with him and Akechi’s like what the hell bro. Rank 5: Sunday September 6: Shinji offers to teach Akechi how to cook. Akechi can always appreciate good life skills and accepts his offer. They make a tradition out of it.

Finally, I decided which characters to give social links just based off of who I think would have the most interesting character dynamics with Akechi/who would bring something new to the table. Also some characters' plots would make Akechi feel bigger feelings than others. But like part of the reason Shinji gets a social link and Akihiko doesn't is because Akihiko is kinda attached to Shinjiro's social link with Goro (think sorta daisuke and kou in persona 4). Naoto got a social link because *Detective Prince* TM, that sort of thing. Obviously other characters who didn't get social links also had a lot of potential, but I was already stretching my limit by including aeon and jester (jester was originally not going to be used but then takaya became a social link by hijacking the plot so i had to give up adachi's hermit status to takaya, which worked much better anyway).

So yeah. I put a lot of thought into it.

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Things I Noticed While Writing Light The Fuse: Part 15, Episode 5

This Magic Moment to end off this half of the series, so excited to write what happens next 😊

They're watching each other again, they're always watching each other when Matty drives. I wonder what they're thinking about, if Ethan is still thinking about how it didn't make sense, or how they accept him and want him there, if he's wondering if he should really stay because there's no need to go back even if he's wrong? And Matty, if he's wondering (my hands no joke just type wonderful on instinct) if he'll stay, or how he's feeling after their talk, if he's okay, or maybe if he's wondering what else Ethan might be hiding from them or if he's ready to keep accepting him no matter what the truth is.

I need to talk to everyone who worked on this show or I will end up haunting the earth with unfinished business

This song is so them-coded I needed to make it theirs only to make it hurt, I'm all for a good song being ironically played in serious scenes, it's hilarious to me and this is the other scene I filmed on my phone to share the first time I saw it, but c'mon, does it not fit them being in love exactly?

Sure doesn't look too happy to see her even though she should be signifying that he can go home soon huh. She even told him she'd be down there and he looks more shocked than relieved, and half of me is like 'she's there to take him home and he doesn't want that' and the other half is like 'he told her the times and now she appears and this is bad news' like how I wrote it in my fic, but this is canon Ethan so he could also be thinking anything with how he doesn't look too worried when they arrive

Poor Matty he's just glancing over at a passing car, he's heard her voice, seen her here, and also meets her and never once does he connect the dots I need to protect him from the oncoming heartbreak he goes through enough

Thank you, dear god, if I saw anyone else play Johnson it wouldn't have worked even half as well, there is only one Johnson and he can only be played by David Dastmalchian and I stand by that so hard.

Also lol at Matty leaning back so far and seriously cause he's in the shot

This is also unforgivable, how dare she do this right after sending the Brawlers after him, she's officially put him into danger by association and she knows it and she still gives him this wave, as a character she's so fascinating but my god I can't forgive her

And then it's over. You can only pray that this has nothing to do with what you talked about yesterday, Ethan, and that they'll still love you when it all comes out

The casual pull up, this is just another normal drop, things are calm, Ethan gets to toss Matty the bag this time, he fixes his sleeves Johnson-style, and then it all goes to hell. This is probably the first time Matty's seen anything like this, since he got here after the war and all, and Johnson's probably thinking 'oh no not again' after so long of things being good, but Ethan, with him seeing this and then throwing away his phone next ep, he knows that this is his fault

Matty freaking out and explaining things to a couple random Brawlers before turning to Johnson as he walks away, Johnson motioning for someone to come over, and Ethan for some reason went to talk to his own random Brawler, interesting choice there, I wonder what he said

This shot has an interesting cut, on Hulu it starts later and goes for longer, and on Amazon it starts sooner and ends halfway through, so I spliced them together to make one big shot. I know they did it since the following scene was cut and they needed to keep the Joel continuity, but still, I loved seeing all the differences between the two as I did this ep

Oooooooough Matty all curled up while he talks to Joel, he's the only one who wants to become a Brawler and he's the one panicking the hardest here outta all of them, even Ethan is just standing around while Johnson sits off to the side, why wouldn't he also be talking to Joel about this? I'm telling you, he only talks to people whenever Matty can't, and I will bring this up again when I do ep6 and 10

This scene was cut entirely, which is a shame since it's so good. We got Matty being all panicky and fidgety, we got Meredith being sisterly to Lyla which is always nice, we got Avron 😒 and we got a nice shot of Johnson they robbed from us. The rest of their convo is unintelligible, I can make out Matty saying 'He just-' and then that's it, with whispers of them still going, wish the Brawlers could've talked a little less here

I love the reveal that Bash did this cause Percy was his brother, every reveal is great in this show, but this is about the Phoenixes so we must look at them. Of course they gotta go back to show them what happened, but what I wanna know is why Ethan is the one chosen to drive back. I wrote Matty as being too wired to concentrate, and Johnson is taking his sweet time back there (he throws out his cigarette twice lol) but you'd think that Ethan might also be too wired since he saw an actual dead body like an hour before, even if they don't know each other that well.

There's also something in the backseat of the third gif and I still have no idea what it is

Like is this a piece of film equipment? I have no idea what that thing is in both show and real world context, it almost looks like a speaker or something

Bonus Meredith and Lyla cause this shot was also cut, the rest of the ep is the same from here

All three of them waiting outside and giving them time to inspect/grieve 🥺 they didn't even try to stop Bash when he rushed out, they just get back in the car and wait for Joel to follow. Matty doesn't even really look in, he's just looking down and away, which Johnson does at the same time I just noticed

Matty is driving, but there's no one in the backseat unless they turned into shadows or I'm blind

RIP Gary, your promised rematch with Matty would've been legendary

It's hard to see cause this is the world's darkest bar but Johnson actually reacts to this one, he touches his forehead just over Joel's shoulder near the end

Matty once again looking to only Johnson while he's already looking at them and not the carnage /)o(\ This is what your loyalty to Doris did, Ethan! Just tell her to fuck off instead of answering her ;w;

And that's it, I won't do the rest of the eps until I'm done writing Light the Fuse, which I was hoping to be doing this whole time but it's been so busy I haven't had a chance to sit down and write anything OTL but since this ended up finishing on a Tuesday, I'll give myself one more week to try and stock up (since I've got nothing to post heh ;w;) and then in a few months when this fic is all done we can look at more details together~

Thanks so much for joining me so far, this has been a lot of fun and I can't wait to get back to working on both the fic and this series again asap ❤️💙💛

[femoso-seben]

Pandemonium AU

Cod mw2 characters if they were Grim Reapers!

SOAP was the first to pass faced with the new(ish) modern war Death God. Soap tried to haunt 141 to 1) make sure they get Makarov and 2) scare them but that's not how Death works.

As a last-minute ditch to stay, he asked about the Grim Reaper, turns out this young Death God had no Grim Reapers and is runner-dogged.

SOAP then said he could be a Grim Reaper and he also (accidentally) sold all of 141’s soul to the Death God.

SOAP then dreamed Grim Reaper of Destruction (seems, bombs, building collapse, landmines, etc) as the Grim Reaper shroud is hung on him his memory of his human life is suppressed.

——————

GAZ dies in a collapsed building and meets Grim Reaper and immediately recognizes him. He tries to talk to him but the Grim Reaper ignores him.

GAZ stared at the Death God in annoyance as he was told his fate to become one of its Grim Reaper.

“Why?”

“Oh, your friend sold your soul to me.”

And boom!

2nd Grim Reaper!

GAZ then becomes the Grim Reaper of Equality (less literal and more symbolic) he keeps records of the newly fallen

——————

PRICE dies from wounds taking out Makarov and is greeted by the Modern War Death God in person sitting across from him smoking a cigar (and coughing a lung out because it can't smoke to save its life!)

“Are you the Grim Reaper?”

“No, I’m your Master.”

PRICE tries to argue with the Death God to let him rest in peace.

“Nope, your buddy sold your soul to me, your mine.”

“Who?”

“Um… John MacTavish.”

PRICE folds fast after hearing that name and agrees to become the Grim Reaper of Strife (his anger in life fuels how the Death God named him) and retains some of his memories (mostly the ones attached to anger)

——————

GHOST was a victim of Makarov’s plan and was escorted by Reaper Gaz to the Death God.

GHOST 100% believes he's going to hell and was 100% preparing himself for the hellishness of hell

GHOST didn't know what to say when the Death God said he was joining its ranks.

“Why?”

“Your soul was sold to me.”

“I didn't sell my soul—”

“Your friend did.”

GHOST reluctantly agrees and the Death God names him the Grim Reaper of Compassion (Ghost is canonically a kind person… ANYWAYS he leads Children and the innocents that died in war to the other side)

GHOST kept all his memories

——————

VALERIA dies in her struggle to keep her cartel territories and faces the Dearh God boldly. She knew she was going to go to hell and tried to stall.

Death found her entertaining and knew the war on drugs would continue on and needed a reaper in that field. Death makes an offer.

VALERIA agrees and one last fuck you to Alejandro and Rodalpho throws their name in.

VALERIA becomes the Grim Reaper of Narcotics. (she follows all the infighting of cartels, Mafia, and organized crime and will cross paths this the Death God of Drugs and their Grim Reapers often)

Keeps most of her human memories (all after she decided to join the Cartel world)

——————

ALEJANDRO like the saying did die at his own hands…. Kinda. Since VALERIA is so good at her job Death God wanted him

Death didn't give him a choice and just dropped the shroud on him changing him.

ALEJANDRO becomes the Grim Reaper of Honor.

ROLDAPHO died with Alejandro a few minutes before. He accepts his face and becomes the Grim Reaper of Mercy.

ALEJANDRO and ROLDAPHO only kept memories of each other working a lot with each other giving each person some self-honor

——————

GRAVES was killed by 141 in a coupe to take him out (revenge) and the Death God already had its eyes on him.

GRAVES was easily swayed by the Death God’s cry for help since war is never-ending and it's swamped with never-ending work!

GRAVES becomes the Grim Reaper of Soldiers (his favorites are the Marines and he always congratulations fallen soldiers with a pat)

GRAVES Kept all his memories

——————

KÖNIG died blessing out protecting Civilians and he Deatj God on a pure impulse dropped a Shroud on him turning him into a Grim Reaper of Civilians

HORANGI was accidentally chosen when he pulled the shroud on top of himself and Desth God simply shrugged and named him the Grim Reaper of Accidents (for how he became a reaper, how he became a soldier, and for any other fooled tricked into joining war)

Both don't keep their memories.

——————

FARAH and ALEX died together and together they joined the Reaper team force.

FARAH became the Grim Reaper of Freedom

ALEX became the Grim Reaper of Independence

Both remember their human life

——————

When the God of Death of Modern War called a Grim Reaper meeting there was a lot of pointing and full-on confusion. It was pretty funny as both Gaz and Soap remembered who they were the moment they saw Graves.

[therummesoccupied]

IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, ISSUE #71 - THOUGHTS

I absolutely would have continued putting this off, but then I found out that the 2024 Annual releases tomorrow, so I'd better get my ass in gear.

Issue #71 marks the end of the Extreme Competition arc... sorta. Evan has stated that she sees Issues #69-#75 all as the Phantom Riders arc. The Trade Paperback titles, however, refer to #69-#71 under the Extreme Competition name, so I'll keep using that for the time being, just to keep consistent with the release titles.

#71, like #s 70 and 69 before it, is an absolute banger. We've got Min Ho Kim back for pencils, really giving us a nice look at what they're capable of when handling action scenes - with the bulk of this issue taking place during a sort of Extreme Gear Dodgeball Match.

While most of the action is very clear and readable, there was one scene that I did have to glance at couple times to figure out what was going on.

I'm sure part of it was due to my colorblindness (deutan gang rise up), but I did not realize at first that this was meant to show a second Phantom Rider entering the scene. I thought for a moment Sonic had just rushed the field and was wondering why he had Duo's scarf. As soon as I realized it was a different guy entirely, it wasn't hard to piece together that this was Duo... or rather, it was Mimic. Who is Duo. Tomato tomato.

This second Phantom Rider is the source of pretty much all of this issue's juicy drama.

Using his clever disguise, Mimic throws Sonic off his game while riling everybody else up - Surge, Jet, Lanolin, all of them are dead set on catching this guy. He even switches forms over to Surge for a moment to set Whisper off and get everyone fighting each other.

It actually kind of goes to show that Mimic is a lot better at being the Phantom Rider than Sonic ever was, with Sonic's intentions behind adopting the persona being to throw off everyone's focus and cause a distraction. With Mimic throwing everyone's actions into disarray, he gets Sonic distracted long enough to unmask him.

An unintended consequence of this is that, while he escapes without being spotted himself, Tangle, Whisper, Surge, Kit, Jet, Wave, and Storm all see Sonic without his helmet.

And all of them have pretty interesting reactions to the whole thing!

Surge broods about it a bit, but is quickly distracted by meeting an adoring young fan.

Now, some of the eagle-eyed among you may notice - the little girl's mother is the Conductor's wife from The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog! It's a little weird that she's here, as SEGA continues to be fairly insistent that TMoStH is non-canon, but Evan Stanley, when asked about the appearance of characters from said game in IDW, has said that she simply thinks a similar event occurred at some point in this world.

Personally, my theory is that SEGA is eventually gonna just... change their mind and canonize it, and when that time comes, we'll probably get some retroactive explanation that all of this happens before that.

Anyway, in terms of what the encounter means to this story, it's neat to see Surge, who has been so caught up in the Hero Worship she's been receiving this arc, receive a more innocent adoration from a child who genuinely looks up to her. It gets her thinking for the first time about whether she deserves the praise she's sought as long as she can remember. This drives her and Kit to resolve to go straight and become heroes for real.

This is really cool! I didn't think we'd ever get any form of redemption arc for Surge, especially since I believe Ian Flynn stated at one point that it wasn't in the cards, that she was intended to be a villain always. And, to be honest, I don't know if it'll work out even with her trying. Clutch has got her and Kit on a pretty tight leash, and he's bound to do whatever he has to in order to reel them in if they start to get out of line. If the next issue previews are any indication, anyway.

Tangle and Whisper have kept quiet about what they saw to Lanolin, which Mimic/Duo seems to have picked up on, and appears to be attempting to use this information to drive a wedge between the Diamond Cutters and their leader. Meanwhile Tangle and Whisper have been trying to sort through things on their own, with the two of them making a couple observations to realize that there were, in fact, two Phantom Riders.

With this in mind, it looks like the two of them will be quietly looking into the matter on their own. I'm pretty sure they've largely pieced together that the second Rider is Mimic. If not, they'll have it worked out before long.

The reaction I find most interesting, though, is that of the Babylon Rogues.

Barely any time passes before, just using their heads, they work out almost exactly what's going on. And, while their motivation is entirely ego-centric, they resolve to uncover the foul play (heh) at hand and expose whoever's behind it. It's surprisingly cogent for them!

Then there's Clutch.

He's... upset. But of course. He's spent a good deal of effort to stay off Sonic's radar so he could avoid dealing with him until he was ready to do so. Now the world's greatest hero, who had no idea until recently that his operation even existed, is on his trail. One might understand why he's a touch unhappy. And honestly, I think the anger he shows here might be the most vicious side of Clutch we've seen. He doesn't normally have this much trouble maintaining his composure. It's interesting to see how badly he loses his cool when the house of cards he's built begins to tremble. I'm excited to see what the depths of that ferocity are in the upcoming issues.

Once again, the art, the writing, the plot, the colors, every aspect of this issue firmly slaps. I really, really enjoyed this arc, and I've become even more excited for upcoming material after finding out that every issue from 69 onward has been helmed solely by Evan! Not that I don't adore Ian and his writing, but if this is the standard we can expect when Evan gets to work on her own, I can hardly wait to see what she's cooking next. She certainly sounds eager for it, so I am, too!

Last thing to note, once again the fan mail section caught my attention, when at the very end, I noticed something:

They say that, next time, a "certain journalist" will get involved. The thing is, I'm really not sure who this could be. It sounds like it'd be an established character but... do we know any journalists in the Sonic franchise?

Maybe Omochao? Or Nite? They both work in TV and radio, but neither is really a journalist, per se.

The only actual reporter I can think of is Brenda Hernandez from Sonic Unleashed, but... she's a human! IDW has always appeared to be strictly forbidden from using human characters outside of Eggman. Though, a couple of them have been mentioned recently. To date, however, none have actually appeared. Could this be IDW finally shaking off some of SEGA's restrictions to play around with the bigger world a little bit? One can hope!

That's all I have to say on Issue 71, though, so as always, thanks a ton for reading all the way through, and keep an eye open for my 2024 Annual Review, as I hope to have it written and posted before Issue 72 drops later this week!

[sickness-health-all-that-shit]

thank you @callivich for sharing the idea of making fic dvd commentaries! I thought I'd give it a go 🥰 @shamelessdvdcommentary

Broken things

summary: When Lip brings home an advanced android in order to test it for the company he works for, Ian doesn't know what to make of him. MIK-940810, or Mickey, seems virtually indistinguishable from a human being, throwing Ian for a loop as he feels an undeniable connection to the android. Their relationship deepens when Ian finds out about something that Mickey has been keeping from Lip and the people who built him.

There’s a faint blue light shining from the place where Lip’s thumb rests for about two seconds. Ian’s expecting some kind of whirring noise, like when you turn a computer on, but there’s just silence.

And then suddenly the blue eyes come alive.

some stats: I started writing this about a year ago, as part of the latest shameless big bang and finished it around january this year. it's a multichapter of about 28k words divided into 8 chapters

What was the initial inspiration for your story?

probably something I was watching at the time. I love sci-fi! I think I would've had the initial idea in the spring of 2023 and then let it marinate for a while, until the big bang came a-knocking lol. I'm pretty sure it was always gonna be android!Mickey and human Ian, and when I remembered Lip's canon interest in robotics it all started slotting into place for me

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character?

like I said it was always gonna be android!Mickey and I really wanted to explore Ian trying to figure out what made him tick and questioning what makes us human in the first place

What was your favourite scene to write?

probably their initial conversation when Ian asks all sorts of questions that make his brain explode more and more, while Mickey sort of watches him spiral and just seems to have an obvious answer for everything lol. that and the scene where Mickey heavily flirts with an increasingly flustered Ian, that was a lot of fun

How did you come up with the title?

one of the main themes of the fic is the coming together of these two individuals who meet at a time when they both needed it because they were feeling broken, for different reasons. there's a parallel especially between Ian's relationship with his bipolar disorder and Mickey's feeling that he's malfuctioning as an android and that he'll be seen as a broken toy. in both cases it's because of heightened emotions compared to what's considered 'normal', but they heal each other throughout the fic and overcome that sense of brokenness together

Are there any little moments or references you hope readers will notice?

hopefully all the little references and parallels to canon! (things like Mickey's serial number for instance) I had a lot of fun with those, it was like winking at my fellow fans like 'get it? it's like in the show!' lol

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this?

I struggled a bit with the resolution of the main conflict/angst, especially explaining how Lip suddenly decides to help them in the end, after being a dick for most of the story lmao. hopefully it doesn't feel that sudden or rushed, but yeah. I still think about it at times lol

Favourite line in the story?

“Well, ask away, doc. You studyin’ human anatomy all day, right? Bet you’re curious as fuck to know all the ways they replicated that shit in this hot little android body o’ mine.” - like I said, I really enjoyed Mickey shamelessly flirting xD

Did the storyline change in any way as you wrote the story?

I just checked my original (handwritten) outline, and I think I had meant to make Ian catch on more to the fact that Mickey is a different type of android, even with Lip's reassurances, but I think in that version he ended up being suspicious in a way that didn't gel with his blossoming feelings for Mickey, and maybe as a result I made Ian a little bit more unsure of himself, which goes back to him feeling broken because he feels like he can't trust his brain too much. also when I was still gathering my ideas for the story I initially thought Mickey might turn out to have memories of a human Mickey Milkovich who had died, but I scrapped that because I wanted this Mickey to be the real Mickey, android or no

If you are writing a particular trope or genre, was it your first time writing this?

I'd definitely never written sci-fi or an android fic before! I might delve more into science fiction in the future though, who knows 😌

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc)

overall plot and dialogue, probably. I'm really proud of how I developed my original idea, and some of the lines still make me laugh (or cry)

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story?

going back to my original outline, I apparently had a whole chapter that never came to be? here's what I'd written down: "Lip's boss shows up at the house. Mickey needs to pretend to be a regular android despite his anger. Ian defends Mickey. The police gets called. They have to make a run for it." maybe this would have helped the resolution feel less rushed/anti-climactic but it also seemed to complicate things a bit too much for my taste, so it got scrapped

Would you ever write a sequel to this story?

I think the epilogue leaves things in a good enough place!

Were you nervous or excited to post this story?

both!! but more excited overall, I think. it's probably my favourite story I've written

Ask your followers to pick a snippet (no more than 500 words) and share your thoughts about it.

please!!!! I will love you forever <3

this was great, I highly recommend it to all writers 🥰