#I’m emotional about ancient stuff ok

[babybluebae-933]

I haven’t heard a word you’ve said, and… I’ll get you to Vulcan somehow.

One day I will write an entire essay about this moment but for now this is all I have in me.

This is the kindest thing Kirk could have said to Spock in this moment, and it shows how well Kirk knows him. He doesn’t try to convince him that he shouldn’t be embarrassed about it (well he does at first, Vulcans are not the birds and the bees captain) he doesn’t try to convince him to be logical about it. Being embarrassed is SO illogical and Spock fucking knows that and reminding him of that fact would only make it worse.

He literally begs to be locked away, he begs Kirk to basically take him out back and put him out of his misery old yeller style. SPARE him the indignity of explaining himself to anyone or being subjected to the will of his own deep dark desires and motives. Kirk orders him to explain and Spock says no that some things transcend even the discipline of the service (then Kirks like ok what if I pinky promise I won’t tell and Spocks like ok fine, which is also so cute but a whole other thing) either way it’s obvious he would literally rather die than tell anyone what’s going on, and he’s actively trying to run away from it.

I thought I would be spared the indignity… but the ancient drives are too strong, eventually it catches up.

This is why Kirk is so special, and this is why he understands Spock better than anyone else. Humans have pride, humans have ego. Spock decided to live the Vulcan way and swear off all that stuff but it’s still inside him. We can assume one of two things, either he truly never has any emotions, or he has them but won’t show them. And God damn if being that fucking stubborn isn’t the most human thing about him. I can’t remember which episode it is but some other time when a red shirt is laying into him for being so cold and insensitive Bones gets defensive, and Spock says it’s okay doctor-

Sometimes they forget I’m half human too.

You can be half human, but you can’t be half Vulcan, you can’t be “half” emotionless. He would be ashamed to let the mask slip, and he’s ashamed that he would feel shame for this. For showing his human nature. What do they expect from him? To show his feelings would be humiliating, hiding them gets him ridiculed, they bully him for it, yet no one ever treats him as if he could have any feelings about the matter at hand, whatever it may be.

When Spock is insisting that he never feels such trivial emotions as anger or annoyance or fear he is convincing himself as much as anyone else, that is his comfort. It’s true as long as he and everyone else believes it. It’s his comfort and everyone else’s in some cases; if all else fails we can at least count on Spock being cold and logical.

It’s no use to convince him that he shouldn’t be embarrassed because

Spock knows that already. Biology and nature are factual and neutral

Spock knows that being embarrassed is totally illogical

He also knows that being embarrassed especially about something that IS so natural and normal is super-duper un-Vulcan like

The human side of him is what makes him defend his emotionality (non-emotionality?) with such fervor. Motherfucker is so stubborn and so prideful, so Vulcan, but distinctly human.

To assure Spock “aw it’s okay buddy don’t be embarrassed it happens to everyone!” would be a triple knife; acting like he doesn’t know that the facts of life are neutral, unavoidable, and imminent. Acknowledging that he is embarrassed which is so non-Vulcan. AND telling him how being embarrassed especially about this particular instance is extra illogical.

Kirk gets all that, he knows Spock gets all that, and he sees him for who he really is, not the human side or the Vulcan side, just Spock. So, he gives him a very specific brand of mercy, “None of this ever happened, I saw nothing. But now I at least know enough to help you.”

(If we want to take this further I could also remind you of the Edith Keeler conversation when Kirk basically tells her that “let me help” means more than “I love you”.)

I just love this moment so much and I love them.

[marokra]

UHM. I would like to hear more abt purple child if u wanna share :3

hi i’m gonna preface this by saying this ask made me cry (/pos) it’s not that often that people ask abt my ocs and realizing that people like my stuff made me go bvbvbvbvbvbvbvwaaaaaaa.

ANYWAYS! emotional stuff over, gonna talk abt her!!!!

look if i’m being honest i threw all the backstory stuff into the polls so i’m not gonna elaborate much on that here bc i’ll sound like a broken record. however, i didn’t mention a lot of silly goofy fun facts and also the fact that she’s a victim of an oc x canon ship /silly

anyways!!! ramblings and associated art under the cut because this is gonna be LONG

- for starters!!! during the season 1 special, she wasn’t exactly deemed powerful enough to aid in the DBK takeover, so she mostly stayed behind and guarded the Flaming Foundry, making sure that no heroes or little thieves wandered in to take them down from the inside. this meant that MK and the gang hadn’t actually properly met her until the Great Wall Race, which caused MK and Mei go “what do you mean there’s another one???” and Tang was like “yeah she’s only mentioned in one legend, i’m not surprised you don’t know of her” said legend was her and Red Son’s birth. sad times

- she has been banned from wikipedia for editing her page to add info without sources one too many times

- her scar is actually from a sparring accident! red son burned her face bad and it rendered her practically blind in one eye, unable to open it. she’s researched all the healing magic she possibly could, but it never worked. partially because she doesn’t have much magic power, and partially because an injury like this is damn near irreversible. it was originally just an excuse for me to not have to draw her other eye but yknow the lore has to come from somewhere

- she suffers every day and for what. girlish whimsy/ref

- we’re getting to the yuri part now yeahhhhhhh!! i did mention that she ended up befriending mei during season 3 with the goal of taking the samadhi fire from her, except oops!!!! she’s starting to enjoy her company, seeing her as someone she genuinely cares about with her stupid jokes and annoyingly cute arrogance and sheer determination and willpower to save the people she cares about, she’s almost admirable with those eyes like stars and laugh that chimes like bells and disgusting optimism that makes Purple want to shut her up with a kiss whenever she says another one of her dumb hero speeches——oh crap those are not normal platonic feelings are they. nope nope nope shoving those in the box for later. to say Purple Child went through hell over this would be an understatement, but she’s fiiiiiiiiiiine. promise. it’s not like she’s absolutely terrified of letting her parents down by falling for someone they would surely disapprove of, even if she’s starting to work through her trauma. it all turns out ok tho. hopefully

- her & mei’s ship name is Grapes or Grapeshipping. this is cause of purple (well technically red. but they’re purple) n green grapes !!

- she writes as a hobby. she specializes in fantasy stuff inspired by ancient legends, but it’s a bit hard to do so if you’re a walking legend yourself and live in megapolis, china. in recent times she tried to publish a book under a different name but her publisher was immediately like “is this a modern slice of life story?” and needless to say the publishing office found themselves a victim of arson.

- her favorite food is pork wontons!

- she has a really bad problem with constantly feeling worthless and inadequate. this was caused almost entirely by her neglect from PIF and the shoes she has to fill of being the (technical) heir to the Demon Bull throne, yet not possessing the abilities worthy of the title of Crown Princess. if the demon bull family wasn’t basically immortal this would be more of a problem, but it still weighs on her.

- her ahoge is an actual, live flame. don’t touch it, you’ll get a second degree burn!

- Purple Child, compared to Red Son, seems to be the more… quiet out of the two. While Red Son was loudly proclaiming his plans, she was plotting to strike her enemies down in the shadows. She has always preferred to scope out the situation and act with caution rather than charging in headfirst.

- if she knew what kinning was, she’d kin franziska von karma ace attorney

i’m so sorry this got so long btw, i just get really excited when i get to talk bout my ocs ehheheh (and i’m sorry it took me a full day to answer i really wanted to draw some stuff for this)

[moonlightreal]

Season 9 leaks!

The story is that somebody hacked Rainbow and grabbed all the good stuff! Could they really have done that? Just remember this is the Winx fandom where faking leaks is a national pastime so these pictures could be real, fake, or a mixture of the two. I don’t vet anything because… uh, how could I? I’m just a random person on the internet. And also, real leaks and fake leaks are equally fun to speculate about and having fun speculating is what we’re here for!

Ok I kinda love this? Aisha’s hair! Stella’s sun-ray wings! Tecna’s circuitry wings! Tecna still being ball jointed! Flora’s kinda weird flower top! The only odd point is that Bloom’s costume is just basically Sirenix slightly modified. Why Sirenix?

This would be the third version of the costumes that we’ve seen for season 9, and if it’s real they drifted away from the simple redesigns of the original magic winx form into something more detailed and cooler. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was real; the previous images we had just looked too simple after so many years of increasingly complicated outfits. This looks real but as you can see on top it's from Winxclubrus, a site that has the same attitude as I do when it comes to sharing All The Leaks.

Aisha looking the appropriate color again!

Here we have some CG turnarounds that look like CG turnarounds. Stella’s outfit is cute, Icy’s had an upgrade and lost the capital I on her clothes and the Trix have a symbol now. It looks like a capital T with some lines underneath, it reminds me of the “chi rho” a Christian symbol that was used in ancient Rome that looks like a capital P with an x across the bottom.

And here are two new characters and these pictures are more questionable. Fan consensus seems to be that the girl is from another series and was accidentally in the Winx Club folder that the supposed hacker supposedly hacked. The boy is in a different style than the girls and there’s not much on his character sheet so I think he’s either someone’s fan character or maybe… you know how Orion was copied off a video game character? This image of the guy may be a character from something else that Rainbow is planning to base a character design on.

But! There was a very low resolution image of the Winx and Trix battling and it looked like there was a boy fighting on the evil side. It could have been Riven, it could have been one of the Wizards of the Black Circle, since one of them appeared in a different season 9 image… or it could be this guy. Damien is an evil name thanks to the Omen movies so that tracks.

So who knows! We’ll just have to wait and see if either of these characters is real.

And last we have a video! This, I think is real. It’d be easy enough for a fan to make some turnarounds in blender but this video would be a lot of work.

And it looks good. My brain immediately said “it looks good” but my brain also said, ‘It looks like everything else.” and I’m not even sure what “everything else” my brain is thinking about. Unicorn Academy? Miraculous? It looks like things! But it shows a lot of emotion, which the season 8 was bad at so we are improving already!

[spooky-circuits]

A continuation of the Bruce meeting because I want to write some proper conversation between Bruce and Branch.

Part one

Part two

Bruce is still reeling from Branch’s comment about leaving when his son asks “Daddy what’s he talking about?” Bruce know this is going to be rough to explain so he decides to hold off on that until he can calm everyone down including himself because holy shit this is a lot. “Daddy will explain later junior. Why don’t you tell Mommy we have guests!” And he starts pushing his towering child back into the cantina. “Oh and tell her she finally gets to meet uncle Branch she’ll know what that means!”

Branch watches the interaction feeling almost nauseous. There are so many emotions mixing in his chest he can hardly tell them apart. Poppy is looking at his face and she can tell he isn’t feeling well. “You look like you’re gonna barf. Do you need a bucket?” Bruce looks back at him with concern when hearing that. Branch swallows down his feelings for a moment to tell Poppy he doesn’t need a bucket when Bruce walks towards him. “Look Branch lets talk okay? We both clearly have a lot to catch up on.” Branch sighs and looks at Bruce. “That’s definitely an understatement.”

*Branch and Bruce fill each other in on things that have happened in other posts*

Bruce listens to Branch telling him about how difficult it was to find him and all Bruce can say is. “I guess this means the card I sent out didn’t make it too you? I’m sorry Branch I didn’t know and when Brandy and I went back to the troll tree the whole thing was trashed! I had no idea anyone was still out there.”

Branch can understand that. It still hurts but he can understand why Bruce decided to settle down here. “So Bruce Jr? How exactly did that happen?” Because Brandy is definitely not a troll but their son is clearly both of theirs. Bruce gets that look on his face that he would get right before giving Clay a wet willie. “Well Branch when a mommy and daddy love each other very much-” Branch immediately slaps a hand over his mouth and says “Stop! I don’t need to know anymore.” And makes sure to pull away before Bruce tries to lick his hand or something.

They eventually make their way back to the cantina where Bruce finally introduces everyone to Brandy. “Sorry that took so long honey but look! It’s my brother! Can you believe it? He even brought friends!” Brandy just smiles and says “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Bruce has told me so much about you. Of course you were a baby in most of those stories.” Hearing this helps Branch realize his brother really hadn’t just forgotten him the moment he got a new family. He’s still nervous with her towering over him but he tries to be polite and puts out his hand to shake one of her fingers. This is when Bruce Jr comes over. “So you’re my uncle? Does that mean we can still play? Or do uncles just do boring dad stuff?” All of Branch’s friends are cooing over how cute his nephew is so there doesn’t seem to be any getting out of it. “Yeah we can still play. I’m not ancient like your dad yet.” Theres a mock offended gasp from Bruce at that but he’s happy to see Branch getting along with his son. Family should be together it’s something he’s realized in the last 14 years since leaving the troll tree.

[whimsy-of-the-stars]

whimsy-of-the-stars: a writeblr re-re-intro!

hey guys, it’s been a minute! I’m whimsy-of-the-stars, and since my main projects have kinda shifted around, I thought it would be a good time to update my intro! ngl it’s a pretty inopportune time to do a re-intro, since I’m close to the end of one draft and planning two more… it’s just overdue!

some info about me:

I’m gonna start college in the fall majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing! :D

learning languages is a passion of mine! I’m focusing on Spanish right now but I’ve dabbled in both Esperanto and Toki Pona (yeah I’m a nerd!)

I’m a video essay enjoyer and possibly maker, eventually

fiction podcasts and actual plays slap???

I have “I want to do too many things” disease and want to try making stories in many different mediums!

ttrpgs are really cool but I have yet to play them with other people! does that stop me from trying to make games… no

elements I like to write: Found family! Chosen ones (+ the subversion of)! Big Emotion™️! Organized crime (idk why it doesn’t leave me alone)! Gay people, of course!

genres I like to write (YA and middle grade): high fantasy, low fantasy, different -punk stuff, sci fi maybe, superheroes, fairy-tale esque, romance, coming of age

I also write poetry! You can find it in this tag: whimsy of the poetry

ALSO, I did DraftDash in January 2024, which was fun but I did end up petering out halfway thru. Follow my journey in the tag draftdash!

ok, now onto wips!

I am in a weird stage with a lot of my wips, but a re-intro was overdue so I decided to do it anyway!

wips I am currently writing:

apocalypse story!

status: first draft, 24k (almost done with part 1)

the basics: mg/ya apocalyptic + queer ?coming of age? story and its sequel, except they’re both short so they’re melded into one two-part book! it’s told thru diary entries with lots of extra ephemera glued in! part 1 of 2 is ALMOST done but I’m not inspired to finish it rn! ! I’m not gonna continue with part 2 right after, though, since I still need to plan it!

summary: stressed-out eighth/grader Allison goes to her old hideout in the forest to decompress, but one thing leads to another and she can’t find her way back home. the forest is seemingly ever-expanding, ever-changing, and even when she finds her friends who’ve come to rescue her, they still have to face the actual, real life botanical apocalypse that’s becoming more and more of an issue for the outside world. can they find their way home alive and well? and if they do get home, what will their home city even look like?

extras: fun fact I started this in April 2023 for camp nano and it has taken me this long to write the next 10k words! Also the main character is a bit of a self-insert, but of the person I was in lockdown in 2020!

um. That’s it for wips I’m currently writing rn lol

wips I am “revitalizing”:

(aka taking old drafts/concepts and turning them nice and new!)

Both of these have existed in different-ish iterations for years, however I am currently in the weird process of developing both of these into all-new things from an existing groundwork! Neither of them currently have “statuses” because it’s hard to explain where exactly I am right now!

heist story!

the basics: ya fantasy heist novel (maybe eventually a trilogy?) set in a faerie world that rapidly advanced not too long ago into a dieselpunk/decopunk society rife with corruption and crime!

summary: Logical and inquisitive teen Calliope is relatively normal. Her offbeat parents, however, have raised her in a house full of strange curios and old tomes of faery stories. But only when she starts to exhibit unwieldy shadow magic, and her parents invite a prim woman she’s never met before into their home do things really start to get strange. The woman whisks Calliope away through one of the aforementioned curios to a noir hubworld where ancient faerie bloodlines and newfangled magitech collide. Why? To take part in a high-stakes heist with a surprising trio of other teens who want nothing more than to take down the crime boss who runs their town.

extras: this one’s a weird one imo. it’s one of the oldest wips that I am still working on, tho this one had a break of about 3 years!!! also I originally wrote it in hot pink comic sans XD

new superhero story!

(I am also revitalizing this one, but it’s in a way less put-together state! not much to say yet lol!) (also it’s not very new I just call it that)

it’s a ya superhero thing that features teenage (often queer) antiheroes trying to balance their heroic + civilian identities!

featuring: the shittiest entertainment/hero management company you’ve ever seen, shared trauma, gray morality, two different rock bands, and heroes that are at once government agents, influencers, and corporate concoctions!

considering making a “help me name my characters” post because i desperately have to name/rename like 3/4 of all of these characters!!!

more ideas I have bouncing around:

(lightning round!)

old ya romance wip i need to revitalize about two teens enter a competition to make a demo album and end up falling in love in the process (also they’re lesbians XD)

offbeat, ya supernatural + historical fantasy about a girl university student who is buried alive, and upon getting rescued, starts to transform into a strange underworld creature. also features a cute gravedigger :D

a musical about standardized testing (yeah lol) that’s goofy and queer and explores how seniors + juniors are so freaking stressed out all the time lol

that’s all folks! :D

[vivispec]

hey, i’m bloo/vivi (she/her, 25). feel free to send me asks/message me/tag me in stuff, i always love interaction! icon and sidebar by my bestie @sweetmage

mostly posting dragon age rn (and for the foreseeable future) but i’m also pretty big on bg3, outer wilds, mass effect, zelda, msa, ghibli, ancient magus bride, and lots of other things i pick up and put down. i do a lot of writing for my da ocs which you can find on my ao3 here.

speaking of, here are links to my big completed projects:

reckless momentum (what would hawke do if carver was the warden contact? my submission for the 2024 dragon age big bang with art by @ladyofc)

kindling and set yourself on fire (my DA2 submissions for the wipbigbang with BEAUTIFUL art by @sweetmage)

derecho (my DAI submission for the 2023 dragon age big bang, with AMAZING art by neoendydy)

my whumptober 2022 collection (100% completed because. i have issues.)

under the cut are my dragon age ocs whomst i love dearly, and write about pretty much exclusively! i am a dirty dirty console player so janky quality be upon ye

just realized all but one of these bitches is elves. look. i told you i got issues ok.

here we have my beloved viera’vun ‘viera’ lavellan, my inquisitor and a solasmancer (i am so sorry to her), as well as the oc i write most by far. she was a dalish hunter trained primarily in daggers, later specializing as a tempest. she is a pathfinder at heart whose greatest strengths are her perceptiveness and resilience, while her greatest weaknesses lie in her impulsivity, lack of assurance in her identity, and her tendency to run from her problems. i have a bunch of fucked up aus centered around her and all the situations i put her into! she likes to run, climb, and sing (she is Bad at it). varric calls her ‘finch’.

iloniyn, my most preciousest boy. him and viera are hunting partners as well as (platonic) soulmates, a phenomenon known to the dalish as tael’inan. they are each one half of a whole. iloniyn is incredibly sarcastic, confident, and prickly, but tends to care deeply about those that he considers his people, and gives of himself freely to them (even if he complains while doing it). he is bonded to @sweetmage​‘s oc athimien, likes to whittle, is a great shot, and can play the lute. varric calls him ‘snipe’.

ishme aeducan, a sharp, hard woman who will not be made a fool again. raised to navigate the subtle and dangerous world of dwarven politics, she is incredibly cunning, and often pulling the strings in any given situation. she is softened by alistair, who teaches her how to be a person as she teaches him how to be a king. wields dual blades as a warrior.

taufei! oooh i love taufei. a leader alongside ishme by the end of origins, she is idealistic, friendly, and generally just a chill person to hang with. though content enough to do her own thing, once she sets her sights on something, she does not relent, often leading her into...hairy situations. those situations include wooing a witch of the wilds and having a sweet lil totally-not-in-any-way-shape-or-form-creepy baby with her! yippee! she was the second of her clan, though her magic was never incredibly powerful and, as such, she made her living on making and infusing potions for her clan. she is a skilled herbalist, knows enough archery to protect herself, and actually has really long luscious curls that Do Not Exist in game you are just going to have to trust me okay.

kita tabris. she is...intense. if you are her friend she is kinda just a dudebro. picked up the big sword her mother used to wield and decided to learn how to use it because, hell yeah, big sword (which, as it so happens, is exactly what her mom did). if you are not her friend, she is. intense. finds battle thrilling, and isn’t afraid to spill blood. while she can come across as flippant or immature, much of her disregard stems from an avoidance of her more serious (and painful) thoughts and emotions. she is zevran’s gorgeous and incredibly powerful girlfriend whomst he adores and cherishes, and the fact that she can, will, and has crushed a man’s skull with her bare hands only strengthens his devotion. 

araia surana, a very sweet young mage who is wholly overwhelmed by this big, new world around her. previously a teacher’s pet who didn’t much mind kinloch hold with little in the way of friends, jowan’s ‘betrayal’ left her reeling with nowhere to turn. while she is curious of the world beyond, she is also incredibly anxious. she picks up a habit of lying to avoid confrontation, and while she is very good at it, her dishonesty puts strain on her and leliana’s relationship early on. her passion is in ancient and forgotten magical techniques and practices. she loves listening to leliana’s stories of adventure and romance, and often plays ‘doll’ when her girlfriend decides she needs something to dress up. after the archdemon is defeated, she spearheads efforts to find the cure for the joining.

[myfairkatiecat]

Oh hello bods!! Happy to grade you on Interpreting the Dashboard!!

For MLB, you’re actually so right about the love square (I haven’t seen the latest season so I don’t actually know if they’ve revealed their identities yet but honestly, with the way the show’s been going……) and they don’t reveal identities bc for some reason it’s dangerous. Chat was actually more than willing lol but Ladybug was very very stuck on the rules (Marinette is a little anxious ok😅) so again idk if they still don’t know but yeah WHAT a plot line—

For KOTLC, it was VERY interesting to see which portions of the work you’ve picked up on. I’m having SUCH a great time rn 🤣 there is in fact a girl named Sophie. She is in fact an elf. She is in fact in a love triangle with Keefe and Fitz. (I love that it’s the first thing mentioned actually. That says a LOT about what gets posted on here 😆)

Yeah Keefe’s parents are terrrrrrible. Good to see that the important stuff finds its way onto your dash lol

PFFFFT THE HORSE DNA!!! No you are so right. She literally does. The Black Swan messed with her DNA like crazy and used alicorn dna (flying unicorn) in the process of making her (known as Project Moonlark) which is why she has brown eyes while all other elves have some variation of blue!

Sophie and other telepaths (such as Fitz) can read minds, but all elves have different special abilities (for example, Biana can turn invisible, Dex can manipulate technology and Keefe can read people’s emotions).

Which brings us to the fire powers! Like telepathy, pyrokinesis is a special ability, and mostly held by villains since it sorta got outlawed after Fintan (ancient elf) sorta caused a lot of death with his craving for flame. There’s also Brant, which I won’t get into, and then MARELLA! We love her so much. We stan Marella.

Yes, the black swan are the good guys!! They’re actually at war with the Neverseen. Humans don’t know elves exist (well, unless you count Amy Foster—but that’s a WHOLE other plotline) but elves see humans as lesser and there WAS a war, thousands of years ago, that ended with the elves erasing human’s memories of their cities and sinking Atlantis. The lore there is actually insane—(also they may be headed for another war bc the neverseen have issues with humans, to put it lightly)

Yep! Keefe’s parents are trash!! Good to know the important stuff shows up on your dash by virtue of the fact that you follow me 🤣

“does Sophie have parents?” Oh dear. Idk how to tell you this bods, but she has THREE sets of parents (the Fosters—the mother who carried her and gave birth to her and the family who raised her as their own and ultimately had their memory wiped of Sophie’s existence, the Ruewens (Grady and Edaline) who adopt Sophie in the Lost Cities and are like the best parents in the series, and The DNA Donors (Councillor Oralie and some unknown father) who are her biological parents. (Sophie was sorta created in a lab which is why her biological mom and the mom who gave birth to her are different people)

Yes, she grew up thinking she was human, and yes—“surprise!!”

Yeah Sophie’s definitely the chosen one lol, I mentioned she was created in a lab right? She’s the Moonlark! The black swan ✨created her✨ (she has a lot of special abilities, besides telepathy. Which isn’t normal, but she needs her Main Character Powers!! And the same thing is soooorta happening to Keefe right now but we don’t need to get into that)

Elves live forever unless they die. Wait that didn’t come out right. They’re not immortal but unless they’re killed or fatally wounded or they fade away (light leaping accident that results in death—basically an Elvin version of a car crash but with light travel) they’ll live forever

Sophie is fully elf, despite the horse DNA even (and the fact that she was literally carried and delivered by Emma Foster) but we don’t know who her biological father is yet………

9-10 for both of them!! Solid dashboard interpretation. I can tell you follow me. I apologize for the kotlc clutter but this was very very fun to read!!!

Explaining fandoms I’m not in, but I have seen on my dash from the mutuals (to the best of my knowledge based on their posts):

Why? Because I thought it would be fun and entertaining and I hope I’m not wrong.

The Magnus Archives (TMA)- a group of people document creepy and supernatural events while they slowly one by one discover either that they are the monsters/possessed by them, or that they are being taken in by the monsters, or that their coworkers are the monsters, or that they themselves are possibly friends with or dating the monsters, or that they have been working for the monsters (or bad guys) the entire time. Many of the villains seem to be demented or possessed life sized toys and clowns or eyeballs. This podcast has so many episodes, and I see so many posts about it, but these seem to be the common themes.

Miraculous Ladybug- actually haven’t seen this one on my dash in a long time, but when I first did, despite appearing like a straightforward kids fandom, the shipping discourse confused the heck out of me. But if I have this right, based on the posts from my younger followers, two teenagers are animal themed superheroes who are dating each other and also have crushes on each other, but they don’t know they are dating each other, because they don’t know each others secret identities, because… okay, I still honestly have no idea why. There are ~5K posts about this apparently very central and specific plot line, but not one explains why they don’t just tell each other who they are??? Anything for the plot, I guess. Apparently this has been going on for a long time to the point where even the show’s target audience of children is confused as to how these teenagers and grown adults haven’t put the pieces together as to who everyone’s secret identity is.

Keeper of the Lost Cities (KOTLC)- there’s a girl named Sophie. She is an elf in a love triangle with Keefe and some other guy (I think his name is Fritz). Keefe’s parents are terrible, especially his mom. Sophie has horse DNA (I don’t know if that post was a joke or not sorry if that’s wrong). There’s an elf with fire powers. Elves read minds. There’s a group called the black swan who are the good guys, I think. Also I think the elves and humans are at war. I know Keefe’s parents are trash, does Sophie have parents? From what I can tell, she grows up believing she’s a human but then surprise! She’s an elf and the chosen one, and elves are possibly immortal? Wait, maybe Sophie’s a half elf. Is that a thing?

Spy x Family - two people are fake dating each other for spy reasons but eventually fall in love for real. The twist is, they each think the other is a normal civilian who doesn’t know about the fake relationship (which is kinda messed up to make someone fall in love with you for a fake cover but if they’re also doing the same to you that’s karma I guess) but I think it might end up ok, because they fall in love for real (Aw) but possibly also not okay, because I also think it might be revealed that they’ve been working for enemy sides this whole time (drama). Also the adopted daughter is a mind reader who knows everything but chooses to keep what she knows secret for the plot. Respect. And I recently saw something about the family having a super powered dog? Is he real?

The Murderbot Diaries - a bunch of robots are created for one purpose: murder. But when their murder programming goes haywire, they discover that they might have more in common with the humans they’ve been assigned to kill than they originally thought. Or that they have more humanity inside themselves than they thought… or maybe that the people who created them have more evil intentions than… well in hindsight, “the people who build the murder robots are evil!” seems like an obvious plot twist, but maybe they’re more morally complex or had decent intentions and just never intended for it to go this far… or maybe the robots get hacked or decide maybe they don’t want to be murder bots anymore which brings us back to free will. Interesting philosophical questions, but I think the robots might be getting into some wacky shenanigans as well. Also they apparently have diaries. I get that a diary is just like… a log of what they’re doing, but that won’t stop me from imaging a big scary robot with a little pink glitter pen writing “Dear Diary, I killed three people today. I still see their faces when I try to power off at night. When I go into sleep mode, I dream of their faces. I begin to wonder things, like whether they had families, dreams, or ambitions. I also wonder what they felt in their final moments. I fear this means I am developing a conscience and desire to turn against my programming and the creators. But probably nothing a little update and restart can’t fix. I’ll keep you updated, dairy. XOXO, Murderbot 💕” So. How did I do? Scale of 1-10, with 10 being “you nailed it!” and 1 being “None of this is remotely close. What posts have you been looking at?”

[sleepyscxry]

Peridot x Gender neutral reader!!

A/N this might be pretty short because I’m tired asf.

the car comes to a halt and my eyes jolt open. “WERE HEEERRREE!!” Said my very awake friend, Bullet.. he’s been awake on monsters since we got out of Alabama. He’s been awake for two days.. “are you okay?” I said with worry.. “don’t worry y/n I’m fine we just gotta get the stuff in as soon as possible before I crash.” “Ooook” with that me and him start moving boxes and furniture in. The appliances came with the house on both floors!! Sinks, washers, dryers, dishwashers and a big doggie door!! ‘Will be perfect for king he’s fucking huge. Why did we decide to get a Great Pyrenees again?’ by the end of the day we were surprisingly done! We laid on our beds on our sides of the room and immediately crashed. the next day we wake up to king scratching at the door like a zombie. “I’m comin’ ya big goof.” Bullet said with his groggy Italian accent. I giggled because he sounds so silly. I got up and went to the bathroom to splash water on my face to wake me up. Putting on a snazzy sweater and some jeans I go to the kitchen and bullet is already making breakfast! “Your hair looks like an aliens trying to abduct it lol” I said with a still pretty sleepy tone. “What do ya mean?” He looked at the camera on his phone and said “oh my god I look like I’m in the 80’s jeezus.” We laughed it off as he fixed his hair and finished making breakfast. It was a waffle sandwich. “Huh?” “Oh that’s just something this dude over by the shore told me about. But said he went veggie and doesn’t like ‘em anymore so I stole the recipe!” “Wow.. sounds like you, talking about breakfast to someone you barely know.” “Oh no I’ve known Steven ever since we were twelve!” “Oh wow..” “there are a lot of things you don’t know about me. Let’s go talk to ‘em!” “But I haven’t finished-“ “it’s fine don’t worry about it king will!” He dragged me to the car and started driving to the shore. I will admit the beach is very pretty. We get to this ancient looking statue thing with a house built into it.. “what the hell?” “Don’t worry about it! Top secret stuff!!” He giggled and ran up the stairs. He knocked on the door and yelled “STEVEENNNNN ARE YOU HOOOMEE??” Then a boy with poofy curly hair like bullet answered the door. “Hair buddy!!” “Hiya steven so I just wanted you to meet my friend y/n!!” “Oh hi! It’s nice to meet you come in!” He was as cheerful as bullet which surprised me. ‘In my 4 years of knowing this man I’ve never seen anyone as cheerful as him until now.. wow’ and then I see weirdly colored people come into the house through this crystal portal thing? “Omg these are the crystal gems!!” He then goes on to tell me all of their names.. but only one catches my full attention.. “and this is peridot. She’s mostly sweet but a bit of a gremlin..” “HEY!! I AM NOT A GREMLIN!!” “My proof.” “Oh.. SHUT UP YOU CLOD!” ”Hi I’m y/n it’s nice to meet you all!” “It’s nice to meet you too.” Garnet said with a bit of a serious tone. Bullet saw me and said “you ok? To many people? You’ve got that look on your face that usually means you’re feeling a strong emotion” he led me outside to talk about it. “I’m fine it’s just that the last one.. peridot she is..” “different, short, loud, kinda annoying?” “I guess but she’s also kinda cute-“ “AYO- SUS? Sorry but uhm that’s actually really funny. Y’all could be the shortest couple known!” “Hey it’s not my fault you’re 6’2!!” “Ok true buuut you are only (I’m sorry to do this but-) 5’3” “I- eh- UGGGH” I stomp back in there. Him walking in with me wheezing. “What happened” steven said with a concerned voice. “Y/n is mad because they’re short lmao” “well that’s nothing to be to ashamed about..” peridot said with a smile. I notice that she is pretty short compared to the others.. “wanna be friends?” I said with a sweet gentle tone

I’m SORRYYY. I know I haven’t been updating ANYTHING! And yes I’m making this slow burn because peridot is ARO. ACE. Get it right you fools. bullet out >:)

[mmarthajones]

Ok at the demand of literally no one, I am so obsessed by the idea of a period drama, honouring the book, drawn out character development and trauma heavy adaptation that I’m going to drop my ideas here. Not at full outline level, bc however stupid I’d love to actually do this one day, but here’s why you should trust me with Dracula(under a read more cut bc this IS going to get long)

I’m going to clarify before I start that I’m almost definitely going to forget stuff but if I were to do this I would have the biggest corkboard with tons of info and ideas on. This is just a flavour of the corkboard.

First thing, format: TV over movie at almost all costs. It’s an epistolary novel with bits and viewpoints and details and far FAR too much stuff for a movie. As many parts as the studio will give you. While adapting it into a movie could be done, it’s just so much better fitting for TV to me.

Genre: see, everyone gets that its gothic horror, that part isn’t in question. The thing most adaptations don’t get straight in their heads is which genres they’re going to borrow other tropes and stuff from. The book is actually a mishmash designed to compliment the horror, and while I’ve nothing against horror movies, a TV series needs more to fill it out. To me, one of the big reasons everyone hates on the Coppola flick is that it draws more from the tropes of other horror movies, but Dracula is *psychological*. This will become important later. 

So what genres am I borrowing from? Period drama. Sure, seemingly the total opposite, but actually that’s the point. If you borrow from the calmness and romanticism of period drama in the quiet moments, it makes the horror all the more horrifying. USE the audience expectations. Romance, bc Jonathan/Mina relationship goals. 

Character development: Oh, so much to say. Jonathan fully established as female gaze hero to start off with. This is not played off as boring. A character arc filled with trauma, at least one solid breakdown, and a portrayal focussed around a solid core of emotional strength. You must be incredibly attached to harmless little Jonathan, so that his trauma harrows you to the core. And then I shall make him go after Dracula with his big knife. You’re welcome.

Mina: Strong female character, but not StrongTM. Strong, supporting literally everyone, putting the bravest face on it. This will only make it more terrible when we see her break down in private. Somehow has Eldest Daughter syndrome without siblings.

Dracula: Oh, Dracula. Yes, I will make you scary again. To my mind, the sexyman Dracula actually undermines the thing that should terrify you most. You don’t go to Dracula because you are drawn in by his charisma. His magnetism is unfair, unwilling, and a complete violation of all that makes you you. He will delight in your struggles, draw it out, undermine you psychologically, all with a smile on his face. This is an ancient master of war tactics, battlefield veteran Dracula. And anything that is played for laughs, any stupid failure, is just serving to underline how unfair the whole thing is, how much he can get away with. A relentless, creeping evil. 

Everyone else: look, I could go on for ages about every single individual person here. Safe to say, I would be trawling the tags for every character essay and taking it all into careful consideration.

Castle Dracula: Yes, I’m making a distinct point of this because it struck me today. This setting will not be played for laughs either. Creaky doors and dramatic organs begone. It will be a place where you should watch every shadow, because it being the Count’s home means something. Seat of his power. It should feel like an extension of him.

Hope: Yes, I’m making its own thing. Jonathan/Mina should be the cutest thing. The quiet moments of any heroic viewpoint should be full of warmth, handholding, hearthsides. A general sense that people are the heart of this, and that with them there, you might be able to get through it. The hope is what makes the horror. Hope, and the lack of it. When Mina gets burnt, it should ripple effect through everyone. Jonathan’s desperation at the return of the Count and the idea of going back to the Castle should be visceral. Just like the book, this series would be made by the quiet moments. 

Ok this got very long and I’ve seen so many great analyses in the Dracula Daily tag that I’m not talking about but wow guys look at this and tell me you don’t want the heart-driven Dracula series. 

(This is also where I tell you this is my first time through the book and I’ve never properly watched any specific Dracula adaptations. But I’ve Heard, yknow?)

[sutexii]

Tenebres AU time :^)

A fantasy world made by @baylardian-1

I’m doing a couple characters in it!! Slowly but surely getting refs together for them :^)

First up is Chiaki and Ibuki!

Chiaki and Monomi were created to live in an ancient dream realm, to act as guides helping travelers there navigate it.

Their creation is,, idk Not necessarily SPECIFIC to the hijinks that take place in this au, i maybe headcanon the dream realm is something ancient and Pre-Junko, she just figured out how to manipulate it and it all goes to dooky from there.

Monomi was the first, a reanimated stuffed animal that has a mixture of dreamworld juice™ and magic robotics (to tie in w/ Chihiro lightning elemental teehee) I feel maybeeee Chihiro came across the dream realm on their own and dinked around with it.

Monomi got kinda Janky and worn down over time, so next Chihiro made Chiaki. She’s more advanced than Monomi, possessing a soul tied to her mask, but despite this is less emotive as Monomi, less outwardly friendly, and more oblivious at times, tending to zone out and be cryptic when spoken to. Unclear whether that’s due to faults in her creation process or if she’s just Like This.

She serves the same purpose as a guide and companion for travelers, and helps fix Monomi when she needs repair.

Ibuki is just a funky little vampire traveling bard, plays very discordant Lute music that’s hard for most to listen to, let alone play along with, so she remains without a troupe. Pretty popular with elementals however. Very friendly, very outgoing, but puts off alot of people with her constant lute trivia and wanting to taste everyones blood to compare them (its ok she’ll ask for consent first).

The only one besides Hajime and maybe Sonia that really talks to Chiaki, or rather talks At. Chiaki is content to sit and listen, even asks questions here and there. Ibuki just has to shake her out of her dazing now and then. Chiaki is also the only person to like Ibuki’s Lute playing, something about it Hits Different to her possessed magic mask ears. And Ibuki is glad to finally have someone to play with :’^)

Through them hanging out (and maybe plot stuff thats unclear 2 me still) Chiaki slowly has her Pinocchio Moment and kinda gets a better sense of self, more awake and emotionally open.

After the whole thing is over, everyone wakes from the dream realm they were stuck in, leaving Chiaki behind. But she still reaches out to her friends in their dreams, and is particularly fond of visiting Ibuki.

They’re just close good Homiesexuals scoob

[oviids]

pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.*  - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul.  slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes*  - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

[witchthewriter]

Hi <3 first of all, i love your writings (sending all my love to u from peru) 2nd english is not my first language so If I made a grammar mistake i’m sorry, and 3rd I’m kinda new asking for a request so i hope i’m doing it ok😭 so.. i was wondering if you could make a matchup post for me (level completed 3)

My fandoms: Game of thrones/ Harry Potter/ House of the dragon

About me🦋

•Infj

•she/her

��Venus born

•Apolo child/cabin 7

•My dragon: Silverwing

•Westeros house: Tyrell/Martell

•Taurus sun, Gemini moon, Taurus rising

•Kinda introvert (with extrovert people) kinda extrovert (with shy people)

•Black hair/ dark brown eyes/white skin

•Straight

•Gryffindor

Personality🕸

Sometimes I tend to get angry easily at random times but I always attribute it to the fact that I'm a Gemini mess lol. But most of the time I'm the one who usually keeps my cool when trouble is brewing around me. I'm an empath, so I tend to sense the feelings of my friends/family (based on this characteristic I try to fix people but if they’re getting on my nerves they better run) I am a quiet person although sometimes a little lonely (I like to keep my feelings to myself) I have a high sense of standing up for people who can't make it on their own, and well, I like to sometimes converse with those who people ignore because they consider them different. I am the girl: "your beauty never ever scared me". I'm very creative by the way, and also very sensitive at times. I’m adventurous (I'm a shifter who is dying to run free and discover things in her dr) spiritual (quartz, signs, witchcraft stuff) and also a history lover (ancient greece/greek mythology, rome, ottoman’s empire, etc).

Hobbies: Musical theatre, ballet, singing, painting (just everything that have to do with art) Makeup

Like: The moon, food, dogs, color black, the stars, pop/indie/delta music, leather jacket, sci-fi movies, boots, rings, perfume, mint chocolate ice cream, little pigs, campfires, styling…

Dislike: Lateness, disinterest, disloyalty, lack of communication, racism and discrimination of any kind, pizza with pineapple, raw tomato, hot sauces, yellow color, intolerance, large groups of people, too much noise, traffic congestion

Want one? Here be the rules 🦋🌈

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Draco Malfoy. I think you two would have a relationship like Katniss & Peeta, where you bring Draco a lot of sunshine and joy, like Peeta does with Katniss.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Tilts your chin up just to kiss your forehead at random moments

・Draco moves closer to you in his sleep whenever he's cold

・Does things for you that he absolutely wouldn’t do for anyone else.

Theme Song:

↬ All For Us by Labrinth & Zendaya

Relationship Tropes:

↬ Bully Turned Soppy

𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Aemond! I think he just wants to prove himself - he wants to show that he is a man and he can brunt the responsibility of being a ruler. I think you would do well together because you would support and encourage him. He would love to take you flying on Vhagar, and show you how he sees the world.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Hugging you just to take in your familiar scent

・Massaging the back of your neck or running his hand up and down your back.

・Will stop whatever he's ding, no matter how important it may be, to focus on you, whenever you need it.

Theme Song:

↬ As The World Caves in by Matt Maltese

Relationship Tropes:

↬

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Theon Greyjoy! I think you would be such a reprieve from the horrors that he's endured throughout his life.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Asks for consent, even for little things like kisses or hugs

・Bringing you flowers (always your favourite obvi) just to see you smile. He also likes you gift you moon/star themed items. Like a necklace of a half moon, or a dress with stars woven in the bottom seams

・Will go as emotional support to something with you when you need it.

Theme Song:

↬ Heat Above by Greta Van Fleet

Relationship Tropes:

↬ "I Care About You!" x "You Shouldn't!"

[picnokinesis]

Notes on Ad Noctum

Every single time I do one of these I’m like ‘this will be the last one! I’m done! I have nothing else left to say about the Multiverse Triptych!’. And each time, like a week later, CWR goes and drops some absolutely glorious, mindblowing content on that little unassuming blog and I end up spiralling about five separate things. So at this point I reckon I should just accept my fate.

But also - it’s Ad Noctum. And not only is it Ad Noctum, it’s new Ad Noctum content for the first time in almost a decade. This is something of an Event, so I think I’m at least a little bit justified.  

As always, see under the cut - I’m mostly just gonna ramble and give a little commentary, and also consider a few little rewrites. It’s predominantly going to be around the new Ad Noctum prologue, which if you haven’t read, you REALLY should go there first. 

Ok.

*carefully opens one of my old copies of Ad Noctum and lays it along side the new version, along with Math and FoD*

First things first, let’s consider some aspects of the new prologue - which has given us some incredible context for those first eight chapters of Ad Noctum which we’ve had for so long now. I’ve always wondered how it got from ‘Circuit’ to that first chapter of Ad Noctum, and the fact that Telford kidnapped Rush immediately lowkey floored me. But it’s perfect - but I’ll talk more on that a bit later...

Anubis Goop

One of the things I’ve always loved about this series of fics is that, due to their nature, you can translate certain pieces of information from one fic over into the others. And in the case of this prologue, I found it really interesting to think about the gel stuff in Anubis’ lab, and what the actual affect is on the people who go into it. We already knew quite a bit from Force Over Distance. Rush tells Young what he knows - that the aim was changing his neurochemistry to meet the benchmark requirements for accessing Destiny - but then he also says how this tangibly changes how he experiences the world:

Force Over Distance, Chapter 14 [emphasis mine]

“Initially, I found it—upsetting. But I’ve since adjusted. Even then, even early on, there were compensations. Gains in processing power. My thinking became more intuitive even as it lost order. The irony was that in gaining the ability to access what lay beyond the ninth chevron, I lost the ability to solve the problem of getting there. And I knew it. Everyone involved with David’s project knew it. And they fucking felt sorry for me, the bastards.” “And now?” “And now it’s bloody well worse, as you know. Higher math has become dead instinct and not something I can verbally conceptualize anymore. I can’t even explain something as simple as operator theory to Chloe, let alone impersonate a calculator, but I can manipulate shield frequencies, and generate force fields and—fuck, you don’t care. Why am I telling you this anyway?” Rush pressed the heel of his hand into his eye socket.

And then, consider Math!Volker:

Mathématique, Chapter 60

He'd woken up days later with a with a propensity for weeping, an affinity for Ancient tech, and the ability to, somehow, hear crystalline arrays.

They sound like song.

[...]

“The device you were exposed to boosts intuitive power. It, in a literal way, lowers membrane potentials. Neurons fire easily. They fire more. You’ve spent a lifetime shutting down the creative parts of yourself in favor of the analytic. It’s no wonder that this is so profoundly upsetting to you.”

And then later:

“Everything is so raw,” he admits to Telford, staring up at the moving advertisements. “Since the device—it’s like my emotional circuitry and my analytic circuitry were fused. I feel so much more. So much more acutely. It’s impossible to keep a grip on all of it.”

“Most of your problems derive from trying to maintain that grip,” Imaginary Rush says, suddenly right next to him, on the steps, wearing jeans and black jacket, cut in the Lantean style. His hands are in his pockets and the wind is in his hair.

Telford nods. “I’ve noticed you’ve developed an instinct for on the fly course adjustments. For ballistic trajectories. I’m guessing that’s not all you have an instinct for, now?”

“No,” Volker admits.

I’m aware that this is like, basic Multiverse Triptych lore 101, but then consider - we know FoD!Rush was in the goop for half an hour, but he was supposed to be in there for a whole hour. I think we can safely assume that Math!Volker was in the goop for the whole hour, since that show seemed to be run solely by the LA without any interruptions from the SGC. And we can see that, even for just this amount of time, it had a distinctive impact on both of them. 

We now know that AdNoc!Rush was in there for twenty-seven days. 

So then, as well as the information we can garner from the actual prologue, we can infer things from the other two d-branes. FoD!Rush and Math!Volker both describe developing an ‘instinct’ for higher math, and Rush in particular says that he can’t even explain it anymore to someone else. This could only be even more the case with AdNoc!Rush, who was in that stuff WAY longer than he should have been - and it makes all the interactions between Volker and Rush in Ad Noctum make perfect sense. I mean, they made sense anyway, because I just read it originally as Rush just being terrible at explaining himself and impatient with Volker and also being extremely aware of being watched by the LA, and so he doesn’t explain to Volker what he wants him to do/actually help him understand because he doesn’t want to lay down all his cards. But now...it’s painfully obvious that, whilst those previous things are probably still true, a significant part of the problem is probably that Rush cannot explain himself. It’s just instinct to him - more so than it is for FoD!Rush and Math!Volker. Ascended!FoD!Rush in the Ad Noctum prologue himself says that AdNoc!Rush is close in nature to him - close enough that he can pass him glasses that he manifested out of pure energy - so how much of how AdNoc!Rush percieves the world now is just completely incomprehensible to Telford and Volker? It makes the whole situation suddenly so much more...tragic than it already was? But also it stays completely awful at the same time? Anyway, I’m obsessed with it.

But to continue - there’s some really interesting stuff in the Math excerpt, because we get FoD!Rush talking about this exact topic to Math!Volker. See how Volker talks about his emotional and analytical circuitry fusing, how he feels so much more, how he struggles to keep a grip on it, and Rush? His response - don’t keep a grip on it. Don’t even try. And then also how he talks about Volker shutting down the creative side of himself in favour of the analytical - suggesting that Rush does not do this, which is why he was able to adapt to it better. I think it’s safe to assume that AdNoc!Rush would then take the same approach - although he is definitely overwhelmed and driven by his emotions in Ad Noc, he’s also very much going with them, unlike Math!Volker who is trying to keep them under his own control. See: the first thing Rush wants to do after pulling himself out of that stuff is set fire to the place - a trend he continues to follow throughout this fic. 

(Also, I could go on and ON about Rush’s tendency to go towards fire and burning, considering what we know from FoD and Math of Rush nearly drowning when he was younger...and then my heart just BREAKS when we see him hauling himself out of that gel under his own power, coughing the stuff up out of his lungs...like he’s done this before and it was awful and augh help)

And then, the crystals - I’m not sure about FoD!Rush, because we only really get a sense of what he experiences after he sits in the chair, which obviously changes him further (and now I wonder: did the chair change him because he wasn’t quite changed enough to do what he needed to? Therefore, would AdNoc!Rush need to be altered by the chair in this verse, or did he already wildly surpass those benchmarks?) - so we don’t actually know if, before that, he could hear the crystals. If he could, then I expect it would be similar to how Volker describes it in Math - musical. Of course, we could also assume that, due to Rush’s genetics, he possibly could hear something to some degree anyway - case in point, Math!Rush on Altera, although granted that was somewhat a unique situation. 

But my point is this - the way that AdNoc!Rush hears the crystals is distinctly different in character to the way Math!Volker describes it. Whilst it’s definitely still musical, the connection also has significantly more clarity to it, to the extent that 1) the crystals were able to wake him up from a stasis so deep it looked like death, and 2) the ‘interaction’ between Rush and the crystals in the room plays out more like the conversations we see taking place between Rush and Young in FoD, in that it’s literally a conversation. Even in FoD, outside of the conduit of the AI, Destiny never used words, but rather emotions and nebulous concepts. In Math, we know that Rush can hear the city - it suggests that he hears creare machina id potest sentio est crudelitas, but since it’s JShep pov, we don’t know if he actually HEARS the words, or just the overwhelming feeling of it. But still, my point still stands - it’s not a two-way conversation. It’s just an all-consuming devastation. Compare that to this:

The F-minor is interesting. As though they’d heard the echo of the F-major light that had brought Telford into this godforsaken pit. As though it had upset them. A reminder of of the past, perhaps? Or of what’s locked away from them at present? Either way, their distress is obvious to him. He understands what they want, enmeshed in foreign circuitry. They don’t like it here. They’re not native to these walls. They’ve been taken. They come from elsewhere. They want to go home.

Barring that, they’d like an ending.

//Circuitry is dark// they tell him, //and there is no space there.//

//I won’t leave you like this// he soothes them, and their distress quiets.

I don’t really have much to say other than CLEARLY him being in that goop for so long had a Distinct affect on how much he can hear and mentally communicate with the tech. And, honestly, that makes the rest of Ad Noctum so interesting, because now when I look at Rush, I’m wondering how different what he’s experiencing is compared to what we see through Volker. 

And then that says NOTHING of Rush’s new ability to see ascended beings...which segues nicely into my next section

Ascended Beings

Ok so in the prologue, Rush was able to several ascended beings. Obviously, we know that two of those were ascended!Rush and Young from Force over Distance. Then we have three others: 

They’re grouped eerily. It’s hard to put his finger on it, but it if he had to guess, he’d say the sense of strange comes from the idea that they’re not oriented as though they're spatially aware of one another, with the exception of the two standing in shadow at the back wall. Three stand near the pool, spaced oddly. There’s a woman, dressed in white, positioned theatrically next to a burning wall sconce. There’s a man with gray skin and luminous pale eyes who stands on the dais on the far side of the pool. There’s a blonde-haired man in an Air Force uniform gazing at him with a wistful air.

The woman in white - pretty sure that’s Morgan La Fey, i.e. an ascended Ancient

The man with grey skin and pale eyes - an Ori, mostly likely

(And this works perfectly with what we know from Math, via Daniel - that the Ancients and the Ori are constantly observing things, unseen)

And then, finally, the blonde-haired man in Air Force uniform - I’m pretty sure this is Riley from FoD, aka one of the Ancients that watch over the multiverse and prevent anyone who isn’t meant to from tearing through d-branes. The only reason I’m not 100% certain is because it later says that FoD!Young is wearing a different Air Force uniform to him - and we know that he’s wearing his black Destiny fatigues, because it says so in Math. So, surely, Ancient!Riley would be wearing the same uniform because that’s the form he took in the FoD brane? But then, maybe he’s appearing differently in this verse, who knows. It really makes sense for it to be him though - and I don’t know who else it could be. 

I’ll admit though, it’s been a LONG time since I watched sg1, so I may be missing something obvious. 

The fact that AdNoc!Rush can see them all is particularly interesting to me - especially since the ascended beings don’t seem to be able to see each other. It’s also interesting considering this conversation in Math:

Mathématique, Chapter 60

“I’ve never been good at talking to you. But I’m trying to figure it out, since you’re looking like you might become a colleague. You could do me the same courtesy you know. Your genetic status and your current electrophysiology puts you in a unique class. You and I can converse without drawing the wrong kind of attention.”

Conversing without drawing the wrong kind of attention - obviously he’s talking about the ‘locals’ aka other ascended beings from this brane. Which suggests that the gel does something to like...I don’t know, I want to say ‘change their quantum nature at a base level’ but I have absolutely no idea what I’m on about. It’s interesting to me though. I’m just gonna, like, put a pin in that for now. 

But then, of course, AdNoc!Rush can see all the ascended beings without even TRYING - and it seems that FoD!Rush can see them too, but FoD!Young cannot. And again, Rush says that they’re close in nature, even though Rush here is pre-Destiny. Again, need I say it - that device and gel did a number on him. BUT THEN - he gets handed those glasses so that he can’t see the ascended beings when he’s wearing them/looking through the lenses.

Every moment where the glasses get mentioned in Ad Noctum from here on out suddenly becomes Extremely interesting to me, because it means he can see any observers. 

You know when he isn’t wearing them?

Chapter 4. Aka - when Kiva tortures him ‘offscreen’ for hours. 

I’m, like...desperately hoping that FoD!Young sat through it with him, but I also don’t know if he’d have been able to take it without interfering with that hahaha. That said, Rush has clearly been drilling into him NOT to take unnecessary risks (and, if my theory about ascended!Young appearing in At All Angles in FoD, then he’s proven that he CAN stick with Rush through a horrible situation and not interfere). I’m actually a little bit intrigued about Rush and Young’s agenda, peaking into these other d-branes. I mean, obviously it’s mainly Young not being able to stand doing NOTHING to help all the other Rush’s, based on pretty much every time we see him across the three fics - and I love that SO much, it brings me such joy. But the way that Rush talks about where AdNoc!Rush falls on the ‘ascension spectrum’ is interesting to me - and the way he goes to talk to Volker in Math because ‘they might be colleagues soon’. Then again...that’s probably a reason in and of itself. He is, after all, still a scientist. It’s probably not that deep. But it is interesting to me. 

I also peaked ahead into the later chapters of Ad Noctum in one of the various original copies that I have (don’t ask, I have five, with varying degrees of comprehensible formatting), to see if those glasses got mentioned again - and yeah, they do. In Chapter 6, Telford takes them off and hands them to Volker, just before the scene where AdNoc!Young shows up. It’s sort of...implied that Volker gives them back to Rush - and I think that this will be rewritten slightly in the new version to make this clearer, or maybe have him NOT wear the glasses, depending on how much cwr wants Rush to suffer. But, considering  that he’s about to see YOUNG for the first time since FoD!Young told him to find him in the prologue....yeah, he’d definitely going to want to know if he’s Really There or not (although, the fact that Telford interacts with him will make that obvious anyhow). I’m actually expecting there to be a few minor rewrites in this conversation when the chapter posts, mainly because it reads slightly differently now that Rush has already seen Young in some form. I mean, the scene does work as is, but it reads a lot more as Rush realising that Young is from Earth and trying to dig into that, rather than because he recognises him from the prologue interaction. We shall have to wait and see, however!

Telford and the SGC

Speaking of rewrites! There are not many, but there is a little scene in chapter 5 that goes slightly differently in the new version:

Original 

"Is he really worth all this work?" Volker asked. "I think so," Telford said. "It's hard for me to say, but I do know that stargate command had been leaning on him pretty hard to join up before we acquired him." Telford gave an artless shrug and glanced over at Volker. "They generally pick them pretty well."

"They must be looking for him, then," Volker said.

"Oh they are," Telford said with a twisted looking smile. "But they're not looking in the right places."

"I see," Volker said, reflecting that unfortunately, he really didn't see at all.

Rewrite

“Is he really worth all this work?” Volker asked.

“Probably.” Telford sighed. “It’s hard for me to say. But I do know that Stargate Command was leaning on him pretty hard to join up before we recruited him.” Telford gave an artless shrug and glanced over at Volker. “They generally pick them pretty well.”

“They must be looking for him, then,” Volker said.

“They think he’s dead,” Telford said flatly.

“I see,” Volker said, when, unfortunately, he really didn’t see at all. Nupur had definitely described the man as “vanished.” Not dead. He really wished he’d had time to read a wikipedia article on Nicholas Rush before leaving the planet and the internet behind.

This is interesting because it suggests that what CWR put in the prologue was not set in stone when they wrote the first eight chapters of Ad Noctum. If that’s the case, I understand this - that’s how I approach writing too. But it does shift things slightly - because it explains why the SGC don’t seem to have been looking for Rush, and how Young in Chapter 6 seems to be confused/suspicious of Rush, but doesn’t recognise him (which I’m pretty sure he would if they were actively looking for him, especially if he’d been captured by the LA and Young is working undercover WITHIN the LA). So the SGC thinks he’s dead, and presumably have done for MONTHS - and just have let the rumour mill of the press spin on, rather than actually addressing it, so it becomes a conspiracy theory (which follows their usual M.O. in canon, where they use Wormhole X-Treme as a cover story lol). But, I reckon that now Young has seen Rush, and also Volker (who’s disappearance is more recent and so possibly in the news still?) he’s likely to put two and two together, if he gets the right information. 

But, tangentially related, I’ve been asking myself a question since I started reading this fic, but even more after these new chapters - do the SGC know Telford is brainwashed and/or has defected?

I wasn’t sure that they did for a while - I thought it was quite likely that he was still trying to two-time them both whilst he worked on his own agenda. However, after some long conversations with Maddy (aka @taardisblue), I’m now about 85% sure that Telford is NOT working with the SGC at all anymore. Consider, if you will: why does Telford only kidnap Rush this early in Ad Noctum? Why not in Math, why not in FoD? And I wonder if it’s because he knew that it would probably end up blowing his cover, and revealing his defection, so it was a HUGE risk, and so not one that he was likely to take in many branes - but in this one, he did. And then it matches with the conversation that we will get later in Chapter 6, where Young and Telford see each other again. Young is clearly undercover in Second House, but also seems VERY MAD at Telford - and Telford talks him into letting Rush go ‘for old time’s sake’ - which suggests that they are NOT still friends. And, I mean, I would argue that it’s possible this is, in part, for show, because Young doesn’t know that Volker and Rush aren’t LA, and Telford doesn’t want him to know that they aren’t LA. As always, the difficult thing about figuring out ANYTHING in this fic is that everyone is lying through their teeth and hiding EVERYTHING. But that’s also why I love it haha. I also love how, in the context of the prologue, we sort of have a double whammy of one of the main themes in Ad Noctum - surveillance. Because we’ve got the constant threat hanging over the main trio of the LA hearing and seeing everything that they do, but then also the ascended beings near constantly observing Rush, which is why FoD!Rush gives him those glasses, saying that the pressure of it would drive him insane otherwise. And we know this, because we’ve seen the affect it has on Daniel in Math. 

That’s all for now. As always, I hope this is all vaguely coherent and at least a little bit interesting! I have not read this all through so there may be typos rip

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

Hey friend! Just wanted to check in on you? How’s everything going? Feeling any better? If not I’m here if you need to talk! ♥️ just dropping by to let you know you’re not alone and we are here! Hoping you are feeling better!

Update: school has messed up my sleep schedule. And they can’t be doing that to me. I’m 29, I can’t bounce back like I use to when I was younger with little sleep. Lol I get grumpy and cranky 😂 also my roommates birthday is today, and she turned 21. 😅 and they were listening to 2000’s music and said it was classics. And that made me feel ancient for sure. lol even thought 29 isn’t even old. But man that made me feel it for sure!

Oh also I saw you’re bi?! Me too! And when I came out to my parents, my mom was totally cool with it. She seriously said “that’s nice sweetheart, but what do you want for lunch and I still love you no matter what.” She’s an angel. But I almost killed my dad. He’s not a fan of being gay and everything. So when I came out to him, I was so nervous we would get into an argument so I hurried and told him “ hey dad, I’m bi.. anyways, Jurassic park is on” and I didn’t look at him when I said that, so I had no idea he was taking a bite out of his sandwich and he starts choking. Like legit choking. I almost had to go give him the Heimlich! I was freaking out thinking if he died the news would be like “bisexual killed dad for liking both genders” and yeah. It was a bit chaotic. 

I was hoping that made you laugh or smile just a little to brighten your day/ night since I’m not sure what time it is for you! Lol but anyways I hope you are doing good!

Fun fact again. I found out today I have a golden retriever personality.. lol it reminded me of bokuto for some reason!

Here’s a visual of me cheering for you! 👇🏻

♥️♥️♥️♥️

Hi cherry!!! Ahhh I'm doing MUCH better thankfully! Just getting into a new routine is hard for me and everyone in the house. Honestly I'm so excited for the weekend because we don't have to get up 🤣 I suffer from pretty severe depression and anxiety and sometimes I just really get in my head about things but thankfully I've been able to accomplish stuff this week so I've been in a MUCH better mood 🥰

Ok I feel the bounce back thing 😅 I'm 33 and a nightowl. So lile getting me up before 9am is hard. Unfortunately when you have kids who ride a bus, you need to get up at 6am 😫 so I'm just over here being the whole cast of the walking dead. My oldest kiddo asked me if he could make my coffee in the morning and I'm like "😐😑 sounds suspicious what do you want?" 😅

Also, oh to be 21 again!! I sometimes miss those days when I'd go out every thursday-saturday drinking. Like I'm pretty sure my iunity is so strong from all the UV I use to drink 😫

Someone once called the early 2000's "vintage" and I about said "✌🏻 out life I'm done". Then someone more ruined by saying "wow you were born in the 1900s 😱" and I went thought the entire spectrum of emotions with just that one statement.

Ahhh I freaking love the bi-pride support! Honestly we live for supportive family, parents, friends, whomever! I'm so proud of you for telling them!! I honestly haven't told my parents and I probably never will 😅 I have supportive parents but at this moment I don't feel like I need to tell them. I'm currently on a hiatus from dating and relationships until I can figure out exactly what I want so basically my plan is to bring someone home say "Hey this is my partner" and go from there 😅 but again I am the Oikawa of my family so I live for drama!

Also yes we loove the Bokuto energy!! My personality type is ESFP which is also Bokuto's personality type! You and I probably are very similar then 😍 honestly poor Akaashi, man's has got to be exhausted 🤣

[pluto-the-demigod]

Ok quick rant about Minecraft because I’m WEAK

People who lived in the ancient cities can THINK. WE HAVE EVIDENCE OF EXPERIMENTS AND PROOF OF CONCEPT

Before this we had

Villagers, who just had their jobs and traded occasionally

Pillagers, who just killed stuff

Illagers, who could imitate, but didn’t have anything original

Piglins, who could only do their best to keep up a crumbling tower

Wandering Traders, who spawn randomly and don’t leave unless you kill them

But the Ancient City people? They had redstone! They learned how to make alarm systems, and knew which blocks could amplify their circuits, and they put carpet and wool down to try and live peacefully with the Warden!

This is the first humanoid movie where we see active responses to their situation! THEY KNEW HOW COMPARATORS WORKED!

I’m just. I’m so emotional about a group of people that aren’t even alive anymore…

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 1

Meet the Maidens

It is back to school baby, both for D20 and, funnily enough, myself as well (something I hope will give me more time to get the recaps out in a timely manner fingers crossed). 

As I’m sure you all know if you’re reading this, this season of D20 takes place in the world of Fantasy High but with a focus on Aguefort’s OTHER most badass adventuring party who we’ve so far only seen on the sidelines, the Seven Maidens! You’ll recall, they’re made up of the seven girls who were captured by Penelope and co. to fulfill the prophecy that would let Kalvaxus rule the world freshman year. And, in fact, we start with a flashback to freshman year so let’s just jump right in.

We find our seven soon-to-be heroines chained in the Red Waste in front of what we know and they will shortly learn in Kalvaxus’ lair--a crucial part of the prophecy that was the subject of season 1. The structure of this episode is sort of like 2 rounds of introductions--first here with the maidens meeting each other for the first time and then again at home with their families a la the first episode of Freshman Year so I’ll be glossing over certain things that we’ll get to later in their second intros.

Anyway, the first two to wake up are Danielle (aka Yelle: half-elf, druid) and Zelda (satyr, barbarian as we know). Zelda is her usual, adorably nervous self in contrast to Yelle who is no less sweet but in a super chill, granola girl, fuck the system kind of way. We actually learn that Penelope had her on board with the plan for a hot second when she thought it was just “overthrow the government” but didn’t know about the “install a just as bad if not worse evil dragon overlord” part. 

Ostentatia (dwarf, cleric) wakes up next and is, as Izzy--her player--describes her “Jersey Trash.”, all blinged up with jewelry that she secretly made herself and didn’t buy. She wakes up pissed and ready to bodyslam Aelwyn which are both extremely valid emotions as much as I love Aelwyn. By the way, all of the girls recognize each other as girls who go to their school but none of them are really friends though they very quickly start throwing the label around because that’s what you do when you wake up chained with 6 other people in front of a dragon’s lair in a place called the Red Waste. 

Katja (half-orc, fighter) wakes up and immediately cares about nothing more than the status of her beloved horse, Cinnamon and declares that if Cinnamon dies, she’ll die. This is a fantasy world so Ostentatia and Danielle are a little concerned that might literally be true via a soul bond or something but it’s more that Katja just really, really loves that horse. Danielle tries to cast a spell to locate the horse but can’t get the somatic components quite right with her hands manacled. 

They all get into a discussion about the fact that everyone for a fact knows they’re all virgins now (you know, the real issue here) and what exactly counts as “virginity” for the purposes of this prophecy (like, does second or third base count or only traditional home runs using the baseball analogy) when Penny wakes up and is, just so excited to be here gang! Penny (halfling, rogue), who is one of the girls who has been kidnapped the longest, is adorably and honestly a bit concerningly exuberant to be surrounded by all these new friends, totally disregarding  the fact that they are clearly in some deep shit. Zelda mentions that Riz, her old babysitee, knows they’re kidnapped and is trying to help and she lights up. 

Next up is Sam (water genasi, sorc/bard) who immediately starts thrashing to get out of her chains and, when she can’t get free, is devastated by the fact that her ex betrayed her (!?) Finally Antiope (human fighter/ranger) wakes up all out of sorts having started her growth spurt while in the crystal and also having needed to pee right before she went in which becomes a problem all over herself (which Sam helpfully cantrips away).

With all of them awake, the stones they’re chained to light up and some of Kalvaxus’ minions (the ones who tied them up) show up to do minion speechifying. Yelle does a horrifying Animorph style morph into a waterbear (a tardigrade if you wanna get all Bio 101) to get out of her bonds but then Sam who has a serious one track mind re: getting out of here (Correct) and has exactly zero patience for these guys casts Tidal Wave and just knocks them off the cliff. Yelle frees Ostentatia who frees everyone else with Animate Object on their chains. Hands free, Yelle also casts Locate Animal and tells a very pleased Katja that Cinnamon is doing a full Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron down the highway searching for her. 

The girls decide to explore the cave which has recently had most of its treasure moved (it’s currently in the gym for the Prompocolypse fight which is currently happening). Penny and Sam (who are in insanely different emotional places) find all these broken mirrors which Sam takes as a cue that they need to GTFO (which is what she was already doing) and Penny thinks would make a great material for friendship bracelet making which she starts doing as Sam physically pulls her away. Sam hears someone doing post-cry sniffles and is like, “Not today Satan,” still trying to leave. However, Penny sees that there is one mirror left and, inside, sees a ethereal looking human with flowing, preternatural, black hair who senses their presence and asks if Penny is someone named Anima. She asks for their names though she declines to give hers (hmm, feels very fae) and the girls give the fake names of Kelly and Cecelia which the figure says she will guard and not misuse. The figure says she is looking for her sisters (who she says when Penny asks are at Aguefort which...hmmmmm) and, all of a sudden, Sam and Penny are having a bad feeling about those mirror shards. 

They ask her a question about the mirror and she gets really aggro when it’s referred to as “her” mirror as she would very much like to be out of it. The woman really wants to get out and says she can give them lots of power if they help. Sam pulls out her compact Mirror of the Past (magic item that does basically what you’d expect--shows you info from something’s past though in a cryptic way usually) to try and get some info on this thing and just barely avoids losing her mind in the process because this thing is ancient. Like eons old. She also learns the woman’s name (or maybe title): The Ending of Things (will be calling her Ending for now).

Yikes!

Right around now the other girls come in and can see at the angle they’re looking at her at the woman in the mirror is Not Really A Person and Antiope points at her and reflexively casts a ranger sense spell to try and clock its weaknesses and stuff but Ending grabs the spell energy like a lasso and tries to drag her into the mirror. She does however find out that she’s stacked with hella resistances (total immunity to necrotic damage and non-maj weapons, resistance to most elemental damage, and more).

Sam briefly considers using Lightning Lure to pull Antiope back before deciding on a much less ouchy Counterspell. Unfortunately, it’s not strong enough and now she’s being pulled in by her spell energy too. Yelle casts Erupting Earth which has some pros and cons.

Pros: Antiope and Sam are saved! Yay!

Cons: The mirror breaks and whatever was in it is fully freed. Not yay!

Shortly after (but not before Penny gives everyone their new friendship bracelets), someone calls into the cave looking for them--it’s Fig’s mom, Sandra-Lynn (with new art)! She’s happy and impressed that everyone is OK (also, Katja and Sam both have little lines that foreshadow their ~parental issues~ for the season--Katja being very moved by the simple act of Sandra-Lynn showing up for them and Sam saying that in her experience moms can be very evil).

As they all leave the cave, they all do checks and get some info:

Ostentatia: The mirror was kinda like a palimpsest (the crystals they were trapped in) and whatever this thing is is ancient and powerful. 

Yelle: Gets the above info and the fact that when the thing left it wasn’t quite a bad vibe, just the vibe that something big and important is at play.

Penny: On an Arcana check she knows that what Danielle did 100% saved Antiope and Sam’s lives from whatever and wherever was on the either side of the mirror but the contact marked them in some way. 

Katja: With History she sees some Primordial writing which is the writing of elementals (one of the things Ending has resistances to which might be relevant; also Sam reads Primordial but doesn’t get to read what it says)

Antiope: She knows that she and Sam are connected to Ending now somehow but it’s a two way connection which means they can also use it to their advantage. 

Ostentatia casts Mending on the mirror shards which I think was to reconstruct the mirror but what it actually does is someone link their friendship bracelets. Cute!

And, with that, we cut to the present a year and a half later (which is Jr or Sr year for everyone). 

We hop from kid to kid as they get ready to head in to school and get glimpses into their homes lives! Let’s do a quick rundown for each girl:

Antiope Jones

We see that Antiope is the youngest of five in what is essentially a military family full of basically every kind of fighter (she says she basically lives in a “Crossfit box”). There’s an 8 year gap between her and her sister Corsica who is the second youngest so her parents are kind of already living like empty nesters. When she comes downstairs she is promptly handed a protein smoothie and told two pieces of info: (1) from Corsica she learns that she overheard at school --where she teaches--that Aguefort needs to talk to her for some reason but she won’t say why which annoys the crap out of Antiope and (2) her parents lined up an internship for her at the Ministry of Adventure. She and her mom verbally spar a bit about them being all up in her life and how stressed she is and how she likes what she has going now with the Seven but her mom wins ofc because she’s a Mom and also a master tactician with a deft hand for loving mom guilt. On the way to school her bros (who include a gunslinger and an eldritch knight cause they run the whole gamut of fighter classes) Facetime her like, “Yikes Ant, heard about what happened with Mom, this is why you don’t fight her lmao.”

Sam Nightingale

This is a heavy one so strap in. 

We check in with Sam who isn’t at her own family’s home but at Penelope’s family home which is off the bat eyebrow raising. It’s an upper middle class house and, on the way down, she has to pass Penelope’s bedroom which is conspicuously empty. Downstairs she’s greeted by Penelope’s human mom Rebecca who she learns is moving out soon because her elf husband is both cheating on her while away in Falinel and starting the divorce process. Sam clearly sees Penelope’s mom as a surrogate mom (for reasons we’ll learn in a second) and goes full ride or die assuring her that her ass is better than the ass of the woman he’s cheating with and offering to help burn his stuff even though drowning is more her specialty (she’s so cool). She also is a little stricken at the thought of Rebecca leaving her in the house alone but Rebecca says she can come with if she wants, she just didn’t want to disrupt her school life.

She also tells Rebecca that her bio-mom called recently which immediately sets Sam off. Through the convo we learn a couple of things:

Sam used to be an actor it seems.

And it seems like she was kicked out of the house after she transitioned or something similar which is why she lives with the Everpetals. 

Now that it’s more “fashionable” to to be trans (her mom’s words, not mine) she wants Sam to talk to her so they can get her back in the game.

Sam is having none of that and tells Rebecca to just delete her mom’s number. Then they have a cathartic session of burning her cheating husband’s shit before Sam leaves in Sebastian--her sentient, seafoam blue, self-driving car with a very hot male voice which I am extremely jealous of. She picks up Zelda on the way to school and they commiserate a little and have a heart to heart about adults and change and how much Zelda wants to body slam Sam’s mom. 

Penny Luckstone 

Penny’s house is a whirlwind of activity and her harried parents get her and her 19 young siblings ready for school (no wonder she’s such a good babysitter). We see where Penny gets her type-A ness from as her mom and dad both have this cheerful but overworked energy of “EVERYTHING IS FINE” like that Good Place sign. Her mom spares a second to tell her that she recently got a letter for The Society of Shadows which is like a super secret rogue college (which her parents assume is legit even though they haven’t heard of it cause they’re Mumple people and also, if you've heard of a rogue school, how good could it really be?) Penny is excited except that it would mean she’d have to move and leave her party. Her mom is like “hey it’s a full ride and there are 20 of you guys so just take that into consideration but it’s ultimately your decision” before she dashes away to get to work because it is always Go Go Go with the Luckstones. She texts Sam for a ride and Sam swings by to grab her. This is not plot relevant but she has a booster seat in the back of Sebastian with her name carved into it and it’s important to me that you know that. 

Katja Cleaver

Next up is Katja who lives in a Richie Rich style mansion and comes from very old money as she is descended from one of the first adventurers in Solace. She is in the barn with Cinnamon and the bugbear farrier they have employed (her name is Gertrude and a farrier is someone who does horseshoes). She eats the same breakfast as Cinnamon (hot dry oats and berries baybee) wo she loves so so dearly. Cinnamon is a magical horse--basically like a Find Steed spell that’s on all the time. She’s modeled the horse in her fave book series--the Babysitter’s Horse of course. Lockwood, the staff’s hobgoblin butler, is also there and they get a fantasy Zoom call from Katja’s dad who is in the middle of the insane 20th level adventurer stuff which he says might make him miss her graduation. She is extremely disappointed but just barely hides it from her dad (who seems to really care despite his not being around). She can’t hide it from the staff or Cinnamon however and Cinnamon offers to give her a ride to school via the scenic route. 

Note: We also learn two sad facts about Katja from the conversation with her dad.

Her mother is Disney Princess dead* and

She wears one half of a friendship necklace and it seems like she’s waiting for someone to give the other half to. It’s implied earlier that the way Penelope got her was by promising to be her best friend. Sad!

*Edit: Well, she’s gone and we’ll leave it at that until next recap. 

Ostentatia Wallace

Ostentatia wakes up and goes downstairs to have a very high energy in both directions interaction with her very fantasy-Italian mom and grandma. Her grandma is concerned her beard isn’t coming in--not knowing she shaves it on purpose which her mom is like, “Listen it’s fine but don’t tell grandma it’ll kill her.” She clocks very quickly that her dad isn’t there and his mithril working tools are gone. Her mom tries to play it off but she knows she’s being lied to and her mom relents. Her dad is at a meeting with the other workers of the shut down mithril factory and negotiations have ceased. It looks like he’s gonna be long term out of work. That explains where her dad is but not why the tools are missing. She decides to go do some investigating on her own and ambushes her dad in his car where, with the inaugural nat 20 of the season, she realizes he pawned his tools to get her 5 revivify diamonds. She's upset by this and he’s upset that she’s, in his eyes, questioning his ability to take care of his family. She’s like, alright, you did a thing for me, I’ll do a thing for you and she casts Animate Object to make his stuff steal itself back in a sequence that involves an animated crowbar using another crowbar which is just wild.

Danielle Barkstock

I’m gonna be real, Danielle’s life is exactly how you assume it is based on Who She Is As A Person so this one will be real short. Eco-friendly off the grid geodesic yurt. One super chill peace and love elf sorc mom and one rough and tough human ranger mom. She also knows and helps the Cubbies with their anarchist machinations because yeah, duh. She gets some messages from school on her crystal--one being a message from the principal saying that she and the rest of her party have first period off to meet with him and the other being a newsletter from the school showing, among other things, a photo of the Druid class doing a project but she’s not in it for some reason. She texts one of the other druids to see if she can figure out why she wasn’t invited but fully gets left on read. Brutal. Of course, she hasn’t messaged that person in 6-8 months so maybe that’s why.

Anyway, with that, all seven of our maidens make it to school and are all exuberant to see each other in a very teen girl way before getting to the principal’s office and learning that their party will be broken up at the year! 

Bad!

Superlatives 

I wanted to do something a little different for these recaps than the Bad Kid ones so instead of Honor Roll/Detention we are doing Superlatives and the inaugural one goes to...

Sam: Most Like To Survive a Horror Movie

Man she woke up chained in a ritual magic circle and she was Ready To Go Immediately. You will not catch this girl doing horror movie victim BS like exploring the spooky house or giving the creepy obvious ghost the time of day. She is hyper-competent and her goal is making it out alive and dragging her friends with her. Love her.  

Random Thoughts

The season immediately starts with a bang or I should say a bing with Izzy trying to say “bling bang” and accidentally saying, “bling bing” and immediately getting roasted by everyone. I love the authentic girl group vibes (which include everyone clowning on her then immediately hyping up Zelda to the max after being way more awkward). 

Handshake meme with Danielle and Moonshine from Naddpod. Also, Cinnamon and Horse from Centaurworld. 

I love that Rekha and Erika just straight up were like, “Our characters are Asian”. Like obviously, make your characters Asian coded in your fantasy world--all my D&D characters are black like me--but it’s funny that they completely disregarded the, “There’s no Asia in this world so I guess they’re this world’s equivalent to--” Nah just, “I’m a half-elf and I’m Asian.” You love to see it. 

I absolutely LOVE the choices the cast made to flesh out their characters based on the little info Brennan had about them, none moreso than rich horse girl Katja. Rekha is a genius. 

“I only want one thing and he’s working” KATJAAAAAAA

Man if I was in that flashback I would have been wilding out so much with my flashback plot armor. 

I appreciate that the first thing that Aabria has Antiope do is extremely uncool. I love it when players aren’t concerned about just being cool and on point all the time. Sometimes (read: often) that’s the less interesting choice. 

But on the exact opposite side, she’s a ranger and an arcane archer which I think is extremely cool. Lmao also I didn’t mention in the recap but she HATES dragons now which, understandable. I’m guessing they're her favored enemy. 

I can’t wait to see another group of kids interact w/ madman Aguefort. 

Also, as a known Aelwyn-stan, I am very excited for the possibility of the Seven interacting with her cause as much as I love her they are under no obligation to acknowledge her redemption arc and I would love to see them throw hands. 

I love the Greek myth naming scheme of Antiope’s extremely cool family as with her on the spot nickname “L-Cab” short for long caboose since she’s the youngest by a mile. 

Also this is out of character not in character but Sephie is an extremely cool nickname for Persephone. 

I wonder why Brennan didn’t let Sam read the Primordial in the cave. He just glossed right past her saying that she speaks it and she didn’t push it. Would it have solved his entire plot in the span of a flashback or was he just keeping things moving?

Sidenote, if I was married to an elf man and worried about aging like Rebecca, I would simply become a druid (or a monk or up my wizard levels so I could learn True Polymorph or Wish or something). 

I wonder what the deal with Ending is. She seemed relatively sincere in the mirror but that doesn’t mean anything. She could be sincere and also Very Bad News. 

There is an offhand comment by Brennan about how the dwarf forge god gives spells but doesn’t talk to his followers which I think means that Ostentatia is gonna be getting a direct god call soon enough. 

Also she mentions that her dad is doing some criminal activity on the side which seems like a Problem for later. Honestly all of the kids have some pretty rich parent drama happening which should be interesting to see explored. 

No nat 1s this ep and 1 nat 20 as I mention from Ostentatia.