#I'll try to go to sleep after I post this

[juvinadelgreko]

a short list of things that happen to gallavich post-canon because i said so:

ian & mickey ditch the yuppy westside after a year and get a small duplex on the south side that's far enough away from either of their childhood homes to not have too many ghosts, but close enough to family and the places they know. it's 3 beds and 2.5 baths, which is the perfect size for them and any guests they may have. franny and freddie love to sleep over, and fiona enjoys staying with them when she decides she's ready to come visit.

the security business grows to the point that they file Real Business Paperwork™️ and start hiring new people. Their services eventually expand beyond just weed. Their clientele mostly consists of small family restaurants and shops that want to cater and deliver but don't have the budget to buy their own vehicles/hire their own drivers. ian and mickey's favorite client is a family run greek restaurant that sends them home with leftovers every time they do a run for them (i'm greek, chicago has a huge greek community, and it makes me happy to think of ian and mickey stuffing their faces with homemade gyros and baklava after a long day).

mickey thrives as CEO of GM Secure Transport. we know he's a math whiz, and his accounting methods, though unconventional, are pristine. he knows the city so well, has a knack for mapping the most efficient routes that keep them on time and cost effective. they set up a website and social media pages that quickly become plastered in rave reviews. he actually comes to enjoy meeting the different people that hire them, getting to know their businesses, getting free samples and leftovers. he establishes a rapport with the business on his route, and would even go so far as to consider himself friends with some of the owners.

things go so well that ian begins to consider stepping back. on the downlow, he starts doing research on a possible path back to working in healthcare. after losing his army dreams, it was the only career he ever felt passionate about. he loves helping mickey, but he misses it so much. he finds a few different legal processes by which he could return to it, and decides he's going to try. he refuses to live the rest of his life regretting not trying. he's nervous to tell mickey about stepping back from their business, but of course mickey is 100% behind ian doing what makes him happy. mickey rallies the entire family behind ian to help with the paperwork and supporting documentation. it takes months, but ian eventually receives permission from the state of illinois to go to paramedic school. he'd loved being an EMT and had always wanted to learn more. mickey draws flashcards for him and helps him study for all of his exams. ian, of course, passes everything with flying colors and graduates at the top of his class. mickey insists on throwing him a big gallagher blowout party after the ceremony. when his shifts start, mickey packs him lunch with goofy (sometimes dirty) notes in the box. (I'll forever be so angry at the writers for taking ian's EMT career from him and i refuse to believe that in shameless's wishy-washy version of the legal system he couldn't find a path back to it).

aside from their business, mickey has a small side gig as an artist. ian always knew mickey was brilliant and creative, and never passes on an opportunity to tell him so. when he went over to the milkovich house as a kid, he'd always pocket mickey's little doodles he left laying around (ian was not as slick about this as he thought, mickey 100% saw him doing it but was way too nervous to bring it up until they wound up in prison together years later). now that he has the money for it, mickey invests in some entry level art supplies, takes some classes, and really falls in love with it. he posts some of it to social media and gets way more love for it than he was expecting. people eventually ask about buying his work or commissioning pieces, leading mickey milkovich, at one time the meanest thug on the south side, to set up an etsy shop.

but what really surprises everyone is when mickey picks up knitting (thank you, @infjgemini for being the originator of this headcanon) he's always liked working with his hands, working with numbers and patterns, and the women in his art classes are always talking about their knitting. when one of them catches him looking at the patterns sticking out of their purse, she offers to share an extra set of needles and some yarn with mickey so he can learn how to do it. ian's a little intrigued when he comes from his shift and sees mickey knitting, but he just encourages mickey to keep doing it if he's enjoying it. eventually, ian stops buying sweaters, hats, mittens, etc. at the store and exclusively wears mickey couture. he can't go five seconds without telling people that his husband made one of the things he's wearing. 'oh you like this hat? my husband made it. he has an etsy store.' and 'this is my favorite sweater. my husband made it just for me, you can't have it.' franny and freddie love their custom uncle mickey sweaters. a year after he starts, mickey's christmas gift to ian is an absolutely massive knitted throw blanket that will actually cover all 6ft of ian plus mickey when they snuggle, unlike the ones at the store. it becomes ian's most prized possession, and they almost always spend their evenings and weekends curled up under that blanket watching movies on their very comfy couch. mickey's knitting of course sells gangbusters on etsy, and he wishes he could go back in time just to tell his 17 year old self that people are paying actual money for his artwork. he continues meeting with his art class friends, with the women who taught him to knit, and finds he really enjoys the low stakes gossip and chatter of their group. ian gets so hooked on all the tea he brings home, eagerly waits up for mickey to relay him the knitting circle drama for the week. he's not the only guy in the group, and there's a good enough age range that he doesn't feel like an oddball. ian enjoys meeting them, is glad that mickey has friends he feels comfortable with. some of them are elderly, and he and ian frequently go to their houses to help with chores and heavy lifting. they accidentally end up with a small cohort of surrogate grandparents, which they both really enjoy after growing up with almost no sane adult presence in their lives.

ian finds his way back to running. it's one of the many things he adds back into his routine as part of his and mickey's agreement to start taking better care of themselves. it had taken a few really loud arguments, but once the dust settled on their first year of marriage, ian insists they're going to start eating better and living healthier now that they can afford it. it takes a lot of convincing, but he manages to get mickey to quit smoking with him, to cut back on drinking, and work some more exercise into his life. mickey hates running but loves lifting (man after my own heart) so they spend a lot of time doing that together. but ian's runs are his quiet solo meditation time. he really missed it. he finds a local queer and trans run club, and once he's sure it doesn't involve caleb or any of the gay jesus kids, he joins up. he ends up getting along really well with the group, and even convinces mickey to go out for drinks with some of them. ian trains a healthy amount, doesn't push himself too hard or obsess over how fast or far he's going or how much weight he is or isn't losing--he just enjoys it. he enters in a neighborhood holiday race with the run club just for shits and giggles, and actually really enjoys the fun competitiveness and goofy holiday outfits. he keeps doing fun little races, enters a local half marathon, and then a full one. mickey always parks himself somewhere along the route with the partners of the other people in the run club and cheers like a rabid soccer mom when ian passes by. he does not care who stares. that's his fucking husband! after a few years, fiona comes home and they run the chicago marathon together. the whole entire family shows up to cheer for them, and the picture of him and fiona in their race bibs and participation medals, surrounded by the entire family at the finish line, is framed on ian's nightstand.

speaking of eating better, ian finds he really loves gardening and cooking. he starts with tomatoes, and when those go well, slowly expands. he finds that mickey's much more amenable to trying new foods if he knows ian grew the ingredients in their yard. ian loves to dig online for recipes, loves to experiment with new ingredients. one of the older ladies from mickey's knitting circle comes over sometimes to help him with new dishes. liam, franny, and freddie come to their house for dinner at least once a week just because ian's cooking is that good. liam especially takes an interest in it, and starts coming over a bunch just to cook with ian. he gets really good at meal prepping for the days he works 12 hour shifts and doesn't have the energy to cook anything when he gets home. he puts everything together beforehand and leaves mickey directions for serving it. mickey always has it ready for him when he gets home. they cook together on ian's days off. in the summer, ian will make spreads of berry pies and have the entire family over for dinner. he always hides one away for just him and mickey. for holidays, everyone pitches in to cook, but ian is the chief executive of it all, with liam as his right hand man. mickey is chief taste tester.

also--they get a dog. a few years on, mickey finds a worse-for-wear boxer-mixed-with-something wandering around one of his delivery routes, and like. he can't just leave it. he takes it to a shelter, but it sticks in his mind for weeks, until he can't resist anymore and has to ask ian about maybe, just maybe getting a dog. ian agrees, because they both really wanted a pet growing up and now they can have one because they're grownups with the space and money for one. after doing some research, they decide to go adopt from the same shelter mickey took the stray to. he's still there, and mickey never believed in fate before, but he thinks maybe he does now. they bring him home and name him Sox, both after the white sox and because his brindle coat is interrupted by four white socks. he is the most spoiled dog in the city of chicago. the 'no dog on the couch or bed' rule lasted about five seconds. he sleeps on the end of their bed every night and flops on their laps during movie time. mickey insists that dog food is dog food and people food is people food, but ian is a softie who sneaks him pieces of meat from dinner almost every night. mickey will sometimes take him on delivery runs because the customers love him and Sox loves to stick his head out the window. whenever his station does a cookout, ian brings Sox and everyone takes turns playing fetch with him. in the summer, he loves to swim with them and the kids in the above ground pool in the yard, and sit in the garden while ian works.

this is so soft, guys, but it makes me so happy to think about these two having a good life.

[lena-thinks-too-much]

Some post death Jason things that fanon gets wrong

1. Talia kidnaps a catatonic Jason from the hospital (or in some versions his dead body)

While generally speaking this isn't that big of a difference, I recently read Red Hood: Lost Days and the way Jason ends up with Talia is actually really interesting.

Jason claws his way out of his grave, which is public and unmarked and wanders out of the grave yard. He's catatonic due to the brain damage from what joker did and kinda just wanders along the highway trying to make it back home. Meanwhile whoever's security at the cemetery find Jason's grave, assume it was caused by grave robbers and decide that they'd rather cover it up instead of get in trouble for letting it happen. While this is happening Jason get's hit by a car on the road and police are called. Because he's legally dead he they fail to id him and he's admitted to a hospital as a John Doe. He's in a coma for some time and once he wakes up, he promptly runs away and begins living on the streets in crime alley. At some point some big guy tries to pick a fight with Jason and his training kicks in. Jason does a flip and someone recognizes the move as Robin. This leads to Talia finding out that Jason is alive and that's how she ends up taking him to the league of assassins.

2. Ra's was involved with Jason's training

Ra's wasn't really for doing anything with Jason. Even less so when they realized he was catatonic. He kinda let Talia do whatever she felt like but after a few months of no improvement from Jason, he insisted she called the whole thing off because it was a waste of league resources. This is what spurs Talia into shoving Jason into a lazarus pit. Which just pisses off Ra's.

3. Jason's revenge plan was due to Talia's manipulation

While Talia did tell jason that he "remains unavenged" she also told him to "not seek him out". I've always assumed the antecedent to "him" was Bruce.

In fact Jason's little revenge arc is something Talia was super against. He does the whole bomb under the batmobile thing soon after getting out of the pit but he fails to actually go through with it. Because Talia doesn't actually want Bruce dead she decides to distract Jason by sending him to specialists around the world.

I'm not 100% sure why she later shows him the pictures of Tim. Because that's the point where she sleeps with Jason (which is already a weird choice), leaves him the helmet, and seems to know Jason's going to go back to Gotham with this information.

But generally Talia was trying to keep Jason away from Bruce until he calmed down - which, considering dude kept killing his teachers was definitely going to be a bit.

4. Jason and Damian met in the league

Okay I'll start this one off by saying I love the fics that do this, but there seem to be a lot of people who genuinely believe this happened. Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but outside of the young justice universe, it's quite literally impossible.

Jason was being sent to instructors around the world after coming out of the pit. In fact he was technically being hunted by Ra's for daring to use the pit. Talia herself barely interacted with Jason. Damian certainly didn't.

The argument could be made that Damian and Jason met before the pit but Jason clearly has memories from when he was catatonic and from what I know, he doesn't recognize damian when he meets him later on.

5. Pit madness

Look, there's nothing quite as tasty as a Titan's Tower AU where Jason's stalking through the tower hopped up on pit rage with glowing green eyes only to fully lose his anger at seeing Tim Drake being a disaster of a human. Literally my favorite trope of all time. I highly doubt there's a fic under this tag that I haven't read yet.

That being said pit rage or pit madness quite literally doesn't exist. The closest thing we get in the comics is a temporary burst of madness immediately following exposure to the lazarus pit. But it doesn't last. Definitely not as long as some people seem to believe.

Jason isn't the only person to use the pits in the comics. The Al Ghul's obviously but also bruce takes his own swim later on. But Jason's the only one people think have pit madness (and also Ra's Al Ghul but he doesn't count because there's no way you survive 7 centuries without going insane). The closest thing we see to pit madness in the comics is when Nyssa tortures Talia with her personal lazarus pit (that she experimented on) by repeatedly kiled and revived her until she quite literally breaks Talia's mind.

The pit madness that people attribute to Jason, however, most closely resembles the kind of bloodlust and animalistic behavior we see from people who use the lazarus pits in the Arrowverse, and no one is ever going to accuse that of being canon. So yeah these are just some things that while I actually quite enjoy reading in fanfics, they aren't actually true and it genuinely astounds me, how many people think it's canon and not fanon.

let me know if I missed any or got something wrong because I'm mostly working off my memorie for the red hood lost days references.

disclaimer: I'm fully aware that fanon ≠ canon. However these are things that I see a lot of fans treating as fact and that just generally irks me. Like I'm all for cherry picking the timelines and details that you like and adding your headcanons into the mix. It's the best part of fandom. But also I think it's important to at least be aware of what's canonical (although with DC that does generally turns into a mess)

[abrisaber]

How I would Rewrite Stolitz

Listen I know I said I would stop talking about HB and that was mostly true. I'm gonna stop angirly ranting about it. This post isn't going to really dive into what I find problematic in the show, at least I'll try not to do that, this is moreso just a rambling about how I would change Stolitz in a way that makes more sense to me.

This isn't gonna be any kind if script or anything. I'm no professional writer, I do it as a hobby, but I do know what good and bad characters are, and I know (vaugely) ways to fix bad characters.

This post will probably be long and have a ton of errors (typos and things) so bare with me. I'm not drafting this up and editing it. This is just from my mind to Tumblr.

My Problems

If you don't feel like reading my combined wordcount of twelve billion on why I dislike Stolitz, I'll lay out my problems for you here.

Stolitz has progressively gotten worse because it's increasing more and more one sided. In the beginning, we got both Stolas and Blitzo's perspectives on their relationship. Stolas sees Blitzo as some sort of savior, a guy who he can forget all his marital problems with, whereas Blitzo sees Stolas as more of an outlet. Someone he can live out a fantasy with but will ultimately never let in because of his self worth issues. They both have troubling, misguided views of each other, and that comes to a head in Ozzie's when Stolas tries to reach out, and Blitzo shuts him down.

This feels forgotten in the newest episodes, and the main issue is that for some strange reason, the focus has entirely pivoted from Blitzo to Stolas. Stolas is pushed into a sympathetic light consistently when he doesn't deserve it. He's just as much of a piece of shit as Blitzo and if anything should be the one to go on an "apology tour" rather than Blitzo. Because Stolas has only ever acted in his own self interest. Since day one, he doesn't care about other people's feelings, and he never will. He sleeps with Blitzo when he wants and then whines to his daughter when she gets upset. But then he keeps doing it and then goes wah wah wah when she gets fed up with it. He treats Blitzo like trash and then acts clueless and heartbroken when Blitzo calls him out on it. He sacrifices his life to save Blitzo, but not because "Blitzo doesn't deserve it," but because "I don't want to see Blitzo killed."

Blitzo is made to be the bad guy almost all the time, even when he doesn't really deserve to be, but Stolas is just the uwu crybaby that we're supposed to feel bad for and Blitzo is supposed to comfort. And I seriously don't like that.

My Rewrite

The number one main thing about the show I would change is I would have Stolas offer the Asmodean Crystal as an alternative MUCH earlier. My idea is that Stolas is a lot more openly caniving and manipulate but is oblivious to it because he's an idiot, and Blitzo sort of let's it happen but gets progressives more and more uncomfortable with Stolas's actions until they blow up.

During the harvest moon festival, the conversation continues mostly the same, with Blitzo complaining about Stolas needing the book. Then Stolas absentmindedly mentions the existence of Asmoddan Crystals, saying he could maybe "put in a good word with Asmodeus to get you one." Blitzo dismisses it entirely, nonchalantly shrugging it off, and you can see him pull up the photo he took with Stolas after one of their nights together off to the side, and it's basically shown to the audience that he's attached but won't admit it.

So Stolas shrugs it off and calls Blitzo a "little imp," which brothers Blitzo, but he let's it slide because "it's just roleplay." And because he's emotionally attached to Stolas.

What I want to accomplish is making it more obvious that Blitzo wants to stay with Stolas but won't admit it. He was still basically coerced into the whole sex deal, but he had an opportunity to leave if he wanted.

All the while, Stolas himself is starting to feel bad. He mostly feels bad for himself because Blitzo is becoming more distant and he wants him back, but he slowly becomes more and more worried until he finally asks Blitzo what's wrong and why he's acting strange.

Blitzo, who's reached an emotional low after Barbie Wire deflects and insults him, gets defensive and insults Stolas, calling him pretentious or whatever.

Stolas then gets angry and the two go back and forth with each other.

On Stolas's side, he's angry because he believes that he's treated Blitzo with respect, when in actuality he's been treating Blitzo like shit. He's completely obvious to how he hurts people and is always indirectly only thinking of himself. Blitzo can see that, which is why he eventually calls Stolas a self absorbed asshole who doesn't care about Blitzo, just like everyone else doesn't care about Blitzo.

On Blitzo's side, he's become emotionally attached to Stolas and doesn't want to admit that because that would make him vulnerable, and he doesn't want to be hurt. He still deeply craves emotional connection, and does slowly break down some walls, but Stolas's self centered actions and demeaning language make Blitzo incredibly uncomfortable. Of course he never communicates that fact until their argument where he vents about it.

Stolas, still angry, but now feeling slightly guilty, reveals he got Blitzo the crystal and turns to leave. Blitzo shouts back at him saying it doesn't fix anything and Stolas is still a stuck up bitch, but accepts the crystal anyways, and the two officially split ways.

I don't have any more ideas after that, so essentially this is a Stolitz rewrite up until The Full Moon. I hope it was at least a tiny bit coherent and what I wanted to accomplish was communicated well. In my opinion Stolas is still mostly in the wrong in this situation, but I wanted to at least try and make Blitzo slightly less sympathetic. I hope the stolitz fans don't kill me.

[the-wip-project]

Planning for January and 2025

Hello, writerly friends!

It's the end of a year, we're looking at the the next year coming, and naturally this is a time of reflection and prediction. I'm actually not a big fan of new year's resolutions, but I want to keep up the monthly planning. 

Last month I planned nothing and I did nothing! Yay! Total win on my side! It's not quite true. I wrote 3.5k words, which is more than nothing but not much.

As we go into a new year, some planners and goal setters advice to take a look back and reflect on the year 2024 before going into 2025. I kind of hate that because I never achieve as much as I wanted. I wanted to have a book published in 2024, damnit! 

But maybe it's good to see what I actually did, before the yelling brain keeps calling me a failure. I wrote 115k words last year. That's not bad! My AO3 statistics are a bit difficult to read because I updated a few fics from like 2021 and 2022 and then that wordcount gets counted for 2024. But hey! I finished a fic! Updated others! I also published 20 ficlets over the year. Some are just over 500 words, others are longer and according to my writing file I wrote 24325 words for these ficlets (It may look like I'm oh so well organised with all these numbers and I want to make sure that you understand, I am not like that! I'm just lucky that these programs give me numbers). So, take that, yelling brain. Well done me. 

I had a paragraph here about fuck all that looking back, let's go forward. I mean, this last year did its very best to stay as a messy shitshow in our memory, at least if you're the kind of person who wishes for a just, peaceful, and sustainable world. But after writing that paragraph up there, I think you should also look back. Even if you didn't achieve everything you wanted to, look at the small victories too and celebrate them. It's good for you.

My look into the future: Finishing and publishing is my forever goal and that's what I'll keep doing, be it fanfic or original fiction. I have several half finished things going on and way too many ideas for more books. (Sticking to one genre? Wouldn't know her.)

As always, finding and scheduling the time to write is the crucial task and I'm still trying to figure out how to combine life, work, reading, gaming, TV watching, and writing into the day. How do people do this? Somehow sleeping has to factor into this too, right? I guess it's back to a daily hour of writing, either in the morning, or in the afternoon. A fixed point in the schedule.  

Here at the-wip-project, I already hinted at a new project for the beginning of the year. I'm calling it "Getting to know your story (through writing it)". I'll make a separate post for it.

What are your plans for the coming month?

Have a good start into the new year!

~barbex

[boilingrain]

It's really annoying how even after the gameplay showcase, some people are still claiming that Tears of the Kingdom "looks like DLC" (which it doesn't, and I could go on and on about why) because it reuses some assets from Breath of the Wild.

By that logic, just about every other direct sequel in this series is DLC.

And I don't know about you, but I haven't seen anybody whine & complain that Majora's Mask looks like Ocarina of Time DLC because it reuses a lot of assets.

Plus we've already seen some significant changes to the map (even excluding the sky islands) and some of the models (mainly the monsters, as we haven't seen many characters yet) so it's obviously not the exact same Hyrule. However TotK is still a SEQUEL! It takes place in the same Hyrule, just some time after the events of the previous game.

Tears of the Kingdom is going to have very different mechanics and a different story (though, this is a Zelda game. There's definitely going to be some story elements that are more or less the same). Most of the reused stuff from its predecessor are probably just going go be stuff like items, models and probably some textures or something.

Use your brain and realize that a sequel sharing some (not all) assets with its predecessor isn't a super weird thing (especially when it comes to the Legend of Zelda) and that doesn't automatically mean that it "Looks like DLC" of that previous game.

[melit0n]

Give me five whole minutes.

Credits: Me

[theotherrichardpapen]

...because any moment may be our last. everything is more beautiful because we're doomed.

[help-me-find-a-name-please-lol]

i have depriving myself down to an art form

[seventh-district]

.

[kyofsonder]

Physically, I'm already lying down.

Emotionally, I feel like I need to find a soft spot and crumple dramatically to the ground and lay down for a few weeks.

[lesenbyan]

I will not start a project with denim when I've been awake for 19 hours. I will not start a project with denim with I've been awake for 19 hours. I will not start a project with denim when I've been awake for 19 hours. I will not-

[wolpatinga]

[silverselfshippingchaos]

r.une is so awesome! he's the kindest guy ever and I always drop by the thieves guild whenever I'm not doing anything just to hear his pretty voice

[youremyonlyhope]

Me last night at 3am: I'm gonna wake up early tomorrow. Or at least earlier. I'm gonna get this sleep schedule somewhat under control!

Me at 10am: *Wakes up. Snoozes my alarm for 2 hours*

Me at 12pm: Well. Getting out of bed at 12 is better than 2 like yesterday.

Me from 5pm to about 7pm: *takes a nap in an armchair*

Me right now at 4am: God why am I not sleepy yet?

[izzy-b-hands]

My doctor messaging me at 12:30 in the morning to tell me she wants to do a telehealth visit abt the side effects I'm having with my new Lamotrigine dose (including worse insomnia than my usual insomnia, as u may have guessed lmao) is. something.

[yu3s]

** i think reading dungeon meshi and frieren and witch hat atelier at the same time does something irreversibleto you... .