#Like if I had to have a shitty middle for a solid start and end SO BE IT

[freakova]

Me after walking out of the fnaf movie:

[gayraeofsun]

i just really want to scream about this movie into the void because it was so well done, and i doubt anyone will really see this but i don't really have anyone i could have a deep discussion about this with.

trigger warning and spoiler warning ahead for the movie blink twice. content ahead discusses themes around sa, including r*pe, drugging, manipulation, and general physical/verbal abuse.

i don't keep up with any previews or recent movie releases much anymore, so i was going into this movie almost completely blind like i do with most new movies anymore. i had seen one preview, but it was apparently plain and simple enough for me to mostly forget about it. the irony in that will be made known a bit later on.

the movie automatically opens with a screen that displays a trigger warning, which is something that i had been seeing for the first time in any kind of visual media. normally these things are already listed by the ratings, but as a sa survivor who had no idea what this movie was going to be, it was a good thing to see so i could brace myself for what was to come. do i think this is necessary for any and every movie of this kind? no, it feels a little redundant (again, these things are typically included in the ratings). and, well, asking me to not watch if it would upset me is kind of a no deal, since i paid for a ticket and popcorn to see this on the big screen.

we're immediately introduced to our two main characters, two best friends, and it's hard to not immediately fall for their relationship with each other. so playful and silly and ridiculous, you can immediately tell they adore each other's company in their shitty job living in their shitty apartment, and you can tell that they're written by a woman who loves these characters and wants to portray them as relatable people. the interactions between the whole cast of girls, i think, was just outstandingly done. they felt realistic, not constantly shitting on each other and fighting for the attention of the men (though some jealousy of that fashion is still portrayed). they were all there enjoying the island and they ended up bonding together wonderfully. they were funny without being over-the-top rude or nasty or promiscuous, as is portrayed commonly in female characters in popular media. i can't and won't stop gushing over how much these characters felt just like real life girls that i was hanging out with.

this movie was really great at putting a pit in your stomach and slowly making it grow. of course, the trigger warning at the beginning spoils what's to come, so for me the pit was there from the start. any sensible person who's been socialized to be a woman will know, you don't ever just run away with some random ass group of men you don't know to the middle of nowhere with no cell service. but the little things that make the main character, frida, stop and question are so subtle, and so easily dismissed to start with. the used lip gloss in the drawer, the available clothes despite being an "unexpected" guest, the weird cleaning staff. but they increasingly get more odd. the island is full of venomous snakes and they all have to be killed on sight. something about these flirty interactions isn't quite right anymore, and he's talking about repressed memories. what day even is it? why am i always waking up with dirt under my nails?

who even knows or cares though, since we're all high and/or drunk 24/7. welcome to paradise!

it builds and builds until it begins to unravel, slowly and then all at once as the girls come to the realization of what happens to them every night when they get unbelievably high after dinner. the bond between the first two to piece it together was outstanding, and i love that there wasn't a cheap "find the phones and call authorities" plan. they worked out why that wouldn't work at all, because who would they believe? the "hysterical bitches" making claims without any kind of solid evidence, or the rich white man who's now a reformed soul and probably good friends with some of the cops?

the ending is not a happy one, in my eyes, though i believe it was probably supposed to be portrayed as one? two girls live and three girls die by the end. the ringmaster (ceo) of the whole thing ends up accidentally taking his own forgetfulness juice and suddenly doesn't understand what's going on and why all his friends are dead or have been otherwise brutalized. he knocks over lit candles and then trips and knocks himself out in his stupor, and the island burns down, the photographic evidence (that was later discovered) and all. i thought it was just going to end there and we would be left with the ambiguous ending, and that's never satisfying and feels very overdone anymore.

but instead, we're given a scene where our main character is now the ceo of the company, and legally married to the man who lured her away and horrifically abused her. twice. i interpreted this as her getting her own form of justice/revenge. i doubt she gives him half the treatment he gave her, but now she controls him and everything he owns and knew, and gets every bit of respect she wants. he killed her best friend and two other girls after overpowering the lot of them every single night. in a perfect world, he'd get tried and punished for his crimes legally. but all the evidence of it ever happening burned to the ground. so this is what she does to cope. in the final scene, she seems very satisfied, more than pleased to make her new husband's old crew squirm. she becomes the thing that destroyed her and so many others (but yk, most likely without the rapist cult).

one character i very suddenly grew interested in was the scrawniest boy in the group. he flies perfectly under the radar and doesn't appear in many of scenes that portray the gruesome sa. the one where he's in clear view, he appears to be another victim, trying to flee from one of the bigger men and receiving a black eye, which he would have no memory of getting the next morning. he's told by one of the girls that he smells nice, most likely referencing the perfume that was making them forget everything. it seemed very clear that he was in a victim role here as well, likely also being sa-ed. but he's never seen bound and gagged with the girls.

his final scene gets interesting when the ceo berates him for doing nothing to help the girls the entire time (yeah, the same ceo millionaire who's been basically orchestrating this whole sick fucking show in his perfect little getaway island). how he thinks there's a special place in hell for people who sit and do nothing in the face of evil. there are two very different ways to interpret this. 1) he wasn't actually getting drugged and abused with the girls, and was there as someone who didn't actively participate in abusing the girls, but also didn't do anything to try to stop it either. this could be blatant commentary on the two types of evil; while "not all men" r*pe and abuse people, not enough men will speak out against it or try to run to the victim's defense. or 2) the ceo was casting blame onto someone who was genuinely confused as to what was happening (which seems to ring true in both scenarios), and someone who was also a victim and stuck in a completely helpless situation. both could hold some level of truth, but ultimately i read him as the latter, thinking he was meant to represent the less common male victim. he gets killed by one of the girls, who wasn't specifically targeting him but also wasn't taking any chances, and that's the last we see of him. in my eyes he could either be read as the kind of evil that merely observes and therefore was rightfully murdered, or he could represent his male victims often get forgotten about or less acknowledged, which could speak as to why he was killed off so quickly never to be discussed again.

and i've gotta say, one thing i really appreciate about the scenes depicting r*pe is that it put a lot of the focus on the r*pists and not their victims. they were careful to not show any nudity or any shots of the women getting r*ped, but still showed them getting forced down when they tried to flee. i have not personally seen any other graphic scenes of this nature in other movies, but from what i hear a lot of it can get rather pornographic, and i feel like that's incredibly distasteful when you're trying to depict something that's absolutely vile. this movie does a great job of getting the absolute terror of the moment across without compromising any of the actresses by posing them seductively or showing off their bodies, and same goes for the men (if you don't count a couple of them being shirtless).

the writing is so wonderful, and the little clues as to what's happening beneath the surface are so good and plentiful. this is a movie that i don't think i'd ever be able to sit through again, but the sense of dread that continued to grow and grow will surely stick with me. it was very darkly funny in many places, which did great to break up some of the tension. for anyone who was able to stomach it, i would highly recommend watching through it once you're able. i think it was outstandingly well done and handled certain things as well as it could without watering any of it down.

[captainsophiestark]

Happy Ending

Luke Castellan x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Day 22 Prompt: "Who takes care of you?"

Summary: What if Luke had come by to see Y/N, his pre-betrayal best friend and SO, instead of Annabeth between books 3 and 4?

Word Count: 4,189

Category: Angst, Fluff

A/N: I really loved the vibes of this post by @m4gp13 so this is very loosely inspired by it, even though the main body of the story doesn't have much to do with it lol

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I sighed, staring at the piles of boxes on the floor of my dorm room. The spring semester of my second year of college was just coming to a close, and I still had a lot to do to be ready for everything after it finished. I was moving into my own apartment for the summer, and needed to move from the dorm room to my new apartment. As soon as that was over, I'd planned a visit to Camp Half-Blood, the training camp for heroes I kept going back to, even though I was technically an adult.

I needed to pack everything in my dorm, move it to my apartment, and then be able to unpack everything I'd need for a few weeks visiting camp. This packing job would need to be strategically worthy of Athena.

I'd just barely managed to psych myself up to get started when a knock came at my door. I huffed a sigh, but I really didn't mind the distraction all that much.

"Coming!" I called. I glanced out the peep hole, then froze solid when I saw Luke Castellan staring back at me.

My heart stopped dead in my chest. I looked again and saw he had no monsters with him, at least not visibly, but I couldn't understand why he would come here without them.

Luke had been one of my closest friends in the world since we met as kids, on the run together from our mutually shitty families. We'd met first, then found Thalia and Annabeth after. Luke and I were the same age, and we'd been thick as thieves since day one, Hermes pun intended. As we'd gotten older, a small crush I'd had on Luke had grown massive, and luckily for me he'd returned my feelings. We'd been happily dating and in love ever since, until two summers ago, when he'd betrayed me and every single one of our friends and joined Kronos.

I'd barely talked to him since. We only had contact once and a while, and every time, it went the same way. I was hurt, he was apologetic but not willing to change any of his decisions. Me and the rest of Camp fought him and his monsters, and I tried not to fall apart at the loss of the love of my life.

The distraction provided by college had been a serious, serious relief.

But now, Luke was here. In the middle of space where I very intentionally avoided thinking about him, on my doorstep for whatever reason. And I had no idea what to do.

"Y/N? I know you're in there. I'm here under a flag of truce. I just want to talk."

Just like that, any desire to duck and hide crumbled. The rational part of my brain screamed at me that he could be lying, that this might just be a trap, but I ignored it. After everything we'd been through, if Luke said he wanted to talk, I wanted to hear him out.

I opened the door, and Luke's shoulders sagged with relief when he saw me. I wanted to dart forward and wrap him in a hug, something I hadn't been able to do in two years, but I held myself back. Luke shifted a little from foot to foot, looking incredibly awkward, so after a second's hesitation I stepped to the side.

"Would you like to come in?"

He gave me a suspicious look, like he thought it was a trap or a trick or something. My heart shattered in my chest. How had things gone this wrong, that we stood on opposite sides of the door as basically strangers?

"My house is a mess, because I'm in the middle of packing up to move, but... if you want to talk, Luke, I feel like the hallway isn't gonna be the best place to do it."

He gave me a curt nod, not quite meeting my eyes as he walked past me into my apartment. I glanced down the hallway, taking one last look to make sure we didn't have any lingering monsters, but things were deserted. I sighed and went back into my apartment, closing the door behind me.

I found Luke hovering in the space between the kitchen and the living room, surveying things with a strange look on his face. I moved toward him carefully, not getting too close in case I spooked him.

"Do you want some tea or something? I haven't packed my electric kettle yet-"

"I think tea might take longer than the five minutes I promised."

I turned to look at Luke, raising one eyebrow in challenge, a little bit of our old rapport back. He shifted his weight around and glanced towards the door, then met my eyes again.

"Luke... is some giant monster going to burst through my door in five minutes? Or an army of small monsters, or anything under that general monster-army umbrella?"

"What? No, no, there's... no. I'm here under a flag of truce. There's nothing coming to hurt you, and when I leave... I'll leave."

"Okay then," I said, deciding not to comment on just how shaken and pale Luke looked, at least not right now. "Then I'm giving you a pass on the five minutes. And electric kettles take like two seconds anyway, seriously. They're magical."

Luke huffed, shaking his head as an incredulous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. My heart squeezed, but I made myself move towards the kitchen and act like things were normal.

"Take a seat, Luke. Or come pick your tea."

Luke took the second option, and my heart doubled its speed when I felt him hovering behind me, closer than we'd been in a long time if you didn't count combat. He leaned over my shoulder to point to the bag of black tea on my counter, and I nodded as I poured the hot water into our cups. I dropped two teabags in each of our drinks, then turned to Luke with a smile.

He stood a little more than a foot from me, and he took the cup from my hands carefully, like he didn't want this bubble of peace and normalcy to burst either. I stared into his beautiful, bright blue eyes, a smile growing on my face again despite myself. I'd missed this. A lot.

The moment lasted another few seconds, and then Luke cleared his throat and looked away. He took a tentative sip of his tea, then looked at me again, his face deadly serious.

"I don't know how to say this. I... I learned some things recently, about some plans I wasn't aware of before."

He paused and took another sip of his tea, and his hand shook a little as he brought the mug away from his lips. Shock coursed through my body as I realized Luke was scared.

"Kronos, he- he's going to use me. He's going to use me to take over the world. This summer... he's going to use me like a stepping stone, until he gets so much power he's unstoppable."

"Luke... what are you saying?"

His eyes had wandered to stare holes in the wall of my kitchen while he'd talked, but now they snapped back to me, wide and full of urgency.

"I'm saying I want to run away. I want us to run away, like the old days. Before... before he gets the chance to carry out his plan."

I stared at Luke for a few minutes, then shook my head, scoffing and pushing past him into the living room of my house. I paced a little, trying to make sense of what he'd just told me. What he'd just asked of me.

"Luke... I don't know what to say!" I finally admitted, completely honest as I turned back to him. He watched me, his expression guarded. "I don't... I don't think I can just run away. Not from the life I've managed to build, not from our friends still here and risking their lives!"

"So that's it, then?" he asked, taking a few steps forward, his tone angry. "Your answer's no?"

I huffed a laugh, staring at anything in the room except for Luke and trying to think. My brain was working a million miles an hour, but I still needed a little bit of time to think things through. But I wasn't sure I had time.

"Okay, Luke, can we sit down for a minute? Actually talk about this?" I said, taking slow steps towards him. I set my mug down on the nearest table, then reached out to gently rest my hands on his. A storm of emotions raged behind his eyes, but he didn't stop me or pull away. "This is a lot to take in all at once. Can we work through this together?"

His jaw worked like he was holding back some retort, but he let me pull him along towards the couch. Slowly, together, we sank down onto the cushions. I only pulled one hand back, and made sure our knees rested against each other, hoping it would do something to help keep Luke grounded.

"I don't want to run," I said simply, meeting his eyes. He opened his mouth, looking ready with an outburst again, but I continued before he could. "But Luke, think about it. Where are we gonna go that he doesn't find you, especially if he wants to? Monsters can sniff us out. We'd never, ever be able to live another day without looking over our shoulders."

Luke's shoulders sagged, and he shook his head miserably as he stared at the half-full mug in his hand.

"Then there's no hope."

"That's not what I said. And it's also not true." Luke scoffed, shooting me a look out of the corner of his eye. I looked right back. "If you don't want to follow through on what Kronos is asking of you, why not just come back with me? To Camp, to my somewhat normal life. I have an apartment with space for two. You could even enroll with me next semester, if you wanted to."

Luke shook his head. He pursed his lips as he raised his head to meet my eyes again.

"And let the Olympians continue exploiting us? Let them keep destroying people and lives because we don't matter to them?"

I huffed a sigh. "Look, I'm not their biggest fan either, but right now it seems like it's 'let Kronos kill you' or 'stop fighting the Olympians'."

Luke shook his head again, more energized this time, more angry. He stared at the wall ahead of us, the same hurt and bitterness I'd seen from him over the years burning in his eyes.

"It's just not right. There should be something we can do. Something that isn't Kronos, but isn't letting the Olympians win."

And just like that, a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Luke... what if there was a way we could do that?"

****************

That night, Luke and I stayed up until almost two in the morning brainstorming and working out the details of my plan. When we finally decided to get some sleep, he stayed with me, and curling up in the same tiny twin bed, falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, had me more at peace and ease than I had been in a long, long time.

The next morning, we finalized a few things over breakfast. Then, there was nothing left to do but put our plan into action.

Luke stayed in the apartment, tasked with keeping his head down and finishing packing for me, since I had other places I had to be. Namely, Camp Half-Blood. A little earlier than I'd talked about with Chiron, and hopefully, before the place was crawling with campers for the summer.

Thankfully, it didn't take me too long to get to Camp. I arrived a little after lunch and found the place expectedly deserted. From the top of the hill, I could see some of the year-rounders moving around the lake. I tried to keep them from noticing me as I headed straight for the Big House.

I paused just outside the front door to steel my nerves one last time, then marched inside. I found Chiron and Mr. D sitting together, apparently deep in conference. They both looked up when they noticed me, matching looks of surprise on their faces (although Chiron's had a noticeably happier edge to it).

"Y/N! We weren't expecting you for another few weeks-"

"I'm not staying for long. Something just came up that I needed to talk to you about right away. To both of you, actually, especially Mr. D."

He raised a bored eyebrow in my direction but otherwise didn't move. Chiron motioned to a chair at the table.

"By all means, please."

"That's alright, I think I'll stand," I said. I took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders and straightening my spine. I would not back down, wouldn't leave until I'd succeeded. Luke and I's future depended on it.

I took a moment to make very intentional, determined eye contact with Mr. D. His other eyebrow raised.

"I'm here to bargain for a pardon for Luke Castellan."

Silence. Both Chiron and Mr. D just stared at me for a few long moments, then turned to look at each other. Chiron looked concerned, but Mr. D burst out laughing.

"He's a traitor and an enemy of Olympus! This has all been very boring and ridiculous, and a waste of our time. Get out."

Mr. D's last word had a firey threat behind it, but I didn't flinch.

"You and the rest of the Olympians are perfectly aware what a threat Kronos presents. Everybody's getting scared, and they should be. He's got a plan for returning to his Titan form, the one he had before he was defeated the first time, before Zeus cut him apart and cast him into Tartarus. And it's a plan that he can definitely make succeed.

"Luke knows all about this plan. Obviously. And he's willing to defect and tell you all about it, so we can stop it before it happens. But you have to give him a complete pardon, sworn on the River Styx by Zeus."

Mr. D snorted again, this time raising from his chair and taking a few threatening steps towards me. I still didn't back down.

"Y/N, listen," Chiron interrupted, shuffling forward a little bit to stand partially in between me and Mr. D. "If you have information that could save Olympus and the camp-"

"Oh, I have some. Just like Chris Rodriguez had some. But Luke has all of it. And you're not getting any of it without giving him a pardon first."

"Or we could force it out of you before finding your little boyfriend and doing the same to him," said Mr. D, his tone light but his eyes blazing. Chiron started to step in again, but I spoke up before he got the chance.

"You haven't been able to find him this long, you won't be able to find him now. And anybody who knows anything about interrogations knows that torture just plain and simple doesn't work for getting information." Mr. D grunted, but we both knew I had him there. "Besides, if Luke gets his pardon, that means more than just getting all the information from Kronos' former right hand man. It also means that Kronos loses said right hand man, who's been organizing and leading a lot of the work so far."

Chiron and Mr. D shared a look, and I tried not to let it show just how much my heart was racing. For the first time since I'd walked in here, I actually felt a glimmer of hope that my plan might succeed. Chiron turned back to me, the worried look still on his face.

"Y/N... what makes you so confident that Luke wants to defect?"

"He sought me out," I answered simply, trying to dance around his location at least a bit. "He's realizing quickly just how bad Kronos would and could be, and he's scared. Terrified. He wants a way out, so when he found me, he asked me to run away with him. I suggested trying this plan first, mostly so I don't have to leave behind everyone else I love. But also because, this way, you might stand a chance against Kronos that you wouldn't have if we'd left without offering information."

The conversation continued for almost another hour, centered mostly around Mr. D making threats and, when I didn't back down, reminding me that I was trying to demand something of Zeus. He made plenty of good points, but I'd thought through all the ways this plan could go terribly, painfully wrong with Luke before I'd come here. I wasn't going to give in, for anything.

Finally, after restating my points and my argument a few times, Mr. D agreed to bring my request to Mount Olympus. I waited anxiously in the Big House with Chiron, whose brow remained deeply creased the entire time. I didn't engage, intentionally avoiding the conversation he looked like he wanted to have, but I saw him watching me out of the corner of my eye.

I started to get worried as the evening came, but finally, Mr. D reappeared. The first time he'd delivered his news, I honestly hadn't believed him. I asked him to repeat himself, which he rolled his eyes over, but the words were the same. Somehow, by some miracle, I'd managed to succeed.

Zeus was willing to give Luke his pardon in exchange for information and defecting.

I wasn't a complete idiot, so made sure the terms were clear when Mr. D brought me to Olympus to witness the oath. The words covered any retaliation, punishment, or harm that might come to Luke, and completely prevented it. Zeus spoke the words and the sky rumbled with lightning. I tried not to shake in relief or from the adrenaline dump as I bowed and promised he wouldn't regret his decision. Hermes shot me a grateful look on my way out, and I returned his nod. He'd been awful to Luke, but we were aligned in not wanting to see him dead, and I got the feeling Hermes had been helpful in pleading my case.

When we returned to the Big House, I headed for the door as quickly as possible, promising to bring Luke back with me in a week when I'd been planning to return anyway. I still had to move out and then move in to a new place again, and Luke had assured me that week of time wouldn't cost the war.

I raced back home, breaking almost every traffic law in the process, but I didn't care at all. I called out to Luke from the hallway, so he wouldn't be scared when I flung the door open, then rushed to wrap him in a giant hug. We sank to the floor together, crying in relief, and stayed like that for a long, long time.

The next week felt like a dream. Luke and I finished packing up my old apartment, then moved together into the new one, which we'd started calling 'ours'. We had to duck monsters a few times, and Luke was still in significant danger, but this time we were on the same side. As we settled into our new place on the last night before we were supposed to head back to camp, I quite literally couldn't have been happier.

It was a little strange returning to camp with Luke, but I quickly got over my own concerns when I saw how tense he was. I held his hand the whole way in, and thankfully, we'd still managed to get here before most of the summer campers. Luke and I sat shoulder to shoulder in the Big House while he told Mr. D and Chiron everything about Kronos and his operation. It took hours, and I could tell Luke struggled to get a lot of it out. But he did.

It had taken long enough that we decided to stay the night, even though I could see Luke clearly didn't want to. We stayed in the Big House, and the next morning, we finished the last of the intel-sharing before heading back home.

Chiron stopped Luke on the way out the door with a hand on his shoulder and said he was so happy to have Luke back. Luke just nodded, but I squeezed his hands as I noticed a single tear making its way down his cheek as we left.

"You know..." I said as we climbed in the car. I was driving, and Luke stared determinedly out the window. "Chiron's probably not the only one who'd be happy to have you back. There might be some apology tour type-stuff, but for the most part... I think you'd get a warm welcome home."

Luke just gave a noncommittal grunt, and I let it go. That was a bridge we could cross later.

For now, we still had one final part of our plan to put into action.

The reason Luke had joined Kronos in the first place was because he'd been neglected by his Olympic parent, especially since his mortal parent had been in such a bad place. He'd discovered the hard way that Kronos was no better alternative, but the fact remained that the gods used their mortal children at best, and at worst completely ignored them for their entire lives.

We needed to find a third option, some middle ground way to make things better. So, we decided to be the change we wanted to see.

As legal adults with a newly moved-in apartment that had a decent amount of space, we had the power to make our home a space for demigods who had nowhere else to go. If their immortal parents were neglecting them and things weren't good with their mortal parent either, they could come to us. For a little while, or to stay for good. We made our own little sanctuary, then shared it with all the kids like us who'd needed it.

Over time, the operation expanded, and we moved into a bigger apartment with more space. Thanks in part to Luke and I, Camp Half-Blood won the war, and we were able to do even more once Kronos stopped being a threat. What had started as not much more than a dream of doing good had turned into a loud, busy, happy house with people constantly coming and going.

Which is how we'd ended up in an alleyway talking to a scared teenager, after helping defeat a monster who'd been bearing down on him.

"Who takes care of you?" asked Luke, a sympathetic and understanding frown on his face as we stood a little ways from the kid. We didn't want to make him uncomfortable, but we'd gotten good at spotting the signs of a young Half-Blood in distress and helping them.

"I take care of myself," the kid spit. I tried not to glance at Luke.

"We used to do that, too," I said, moving a little closer to Luke. "We both ran away from home, survived on the streets, although I guess we really took care of each other."

"Now, we take care of people like you," Luke continued, right where I'd left off. "Do you know what you are?"

The kid hesitated, then half shook his head. He at least had some idea, then.

"You're a Half-Blood," I said. "Half mortal, half immortal Olympian god."

"...What?"

"Look, I know it's a lot to process," said Luke. "But the longer the three of us sit in this alley, the more likely it is another monster's gonna come and pick a fight."

We managed to get the kid up and moving, heading back for our apartment. On the way, we explained more about the Olympians, and told him about Camp Half-Blood.

"It's a good place to get training, and to meet other Half-Bloods like you," I said. "A place for heroes."

"It's only one option, though," Luke added. The kid nodded, looking a little overwhelmed but excited as we stopped outside our apartment door.

"And... what's the other option?"

Luke and I shared a smile, then he pushed open the door to our apartment.

Inside, we were immediately greeted with a wave of noise and excitement. We'd left Ethan Nakamura, one of the Half-Bloods Luke had met away from camp, in charge, and he'd been leading the rest of our group in basic combat lessons.

"What... what is this place?"

"A place for normal kids who need somebody to take care of them," Luke answered. "You'll still get training, since monsters will always be trying to kill you."

"But we won't ever ask anything of you, other than to do your own damn dishes," I said. "No dangerous quests, no tribute to the gods. Just our own little makeshift family going through life together."

Luke put his arm around me, pulling me into his side and kissing my temple as Ethan noticed our newcomer and waved him over to join in the fun. Luke and I stayed where we were, watching the bubble of happiness we'd made together with smiles on our faces. We'd gone through hell and back to get here, but as far as I was concerned, every moment of pain had been worth it for Luke and I's happy ending.

****************

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Percy Jackson Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[canonizzyhours]

Re 171 (preemptively fuck terfs and Nazis op no longer engages with the Harry Potter fandom but it is a part of fandom history)

Yeah this happens like, all the fucking time. Kylo Ren and Severus Snape are the most famous examples of shitty white guys in fandom who have or had an obsessive standom that insists they've never done anything wrong ever and woobified the shit out of them. There are many many many others I just use those two as examples because they're incredibly indicative of like an archetype that Izzy follows to a T. Shitty white man is broody, bears grudges, has anger issues, is given little or no depth, dresses in black, has no friends, allies themselves with or is part of a fundamentally bigoted force because they feel a certain type of way about the good guys (be they his own parents, the main character's parents, or the main character himself). He amasses a standom and then later he gets revealed to have some depth because he got such a solid reaction that the creators feel like they should do something fun with him, the standom starts to feel vindicated, and then he fucking dies because of course he dies and the standom implodes. MASSIVE bonus points on these guys if they're kind of an incel for some reason. They love to go "oh but Snape was in love with Lily" "oh but Kylo was in love with Rey" "oh but Izzy was in love with Ed" and it's super fucking creepy every time they do it. A lot of people in a lot of desperate fandoms really genuinely think that being in love with someone who doesn't like you back justifies being a shitty boss/middle manager, murder, calling the British Navy on a crew that's 50% non white and 100% pirates and sodomites, domestic abuse, bullying children, torture, and being a fucking Nazi (non exhaustive list of things fannish types have justified by saying but he was in love). Like there's differences between these characters obviously, Izzy didn't join up with the navy he just made a deal with them and also he was well written unlike the other two, JK Rowling genuinely thinks that Snape did nothing wrong because shes actually kind of a fascist, Rey ended up sort of half way getting with Kylo because their whole writing strategy was fanservice, but ultimately this is a well known type of Blorbo: the greasy incel we make excuses for. There's more of them these assholes are prolific I'm just listing the two everyone knows about and the one this blog is about.

#175.

related posts: #171

[thelesbododo]

Hi! I'm bored so why dont we talk about some Dead Plate facts from that can be used for Au's and fics :)

I'm also gonna share some of my ideas and/or opinions

(I do ship Rody and Vince, so if you don't like the ship, please skip this post or ignore it)

-Green for fact

(Purple for ideas/opinions)

- Rody is said to have a mesomorph somatotype/medium build and is said to be stronger than he seems even with his poor lifestyle. Having said that, it's also canon that if you were to arm wrestle Rody, he would accidentally break your arm.

(This can literally work for almost any scenario, Rody has to protect Vince, smut purposes, an au where Rody is a fighter of some sort, or he just fucking picks Vince up for some reason.)

- Rody lives in a shitty, unclean apartment

(Kinda makes me think of depression rooms. Maybe potential to mame an excuse for a rody/vince roommate au or angst fic)

- He had a childhood dog named Brie

(Like the cheese lmao. Has fluff fic potential)

- He was a gifted child, who managed to get into a prestigious college, most likely the same one as Vince considering everyone at the dinner party went to college with Vince and at least one of them knew Rody from college

(I have a feeling that they wouldn't have gotten along very well in college due to how the others described their college personalites but I like the idea of enemies to lovers, or an unlikley pairing college au and since Rody is both bi and biphobic that would be a cool plot point. Also, a love triangle between manon, vince, and Rody)

- Rody never gets sick and has extremely excellent and can survive eating food that is literally years old

(Two different routes, vince see rody eating like this and personally handles it, or vince gets sick/food poisoning and rody takes care of him)

- Vince is a lightweight

(Can lead to him revealing his plans to rody or smth else)

- If Vince managed to succeed in executing his plan and then realized that it didn't actually bring back his taste, he surprisingly would become haunted by the fact he killed two people. Rody, on the other hand, would willingly hide a body if Manon had told him to

(It's an interesting thing to think about because it means that Vince is less crazy than we thought, but Rody might be the opposite. It makes me wonder whether or not Rody actually cared that much after he killed Vince and only cared that manon was dead. It honestly didn't seem like it. Also Stalker and/or yandere Rody would be cool.)

- Vince wears contacts, and on the occasion that he looses them, he wears glasses

(I feel like Rody would find this cute or smth, and then question why he felt that way)

-Vincent has insecurities about the absence of emotional depth in his food.

(Rody canoniclly calls Vince out on this, and we see vince is visibly upset. Maybe a fic where Vince's food progressively gets better as he gets closer to Rody and rody starts complimenting the food and enjoying eating it)

- The guitar in his possession was originally used by his father to propose to his mother and was later gifted to him with the expectation of a similar romantic gesture.

(So much fucking potential here, like they play their instruments together, or Vince listens to Rody play and realizes he's inlove, or Rody directs said romantic gesture at Vince)

- Rody is presumably born into a middle- class family that experiences enough financial problems that he dropped out of college despite being a gifted child

(Vince helping out with the money troubles would be so cute)

Other fun facts:

- If Vincent never met Rody, he would have led a successful life, building a business empire, gaining worldwide fame, and passing away on May 17th, 2013, at the age of 68-73 without experiencing romantic love

- Vincent had consumed worms during his childhood

- Vince processes all his food into smoothies as the texture of solid food grosses him out

- The reward dishes presented at the end of shifts are exclusively crafted by Vince, not the chefs, and are specifically tailored for Rody.

- Vincent used to have a long hair in college.

- Although Vincent dislikes the rat in his kitchen, Vincent generally exhibits kindness towards animals.

[extravagantliar]

veilguard spoilers ahead - as it has been fifteen days and Knife time

I haven't been explicit with the words, even though y'all know my thoughts.

I am glad he's dead. Oh my God.

NOW ONLY WE the people CAN FUCK WITH HIM

I cried like a baby the first thirty minutes because Tepid got the first run, and I will tell you this: Tepid said wait, hold on, but as soon as Solas opened his big mouth, I was like yep, he's cooked, put me in the ground too.

Let's briefly break it down to explain why I clocked it in as the knife went in. Peepaw is fifty-one— at most fifty-two at the start of datv, and he chooses to walk up a set of stairs and get into a hand fight with a man with a loaded gun. One, he's not that strong anymore. Rook helped him up over a barrier - which can be chalked up to being nice, but if we're playing in this sand box here's the truth - peepaw has been on a horse and walking around Thedas because Charter said so and is not in great shape at the start of DATV. He's tired, and this is an exhausted man's last march; you can call it if you listen and hear Varric ask Rook to take care of the team. Okay, Phil Coulson, see you in Agents of Shield for some reason.

To be honest with you Varric could have taken Solas in a fight in the middle of DAI - but to me that stops at the well.

Solid delivery and diabolical, very few notes. I love the elves, but I hate the skirting they get. Solas I am kissing you on your big bald dumb head, there are at least four ways around what you have to do and I love that you pick the messiest way each time. My favourite ending for him is the one where he goes a bit loony toon villain at the end. I get he was mad, but it's the same thing as the blood magic line; I listened to your funny words in Haven, magic man; I know who you are. Maybe. You're the star of the show. You're awful and the worst. Cried like a baby when Tepid's Inky and Solas chose to go to fade jail together.

I liked all the companions, but you can guess who I was most happy to have in the party at all times. Banter was good, I wish the team had more time to bicker and grow, but that's a me thing. Shorter timeline for this game than the last three - likely weeks or months rather than months and years.

However, I do not personally like the way Varric's death was handled outside of this. It makes my former little medical brain go mad because what do you mean your companions are just off letting Rook talk to what I assume is a table and a bed as Bianca is canonically in Harding's care - as the Xenon wants to buy her arms even in pieces. My dude, Rook, is so massively concussed. As I have had a concussion that should have killed me - someone should have been watching Rook a touch closer. Also, my gripe with DAI and having Inky wake up on a bedroll to the four idiots fighting in the snow, and then Sunday School breaks out.

I know what is happening here, and I understand why they wrote it this way as Phil Coulson'd him into the lauder of Heroes in the Great Big Sky. The good thing is I can be critical of their choices, KNOW why they made them due to pressures from EA, and then carry on with my boat.

I am fine with his death, I think it's apt as they couldn't keep all the choices, and Blabbermouth knows like everyone. Catch the one string to Rook? POWER IMBALANCE.

So what does this mean for me?

Nothing.

This blog is here to stay - and my swerve verse is simple. If you want a DATV verse, great. Peepaw is alive, and he's got a massive hunk of lyrium in his chest, or he's rattling around with Solas saying shitty things because they're stuck, and he's about to either commit a crime or figure out if he can be the crime committed.

Also, doubling down, I have built six years of Kirkwall, and I'm sinking with that ship. I'm taking Sid and Nik with me, and that's it.

Sorry.

[mercymermaid]

i need to get my thoughts out there just stay with me

insane amount of sister location headcanons incoming!

the sister location animatronic cast is one massive extremely dysfunctional family

first of all, fuck ennard, this is pre michael's appearance, so he doesn't exist yet <3

ballora is the overall mother figure (i wonder fucking why) and the oldest and most calm, acting as the peacekeeper and trying to keep the rest of the cast calm enough to get shocked to help and back

baby is the little sister (mindblowing!), following ballora around like a little duckling, and is The Main Character (out of the cast, she has the most emo depression moments because she's the only one properly possessed) she's actually pretty shy and skittish at first, but opens up pretty quickly once you crack her shell

the bidybabs and minireenas have the comprehension capacity of literal toddlers, and waddle around all day, being feral creations that will follow anyone's command if they reward them with cuddles afterwards.

now. my favorite demons. the funtimes, the bons, and lolbit.

first of all, funtime foxy and funtime freddy are dating (funtime frexy for life, i can and will die on this hill), my favorite gay man ship ever. ft. foxy and lolbit are.. cousins? nobody knows what exactly they are, but they're similar enough to be directly related, so they roll with it. bonbon and bonnet have some complicated, old couple drama, and are constantly bickering, much to the annoyance and amusement of the rest of the cast. bonbon and ft. freddy are friends till the end, though, they are each other's ride or die (same with ft. foxy and lolbit)

lolbit is also the fucking psycho prankster. being a non-performing character, and having complete access to the location's networks, he has every opportunity ever to cause chaos. he likes to mess with the night guard, for one, but his favorite thing to do is to ruin ft. foxy's performances by changing the light and overall show cues completely, and instead of playing whatever music or audio that should be on, blasts rick rolls. this went on for a solid multiple months until management finally figured out the problem, and poor lolbit lost his overpowered admin access, leaving him very sad and helpless against the oncoming revenge by ft. foxy.

ballora, baby, the minireenas and bidybabs, bonnet, and ft. foxy have killer girls' nights where they give each other 'makeovers' (they're robots, there's not much they can do besides try and apply shitty makeup) and play a poor mockery of dress up with old night guard outfits, and talk trash about the night guards and the other animatronics, along with starting their Evil Plotting (i lied, that's all you get of ennard)

ft. freddy, ft. foxy, lolbit, and bonbon have the equivalent of middle school boy sleepovers on steroids. they steal workers' phones to try and record tiktoks like they've seen "the modern youth" (- lolbit) do, and cause overall destruction to the location. they just do the stupid stuff you'd think of when you hear the saying "girls live longer than men for a reason," because they're accidentally setting stoves on fire and struggling to operate the fire extinguisher, and at one point, lolbit accidentally turned every single light in the entire building into a non-stop strobe light for a solid two hours, until the system had to be restarted (thanks, handunit.)

yeah they're all deranged and silly and totally not killer machines at all thank you for coming to my ted talk

[thatonecherrypie]

So, I finally got to writing out some probably shitty HCs for that hero AU. I hope these are enjoyable!

- Vinnie has gecko-based powers; sticky fingers and feet, nocturnal vision, lower body temperature, etc. He got these abilities when he was a child and got a parasite by drinking out of a puddle. Even after years of tests, there's no sure answer as to why his body reacted this way, or as to why none of the symptoms went away after said parasite was removed. 

- Sunil's powers are mostly just his magic tricks like disappearing and reappearing, short distance teleportation, cool shit like that. He originally wanted to use his skills for entertainment but used them for heroics when he finally realized that he had the potential. He also has small premonitions that appear at random and leave him drained, paranoid and confused, because they rarely give him any solid warnings. These cause him to have major migraines and nausea. 

- They first met while both chasing the same villain(Pepper lmao), who ended up escaping due to Vinnie's impulsiveness. Sunil originally rejected the idea of partnering with Vinnie until Russell convinced him that their strengths and weaknesses would likely balance out and be beneficial

- Related to the last HC, Russell and Sunil work together. Russell is kind of like a manager for him who keeps tabs on stuff. 

- Vinnie is more of an impulsive, physical fighter, where Sunil is more careful and uses more mental tactics. Depending on the situation, this combination is either amazing or horrible 

- Vinnie wanted a super cool alias, but no matter how hard he tried to introduce new names, people just kept calling him “that one lizard dude.” That was until some kid online referred to him as Repto-Guy, and it stuck. Not as cool as Vinnie hoped for, but better than “oh, that guy”. 

- Sunil's hero name is Blue Phantom, even though it sounds a bit… evil to him. Russell was the one to actually come up with it, because “it works with your powers and it's cool and easy to remember! Trust me on this!” and like always, Russell was right

- It doesn't take very long for Sunil, Vinnie and Russell to all become a mini hero squad with Russell forming plans and Vinnie and Sunil actually acting them out. It works for them, but it's absolute chaos. 

- Because of his abilities, Vinnie's eyes are very reptile like, and seeing the way that they dilate and constrict for night vision can be very unsettling if you aren't ready for it. Sunil was, of course, not prepared for it and thought that he had confronted a demon 

- Sunil eventually starts having a ton of visions of Vinnie being injured or killed, so he starts being on high alert at all times and even starts snapping at Vinnie for being reckless at times. He feels incredibly guilty about being so harsh on him, but he's not about to let his partner die because of a thoughtless move

- Vinnie definitely tries to hit on Sunil but it's always at the worst times. Like they'll be fighting off guys that 100% intend to kill them, and in the middle of nowhere Vinnie's just like “y'know, you're kinda hot when you're fighting-” and Sunil never registers it because he's, you know, trying not to die 😭

- Bonus from the previous HC: they definitely all have communication devices, so Russell can hear all of what Vinnie says. And he'll just sit there, dropping his head into his hands and sighing as he hears these awful attempts at completely unsubtle flirting. 

[bloogers-boogers]

Kyle Brofloski/Eric Cartman & Stan Marsh/Eric Cartman

/mixed feelings/ part 1/3

Summary: After Kyle breaks up with Cartman he begins to have seconds thoughts about his choices after realizing Cartman's new developed feelings for Stan

~~~~~

"I'm telling you, dude. Cartman doesn't like me," Stan kept insisting after being interrogated by his best friend mid bathroom break.

He zipped up back his pants and went to the sink soaking his hands with soap and water.

"The way he looks at you, Stan, is how he used to look at me," Kyle hissed, placing a hand over his chest, "you got to believe me and be careful."

The raven boy gripped the bridge of his nose, "Okay, if and I'm just saying IF Cartman were to like me why do you care?"

Kyle mouth almost drop as he eyed Stan in disbelief by that solid question, "because.. because- it's Cartman!"

"Dude, you know I would never like him back if that's what you're worried about," his best friend commented casually as he grabbed a paper towel to dry his hands up.

"Why would I ever worry about that fat piece of shit liking someone else!" Kyle snap back defensive, cheeks were red as Santa's coat, "if I broke up with Cartman, it's because I realized sooner or later that relationship was going anywhere but to a mental clinic! I got some of my sanity back." Kyle blurted out as he paced around the bathroom, crossing his arms and facing away from Stan.

"O–Kay," said Stan nonchalantly, already done with the conversation. He walked towards the door and before he could push it open Kyle snapped, hugging him from the legs

"Please, Stan! I beg you, don't date Cartman!" He cried out pleading, burying his head in the soft fabric of his favorite grey pants covering it all with snot.

"God, alright! Jesus christ," Stan screamed baffled, as he had his arms extended up in the air not knowing what else to do.

Ofcourse Stan would never do that to Kyle, that's against all bro codes, and mostly being remotely interested in Cartman. It was actually quite offensive for his best friend to believe he even had that type of low standards.

Though, he didn't think Cartman could develop some sorta thing for him, yes, they had been hanging out more. But it's mostly due the fact of his break up with Kyle everthing was just so tense between them that they started drifting apart and hanging out separately.

"I won't ever date, Cartman," he forcefully promised, rolling his eyes by the annoying and unnecessary confrontation.

Kyle sniff, standing up and looking at him slightly more relieved, "promise?"

"Promise," Stan gestured the door, "can I go now?"

°°°°

"Do you want some of my fries, Stan?" Cartman offered by batting his eyes in a innocent manner.

Stan was left speechless, Cartman would never just offer food to anyone. He felt Kyle glare through his skin from the other table, he was already regretting sitting with Butters, Clyde and Cartman today.

He arched a brow, "What're you scheming, Cartman?"

The boy huffed, "wow, I can't be a good friend cause you think I want something in exchange? That offends me, hippie."

"I thought you wanted to be nice to Stan and see if you could go out on a date with him, Eric," Butters slipped up naively.

"Shut up, Butters!" Cartman snapped, flustered.

Okay, maybe Kyle was right after all. Stan's eyes widen in shock.

"Uh, yeah, I'm leaving," he stood up abruptly but Cartman grabbed his arm.

"Look, I really don't want to lose the only friend I have apart from Kenny," Cartman said desperately, Stan could see in his eyes that he genuinely meant that.

Stan felt pity how their group ended because of some shitty middle school romance, mostly for Cartman cause he is the most affected negatively considering they'll pick spending time with Kyle over him.

He sighed, "alright, fatboy. But just cause I'm no longer with Wendy doesn't give you the right to make moves on me or do any of your weird shit," he warned before letting go of Cartman's grip and leaving his tray on top of the trash bin being followed behind by Cartman; like some energetic puppy.

°°°°

Stan looked at the white board during class, his brows were knit together tight. On one side Kyle glare at him cautiously, on the other it was Cartman who looked at him in a dreamily manner.

This situation was gonna drive him nuts, there couldn't be a possible solution for all this could there?

Kyle was too stubborn to admit he still has feelings for Cartman, always had, he's just being stupidly in denial about. Even though he was the one to initiate things with Cartman and funny enough the one to end it after three weeks in.

Surprisingly Cartman was taking their relationship seriously, and indeed was in love with Kyle. It wasn't shocking to hear Cartman cry his guts out to Butters and Kenny about it, about how Kyle broke his heart demolishing every ounce of humanity left in him. Which was an exaggeration, but still, he understood why Cartman was so upset. He also understood what it's like to have your heart broken, so he tried comforting him in his own way at some points.

He really didn't do anything wrong, it was all Kyle's denial and acceptance. So it didn't feel wrong to blame Kyle for it, this time.

Kyle beforehand had been talking about being insecure of their relationship during the start of it all, and in the middle of said relationship was contemplating the possibilities and outcomes if it were everlasting. It's not like he didn't warn him to not worry about it too much, Kyle was always an overthinker. He reassured him that only time will tell, but that was never enough to ease Kyle's worries, ironically the only one that could calm that cloudy storm of his own crooked mind was Cartman.

Somehow even being mostly the outlet of Kyle's anger he was also the one that could mellow him down quickly when it came to random outbursts, like water to it's flame.

Would it be odd to compare Cartman to water? Not entirely, water could be anything at anytime, it's a liquid that could either be salty or sweet. It's beauty is captivating but just as it being captivating you could also drown, it can be deadly or chaotic.

Water could be rivers, oceans, ponds and even lakes.

Like a river it could be calm and fun even if that meant it could easily lure you down to a deadly trap like a waterfall, but like a lake it could trick you into having a nice time while also potentially leading you to a dangerous aftermath, like parasites or being sucked by blood drinking leaches. But, trails of water could also lead you to safety, security; when you're lost or need of guidance.

A pond with a beautiful exterior giving such a relaxing, admiring view to it all while also hiding in it's depths a possible dark secret laying around, being a perfect hideout for a corpse or dunking illegal weapons inside, potential links to countless crimes.

Let's not even talk about the ocean, so big that if you dive in too far you'll get lost, in a almost never lasting end. Waves strike you hard and is use as some barrier, a warning to not dive further.

But many never listen, diving in until it's too late to look back.

The weather constantly changing in there, so dangerous, so cold in it's nights. Yet the reflection of the moon shining against it making it all look magical. Still, we cannot live with out water. A mixture between beauty and horror.

Survival and guidance.

Calm to it's disaster.

Cartman was water to Kyle's flame.

Fire on the other side is known to be destructive, chaotic when it's spreads. But it's useful for protection, alerting, signaling help or killing parasites from raw food, keeping you warm, a comfortable outlet when used properly, help heal wounds and possible infections. Fire is a beautiful sight, the blossoming colors that'll drawn you in and want to try convincing you on putting your hand inside and take the pain just for the experience or possibly live pass it, immune; which is never a good thing.

It's beauty is a cover for the true nature that rises from flames and sparks.

People see fire as something entertaining, spiritual, some attempt to walk through a path of flaming rocks or jump pass it. To be one with fire or for mere fun.

The fact that fire is so knowingly of being destructive yet people find ways to play with it, get closer to it. Says how much it could be dismissed by it's damages. After all, fire is never to blame when it comes to the people that provoke it.

Or maybe he was just thinking too much? Now the raven boy wonders if spending much time in the literature club with Cartman was finally getting him.

He shrugged those thoughts away, trying to focus in class and ignore both his friends stares.

He clenched his hands while trying to not drift his sight on to one. He knew well enough to not get entangled between the two archrivals conflicted tension, but if felt inevitable by the position his lead in to.

He glanced at Cartman who blushed by being caught immediately looking the other way, attempting to act like he wasn't being so damn obvious on sending him mix signals of a possible crush.

Next —

[blessphemy]

i just remembered that time in elementary school where the kids were all assigned numbers (why?) and somehow the teacher seemed to have mixed up my number and the kid sitting next to me’s number

and let’s just say.

I got way better grades than the kid I was mixed up with and my parents were like WHY are your grades suddenly mediocre?? And I’m like idk what to tell ya bruv my binder and homework is fine my quizzes are solid I am normal in class (this was 6th grade I had moved schools from 5th cuz the socials were fucked up in 5th because I’d moved into 5th partway through the year and didn’t manage to swing the social scene and I apparently needed a fresh start, and after a 5th grade year of hiding in the library alone every day I was capable of sitting still so my classroom behavior was so Normal if I do say so myself) and we (me and parent) like went to see the teacher to talk about my grades and the teacher looked at my binder that had gotten a shitty grade and was all hmm mm hm *checks notes repeatedly confused by the shitty grade shed given me* (this was approx when I started to suspect what had happened. tbh it was never confirmed but I still suspect. I was #16 or #17. the other kid was #16 or #17. Sometimes the teacher handed us back the wrong homework and we would swap.)

the mixup extended to the year end standardized testing too and my parents were like “kid you can’t be having these bad test scores if you want to get into a good college” and meanwhile I, age (6th grade) was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk I’m simply vibing what do you want me to do about it.

then I graduated elementary and went to middle school and everything reset and my shitty 6th grade scores never came up again.

but sometimes I wonder about the other kid. did that other kid experience benefits from my good nerd binder grades in 6th grade. what kind of minor household drama was going on there. did they notice at all or not.

there is a Life Lesson here somewhere but I’m not sure what

[matchalilly]

This gaming series has always had a special place in my heart for more reasons than one.

In middle school and high-school it was my shit played more co op than campaign in college cause I had a solid group of friends I'd hop on with.

But as a military brat I got the biggest crush on Mactavish when I was a tween, irritated the hell out of my bf at the time to the point he'd start snarky arguments about how I gush over a scottsman when his Irish ass is right there granted we'd laugh about it cause I'd point out how stupid it was that he's getting bent over a video game character, his ma would even join in saying just wait maybe an actual Scottish boy will swipe me from him.

As much as he gave me shit over Soap certain parts of the game hit him hard too.

We mutually broke up before high school, still hung out and gamed together but he decided he was going to join the army after graduating and didn't want me stuck worrying constantly, even though I expressed my interest in joining the marines like my dad.

That started up a whole new 'dig at each other' playfully of course both of us came from military families him strictly army me a mix of marine, army, and navy.

Dad was against his only baby girl joining the military and I just said alright ill just do some form of art than, ended up taking international culinary courses and cosplay ended up unironacally making military friends regardless.

You'd be surprised how many service men and women I've met in the cosplay community not to mention lawyers and doctors, even dentists it's wild honestly but it's neat, and some of them would play with me on CoD just to keep in touch. We'd joke and shit on each other and shit on the occasional teams that would be toxic in the lobby after losing the match to a team mixed with chicks and guys and would scream hacks.

Long and short of it this game is a staple in many special memories for me. It isn't just a game I play for the fun of it, I've made friends, connections and sometimes we all hop on just to chat in the lobby not even going into game. We would just sit cracking jokes and go back and forth if we wanted to hop in a match and go naaaaaaaaaah not tonight, got work or nah I have morning classes or mmm gotta be at base early or I would, ect you get the idea life stuff.

Now I'm back in it watching my friend that's never played a shooter in her life enjoying co op and the campaign and its the best thing to see.

She's a Konig girl and gets shitty that he's not in it much and me and my other pal just laugh and tell her he wasn't in the old games much either, nothing new better get used to relying on the simping fandom for her Konig material.

She even went and started a fanfiction and asks me all kinds of questions, although she had the audacity to call Ghost mean and I'm just like girl how dare 😤

Seriously don't know why people think he's mean, clearly they haven't heard his glorious dad jokes dudes just a hardened soldier.

But she adores Soap too so we chat often about him or she'll gush about Konig or send me mass GhostSoap pictures and I'm just like wow you found that side of the Fandom took you long enough 😆

Even my military hubby joins us cause he grew up playing the games too. Imagine his suprise one year when he came home from a deployment catching his wife playing CoD not knowing I even had an interest in the game.

That was a fun conversation our first year married.

Sat and watched him start the new campaign last night and I was so frustrated that he purposely would get Price killed just to rile me up (even detonated himself at one point) before restarting the mission and say 'imma do it again' only for me to tell him to leave the old man alone and actually do the damn mission.

Sorry not sorry felt like reminiscing, tis the season of recalling fond memories.

[quirkthieves]

between an investigation, a stakeout, a not-so-polite approach to an empty house, and a random suspect jumping out of nowhere for nothing more than a tap on his shoulder…  katsuki can feel the irritation seething off him as he blasts down the front door with his quirk, marching in with his combat boots.  he hates playing games.

the answers have to begin in this house, and katsuki takes the initiative to get started.

upon further investigation, though, the blond…  he wonders if he stepped through a portal, just then, because the rooms look eerily like the ones at home.  at his parents’ house.  with the couches and the solid wood furnishings, even the few scuff marks on them, the ones he left behind before the whole “no quirks” rule came into play.  from here, he can see the dining room and the kitchen, the few little trinkets he’d gotten for his mother.  like nothing had been touched.  he slowly paces in further, suddenly more wary, ignoring anything his hero partner has to say  -  how did they manage to furnish the place to look like his home?

his fingers brush over the closest wall and sees the fresh coat of paint over something.  but he swears he left that mark when…  “what the hell?”

crimson gaze turns to monoma, then.  wordlessly, he continues, but before he heads upstairs, he spares a glance back to see if the other blond was following him  -  somehow, it was relieving to see he was.

his hand reaches for the first door in the hallway and pushes it open.  where he had expected the spare room, he sees the dimly lit area of ground beta instead.  his breath hitches.  crimson gaze quickly traces his other self, his past self, blasting through the simulated urban area, fighting the blur of teal lightning until he stumbles and falls.  it’s how he remembers it from there;  slapping the hand away.  angrily protesting izuku’s indifference.  getting angry that izuku had all this recognition from their idol, while he-

why was it me who put an end to all might?!

he shuts the door.

every part of him that he hates gets put on display after that.  everything that weighs him down finds its way behind each new door he opens, and he’s realising some things around the house attribute to the feeling  -  old drawings, scattered toys, broken drumsticks, burnt notebooks.  he doesn’t know what he should say in the defence of what they see, and in the end, he doesn’t.

katsuki thinks he knows what lies beyond his bedroom door.  “look,” he tries  -  the word comes out strained.  “we gotta check every room.  dunno where the bastard is.”

he wishes they didn’t have to.

katsuki wishes that the moment he sees old middle school uniform and smug grin, his much smaller self approaching toward the door like it were the exit into aldera’s hallway.  he knows what comes next.  it’s not a surprise that this was going to be the final, crucial moment that plays itself  -  and a part of him wants to wipe away the look, the moment he turns to glance at a disheartened and trembling boy with green hair.  his grip tightens on the door.  you wanna be a hero so bad?  his younger self taunts, and for once, the blond takes a step into the space.  he reaches.  but his younger self, he doesn’t even flinch, and-

if you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life, go take a swan dive off a roof.

“son of a fuckin’-”  katsuki grabs himself by the collar, but the younger boy twists his gaze to him with an undying smirk and hollow gaze  -  giddy, almost.  playful.  taunting.  katsuki snarls.  “you’re not real.  the hell do you think you are, huh?”

“i’m as much you as you are me.”  head tilts, then, to try and catch a glimpse of monoma’s gaze, eerie and cold.  “i don’t think we’ve been very honest with our friend.  we both know we’re one shitty piece of work.  what, didn’t want this guy to find out?  were you gonna keep running away from who we are or something?”

katsuki bristles, shakes the entity with one arm.  “bullshit.  you’re talking bullshit.”

his younger self shrugs.  “dunno, you seem pretty spooked.  i mean, look!  you’re even shaking.  pretty pathetic display for a hero, ain’t it?  looking weak ‘n all, i thought you knew better than that.”  younger, unmarred hands wrap around his wrist with an iron grip, and the smirk grows ever wider.  “sit with your memories for a while.  talk ‘em out or whatever, i don’t fucking care.  once you get some fucking guts, come and find me in the next memory.  maybe you’ll find a better person in that one.”

katsuki barely has a chance to retort when the other somehow slips from his hands  -  gone, in an instant.  the school room at aldera is empty now.

crimson gaze can't quite look away from the floor. “... let's go.”

Monoma knew something was wrong the moment they entered. He didn't recognize this place, but Bakugo did-- and he didn't need it spelled out that something about that seemed to disturb him deeply.

Family photos. The tell-tale signs of a home, lived in and loved in. And he can't help himself-- a dry remark here or there about a trinket or toy; but even Monoma knows to tread carefully in the space of someone's heart. Even if it's Bakugo's.

Why was it me that put an end to All Might?!

Naturally, Neito hadn't been there for this confrontation, but the words are familiar in their own way. It seems he truly did have a talent for needling where it hurts, and he makes a point to turn away and pretend to examine the hallway walls once Bakugo closes the door. Trying to respect his privacy, maybe. (Laughable.)

"You know, I never really expected to be invited over to your place for a playdate, much less like this." He's trying to be funny, but Bakugo's jaw just grits harder, and the next doorknob he grips turns his knuckles white.

Monoma would offer to turn away, but a sick curiosity compels him.

Middle School. What a hell for everybody. Unsurprisingly, Bakugo is the tormentor. But Neito is surprised he decides to intervene-- guilt? shame? The desire to try and leave as soon as possible, by any means necessary?

He watches Bakugo torment himself, and then disappear, and he watches Bakugo's eyes reach that ground.

And then he laughs.

"Oh, man!" He claps slowly. "Well done, Mr. Villain, well done." He talks aloud to the house, as if their captor can hear him. "But I'm afraid your best tricks simply aren't good enough."

With a dismissive wave, he turns back to Bakugo.

"Am I supposed to be surprised you told Midoriya to kill himself? I already knew you were a tyrant and a bully, especially before you mellowed out."

He crosses his arms, and heads towards the door.

"Come on, Bakugo. Surely you aren't going to let a middle-schooler shake you up. The past is dead-- or it will be, once you kill it, which I'm sure you will. You do so love smashing that which you dislike."

[heelycular-manslaughter]

I started making a game for @efangamez's May Mayhem Jam, but I wasn't able to finish it for reasons (getting distracted by other shiny projects). I figure I can make a post about some of the ideas I liked in it - I probably won't stop working on the game, but I'll probably be heavily restructuring things when I start again.

Anyway here's a shitty logo that I can't explain why I like as much as I do (image ID under the cut):

The setting is called Cereba (colloquially known as Rat City), and based on the vibe Jet Set Radio and similar media, with a slight cyberpunk twist. The player characters are Junkrats, a term for anti-establishment artists in Cereba that use recycled materials to make their art. If this sounds incongruous with the game I'm about to talk about, it's because I made the city for an earlier project and decided on a whim to revive it for the game idea I had.

One of my favorite ideas I had was for the layout; I wanted to explain the rules through a cut-and-paste-style collage of words and letters from other RPGs. This would've actually worked great for my original Junkrats project, which was already essentially a mash-up of Savage Worlds, Blades in the Dark, and Slayers (there's a reason I'm describing it in the past tense) - but this new one ended up having more original mechanics than intended. And also desperately searching for a single word in all the PDFs I own wasn't super creatively fulfilling. Also I never bother to look at copyright and I never will.

The mechanical idea I had was to make a Lumen game about the aesthetic of revolution (fighting cops, burning down corpo buildings, etc), and just kinda mix the power fantasy of games like Nova with the power fantasy of getting revenge against a violent system. I figure that Jet Set Radio is already kind of a moodboard of rebellion, so Rat City could fit that theme.

Oh my god anyway. The mechanics. Right. I decided to make the game classless, because I wanted to stay true to the theme of personal expression in my other Junkrats projects. So, each character has a Signature Item, 3 extra items, and two body mods. Items determine the actions you can take during a fight, and each one has its own list of mods that can be added during downtime by spending Scrap (a new possible resource drop alongside Health and Fuel). Body Mods essentially function as passive buffs, applying to anything defined in their descriptions, rather than being set to specific items. There's a lot of ableist baggage in cyberpunk body modification, which I'm not at all qualified to really dig into, so I won't really define much of it beyond that, until I can feel comfortable either solidifying or removing it.

During downtime, you can swap out or add mods based on (undetermined) Scrap prices. You can also turn an item into an (undetermined) amount of Scrap, and add that item's ability or action to your Signature Item. This was honestly the mechanic I like the most, since it takes the simple build-making process of Nova and gives it the personal expression theme and junker vibe I've been trying nail down ever since creating Rat City (so like. a few months.); I might come back to this in a Lumen game without combat and really try to focus on the ramshackle inventions aesthetic.

Scrap can also be used during combat for limited mods, usually the limit being how long the effect will last. This is basically an attempt to bring the idea of hammering nails into your baseball bat or pouring gas onto a weapon and lighting it on fire in the middle of a fight, reinforcing the scrappy and creative fighting style all junkrats have to learn.

[image ID: a series of letters in different fonts, cut-and-pasted from other RPGs' title pages and poorly collaged together to spell out "JUNKRAT RIOTS". The TS is actually just a backwards ST. In the bottom left corner, the phrase "ILLUMINATED by LUMEN" is pieced together in a similar way, but with all screenshots having the same font. The background is a solid bright pink color. End image ID]

The screenshots are taken from the following RPGs (in order because I want it to be): Scrapyard Junkbots, Gubat Banwa, Daisy Chainsaw, Scrapyard Junkbots again, Underground Broadcast, Nova, Bolt, Crust, Daisy Chainsaw again, Bolt again, Crust again. I can't find anything on Crust beyond a reddit post linking to a deleted itch.io page, but maybe its still out there somewhere.

[spurgie-cousin]

Yeah my example was unfortunately true: March 2012, January 2013, March 2013, and April 2016 (2 from end stage Alzheimer’s, one from pneumonia during lung cancer, and one from stroke) and I still mentally give the middle finger to the priests at all 4 services for all including some kind of “now let’s give thanks and be grateful to god for the time he gave us with them” interval prayer like “I’m sorry grateful to WHOM? At 18-22 I should have had more time with them the fuck?”

Also what a message to send to the younger kids in the audience that also wanted more time with our relative: “be grateful for the maybe 10 years you got with this person even though you didn’t start forming solid memories until like 6 years ago”. If any priest pulls that at my funeral I’m getting out of the damn box and fighting them and whoever cleared them to put that in the service

That's awful, I'm so sorry for your loss 💔💔one of the family members I lost was also to dementia and goddamn what a particularly horrible experience that is.

I realized while reading this ask that more than anything, when you're going through something hard surrounded by people who truly believe in the "god works in mysterious ways/just be grateful you get anything and not nothing" thing, it's just.......the lack of acknowledgment that something awful has happened and it sucks that is the worst part. People constantly try to reframe it as something else, something you should be happy about, grateful for, or something you should take as a sign to better yourself, etc basically anything other than what it is, which is just a shitty fucking thing that happened. What I needed most in those times and what still helps was someone to just agree with me that this sucks, this hurts, shitty things happen because that's just life and we need to grieve them before we move on. To really get over it, you have to sit with the reality of it for a period of time and come to terms with all of that, not just reframe it as something good and push all your hurt down deep so it can inevitably surface later.

Idk that might all sound dramatic to some people or like I'm blowing it out of proportion, but it's hard to explain how maddenening that is to grow up around. You're just looking at everyone from your family to your pastor to your friends like "are we ever just going to talk about this normally" and just waiting for the time where someone does that and it never happens.

[shaunsummers]

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

"You're feeding me Jewish wine and an epic story of a generation? It's a date." Conjuring a laugh, though quieter than usual, Robin perks a soft smile as she turns to carefully place the knife in the sink. The cheese plate, heavy in it's glorious pile of processed dairy cubes, creates a low, audible growl deep within her abdomen. An angry tummy, only filled with liquor and spite, demanded sacrifice. "It's fine. It's mostly my fault, anyways. We were wrestling. But, I mean, the fucker stole my hair tie. So, duh, I had to show dominance. What else was I supposed to do? Oh, and they've all been taken out by the way. Probably like ten-fifteen minutes ago, I think? I don't know. It was after the Siren crying but during my cigarette. Ugh, fuck today. I'm over it. Do me a favor, if you need to rage about a shitty ex, do it after the cheese plate. I need this moment of peace right now. I'm on empty."

The noise of a rumbling engine, one that could only belong to Devin, catches her ears, however. Was her fucking belt going out? It sounded like it. Well, with that haircut, she should be able to do it herself.

Within the confines of the pickup, Devin sat leaning back against the seat with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, love you too, man." She harshly rubs the ridges of her brow before tapping the light up screen to end the call. Three hours was the drive back from Erin's; and she did her dude a solid by staying on the line with her the entire ride home. It kept her at least somewhat calm. Enough not to park the truck right in front of a trailer park and start busting headlights. "I know boys, we're about to." Devin offers comfort to the closest grunting dog, claiming a few scrubs against Zeus' squishy cheeks. She would have already jumped out by now; but something long delayed became pressing in the light of today.

Devin [8:28 PM] Hey Rich. I know I haven't hit you two up in a minute but I wanted to know if that offer for therapy was still on the table. Thanks for the apple butter btw. Shit hit as always.

-------------

"So you already be fuckin' with Mac and Me? See, I knew you got culture." Quinn smiles, jazzed that she guessed the right prescription for Robin's ailments. "God damn. You're feedin' me cheese by hand, takin' out the dogs and playin' with em, and now you're gonna call this a date? You better be careful, you're gonna start gettin' me all nervous and shit." She laughs, grabbing the wine to bring with. The allusion to Siren's emotional state deflates her goofy grin, though. If she was already passed out, Quinn wouldn't go shove her nose in, but she made a mental note to check in on her later.

"Nah. You're good to cheese plate in peace, my dude. I ain't about to be summoning Voldemort." She was in the middle of grabbing two glasses from the cabinet—suitably stemmed, because you have to with a fancy cheese plate—by the time she recognized the rattle of Devin's truck.

"Shit." Quinn comments, her eyes flashing towards the door and back to Robin. "Anyone tell her about all that?"

Richard [8:32 PM]: You'll have to thank Tammy for that, she's the chef! I'll pass it along❤️ Of course kiddo, it's yours to take up any time you want. We can help you find someone and get it set up. Over lunch if you're free. Is everything ok?

[ceruleanwhore]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of Ted Lasso ever since the finale dropped and part of that is that I’m starting to really stop and think about season 3, which I didn’t have a chance to do before the finale because basically I was way behind and watched the entire last two seasons in like a week before the finale dropped to catch up just in time for the end. Because of my viewing experience and how I did rush through everything like that in order to be able to watch the finale when it aired, I didn’t really have a chance to analyse those seasons in any real capacity before that last episode dropped, which I now think contributed to my shock at how bad I felt the ending was. In retrospect, I actually think that the show was starting to go downhill even before season 3 first started and that this finale is the end result of that shift rather than it being this cheap shot out of left field that it first felt like it was.

First, there’s the matter of how they handle Nate’s fall from grace and his bit of a villain arc. While it’s not unrealistic for a guy to be unpopular and have no friends and then, when someone chooses to give him a chance because they think he’s just misunderstood, he turns out to be shitty, this doesn’t actually fit for Nate’s character or for the story in general. Nate is a kind of awkward guy who reads as neurodivergent and blossoms with the help and encouragement and validation that he first gets from Ted and then from the others and at the time they start this shift to the dark side with him, he’s actually in the middle of positive growth and is doing really well. There are other characters that they could have done this sort of arc with and had it make sense but, in the context of the story and Nate’s own character arc, it frankly just doesn’t really make sense. Combine that with some other aspects of how his character and this arc are written and it comes across like there’s maybe some bits of racism or perhaps also ableism floating around in the background there, especially when it comes to fucking Jade.

When Jade interacts with him, it definitely comes across as racist and potentially also ableist and classist, and yet her actions are never criticized and she’s actually rewarded by the narrative for some of this shit. Refusing to let Nate book that one table for no discernible reason is treated like a good thing for giving him an opportunity to learn and grow or whatever and when they’re actually dating and she goes behind his back to get him fired in order to force him into a life decision he doesn’t want to make, he never criticizes her for it and I think he even ends up thanking her. This is all coming from a show that, in the first season or two, showed us very solid, healthy relationships such as Roy and Keeley (regardless of if you ship it) and took the time to pick apart the makings of a healthy relationship and how it’s built on solid communication and mutual respect. For them to turn around and have Nate revert into this crude stereotype of a weird loser and then put him in a relationship built on disrespect and, dare I say, bigotry against him while having the audacity to present it like it’s good and healthy makes it feel like this is a different show entirely.

Going along with the idea of race, I also want to talk about Akufo. There are definitely more truly wealthy people in the show than just him and Jack, and yet I do take issue with how the only two people who are acknowledged to be billionaires, with a b, are a sapphic woman and a black man, since both are villains and both of their villainy is wholly rooted not just in money but in them being billionaires. I’ll talk more about Jack in a minute but I want to start with Akufo, because it makes me uncomfortable that they didn’t just create a villainous billionaire who happens to be a black African man but that his character is so… crude and gross and does stuff like have his assistant throw food at people who disagree with him. I mean, for fuck’s sake, throwback to when Sam turns him down and he is literally out here pantomiming taking a shit on him or whatever that was. It feels really racist and I just don’t understand for the life of me why they wouldn’t put in a white African billionaire based kind of on Elon Musk who’s out here with his fortune he built on Daddy’s blood money and then have that kind of character be doing all this crude, childish shit. It would’ve also added another layer to the conflict between him and Sam by introducing an element of racism and I just feel like it both would have actually made more sense and would have fixed the issues with the presentation of Akufo’s character.

As for Jack, the biggest issue is that we apparently can’t let a main character like Keeley be in a healthy, happy relationship that isn’t straight. It’s not that I think every lgbtq relationship in media needs to be nice and happy and healthy, but it just sits wrong with me that the only relationship that happens in the course of the show that is presented as being this unhealthy is the one sapphic romance featuring a main character. Don’t get me wrong — I love Colin and his bf, but Colin’s a side character and his bf is just a hair above being a nameless extra. Also, it bothers me to no end how they choose this relationship to point out issues with power imbalance but when Rebecca does it with Sam, she’s a girlboss who ✨slays✨ 

My other issue with the Jack situation is that, as someone else pointed out, the writers are willing to put in gay characters, but only in certain ways, and they aren’t willing to *go there* and allow existing characters to just happen to end up in lgbtq relationships with each other. Instead, it’s that we have our set, token lgbtq rep characters and they are exclusively allowed to do gay stuff with designated side characters that are invented solely for that purpose. They can invent a whole new person so Keeley can snog a girl, but they couldn’t possibly let her just do that with Rebecca, or even Sassy. Also, I was talking to my mom about Keeley and Jack’s relationship and she pointed out that while I had previously talked about how Roy and Keeley’s relationship really did a great job of showcasing the female gaze, Keeley and Jack really came across like they were written and filmed through the male gaze. In particular, she pointed out the scene when they’re in Keeley’s office and Keeley first kisses Jack and how, to my mom, that felt like the ‘girl on girl’ stuff that skeezy straight guys like to watch, and she’s right. Again, to my original point of this show going downhill, how tf did we go from a straight relationship that was the epitome of the female gaze in season 1 to a sapphic relationship that’s just more male gaze, homophobic, objectifying bullshit in season 3?

So as I start to consider all this kind of shit, suddenly that ending isn’t so shocking anymore. All it really was was a clearer demonstration of how this show has changed for the worse and it hit harder just because it was the finale and that was their chance to fix a bunch of stuff, but they didn’t. Ted Lasso is a show about hope and believing in everyone’s potential for good, so I think what happened is that, by virtue of the original messaging of the show itself, we all ended up hoping and believing in the show and the writers to become aware of their mistakes and fix them in time, just as their characters do, but they didn’t.