#The only reason there is such a stark difference between my pieces is because I already have all kf the concepts down through traditional

[meowder]

This came straight from Santa's workshop

[mac-tirs]

the not-insignificant differences between the omen twins

so, i saw this picture posted by @amanaci which inspired me to write this rather lengthy piece on the contrasts between morgott and mohg. i decided that, instead of dumping this whole think-piece on their post, i'd make my own separate post and ramble here.

this difference in their height really tracks for how their fighting styles and personalities are like, i feel. i always found it peculiar how different they are despite being twins; i feel like there's a rather stark resemblance between miquella and malenia in their soft-faced features, pale skin, and long flowing hair, and a close resemblance between the carian siblings with their red hair, but morgott and mohg are rather different from each other, only bearing similarities due to their omen nature. i looked a little bit into that and found that there's pretty good reasons behind why.

firstly, morgott is severely malnourished and unhealthy in comparison to mohg. you can see it in his body and how his skin sags, how his ribs and bones show, and how dry it looks. below is a comparison between his hands and mohg's hands.

morgott's hands are dry, almost rubbed red and raw around the knuckles and fingers. it reminds me a little of psoriasis, or some kind of skin discolouration caused by his poor health. it's likely he isn't eating well, or at the very least, he isn't eating as well as mohg. his twin, on the other hand (ha!), has shiny, veiny skin with a healthy colour and gleam to them. it's like he wants to call to attention how well moisturised he is (which, in this case, compared to morgott, he is).

above is a comparison between the twins' horns. the difference is extremely evident to me; morgott's horns are dry, almost seeming brittle, like sun-dried bone that hasn't seen rain or moisture in years. it reminds me of the horns of a very neglected ram, almost, but despite that, the horn growths seem more controlled, less like the wild growths all over the royal omens of the shunning grounds and more controlled as a sort of jutting crown from mainly one side of his head. meanwhile, mohg's horns are shiny, curling wildly to the point of injury, taking his eye in its path of growth. they grew wildly enough to replace his hair altogether, if he ever had any, and give him an even more imposing silhouette with a literal crown of horns (and a beard to boot). beyond this, his horns look healthy, with clearly defined rings to each growth that shine under the light, much like the rest of him. he's oiled leather to morgott's dry hide.

another somewhat interesting detail of morgott is his tail. i know a lot of people see it as soft, and it certainly looks the part, but what i find interesting are two things: the first being that his fur looks quite matted in some lightings and angles but overall looks soft to the touch, and the second being that his tail's horns look much healthier than his own horns on his head. this is in clear contrast to the rest of his body, which looks dry and unassuming with smatterings of coarse white hair up and down his body, and i believe its a matter of the limits to his own self-care. he utilises his tail as another weapon in his arsenal, so he cares for it that it might serve him well in battle, unlike his head of horns, which only serve as a detriment to him with how they must obscure some of his vision, if not most of it. additionally, he likely could bear to look at his tail and care for it, but for an omen that hates his nature more than the average, he probably doesn't enjoy looking at his own face in the mirror enough to properly care for himself.

which brings me back to the sheer differences between these two. morgott, unhealthy and self-loathing, neglects many visual aspects of himself likely because he sees vanity as a luxury not afforded to someone like him. mohg, healthy and self-obsessed, cares and grooms himself to appear very much so like the lord he claims to be, loving himself to a heretical extreme (in the eyes of the golden order). their statures reflect this too; morgott hunches low to the ground, ready to pounce at any given moment but also due to his own shame and humility, while mohg stands tall and proud, though not as tall as he could possibly be due to his upbringing being one of likely having to hunch low to fit beneath the ceilings of the smaller parts of the shunning grounds.

above is a picture of an omen from stormveil, which bears resemblance to all the omen you see in the game. in terms of clothing, one of the big ways people set the omen twins apart, morgott is completely naked save for the ragged cloak of animal hides he wears, signifying he is not fit to even dress himself in a shirt or trousers as befits a king, much like the omen pictured. he wears even less than that, actually, since he lacks even the slightest adornment save for the rope that clasps his cloak together. on the other hand, mohg is entirely adorned in finery, wearing a beautifully embroidered, fashionable priest's robe with matching vestments, and beneath that (as seen in the first image) some underclothes, a plain black button up and some pants. mohg's entire silhouette changes with the removal of his robe, while morgott's barely makes an impact once you realise he has only taken off the one article of clothing he had.

then, of course, there are their fighting styles. there's this fantastic video on youtube that i recommend watching of the twins fighting every major boss in the game, and you can clearly tell them apart from their fighting styles alone. morgott is fast, his size making him look deceptively slow only for him to dart out and do sick flips and somersaults and pirouettes that rival even the most flexible dancers, and he fights with speed and almost animalistic ferocity, save for when he conjures his weapon incantations. mohg is slow but strong, capable of swinging that large trident around like it weighs nothing while hitting with the force to knock down most enemies in a few hits, and most tarnished in just one, but he fights with a steady gracefulness in his every move, walking slowly and carefully while casting spells that hurt a lot.

even their phase 2 transitions are markedly different, with morgott's being one where he drops to his knees, vomits, and releases his cursed blood(?) all over the battlefield, causing his weapon to become alight with his curse and for him to fight with more in-your-face aggression, and with mohg's being one where he simply ignores your attacks and begins stabbing his spear into the formless mother for power at your expense, gaining a majestic set of wings that put distance between you and him so he can cast more of his spells at safer distances. where morgott is pushed to his limit and forced to confront his nature, mohg has long since embraced it and enjoys the fruits of his bloody labour with the mother of truth's blessing.

speaking of the mother of truth, even their patron orders are at odds with each other. the golden order was built upon the foundation of a very carefully-guarded lie: that marika is the one true god, which she can't be, with the existence of radagon (as per goldmask, perhaps the number 1 fundamentalist we meet in game). the formless mother is known also as the mother of truth, existing in direct opposition of the golden order's lies and craving the honesty of one of the purest expressions of life: blood. these two ideals would war against each other, with one being dedicated to the upholding of a beautiful, corrupt lie and the other being dedicated to the instillation of a dynasty of raw, pure truths. as such, even morgott and mohg's own great runes reflect these contrasts in faith, though, remarkably, these two great runes are ones that fit perfectly over each other, with mohg's slightly elevated (seen below, taken from the fextralife wiki).

so, where does this leave us? i don't know, exactly. i wasn't really writing this with any sort of ultimate conclusion. i just found it really interesting how different they were, and i wanted to talk about all the noticeable, significant differences between them here. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[tevanbegins]

My beloved Bucktommies, hear me out for I have rambled about some important stuff ahead related to Tommy's comeback situation for S8:

Let's not forget that the Access Hollywood interview with Lou Ferrigno Jr. and Oliver Stark would never have been arranged if Buck and Tommy's love story wasn't meant to be long-term, or continue developing further into the next season. It was a small but still a very crucial piece of press.

Why? Because it's not like it was done right after 7x04 when the hype around bi-Buck was at its peak. Instead, it was done during the second-half of the season, that too when the Bobby-focused episodes were airing. Plus, it was a major TV network interview, not some random podcast/youtube interview!

Also, they could have only had Oliver out there if the showrunner or PR team thought Lou as Tommy was inconsequential to this storyline. They evidently wanted to create buzz not only around Buck's bisexual arc but around his romance with Tommy as well, with this press. Why do all of that if the character was going to disappear shortly?

I am not clear about how it all works but I am sure Tim and his team must have discussed Tommy's future when they decided to extend Lou's contract beyond the pre-decided 4 episode appearances last season. Because why even bother showing that tiny dinner scene with Tevan in the finale if they didn't want to show us where the relationship stood?

And don't let the naysayers get into your head and compare this with the happy Buck-Natalia scene from the season 6 finale and how she was written off after that. Remember that the writers supposedly wrote that episode as a possible series finale given the uncertainty around the show's future after Fox cancelled it. But then ABC picked it up and the writers had to resume the storylines from where they had left them off.

The actress playing Natalia refused to come back, probably because I am assuming she thought her part was done and the show was supposed to end and so she took up other work. Plus there was the whole strike thing too in between. She was just a supporting character and her contract extension may not have been under consideration while they were filming season 6, because they didn't know for sure at the time if another network would renew them for a new season. And because of her refusal they had to scrap that storyline later.

The situation is quite different with Lou. The season 8 renewal announcement came early when the first-half of season 7 was on air. Therefore, Tim and the writers have had the luxury to put some plans in place for the upcoming season in advance because the renewal was official. And this must include whether or not they wanted to keep Tommy around post season 7!

And if Lou agreed to do 2 more episodes last season, I believe he must have agreed to be there for season 8 too — because if the last two episodes of S7 have served any purpose, it has been to tell us that Buck and Tommy are going strong and even the firefam approves of their relationship, deliberately cementing their relationship status as they move forward into the upcoming season.

So this can't have been all for nothing. The only reason Tommy wouldn't be in S8 is if Lou himself declined or if the filming dates were clashing with his other projects, none of which seems to be likely given the points I have discussed above. Besides, we all know how deeply invested Lou is in playing Tommy and passionate about his storyline with Buck. He wouldn't quit a role that's clearly so important and dear to him just because of the BoBs' stupid vendetta against him; he has big dreams for his career to let this childish hate towards him get in the way of a good opportunity. And he knows and sees how much we as his fans love, support, and appreciate him!

So to conclude, I have faith Tommy will be back! He has to be!!! 💫

___

[wandascrush]

Meet cute

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader

Warnings: nerves, money troubles, female reader, popular girls? A/N: In works to be a series, more parts soon! “I love you…but I will never stop hating you,” you practically whispered out the last line. The small phone booth you were in smelled like cigarettes and dust. You heard her breath on the other line, shakey. She said nothing. The endless rain created a waterfall on the glass windows, making your wife, Jamie, look like a blur of colors on the other side of the road, standing there with your two children. That was the last time you ever spoke to her. 

                     1954-Junior Year- NYC

     The first time you ever talked to Natasha was on the first day of Junior Year at Manhattan School for the Gifted. It was one of the most prestigious highschools in New York City and only few above a certain IQ were accepted. You were lucky enough to be above that IQ and be riding on a scholarship. You’d always seen her around the halls, classy, preppy, talking with her friends or teasing the poor boys that drooled over her (they didn’t stand a chance). Everyone knew her family, the Romanoffs, and her father, the head chief of the NYPD. To be frank, your opinion of her was nothing short of the rumors you’d been told- Natasha Romanoff was a rich bitch that only got into this school because of money. You know what they say, money makes the world go ‘round. So it shocked you when she gently tapped you on the shoulder as you were putting your books away in your locker, “Y/N right? I’m your locker buddy.” 

“Yeah, Y/N L/N. Pleased to meet you,” you felt weird about shaking her hand but there it was, awkwardly waiting for hers to shake back. Being forced to look at her also made you realize what pretty eyes she had, as if someone took the greenest pieces of the forest and made them into her soft orbs. 

She gently swatted your hand away, laughed, and pulled you into a soft hug, “I’m a hugger, silly.” The innocence of it genuinely touched you, and an unfamiliar feeling sprouted in your chest. That first day of Junior year, for whatever odd reason, she followed you around to break, lunch, and even got on the same bus as you after school, the fabric of her soft skirt rubbing up against your leg the entire ride home. As sweet as she was, the tension in the air was thick as you both knew her hanging around you was nothing short of unnatural. 

Yes, you were beautiful in your own right with big e/c eyes and soft skin, bouncy hair and sharp intelligence, and you could easily fit in with someone like Natasha- but your friend group wasn’t exactly popular. You were all working class girls who had to catch a job after school, instead of hang around the popular spots like some of the other kids in your grade. The girls that were able to hang out at the vinyl shop or at Joe’s burger spot didn’t let the difference between you and them go unnoticed- and most of those girls were Natasha’s friends.

Natasha rode your subway all the way to Brooklyn, where you worked at the corner bodega, your parents shop. Right before she followed you in, you turned around, “Uhm- sorry, Natasha. It’s not that I don’t want to be friends and all, but you’ve followed me a whole 45 minutes to my job just because?” You saw the way she bit her lip and hugged her played with her hair out of nervousness, “Well, I mean I do want to be friends, of course…but I also heard you were pretty good in the STEM area. Look, Mr. Stark has a project for us that he’s going to show at our end of the year fair and I don’t know shit about robotics. I was thinking…maybe you could help?” She looked at you with doe eyes and a little smirk after her rather colorful language that told you maybe there was more to this girl. Maybe. The way she talked to you was different too, not necessarily just friendly- and anything but cold. You shifted your weight to lean against the wall, contemplating her words. A part of you wanted to say no, but she slowly pulled a small little envelope out of her book bag. Your heart leaped at the thought of it being what you wanted most…cold, hard, cash. Cash that your family really needed.

“This is just a starting amount, is $85 a week okay? You could come over to my house maybe twice a week for a few hours and we can work on it.” “I’ll start Monday.”

Later that night, as you tied your hair into rollers and tucked yourself into your cozy bed, Natasha lied awake in bed as she thought about your interaction. Her mind replayed your smile, nervous laughter, and the way you made your friends laugh so hard at lunch that they cried. She wished she enjoyed her friends that much. Each time her eyes closed, your face popped up in her mind. The redhead started retracing your features like a picture. What was wrong with her? A warm feeling blossomed in the pit of her stomach, slowly working its way up to her chest- but she stopped it. Not again. Natasha Romanoff is completely normal, completely perfect…and completely straight.

[dipperscavern]

someone shoot me cause i can’t stop thinking about jon snow helping you sleep.

you’ve always been a dreamer. growing up with the starks, you’d tell jon (or anyone who asked) about your dreams the night before, either furrowing your brows at the bizarre nature of them, or laughing as you recall dreaming maester luwin having hooves for feet. this didn’t help the fact that you naturally didn’t sleep much. when you did, dreams plagued your mind so often it felt like you weren’t even sleeping at all.

but dreaming often also meant nightmares followed suit. usually, you’d try and calm yourself down, but if it was an especially bad one—you’d find solace in jon’s arms. a risky move in winterfell, but it was either that or you didn’t sleep. and jon slept best with you anyways.

not much had changed in that while at castle black. the only difference is, if you couldn’t sleep, jon would put you to sleep the best way he knew how.

strong arms would cage you in, his calloused hand wrapped in yours, anchoring you as he pays close attention to the space between your thighs. slow drags of his hips as he kisses you sickly sweet, breaking you down piece by piece until your worries melt away, & your brain is only clouded with thoughts of him. his lips on your neck sending goosebumps down your skin, as bolts of pleasure shoot up your spine.

he’s good at this. too good.

too good at making you forget what was even keeping you up in the first place. mind numb as you can’t remember where you stop & he begins, and that’s just how he wants you. his thumb comes to wipe away any stray tears that fall, while his brows pinch in concern until he feels you clench on him, strings of curses falling from your lips as he brings you to the edge. and it’s with a shudder of his name you cum, sighing & running a hand through his curls as you come down from your high, thanking him because that was just what you needed. & he knows.

“yeah? y’ feel better?”

you nod your head, a quiet “mhm” coming from your mouth as he wraps his arms around you. you settle into them, head facing his chest as he traces your spine.

jon has a small smile on his face. knowing that he’s the reason for your pleasure, knowing how much you trust him not only with your body, but with your problems. if you can’t sleep it’s him you come to, and you knowing he’ll fix it brings him more satisfaction than he’ll ever admit. he may not be able to control a lot of things, but one thing he can control is how much pleasure he can give you. not just with your body, but with your mind. you know you’re safe with him, time and time again has proven that this may be the only safe place left in the world.

with jon. in his arms.

i actually need him so bad it’s not funny :( sigh want him to make me forget my problems.

[nerdranttheories]

Okay I’m going to geek out about Toshinori’s costume designs because I’m an English major and analyzing tiny details in text is what we do and also I love??? The designs! And each one tells us so much about All Might and his focus during each costume.

Costume 1 (Young Might):

So first off, despite young All Might’s longtime dream of being a hero, his suit is mostly black. A stark difference from comics books and his later self which tend to be bright primary colors. The few dashes of primary colors he has are desaturated, even in the second instance where we see this costume. This would have likely been the only costume Toshinori designed himself, as David became his designer in college.

Obviously, others have pointed out the similarities to Nana’s suit, just like how Izuku copied AM’s, so I don’t think it will be necessary for me to point that out. But this suit is also very practical. Something the flashy All Might isn’t really known for, but let me point the details out. He has boots, gauntlets, as well as what appears to be protection for his upper torso, and even for his neck. A decent balance between more protection and more weight, which would slow a hero down. Also, unlike Nana’s suit, his extends completely down the arms. The only skin surface available is that of his hands, something that stays the same through all of his costumes and as such, must be something he personally insists on. In media, gloves often represent someone with secrets, or a guarded personality. All Might not wearing gloves shows how open he is, not just with his friends but strangers too. And it’s humble, too. It’s not an unfeeling, covered hand extending to you when you’re in danger, it’s the bare-handed reach of a friend, and I fully believe that’s why Toshi goes without gloves. Also it’s possibly a sensory thing for him as well, which goes with my canon-supported theory that this man has ADHD, but that’s a nerd rant for another time.

The colors are important because while obviously they mimic Nana, you can practically see through the color choice that Toshinori is not in his right mindset here. While later the oversaturation of colors serves to show how his own heroism has made him into something Else, and outside of his own head, leaving the man inside to shrivel away, these muted colors show that Toshinori has not yet blossomed. Also in the brief scenes we see of him when he is younger, Toshinori is very solemn. The one scene we get of him smiling when he’s young is when Izuku is comparing them at the same age, and even then, it’s more of a smirk as opposed to the signature All Might grin we all know and love. Black also is just a reasonable color for something like crime-fighting. Black shows the least grime/dirt, so he could reasonably spend more hours out in this costume without having to come home and wash it/trade it out. (Which is something that I love that this series includes, by the way!)

Costume 2-ish:

Toshinori adds some shoulder pads for the fight with AFO, probably expecting to stand side-by-side with his mentor. I could give a more full-body image but this is really the only difference I could pick out.

Costume 3 (College Might):

This is the first costume of All Might’s that is designed by David Shield.

First off, props to David. He’s an awesome designer. He not only made a new design, but incorporated several choices from AM’s previous suit, and definitely conferred a lot with Toshi on how he wanted his suit to look while still ensuring its functionality.

Black is traded for a dark, unsaturated blue, giving AM a more peaceful look, as navy blue is considered to be a calming color. (Even Endeavor wears it! But maybe copying AM and not wearing it for the same purposes?) All Might’s cape is also changed from red to blue, taking away the dark look and making it the color of the sky, again adding to that Symbol of Peace idea that is Toshinori’s dream. The gauntlets and boots remain, but the chest-piece has been removed, offering up more mobility. The yellow of his belt has been brightened, and added in place of the blues on his gauntlets and boots, giving him an overall more friendly look as opposed to the more subdued one he had before with the blue accents. The red has been removed as well, and by moving it to his body, it gives the impression of veins and the blood that is pumping away through the heart of this hero, which is fantastic for someone who cares as much as Toshinori does. White was also added vertically on the sides of the suit, thinning out the very intimidating form of Toshi and making him more approachable, while adding a more pure look to his overall form. This appears to be in part, a stylistic choice on David’s end that follows through to the other suits, though it’s hard to know if it remains on the Bronze Age Suit as well.

Overall the brighter colors telegraph that Toshinori is doing much better mentally at this point. He now has A Friend, and for the time being, is safer from the troubles at home, until he has to return.

Costume 4 (Bronze Age):

We don’t even get a full look at this suit, indicating that its time in use was likely short-lived. As I’ve seen others suggest, it seems very likely that when All Might returned to Japan, he went straight down to business and began doing vigilante work as he tried to track down AFO. However, possibly due to a combination of not finding him and All Might’s rising popularity, he seems to abandon this track and move on to a different form of heroism, which his suit symbolizes. I’ll briefly point out that Toshinori returns to the primarily black suit he had as a teenager, as well as the shadows of his face that add to the idea that as soon as he got back to Japan, he reverted to the mindset he had when he left.

Costume 5 (Silver Age):

This suit indicates to me that this period was All Might’s prime, despite his later suit being considered the Golden Age of All Might. (And even though it’s my least-favorite design.) He has the typical cape of a hero, and the bright colors are now fully of typical comic book style. The circular design on his chest indicates a target, but with being cast in white and surrounded in red, gives the impression that he himself is not the target, but the villainy around him is. Or at least, that is likely the thought process for this design. Other than the dashes of white here and there, the colors are very solid, possibly indicating a more stable, but single-minded train of thought, something AM is notorious for. No offense to Dr. Shield, but I would have mixed the colors better in here, and the cape connection is too bulky for someone who’s as jacked in the shoulders as Toshinori is. Alas, I am not the designer. We shall move on.

Costume 6 (Golden Age):

I love this suit. Plenty of analysis has been done on it already, but I think it’s a fantastic representation of how Toshinori’s been crushed under the very image he had originally wanted to create. His shadows are darkest and most severe here, reminiscent of how body-builders dehydrate themselves to get the best appearance of their musculature. His posing is also more inward, as opposed to the silver age, with the angles of his elbows being less directly out and more in, and instead of appearing confident, it’s more of how a cat puffs out its hair to make itself appear larger when it’s scared. I had a long bit to go with this but it was eaten by the Tumblr gremlins. Basically I believe this suit was made post AFO-battle. All Might is declaring he’s not finished yet, all while knowing his time is running out. This suit has several callbacks to the original suit David designed for him, with the navy, though more saturated base and the red lines running throughout the form, though the gauntlets and boots from before have been integrated into the suit itself. This could reflect David’s mindset as well, as he reminisces about the days when Toshinori was healthy and happy, when now Toshinori’s health is rapidly fading.

Anyway, here’s my costume analysis! I think it adds a little more insight to Toshinori’s mental state and situations in the years outside of the show as well as in them, and I hope you enjoyed this read! I’d love to hear other ideas too, if anyone has them!

[t00thpasteface]

i very deeply respect your mashposting and even though im not as enthusiastic about hawkahy as you are i think the content you make for them us delightful and some of the best mashposting on this godforsaken website. that being said, i wanted to know ur takes on the hawkeye & trapper dynamic, and the hawkeye & bj dynamic. Not in a shippy way, just in the World of Hawkahy what role do trapper and bj play in their relationships with hawkeye :3 this because i love that one comic u did where hawkeye is spunchbop and bj is Patrick its one of my fave pieces of mash fanart lol

(⁠๑˘❥⁠⁠ ˘๑⁠) first off, THANK YOU!! i'm soooo crazy about hawkahy and i really enjoy contributing to my fellow shippers, but i'm glad my art can also still appeal to people who are less interested the ship itself.

second, VERY fun question!! i wish i had definitive answers for yall, but you know me... i love to go "well idk it could go either way" ^_^;; really, it depends on what kind of tone and theme i'm looking for. i don't really write heavier stuff (because i have so much fun writing funny fic) so that kind of narrows my options, but there's a lot of potential i'd love to explore— or see someone else explore, if they're so inclined!

TRAP:

generally the trapper reading i typically default to is that he and hawkeye have a pretty casual FWB thing going on. trapper considers hawkeye a very close friend and hooks up with him at an intersection of bicuriosity and deep platonic affection, but hawkeye catches baddddd feelings and ends up genuinely heartbroken to find out their thing was lopsided. in this case, hawkahy would happen only after trapper leaves— mulcahy has a tough time trying to get noticed before that point :( but at the same time, i don't think mulcahy would pounce at the first opportunity, because i don't think an immediate rebound would be good for hawkeye nor mulcahy... but it could happen for dramaaaaa...

another version of the hawkeye-trapper rapport that i love playing with in my fics is trapper being generally very supportive but nonetheless slightly grossed out. i think there's a lotttt of comedy potential with hawkeye thinking it's okay to fuck a priest but NOT a married woman, and meanwhile trapper is pro-infidelity but anti-priestfucking (for whatever reason), and they squabble and tease each other about it the whole time.

it's also funny to think about is trapper trying to figure out whether mulcahy now gets the "one of the bros" back-slapping beer-chugging dude treatment, or if instead he's now slotted into the "go easy on 'em trap" category that protects hawkeye's ladyfriends from hearing trapper's bawdiest jokes and comments when hawkeye brings them along as a plus-one to the swamp.

trapper seems like he's pretty likely to sniff out that hawkeye and mulcahy are seeing each other even if they try their damnedest to keep it secret. i like to think hawkeye trusts trapper enough that he would go ahead and divulge it it up front pretty soon after it's official. trapper could probably even pick up hawkeye's crush beforehand... maybe even before hawkeye knows about it!

i don't see trapper as being too jealous of hawkeye spending a lot of time with mulcahy, even if it means hawkeye is now exclusive and not sleeping with trapper anymore. if anything i think he'd be pretty stoked that he's got one less guy to compete with for the nurses' attention. pretty sweet deal as far as he's concerned.

i do think there'd be some tricky navigating between how hawkeye acts with trapper and the STARK difference with how he acts around mulcahy, which you can see clear as day in the s1 finale, where hawkeye gets soooo soft and careful while talking to mulcahy. i don't think either one is disingenuous; i think hawkeye contains multitudes. hawkeye's not the type to fake sincerity. and to that end, i really don't think hawkahy should hinge on hawkeye totally giving up all the cruder parts of his personality (especially since mulcahy is really no saint either), so it could be pretty interesting to see that manifest in whether/how he's still maintaining a close friendship with trapper now that he's been seeing mulcahy regularly and trying to make a good impression.

BEEJ:

the direction bj goes in depends on whether hawkahy are already an item before he gets there. he does form that almost instantaneous trauma-bond with hawkeye on his first day, but i think if hawkeye admitted "yeah by the way the chaplain is my boyfriend" as soon it seemed safe, bj would be able to take it in stride as another weird little quirk of the mash he has to get used to. he's too hung up on dealing with all the gore to worry about who's banging who.

by contrast, i think he could potentially get pretty upset/jealous if hawkeye and mulcahy paired up a little while later. i can see him feeling really betrayed, like, "what do you normally do when i'm gone?" "wait for you to get back!!"

if bj still doesn't feel like he's really enmeshed himself into the unit— which i think on some level, he never wants to, because he's banking on dropping everything like a hot potato the second he can— then i can totally picture him just feeling completely lost and isolated when hawkeye is suddenly forgoing their boys-nite boozathons in favor of getting some priest pipe. like, at least trapper could always go find his own cuddle buddy to pass the time and had nurses lining up to volunteer; bj has basically nobody and doesn't seem inclined nor equipped to fix that. hawkeye is his liason to the rest of the camp, and bj isn't so great with people without having hawkeye there to help as both teleprompter and safety net.

basically i think bj wants to keep hawkeye within a very specific arm's-length radius— not too close, but not too far either, and hawkeye having so much private time with someone else could really get under his skin.

you could also have bj think the priestfucking is gross/bad on sheer principle like trapper did, even without the jealousy angle, and it'd probably hold a little more water coming from bj than trapper. however, it'd be funny if he's insisting it's definitely not a jealousy thing and he's being fully objective about it, but you can totally tell he's just jealous. x)

i admit i kinda love seeing bj get tormented, because he's got such obvious buttons to press and yet sternly insists that they don't even exist, similar to houlihan and frank. like, you can't just set that up and not expect me to rub my hands together and SLAM those buttons as hard as i can. ergo, bj getting jealous about hawkahy is supremely funny to me. i'm not too proud to admit that!

[thenameswinterfics]

GET TO KNOW…CREGAN STARK

Word Count: 1763

Cover magazine by @foxyanon Dividers by @zaldritzosrose

The following writing is a companion piece to "The Lives of Friends", a SMAU collaboration made by me, @legitalicat , @zaldritzosrose and @foxyanon.

Interview under the cut!

Interviewer: Welcome back to our readers. This is Cayn Karstark for Northern Wilds, and our weekly appointment is focused on the well-known Winter Wolves Sanctuary. But before we focus on the conservation work being done, it is important to remember that there has been a recent "changing of the guard" at the sanctuary, and now it is being run by none other than Rickon Stark's eldest son, Cregan, who is here with us today. Welcome, Cregan, and thank you for accepting our invitation.

Cregan Stark: Thank you, Cayn. It’s good to be here. 

CK: Before we start our interview, we would like to know if your father is okay.

CS: Of course, he's much more than fine, sometimes even better than me! (laughs) But it was not the health issues that convinced him to take a step back, but rather the desire to retire and focus more on his private life.

CK: We are heartened to know that health was not the reason for Rickon Stark’s retirement, but we must know this: how did you feel at the realisation that you had inherited your father’s “little empire” at such a young age?

CS: Oh well… I was intimidated at first, I won't hide it. Not all young men my age have a father who leaves you with a family business that has stood for generations. It was a huge leap of faith at first, but I overcame my fears and embraced my family's philosophy about the sanctuary, and it warms my heart to see it thriving despite this change.

CK: It was indeed a surprise to us! When the news broke, some of us were sure that your Uncle Bennard would step in for you.

CS: There was a private discussion in our family about who should replace the figure of my father. My uncle's name came up several times in internal meetings, with many for and just as many against. But Rickon Stark has always been a man of family tradition: he inherited the Sanctuary from his father, who inherited it from his father, so it was inevitable that his choice would one day fall on me.

CK: How did your uncle take your father’s choice?

CS: Knowing that old man, he would probably feel left out by his own brother, who chose his own son over him. The Sanctuary had always been a source of tension between them, with my grandfather placing the responsibility on my father's shoulders and thus neglecting his other son. Fortunately, the bad feeling was quickly dispelled and relations relaxed. He's building his own business in Winterfell, near the Wall, hoping to create a small legacy to pass on to his own sons.

CK: It's good to say that everything ended in the best possible way. But we will come back to your private life later, if you allow us, of course, and focus more on your recent activities at the Sanctuary.

CS: Of course, I’m glad to answer all your questions. 

CK: Let's get straight to the point, then. What impressed us the most about your work at the Sanctuary is there’s a continuous work philosophy between your leadership and that of your father. What convinced you not to detach yourself from him completely?

CS: Perhaps the fact that I flanked my father before he handed over control of the Sanctuary to me was the reason I did not change our working philosophy. He was an endless source of inspiration, and he was very serious and meticulous about his work: I still remember him scolding me when I mixed up the resting places of different animals, or when I made trivial mistakes at work! (chuckles, shaking his head) But he only did this because he loved his work and felt the need to preserve the family tradition through me, passing on a passion that I immediately shared with him. He was my shadow during my first days as an official owner, and it was only after he made sure that I had learned all the necessary skills that he completely disappeared from the scene. I feel like I owe something to him, and a total disassociation from our shared vision of the work would have been a misuse of the mission and vision of our work.

CK: One of the first things we noticed in your early leadership is how conservation has become a focus of your own work. Could you please explain your view on this subject?

CS: Well, the thing is, Westeros has areas of great beauty, with a cultural diversity not to be underestimated. The local fauna is highly concentrated there, and it's not surprising to see herds of wild animals roaming undisturbed in the wilderness. What worries me most is how our planet has changed significantly in recent years due to our impact on it, and how this has affected the home of most species. This is how the Winter Wolves Sanctuary works: we emphasise the importance of preserving the fragile wildlife of Westeros, providing them with a safe environment and allowing them to recover from threats such as habitat destruction. Our efforts are focused on the recovery and immediate care of animals in distress until they are deemed healthy enough to be released back into the wild. 

CK: Why is it important for you to rehabilitate animals in the sanctuary? 

CS: I think the importance of rehabilitating animals in sanctuaries is critical to preventing the possible extinction of certain species. As I said, our main goal is to protect the animals' welfare by providing them with all the food and medical care they need until we are sure we have increased their chances of survival in the wild. Every day we receive various calls about animal hoarders throughout Westeros, and we are all increasingly surprised by the number of animals we collect at the Sanctuary: large and small, puppies and adults... Every kind of animal is welcome at the Winter Wolf Sanctuary.

CK: You said before that every kind of animal is welcomed in the sanctuary. But it’s an animal species that you most frequently receive during your retirements? 

CS: Funny enough, wolves are the animals we usually take in, especially since many of the calls come from the wild areas of Winterfell. Generally young pups that lost their mother, but it happened that in the past we welcomed young adults or elder wolves as well. Sadly enough, when we have to take care of our puppies, many are too young to be released alone into their natural habitat, and so they stay with us in the sanctuary. It is the case of Fenrir, the wolf cub a person and I decided to officially adopt.

Cregan leans forward and extends his arms gently towards Fenrir, who occasionally approaches his owner. The wolf cub allows Cregan to pick him up, and he rests quietly in his arms

CS: You can pet him, it doesn’t bite! 

CK: This is surely one of the reasons why you are known as the “Wolf of Winterfell”, then! 

The atmosphere is playful, and the room is filled with the laughter of those present. A couple minutes after, everyone become serious again, and the interview goes on

CK: Thank you for sharing with us your knowledge of the animal world and the philosophy you've adopted for the sanctuary, Cregan. But I would like to reopen a small parenthesis about your family. In all the interviews we have done in the past, your father Rickon has always emphasised how close your family is. Has that changed or remained the same?

CS: Oh, luckily not! Our strong bond is what characterises us as a family. I would like to use a phrase that my father used in all his interviews: "family is like a pack of wolves: we are all united in front of the leader of the pack and no one is ever left behind." This is essentially what happened when my father decided to step in and welcome Sihtric Kjartansson into our family. He and my mother gave him food and shelter and treated him as if he were their second son, and that kind of love continues to this day. We're not blood brothers, but we've always had each other's backs and loved and respected each other as if we were. Sometimes he shows up at the doors of the Sanctuary, tired and still covered in bruises and cuts from his previous fights, but no matter how much I shout at him to go home and rest, he'll just be there waiting for a call for help, and even if I don't show it much, I'm glad for his generosity.

CK: I suppose the same relationship exists with your sisters.

CS: Right. I have two amazing sisters who have supported me from the beginning of this journey. Alisanne is my twin sister and a force of nature, she has a huge heart and supports you with everything she has. Lyanna too, as both myself and Alisanne have been her rock in her first steps into the fashion world, and in return she has supported us by helping out with the bakery and the sanctuary as much as she can. Our greatest weakness is that we are hard workers: we barely manage to find any free time, and now that Fenrir has joined the family, all attention is focused on him. Perhaps Sihtric is the only one saved from this workaholism, since his wife Rhaenerys knows how to discipline him properly. (laughs)

CK: So, outside your family, have you not yet had the chance to make new acquaintances?

CS: As I said, the sanctuary takes up most of my time, so it is difficult for me to get out and meet new people. It's also why the few relationships I've had in the past haven't lasted more than two months. But when I joined a dating app for fun, I found a connection with a girl I've been seeing recently. She's a kind soul with a lot of creativity, and being with her makes me forget all the stress and commitments I have at work. We're in a sort of 'long distance' relationship, but...

Suddenly, Cregan’s phone rings. The interviewer sees him talking a bit about something important related to work, and a few minutes after the call ends.

CS: I have to go, I've just had a call about a new hoarder coming to the sanctuary. Thank you for your time Cayn.

CK: Thank you for your time Cregan Stark and good luck with running the sanctuary.

If you've come this far, thank you so much for reading this! Hope you enjoyed it!

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

My re-reading project has gone reasonably well, my ADHD is still untreated so I often have a lot of trouble actually starting (Who is Real consistently created this roadblock in my mind for whatever reason), but it was re-reading Under Tides that has had me sitting down and digesting it for some time.

Under Tides has a dramatically different tone from pretty much every single other event that I've read so far. It's a very moody work, dramatically more so than previous events (and, definitely in comparison to Stultifera Navis), both in story direction and in art direction. The residents of Sal Viento are drawn in a way I find really compelling for the nature of the story: they look like they've had the life and energy sucked out of them, and share the same muted palettes with the Inquisitors. It really makes the Abyssal Hunters standout in comparison to the rest of the world, in Skadi's vivid reds, Gladiia's blues, and Specter's monochrome colors.

This piece, on top of just being absolutely breathtaking honestly, is a really good example. Sal Viento sits, tilted in ruins into the sea, but at this angle it feels impossible to tell where the land begins and where the ocean meets the city. It makes Sal Viento feel very isolated from the world, and it is in many ways, and I in particular like the way the support structures at the right, now broken and falling apart, make Sal Viento feel skeletal. How much has been destroyed, taken by the sea? It's great.

But Skadi is the only splash of color. Skadi's red stand out amongst the very muted blues, the blues that feel barely distinguishable from the dismal grays of rain clouds and brackish water, and the sterile colors of Sal Viento. Skadi and the Hunters are the only splash of life in this landscape; even the Inquisitors cannot be said to do this, because much if not all of what the Inquisitors leave in their wake is death.

But it's also a much darker story than usually, and that's a bit surprising considering how much fare Arknights up to this point has had with the ideas of corporate corruption, discrimination, and cleansing. It's a lot to do with how the characters are positioned to each other: the people of Sal Viento are almost zombie-like, being slowly eaten away from ingestion of Seaborn flesh, and are intensely paranoid and disapproving of outsiders. Only Anita stands out amongst them, a beacon of innocence and curiosity that hasn't been stamped out yet by the constant erosion of the tides. Skadi and Gladiia are both oppositional to each other and oppositional to everyone else in the story. There's no real sense of cooperation or camaraderie between any of the characters outside of Anita, which creates a really rather oppressive atmosphere. The dark parts of Talulah's story in Chapter 8 stand in contrast to the warmer parts of her relationship to Alina, Frostnova, and Patriot, and it stands in contrast with Amiya and Ch'en. Maria Nearl's attempted assassination at the hands of the KGCC stands stark against Marcus and Zofia's support of her and her naive ideals.

There's no contrast in Under Tides, it's a constant gloomy, dark feeling, it's being in a cave that's constantly damp, dripping, and moist. That works really well for the type of story it wants to be, especially for its climax moment, where the first time character's connect with each other, it is portrayed in the form of a mental breakdown.

"She is a monster. She murders her own kind. She for her own kind murders her own kind. She by her own kind murders her own kind. The eyes of the people in the streets are filled with warmth. They don't know anything. The eyes from the research institutes and in the tents are filled with ice. When the hunters sleep, there are patrollers guarding. No. Those aren't guards. That night patrol doesn't serve the hunters. The patrollers are waiting for the hunters to become monsters."

Aside from her, anyone and everyone probably knew. Sea monster. And–she has already committed the gravest sin...

I killed it. I killed her. I killed Him.

There's some questionable writing decisions made in this chapter, especially with the way that Anita and Irene have a habit of narrating action scenes in dialogue, but this will not be what I criticize. This is the climax of the story: where the truth of the matter, where Skadi understanding the bizarre idiosyncrasies of her biology and what they mean, causes her identity to collapse, leaving Skadi to try and grab at anything she can.

And she grabs onto being a monster.

Becoming a Seaborn is in some ways both an invasion and a form of acceptance. Your biology changes, but the outcome is not a guarantee. Skadi only avoids her fate here because Gladiia deliberately took a massive injury as a trap. If that hadn't been intentional, if Gladiia truly took a mortal wound, Skadi would have fallen right there.

"Your neural cells are rapidly metabolizing. Remember, you are a hunter. They can't do anything to you."

It's truth and its untruth. The extent to which Skadi's condition can be directly tied to her biology is questionable: we've already seen this questioned in Skadi's own monologue. But as long as Skadi remembers that she is a hunter, that she has a purpose and can resist, she'll be fine.

It's good, it's a fantastic climax that leads to the rather nice and cathartic reunion amongst the Abyssal Hunters. Really liked this event.

[agentrouka-blog]

The Pact of Ice and Fire is some really damning evidence when it comes to Jonsa. I got into an argument with someone on a forum about it because she disputed that it could just as easily be fulfilled by Jon (a Stark) and D/aenerys (a Targ). Except Jon is the Targ fostered at Winterfell... which seems much more damning to me evidence-wise; we learn about the pact, but more meaningfully it's already been partly fulfilled (leaving the open question of how it might be further developed) and in addition to that acts as foreshadowing for Jon's parentage. It's actually very elegant.

But you know what's most damning to me about it? Why would GRRM invoke 'ice and fire' in this pact - his series namesake, the prophecy for which R/haegar felt called to? It's special, and it might not be saving-the-world special (not GRRM's style - this was what my friendly rival invoked, that it could only be J/D because they'll save the world, i.e. the heroic song of ice and fire), but it's so special it foreshadows two major revelations in the story. About love and the human heart in conflict with itself and unfulfilled political promises. I mean, you could even make the argument that this foreshadows a bit of the dragon dispute - if the Starks have already made alliance with one 'dragon' (Jon) and the rest of Westeros with another (Aegon), what's left for D/aenerys?

Interesting, interesting, all very interesting; a fascinating piece of evidence to be sure. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the J/D take, though not to formulate my argument for me - this argument is both long past and also the one thing I used to hate in anon asks from people was being used to make their arguments (I would literally be contacted mid-Discord debate hahahah) - mostly just curious as to what you think about all those conflicting Snow/Stark/Targ elements - perhaps J/D itself if you feel like it - and the Pact. Love to hear your thoughts.

Something that is often overlooked is that Rhaegar dedicates the "Song of Ice and Fire" to his son Aegon. The son by Elia. The sun's son. His intended heir.

Because to Rhaegar the prophecy was about some kind of epic confrontation between a fire-coded hero and a presumably ice-coded enemy. The imagery and wording of Azor Ahai and his more explicit fire-ice/light-dark/good-evil dichotomies is so similar that we can reasonably assume that this Promised Prince is supposed to be Fire and the Song is supposed to be an epic fight with Ice.

We can't be sure what the motivation of Cregan and Jace would have been in naming their Pact in this way, though it's likely to be different and more representative of their respective elemental symbolism. Emphasizing a union and alliance between contrasting forces for a greater political good. (In their eyes.)

The structure of ice and fire as two opposing but equally destructive magical threats with mirroring arcs and magical conduits (Bran and Dany, actually) that is faced by all of humanity fuses both takes on the name. It's not fire good and ice bad, it's two extreme expressions of blood magic, with humanity banding together in the middle trying to survive.

Jon, as the product of ice and fire Houses, can't represent ice in a union with someone else's fire to create an alliance. He himself is already a mix of both, and his most significant political effect in the narrative has been to faciliate a crucial alliance between two former enemies. We can expect more along those lines. He is the fulfillment of the Pact, in a sense, (No thanks to Rhaegar, all thanks to the love of his mother, uncle and siblings) with only the minor political detail of that marriage to a Stark cousin still in question.

Dany, on the other hand, is fully identified with fire. She can't separate herself from that role to suddenly occupy a space separate from that elemental threat. She represents the threat. Or rather, if she separated from that power (like Bran will) she would cease to represent fire entirely.

If she is to be part of "ice and fire" it can only be in the role of an enemy to be defeated. If she ceases to be fire, she has no place in that equation, and she would be missing an icy counterpart. If GRRM had intended for Jon and Dany to represent ice and fire together, he would have never needed to bother with RLJ. Jon could be Ned's bastard "ice" son to Dany's "fire". But a significant aspect of his story is, specifically, the revelation that Jon is not, in fact, Ned's son. He is the son of a Stark maiden and a Targaryen prince, "hiding in the snow".

Jon and Dany occupy two very different spots in the "ice and fire metaphor continuum".

[tired-gae]

Prompt #27: "That's not the point"

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: Teen (for cursing)

No warnings as of now!! (If there is something that should be put here, let me know!)

(No ships either)

Premise: Post-revival (Died in Infinity War, ambiguously is Alive at present time, between Infinity War and Endgame) Loki and Clint have a conversation.

---

Loki had been in the Avengers Compound for nearly a week. It had been a few days since the revelation that the Invasion of New York was not done voluntarily on Loki’s part (and since he’d last seen Barton.) Thanos was a topic of heavy discussion, of course, given the whole ‘Snap’ business. Loki’s almost glad he was dead at the time, if only because he didn’t have to witness that event. 

He and Barton hadn’t made eye contact since he’d returned. This did not come as a surprise, and Loki expected this pattern to continue.

So imagine his shock when, as Loki is sitting against a wall in an unused training room in an attempt to think uninterrupted, Barton walks into the room and sits down mere feet from him. Loki glances over but chooses not to react. Whatever Barton is trying to accomplish, he’s sure it will make itself clear soon.  

He observes the agent quietly. Barton looks tired. He’s staring, eyes half-lidded, at the floor, and appears older than Loki remembers. (Though, he supposed, it had been a good number of years since New York. Mortals aged quickly, did they not?) He takes note of Barton’s lack of weapons. (Visible ones, anyway. He is a spy.) A display of benevolence, perhaps? He can’t imagine it’s a display of trust, considering it all.  

Loki looks away once again. It continues to be silent.  

The silence is expected. Loki can hear the gentle whine of Barton's hearing aids. (An old pair, presumably worn for comfort reasons. Stark had bought (made?) him a pair recently, after deciding the technology around Clint's ears was subpar at best, and that the archer could do better. Loki had yet to see him wear them.)  

The silence is also fragile. Barton is the first one to break it.  

"You too, huh?" 

Loki hums quietly. "In a different way, but... yes." 

Barton picks at the skin around his fingernails. "I had a feeling." 

Loki's head snaps toward him, stunned. He struggles to find words for a moment, mouth opening and closing stupidly. He settles on, "Pardon?" 

Barton's eyes finally flicker over to Loki's, his eyes still half-lidded, tired. "You do realize I remember a good amount of my time under the mind-control crap, right? I mean, it wasn't that hard to figure out." He looked away again. "I don't actually have pigeon shit for brains."

Loki takes a moment to form his response, choosing only to respond to the last part of the statement. "I'm aware. You were the brains behind the stunt in Germany, and subsequently the entire plan, after all. I could hardly think you were stupid." 'A distraction and an eyeball,' if Loki remembered correctly. 

Barton's face twists into a grimace briefly before he shakes it off. "Anyway—the point was, I remember a lot of those few days. I remember you going into a trance-like thing a few times, and coming back from it all shaky and shit. ...Not that you weren't really shaky the whole time. You were weirdly weak, and despite telling us not to overwork ourselves, you didn't really seem to sleep at any point..." He shrugged. "I dunno. After I more-or-less got over it all, it wasn't exactly a difficult conclusion to come to that there was something fishy going on, that you weren't really the big bad." 

Loki stared at the wall opposite them, fingers digging into the flesh of his arms where he was crossing them. It was silent again for only a moment. 

"Oh, and SHIELD's known since forever." Barton added like an afterthought. "I mean, they combed through basically every piece of footage from the invasion, I've seen the clips. They analyzed the shit out of the footage from the collapsed PEGASUS facility, they couldn't really ignore all the signs that you weren't quite... at your best when you showed up." Understatement of the millennium, Loki thought with very little mirth. Barton looked over lazily again, though this time Loki was the one avoiding eye contact. 

"Anywho." Barton continued, quieter. "This isn't forgiveness or any crap like that." 

"I wouldn't expect it to be," Loki agreed. 

"It is... I dunno. An olive branch I guess." He shrugged, crossing his arms in a mirror to Loki to stop himself from picking more at the skin on his hands. "Part of me still wants to put an arrow through your skull, but, y'know, it's a small part." 

Loki frowned. "You would be completely entitled to do so, if you wished. I would not stop you from taking that revenge." It likely wouldn't even kill him, he mused. Nothing seems to be able to do that these days. 

Barton groaned, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Loki can't help but wonder what he'd said wrong. "See, you say shit like that, and it makes that part even smaller. I mean, dude. I'm not actually gonna fucking shoot you." 

Loki can't say he understands why not, but he can't say he understands much about Barton. (Despite quite literally being in his mind at one point.) None of these mortals make much sense. 

Barton sighed, letting his hand drop again. “Anyways. That’s not the point. The gist is... we’re OK, all things considered. If you catch me using a printed out picture of your face on a dummy during target practice, mind your business. That’s just how my brain works.” He shifts, standing back up from their position of sitting against the wall. “I’ll see you around, terrorist. Don’t die on us again. Still needja for the whole killing Thanos thing.” 

Loki rolled his eyes at the ‘terrorist’ nickname. “Never losing that epithet, am I?” 

“Not a chance.” 

[mowritesstuff]

Irondad and Spider-son

Something that I think is super interesting yet isn’t talked about enough (in my opinion) is the idea of “Irondad/Spiderson” and the subsequent infantilization of Spider-Man. Regardless of if you enjoy the trope or not, it is incredibly interesting to look at the way that Irondad is made to be perceived in modern day media. If you go on Ao3, Tumblr, or Fanfic.Net, you can find story after story that all essentially have the same format: something happens to Peter and Tony is the only one who can make it better.

It isn’t surprising that this is the way that this trope has developed, seeing as that’s exactly how marvel/the MCU showcased their relationship.

In order for there to be a father-son relationship between Peter and Tony, they need to make Peter Parker fundamentally different from his cannon comic book roots. Not only do they need to erase the role that both Uncle Ben and Aunt May play on his development into adulthood, but they also need to shift around more subtle, impactful factors in Peter’s life; like his financial situation.

The only way that Irondad as a concept can work is if Peter is raised by a young single parent/guardian who can work enough to support both her and Peter. This allows Peter to have the luxuries that come with growing up financially stable: recklessness with clothing and school supplies, immaturity and gullibility, and a lack of responsibility.

Spider-man’s story arc is meant to showcase the struggles of a young boy forced to become a man. Peter Parker got powers and his uncle was killed. Hes essentially on his own, and has to become the type of man that his uncle would be proud of. He has to take the mantle as “man of the house” and take on responsibilities of someone much older than him. That’s the brilliance of it. If even a small piece of the story is changed, then it differs how the character develops.

If Ben doesn’t die, there’s no need for him to become Spider-man. Subsequently, there is no one for peter to base his own self/his identity of when comparing his actions and reactions.

If May isn’t frail/unable to work, then there is no need for Peter to become aware of his financials. There is no need for him to struggle to make sacrifices in order to make sure the bills are paid. (A prime example of this is Peter selling his photographs to the Bugle. Why would he sell his photos to a magazine that continuously drags his name through the mud? Why else if not because he has bills that need to be paid?)

If Peter is in a financially stable situation, then there is no need for him to look at corporations/rich people with a critical lens. There is a difference between knowing that someone is richer than you are and being made aware of their wealth in everything that they do. If Peter was raised poor, do you really think he would have been comfortable around Tony Stark or Avengers tower? You think he wouldn’t on some subconscious level, resent the fact that Tony Stark can damn near literally throw money around, while he has to scrape to pay the bills? Do you really think he would have been anything less than hyper aware that Tony Stark has the privilege of being able to buy literal buildings at the last second, just to toss the Hulk through them?

If none of these factors play a role in Peter Parker’s development, then he becomes a different person. A character who has the privileges of being gullible, reckless, and less mature than his original counterpart. There’s a reason why in every other iteration, Spiderman is more mature/has more emotional struggles.

And unlike Tony Stark, Peter doesn’t have the privileges that he (TS) has. Tony has money, power, and influence in order to make sure that the consequences given to him are less severe.

In my opinion, what it boils down to, is that Irondad/Spiderson can only work is Spider-man isn’t Spider-man. He doesn’t have to worry about bills or politics. He doesn’t have to worry about food, or his aunt, or filling the shoes that Ben Parker left for him. He doesn’t have to worry about the consequences of his identity being exposed or stress over repairing his spider-suit again and again when he goes out to keep New York City safe. He has no responsibilities.

All that’s left is a kid with a whole bunch of powers, but very little responsibilities. And that’s not Spider-man.

[markerofthemidnight]

I love your Hatchetfield fics Grayscale and Hidden Depths. Can you tell me a tidbit about both/ether of them?

AHHHHHHH I’d be happy to oblige!!!

As much as I’d like to talk about both at the moment… I hate to admit this, but I’ve really been ignoring the existence of Hidden Depths as of recent. And Greyscale, but Hidden Depths deserves attention too! So, since Chapter 6 has been held back for so long, why not share some more about the Old Lords?

HD: ULTIMATE Recap was, after all, only a very small tidbit of extra info on them. I’m also working on a piece that’ll show you all their designs- except Kindler’s, since we’ve already seen his, but I’m not even halfway through that yet. Starting to get pretty concerned with how little I’ve been doing stuff as of recent…

Well, anyways! Here’s some extra information on the Old Lords and my thought process behind making them.

Kynzol Errakt (aka Kindler)

The God of the Sun and Flames, as you know. Previously known as the God of Drought in Chapter 1, but I felt like it was pretty odd to have a god whose powers can only be defined by what they aren’t associated with.

Obviously very draconic in design, but the dragon actually isn’t his associated animal. That would go to the thorny devil: everybody’s favourite spiky little reptile that I felt best summed up what exactly I was trying to go for with Kindler, and that was before I learned that they can apparently drink water by absorbing it through their feet!

Known as the Everburning Star, Kindler is the de facto leader of the Old Lords. He carries himself with a sophisticated yet very intentionally intimidating disposition, and tends to not really think about the wellbeing of others unless it affects his.

It’s fairly obvious from his behaviour that he has a pretty big god complex (ironic, huh?), and is incredibly stubborn in his beliefs. Not even the Old Lords would ever dare speak out against him: the only reason why they’re so comfortable with his presence is because they’ve spent 5,000 years with him.

You may be wondering why I chose this specific personality when it’s not very different from Wiggly’s. Well… that’s because Kindler was pretty much just based on my perception of what Wiggly’s predecessor probably would’ve acted like, which slowly developed into the dragon we know today.

The main difference between them, I’d say, is that Wiggly is only partly scary (hence why so many people are in love with him), whereas Kindler is actually genuinely scary and villainous. It’s like the difference between any normal Disney villain and Emperor Belos from The Owl House.

Trypnarash (aka Thrasher)

The God of Noise, associated with a bat for fairly obvious reasons. Rather fittingly, also as blind as a bat. For some reason he switches between having an Australian or a Cockney accent depending on whichever one I think would be better suited to what he’s saying.

Known as the Beastly Cacophony, Thrasher is… loud. Very loud. Strangely enough, he’s actually surprisingly chill: he’s pretty much fine with anything as long as it’s entertaining.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that this still doesn’t make him a good person. He’s evil just like the rest of them, only in his own ways. (Not Evil from The Lego Movie 2 is a song that I associate with him quite a lot, by the way.)

Inspiring false hope so that the others can crush it, and toying with people in more personal ways, is his MO. He pretty much does whatever’s most entertaining to him at the moment: the only reason why he’s alright with Blinky not being evil is because in a few months, he’s gonna be dead for good. No point in caring about that.

Gazon Q’raktic (aka Gazer)

The Goddess of Space, associated with jellyfish since it was the first animal I thought of that felt alien enough to be associated with space. Also known as the Scholar of the Stars.

My basic concept behind her and her personality was “what if the ancient deity was a girlboss.” A stark contrast to the slowly rotting incel with ADHD that we call Tinky. Some would call her arrogant, though it’s important to keep in mind that arrogance implies misplaced confidence.

And hers is definitely not misplaced.

She is smarter than you. Much, much smarter. Gazer has peered into the distant voids of space, and understands the universe in a way no one else can. She knows how the Big Bang happened, she knows about the existence of extraterrestrial life, and the answers to many more unanswered questions about the universe. How does she know? Simple: she figured it out. HERSELF.

She has an IQ of at least 2,000. And she is cursed with knowledge no one else can ever bear: because no one, not even any of her fellow Old Lords, is intelligent enough to understand it.

Kindler is arrogant to the point of being delusional. Gazer is… probably the only one out of those five who actually has her head on straight.

Honestly, she’s also probably the closest to being a good person, as well? Whenever she plays with mortals, it’s usually some kind of simple challenge with fair enough rules, which only gets violent if those rules are broken.

Retonydunfir (aka Rattler)

The God of Decay, associated with vultures. The name Rattler comes from the bones all over his body. Known as the Harbinger of Decay.

Rattler is… you know how I just said Gazer’s probably the only sane one there? He’s close to being sane. Not quite there yet, though.

His base personality is best described as the archetypical cranky grandfather who says the most appalling and racist things as if he’s just talking about the weather. Except Rattler is more intimidating than that.

He works slightly differently to the other Lords in that his powers are fueled. When something somewhere in the universe dies or decays- no matter how great or small- he gains power.

He is obsessed with what he calls the “art” of decay. Partly because it fuels his powers, but mainly because he’s just, for lack of a better term, a nightmare fetishist.

This stretches not only to physical decay, but mental decay as well. Unlike Nibbly, he’s very patient, and prefers to make people suffer through slow torment that steadily gets worse as it continues, rather than just… eating them.

Definitely not someone you want to have on your bad side… or your good side, as he’s known to subject some of his own followers to similar things once they die. What they endured his room (and, to this day, continue to endure in Nibbly’s room) can only be described as a really big, really long retelling of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

Stinturmor (aka Stinger)

The Goddess of War and Discord, and probably my favourite out of the old Lords in Black? Her associated animal is an ant, because ants go to war with each other all the time. She’s known as the Gyne General (a gyne being the primary reproductive female in a system of insects, i.e. an ant queen).

She has two forms in total. The first and more commonly seen one is a small cartoony blue ant. The second… I can’t talk about what the second one looks like.

She’s also the first of the Old Lords to have her room fully designed. It’s a medieval castle on a hill (🎶 AS THE STORY GOES 🎶), mainly either royal blue or baby blue in colour.

She likes ponies, drinking tea with honey, and drawing her favourite mortals all being horrifically tortured whilst laying on her little princess bed with her feet kicking in the air like a toddler.

…Yeah.

So the main inspiration for Stinger, as well as my headcanon voice for her, was The Ghost of Christmas Present from Scrooged. If you’ve watched that, I’m sure you’ll know exactly what Stinger’s going to be like in the story, specifically when talking to Pokey.

The reason why that specifically is her personality is because, if Pokey represents peace and harmony, she represents war and discord. Dissonance, conflict, contrasting elements between characters.

So naturally, my only option with her was to play up the general vibe of the canon LiB, giving her two sides: the first being this cutesy little whimsical creature who talks like she’s from Oz, and the second being a horrible nightmare that’ll torture you for days on end, kill you as soon as she gets bored, and then resurrect you as soon as she gets bored of all her other favourite playthings.

She also has the ability to summon any weapon at will. And I do mean any weapon, even ones that she shouldn’t feasibly be able to wield. She prefers ones from the Dark Ages or beforehand, but unfortunately for you, our dearest Stinger doesn’t exactly believe in consistency.

For this very reason, I am very much looking forward to writing a scene in Hidden Depths where she just nonchalantly whips out a grenade launcher.

[reigningqueenofwords]

Shoot Him in the Leg

Pairing: Steve x Reader, Bucky x daughter!Reader

Part 22 of Looking for the Captain

Neither man spoke as you left the room. What was there to say? Right now, they were in limbo. Nat and Bruce were the only other two that knew about you taking Plan B a couple weeks ago, and Bucky hadn’t said anything about it to either since. Part of him wondered if he should have called and spoke to Nat while he was at the store that morning. She had helped him before, after all. It was too late now, so he would just have to deal with whatever happened. 

“You know I gotta ask, right? You’re gonna be there for them if she has your kid, aren’t you?” Bucky glanced at Steve. “You’re not gonna pull away because you’re a superhero or anything?” While he was pretty sure he knew that Steve would never do that, his instincts as a father made him ask. 

Steve stared at him. “Of course I’d be there, but I wouldn’t be able to stop being the Captain. It’s my job. What else can I possibly do?” Being Captain America was literally his life. He wished he didn’t have to fight, but how could he walk away when he could still help keep people safe?

He shrugged. “You like art. Be an artist. I’m sure people would pay good money for a piece of art by Steve Rogers. Or hell, I’m sure Stark could put you through school. Especially since she dropped out. Can find another way to fight for the little guys where you aren’t putting yourself in danger.” He suggested it like it was nothing as he put a box of pasta away. 

“You just want me to hang up the shield?” He asked, wanting to make sure he was hearing that correctly. “We don’t even know if she actually is pregnant. Like she said, it could be stress.” That’s what he was truly hoping it was. As much as Steve had always wanted a family, he felt that he wasn’t ready, and felt it was too soon in your relationship. The pair of you had just started dating. 

“Judging by the look on your face, you’re more committed to your shield than you are to her. Funny, you’d choose her if I told you to pick. Fine. I get that. However, I’m guessing that’s not the same reaction you’d have if you had to choose between her and being the Captain.” He crossed his arms over his chest. 

“I’m here, aren’t I? I didn’t stay behind to help the others. I didn’t say she should stay here herself so I could keep being the Captain. I didn’t even bring my shield or uniform.” He defended himself. “And being the Captain is the only constant I’ve had since I woke up. Hell, since the war. It’s not something I can just shut off.” 

Shaking his head, he sighed. “You’re telling me if things had gone differently, that you wouldn’t have hung up the shield for some dame back in the day? That had you found someone you’d still be the Captain. You wouldn’t have found some other job?” 

“That’s entirely different, and you damn well know it.” He shot back, getting annoyed. “This is the one connection I have to back then.” 

“Funny. I thought you had me, too.” He said sadly. 

“The only reason I have you now is because someone is after Y/N. If that never happened, there’s no telling when I’d see you again.” His tone was just as sad. “Let’s just get the cold stuff put away and go check on her.” He didn’t want to keep talking about this. 

Before Bucky could reply, the landline rang. He quickly went and lifted the receiver to his ear. “Stark?” Who else would be calling. 

“We’ve got a location. Sending a helicopter for you and Rogers.” Tony told him quickly. 

“How long?” He asked, heart hammering in his chest. 

“Be there in about an hour. Do you have your gear?” 

“No. Have Nat grab it. She knows where it is. Steve’s gear is at the tower, too.” He explained. “Is anyone going to come stay with Y/N? I’m not comfortable her being here alone.” As much as he wanted to go after the people responsible, he wouldn’t leave you vulnerable, either. 

“Barton. He volunteered, figuring you and Rogers would both want to go after these people. He’s packed a bag like a little girl for a sleepover.” He chuckled lightly. 

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. “Alright. I’ll fill them in. Thanks, Stark.” 

With that, the men hung up. “What’s going on? We’re leaving?” Steve asked, confused. 

Bucky nodded. “They’ve got the location. They’re sending a helicopter for us and Barton is staying with Y/N.” He explained.

You couldn’t hear the guys outside the bathroom door, so you assumed they stayed downstairs. You were sitting on the side of the tub, the test on the sink. It said to wait 3 minutes, so you didn’t want to stare at it the entire time. Although, you were sure it had been longer than 3 minutes at this point. You just couldn’t bring yourself to look at the result. 

Finally, you heard noises outside the door before there was a knock. Getting up, you went to answer the door. “Stark is sending a helicopter for us. They have the location.” Bucky told you instantly. 

“Seriously? It’s almost over?!” You let yourself be hopeful. 

“Barton is gonna come keep you company while me and Stevie go.” He went on. “We’ll be leaving in about an hour.” 

Nodding, you chewed on your lip. “I’m not going to look at the test, then.” You told them. 

Steve furrowed his brows. “Why?” 

“If it’s positive? You two will have that on your mind when you need to be focusing on coming home safe. If it’s negative, awesome. You wouldn’t have to worry about it.” You explained. “I think I’d rather wait to find out now.” 

They could understand that. They would be distracted. “In that case, want to go play a couple card games before we have to go?” Bucky asked, hopeful. 

You smiled at that. “Sure.” You agreed, making your way to head downstairs. You’d deal with the test later. 

You’d hugged both men goodbye, and told them to come home safe. Of course you were worried about them rushing off to fight. You just hoped that it was a quick thing, and that you’d get a call that night or the next morning that it was over with. 

Clint had brought some clothes, his gear, and was hoping to help distract you while the other two were off. He planned to crash on the couch, leaving Bucky’s camp set up for him. “Have you eaten?” You asked him once you shut the front door. 

“I haven’t, but I can wait until dinner. We can just snack or something for now.” He thought maybe you wanted to eat as a comfort thing, which he couldn’t blame you. 

“How does chips and dip sound?” You offered. “And we have beer, soda, water, milk, and juice.” 

“I’ll have a soda. Sprite if you have it. Movie while we snack?” He motioned to the TV and stack of DVDs. “Pick whatever you’d like, and I’ll be right back. Bathroom upstairs?” He pointed. 

You nodded. “Yeah, it’s the only open door.” It wasn’t until he was all the way up the stairs, and you were stepping into the kitchen, that the fact that there was a pregnancy test sitting on the bathroom sink hit you. “Shit.” You groaned. There was literally no way to make it so he didn’t see that. 

“So, looks like we’re gonna have a tiny Cap around, huh?” Clint asked gently as he walked in. 

This was not how you expected to get your answer. You couldn’t help but tear up. “Guess so.” You managed. 

“Hey, I get it if you’re scared.” He assured you. “But I hope you know we’ll all be there for you guys. How did the other two take it?” 

“They don’t know yet.” You sniffed. “I guess while I was taking the test…Tony called to say they were going after the people that are after me. So, I told them I wasn’t going to look at the test, because if it was positive they’d have that on their minds the whole time. I’d rather them focus on coming home safe.” 

Clint sagged. “You didn’t even know.” He noted. “I’m sorry.” 

You shook your head. “Don’t be. I meant to throw it away after they left, but I spaced out.” You handed him a Sprite. “I don’t know what I want to do.” 

“With the kid?” 

“Yeah. I was thinking about it earlier when Dad was at the store.” You dumped some chips into a bowl. “I know there’s adoption, and abortion. I know those are options.” You shrugged. “I don’t think I would be able to do either of those, though. But, I don’t know if Steve even wants kids.” 

He looked confused. “Why do you say that? He seems like he’d be a natural.” 

“He’s Captain America, for one. Do you think that and kids would go together well? And it’s never something I’ve heard him talk about.” You popped a chip in your mouth before moving to the fridge to get out the dip. “What if he freaks out hearing I’m pregnant and decides that’s really not what he wants? All he told me when we talked about it was that he wouldn’t be mad.” 

Clint felt for you. “Out of all of us, I would think he’d be the biggest family man.” He assured you. “White picket fence and all that.” He was clearly trying to ease your mind. 

Shrugging a shoulder, you let out a breath as you spooned some dip into a smaller bowl. “Guess only time will tell how he reacts.” You were honestly worried about it. More now than when it was just a possibility. “And I just have to hope that he doesn’t panic and want out.” 

He didn’t know what to say, as there was nothing that could help you feel more positive. “How about if he tries to run I shoot him in the leg with an arrow?” He joked. 

You couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, that would make it a lot more difficult on him.” You noted. “Make it easier for Dad to catch him.”

“About that, you’re calling him ‘dad’ now? That’s awesome!” He smiled. “When did that happen?” 

“A day or two after he got here, I think? It just…slipped out.” You explained. “I’d been in my feels about everything and I went to say goodnight. Without even thinking I called him ‘dad’, and it stuck.” Picking up the chips and dip, you turned to him. “Can you grab me a bottle of water and I’ll go find something funny for us to watch?” 

Tagging:

@vicmc624 @hisredheadedgoddess28 @otterlycanadian

[cleabellanov]

Jet-Skiing through Identity: A Deep Dive into Mobius M. Mobius (final part)

"Part of the journey is the end" (Tony Stark in Avengers Endgame")

l find it so beautiful that this character managed to bring the Loki fandom so far with him 🧡

He didn't even have a popular background in the comics, we only got to know him because of the show. He started as a sidekick and comedic relief, an analyst with bright ideas that no one believed was going to work and a soft spot for broken things.

Then, he became a rebel breaking out from the organization that indoctrinated his whole life and the life of others. A fighter for free will. A lost man, never wanting to look or to know, but not so lost when he has the 1 he loves next to him.

And through all of it, a kind person, with a golden heart still speaking too loudly to be ignored - no matter what. And the sun still shines over that pulse, even if the rest of the world doesn't.

Let's dive into the last part of this series.

We get to meet Mobius's original self: Don, in "Science/Fiction". His joyous nature and opening to strangers makes you want to trust him. Don is basically a Mobius that never got to experience the horrors of the TVA. That is telling us how much of his character was restrained because of them, and how much was simply erased from memory. Even if his core self stayed, it had to stay very deep within, hidden, for Mobius not to get hurt by the TVA's rules.

A similarity between Don and Mobius is the deep care Don has for his loved ones: that's the thing motivating him in spite of risks. I also love how, even confused, Don seeks good. "Are you really my friend?" shows how, even if he doesn't understand this all, he knows it can be for the better. He even likes the sound of "Mobius" :

In the sixth and final episode, "Glorious Purpose", we get to some of my favorites quotes ever. And they're spoken by Mobius (i'll get to them in a minute)

Mobius has always been a weaver of details. But I want to point out how this web intensifies its strength when it comes to Loki. No one there noticed how there's something different going on but Mobius. Because, if to be loved is to be changed, to love is to change. And they both know that.

Then comes this epic conversation between Loki, who timeslips back to his first day at the TVA only to talk with Mobius. And it is this final conversation that makes the final piece of the puzzle for Loki. That's how important it is. Warning, tears were shed.

"Mobius, I need your help" "Well, I'm listening"

Even across the vast tapestry of time, the threads uniting Mobius to Loki never break. He'd only just met this variant, yet he's ready to listen, to help him despite every reason he shouldn't. Plus, this is more proof to the golden heart he listens to, of which I talked earlier.

Mobius then talks about how they don't choose at the TVA, the Time Keepers do. See how much of a person's unique way of being and thinking is repressed here if Mobius, who already shows to be open minded, gives this as an automatic response? Obviously it's a result of the constant indoctrination system that they live in, that wipes memories when things get inconvinient.

And the way he speaks this line:

Further backs up the argument that the TVA is a dystopian-totalitarian society, where even the slightest of emotions are suppressed. And it's not Mobius's fault that he had to do the same.

"Most purpose is more burden than glory"

To the Loki Mobius thinks he's talking to, this probably wouldn't mean much. But to season 2 Loki, it is everything, a hurtful summary for what he has been enduring for centuries.

And Mobius is right: he wasn't only talking to Loki when he said that line. I wonder how many of you reading this were searching for glory, only to find the burden that you have to bear instead. Then realize that it's better to bear the burden and have the purpose, then lose the purpose altogether. This is why it's one of my favorite lines: it references all the way back to Avengers 2012, and it gets right to your heart.

But how do you live with the burden? I have some things to say about Mobius's reply to this, too:

"Scar tissue"

So, in the end, it becomes part of you.

Similar to the Kintsugi art of mending objects, not by trying to hide what was broken, but by making those fissures part of the object's history.

And scar tissue, just like Kintsugi, is always stronger than it was before the deep injury healed. What Mobius is saying is, that even after choosing to bear the burden of preserving the Sacred Timeline, after all that hurt, it also made him stronger.

"She knew the hard thing to do was the thing that had to be done"

This is the final trigger, what made Loki "tick". Because, just as Mobius learned that from his past, Loki knows it is the last option he has in his future. And that is the hard thing to do. I don't think I "can bear to narrate what happens next".

"No, there's no comfort. You just choose your burden."

Little did he know he would, in fact, find comfort in Loki, and the other way around. But the burden had to be chosen in order for the purpose to be completed.

And we get to the end. There is no need for imagery for any of us since I know the final shots of the Loki series have been haunting us since November.

But there he is, free to do whatever he wants. He could take Sylvie's example and live his life, wander off from timeline to timeline now that all of them are safe. But he doesn't.

He just lets time pass.

Because, after all the development he went through, all the insight and glory he gained, he can't move on without Loki by his side. He probably didn't even realize how much he loves them before remaining all alone.

So he does the one thing he can, and knows best: he lets time pass. As if, when enough of it had gone by, he could start passing with time too. But not yet.

Part of the journey is the end. But isn't every end a new beginning?

[shark-myths]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag ((and drag)) @carbonbased000! this was very fun and thoughtful to do.

who is writing things right now? i never remember. i will tag a wide and perhaps not terribly relevant range of: @toorational @just-about-nothing @27-royal-teas @leyley09 @alienfuckeronmain @stereostatic @setting-in-a-honeymoon and anyone else so inclined!

++

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

65

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

968,103, but as i’ve said before, i have orphaned a lotta fic as well

3. What fandoms do you write for?

pretty much just Fall Out Boy, but i will occasionally dabble in something random! this includes tony stark femslash (not sorry, will not apologize), cobra kai, and anything about girls or characters who could compellingly be made into girls.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Difference Between Real Love and the Love on TV

Stranger Danger

Boys Next Door / Assholes

From Russia With Love (this is one of those random sidesteps, a MCU femslash epistolary)

Jet Black Crow

(As an aside, it is so wild to me that older fics have so many more kudos than newer ones—you can really tell that fob went 5 years between albums! imo this is NOT a list of my best fic.)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

for years, I responded to every single one! then at some point i fell behind because of my high standards for trying to put the same thought and effort into my responses as all you lovely people put into the comments, then i became overwhelmed, then i stopped. I AM SO SORRY IF I OWE YOU RETURN COMMENTS, i read them and i treasured them and you are a huge part of the reason i keep writing. love u all!!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I only write happy endings, man! I stopped writing tragedies a long time ago. My angstiest fics are red and unafraid of living and In Every Universe. the end of Made One Way (Cobra Kai) is ambiguous and potentially brutal, depending on how you take it.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

um, every single other one! I’m a big fan of the gory fairy tale ending of The Boys Time Can’t Capture, and transmuting the hiatus into an act of mutual care and love in Sell Out Girl meant so much to me.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not since my first fandom and god, don’t

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes, a bit, could probably write a little less about feelings and a little more about feelings if u know what i mean. I’m super into sex as a person so i almost never write about intense romantic connections without bringing smut into it somehow; they feel really tightly linked for me, and i think i also crave media with HOT and INTIMATE connections between queer people. In terms of kind, i guess i’d have to say it’s largely rushed vanilla emotion-and-orgasm driven scenes. not a very flattering oeuvre i've created here.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

mash-ups are my favorite thing to do! I especially like ripping off movie and fairy tale plots and making them stranger, or else taking a really specific constrained timeline from someone’s life or a piece of media and transforming it somehow. best sandbox ever. my craziest one is probably the coyote ugly / beauty in the beast peterick fic, Wolves Dressed As Wolves. and i love this type of transformation in everything, whether it's the weirdo gender shit i just learned duchamp was doing or katherine addison's destructively beautiful 'sherlock holmes except there're ANGELS' novel or the buenos aires re-imagining version of vivaldi's four seasons by piazzolla, my life and taste keeps taking me into the various ways we fold and refract and remake the same experiences over and over again through different lenses or angles or selves. to quote some author whose identity i forgot years ago, though the quote remains: "there are no new stories." all art is iterative, and the most interesting thing we can do as creators is deviate in new, unexpected ways.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yeah, a million years ago on deviantart

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! I have had a few translations and a podfic. I love it when people want to interact with my stories in their own way, all interpretations are welcome.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

one day i hope to be domesticated enough that @carbonbased000 can write with me. I used to co-write by passing the laptop back and forth with my bestie in high school; we wrote self-insert x-men fanfiction based on the comic books in like 2004 and it was an absolute blast; but generally i am considered impossible to work with, by both myself and others.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

i feel completely unqualified to answer this question. i have been driven insane by any number of pairings in my life. when i was younger, i was more interested in internalized homophobia themes in ships, because that's where WE were culturally in the early 2000s and where i was in relationship to myself, and i think each change and growth and greater empowerment and self-possession in my own life is mirrored in what i am interested in. i feel the most drawn in by dynamics between people that are creative and give me a new way to access and explore interesting ideas and themes; i’m a real sucker for shared art products and touring bands as unique and agonizing ways to connect people. there are so many different ways to express that someone is your soulmate and you'll never convince me throwing away all trappings of a traditional life in order to rove the earth and make art with your friends isn't one of them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

do you not just block out your WIPs from your mind so that you can live in moment-to-moment freedom?? I am a finisher in general, i have a few peterick drafts lurking around in my gdocs but if they remain untouched, it’s generally because there are only a couple thousand words to them and i’m not very excited about the possibilities of the fic. there is a sequel to a meticulously historically accurate pirate fic i wrote long ago called Providence, i got to about 30k and then lost all of my extremely painstaking notes and research in a software update. I’m still very interested in and excited by the idea, but i lost the notes and felt too traumatized to continue with the project genuinely a decade ago, so the idea that i will return and finish the fic seems fairly unlikely. Providence is one of my greatest pieces of writing ever, though, so hope springs eternal, i guess!

16. What are your writing strengths?

lyrical prose and conveying humor via unusual sentence construction. i was recently told i write arguments well and feel tough as a result, like, watch out! you don’t want to fight me!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i am lazy and easily distractible, i don’t plot in advance, i barely edit because i get really rigid and have trouble seeing any other way to say something than how i’ve already said it, i have an unwillingness to delete and rewrite even when that’s the only way forward (see: my eternally 90% finished age swap peterick au), i use up all my emotional energy elsewhere and then neglect my craft for weeks at a time. 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

sometimes i’ll use pet names in another language if it makes sense for the character, but i avoid this in general as i’m not fluent in anything other than english. I would, have, and do sound like a duolingo lesson.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

afi bandom, when we used to call it slash, when i thought i had invented it with my friend at summer camp, when i was 13 and sent her kidfic stories i wrote out by hand in pink envelopes.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

genuinely i almost always write things i personally want to read, so i love them all! except the fucking fixed stars of heaven, everyone knows that fic tortured me to within an inch of my sanity. My most personal and personally meaningful fic is Girl Out Boy. i have a tattoo of it on my arm.