#This was so weird because I was daydreaming but also still doing stuff.

[betterthanbatman1]

Omg guys Ive been so tired today and I literally had like 2+hours of zoned out daydreaming and I was like omg I don’t want to forget this. So I wrote it out and now I have almost 1.5K words 😭

I might just publish my first fic 👀

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[lavenderchqn]

"TO PRACTICE FREEDOM"

synopsis — You're the biggest scaredy cat living amongst the people of Scions of Canopy. You try to get over your fear of heights... by trying out bungee jumping under the watchful eye of your partner. Let's just say... it doesn't go according to plan. pairing — kinich x gn!reader warnings — near death experience (falling from heights), minor character death, spoiler warnings for kinich's story and voicelines, ajaw is a lore accurate menace notes — I've had an idea for this as soon as we learned that Kinich has interest in extreme sports... reading his story felt weird (the longer I am in genshin fandom, the more stuff I predict right...)

The People of Huitztlan believe in the concept of absolute freedom. That’s why so many youngsters throw themselves into dangerous sports with a lack of safeguard measures. Perhaps having nothing securing a person allows them to experience said freedom. 

To practice death is to practice freedom, after all. 

“We’re here,” Kinich says, looking in your direction. He has held your hand ever since you started your trek up the higher regions of the Coatepec Mountain. “Do you want to take a break?” 

“Y-Yeah… I need to… sit.” You slowly get down with the help of Kinich. Only after he signalises being opposite of you, do your eyes open.

Kinich has taken a sit too, still holding onto your hand. He’s slowly rubbing circles trying to ground you as best as possible. 

Well… here you are — the biggest scaredy cat, who decided to try and work on your fear of heights by trying out bungee jumping. It’s quite ironic really. Not only are you a resident of Scions of the Canopy, which literally is suspended off the cliffs, but also in a relationship with a guy, whose second name could be ‘extreme sports’. 

To say your mind felt pressure to get over it would be quite an understatement. 

“We can still get down. Just say the word.” Kinich says, keeping his eyesight directly on you. Even if you had asked him to help you with your fears, he’d never force you to do so. Sure, it’d be pretty cool to share interests with a partner, but it should never come at the cost of their mental health. 

You shake your head. You have to try. Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think? Kinich will do everything in his power to keep you safe. 

“I can do this.” You answer, taking a deep breath. 

“Well then, chop chop SLOWPOKE!” Ajaw zooms right near your face, spooking you to bits. “Stop wasting MY precious time!” 

“Just how loud can you be…” Kinich sighs, getting up to shoo Ajaw away. “Tone it down a notch, will you?” 

The tiny saurian starts arguing with your partner, although you can easily tell it’s one-sided. No matter how much he would try, the most he could bring out of Kinich were insulting comebacks. Ajaw could try and rage the male in multiple ways… and yet, unfortunately for the dragon, your partner was too resilient to die from anger. 

In the meantime of their dissing match, you slowly get up on your legs. Ajaw is right… You don’t want to waste Kinich’s time because you’re scared and worried. He takes notice of your sudden movement, once again getting close to you. 

“Do you want to try now?” He asks, holding his hand out. These are obvious signs, that he will lead you step by step. 

“Yeah… I think I’m ready.” 

“Alright. Hold still. I’m going to put the climbing belt on you now.” 

As he says, he does. Kinich does it slowly, explaining his movement every step of the way. You’re aware, he’s doing it to ease your mind… and it’s working well. In the blink of an eye, the sound of a snap-hook getting attached brings you back from a short daydreaming session.

“All done.” He takes another look at you, checking if the equipment is snug against your body while making sure it isn’t digging into your skin. “Can you move for me?” 

“Yeah, sure!” You do a slow spin, followed by kneeling on one foot. “Although I can feel the harness… it’s not uncomfortable.” 

“That's good.”

Once again, it’s another series of your partner explaining the next steps. All you need to do is find a point to connect your line to. He already connected the rope to your belt. The other end is currently sitting tightly in his hand. 

“You’re not going to hold me when I jump?” You ask, growing worried. 

“I know you’d feel more comfortable with me doing that,” Kinich starts answering, his eyes wandering for an anchor. “I don’t want to also fall down the second you jump.” 

He even explains the physics behind it, ending his speech by saying it’s best you move further to look for a good place to jump from. 

You’re walking next to Kinich, admiring the scenery. With the rope in his hands, you’re feeling much more comfortable. Although he’s trying to talk here and there… his eyes are still locked on finding a stable anchor. 

Unfortunately for the both of you, an anchor is nowhere near. Curse you lunatics with no regard for their safety. 

“So many jumping platforms, and yet not a singular anchor?” He questions, closing his eyes. 

All of a sudden your eyes land on a ruffed pheasant that just landed on one of the platforms. You’ve never seen one so close! Without thinking about your safety, you start inching closer towards the bird.

Your steps are slow and cautious. The bird, a magnificent creature with iridescent plumage, seems utterly unaware of your presence. Its feathers shimmer in the sunlight, creating a mesmerising display of greens and oranges. An odd sense of calm wash over you, momentarily forgetting the anxiety that’s been gnawing at your insides.

"Careful," Kinich warns, his voice seeming distant as if muffled by the pounding of your heart.

The platform beneath your feet is uneven, its surface worn smooth by the countless jumps of those, who came before you. With no warning, Ajaw jumps from behind your shoulder, screaming right next to your ear. The bird, startled, flies away. You try to also get away when your foot catches on one of the loose boards. The world tilts violently, and suddenly, you're weightless.

A scream tears from your throat as you plummet downwards, the wind rushing past your ears, drowning out all other sounds. The landscape blurs into a mix of greens and browns, the ground below rushing up to meet you at an alarming speed. For a split second, your mind goes blank — pure terror seizing every thought, every instinct. You’re going to fall to your death. 

Back on the hill, Kinich’s body goes numb for a second. He’s seen this happen once before. He cannot allow it to happen again. You’re not his drunkard gambling mess of a father, and he’s not his seven-year-old self. Kinich will save you, even if it’s the last thing he ever does. 

The blood is pounding in his ears when he shifts all his weight to his legs. Only when he cannot feel any force trying to get him off the cliff, does he start pulling up. With a sharp tug, he jerks you backwards, the rope connected to the harness snapping taut. The force of the pull knocks the air out of your lungs, but it stops your descent abruptly. You swing wildly in the air, the ground still far below, the rope swaying and creaking with the strain of holding your weight.

Above, you can hear Kinich shouting your name, his voice frantic, barely audible over the sound of your racing heartbeat. You cling to the rope, your hands shaking uncontrollably as the realisation of what just happened crashes over you. You almost fell to your death.

"Hold on!" Kinich yells, his voice breaking through the fog of panic in your mind. "I’ve got you, just hold on for me!"

Tears sting your eyes as you try to steady your breathing, every muscle in your body tensed and trembling. The rope holds firm, and slowly, agonisingly slowly, Kinich begins to pull you back up. Each inch feels like an eternity, but his strength and determination never waver.

As soon as your body reaches the ledge, Kinich grabs onto you, pulling you up with a force that nearly knocks you both off balance. He wraps his arms around you, holding you close as you collapse against him, shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers, his voice unusually tight with emotion. "I should have been more careful. I should have—"

You shake your head, unable to speak, still trying to process the fact that you're alive, that you're safe. Kinich's arms tighten around you, his hand cradling the back of your head as if to shield you from any further harm.

"You're okay," he murmurs, repeating it like a mantra. "You're okay, and I'm here. I'm right here."

For a long moment, you stay there, clinging to him as the fear slowly ebbs away, replaced by a deep, overwhelming sense of relief. The world around you, once a blur of panic and chaos, begins to settle back into focus. The mountains, the sky, the distant sound of birds—all of it feels surreal as if you’ve been given a second chance to experience it. In your state, you don’t notice the glare Kinich is giving to his companion. 

If looks could kill, Ajaw would be dead. 

After a while of sitting idly, Kinich pulls back slightly, enough to look into your eyes. His face is pale, his expression filled with concern, but there's also a deep, unspoken resolve in his gaze. It’s quite different considering the death stare he was giving the saurian just a second ago. 

"We’re done here," he says gently but firmly. "No more extreme sports for today. We are getting you home.”

You nod, still too shaken to argue. As he helps you back onto solid ground, you realise how much you’ve relied on him, not just for safety, but for the courage to face your fears. And even though the experience was terrifying, there’s a small part of you that’s glad you tried, that you didn’t let fear win entirely. You can clearly say, you did indeed practice freedom today. 

In a moment you’re seated on his back, Kinich deciding you’ve had enough walking for today. He’s in absolute control now — and he’s picking the safest route possible. 

“Oh and Ajaw,” Kinich’s voice is laced with coldness. “Don’t think you’re getting away with the stunt you pulled today.” 

"WHAT?!"

date of posting — september 5th 2024

[absolutely-esme]

What do you mean he's not eldritch?

What if all of the members of the Bat Family other than Tim Drake were secretly eldritch abominations?

They all work very hard at pretending to be human, and they've even gotten pretty good at passing. They can even mostly avoid the uncanny valley when in their civilian identities. There was a heck of a learning curve, but they've gotten things figured out for the most part.

Enter: Tim Drake

Weird, poorly socialized, probably autistic Tim Drake

The Bats think they've encountered a fellow eldritch being in disguise, and one that seems like he could use some help blending in. Naturally, they're quick to welcome him into their fold. Jason is delighted to take his turn at being a big brother mentor.

It takes a comedically long time for anyone to realize something's up because there is an absurd amount of overlap between stuff you need to know for masking and stuff you need to know to pass as human.

Meanwhile, Tim is amazed that the Bats have apparently decided he's cool enough to hang out with. It's like something out of his daydreams. They even have good advice for him on problems he hadn't known how to ask about. They are so patient and understanding about it, too. They never get annoyed with him for not already knowing. They also seem to be okay with the bits of weirdness he can't change.

Just weird kid Tim getting bundled into an incredibly helpful and supportive found family of eldritch entities. They're all going to get a good grade in human-ing, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

...

I imagine the Bats are various different kinds of eldritch abominations because they're still adopted. They look wildly different when not in human form.

Bruce is a mass of... shadows? Smoke? Something dark and formless that shifts and flows in different ways depending on his mood.

Dick kind of looks like a pile of owls that is also somehow a single body.

Barbara is a spiral galaxy with stars that are also eyes somehow?

Jason is a solid-looking mass of muscle with six strong legs, a thick coat of shaggy hair, a mouth that opens much further along his body than it seems like it should, and even more teeth than you'd expect a mouth that size to have.

Stephanie Brown is kind of like an incredibly dense storm system with purple glitter.

Cassandra is a silhouette through which undiscovered nebulae can be seen. What she is a silhouette of depends on her mood.

Tim, they have only ever seen in his meticulously well-crafted human form. He's really good at that part even if he needed some help with the behavioral bits.

Damian is half human. Talia saw a mass of living darkness trying really hard to pretend to be a man and decided she was into that.

...

Dick: So, eye contact is actually pretty simple once you have the formula figured out. You need to cycle between looking at the other person and looking at something else at the appropriate frequency. If you look at them too much it will come across as staring. If you look away for too long they'll think you're not paying attention to them. You'll need to experiment to figure out the appropriate frequency.

Tim: *frets*

Jason: You don't have to look straight at their eyes, just in the general direction of their face.

Tim: Oh! I can do that!

...

I think Eldritch Bruce having history with the league of assassins in a markedly less inentional way than Canon would be funny. Like, you'd think an encounter between an eldritch abomination and a cult would be deliberate on someone's part, but no.

Bruce was still young and unskilled at differentiating between normal and abnormal human behavior.

[sunderwight]

Much as I love the idea of PIDW being rife with terrible porn tropes and interesting (if contrived) erotic writing conventions, all actual evidence in canon would seem to indicate that apart from some sex pollen and "uh oh, the protagonist has gone into a fugue state, whatever shall calm him down?" type stuff, it was fairly vanilla.

Like, that's part of both Shen Yuan and Airplane's frustration with it, I think. It's full of sex and it's not even sex either of them enjoy the concept of. Airplane was fully just trying to pander to an audience he felt he knew and could manipulate, but not one either he nor his ultra mega hate reader were actually part of.

Not that they understood that themselves at the time.

I mean I know fandom likes to make Airplane less closeted than Shen Yuan (for a lot of reasons), which I support, but I feel like in canon at least... he didn't cotton on to Luo Binghe's change in interests at first either. It wasn't until he was watching his protagonist obsess over resurrecting Shen Qingqiu at any cost that the light started to dawn. For Shang Qinghua, also, many more years have passed since he was back in their original world. He's had more time to reconcile himself to certain ideas.

What glimpses we get of the person he was before he died, was reborn, and lived a whole other life well into adulthood, would seem to indicate that he probably wasn't much better than Shen Yuan back when he was writing.

I mean he probably was still BETTER (the bar is on the floor), like I bet he could have a fantasy featuring Mobei Jun without having an existential crisis or pretending it didn't happen, but he would have probably been like "wow I guess I've been writing so much m/f porn that I can't even enjoy it anymore and my brain had to come up with something else, anyway Mobei would make a hot chick tho, I'm gonna write one of his cousins as Binghe's next wife" and gotten on with things.

Basically I guess what I'm driving at is that it would be funny if SQQ and SQH figured they had a solid handle on the kinds of sex pollen-y porn tropes to expect from the world (mostly just the occasional fuck-or-die that missionary can cure), only for the rug to get ripped out from under them because the system incorporated a bunch of stuff from Airplane's subconscious to fill out the gaps. Not even his notes. His daydreams and fantasies.

SQQ: what the hell?! PIDW didn't even have werewolves or tentacle porn monsters!

SQH, suddenly reminded of some very specific fap sessions: right?! this is definitely weird and in no way my fault! it must be because of the genre switch!

SQQ: *suspicious*

SQH: which is your fault! you made the protagonist gay! in fact it's probably your fault that I'm gay too now!

SQQ: bullshit. what did you do. was this in a draft?!

SQH: *sweating* I can say with absolute confidence that it was not! I never wrote anything like this!

SQQ: *having a crisis now because maybe he DID accidentally cause the monsterfucker stuff and he desperately doesn't want anyone to realize that he's actually into it*

SQH: *continuing to sweat because the world is consistently manifesting content from his personal spank bank and if cucumber ever figures that out he's a dead man*

[spider-jaysart]

Any hot takes or unpopular opinions about super sons?

Here's some for the animated movie first:

Jon's voice doesn't suit him at all for the age he's supposed to be, it just kept throwing me off a little everytime he spoke with it. It's definitely not terrible though, it's just not for him at all

Idk about others opinions on Damian's voice though, but I really loved it. I felt like it fitted him pretty well and let his daring and mischievous side stand out really nicely. It's my favorite for him personally

I don't like that they white washed Damian in it once again when they could've definitely given him his darker skin and green eyes (I know this one's very popular already, but I just wanted to say it still). And when they showed the pitcher boy in the baseball game, he literally had EXACTLY those features on himself, which made it really feel like it was an actual annoying tease of some sort, since his model strangely looked way more like Damian than Damian himself did

And also besides all of that stuff, when Damian is in his Robin model, I feel like he looks perfectly fine and cool, but his civilian version looks a little weird to me for some reason. And I know that his hair in his Robin form is also a little funny too because of how long it is, but I don't really have a problem with it lol

Now for the ones outside of the movie:

I'm not so crazy about them being a Nightwing and Flamebird duo as adults. I want them to become their own identities, but not by using those mantles, cause it's still not completely theirs and isn't really fitting for them to me either, not even the Batman and Superman mantles either. Other characters like Dick, Chris, and Bette have already used them and made their names with it. Damian and Jon both actually deserve their own that let them shine in their real unique ways and stay independently remembered without their titles getting into the mix of confusion with other hero's. Everyone is allowed to have fun with it obviously though, no matter what I think

For a day job as an adult, Jon should become a scientist instead of a writer or reporter for the Daily Planet like his parents, because that's just totally boring and he's also his own person, not their twin. Just cause he's their child, it doesn't mean he's gonna be exactly like them and daydream about their hobbies. And it makes a lot more sense for science being his dream job too, because he's shown plenty of interest in it before

And for Damian, he should become a vetinarian as an adult, and credit to my good friend @camo-wolf for this next part here that I love, which is that he also owns his own company as a ceo to do it too, so he also has many more helpful clinics opened everywhere instead of just one

I'm not too crazy about their trinity with Lizzie and just can't see the boys having one either. It feels like it's just another thing to make them even more like their Dad's once again imo, but I think they're better off being kept as just a duo still. And unlike many other Damijon and Supersons fans, I'm also not crazy about Lizzie herself either :| (Not saying that I hate or dislike her though). I will say that the stories with the three of them together are pretty fun and cute though, despite what I feel about her. Oh, and for another little thing, even though it's Damian and Jon's thing in their relationship to fight and argue over things, it feels a little overdone in those books and feels like they're being more like just nasty to eachother with their certain comments and want to actually just get the other mad constantly

Speaking of groups, besides the boys having their little Supersons duo to themselves, as kids Damian and Jon definitely should've had their own awesome superhero team together a LONG time ago with characters their own age that could've grown with them like how it was originally planned for canon, instead of them both being shoved into ones like Teen Titans and other already established ones like that, because those groups have so much of their own stuff going on that just doesn't fit the boys and all of the members in them are usually much older than them too. For my idea about what they would have, I like to think that it's a fun group separate from the Supersons duo that both Damian and Jon lead and their main members could've been young close friends of theirs, like Maya Ducard, Kathy Brandon, and Colin Wilkes, and then for additional ones, it could be Tai Pham, Maps Mizoguchi, Flatline, Respawn, Suren Darga, Chris Kent, Irey and Jai West, Lian Harper, and even though I play around with their ages a lot in my own universes like randomly switching them both from toddlers to tweens whenever I feel like it, I'll say Mar'i and Jake too (idk if I'm forgetting any others). Then for the team name, I choose "Legacy's Youth" or "Youthful Legacy" or "Legacy's challangers"

And for another thing to do with groups, Dceased should've just let Maya and Kathy be the girls that teamed up with the boys, instead of forcing a deaged Cassie Sandsmark into it just to date Damian, create a trinity, and be the girl in a boys group, because unlike her, Maya and Kathy are the ones who actually have real relationships and history with Damian and Jon that were already made outside of that universe, so they both would've been much better picks. And without all of that dating stuff too, because them being boys and girls doesn't mean they should have to (plus, Damian and Jon seemed like they were the ones that were actually dating and also married to eachother instead in the story anyways lmao, so that's more proof that there was literally no need for it)

Jon's electric powers that came out during his Injustice crossover are so lame, cause that's not anything new. His solar flare is so much more dope and unique than that, what happened to it?!?! I prefer it way more

The team up reunion Supersons book that came out with Older!Jon and Damian in his new suit felt like their personalities were kind of swapped in some parts of the story, which was kind of weird to see and bothered me a little

During Damian's first time visit in the future, Jon should've been way more protective and stood up for him better when Saturn Girl and the other legion of heroes members began saying their hateful and nasty comments out loud about him right in front of his dang face. And even more defensive he should've been too when Saturn girl started messing with Damian's mind out of nowhere like it was okay and then put him to sleep, instead of just letting her like he did. He should've had complete second thoughts about the whole team right there and decide to leave after how uncomfortable they've made things, instead of still joining them anyways like they're still cool and forgetting about what had just happened. Jon's actual entire reaction during it all was just so naive and felt so ridiculous to me, it was disappointing

Jon and Chris Kent can both exist together at the same time, there is no problem with it at all. And just because Chris was taken away, that doesn't mean Jon's existence should be hated for it, it's the fault of DC writers for what happened, not him

Damian should also be able to finally have a sweet relationship with his Mother already instead of it still being dragged away from him all the time and also still being considered as an abusive one for him, because 1. being horrible to her child is ooc for Talia and 2. Damian deserves to have her in his life, not just Bruce as a Father. He should also be able to have a good relationship with the rest of Al Ghul's too and even a sibling relationship with Respawn as well, not just the ones he has with the Batkids. I know that some (or most?? Idk lol) fans don't like him because they say his origin made Ra's look bad for having him be abusive to him, but that's all very unnecessary blame on Respawn's character that he doesn't deserve at all, it was just a role he was put in as a victim, it's obviously the fault of the writers who wrote the story to be that way. I also feel like it would've made more sense that Slade raised him and was the one who had actually abused him, because he's done it to his other kids in the past anyways and him being a toxic parent is actually very in character for him

The Fortress of attitude is literally catching dust now that Damian and Jon have both completely forgotten about it for some reason, it deserves to make a comback!!

Jon used to have a dog named Ranger, I'm not sure what exactly happened to him (I guess he was forgotten about or whatever), but he shouldn't have been erased. He was adorable

I prefer Damian's pushed back spikey hair so much more over his current flat and long one, it fits him better. The current one does look nice on him and I get the reason behind why he has it, which is pretty sad, but it makes him look too similar to Tim and I don't like that. The same artist who made Damian's new hair that way in the first place also doesn't draw Flatline's spikey hair either, which makes me think they might actually have something against those kinds of hairstyles lol

Damian would so get along with Lois because of their sass and Talia would actually love Jon for how great he is to her Son

Annnnd I think that's probably all of my unpopular opinions about the boys for now lol

Thank you for the ask, anon!! I enjoyed answering this!

[sirens-sanctuary]

business casual

. miguel o'hara x fem!reader

. TW: NSFW!, oral (female receiving), pubic sex?,

. the promised fic, i have a few more in the works- also not proofread so except a few typos lol

. masterlist, taglist, rules and a/n below~

. NSFW! below the cut

๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑ ๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑

you were never really around miguel at the spider society, but you had a crush on him as soon as you saw him. how could you not? well- you could see why no one else would because hes your boss... sort of? hes just kinda the guy in charge around here so like technically if you were to do whatever you wanted to him it wouldnt be bad, lol ok.

you often got lost in these conversations with yourself at your corner in the ss (spider society, i cannot bring myself to type it out every time lmao)

miguel never really paid any mind to you, he appreciated your work around the place but there wasn't anything too special about you...he liked that. you were simple, you weren't difficult to figure out, not difficult to talk to, you weren't complex like the other things he needed to deal with. he liked that. however— he didn't like how you distanced yourself from him, just as you were easy to read it was easy to see you keep your time with him limited. can't have that, he hates that. he wants you, wants to hear you speak. he sees you yap with your friends here at the ss, but you would say only a few words with him.

he has a plan.. nothing extravagant, just a simple, not complex plan.

it was almost the end of the day when all the other spiders left and went home, you were still in your corner, daydreaming about miguel- you couldn't help it. your thoughts were fuddled until your multiversal watch started to beep. you held up your wrist and a little hologram of miguel popped up.. you were surprised to say the least..a little flustered too? you didn't know... i don't either.

miguel said he needed your help with something..strange but ok. you got up from your desk and made your way to his office- floaty thingamajig?– whatever the hell that floating shit is what is that?? you don't know what that thing is and it really doesn't matter.. you were thinking of anything to take your mind off of your impending doom, even if it meant arguing with yourself in your head about useless things..

you finally made it there and stepped into the open space and behold— The floating rock of shit and stuff, and there he was his beautiful muscled back facing towards you. you're lucky he was facing away from you because if he was looking at you, you would've pissed yourself. deadbutt.

how do you let him know you're here without sounding weird? this is hard, talking is hard, shouldn't have to be this hard. You should learn sign language.

"you gonna stand there or come up here and help me?"

Goddamn doesn't he sound beautiful. you don't say anything and web yourself up to his platform. because youre a simple person you made a simple mistake and missed your footing when you landed and almost fell back. almost. miguel grabbed your waist and pulled you back up towards him. he did this slowly, drinking you in with his eyes, slowly dragging them across your figure. his grip on you was heavy and tight. when you were standing upright you took him in as well, god hes just so huge and delicious. you never got opportunities like this, ever. you were never around him long enough to just stare at him and admire him. you guys were staring at each other for a while with his arm, still around you radiating a hot warmth.

you were a simple person, you went with the punches and the rolls so when miguel leaned down and brought your lips in for a kiss you went with it.. not like youd oppose to kissing him anyways. the kiss was slow and steady at first but gradually got more and more intense. sooner or later you were on top of the control panel on his platform. you were trying to keep yourself quiet, little squeaks and whimpers came out of you as miguel nipped down your skin.

he grunted as he ripped open your suit to gain access. you let out a loud gasp and said his name out of shock.

"keep saying my name hermosa, i like it when you say it that way" ("beautiful")

you let out a soft moan as he talked to you, his voice was laced in lust his want for you practically dripping off his tongue. he pushed your panties (oo lala) to the side and slid his finger gently down your wet slit. he let out a short huff, his breath fanning on your heat.

"que linda carino" ("so so pretty darling")

his sweet talk might as well been enough to make you cum. he closed the space between him and your mouth, his tongue and lips working wonders on your clit. you tried your best to keep quiet, biting down on your lip to silence yourself. your hand found its way into miguels hair and you pushed his face further into you causing him to moan. it sent shivers up your spine and made you finally moan out. miguels big hands wrapped around your thighs and he pushed them closed, oh miguel likes to be squished... he looked up at you. this man cant get any prettier, he was soaked in your juices and the light from the orange screens beside you glistened oh so nicely against his skin.

you were done being quiet, miguels feasting got more and more intense there was no point in trying to stay quiet. your legs tightened around his head making him moan and grunt more. his tongue and lips working wonders, hitting all the right places. you threw your head back and let out a very vocal moan, pushing miguels head down. he slurped on your juices loudly and sloppily before getting up off his knees and wiping his mouth clean.

he stared down at you with a proud smirk on his face, he enjoyed staring at you twitch with your blissed out face.

"gotta get you cleaned up, now don't we mi novia?" ("my girl")

๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑ ๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑

. yes i know it's wednesday, i'm sorry lol i was working on this last weekend and then didn't finish it??? idky but i finished this so i hope it's alright, i'm still getting a bit used to writing smut /~\, erm anyways hope you guys liked it and i used google translate again so idk how accurate the spanish is lolll, i also have a few series i wanna start so stay tuned (if you're willing lmao) for those~♡

. masterlist | rules and fandoms | taglist |

๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑ ๑۞๑,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۩ ร𝓲ᖇᵉŇ. ๑۩ ,¸¸,ø¤º°°๑۞๑

[astroyongie]

Enhypen Reading March 2024

note: please take it lightly

Heeseung

Love: as far as I can tell, Heeseung is in a relationship at the moment but other have some troubles when it comes to communication (this bc I believe his current s/o is probably not Korean and they might struggle with language barrier which makes the relationship a little complicated) 

Career: he is having some complications with one of the managers, however when it comes to himself, Heeseung has been a little bit out of touch with his career, he isnt putting as much energy as he might have liked to put (that because he feels the dynamics are shifting)

Self: his mental health is struggling a little but that mostly because he was formatted into thinking in a certain way and with maturity and age he is understanding that the world isnt what he initially though it was. He is trying to involve with culture but its hard 

Jay

Love: I do believe that this man is also in a relationship that just started very recently but Jay doesnt seem like he is fully committed with this person. I dont know if there’s a special reason for this, but he is keeping things rather simple of now 

Career: his career is going well, his sponsorship have already wrapped up the contracts for solo stuff and he is more than excited to do them. Jay has also been training hard and putting effort into opportunities to show his fans a new side of his idol character 

Self: he has been money oriented lately, he is focused about himself, about how t improve himself in his wealth side, how to invest and also how t assure himself a positive future because he knows everything can come to an end quickly and he wants to put all the opportunities on his side 

Jake

Love: he is also in a relationship but things are quite weird for him, probably because his relationship feels “long distance” type of thing. He finds himself daydreaming about his partner a lot of times, and he probably have set goals that currently are too unrealistic for him and his partner 

Career: Jake have been some difficulties with his sponsorship that aren’t giving him what he might have wanted because he also cannot repay what they ask from him. Jake also feels like he hasn’t been as close to the other members has he had one been (however this feels like he has been the one taking distance unconsciously) 

Self: couldn’t get anything here 

Sunghoon

Love: boy is still dating the same person he was dating in January and things are going well for them since they are establishing a positive relationship and putting everything in table. I feel that he still puts his career first but he is trying to be a good partner 

Career: some complications here, one of his exclusive contracts wasn’t resigned by his sponsors (the brand probably dismissed him) so he wont be doing anything for them this year (or at least until the current contracts ends). Some difficulties in the relationship with one of the members 

Self: he feels really overwhelmed by everything, by his career, but th image he has to put with his fans with the rules he has to follow and the permeant fear that he can be cancelled for anything and anything. I feel like Sunghoon is walking o eggshells for a potencial reason 

Sunoo

Love: he is still dealing with his last relationship and with the arguments. It feels that even after January, February was a month were him and his ex kept talking (probably because they wanted to fix things) and although they have reached a concensus, the lovebirds are still in a complicated argumentative phase 

Career: I am pretty sure that his sponsor ditched him out and he is currently leaning on the company until they figure out what they can do without that kind of support things are a little more ocmlciated for Sunoo’s career. I also feel like the conflicts inside the company continues 

Self: he feels trapped in his situation. Theres probably a part of Sunoo who wishes to leave the idol life but at the same time he doesnt want to disappoint anyone 

Jungwon

Love: he is still single, nothing changed much since January, Jungwon is still dating with a side of himself that is way too broken to be able to stay in a healthy relationship at the moment. I am concerne about his mental health too 

Career: there’s some changes here, when it comes o his career. Jungwon have been activity putting his goals aside to allow some members to shine more than him yet he still tries to grasp a few whenever they come up 

Self: he is in a very emotional state, just like In January he is someone that longs for a relationship, he longs to find someone that will comfort and love him and that puts him in a fragile position 

Ni-ki

Love: Niki has been seeing people In a non official way however he is being way more selective than he was in January. He isnt allow to just be around anyone and his flings are hand picked 

Career: some complications here as well, I feel like Niki have made some mistakes when it comes to his image and these will keep repeating itself because he totally is obvious about consequences  

Self: he is someone with a straight head and perception and he doesnt allow things of everyday life to touch him in a negative way. Overall, Niki is doing fine, mentally and physically 

[cryptocism]

So, out of curiosity (AND a slight fear of messing with what you've laid out so clearly in Frequency, which I see as the most reasonable and rational explanation to Thad's character inconsistencies basically, ever), I am wondering if this version of Inertia from Flash #760 fits into the Too Many Thads AU anywhere? From what I can tell, he's the only one not mentioned in your very thorough (and impressively detailed, he was at boomerang's funeral, excuse me sir why are you here???) timeline of Thad appearances. Would you consider him one of the clones we get from the AU, like Six? Or maybe just Thad himself given he's sort of just... chilling in the Speedforce lol. Or did you just not consider him given it's yet another instance of Thad appearing, doing something wild, then disappearing as quickly as he came haha. (Also, I just noticed he says vibrational FREQUENCY, nice👏)

i did... kinda include this iteration. but admittedly it's pretty brief, and the bits of story that take place in the speed force sit in dreamy abstraction rather than solid prose

start of chapter 2 when Thad is running thru the speed force:

He thinks he sees the Flash, once or twice. Tick tock tick tock. You’re running out of time, Barry. But he often thinks he sees lots of people. Once, he thought he saw Max. But the memories exist in his mind the same way a daydream would, and he can’t be sure if it was real.

The "tick tock tick tock" line is taken directly from #760

compared to the other threads of canon that Frequency is written around, it's definitely more on the borders of believably. The "tick tock" line and the bit where Thad threatens to snap his fingers and "blast Barry's mind to pieces" harkens back to the Kid Zoom era and Rogues Revenge, which fucks with my attempt to differentiate this Inertia as a separate person from Kid Zoom. but the hiccup feels minor enough that i think it still works

(and on a tangential note the whole "i'll snap my fingers and blast your mind to pieces" line straight up doesn't make sense to me because YES Kid Zoom famously snapped his fingers and exploded a baby, but he accomplished that by fast-forwarding that baby's timeline so quick that its literal molecules shook apart under the stress. Barry is a speedster and would not respond to timeline manipulation in that way - if at all - because his molecules are already used to that kind of shit. it's a weird and out of place threat to make and i think Williamson may have gotten the impression that Kid Zoom acquired the power of spontaneous combustion which he Fucking Did Not ok rant over)

the general idea i was going for was: Thad is running on rage, sees Barry, has the brief confrontation in #760 where Barry mostly just feels bad for him, and then disappears back into the storm. Implication being that Thad has actually had a couple different interactions with people during his 5 years in the speed force (Eobard, Max, Barry, etc) who try to convince him of things or promise him things, but staying for that long in the speed force (without being dead) fucks with perception a little bit, especially perceptions of Time. so when he's out and looking back on it, Thad can't totally discern what happened, what didn't, or in what order.

also the attendance at Captain Boomerang's funeral gets a shout out near the end of chapter 8 when Bart is going through Six's collection of Four's old stuff:

Some of the items on the shelf he didn’t recognize. A shot glass. A funeral pamphlet for one Digger Harkness. Several empty syringes and auto-injectors all meticulously arranged. A variety of small gadgets and devices that Bart couldn’t place.

because the funeral is technically Inertia's return after the events of Mercury Falling, I translated that as Four's first appearance in the 21st century

[strawberryflavoredvenum]

Creepypasta hcs.

TW: Mental illness/sh. It's nothing too graphic but if you don't want to hear about that I would recommend not reading this sorry🩷🩷🩷

Toby

🤎has LOTS of piercings. It's not like he can feel it so why not? Not just on his face, everywhere. With an unsterilized sewing needle he found somewhere. It's a miracle they don't all get infected.

🤎 Toby's one of the girls according to Nina. He's also known to attend a tea party or two with Sally.

🤎He basically lives in ejs room. His own room is just for storing belongings at this point. He sleeps late so there isn't an issue with him interrupting ejs routine.

🤎LOVES extreme flavors. Spicy, sour, salt and vinegar. He has a bad sense of taste so these flavors make food more fun for him.

🤎He is bisexual. He thought he was asexual before meeting ej. He had a brief crush on clockwork but she made it clear that it wasn't going to happen.

Ej

💙Very quiet and awkward with most people. Nina likes to rant to him because he listens well and she likes to talk a LOT.

💙He looks tough and like he doesn't care but in reality he gets really overwhelmed in social settings.

💙He has OCD and horrible intrusive thoughts. He struggles with self esteem issues because of that and the cannibal thing.

💙A bad intrusive thought he has is imagining himself eating other proxies. It makes it hard to talk to them face to face. He feels really guilty.

💙He worries a lot about freaking out toby but he couldn't care less. Toby doesn't care about cannibalism or the ocd repetitions or anything. Why would he?

💙He is so lucky he managed to get a room with a bathroom attached so he can do his morning routine without interruption.

💙He doesn't have a label when it comes to sexuality. He doesn't think about it at all. Toby was his first and he doesn't think there'll ever be anyone else.

Nina

🩷has a slight crush on clockwork but doesn't do anything about it. She would still be with Jeff in a heartbeat if he gave her a chance so it doesn't feel right to pursue Natalie.

🩷Erotomania hit her HARD. It's what started this all. Since becoming a proxy, it slowly got better. Especially when she gained female friends. Talking with Jane really helped. She still likes Jeff and is prone to relapses.

🩷She didn't have friends before becoming a proxy. She was a 'weird kid' and she scared other kids off. It majorly contributed to her mental illness/ obsession with Jeff

🩷 She's a maladaptive daydreamer. Sometimes she'll pace around her room listening to music and imagining things. Sometimes she'll convince herself that the things she'll imagine are true(Jeff).

Jeff

❤️he is absolutely disgusting. He'll murder people and later crawl into bed without even taking his clothes off. Shoes in the house/ on his bed. He doesn't care. Slenderman had to intervene a lot.

❤️He is very aggressive with the other proxies. He's in a constant spiral and it honestly saddens the others. They are tired of him but also sad for him.

❤️he yelled in Sally's face one time when she touched his stuff and got beaten up by multiple other proxies(with Sally out of the room of course). Safe to say they don't get along.

❤️ he's surprisingly gentle with smile dog. They love to play with each other and smile sleeps in Jeff's room. He's always in a lighter mood with smile dog. He's just a dog person in general.

❤️ Despite how he acts he does like most of the other proxies. It's very hard for him to apologize but he does feel guilty when he rages. His way of saying sorry is usually in the form of handling missions for them or a chore they had to do.

Slenderman

🤍I wouldn't say he feels parental towards the proxies but he definitely feels something towards them. Idk if even he knows. They are under his control and they do his bidding but he also worries about them. It's not a Healy relationship obviously but it's more than worker and boss.

🤍He has a soft spot for Jeff. It's why he gets away with more than the others do. He takes care of him as best he can while dealing with everyone else.

🤍He spoils Sally and lazari so much. The proxies do to. When they kill people the retrieve toys or candy from their houses for them. They get their way 90% of the time. Everyone mostly feels bad that kids are living in this environment.

[revasserium]

neverending daydreams with kenma? 🫶

reqs are open :)

neverending daydreams

kenma; 3,709 words; almost freakishly fluffy, but also kinda trippy. basically my specialty and i love this fic a holy freaking hell of a lot. if u read pls PLS tell me what u think u__u and lemme know if u 'get' the ending!!!

he has never been, in all seriousness, what people would have called a dreamer. but having spent most of his waking hours either gaming or wishing he were gaming, kenma quietly considers the implications of being called as such. a dreamer. what a title — what a name.

what a burden.

“was it bad last night?”

“no, not as bad… but at least it was interesting.”

“oh yeah? tell me.”

“so there was a maze, right — and then you know the super hot manga character from the new series — yeah, he was there too, and we had to like figure out this maze but we couldn’t wear shoes —”

kenma lets his head lilt to one side, his eyes falling shut in the early afternoon sun filtering through the wide classroom windows. they’d been cracked open half an hour ago to let in some air, the spring blossoming into what kenma is already sure would be an absolutely sweltering tokyo summer. he’s already dreading it.

“— and then i woke up!”

“aww… lame! you didn’t even make out!”

your laughter spills across the room, warm as the sun now soaking into kenma’s skin and he shakes himself awake, blinking unfocused towards the gaggle of girls sitting three rows ahead of him, heads bent together, a multi-limbed conglomeration of painted nails and hair pins, phone baubles and perfume. he shudders slightly — making out — what a thought. how gross. he’d never understood the appeal, even as more and more of his classmates began to whisper about it, to joke and cackle about it next to the shoe-lockers, in the stalls of the boys bathrooms during lunch, on the benches near the playparks on the way home, loitering around convenience store corners, eyes lingering on bare skin and bracelets, on rolled up sleeves and blushing cheeks.

kenma crinkles his nose, thinking now, of noses. and where on earth they’d even go if you were to —

“oi kenma-kun, do you have notes from yesterday’s class? i lent mine to kiyo in 2-b and she says her dog ate it.”

kenma blinks, nonplussed as your face swims into view, his vision catching on the tiny gems glinting from your earlobes.

“huh? you… don’t really believe that, do you?” he asks before he can quite stop himself. the resulting silence makes an uncomfortable heat climb up the length of his neck till his cheeks are burning with it, and still, you stare at him.

“why shouldn’t i? her dog eats weird stuff all the time.”

kenma blinks again, owlish, and he’s unsure if your confusion is feigned and this entire thing is just some elaborate prank, one that’ll break you into laughter any second. he resists the urge to look around, to make sure that the rest of his classmates aren’t all watching him like they’re in on the joke, waiting for the cue to start laughing as well. he feels his shoulders shrugging up as he fights down a frown.

“yeah but… that’s like the oldest excuse in the book, isn’t it? my dog ate my homework?”

this time, its your turn to blink, cocking your head to one side as you regard him, not a hint of malice or trickery in sight. he feels almost ashamed of himself for thinking it of you. of course you wouldn’t.

and then, you laugh. and he starts again, not because this was what he’d been afraid of but because this is the exact kind of laughter he was not expecting, pure and unhurried and unabashedly happy.

“ah — i guess you’re right, but… well, if she wants to keep my notes, then that’s fine. i’ll just make another set. so…” you smile at him, bright as dawn and summer starlight, “can i borrow your notes from yesterday?”

kenma resists the urge to groan, because his mind is already racing into overdrive — why not just ask kiyo from 2-b to give you back your notes again? nay, to demand that she give it back? to threaten her dog with… with what yet, kenma isn’t sure, but he is sure that that would be simpler, would it not, than to ask him for his notes. even though, sure, yes — he has almost all the same classes as you and sure, yes — he does also take pretty good notes. and sure, yes — fine.

this might be the path of least resistance but… doesn’t it feel a bit like punching in the cheatcode? isn’t it stunting… character growth and exp gain for both you and kiyo in 2-b? what if this causes a glitch in the matrix and you’re stuck in the eternal loop of borrowing people’s notes only to have your own notes be taken and eaten by kiyo’s homework-devouring dog until no one in school has notes anymore and everyone fails? would everyone have to hard-reset and start the year over?

“uh… sure… i guess. if you promise to give it back.” he reaches into his bag to pull out his notebook, pressing his lips for a second before handing it over.

you make a noise that’s caught between a squeal and a squeak. it’s a happy sound, he’s sure.

“thank you, thank you, thank you! and yes, i promise i’ll give it back! and my dog doesn’t eat homework — only table scraps and puppy treats — and maybe the occasional piece of trash on the sidewalk, but definitely no homework!”

you press the notes to your chest and beam at him and kenma finally lets out a soul-shaking sigh. he wishes he were home; he wishes he were playing video games; he wishes that the day came with a fast-forward button so he didn’t have to deal with all these scenarios that don’t make a lick of human sense.

the next day, when you return his notes, it’s with a shy smile and that he isn’t entirely sure what to make of. you’d licked your lips and looked anywhere but at him before pressing the notebook back into his chest and scurrying off with a thankssomuchforyournotes! tossed over your shoulder before you’re disappearing into your multi-limbed girl-gaggle and they were all laughing and giggling as they absorb you back into their amorphous blob, casting furtive glances his way that make his shoulders want to shrink up to his ears, if only to hide his face behind.

he hunkers down over his notebook, adjusts his sports bag and hurries into homeroom.

it isn’t until japanese literature, when he’s flipping open said borrowed-and-now-returned notebook that he notices — there’s a drawing on next blank page. or, well, what used to be the next blank page but is now definitely no longer blank. and it’s a drawing of you.

kenma stares down at it, at the cartoonishly large head, the huge, anime-lashed eyes, at your chibi-rendered hands clasped together in an unmistakable gesture of thanks. and something inside him jumps. something warm and thumping and uncoordinated. it coughs, skips, skids inside his chest and it takes him a moment to realize that it’s his heart.

thanks again! let me treat you to lunch sometime?

he reads the line four times before he finally manages to process the words. lunch. sometime.

treat?

he frowns. but school lunches are always free.

his eyes slingshot towards you, drawn as if by a magnetic force, and he finds you immediately. your eyes meet and a zing sings through him, shaking him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. your cheeks flush, but you don’t look away. instead, you cock your head as if asking a question.

his heart thumps, and then thumps again. heat slowly unfurls in the base of his stomach, something like hunger, except it isn’t actually hunger. it’s a wanting, a thrumming wish — pressing and feverish and — he swallows hard, tearing his eyes away from you to look back down at the drawing, at the words.

treat. lunch. sometime.

sometime. but it can’t be during school. then when?

kenma freezes as realization washes through him, cold as a too-large bite of icecream.

oh. oh.

and then, he blushes hard enough for him to bury his face in his arms, refusing to pick his head up even when the literature teacher asks him expressly if he were feeling ill.

it’s saturday at noon, to be precise. and as kenma waits outside the neighborhood soba house, he wonders briefly if he’d accidentally stumbled upon a hidden side-quest that’s actually more difficult than the main storyline, because he’s almost certain that he’d never signed up for this.

cold-soba with you. alone. together.

no. he scuffs his feet against the floor, his fingers furling and unfurling in his pockets, so unaccustomed to not having a game console to fiddle with, no controllers to twiddle. he feels it like a phantom itch, like ghost-controllers as he opts for chewing on his lower lip instead.

stupid kuroo, taking away his switch. stupid, stupid, genius kuroo, letting it “slip” that kenma had a date on saturday, so that his mother had fussed all morning and had subjected him to a full-body pat down to confiscated the rest of his ill-hidden hand-held gaming consoles one by one with a scowl and a reprimand of no gaming when you’re on your first real date, kozume!

at least, he thinks, tugging his phone out of his pocket to flip through the preinstalled games there, there’s alway snake —

“kenma-kun! hi! sorry i’m late!”

your voice catches him like a punch in the stomach and he almost drops his phone, fumbling it for a second before catching it and shoving it into his pocket.

he looks up, a frown already forming on his forehead when he stops — he catches sight of you and that strange, twisting not-hunger-hunger gnaws at a growing space inside him. because oh — there you are. you’re standing in front of him, a little breathless, but dressed like… like a display from a pastry store window, or one of those ball-jointed dolls that have entire fan-followings online. you’re lashes and lace, earrings and nail-art, and all the normal things he’d come to associate with the strange, foreign concept of girl-geometry but you’re also nervous, and sweet, and looking up at him with those huge eyes, not unlike those in the chibi-doodle version of yourself that you’d left in his notebook.

and nervousness he understands. sweetness… he understands too. to a certain degree.

“no, you’re fine… i just got here too,” he says, and it’s a not-really-lie, because he did just get here… like fifteen minutes ago. but time’s just a human construct anyway, and there’s no point in getting caught up in the semantics.

he takes a breath at the same time you do, and you break into a fit of nervous laughter that makes him want to reach out and bottle the sound. or maybe just to record it on his phone for a rainy day. he tamps down the strange and doubtlessly creepy urge with a cough and motions vaguely towards the door.

“uh — you wanna…”

you nod, a bit too hard, before brushing by him into the soba shop and bowing to the middle-aged woman behind the counter.

she seats the pair of you in a booth, tucked into the corner, and for this kenma is thankful. he feels himself relaxing into the secludedness of the position.

“hot?” he asks, watching as you fan yourself with your hand from across the table.

you freeze and blush again, and he looks down immediately, feeling rather guilty for putting you on the spot. but when he glances back at you, you’re smiling.

“yeah, a little. it’s gonna be so gross this summer.”

“yeah, i know. i hate it already.”

he would’ve winced if it hadn’t been cut off by the sound of your laughter. with this, at least, he is familiar. how many times had he let himself melt into that sound during all those classes you had together? how many times had he centered himself around it, made it the still point of his turning universe, grounded himself to it so he could count from one moment to the next. he hadn’t thought it anything strange before now — after all, isn’t that what the internet says you’re supposed to do when you’re feeling unmoored? to find a commonality and stake yourself to it. only…

is it strange that he’d chosen your laughter?

it’d been such a simple choice, so easy to make — it was everywhere, and when it wasn’t there, he could conjure up the sound perfectly.

sitting across from you now, he pauses, wondering what kuroo would say if he were ever to bring this up. probably call him a pervert and never let him live it down.

“me too. i think i hate a lot of things but…” you break off, your eyes meeting his for a split second before looking away.

kenma breathes, watches the way you worry your bottom lip.

the conversation is stilted, but after a while, the awkwardness wears off. like silver soaking off years of accumulated tarnish, the shine breaking through as the soba is served and the pair of you are left slurping at the chilled noodles.

by the time he offers to walk you home, kenma finds that he’s no longer searching for things to do with his fingers, the phantom itch of a ghost-console no longer needed to occupy the space between his hands. and when you say goodbye to him this time, it’s no longer a string of words strung together too fast, tossed like an endless hope over your shoulder, but held between the pair of your bodies like a promise.

“see you on monday!”

kenma smiles, “yeah… sure. see you then.”

he watches as you turn to walk away, and his feet warm with the premonition of motion, but something holds him still, holds him there as he watches you take two steps, three steps — and then, you turn back around. and you’re closing the space between you and him, quick as a flash, your lips grazing the skin of his cheek, and then just as quickly, you’re falling back onto your just-taken steps, your cheeks ablaze as you wave a hand at him and race off before he can do more than open his mouth, his jaw loosened by the action, the thought — the motion and e-motion of it all.

kenma stares at the place where your body had just been, taking up space, and then oh-so-abruptly… not.

you’d turned the corner, and now not even your shadow lingers, but he fancies that there’s still a break in the light, a tear in the air just in front of him where you had been, warmed by your just-there-ness. slowly, he raises a hand to swipe it through that space, before bringing it up to his cheek to brush it against the place where your lips had been.

and are now no longer.

and there too, he feels his own skin, warmed by the just-there-ness of your no-longer-there lips.

three days, it takes him. three days to build up the courage to ask you out again. on another date. and this time, he doesn’t tell kuroo, or his mother, but he doesn’t bring games with him either.

the frozen yogurt place isn’t too crowded on a wednesday night, early enough to still be dinner-time, too late for the afternoon-stragglers to be out and about. he arrives, as he had done, fifteen minutes before you, and he wastes no time in starting a game of snake on his phone.

by the time you get there, it’s getting hard to maneuver the pixel-snake’s body without it’s tail trailing across the entire screen.

“i thought you’d only be into the kind of games with like… a million levels or something.”

your voice jolts him out of his intense concentration, and this time, he does drop his phone. your reach out to catch it with a knowing grin, handing it back to him, but by then, the large GAME OVER is already flashing over the screen.

“oops… sorry,” you say, looking genuinely apologetic.

“don’t be. and you’re right, i do like games with a ton of levels but… things like this are fun once in a while too.”

he blushes as he motions at the space between the pair of you, his phone still clutched in his hand, so that it’s unclear if he’s talking about the game or… something else entirely.

“only once in a while?” you venture, the slightest hint of a tease in your voice. and it’s incredible, he thinks, the change a single week’s worth of familiarity can do for the both of you. because while your first “date” had been all awkward silences and rough, stumbling changes of topic, this one — already — has taken on a sheen of smoothness and liquidity that makes kenma’s skin prickle up with what he can only assume is excitement.

“well… maybe — i dunno…” he gulps as he holds open the door for you to walk into the yogurt store, “it’s only a pattern if something happens more than three times, right?”

and god, where had this come from? this daring, this strange, almost alternate-universe confidence — and is he really flirting?

you let out a pleased sort of hum that warms his entire body and he thinks that he’d rather like to hear that sound again too. to add to his collection of bottle-able sounds that come from your body — he bites off the thought there, because kuroo will really start to call him a pervert then.

“i’m free on saturday,” you say, turning towards him to offer him a yogurt cup.

he stares at it for a second before taking it, letting his fingertips linger where they brush against yours.

“okay then,” he says, allowing himself the shadow of a smile as you ask him what his favorite yogurt flavor is, and he asks you your favorite toppings. and it’s easy like this, isn’t it? how had he ever thought this difficult? had it ever been? the bell-like sonance of your voice, the tinkling texture of your laughter, the great, blossoming fire licking up, up from the base of his stomach all the way to the top of his chest.

why had he ever scorned this as strange? as unnatural?

how could he have ever thought this to be a mere sidequest when this — he’s sure of it now — is the entire point of the game to begin with? because don’t all roads lead to this? to this giddiness and certainty? to this… unshakable knowing that he, even in his youth, is held still by in it’s immensity that this could be something more?

something like… love?

but it’s too early for that yet, and he’s getting ahead of himself. skipping the levels and peering at the walkthroughs.

he forces himself to focus on the tang of the yogurt, the crunch of the oreo chunks. he anchors himself to the grace of your smile and the weight of your laughter.

and after, when the yogurt is done and the night is still young, he offers to walk you home again. and this time, he doesn’t wait for you to close the gap between your bodies — he leans down to do it himself. because somewhere between the space of then and now, he’s made the decision that he doesn’t want the shadow or the just-there-ness anymore. he wants the just and the there. separate and whole and oh.

so that’s where your noses go.

the kiss breaks between you and kenma leans in to unbreak it.

you make a small noise at the back of your throat and he has to keep himself from grinning.

there, again, another bottle-able sound.

he inches his hand up to cup your cheek and you lean into him, pressing both your palms to his chest. and for moments and moments and moments, the pair of you stay locked there, breaking and unbreaking the kiss again and again and again until finally, you press him away to take a breath.

you are breathless, and so is he.

and briefly, oh so briefly, kenma wonders as he looks at you, stares into your eyes as you look back at him, if this could be called dreaming.

“oi… oi kenma-kun?”

kenma blinks, frowning slightly as your face swims into view, his vision catching on the tiny gems glinting from your earlobes.

“h-huh?”

your face is inches from his, and the afternoon sun is warm against his skin. the classroom behind you is filled with the scent of a blossoming spring, trailing into what kenma already knows will be an absolutely sweltering tokyo summer.

your voice rings through him like knowing, and your smile, when he finally focuses on it with bleary eyes and a buzzing mind, looks something like the remnants a dream.

“do you have notes from yesterday’s class? i lent mine to kiyo in 2-b and she says her dog ate it.”

kenma chews on his lips as he weighs the answer on his tongue, and finally, he allows himself a tiny, secret smile as he digs around in his bag for the notebook, handing it to you as he says —

“you don’t actually believe that, do you?”

[stevie-petey]

How about Steve and bug talking about what they think their future is gonna be like? When he comes and visits her at work and they just talk about random stuff. He just says something off handedly like " I hope my kids read like you do, I want them to be booksmart like you." " Do you wanna have kids?"

" oh yeah definitely I want six."

"Six?! I could probably only handle three, if my kids are anything like me they'll be leash kids I'm serious."

And it's just sweet, them talking about how they hope their life to be, not knowing that they're each other's future.

oooo YES !!!

enjoy <3

"how many kids would you want? ya know, assuming you actually do want kids in the future."

steves question causes you to drop the change youd been counting at the register. "im sorry, what?"

"kids?" he sees your bewilderment and frowns. "what, youve never thought about your future?"

"i mean, sure? but i havent given any thought about kids. im sixteen, steve."

"and im seventeen and know for a fact that i want my kids to be booksmart like you." steve responds, not even paying that much attention to you as he busies himself with a comic.

you stare at him in shock. god, steve harrington really does just say the most bizarre things so casually. hes thought about his kids? and about how he wants them to be like you?

sometimes, you really hate that he does this. because then he just leaves you there, always standing in shock, as he goes about his day as if this is all normal.

you take a deep breath and shake your head, you have a job to do. dimes and nickels need to be attended to. "can i ask what sparked this insane thought?"

steve holds up the comic hes reading. "see, these i like. but those books about war and peace? no thanks. but... i dont know. guess theyd be good for my kids, seeing as they made you so smart."

you laugh. "im not the genius you think i am. i still think spider-man is real."

"youre like, the top of your class. shush."

"so sassy for a man who daydreams about having kids." you tease, but something shifts behind steves eyes.

"it is weird, isnt it?" he ducks his head down. "sorry."

well, now you feel bad. sighing, you drop the change in your hand and walk over to steve. sure, its a bit weird, but also incredibly sweet that he already seems to know how he'll raise his kids in the future.

you sit next to him and pluck the comic out of his hands. "so, tell me. how many kids we talking?"

a smile returns to steves face. "definitely, like, six."

"six?" you choke on your spit. "and who is birthing these six fucking children?"

a pause, then a frown. "hm. ya know, i never thought about that."

"bless you," you pat steves knee and he laughs. "i think id like three or so. maybe more, but definitely at least three. i love having a sibling, and i love taking care of dustin and his friends. ive already got years of experience."

"three? weak. do better, y/n." steve pokes your side.

you slap his hand away. "hey, i know im a handful. so is dustin. with my luck, my children will be little mini dustins and that... is a very scary thought."

"im an only child-"

"shocking!"

"anyways, its lonely. so im having as many kids as i possibly can. itd be fun, and id take them out to play baseball and go to parks and build forts and-"

"read them bedtime stories so they become booksmart?"

steve snaps his fingers and smiles. "exactly! you get me, y/n."

you giggle. "i try."

and for the last hour of your shift, you and steve debate the hypotheticals of your futures. steve remains adamant that he becomes a housewife, and you declare that if even one of your kids turns out like dustin, then youre sending them to live with him.

its a good day.

[pastlivesxpastlie]

i would like to request VesselxReader librarian and the reader/librarian reccomends books that vessel would really like unironically!!!!! send post

💛I luv u💛 also I’m glad you said “unironically” because you know I’d say some weird stuff. The story is goofy silly but I stand by these recs.

Vessel x Librarian!Reader, annoyances to lovers

Informational fluffy crack with links to the books

It was nearly closing time and the staff was feeling silly. You being the manager on duty thought, “who would care if I locked the library doors at 15 till? Who’s going to come in here at 8:45 o’clock pm?!” Just as you unethically lock the library doors, you turn around…and there he is… you gawp at him.

“Hey friend, I do have to let you know that we’re closed…and you need a shirt on here…you see…we’re technically in…”

He puts his large, paint smudged hand up to stop you. “There’s still 15 minutes before you close.”

You sigh as you realize you’re standing right by the sign with the library hours. “You can see through that thing?” You ask referencing his mask.

He doesn’t respond. “Can you help me?”

You flip your hair and say “depends” because despite him ruining you eff-off time at work he’s pretty cute.

“I just need some reading recommendations.”

“AHAHHA RIGHT! We ARE at a library! Heh. And I’m the librarian. And. Yeah. Hehe…”

If you could see his eyes you’d imagine he was blinking and staring blankly at you. “Anyways…”

*cue a montage of reader and vessel running around a 10k sq ft library as co-workers stare in confusion and concern*

You sigh, cheeks flushed pink from grabbing books and learning more about your new favorite patron, Vessel.

“Alright, let’s take a look at your impressive stack…”

“Excuse me?” Vessel says quizzically.

“OF BOOKS!! Hehhehe.” This masked shirtless man has made you such a giggly mess you almost forget to check out his books.

First, chosen for its lush atmospheric tone, themes of oral fixations, religious/metaphysical fervor, and devotion is Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda.

Also following the themes of devotion, obsession, along with body horror and feeling insane is Bunny by Mona Awad.

And it was a bit of a hard sell, but you convinced him to try the Shades of Magic series, starting of course with A Darker Shade of Magic, because the male lead has a neat jacket…like him. You both looked down after you said that. Was that the wrong thing? I mean…he was wearing a cloak. Maybe he thinks you’re just being nice. Or…too silly.

“I hope you have enough time to read these,” you say shyly but super cutely (let’s be real you do the radio rebel hair-behind-the-ear).

You like to think he winks at you but, you know, you can’t see his eyes…does he actually have six? He chuckles softly. “I’ll be fine. But…just for fun…how about a graphic novel?”

You bite your lip and smile shyly. “You know…and…stop me if this is weird. But, we’re doing a buddy read of the Warriors graphic novel…like the cats…and I don’t know maybe…you’d want to…no it’s silly…”

He puts his hand up again and shakes his head. “It would be an honor.”

And so, Vessel joined the Warriors read-along and contributed in such a way that he started leading the discussions, which made you very happy because the cat drama was starting to stress you out. At the end of one read-along party, Vessel strides up to you and sheepishly puts his hands in his pockets. “So…I actually have a recommendation for you.”

You blush. “Oh yeah?”

Vessels hands you a piece of paper. Gasp. His phone number. He’s already gone by the time you look up.

“Nice! Now you don’t have to resort to looking him up in the patron database to get his number!” Your darling coworker says with a grin that screams ‘BOYLIKER!’

You roll your eyes and start daydreaming about your first kiss at the Panda Express, feeling like you’re in a cheesy rom-com.

THE END

[the-way-astray]

if you were the author of kotlc, what would be different? (besides keefe)

i'm so sorry this is so late, anon, but every time i feel like i'm done and up to posting i feel the urge to add something else. here's a (long) list:

representation/diversity stuff

it would be completely normal to be queer in the lost cities. you tell the matchmakers what your sexuality is and if you don't know then they just assume you're pan and are cool with any gender. also, they don’t care if you’re trans and there are plenty of elixirs (temporary and permanent) to help with transitions and dysphoria. the elves are still scared of blood and sharp things though, so instead of top/bottom surgery, there’s permanent elixirs that can change . . . what you’ve got down there. recovery time is also zero

fitz and dex becomes canon. but don't you ship keefitz- yes, sir, i do indeed. but the sad truth (for me) is that fidex is more suitable for canon and keefitz is more of a fanon daydream. it brings both fitz's arc about learning the world isn't perfect and dex's arc about not judging vackers just for being vackers to a satisfying close

stina is non-binary and goes by they/them

sophie is a (straight) trans girl, mostly because it would be funny as hell. alden and fitz spend twelve years looking for a boy, but sophie’s on puberty blockers and goes by sophie, so they miss her completely. forkle has to send alden the article on sophie three times before alden realizes the “boy” they’ve been searching for might be a girl. sophie’s transness was the best defense against being found by the neverseen all along. sophie’s also alienated by her senior class’s transphobic thoughts towards her. when she goes to the lost cities, they treat it like it’s completely normal and della gives her a gender-affirming elixir with her birth fund. this is never brought up again and is completely irrelevant to the rest of the story

talked about this a tiny bit in my keefe rant but the sexism in the supposedly un-sexist world really grates on me. i would take it all out. sophie wouldn't be forced into wearing girly clothes all the time, either by herself or by anyone else. women frequently do/wear "masculine" things and vice versa. oh, and alden wears a dress at one point. also, foxfire uniforms are unisex. definitely no weird sexist comments made by keefe or anyone else. the lost cities are truly and really gender-equal

alden and della are t4t

the women aren't all housewives that get like one over-the-top girlboss-y moment because shannon realized she was being unintentionally sexist

female characters are allowed to be angry instead of sad more and are allowed to yell instead of cry more

della is a more prominent character. edaline is a more prominent character. juline is a more prominent character

cut down on poc stereotypes (like quinlin and livvy's crumbling marriage, prentice being in jail for his son's entire teenagehood, tiger parent songs, comparing tam and linh to both k-pop idols and anime . . . )

the main vacker family are all poc

the main heks family are all poc

bronte is a poc

tiergan is a poc

the elves have normal-colored eyes and the thing that makes sophie different visually is that she's the only elf not to have pointed ears (and i would erase the whole “elves only get pointy ears as they age” thing). all the poc have brown eyes, including the vackers (i'm so sorry, fitz). sophie tries to cover her non-pointed ears with her hair as a sign of insecurity, which could be related to the way she used to hide behind her hair in her high school senior class

the poc don’t all have dyed hair (tam, linh, maruca) and are allowed to keep their natural hair color

despite the lost cities’ progressiveness when it comes to gender and sexuality, polyamory is not socially acceptable because it is considered “imperfect”. sophie learns about this and campaigns against it

there's two polyam relationships: alden, della, grady, and edaline, and tiergan, prentice and cyrah

vacker stuff

alden and della's trust issues and generally fucked up relationship are explored (but minus the forced gender roles because i took out the sexism)

alvar is closer emotionally to sophie (kind of like alden), making his betrayal feel less cheap

the pressure for vackers to be perfect in every way is explored more

fitz is not demonized just because he and sophie didn’t work out

fitz and biana are twins, actually. alden and della just hid it really, really well

alvar knew that fitz and biana were twins and tried to use this as blackmail to get them to join the neverseen because he genuinely loved his little siblings and hated betraying them (his gripes were with his parents and the immense pressure put on him because he was a vacker). when they refuse, he makes good on his threat, leading to actual repercussions that affect the story (alden and della are kicked out of the nobility)

brant is a vacker and that's why his name is redacted (could still happen) and alden and della know his parents

tiergan and alden used to be best friends canon for real for real (could still happen, i guess)

biana's scars arc is given the time it needs to feel like a full arc and not a half-baked two-scene wonder. also she has scars on her face, too

fitz actually kills alvar (could still happen, i suppose)

biana's feelings with regards to alvar are explored more

keefe and alvar lore is expanded upon

ruewen/dizznee stuff

more stories of jolie. we don't really get to know her for her. maybe from brant, or grady and edaline, or someone. stories of mundane things, like her worst subject and her hobbies and her ex-friends and her conjuring classes and what she got her friends for midterms and how she got in trouble and grady and edaline's parties and how she picked a fight with anyone that put brant down

grady and edaline's parties are talked about more when people bring up how different they used to be

the fact that jolie died in an everblaze fire is actually acknowledged

the ruewens are just as prominent a family as the vackers because on the original council, just like fallon vacker was a member, there was also a ruewen

ruewen is juline and edaline's name, which is why grady took edaline's and also why juline took kesler's because that is a sign that she's literally forsaking her incredibly prominent noble family for a life of scorn. it's also why edaline and grady hoped jolie and brant would end up together (because a vacker and a ruewen together is like. the ultimate noble couple)

juline's struggles with adjusting to a life of scorn are acknowledged because it couldn't have been easy to be the top of the top falling all the way to the bottom of the hierarchy. she beats herself up about this, too, thinking it means she doesn't actually love kesler. he reassures her that he understands but she still feels guilty

the triplets act like actual twelve-year-olds instead of six

dex's family is more relevant, as the primary bad match couple and an example of the lost cities’ injustices (the main point of the story)

the lost cities inequalities/other worldbuilding stuff

sophie campaigns for rights for pyrokinetics, shades, talentless people, twins, bad matches, polyamorous people like the moonlark she's supposed to be and the entire point of the story isn't forgotten

the fact that councillors are the only ones allowed to elect and impeach other councillors is called out and fixed (could still happen, i guess)

the elvin justice system is fixed (vackers are not let off easier just because they're vackers, the council's say isn't what decides a person's fate) (could still happen, maybe)

exile is made out to be the horrendous prison it is and in the end, is banned. sophie heals the minds of everyone with a broken mind in the end (i honestly don't think shannon's going to do this. but hey. she might)

controversial: the elves' relative beauty is emphasized more. i think it should be immediately obvious to humans that something's off when an elf is around. they look too beautiful, almost ethereal, and it makes humans uneasy, but they can't quite put a finger on why that is. this is also why sophie had no friends and even her family felt strange around her. that scene in nightfall where the girls are staring at tam and fitz? well actually, they’re trying their hardest to avoid the group. humans are fleeing left and right at the sign of the group, but they can’t really put a finger on why they feel so off

shades are not allowed to take the elite levels. the ability isn't banned or anything, but they are barred from the elite levels anyway. sophie and co call this out

vanishing and flashing is one ability. hydrokinetic and cyrokinetic is one ability. mesmering and beguiling is one ability. empathy and inflicting is one ability. also there's an earth ability and it's not just given to the dwarves because man, that's cheap

the dwarves and gnomes are one species that can control plants and are really good with minerals. they are still in charge of exile, though, because plants roots can go that far deep or something. this means there are no gnomish slaves servants

there is confirmed to be a third school where you go if you aren't a noble and also not a criminal

the segregation that happens between the classes with regards to mysterium and atlantis is acknowledged

other types of couples are explored, such as talentless-talentless matched couples and talented-talented bad matches. nuance is acknowledged

that rule about councillors not being allowed to be married is challenged. i don't care whether it actually gets revoked or not, but i want it to be challenged (could still happen, i suppose)

if it does get revoked, councillor fitz! (could still happen, maybe)

at the end of the series, a multispecial council with two representatives from each species is formed with the goal of promoting equality among all species. this is different from the actual rulers of each species (could still happen)

talentless people are allowed to serve in the nobility at the end (probably will happen, would be weird if shannon didn't do that. but just saying in case)

controversial: cognates are erased. i don't like the concept of cognates very much. i find it makes telepathy too overpowered compared to other abilities. i'm so sorry, keepblr

the council are called out publicly for their unfair treatment of talentless people, pyrokinetics, shades, twins, bad matches, and polyamorous relationships by the neverseen. this leads to the sophie and the black swan being conflicted

black swan/neverseen stuff

gethen is kenric and oralie’s secret child. this gives gethen an interesting motive, makes us question kenric and oralie, characters we are supposed to like, makes sophie have to grapple with the fact that her half-brother by blood is a neverseen member, and gives oralie an internal conflict

glimmer is keefe's twin sister and lady gisela's daughter, explaining why she's so loyal and how she ended up with the neverseen (she was kicked out by cassius, who didn't want the shame of twins). keefe is forced to grapple with this

. . . or maybe glimmer just. wouldn't exist. i don't know

brant, vespera, umber, and possibly alvar wouldn't have died such anti-climatic deaths

vespera and biana face-off. brant and edaline face-off. umber gets a proper backstory (which still might happen). umber and trix are a bad match (which still might happen)

cut the keefe’s legacy plotline. fintan stays the main villain the entire series instead of randomly being hijacked by gisela halfway through

cut the forkle twin reveal

cut the trolls and everglen plotline. fitz kills alvar a different way

cut the timeline to extinction plotline and silveny/greyfell. i'm sorry, but it adds nothing to the overall story besides "the neverseen are evil and want to control the council"

cut the lodestar symbol plotline. it was interesting, but took too much page time for a plotline that effectively ended up changing nothing about the overall story

cut the criterion plotline. it's never brought up again anyway and takes too much time for something that goes nowhere

cut the gnomish plague plotline. it didn't have much of an impact on the overall plot. all it proves is "the neverseen are evil", which is kind of the point of the story. also dimitar's project is never brought up again

cut team valiant. it never should've happened

cut the lodestar initiative plotline. It’s too vague and hasn’t affected anything important to the overall story in a while

cut the boy who disappeared plotline. it added nothing except "alvar is evil". also, don’t have fintan purposefully spill the beans about alvar. the black swan find out he's part of the neverseen a different way

cut the unmatchable sophie plotline. instead have the elves do matchmaking by dna. the point of this plotline is to show why matchmaking is unfair, but the system targets talentless people and pyrokinetics more than anyone else, so it feels forced to try to have sophie be a victim of it. sophie has a (non-pyrokinetic) ability, so she can’t be oppressed by the matchmaking system. sophie isn't affected by the matchmaking system in the way that it's supposed to target its victims, so the plotline fails to showcase the real reason matchmaking is unfair

instead, have the black swan and sophie actually listen to the povs of characters who are directly affected by matchmaking and fix it

marella's dad pushed marella's mom off the balcony (he’s not trix, though) (could still happen, i suppose)

fintan ends up being sophie's biological father (could still happen. pretty likely actually. but just in case)

the black swan are actually competent and don't throw away the entire point of their organization by working with the council

the black swan actually fight for change instead of hiding in the shadows

sophie realizes that forkle sucks over the course of the series and never talks to him again after the end

fintan is confirmed to have long hair and a flat ass from the start

fintan and vespera are confirmed to be childhood friends and fintan is confirmed to be the councillor that threw her in the dungeon. this means that there is tension between them when fintan breaks vespera out

the black swan learn about this and sophie comes up with a plan to divide and conquer by taking advantage of this rift and worsening it. this gives sophie a chance to actually use her brain to fight the neverseen instead of her abilities. the black swan hatch a plan to subtly worsen fintan and vespera's relationship: through the use of a double agent, keefe

this leads to the keefe double agent storyline, where keefe learns to listen to other people and consult them on his plans, and actually works toward a very specific goal (try to split the neverseen into two neverseens: fintan’s neverseen and vespera’s neverseen by subtly turning them against each other). the plan actually ends up working, but there are serious repercussions that actually affect the story (in the process, keefe is slightly indoctrinated by the neverseen and starts to sympathize with them and even bonds with fintan a little bit, which alarms sophie and co)

the neverseen actually act like a found family (with the exception of fintan and vespera)

the collective hire people to throw the council off their scent

bronte and fintan are confirmed to have had a thing that didn't work out

fintan is thrown in jail by a heartbroken bronte at the end of the story

after fintan’s captured, he still trains marella in pyrokinesis

livvy opens up a medical school

instead of dying, vespera is locked up again. this is her worst fear, and a fate worse than death for her

the neverseen are not a large group, like shannon implies. it's no more then twenty people. this actually makes them more terrifying than not, because if such a small group can cause such large scale damage, then that is alarming and the council looks extra incompetent

writing stuff

multiple perspectives. but not evenly. like 80% of the story would still be sophie's pov, but here and there there are chapters sprinkled in from other characters' perspectives as a break

a few chapters from the adults' povs that go into stuff they got up to before the series

a few chapters from the neverseen members’ povs

a few chapters from sophie and co's povs

the love triangle takes a backseat to the actual plot

keefe and fitz actually act like best friends

the cast is cut down significantly to just sophie, fitz, keefe, biana, dex, marella, stina, and wylie (i’m so sorry tam, linh, maruca, and jensi). there are just too many characters. instead of tam and linh being from exillium, have marella manifest earlier and get kicked out to exillium, highlighting the injustice against pyrokinetics through someone in sophie’s own friend group and making the injustice much more jarring and in-your-face. sophie, biana, fitz, dex, and keefe go to exillium later as well and meet marella there

stina's arc would not have been undone. instead, there would be a conversation between her and dex about how stina apologizes for bullying him and we learn that the reason she did that was to deflect attention off of herself and her own parents' shaky match status by pretending she was better than dex, a "real" bad match's child (the book would be multiple povs, so this would be possible)

dex and sophie never kiss and remain purely platonic friends for the entire series. erase dex's crush on sophie entirely. because we need a single purely platonic male-female relationship goddammit

sophie ends up single, but takes away something from both her relationship with keefe and her relationship with fitz

prentice and sophie's first conversation after prentice wakes up is actually meaningful

the series is only four books long because please shannon i can't handle this anymore

move the lumenaria-collapse climax to the second-to-last (third) book. that plotline slapped so hard and shannon had no business losing it in the middle of the series like it was just some random neverseen plan. it needs to be given the proper weight, so it needs to be the climax that truly showcases the neverseen's might and wit that finally kicks sophie and co into gear and motivates them to knock out the neverseen for good in the last book

i don't know where shannon's going with this yet, so this is tentative, but: move the elysian/ability-to-strip-elves-of-their-abilities plotline to the third-to-last (second) book's climax, so that sophie and co can have a proper reason to not rely entirely on their abilities all the time and actually use their brains for the rest of the series (like the divide-and-conquer-the-neverseen plan)

first book's climax is still the kidnapping

last book's climax is they take the neverseen down for good and fix the lost cities' problems (i assume this will still happen)

miscellaneous stuff

terik is talentless. i'm going to be so honest: i don't think shannon's going to do it. the series isn't done but i feel like i know shannon's style well enough to be able to tell how far she's willing to go with regards to plot twists

keefe is adopted by elwin (could still happen)

the great gulon incident was such a great triumph that it actually made alina quit. she's elected to the council a few years later

whatever stina's parents did to get matched is finally revealed and they fall out of favor with the public. stina gets character development and a reason to help sophie fix the world

alden and della and grady and edaline actually all act like friends (partners?) with inside jokes and not coworkers that only come to each other with problems. sophie wakes up and comes downstairs for breakfast and della and grady are chatting about dinosaurs. she goes into grady and edaline's room and alden's there, helping them pick a new wallpaper. she goes to everglen after school to play with fitz and biana and goes inside and edaline and alden are chilling on the couch talking about how that team got absolutely crushed at the latest bramble match. she goes outside and sees della getting thrown around by verdi and grady, edaline, and alden are laughing at her. and this is like. normal stuff. they're the kinds of friends where they can just show up to each other's houses and it's not a big deal. edaline and grady's dna is on everglen's gate

everglen's gate is explicitly said to also have security measures protecting it from levitators, because that is currently a plot hole

alden is not a century older than della. this is not because i think it's toxic. this is because i want alden, della, edaline, grady, tiergan, prentice, cadence, and quinlin to have all been foxfire friends and that's kind of not possible if alden and della are a century apart

grady, edaline, della and alden's blind spots with regards to the way society is laid out is acknowledged and actually a major part of the story. they are prominent nobles, after all. at the end they all become more aware of the lost cities' problems and are at the forefront of change

timkin and kesler end up best friends by the end of the story somehow. they realize they are in the same situation in different lightings. timkin (and vika) help out at slurps and burps by the end of the story as an apology

that's all for now, but there's probably something else that'll come up that'll make me go "oh, shannon should've done this instead!!!" so. there may be a part two, i don't know

[tossawary]

I've been thinking a lot about DCU stuff and Ace Attorney thoughts got mixed in by accident, because it's got a lot of the same themed, colorful character designs and silly pun names. So, of course, I started immediately daydreaming about a DCU-style Superhero AU for Ace Attorney. (I often do not fully control what I think about.)

And then I was like, "I think I just finally have to play Ace Attorney at this point, before I get stuck in a weird daydream loop because I don't know enough about the plot to worldbuild properly. I will let this be the final push to just start these games."

Based on my extremely limited knowledge (I have only actually played 2 episodes of the first game), here are my Superhero AU thoughts so far. I don't like 1-1 character role match-ups in general when I fuse worlds, so none of these AA characters are fully aligned with any particular DCU character.

Phoenix Wright would make a good speedster, I think. This is partially because of the spiky hair, but also because there's a terrible irony to being the fastest man in the world who keeps being too late to stop certain tragedies. It also suits the way he's apparently never properly prepared for anything but also quickly manages to pull through. He's probably still a defense attorney in his civilian identity. (In accordance with later games, he has to stop being a superhero for several years when he's framed for a crime.)

Besides Phoenix's mentor Mia, who is also both a superhero and a lawyer, ordinary civilian Larry Butz is the only person who initially knows that Phoenix has superpowers. He honestly hasn't told anyone Phoenix's secret identity! But Larry also somehow gets into more scrapes and "damsel in distress" situations than Lois Lane and he's not even an investigative reporter.

Mia Fey, Maya Fey, and Pearl Fey have a Shazam situation, I think, in which they transform into a "Mystic Champion" magically empowered by the ghosts of their ancestors. Like a Shazam & Danny Phantom fusion. Mia Fey was the first in her family to become a publicly known superhero. A lot of people don't know that it's not the original Mystic Champion (same face and same superpowered form as Mia, which breaks Phoenix's heart a little every time) until Maya or Pearl transforms back into a regular girl after the fight is over.

I think Miles Edgeworth is a Batman type hero, but one still partially ensnared by Manfred von Karma, who is his Ra's al Ghul. (This makes Franziska into Talia, but there is definitely nothing romantic there.) Maybe he does have superpowers of some kind, maybe not, and he could still potentially be a prosecutor. He doesn't have a Brucie persona, though. Phoenix is not impressed by Edgeworth's harsh and even cruel approach to vigilante work. (Steel Samurai was Miles' Gray Ghost or Zorro hero inspiration, I'm guessing.)

Gumshoe is Miles' Commissioner Gordon figure and doesn't know his secret identity yet. He's either going to learn in the middle of a really bad situation or he's just going to straight-up figure it out himself one day and scare the hell out of Miles.

I'm still thinking about characters like Kristoph and Klavier Gavin, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright, but I don't know enough about them to fully flesh these thoughts out yet. I think the Gavins would make good Kryptonian equivalents (a cold and calculating Superman and a rockstar Supergirl), Apollo might make a good Wonder Girl equivalent (his bracelet becomes a Lasso of Truth) as the lost son of an Amazon, and Trucy would obviously be fun as a Zatanna type of hero.

[sunshinestardrop]

Time for another fun daydream Ive had

Degrees of Lewdity this time because my mind is going crazy:

(May mess up genders a little bit, I play randomized with them)

So starts out the usual. MC has to start paying Baily and shit and the world sucks and all that. MC starts throwing themselves into a new job all the while trying to avoid the hell that is the town (Also im not too deep into the lore but I have a HC that all the fucked up townspeople wait until the orphans are 18 and stuff which is somehow both better and even more fucked up because imagine knowing some kids birthday just so you can fuck them (didnt people use to do that with kid celebrities too))

Overarching plot is:

MC works their ass off to make the orphanage better for all the orphans. Where MC cannot pay off all their debts as much as they wish they could, instead MC starts to teach the orphans about finances and how to make and keep money. MC eventually becomes a sort of 'bookie' for the orphans in the sense they're the only one that the others trust to handle money, and MC works their ass off to keep everything stable. MC encourages skulduggary and sort of sets up a ''honor among thieves' with the orphans where they watch each other to make sure they're not stealing from other orphans because they’re all trying to survive. Towns people are free to steal from tho.

During this time MC catches Baileys attention even more and (After the Avery gambling incident) Bailey starts having MC work for them keeping records of the actual orphanage’s money. Coincidentally this also leads to MC learning about some of the less than legal dealings Bailey has been doing with the orphanage’s money (and sometimes it seems like Bailey wants them to know more, almost like they’re preparing MC for something)

As MC delves deeper into the corrupt work, they start to take a more active part in dismantling it. When the big climax hits MC is at their lowest- broken to a point they feel unable to fix- and go for a full kamikaze move.

So here's the thing, there's like one part of the dialogue from the cafe about two out of towners coming because there's a rumor about how they can SA anyone they want to and not get in trouble there. I took that as a "so there’s something wrong with JUST this town" and ran with it.  MC, with this knowledge, get’s themselves SA’ed by the most prominent figures in town, Leighton, the mayor and shit like that, and then hitchhikes themselves out of town to another one where they get a r*pe kit tested. When it comes back there’s a full-on investigation of the entire town with MC as a sort of Mole with a microphone attached.

This leads to another gambling event- this time MC coming with Bailey instead of Avery- with MC bugged. All the prominent people are there and MC- since most of them assume MC is broken now- pretty much prepares to get SAed again. There’s a moment where MC and Baily are alone in a room, and Bailey finds the bug on MC--

--MC thinks they’re done for and that all their suffering was for nothing, but instead Bailey very calmly places the bug under Their (Baileys) shirt (which seems weird but it’s a better option, if MC were to get SAed again then the bug would be discovered, and Bailey is more likely to get better evidence as they are more trusted then MC) and heads back inside. MC follows and they collect the final- damning- evidence.

Other significant events I have are:

MC gets kidnapped by Kylar. It's awful at first and Kylar is desperate. MC eventually gets free from their bindings and tries to escape the house but is chased back by Kylar's parents. Here is where they learn about whatever the hell is wrong with them and starts to feel kind of bad. Eventually PC is released (prolly with a little bit of Stockholm syndrome) but is now concerned about Kylar and whatever the hell is happening to his family (And also with a better understanding of why he's so fucked up)

Which leads to MC making a deal with Ivory Wrath (Which they still don’t know anything about, just riding on hope at this point) to save his parents. Somehow, it works. A few days later MC runs into Kylar panicked and cared begging MC for help because something happened to his parents. MC rushes with him home to find his parents unconscious but looking better. Almost normal. MC starts to work on getting them into bed and helping them get better. Kylar is useless so MC takes charge and orders him to do stuff as they care for his parents.

As time goes on the parents finally wake up. And they’re back to themselves- shaken but normal- and MC talks calmly to them and explains how they’re Kylars friend. It’s implied that the parents vaguely know what happened but also like its all muddled. Kylar comes in at some point—

And his parents have no idea who he is.

So the idea is that kylar is FTM trans. Playing into the whole idea of him already feeling isolated and alone in this hellhole. Anxiety made it that he never thought he could transition with his parents, so when they started to change he choose to finally transition because, eventho he wanted to act like everything was fine, Kylar knew they weren’t all there and couldn’t protest.

Shit eventually get’s resolved but it takes time. MC checks up on them often.

Robin

MC gets caught up in shit. First with Robin and seeing them struggling with making money and tries to gently nudge them to get a better job at first, but when that doesn’t work (And probably after running into Whitney a few times which sparks this idea) they start to 'tough love' them and demand Robin gets a better job. Practically throwing him into the cafes doors to get him to work there.

That works well, until robin gets fired for refusing to be abused or something (the usual) but by this time MC has enough supplies to set up a booth to see their wares. MC hires robin to work there so they can work else where telling robin they will pay them per hr (Which isn’t fully true, they give Robin commission based on what Robin sells- taking a good chunk out of MCs savings but they want Robin to be ok and this is the only way they know how)

MC and robins’ relationship would mirror Baileys and the entire orphanages. An implication that MC could become what bailey is if they choose to do so.

Eden:

Playing around with some more ideas. Eden was originally an orphan too, which to me makes sense seeing as theyre distrustful of everyone and live off the grid. I also HC Eden and Bailey were probably orphans together (Bailey perpetuating the cycle of abuse and Eden choose to run from it) which is why Bailey knows Eden.

MC and Eden bond over the orphan thing. And MC makes a point to visit Eden as often as possible. This will probably be useful story wise if I can ever flesh it out enough where MC goes missing for a long time and Eden has to go to Bailey to find me- this would lead to rekindling Baileys and Eden old relationship/friendship/whatever the fuck it was they had when they were both orphans and leads to a better understanding of Baileys character.

General idea: where eden chose physical isolation after what they went through, bailey choose emotional isolation. Maybe they were in love? Fuck if I know.

Sydney:

Honestly in my mind I focus more on their parent- Sirris.

And I wanted to focus on a parent that is aware of the shit happening in the town but is also willing to let it happen as long as its not their kid. It’s a sort of situation where Sirris has a vague idea of how bad shit is but doesn’t make the full connection of how BAD it is unless they’re forced to face it head on. Living in denial thing.

As MC gets closer with Sydney Sirris is forced to see what kind of hell scape this is for the orphans first hand, and now that they personally know a child suffering from it, it becomes harder to ignore. There’s also grappling with the option to keep Sydney blind to the awful things happening to everyone in the town or to let Sydney understand whats going on- this also leads to a whole “I don’t want my kid to grow up and go where I can’t protect them, but I also want my child to become a good person/adult which means they may have to face hardships that I’m not ready for them to face”

And then there begs the question of how long a good person can turn a blind eye to others sufferings until they stop being a good person? It seems like a fun thing to explore.

Ivory Wraith:

(Forgive me, havent gotten deep into their lore yet)

MC is pretty scared of IW throughout the story. IW is an imposing figure that seems like the supposed ‘God’ in this town that has their eyes set on MC. Shockingly, MC dose not steal the neck-less like they do in game, instead it’s just there one day after another bad encounter with IW. MC cannot remove the neck-less and IW still comes to them every night on the red moon. No harm is done, but all they do is watch.

MC eventually gets it into their delusional head that IW takes a liking to them for their purity and intends to keep it that way- fearing what may happen if they upset IW. Once the final overarching plot is done MC makes their way back to the lake and begs for IWs forgiveness for not being able to stay pure.

But IW does not come, instead a person appears from the water. Similar in appearance but no longer carrying the same ethereal feel that IW did. MC asks who they are, but they don’t remember. Both sit in silence for a long time after, unsure of what to do.

The idea is that MC had this huge image of IW in their mind as a god- similar to the townspeople had of whatever god they believed in (Which may be IW?) – and in the end IW just turns out to be another human fallen victim,  now with nothing to their name just like how MC started out.

And… that’s all I got for now, seems like a fun story line to come up with.