#a chemical is not morally good or bad it’s just a fucking chemical?? at least that’s what i understood

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

i come home to my mom hell-bent on throwing out half the stuff we use because some barcode scanning app told her they have “bad grades” and she’s starting to say things about good and bad chemicals and it’s just like. SCREAM. like. i keep asking her what are the metrics by which they assign those grades and by what standards are they defining those metrics and also, who is “they”? and she only is just like “i don’t want us to get cancer” yeah man i don’t want cancer either! but i also don’t want to subscribe to something that will make me suspicious of all the fucking molecules in the world KNOWING i am susceptible to disordered eating! like am i crazy to be skeptical about this? am i crazy to think this way??

[therealieblog]

A big part of Intuitive Eating involves the de-stigmatizing of food. How do we de-stigmatize food? By not assigning it moral qualities, and by not using derogatory, negative language when we talk about food.

Examples of moralizing, derogatory and negative language we, under diet culture, still use regularly when talking about food:

"Sinful"

"Fattening"

"Unhealthy"

"Deadly"

"Bad for you"

"Clean"

"Pure"

"Healthy"

"Good" "

Junk/Junk food"

"Crap/Crappy"

Words to use instead of: Instead of "Sinful", or "Fattening", use "Decadent", "Rich" or "Delicious". Avocados and dark chocolate and many organic, "healthy" foods will make you fatter if you eat them often enough. Is this really about health? Or is it about fatphobia?

Instead of "Unhealthy", you can just say what it is about the food that impairs your health. "It hurts my stomach," "It makes my skin greasy/makes me break out", "I'm allergic to it" "I feel nauseous when I eat that." That at least is honest. Saying any food that isn't on some diet culture list of approved foods is "unhealthy" is just not scientifically accurate or backed by anything other than fear mongering.

Yes, eating foods high in fat and salt and sugar in large enough quantities, for long enough periods of time can negatively affect your health, but the vast majority of studies done on exactly how it affects your health, do not control for participants' smoking, drinking, drug use, genetic predispositions (genetics makes up a significant portion of health by the way), sedentary lifestyle, exposure to chemicals in the environment, mental health status, or literally anything outside of what they eat, so... yeah... f@ck that.

Ditto with "Bad for you." It's just so formless and un-researched and based in fatphobia. What does that even mean? In what amount is it "bad for you?" would it be equally bad for anyone to eat "unhealthy" foods at any time? Is there a magic threshold past which one's donut consumption goes from infrequent to "bad for you" levels? Or, are human beings a wildly diverse group of people, who all have very different bodies, metabolisms, genetics, tolerances, tastes and needs.

"Clean" is just as bad as "Bad For You", only worse, because it's so moralistic. If food is made out of animals, plants and grains, and is considered edible by human beings, it's fucking clean. Now if you're talking about gross things falling into the food by accident during the process of making it, or if you're talking about pesticides being used on your fruit and vegetables, then I get wanting to make sure the food is "clean". But if you're putting food on some sort of angelic pedestal for being free from sugar, or saturated fats, or carbohydrates, then you are still stuck in diet culture.

Instead of "Junk food", which implies that the food itself is garbage, which is honestly just a horrifying way to think about and talk about food, you could say "play food", "fun food", "snack food". These foods: chips, chocolate, cookies etc. aren't meant to fulfill your nutritional needs. We eat them for enjoyment, or to pick us up when we're blue, to calm us when we're stressed, or just because it tastes good and we like eating it. I think gentle nutrition is important, and paying attention to how food makes you feel is obviously important, but the way we perceive food and talk about food, reinforces what we think of ourselves when we eat it. If we are eating "bad" and "unhealthy" foods, then we are bad and unhealthy people, and that is a mind-fuck, believe me.

I've performed a 25 year longitudinal dieting study on myself. I know what it feels like to absolutely hate myself for what my body tells me it wants to eat. Not fun. So please have a care with the way you speak about food, and the way you look at yourself in relation to food. Food is sustenance and life. It is meant to be enjoyed, not feared. Lets not talk about food as if the thing meant to connect us to life also makes us inherently morally deviant.

[thronesforkings]

Title: Playground

Requested?: No

Genre: Angst to Fluff 

Characters: Bonten!Male!Reader x Bonten!Haitani Rindou; Haitani Ran

TW/CW: Swearing, Bonten, violence (mentions of blood), mentions of rape and abuse (Only like two lines, it will be between !!** so y’all can skip over it if wanted.)

Notes: I’m a whore for making family stuff or domestic shit (also Bonten/making big scary criminals soft). Also if I ever write siblings wrong then my excuse is I’m an only child.

Word Count: 1,239

Notes 2.0: This is kinda shit, I’m not too proud of it but I’m still posting it since I figured that someone would at least get the happy chemicals from this.

“They’re my fucking kids!” A woman hissed at (Name). The two were outside near a park and it was dark outside. (Name) had managed to get out of work early and was able to have a night with his kids, the three of them ate dinner before going to the park and (Name) was more than happy to let his kids stay up late tonight. He was having a ton of fun until his ex came out of the living complexes nearby. 

“They are not, the court took your custody away. Just because it's been two years doesn’t mean the court order is still active. You are actively breaking the restraining order and I want to do this in a calm way. So, you can leave and I won’t report this or I can call the police to come and get you.” (Name) spoke, his eyes darting back to the playground where his kids were having fun. 

Ran and Rindou were tired, staying later than normal to finish some paperwork that got shoved onto them. Ran was the one to notice the two young children seemingly unsupervised at the park. Rin was confused as he watched his brother go to the playground but soon saw the tiny humans moving around. 

“Hey kiddos, you know that it’s dangerous to be out at night. Do your parents know you are out here?” Ran asked. He was a criminal but he had some morals. 

“DAD!” A young girl called out after looking at Ran for a moment. Rin stood not too far behind the male and noticed the boy looking at him. 

“Shit. Leave now. If you stay I will call the police.” (Name) hissed and jogged over to where his kids were and stopped when he saw his co-workers.

“The short haired one is creepy. He tried to tell us that it’s bad to be out at night.” The young boy spoke and (Name) sighed. 

“Well, good job for calling me right away. As for these two, they are my friends. Actually, Ran-San, there is a woman off to the side near the residential buildings, she refuses to leave and I have a restraining order against her, could you help me with that?” (Name) asked, feeling slightly bad for asking the older male to help him with something he knew nothing about but he wanted to spend time with his kids, sue him. 

“The bitch is still here?” (Name) choked on his spit while Rin snorted, Ran grinning and the girl confused as to what caused those reactions.

“Yes, though remember the rules. You can swear but not to put down other people.” Ran smiled as he walked off. Rin got closer and the girl went up to him.

“We’ll be right with you sir, we need to cook up what our dishes are for the day!” She spoke with a smile before running off to her brother and the two mimicked working in a kitchen. 

“Kids?” Rin broke the silence between the two and (Name) nodded. 

!!**“Yeah, the woman that Ran went to go deal with is their birth mother. Before I started working with you guys I got raped at my old job, she never told me about the kids and it wasn’t until I got a phone call from the police asking if I was able to take the two kids into my care. That was two years ago, apparently she was abusing them physically and emotionally. It was a teacher at school that had reported it and so I took them in.”**!! (Name) spoke with a soft voice and Rin smiled. 

“Rika loves to cook and bake. She wants to be a baker. Yuta is the quieter of the two, he really likes maths and logic puzzles.” Rin heard (Name) speak again, changing the subject and Rin looked at the two getting along. 

“They seem nice. I think Rika claimed me.” Rin said with a smile and (Name) laughed. As if on cue, Rika came over and grabbed Rin’s hand (more so two of his fingers since her hands were small) and dragged him to the little counter in the structure. (Name) followed and sat on the ground, Rin doing the same after he was pulled by Rika. The two were given a couple pieces of the rubber that was the ground. 

“Very delicious, my compliments to the chef.” (Name) spoke after he pretended that he ate the ‘food’. Rin blushed lightly at this and fell harder in love. He was going to need to learn what these kids were into if he wanted to win them over and have permission to date their dad. 

The two played with the kids for a little bit, that was until (Name) noticed Yuta not using one of his hands. 

“Hey kiddo, I noticed that you haven’t been using your left hand. You also kept it covered during dinner. Are you hurt?” (Name) asked, the five year old nodded and lifted his sleeve up to show the bruises that covered his hand. His fingers were the most bruised and he was surprised that they weren’t broken.

“Some kids were mean to me at school. Rika helped me. They were hitting me with the hard toys and I used my hand to try and take most of the hits. My arms also hurt. It’s fine though, Rika scared them away and I just need to wait for it to get better. That’s what the teacher said.” Yuta spoke as (Name) looked at his hand carefully and sighed. 

“Why wasn’t I informed right away?” He asked, looking at Rika who shrugged. 

“Yuta said he wouldn’t bother me in the kitchen for a week if I didn’t tell you. I took care of it though, I threw a toy truck at them. They started it so I wouldn’t have been told that I started the fight. What you explained to us!” Rika said and had a toothy smile on her face. Rin bit the inside of his mouth to keep himself from smiling at the cleverness of the kid. 

“Alright, let’s call it a night then. You two have chores to do this weekend. I’ll wrap your hand up kiddo once we get home.” (Name) spoke, the two families splitting after a little bit. 

Ran came back and had blood on his knuckles and some on his face. 

“Oh, did he leave? That woman wouldn’t shut up so I taught her what happens when you don’t listen to Bonten. I’ll tell him at work. Come on, I’m tired and want to order some take out.”

---

“Is the long haired one you talk about? The one you want to kiss?” Rika asked in the morning and (Name) blushed, gripping the pan tighter as he was making pancakes for breakfast. 

“Obviously, did you see the way Dad looked at him? It’s like the guys from the show. Now we have to do what they did in the show and make them go on a date.” Yuta spoke with a grin and (Name) squeaked. 

“Hah? Did I just hear that you wanted your chores doubled today?” (Name) tried to retaliate but the two kids laughed. 

“Once we finish our chores we can watch it some more to get ideas.” Rika spoke, the two ignoring their flushed dad (who was proud of them for getting this idea and found it adorable how they wanted to help him).

[ladyof1000masks]

Sorry I've been gone. As if anyone noticed. Honestly, my absence is because I had a depressive episode because my body stopped absorbing my meds due to a critical vitamin deficiency. Oh and people still suck.

Last night was a good example. I was replying to a serious Suicide Squad game post on Reddit titled "Will the insanity end when the new game is released?" There was a slightly off-topic, but still relevant conversation going on.

I got into how odd it is that Waller didn't take any interest in Scarecrow as he was the only rogue in the Arkhamverse to unmask Batman and brought him the closest to defeat/breaking any of them ever had. Fuck, he even out planned Bats on a couple occasions.

I don't know if anyone here realizes just how amazingly OP Arkhamverse Batman in almost every discipline, but for a rogue to get a couple steps ahead of him is a feat unheard of. Scarecrow devised a Thanatos Gambit on the master of the technique. He technically won.

Sure Scarecrow didn't make Batman cross the line he most feared but he gave him a good shove toward that precipice. Using fear toxin, a substance very well known for breaking people permanently even in it's weaker variant, on criminals is extremely morally dubious.

The strongest indicator of the damage done, is that he injected Scarecrow with the almost always lethal version with the intent of destroying his mind. I expect cruelty like that from Scarecrow or Riddler, they're the "bad guys" not our dark brooding hero.

But I digress. I didn't go into it as much as I have here because doing so guarantees no one will read my post.

The OP came back with "Not sure what fear toxin would do against robots." No shit! I'm so fucking stupid I wouldn't know something so obvious. I never implied that fear toxin would affect robots. Completely missed my point. I was talking about his chemical genius, brilliant mind, and ability to out gambit Batman.

Never once did I say he'd be one of the ground forces in Taskforce X. Any fan knows Scarecrow isn't a fighter, that he specializes in psychology and excels in unraveling sanity as opposed to a physical threat.

You'd think Waller would have at least "recruited" Crane to be on the support staff and put his genius to good use. That's all I was saying.

People seem to hate all the Rogues I like in the Arkham subreddit. Riddler and Scarecrow are especially unpopular. Honestly, the more assy they get about me talking about Scarecrow, the more I'm going to mention him.

It's okay for others to make multiple posts describing the explicit things they want to do with Bane, the Joker and Batman but I get shit for just talking about Scarecrow?

Not even in a sexual way, either. I may exaggerate my obsession with Scarecrow in an attempt to be funny but everyone on that sub exaggerates in some way.

Fuck your double standards. Also fuck feline respiratory infection and double fuck the blizzard ruining my cat's vet appointment.

[jerzwriter]

#1 #6 #16 and #19 for Ethan/Kaycee and Tobias/Casey

Hey nonny! Thanks for the ask!

From this list

1 What memory would your OC rather just forget?

6 How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

16 What is your OC's pain tolerance like?

19 How does your OC behave when enraged?

Answers below break :)

What memory would your OC rather just forget?

Ethan: The most painful would be his abandonment by his mother, but I don't think he'd want to forget it because it's part of who made him who he is today. In my E/C universe, I'm sure he'd like to forget how he treated her last some points, but in the end, it brought them to where they were meant to be as well. In the E/K world, he wishes he could forget seeing Kaycee so near death during the chemical attack. It always haunts him.

Kaycee: Some of the hiding she did earlier in her life. Ghosting a woman who was a friend turned lover early in her college years because she was still insecure in her own sexuality. She knows why she did it, but she still feels bad that she hurt her. She also regrets lying to some about who she was because she feels it made them feel bad about themselves. She's reconciled this, but it's still painful to recall.

Tobias: The biggest would be about his father. Not resolving their differences before his death was the biggest regret of Tobias's life. He did learn to put it to the side and live his best life, but there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't think of it with regret. There are also some people he mistreated, friends, but mostly partners when he was younger, and he's not proud of those moments.

The chemical attack was always hard for him to recall, but it's an odd thing - because without it he and Casey wouldn't have ended up together. But the memory of almost losing her after she had their third child, he'd love to wipe that from his mind.

Casey: The chemical attack, all of it. Even though it propelled a lot of her life forward in new, positive ways, she still harbors some guilt over how she handled things. She comes to stop blaming herself for Danny and Bobby's deaths, but they still do haunt her.

How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

It's not particularly easy for any of them (even though each of their moral compasses is tweaked a little differently). However, the thing that could motivate any of the 4 to step out of their comfort zone would be saving someone they loved the most in this world. I would say from most likely to least likely to do so in that situation would look like this:

Tobias Carrick, Casey MacTavish, Ethan Ramsey, Kaycee MacClennan.

What is your OC's pain tolerance like?

I answered this question here.

How does your OC behave when enraged?

Ethan is slow seething. Like we can see, the rage perculating before the explosion - which is good - it gives people a c chance to get away. lol I can see him getting very quiet, very still, his jaw setting, and the tension on his face is clear. When he starts talking it's probably in a slow voice and measured. Then, depending on the incident, he will either explode - or walk away. And if he walked away - you are in more trouble than if he explodes lol

Kaycee: Her face turns red, her eyes narrow, and her breathing is deep and shallow. Sometimes the eruption is immediate, and sometimes it is delayed, but whoever it is - they will hear it from her for certain... and so will anyone within a 30-mile perimeter lol

Tobias: Tobias doesn't get enraged often. The guy is pretty chill. But when he does - watch the fuck out. lol There are two ways it can transpire: one, he will become totally silent, walk away. The majority of people wouldn't even know he was mad, but then he'll do something behind the scenes to exact his revenge and it will absolutely make the offending person live to regret what they did. The other is would be going from a steely, cold silence to an absolute white hot eruption. This probably only happens a few times in his whole life, but it's not a pretty sight.

Casey: She's kind of Kaycee's reaction but on steroids. She is more apt to deal with the situation right there and then. The only time she'd refrain from that is if it put someone in danger, or if her young daughters are present. Although, there are times when she will rage with her young daughter's present, because it's not always about "protecting" them, it's also about showing them that you don't take shit in this world and you stand up for yourself or others when things are wrong.

Thanks for asking, Nonny!

[enneamage]

why would phil hold a grudge with dream? he’s not done anything to him and was singing his praises well after the allegations dropped. seems like a bit of confirmation bias on your end anon

I’ve been having a real big think around the state of the Server Coldwar lately and why it seems way more draining than previous stuff. I think it’s because time has shown this will probably pile on endlessly with very little catharsis, just death by a thousand papercuts without the death part. There was a time in the very beginning of the DSMP when the stories around the CCs looked more like a ‘conventional’ narrative, like life would go Beginning -> Middle -> End (happy ever after or just some closure depending on what thread you follow) but now we’re in the sixth act and it doesn’t look like anything shows any signs of definitiveness, just more of this forever. It’s not easy or satisfying to keep up with the state of things anymore, the stress to catharsis ratio is way off compared to the kind of ‘drama’ that feels satisfying to follow.

When arguments make clean, easy lines and create a sense of who can and can’t be trusted, it can honestly be kind of freeing to offload bad energy. People want clean breaks and side-taking to simplify the endless spray of messy, intense internet that they have to process every day. If they know that their friends are on the inside and their enemies are on the outside, they can relax.  I’ve talked a bit before about how setting social standards as a group activity has group benefits and that carries over here too. People want to believe that the CCs and their spaces stand for what they think they stand for, because otherwise it’s just another betrayal, but faith isn’t often spent well on e-celebs when it comes to standards of association.

I watched beauty Youtube for a while, ironically to detox from following gamers before all this. I was around for both Dramageddons, which were events that were generally misunderstood by people who only saw summaries from the outside. The super boiled down lessons I took from those events are:

People can say whatever they want, but most people are watching youtubers for their personality / what they represent symbolically / who people think they are, and acting against that faith puts people off.

Betrayal in any direction (Creator/Fan, Creator/Creator, whatever you like) is taken seriously, at least when the values of the audience overlap with the nature of the betrayal (Bad friend, abuse of power, social climbing, bad sexual ethics, the JC fallout had it all and you could see the sub count drop live.)

It wasn’t the fights themselves that put people off the makeup scene, people love a good blood sport, it was the way that in the end it felt like there was nobody left to root for in that group that didn’t feel tainted in some way. I think that time and exposure is doing this to the people who rode in on the DSMP wave, like lockdown was a fucked up kind of honeymoon for many and now people have to face the CCs with fewer happy chemicals and positive illusions. It’s easy to see why people get paranoid and start to test things or look for signs, they’ve invested in someone emotionally and they want to believe they can ‘keep them’, but they need to clear the moral deal breakers first, which is hard when people seem to be in a grey zone.

[bright-and-burning]

in spirit, agreed! however: if you're turned off purchasing merch for moral reasons, aliexpress is definitely not your beloved. i don't mean give up and go buy puma, to be extremely clear. just that if you're hesitant to get, idk, mclaren's merch (originally i used aston martin as my example, only to discover their merch is done by a company that's within the puma group. so. woo. fun.), because you're like "wow big oil... i shouldn't contribute to that monetarily!" you should also be extremely hesitant to pull out aliexpress. like. please please please please do not shop aliexpress. please. merch is not a need, it is a want; not buying anything is always an option.

i've actually linked + summarized some reasons why it's not a good alternative (and is actually a really, really bad alternative) bc it's possible people aren't aware of the . everything . about fast fashion, and being able to make informed decisions about where your money goes is important (and i'm a yapper). indeed the greatest alternative is simply reducing your consumption in general and refraining from purchasing merch at all lol. BUT! i think people should understand the potential impacts of their consumption practices regardless. and outside even of any conversation sparked by BDS

for one, they steal designs from everyone and their mother. not so much a concern when it's big ferrari whose branding they're copping, but then suddenly they're applying that hand-wavey approach to intellectual property rights to stealing from individual artists and small businesses, like alexandria masse, a textile artist whose (cool as fuck!) crocheted dragon hat concept + design was stolen so aliexpress could sell shitty knockoffs for $20.

fast fashion in general is a pretty horrific industry, labor practices wise. it's estimated that less than 2% of people employed in fast fashion factories make a living wage, to say nothing of the physical conditions they work in. (you can't sell max verstappen shirts for $4.29 without exploiting people along the way. screenshot from aliexpress)

it's environmentally uh. unfriendly. to say the least. second largest water consuming industry in the world (79 billion cubic meters per year) with that rate set to increase 40% by 2050. the industry contributes to as much as 10% of human carbon emissions, and it produces more co2 emissions per year than aviation and sea shipping combined.

also there was the whole elevated levels of toxic chemicals (including lead) in their products thing. not my favorite trait in anything that'll touch my skin all day

if giving your money to big oil vroom vroom gives you pause (which. real. and relatable!), aliexpress is also morally bankrupt and should not be your ethical alternative to buying f1 merch. i've done literally no research on common bootleg merch brands so i can't speak to their sustainability or labor conditions but. at the very least. please don't buy aliexpress merch (or... aliexpress anything).

and as always, you don't have to buy merch! clothing makes up a truly insane proportion of our landfills and that's only increasing due to the overconsumption habits of, well. us. your options aren't just 'official f1 merch,' 'dubious bootleg merch,' and 'really dubious fast fashion site merch;' upcycling old clothes and making your own, if you're really craving merch, is a pretty solid route to take that also means learning cool new skills!

anyway. as glad as I am that all the HP business is reminding people to boycott F1 sponsors on the BDS boycott list(*). god knows there's no such thing as an ethical F1 sponsor. Big Oil Vroom Vroom is about as morally bankrupt as sports get. bootleg merchandise save me. aliexpress my beloved. etc etc

(*) reminder that Puma also sponsors Merc & Williams as well as Ferrari + too many sports teams to list; luckily they are all on their website.

[quotes-ig]

Sleepy Bois Inc Batman au

okay hear me out

Phil is Batman. he’s got the dad vibes and a chronic addiction to adopting chaotic children and their friends. he seems like he should be the most responsible one, but this dude runs around in a fursuit fighting crime every night, he’s not as mature as he paints himself. always trying to give his kids advice but they never listen to him, so the poor man’s just struggling to contain the chaos.

Kristen is Catwoman. she’s a mischievous queen, always causing trouble for Phil when she gets the chance. logically she seems like she should be the mum, and the kids love her, but she’s ascended beyond the need for children and leaves Phil to clean up their messes.

Wilbur is Dick Grayson, the first Robin and current Nightwing. he’s the oldest and has been with Phil for the longest, got best friend vibes with Techno and accidental mentor vibes with Tommy. he takes pride in his appearance and his fashion, and has called himself a pretty boy. he’s stereotyped as the nice one on the surface but is highkey unstable. got the most friends among the rest of the caped community

Techno is Tim Drake, the third Robin n current Red Robin. he’s a fuckin neeerrrrrrd. socially awkward dude who accidentally made friends with a ton of extroverts and has been suffering the consequences ever since. smart and dedicated when he cares, but he often doesn’t. the least chaotic, but mostly just because he’s completely dead inside at this point. would beat up TommyInnit without hesitation.

Tommy is Damian Wayne, the current Robin. his literal nickname is demon brat, need i explain more? also, gets way too attached to animals (cough cough Henry)

and then Niki is Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl and Batman’s only legal daughter. she’s essentially part of the family, but is a competent enough adult to not need parental figures and so doesn’t often get involved with the petty drama. quiet and sweet, but can and will destroy you if need be. any moral ambiguity can be eliminated by just fighting for whatever side she fights for. she is always in the moral right.

like, it all makes sense. Tubbo is Jon Kent, the current Superboy. he’s Tommy’s best friend and spends half his time with SBI; he’s the only metahuman they’ll let in Gotham. he’s super sweet but powerful af (hacks irl), and will play up the innocent persona to get away with chaos. and then Superman would be Sparklez; a veteran in the field and Tubbo’s father. fond of but also eternally done with SBI’s bullshit. stays the hell away from Gotham.

Then you could round out the Batgirls with Minx as Barbara Gordon (scary, always angry and usually with good reason, good leader but bad taste in men) and SophieTexas as Stephanie Brown (chaotic, strong moral code but willing to get her hands more dirty than SBI is, good friends with Techno n Niki). the girls on the gamer girl smp are the Birds of Prey. Poki is Wonder Woman.

the first Teen Titans were Soothouse, and Tim’s Young Justice group is Techno’s 2017- friend group: Hanna as Cassie’s Wonder Girl cause she’s an ascended fangirl, Skeppy as Impulse because duh, Calvin as Kon Kent’s Superboy cause he’s cocky but for bloody good reason, and Tapl as Slobo because it’d be funny. also, black nail polish rights. BBH is Arrowette but with a gun. he made the mistake of becoming friends with Skeppy and has been struggling ever since, but at least he’s close with the new Green Lanterns. people usually underestimate him, but he has a fucking gun so

Tommy’s new Teen Titans group includes Tubbo, Wisp, Deo, and Drista. Wisp is Maya Ducard’s Nobody; great at combat and with strong oldest-friend vibes. Deo is Emiko Queen’s Red Arrow, cause whenever he shows up the violence escalates significantly and rapidly. and then Drista is like that new Teen Lantern girl, the kid who wasn’t actually chosen but hacked into the Green Lantern rings’ power source cause she’s a gremlin child.

Squid Kid was just a big brain Gotham dude who thought it would be cool to challenge Techno’s title of ‘World’s Greatest Detective’. Techno took this personally, and the two took turns trying to outdo each other by solving the biggest cases the fastest. Squid, though, was a student, and so to fund this feud he accidentally became head of Gotham’s biggest drug empire, in charge of the city’s supply of a new chemical colloquially called ‘potatoes’. it’s non-addictive but does give you temporary super strength, which is inconvenient in a city that pumps out a new supervillain every week. the rivalry still continues, though, and - despite Squid turning from wannabe vigilante to criminal mastermind - the two have almost struck up a friendship, or at least an mutual admiration for each other

Schlatt runs the Suicide Squad, alongside Minx’s Oracle. they broke Quackity, Fundy, and Eret outta jail and got bombs in them, to force them to pull off the most dangerous missions. Quackity was there in the first place because of Schlatt, but is now having second thoughts. i kinda want him to be Harley Quinn, cause he has a similar vibe with the SBI boys that she has with the Bats. Eret was there because he betrayed some heroes a while ago for personal gain, and hasn’t had the chance to atone yet. Fundy was there because he used to be close with Wilbur, to the point that he was often mistaken as his sidekick. he got sick of Wilbur always needing to be the leader and turned to the villains’ side. the two haven’t spoken since

finally, the Dream Team are Earth’s Green Lanterns; super powerful and with a lot of galactic clout. they’re pretty new to the scene, though, and so initially clashed with SBI, cause they kept trying to get involved in Gotham’s business. powers are strictly prohibited in Gotham. eventually, this beef culminated in a duel between Dream and Techno: if Dream won they could actually uphold their oath and protect everyone on Earth, if Techno won then they had to stay the hell outta SBI’s city. Dream still hasn’t recovered from the fact that he was beat by a guy with no powers, but it was close enough for Techno to enjoy teaming up with the masked man every now and then since

i’ve been thinking about this all night, man. i knew all this obscure comics knowledge would be useful one day, to make...an au...about minecraft youtubers...maybe useful was a strong word, actually

[strangestcase]

I don’t think DC properly explores the social repercussions of having a big chunk of Batman’s Rogues Gallery be mentally ill. They just slapped all the scary illnesses onto them to make them scarier and put them in the shittiest hospital that has ever existed for even more scary villain points.

Now realistically... has anybody ever wondered why the hell do so many big name villains have stigmatized disorders? In a Doylean analysis, it’s because the original writers are ableist, that’s sure. In a Watsonian analysis, however, it wouldn’t be very far off to say it’s because Gotham’s mental health facilities are objectively horrible and downright abusive in every sense of the word.

Gotham is a city with a high poverty and criminality rate, huge inequalities, pollution, and corruption. The police force is useless and violent, a couple of rich men hoard most of the wealth, and not even Wayne’s generosity can fix the deep-seated problems in the city. There are a LOT of mentally ill people— if the rogues’ backstories are anything to go by, Gotham proved -at least in the past- to be ineffectual at stopping child abuse or giving mentally ill people any counseling, in part because, well, there is only one psychiatric hospital that we know of, and it is a penitentiary, and one with a long history of neglecting and straight-up mistreating its patients at that.

So, imagine you are a Gothamite. You have a highly stigmatized mental illness that stunts your employment opportunities— that is if you’re not actively hiding it to avoid backlash. The world around you is fucked up and miserable. Nobody can help you in the ways you need and you don’t have the energy to get better. Because of your upbringing and the current situations, let’s say your moral compass is definitely a little off. And what’s a little more corruption in Gotham City, anyway? It’s not like they can ever understand you.

Then, you have one bad day.

You attempt suicide and barely survive. You fall into a vat of chemicals and emerge with your entire skin burnt. Your boss sabotages your work. Your parents abandon you because you’re sickly and weak. You are permanently scarred in public. You lose your job after a social experiment that went out of control. Whatever. It happens. You weren’t exactly 100% a good person, or maybe you were just considering what good being compassionate did to you. Your mental health is absolutely at rock bottom, your vision of reality so warped by pain you can’t do anything but give in.

You take the choice to give them hell.

And guess what? The Batman shows up, you get caught, end up in Arkham, and your evil deeds are published in the newspaper riiiiiiiiiiight before your diagnosis, furthering the stigma, leaving even less resources for others. Maybe your actions have also traumatized and broken other people.

At this point, having hyperfixations and special interests gets you bad looks. What if it becomes your villainous gimmick once you snap? But you won’t do that, you say. Are you sure? What if you’re broke or desperate? I certainly would not become a domestic terrorist because of my trauma, you say. Oh, but everyone is convinced it will happen. It happened before, after all. People have biases and they eat it all up. Because this or that villain had this or that and... You hide your personality disorders even more. You scratch off your dissociative disorder from your tumblr bio. You stop going to therapy so that your mental illnesses never get laid down on paper, ever.

Because mentally ill people are evil, you see, and become supervillains.

And nobody, ever, asks themselves why the hell do people become villains, specifically what has done society to neurodivergent people to be more susceptible to that sort of radicalization.

Nor they want to fix the problem. When you go to Arkham, it’s just how you feared it would be— why you refused to check in in the first place. Bleak, stark-white, labyrinthine corridors. There are no treatments, only sedatives and restraints. Your cellmate had a delusional episode. They tied them up and left them there. Someone across the corridor screams every night. They never ask why. They just gag them. A man in glasses wants to see you. He ties you to a table and gives you shocks until you swear you will never talk about your special interest again. Because it was part of your gimmick. So you don’t.

And people point at the huge psychiatric hospital up on the hill, saying, look out, we lock all of the sickos up there.

DC wrote themselves into a corner, and accidentally made Gotham City be much scarier than they intended.

[poetrusicperry]

the poets and their fav marvel characters/movies !!!

ok honestly i have no idea if any of this makes sense lol but i hope it’s comprehendible. also i have not had the time or resources to watch any of the new mcu era, which is why i didn’t include any of it. and if you have any other ideas of which characters and movies the poets would like comment them bc i want to see what you guys think hehe !! <3 sending love and hugs to anyone who needs it (and anyone who doesn’t, too)

neil: neil adores comic books. he used to sneak them when he was younger, taking breaks from his summer school homework to read them (he has a stash in his room that his father still hasn’t found). there is no doubt in my mind that neil wouldn’t be head over heels for spiderman, are you kidding ?? most definitely tried to climb walls or hang upside down when he was little. desperately wishes he could come up with his own chemical equation for web fluid. he’d completely immerse himself in the fact that there are three different eras to depict and analyze, too, having a very heated debate with charlie and meeks about who the best spiderman is. also really wants to reenact the upside down kiss with todd

neil’s fav movies (he can’t pick a fav) would be: the og spiderman, the amazing spiderman, and spiderman: homecoming (likes spiderman: 3 purely for shits and gigs)

todd: i feel like todd really likes comics (would spend his summers collecting them and reading in his room while his parents took jeff to sports camps/summer camps). he’d love scarlet witch because todd really loves to see her character growth through the films (coming to understand her powers and utilizing them accordingly), and also just admires how badass she is (”she’s so powerful and she doesn’t even know it until she faces hardship. oh, i love her so much”). upon hearing this explanation, neil couldn’t contain a smile because todd doesn’t even realize that he’s the exact same way (’: todd also likes bucky because he’s “so cool” and his metal arm is “sick” hehe (and he really loves the bond that bucky and steve have)

todd’s fav movie would probably be captain america: tfa because he likes seeing young steve rogers of course, but also because todd admires his strength (sees himself in pre-serum steve and hopes that one day he will become his own version of post-serum steve (: ). also like avengers: aou bc that’s when he’s really first introduced to scarlet witch (watches the post-credit scene from captain america: tws just to see wanda and pietro)

charlie: charlie never really read comic books, but he loves the mcu !! first of all, charlie can’t decide anything ever, so why would picking his fav superhero be any different; peter quill, iron man, or black widow. he’d like peter quill because “he’s unapologetically himself and completely hilarious,” and would absolutely dress as starlord for halloween at least once (probably more than once). as for iron man, charlie just likes how cool tony stark is and how he invented a suit that could fly (”there are so many likable qualities about him !!” he’d say, to which cameron would reply, “like what, the fact that he’s a womanizer, a pompous ass, or that he’s seemingly too smart for his own good ?” and charlie would just smirk, “all of the above”). for black widow, it’d be pretty simple (“she’s so badass. i can’t tell if i want to do her or be her”). claims his honorary mentions would be korg, rocket, and groot

charlie’s fav movies are guardians of the galaxy vol. 1 and vol. 2 because they’re “fun.” likes thor: ragnarok because it also has fun vibes.

meeks: meeks LOVES comic books to begin with, and collects them avidly, but dr. strange and the entire idea surrounding his powers/strengths ?? the ability to bend time ?? if that doesn't sound right up meeks’ alley, idk what does. there are clearly a lot of things that meeks will geek out over unapologetically, but dr. strange is one of those things that he just will not shut up about, ever (”it’s just so AWESOME”). desperately wishes that sling rings were real. also gushes with todd about bucky’s metal arm, going off on a tangent about the science behind the “rigidity flexibility ratio.” can also go on for hours about the quantum realm (:

therefore, meeks’ favorite mcu film is dr. strange and he would be completely eager and buzzing for dr. strange in the multiverse of madness. also likes antman (:

pitts: also a comic book geek hehe. and i'm sensing that pitts really likes thor. thor is pretty much just a dorky, goofy tall dude (like pitts, just with... a lot bigger biceps LOL). finds a lot of the same things funny in the movies that thor laughs at. getting into thor gets him into norse mythology, where he’d spend hours searching for/reading books on it at the welton library (meeks would have to come find him because he’d been gone for that long). wishes he could grow facial hair that nicely, and even attempted to once, but charlie shut that down real quick HAHA (”i'm not going to stop making fun of how ridiculous you look until you shave”). becomes a huge einstein rosen bridge geek, learning all there is to learn about that (and norse everything).

pitts’ favorite movie is thor: ragnarok (”it’s the best out of the three”), and he really doesn’t enjoy thor: the dark world (almost has a vendetta against it, “why did they feel the need to dye his beard and his eyebrows ??”)

cameron: surprisingly knows a lot about comics and the mcu ? his fav character is captain america due to steve rogers’ unflinching morals and standards (cameron began to to veer a teeny tiny bit away from cap, though, when he began to rebel in captain america: civil war, but he still loves him). really likes the historical aspect behind captain america (wwii and the 1940s). he and pitts absolutely had a meltdown when steve lifted mjolnir and almost got kicked out of the movie theater for their reaction (”NO FUCKING WAY, NO FUCKING WAY !! I KNEW IT. PITTSIE, I KNEW IT !!” which is super uncharacteristic for cameron, but he doesn’t fuck around when it comes to cap). got in an actual argument with charlie after captain america: civil war arguing that tony was in the wrong (”steve was doing the right thing because he was following his moral code !! even if he was breaking rules, it still made sense,” and charlie would just laugh, “you say that, but i was just following my moral code when i made the phone call to god and you didn’t find that funny,” “you’re an idiot, charlie”). also really likes nebula bc he relates to her in the fact that she never felt like she belonged/fit in.

his father served in wwii, so captain america: tfa has a really special place in his heart (he’s seen it so many times he can cite the movie as it goes along)

knox: knox knows the least about superheroes/comics, but still likes to tag along to the movies when the poets go to a premiere. he really likes black widow (”she’s just really pretty, okay?”) and hulk (”he just smashes stuff, HAHA ! how awesome is that ??”). even though he’s not very knowledgable about the mcu or marvel itself, he loves to listen to meeks about everything. almost always asks questions throughout the entirety of the movie (”knox, shut up, we’ll explain after it’s over !!”). thanos really freaked him out tbh; the idea of something like the snap happening dialed his whole “carpe diem” thing to eleven lol. 

knox’s fav movie is the first avengers because the amount of conflict isn’t as bad as the other avengers movies (”i like seeing them work together, it makes me sad when they argue and disagree).

[crossovereddie]

So under the page break is gonna be a personal post with a triggery topic so please be safe but I have to like get this out and rambling about things on here makes me feel better

TW: miscarriage (kinda) talks of abortion

So I went to the doctor this morning bc I haven’t been feeling too good y’all already know so he wanted to just take all my vitals and run some blood tests just to check everything while I was there. Turns out I had higher than normal HCG levels (pregnancy hormones) but not high enough to get a positive test. Before J left I stopped breastfeeding and was still not on birth control. Turns out I had something called a chemical pregnancy (basically a very early miscarriage). He sad it all sympathetic and sad for me but I felt so fucking relieved! I don’t want anymore biological kids at least right now. I’m going through so mental shit and gender shit I probably wouldnt have gone through with it so I’m glad it was this chemical shit instead of having to go the other route. I feel like a bad person. I drove straight to J’s work and we just sat together in the parking lot for an hour. We’re both extremely relieved but of course our conservative Mexican upbringing has us also feeling so guilty for it. Idk it’s a lot. I just had to get it out there. Moral of the story the king yall stan has the weakest pull out game and the leader of the Ian choking Mickey cult is a horndog who needs horny jail.

[varibean]

Amalgam

this is a secret prompt exchange for the varigo discord server! i got the prompt Amalgam for the wonderful and talented @dr-chalk!!!! i hope yall enjoy (and here’s the fic on ao3 too *wink*)

Summary: After relying on Ulla’s notebook to help them through their journey, the gang find that the next kingdom has little to no notes on where the next trial takes place. Their only clue is a location that might have a lead on where to go next. However, after a royal mess up on Hugo’s part, they’re left up the creek without a paddle. Not only are tensions high, but emotions as well. One thing was certain though: Hugo and Varian did not mix well.

Varian and Hugo didn’t mix, that much was clear to see at first glance. Hugo was rough, so many edges and layers of grime applied through falsities and smarmy charm. Meanwhile Varian was more true, more honest with himself and with others, but that often led to him being volatile at the wrong times and too quick to action based on emotion. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best combination. 

_____

Hugo watched as Varian stormed into the campsite where the caravan and Prometheus were kept, the latter grazing at a few nearby apples and scraps that his owner had left behind. Needless to say, the young alchemist was furious. 

Behind him Yong trotted along with Nuru, both with dejected looks plastered over their faces. Even from a distance Hugo could hear Nuru trying to mumble comforting words to the small boy, a smile on her face despite the recent hardships. And lastly, heading up the rear, was Hugo himself. His face was blank, almost unreadable save for the smallest of frown lines forming beneath his softly twitching lips. 

No one was in a good mood and no one wanted to talk about it.

Yong went over to the fire pit and mumbled about getting the food ready for the night with Nuru which only resulted in a jerky nod from Varian before he headed into the makeshift lab tent. As each member went about their separate tasks, Hugo was left standing at the edge of the camp, arms crossed and the facade of normalcy fading. 

He knew he had to do something, had to make this all right. They had been so close to discovering the path to the next trial, but he’d been reckless and wanted to show off. Now they were down a crucial key to getting to the next trial and morale and it was all his fault. 

A sigh escaped him before he decided to move his feet. Yong and Nuru would probably be the easiest to apologize too; Nuru already didn’t like him before this but she was also smart enough to set bitter feelings aside and Yong was so happy-go-lucky that all it would take to earn back his favor was a brightly colored sparkler. They would be easy to win over. 

That’s exactly why Hugo walked past them and instead headed into the lab tent. The area was small and cramped with everything from books to test tubes to chemicals that had to be carefully repacked every time they wanted to move. Even though they’d set it up together, Hugo could feel the shift in the area after his most recent blunder. 

This was Varian’s space and he was intruding on the alchemist’s domain. 

The man in question was muttering to himself, flipping through books and slamming his fists down as he closed volumes that didn’t have the answers he wanted. Honestly he was quite terrifying like this. Hugo, despite his outward teasing, had a healthy mix of both fear and respect for Varian, seeing how the other was never one to back down. 

In the moment, the fear was predominant. 

As much as he would’ve loved to have stood there forever, watching the other work so nimbly even in the mists of anger instead of confronting him on the issue, he knew that he couldn’t do that. 

“Hey, uh, Varian. So about back there-” Hugo’s words were cut off before he could finish them. Suddenly Varian was striding over to him, face contorted in a particular anger that was more hurt and disappointment than malice. 

“Yes Hugo, let’s talk about ‘back there’. I would love nothing more to talk about ‘back there’ so lets do that shall we? What part of ‘back there’ do you want to talk about? Maybe the part where you fought me for ten minutes on which direction we should go in. Or maybe the part where you insisted on using your own chemicals to open a doorway and instead got everyone a nose full of stink bomb. Or maybe! Maybe it’s the part where you almost got all of us fucking killed by setting off a trap!” Varian was huffing by the last line, his breath leaving his body in shaking bursts that made Hugo’s own chest constrict. 

“Varian, listen-”

“No! I had my time to listen, now you’re going to listen to me. My mother’s journal can only lead us so far; whatever was in that cavern was going to take us to the next trial location inside the kingdom. Now we have no cavern, no lead, and almost lost our lives. Instead of finding the exact location we’re going to have to spend...I don’t even know! Days? Weeks! Searching this kingdom to find the trial chamber. All because you don’t trust anyone but yourself!” 

The words stung Hugo more than any reprimand Donella had ever given him; more than any punishment he’d ever gotten from the other goons in the gang. It was blistering, scalding. He’d never felt so bad about messing up because, until Varian, he’d never messed up. 

He never messed up because he’d never truly tried to help others. 

But with Varian that’s all he wanted to do. And he fucked that chance right up. 

“Can I please just-” Hugo started, but Varian was clearly determined to not let him say anything. 

“No, you can’t. You want to know what we got for all of this? For almost losing our lives?” Varian turned around and pulled out his satchel, removing a fist sized filthy crystal that was no prettier than a dirty rock. “We got this. And only because it fell on me!” 

Hugo stood there, trying not to let his shame show through. Yet again, he was downfalled by his hubris. It was just different, working together as a team. He’d never had to trust or rely on anyone else besides himself. Apparently, he wasn’t very good at trusting others. 

In front of him Varian slammed the crystal rock down in a compound that Hugo recognized as hydrofluoric acid. Hugo thought that the other would break the beaker or hurt himself with the force that he threw the crystal rock down and suddenly worry overtook his shame. 

“Hey, careful!” He reached out to check Varian’s hand, but the other batted him away. 

“That’s enough, Hugo.” Varian said. The sound of his voice, the disappointment and rage, sent a shiver down Hugo’s spine. But he wasn’t just going to stand there and take it. If the other wanted to ignore his attempts at an apology, that was fine by him. 

Without another word, Hugo turned on his heels and headed out the tent. 

“You know,” He started, turning his attention to Nuru and Yong, who were currently on the ground after trying to scamper back to their places, “You two do a piss poor job of eavesdropping.”  

_____

Five days went by without them speaking to each other. Five days of curt nods and stiffly eaten meals and as little contact as they could manage while still trying to figure out how to make it to the next trial. Hugo and Varian’s foul mood affected everyone; even Ruddiger was beginning to eat his apples with less enthusiasm. 

The group’s searches in the city for how to begin their trial proved to be utterly fruitless. Varian’s journal was no use, and they’d expended the only other key that they had. 

Overall, not the most fun few days. However, Yong and Nuru were becoming less concerned with the trial and more concerned for their two alchemists. 

“He’s not been sleeping a lot.” Yong said. 

“Varian never sleeps.” Came Nuru’s halfhearted reply, even though there was worry in the pit of her stomach as well. 

“But this is different. Usually he just stays up because he’s in his tent...or putting out a fire I started. Right now he’s just doing nothing.”

“Yeah.” Nuru sighed. She knew she couldn’t deny it. Things were getting bad and no one knew how to make them better again. “Hugo’s been pretty quite too. Which I thought was going to be a good thing but now believe it or not I’d give anything to hear him say one of his stupid jokes again. At least then that would mean things were normal.”

Both of them knew that it wouldn’t be that simple. At first they’d tried plots and schemes; fake notes left by the other, arranging meet ups between the two that never came to fruition. After several attempts over the last five days, both Yong and Nuru agreed that whatever needed to be fixed, Hugo and Varian would have to do it in their own time. 

They just wished the two worked faster.

_____

Hugo couldn’t sleep and that really sucked for him because all he wanted to do was sleep and pretend like his current life was nothing more than a bad dream. 

Varian’s words still echoed around his mind, stinging him when he thought too hard on it. He knew he’d been in the wrong but for once in his life he had been trying to apologize and this? This is what he got out of it? 

Not worth it.

That’s what he told himself, it wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t worth it, it just wasn’t worth it. Of course, that just wasn’t true. 

He hated to admit it but Varian’s forgiveness was worth it. It was worth its weight in gold because it would be from Varian. In the days that he’d spent avoiding Varian physically, he couldn’t escape the other alchemist in his thoughts. He was longing to make up with him, something he never cared about from anyone else. 

There was something about Varian that made him want to be better, to earn his favor. The idea that they could make up, that they could get along, that maybe one day they would do more than just get along…

Hugo smacked his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts before they could manifest. He did not like Varian. Not in that way. No, he couldn’t allow himself to like Varian any more than the regular amount. 

He was a spy after all. A double agent. It was basically traitors 101: Don’t fall for the guy you have to two-face. 

He always sucked at following rules. 

Knowing that he wasn’t about to get a lick of sleep any time soon, Hugo got up from his sleeping bag and exited his tent, hoping that maybe a walk would clear his mind from his unpleasant (or, perhaps, too pleasant) thoughts. 

As he got out he saw that he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep. The lab tent had a dim light shining through the flaps and through the still wind Hugo could barely make out the sound of someone muttering. 

‘Varian’s up too huh?’ He thought to himself. 

His goal was to stay away from Varian, but the light in the tent called to him like a moth to a flame. There could be no harm in just walking by it, right? 

He slinked over to the entrance, pepping inside to see that Varian’s back was turned away from the entrance, head in his hands as he sat in front of several test tubes and scattered papers. 

“What am I supposed to do, Ruddiger?” Varian softly asked the raccoon who was clearly asleep on the ground. 

“Just one big screw up after another,” He continued, “It’s all turned into a mess in just a couple of days. How can I possibly-”

This was a mistake. Hugo shouldn’t have been here, spying on Varian. And of course the other was still mad at him, for good reason. He’d screwed everything up after all, made things one big mess. 

Hugo sighed, wishing he’d just stayed in bed. But before he could leave he heard Varian continue.

“How am I ever going to tell him how sorry I am?”

Hugo paused at those words, taking a moment to linger outside of the tent before quietly slinking in to hear what else Varian had to say. 

“I was just...so upset. He could’ve died and it would’ve been my fault for arguing with him so much about the direction and the traps and everything else. And now he probably hates me right? I just wish I could tell him I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed everything on him. But he’d never accept that.”

“Well maybe if you asked him.” Hugo said, a smile suddenly playing on the edge of his lips. 

Varian jumped, nearly sending all of his chemicals flying and hastily tried to correct himself. 

“Hugo what-what are you doing here? You should be asleep an-and you know it’s rude to spy on people, I was having a personal moment here with Ruddiger and you can’t just walk in here and ruin our heart to heart-”

“I’m sorry.” Hugo’s words stopped Varian dead in his tracks as the other balked at him. 

“What did you say?”

“I’m not used to working with other people, so I didn’t want to listen to you. I wanted to do things my way and maybe even show off a little. But it just cost us a piece to the puzzle and...almost hurt you. I mean, almost hurt Nuru and Yong too but,” Hugo reached out and took Varian’s hand into his own, “I was worried about you the most.” 

He might’ve added the last line to sweeten Varian up just a little bit, but deep down he knew it was true. He’d been more worried about Varian than he’d been about his own hide, which was really saying something. 

He smirked seeing the other’s face turn red in the dim lantern light. God he was cute. And Funny. And charming in his own nerdy way.

“Well I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have-”

“Oh, shut up, I already heard your apology.” With Varian’s hand still in his own, he leaned forward, his face even closer to the other man’s. 

There was a beat of silence between them, stirring in both of their breaths as they studied the other’s face. They were so close, so tantalizingly close to the other. It would be so easy just to lean down a half inch more, taste Varian's delicious looking lips on his own. Up so close, Hugo could see the plumpness of the other’s bottom lip, the slight shine it had in the warm light from him licking his lips in worry. Just one more half inch. One more. 

Hugo stepped forward. Varian stepped back. 

And the sound of a beaker tipping over and smashing could be heard throughout the night. 

“Fuck!” Varian helped as he turned over and tried to find the broken glass in the soft light. “Shit, shit, I think that one was the hydrofluoric acid. I hadn’t changed it out since I put the crystal...in...it…” 

Hugo peered at him curiously as Varian’s voice died down, a look of puzzlement on his face as he leaned down to examine the pile. The blue eyed alchemist tightened his glove on his hand before gently reaching down into the rubble pile. 

The acid, over the course of a few days, had melted the crystal down. Revealing, in its place, a golden coin that had been left inside. 

Varian stood back up, coin in hand, and held it to the light. 

“That’s the emblem for the city we’re in right?” Hugo asked, looking at the coin curiously.

“Yeah. The emblem and the fountain in the square. Only...hand me a coin. One that we got from the market the other day.”

Hugo did what Varian asked with no hesitation, and the two examined the coins side by side. 

“The lady in the regular emblem on the coin is pointing down. But this one-”

“Is pointing left.” Hugo interrupted.

“Right. I mean, left. I mean-yes. You’re right that she’s pointing left. That’s where the Kingdom’s sewer main entrance is. To the left of the fountain. And the covers! They all have the emblems on them too.” Varian said. 

“I think I remember a few of them pointing in different directions but I thought that was just a pipe thing but what if-”

“They’re directions! It would take us forever to explore the entire sewer system but if they are all pointing in different directions, we start by the one at the fountain-”

“Follow them throughout the city-”

“Until we finish at the right one!”

The last line they both said together excitedly after finishing each other’s sentences.

Varian smacked his hand excitedly against Hugo’s chest several times with a wide grin. 

“And that’s the entrance to the next trial!!! This is amazing! The answer was right here in front of us all along!”

“So Varian, what you’re saying is, that I actually did the right thing and I can retract my apology now.”

“Don’t push it.” Varian tried to act stern but the grin on his face gave him away much too easily. “It’s almost morning, I’m going to go wake the others. And Hugo?”

Before Hugo knew it was coming he felt Varian’s lips press against his cheek for just a fleeting second. His eyes grew wide and he found himself at a loss for words to come back at him with. No that he really minded. 

“We, uh, have a few things to talk about after this.” 

_____

Varian and Hugo didn’t mix, at least not at first. Hugo was rough, so many edges and layers of grime applied through falsities and smarmy charm. But there was something good underneath. Something worth finding. Meanwhile Varian was more true, more honest with himself and with others, but that often led to him being volatile at the wrong times and too quick to action based on emotion. But sometimes a bit of emotion was needed to clear the air, sometimes being volatile could lead to being vulnerable. They were a curious amalgam of two things, both brought together to make something brilliant.

[occasionalrpmemes]

Will Wood: the Normal Album Sentence Starters

lines taken from the 2020 album.  edit as desired.  tw: violence, disordered eating, gender dysphoria, mental illness, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, death

01.  Suburbia Overture: Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally

“Trick or treat.  Merry Christmas.”

“Howdy neighbor!”

“Thank you Jesus!”

“It don’t look like survival, but buy now or die.”

“You’re not alone.”

“The lights are on, but no one’s home.”

“Takes a village to fake a whole culture.”

“Home is where the heart is- You ain’t homeless, but you’re heartless.”

“It’s the safest on the market.”

“You still gotta watch where you park it.”

“Give me your half-life crisis.”

“I can tell that you know where paradise is.”

“Parasites don’t care what your blood type is.”

“A snowflake only matters in a blizzard.”

“Everyone knows that nobody knows that.”

“Well, word gets around on hit number stations.”

“Smile and wave, boys, kiss the cook, live laugh and love, please pass the pills.”

“It’s only culture.  It’s only culture.  It’s only culture.”

“Didn’t they want your blood?”

“Why apologize when you turn blue and cold?

“Hey, fuck your culture.”

“Do you know the difference between blazing trails and slash-and-burn?”

“Hey, you’re only mortal.”

02.  2econd 2ight 2eer (well, that was fun, goodbye)

“The devil made me do it, but I also kinda wanted to.”

“Forget bored stiff, I got rigor mortis.”

“My third eye’s open and I like what I see.”

“If you knew what I knew, if you saw what I see- ”

“But I got facts and I’m not afraid to use ‘em.”

“I’m getting better one forever at a time.”

“If sick is defined by what’s different, well then pull the plug out and let me die.”

”Who I am, I choose through all the things I do.”

“If it rhymes, it’s true, but I hate poetry.”

“Well that was fun, goodbye.”

03.  Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People?  Hurt People!)

“Have you ever died in a nightmare?  Woke up surprised you hadn’t earned your fate?”

“Have you ever felt like Atlas, threw your back out on the axis, and collapsed and threw the planet away?”

“Nobody dies agnostic.”

“Nobody dies agnostic, but we still dial 9-1-1.”

“Am I really that bad?”

“Whatever you think of me, if you were in my shoes, you’d walk the same damn miles I do.”

“With my head up in the clouds, I can see so much ground.”

“From up here, you look like ants in a row.”

“It doesn’t take a killer to murder.  It only takes the reason to kill.”

“The difference twixt fate and free will is whether you’re singing.”

“You wash your hands of where you’ve been until you flood the second floor.  Neatly fold your skeletons, but still can’t shut the closet door.”

“The only ones in need of love are those who don’t receive enough.”

“You could break an angel’s fall, and ignore the Devil’s call.”

“It’s a small hell after all.”

“Man, no more than animal, is made of moral chemicals.”

“If you were in my shoes, you’d see I wear the same size as you.”

04.  I / Me / Myself

“I’ve been feeling lightheaded since I lost enough weight to fit back in my skin.”

“Am I pretty now?”

“For some reason, I find myself lost in what you think of me.”

“I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend.”

“Am I pretty enough to lie to?”

“Just little old me in a big, big world.”

“I’ve been feeling lighthearted since I gained enough weight back to cover my bones.”

“You’ll be walking out early, but the show must go on.”

“No, I know that I’m wrong.  But I love how you’re on my side when I cross that line.”

“It’s been a point of contention between myself and this body that they stuck me in.”

“The privilege of being born to be a man.”

”I am quantum physics; my witness brings me into existence.”

”Am I pretty enough to love back?”

“Am I pretty enough to fucking die?”

“I wish-”

“Don’t you think that there’s a chance that you could live without it?”

05.  ...well, better than the alternative

“My daughter’s growing up.  She’s gonna be a lot like me, but I don’t wanna be at all like me.”

“I don’t wanna be at all like me.”

“You’re telling me I’m holding up eleven fingers.”

“Stranger things than death can happen.”

“Everybody knows that nobody knows that.”

“Everybody’s in on everybody’s business.”

“This isn’t my first Christmas, I know mistletoe when I see it.”

“Baby, could you play along with me?”

“Baby, would that be alright with you?”

“When we find out what’s wrong with me, could you tell me how I’m right for you?”

“Could you tell me how I’m right for you?”

“Could you tell me if I’m still pretty?”

“If they could see the future back when times were simple...”

“If everyone’s sick, well then, nobody can catch it.”

“Everybody’s all up in my god damn business.”

“This isn’t my first kiss.”

“It’s better to be lost than loved, now, isn’t it?”

“Everybody’s all up in my motherfucking business!”

“This isn’t my first anything.”

“After all of that’s been done to me, could you tell me how, could you tell me how, could you tell me—”

“What’s so wrong about what’s wrong with me?”

“I’m just trying to do what’s right by you!”

06.  Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples

“Did you know that the hole in the apple didn’t come from the outside in?  It was eaten from the core and out to the skin, and that’s why you’ll never find the worm in it.”

“The disease is defined by its treatment.”

“You people make me sick.”

“Who’d want to be human anyway?”

“Why’d you come into this world or come out that way?”

“Isn’t it funny?  Well, not "ha-ha" funny, but y’know, funny.”

“I doubt that you would even if you could change.”

“You think it makes you special, but it makes you strange.”

“The things that make you special are the things that make you strange.”

“I am the shadows cast aside by gallows, and you the red-hot sky.”

“And if you’re believers, then why would you grieve for the dead, instead of a devil that you never prayed for?”

“Too weird to love, too scared to die.  Too alien to take you home.”

“Who’d want to belong to anyone?”

“I mean, what do people even do?”

“If you love me, let me let you go.”

“Five more minutes, please?  You wouldn’t believe the dream I just had.”

07.  Black Box Warrior - OKULTRA

“Bless the torpedoes!”

“For what?  For what??”

“For what it’s worth, if it was going to kill you, boy, it would have by now.”

“There’s no more looking back, it’s looking up or looking down.”

“Wonder if Christ-Consciousness would charge a cancellation fee.”

“Auf wiedersehn!  Au revoir!”

“Hello, welcome.  Why don’t you take a seat?  Get comfortable, relax, take a second if you need to.”

“Now, what’s bothering you?”

“Well, why don’t we start at the beginning?”

“Growing up, how was your relationship with the fundamentals of conscious existence?”

“Did you die before your day?”

“You got a better idea?  It’s about the best we could come up with.”

“What, you think ideas spread because they’re good?  No, they spread because people like them.”

“So here we are once again.  Holding, as it were, a mirror up to your mirror.”

“I guess it’s just something people do!”

“You learn to be an animal instead.”

“I never did think you better than this.”

“It’s you who are the problem.  Not the things you do, but something sick inside.”

“Boy, you really is defective.”

“Offer up your innocence, please ignore the side effects.”

“You’ve lost your mind and almost lost your life before, so you’ll be fine!”

“Why would you want to look back?  I mean, it’s no good looking back. So try to look forward now.”

“For what it’s worth, if they were gonna get you boy, they would have by now.”

08.  Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.

“They could prescribe you any illness you’d like if you define the terms of your ailments.”

“A crow don’t know the smell of carbon monoxide.”

“How many years have you been on that couch?”

“Your draw a line in the sand where it ends and you begin, but the tide rolls in, so who knows?”

“A little identity never hurt nobody, but lately you’ve been focusing too much on yourself.”

“How many milligrams of you are still left in there?”

“Back in my day, we didn’t need no feel-good pills and no psychiatrists.  We just drank ourselves to death.  And god damn it, we liked it!”

“What’s a symptom, what’s a flaw, can it be both?”

“Well, I suppose that’s an answer.”

“Would you give up your humanity for just a touch of sanity?”

“They’ve discovered a cure for the symptoms of being alive.  It’s a painless procedure with a low rate of failure, but very few patients survive.”

“And a little conformity never hurt nobody, but lately I’ve been worried that you’re losing yourself.”

“What’s my prognosis?”

“Disease is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Tell me ‘so it goes.’”

“Better safe than sorry, and we both know the danger.”

“So doctor, could you run another test?”

“If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices.”

“Don’t heed no evil wills of moral nihilists.”

“Don’t you make me waste my breath.”

“GOD DAMN IT!”

“Does aspirin kill you with the pain?“

“You’re not your thoughts, you’re not your brain, you’re just the character you’ve made.”

“What seem like separate body parts come together to believe they’re you, and not just chemistry.”

“It’s not the way that you were raised, or what the advertisements say.”

“It’s not what you pay for, what you pray for, what you want, or what you say.”

“Something tells me that you need, forgive me now if I misspeak--”

“Something tells me you prefer to be sitting there flipping through those old issues of People.”

“Well, that’s our time.  See you next week.”

09.  Love, Me Normally

“In lipstick on the mirror are the lyrics to my obituary.”

“Crossing my eyes, dot my T’s.”

“I was delivered holding scissors.”

“I live deliberately, I’m a quitter.”

“I never agreed to participate in this game.”

“Won’t follow my dreams, cause they all got me waking up screaming.”

“I’d rather be normal.  Yes, so normal.”

“I suggest that we keep this informal.”

“A normal human being wouldn’t need to pretend to be normal.”

“Well, I guess that’s the least that I owe ya.”

“C’mon, c’mon, and love me normally.”

“If I could live in third person, well, I don’t think life would be much worse than it is.”

“Is it courageous or escapist to leave the quarantine when you’re contagious?”

“It may just be a cold.  And besides, I don’t wanna get old.”

“I drank myself to death to be the afterlife of the party.”

“When the afterparty came, I was rolling in my grave.”

“Now, this is the part of the song where I talk to my audience.”

“There’s something I want from you hepcats tonight.”

“I want you to look to your left.  Look to your right.  Your twelve o’clock, three o’clock, six o’clock, nine o’clock, rock around the clock tonight–”

“I want you to find those points of no return, those singularities, those burning rings of fire in the beautiful pupils and the beautiful eyes of the beautiful boy, girl, neither, both, or in-between that you brought with you tonight.  And I want you to tell ’em how you really feel!”

“Jam that square peg in the round hole in their hearts!”

“You love them exactly the way that everybody else is.”

“I was nothing before, so I couldn’t have asked to be born.  I’ll be nothing again, so what am I between now and then?”

“Is there nothing to fear?  Cause shit’s getting weird.”

“So to God who made this man: you better have one hell of a plan.”

10.  Memento Mori: the most important thing

“If you’re lucky you’ll be surrounded by the ones that you love, when the lights in your eyes fade and life flashes by.

“One day you’re going to die.”

“Heaven, hell, nirvana, nothing, no one knows how it ends.”

“Rest in peace— or pieces.”

“Read your horoscopes, your palms and tarot cards.  But either way your destination ain’t very far.”

“You could drown, or choke, or burn, or be hit by a car.”

“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but something will eventually.”

“One day you’ll look back at the life that you lead.  No more future left to fear that you’ll have the past to regret.”

“But your worries will be over if you truly realize— one day you’re going to die!”

“Take it away, hands!”

“In the fabric of time and in the vastness of space, a billion amounts to nothing in infinity’s face.”

“Your life never mattered, so who cares if it's a waste?”

“Well, one day you’ll be not even a faint memory.”

“You’ll never know what it all means.”

“Just keep this in mind: that everything and everyone goes with the passage of time.”

“No need to fear, ’cause when it’s here, you won’t be alive.”

“Try not to think about it!”

“So if you only have one chance, you oughta try your best to live as you like.”

[aclosetfan]

For the Salty asks: 1, 3, 5 and 6?

Thanks so much for playing along! Ima be real with you 2 out of the 4 questions you asked really opened up a can of worms for me, and I’m so sorry. I put the less stressful ones first, and the other two are under the cut! Anyway, these were super fun to answer, but plz don’t hate me for it!! 😂😂

for anyone wondering, here’s the ask list: Salty Asks List 

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

lmao yeah. It’s petty, but honestly, people’s personal morals really bleed through into their fandom opinions, and I’m not willing to put up with any unnecessary hate, especially in environments that are supposed to be fun. I’ve even blocked a few people. In the ppg fandom specifically, I’ve blocked a person who, I guess, thought it was necessary to try to gate-keep with racist/sexist/etc. terminology and ideologies, and I truly don’t have time for that 🤷‍♀️ (a lot of people probs know who I’m vaguing, but if you don’t, you’re lucky)

I can’t say I’ve ever unfollowed anyone for any innocent/not-in-conflict-with-my-morals fandom opinions. Usually, if I don’t agree with something, I just keep scrolling because lol whatever. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.

but ngl I have unfollowed people who just get annoying 😬😬 lol

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

I went into this fandom without having too many preferences, so I didn’t have a pairing that I’ve previously hated!

I guess I could say that while I never really hated them, the color-mixing and color-clashing ships weren’t ever on my radar until I came across the fandom content. Now, I really like them! Particularly, Brick and Bubbles!

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Before anyone gets pissed off at me, before you get into my answer for this question, I’d like to really stress that you’ve got to go into it with absolutely zero fanon context. Like, erase all your headcanons from your mind. I’m dead serious. Because I literally DO NOT get why ANY rrbxppg ship would realistically work ever.

Okay, canonically, these six little funky science experiments were dead set on ending each other. The boys were absolutely horrible to the girls. And the girls literally KILL the boys. I know in fairytale romances, nothing stops love, but bruh, it’s hard to come back from murder 😂 And yeah, I know Clipsville showed the girls and the boys together as older teenagers, and they weren’t trying to kill each other, but that was an obvious gag. In the documentary, it was revealed that that particular “clip” was made because a bunch of people wanted the boys and girls to interact again, and CN gave into the demand. (also, lol I know it super embarrassing, but I did watch the documentary. I just really like Craig McCracken) I just don’t think that realistically a canon pairing between the two sets of triplets would ever be considered a healthy relationship. 

Also, ethically, I just—okay listen, I go back and forth with this allllll the time, but the ppgxrrb ships make me confront the “Would I sleep with my clone?” question way too often. Depending on my self-esteem, the answer changes each time. Like sometimes I’m like fuck yeah I would! Other times I’m like, ew, no, I’d have to consider my clone as a twin! I know counterparts aren’t technically clones, BUT the boys really do come across as identical to the girls in the show. The only difference really is their moral alignment (I’m nixing any gender argument). So, I’m like, omg, can I honestly pair these six together in any way??? Are they too close to each other genetically in some sense for this to be morally right??? Like if you ship Brick and Buttercup together, would that just essentially be shipping Brick and Butch/Blossom and Buttercup together in some messed up way??? Is Brick just Blossom, and Blossom just Brick?? Is it better just to ship color-matching instead of mixing???  

On top of all of that, wouldn’t the boys and girls be pseudo cousins since Mojo was the Professor’s lab monkey? Technically, in canon, Mojo ends up being both sets of triplets “creator,” so could the rrb and the ppg be considered siblings of some sort? Some of you are probably like, wow, calm down. Stop thinking about it. They’re science experiments. It’s not so deep. Which I get, but I can’t stop, so let me hit you with something ten times worse: should the girls (or the boys) actually be considered biological siblings? Does sugar, spice, and everything nice make you genetically related? Nothing put in the stirring pot was organic—just a bunch of chemicals. If you ship the boys and girls together this could be a good thing! BUT, but, could some sick fuck use this information to somehow justify shipping siblings (ppgxppg or rrbxrrb) together??? This is a literal nightmare to think about!!

All in all, I can’t think about these pairings too much without getting caught up in the logistics of their existence even if they’re fictional lmaoooo! If it wasn’t for the fandom, I wouldn’t ship them together at all. I just think it’s amazing that the ships took off like they did lol, because their literal (fictional) existence is just one giant mind fuck for me. Anyway, I ship them at the end of the day, but tbh I do it with a bit of a guilty conscience. Is it morally correct to ship clone-like counterparts? Or should counterparts be treated like twins? Does it even fucking matter at the end of the day, it’s just fiction? I don’t know the right answer. But I do know the pairings don’t make sense. 

Aside from the ppgxrrb, I don’t think there are many other BIG fandom wide pairings. Still, I just want to say that I don’t get why people ship Ace and Buttercup together. The pairing sounds off a few major alarms in my head for obvious reasons. There’s also a bunch of crack ships that involve crossovers with other cartoons. Generally, I don’t mind them, but it seems popular to ship Aku (from Samurai Jack) and Blossom together. And I’m real sorry to those devoted shippers, but again I do NOT get it. I see a lot of romantic fan art depicting romantic situations with Blossom still drawn as a child, and like I get Aku is an immortal demon, so “age is just a number,” but again, BIG ALARMS go off in my head.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

🙃 🙃 Kind of don’t want to answer this, but I will anyway because only a few people actually read my blog lolol, so lol, yep! And it’s the reds. Don’t shoot me lol. When I was in middle school, I got into this fandom, forgot about it, and then came back when I was hit by a round of nostalgia. I’m finishing up college now, and I can confidentially say that the fanon content for the reds hasn’t changed one bit. Or the demand for it.

I tended to find that a lot of red content follows many archetypes that I’m just not into. Their stories can get a real cringey, real fast. Blossom is always written like this “perfect, except she’s not (but she really is)” character. Like she’s the girl you WISH you could be, but she’s also going through a shit ton of stuff that no person IRL would be able to handle without having a mental breakdown. And sometimes, in some stories, Blossom does have a mental breakdown, but in a sexy way, so she’s still perfect. Generally, there’s still something problematic about Blossom that makes it easy for a reader to relate to her on some level, unlike the way people write Bubbles. And then there’s Brick, who’s broody, hyper-possessive or jealous, and hot figuratively and literally (gotta love the fire/ice trope). He’s the only boy—no! Wait!—the only person who could ever possibly outwit Blossom, and he is just so undeniably attracted to Blossom. They’re the smart power couple that should honestly just hook-up in Chapter One to save everybody time, but they don’t. Nah, they’ve got to survive at least two love triangles before they even consider admitting they’re attracted to each other.  

And don’t get me wrong, none of that’s bad, but there are a million fanfics that go through the same song and dance with these two. And it’s kind of easy to tell when someone’s hardcore projecting onto Blossom because the type of person they’re personally attracted to is the way they write Brick. And I’m not knocking anyone self-projecting onto characters, sometimes people got to do that to give themselves a fun mental break, but bro, I don’t want to read about it. For one, smart broody assholes aren’t my type. Maybe when I was in middle school, but not anymore. And two, it’s just not interesting to me, which is a real shame since the reds are a majority of the fanon content.

Maybe if I found more red stories where the plot isn’t character-driven but plot-driven, so I see the romance between these two characters in a context where it’s not the main focus of the story, it would solve my issue with the pairing. I haven’t found many fics like that, though.

I can’t really think of any reds fic where I’m like ey, this aint bad unless it has a “major character death” tag attached to it lmao (which are always plot driven stories). However, in all honesty, since I’ve stayed away from red content for a while now, I don’t know the current state of things. Maybe there’s been a load more development for these two, or people have broken away from the same plotlines, but I’m too busy to check. I do browse people’s fic rec lists from time to time, but it sort of feels like everyone just puts the same fics on their lists and moves on.

And before someone’s like, “well, you can say all this about the greens or the blues,” just know I’m fully aware. The greens make me cringe too because there’s a shit ton of possessive and abusive storylines filling their story tags. And what makes me super uncomfortable is how people make Buttercup hit Butch or call him derogatory names, oftentimes unprompted. I don’t know why people make Buttercup such an unlikeable and overly aggressive person. I also don’t get why they make Butch some perverted idiot, but to each their own, I guess? Still, I see these green-character patterns most often in red-focused stories, which is another reason why I avoid them. I’ve found a lot of green-focused content that strays from the abusive tropes I try to avoid. Considerably less than I’d like, but the greens are typically the b-plot pairing, so that’s to be expected. Personally, I’d really like to see more content with the greens finding some kind of inner peace, and recently, I’ve seen a few fics that have tried to tackle this concept.

And lol, if you’ve read some of my posts before, you already know that I think the blues are an underdeveloped fanon pairing. The fandom can’t ruin that pairing for me because it never does anything substantial with it.  

Anyway, at the end of the day, I’m just personally not into the way the reds are popularly written, but I get why people are and that’s good with me. 

[a-student-out-of-time]

Twisted Sister Arc Review Part 2

Mindwipe

Welcome back everyone! Last time we looked how Kanade killed everyone, got the shit beaten out of her by a lot of people, mainly Nikei and Hibiki though, stuff the Mod doesn’t want to talk about and now that timeline is DED. Now it’s time to deal with Kanade proper as we already wasted a life on her (actually she ate two lives now, as she was responsible for Hajime dying the first time, he lost a life) and we don’t need any more lives being lost.

With a reset and briefing of the QC of how Kanade got strok, it’s time for Hajime and Nikei to beeline to Hope’s Peak and this time they are not fucking around as Kanade racked up a decent body count last time, and that’s not an experience they want to repeat. But first thing’s first time for Hajime to keep his promise to Massacre!Nikei and make sure that Iroha doesn’t become the first victim to Kanade and start the chain reaction off. I think we Anons do kinda feel guilty for getting Iroha killed the first time around as she was supposed to be on a date with Makoto that day, and of course Makoto’s wonderful luck meant the Prison Break had to happen on that day, and rather than stay with Makoto, she rushed in to stop Kanade. Then again, we all assumed that Kanade was still the same pathetic serial killer that Hajime and Sonia dealt with in the Concert Arc and didn’t get more generous buffs then Samus did from Smash 64 to Melee, so hindsight 20/20, I guess? Anyway, they get Iroha to go back to her ahoge boyfriend and now at Hope’s Peak it’s time for Hajime’s grand master plan to bring…EVERYONE FROM CLASS 77-B! *Insert Smash Ultimate meme here* Oh and Juzo, he’s useful too, I guess. Kanade arrives to begin the plot of Carrie, but instead gets tear gas in her face, a swift pound down from Class 77-B, and Juzo, and then is quickly disabled by Mikan. Again, like with the whole Kanade Vs. Hibiki fight beforehand, I would love to see an animation of Class 77-B just beating the living snot out of Kanade and this is much better imo then when Sonia kicked the living shit out of Kanade. There our reasons for hating Kanade were basically all the shit she pulled in SDAR2, but here we just had a bad timeline where Kanade killed a bunch of people, and likeable people as well, and thus as they say…the fallen have been avenged.

Of course, getting Kanade’s arse handed to her was half the battle, as now the focus is on; what the heck is going on here? A quick check from the biology people revealed some very worrying facts. The first one is that Kanade’s syringe contained an addictive which not only can keep a person awake for days, but the chemical compound is unique, only came out for a few months in 2003 and all the people involved in it are in jail. Then there is the fact that she has dermal armour which looks like skin on her, which while flexible like skin, is strong enough to block bullets and blades. The experimental nature of it makes it highly expensive as well, meaning whoever is behind this, they are loaded and have resources. And then there is the confirmation that yes, she has a BCI. One that is full of combat data and information on Class 77-B. This is the most worrying part in my opinion. Anyone in the Despairs with enough money and resources could do all the above but VERY few people knew that Hibiki came over to Hope’s Peak and bonded with Class 77-B. The data required for that narrows suspect list down a lot and the implications are…worrying. Whoever backed Kanade, they are not to be underestimated.

And then comes when Yasuke is relevant to the plot for once and the whole Mindwipe proposal. So first let’s talk Yasuke. A lot of people hated the idea he was on the side of good here, as they prefereed it when he was just Junko’s boyfriend. Thing is though, I feel like Yasuke could work here. Remember he never bought Junko’s despair ideology and while he is an arsehole, he could be the ‘Byakuya’ of the group in which he is a cold jerk who says harsh things, but said harsh things are required as there are uncomfortable truths out there which the rest of the QC are either too afraid or too polite to say. I just hope Mod doesn’t bow down to peer pressure and make Yasuke a bone fila villain just because people hate him, but maybe tone down his jackarsey a bit. I know its canonically accurate but not everyone has read Zero and as such I don’t think people are used to that kind of harsh words coming from a non-antagonistic character.

And then there is the Mindwipe…naturally this a decision which has caused many readers to be split on it, and even for the QC to have a scrum debate over it. Don’t lie, you all heard the music. And unlike with a scrum debate where one side is clearly one, here both sides have a point. Mindwiping Kanade is ethically wrong on so many levels, and easily the darkest thing the QC have done, but they also don’t have a lot of options because there is a Prison Break to deal with, and Kanade was gonna be killed anyway so this is keeping her body alive but just killing her mind. They may be the good guys here, but given how morally deprived their opponents are, sometimes you do have to swoop to their level because you have little choice in the matter. It’s also interesting to see everyone’s viewpoints on it, some stating that from leadership like characters such as Sonia and Nikei arguing that at times you do have to make difficult choices and they don’t have the luxury of being morally right all the time, pragmatic characters like Sora stating that a mindwiped and redeemed Kanade could be beneficial to them if they do go down this route, to those who have spiritual issues like with Gundham, moral problems like with Chiaki and ethical problems like with Kyoji. Nobody is split in the middle, you either think mindwiping is the best possible solution, or if it’s so wrong it cannot be done. Arguing got so bad that Yoruko had to step in and get Hibiki, the most important person as far this matter goes, to decide. And Hibiki vents her feelings on the matter, and decides that since both sides have good points, to just vote on the matter.

This is one of the best parts here because it isn’t done by the characters but rather the audience. After all, given this is such a morally questionable decision it makes sense for the audience to decide what path they are going down. And thus, votes are casted…a lot more people read this then I suspected, and a significant majority go towards mindwiping. I dunno how they explain the votes though as there clearly isn’t that many people voting so how does one in-universe count the Anons’ votes? But again, I’m not surprised the mindwipe came through as Kanade is a popular character in the fandom (She ranked #2 in the official SDAR2 popularity poll, just behind Sora) so any chances of Kanade getting a redemption arc especially as we would have a Ryoko-espe character with her, would be something the fanbase would gobble up. I just hope none of the QC resent this decision, they may regret it but they have to remember it’s a hard choice for all of them and they didn’t have a lot of options. Even those against the Mindwipe would have to do their part, after all they are a team. At least Yasuke is considerate enough for all blame regarding the consequences of the mindwipe to be directed at him as he kinda forced the decision onto us. Hopefully Kyoji and Kokoro made sure he didn’t turn Kanade into a Despair Sleeper Agent or something. However, I did genuinely enjoy the audience participation here and I hope more chances like this come up in the future as it gives the audience a greater degree of control on how the story pans out.

That’s Kanade dealt with, but The QC cannot rest yet, because her escaping wasn’t the only bad thing to occur, there’s a Prison Break and tons of criminals running around that need wrangling! And with that the second part of the review concludes. Next time for the final time we talk about dealing with them damn prisoners and my final overall thoughts on the Arc! See ya then- Review Anon

[themoonstarwarrior]

PLAYLIST SHUFFLE TAG!

Okay, so @viterbofangirl tagged me in this and I need to start learning to post my own shit, so what the hell, why not?

Rules: you can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to! put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first 10 15 songs, then tag 10 people. no skipping!

(I couldn’t stop at 10 so I added 5 more, sue me)

I have very random music taste and I listen to my music on shuffle alot, so I made a playlist of the ones I like the most (that way I don’t hafta skip 150 songs to get to the one I feel like) so I’m gonna use that one.

1) History of Violence - Theory of a Deadman

Hoo boy starting off light huh?.... Yeah so, I was in the drive thru at Sonic when I first heard this on the radio and was immediately like “holy shit”. Instead of like metaphors and poetic subtlety, it’s just straight up like “here’s a poor abused woman who resorted to murdering her shitty boyfriend/husband cuz she couldn’t take it dum dum dum”. Even though the actual situation is not the same, this song is perfect for getting across the internal issues and turmoil of my character Mikey. Its so perfect I’m even planning to animate something for it...... if I ever get around to learning animation that is.....     

2) The Vengeful One - Disturbed

Two songs in and I look kinda emo.... But hey this song is soooooo cathartic! I love me a good heavy rock song, and the drums and electric guitar are perfect for my ears to absorb. This song gives off a feeling of overwhelming power mixed with a coldness and disdain for the bad in the world. Obviously, thats not my usual temperment, but its an interesting one to explore! Especially when I’m trying to get into the head of characters that exude that like my OCs Spark or Ryu. Plus its fun to sing in the car X)

3) Enter Sandman - Metallica

Okay this one is just a classic! Same thing with the drums and guitar they both slap SOOOOO GOOD. I don’t really associate this song with any of my characters or fandom favorites, but it DOES give me a super strong urge to learn the drums. EXXXXXXXXIT LIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! OFF TO NEVER NEVERLAND!!

4) We Are Giants - Lindsey Stirling ft. Dia Frampton

I don’t really to listen to music by band or artist, but I LOVE Lindsey Stirling!!! She’s probably my favorite musician! This is such a good song, especially for someone like me. Its a positive song that talks about feeling alone in a crowd and unimportant to the world, but how you really do matter and shouldn’t be afraid to dream big and shoot for the stars. It really speaks to me and the vocalization is so good (especially for singing), not to mention the official music video is animated and AMAZING!

5) Cetus - Lensko NCS

I dunno if anyone knows this song, but damn its good. Its one of those Royalty-Free songs that people look up for their channels, which is how I found it in the first place, but I loved it immediately. Its a peppy 8-bit electronic bop that turns a little Irish jig at the end and honestly I think if I ever start an animation channel I’m totally gonna use it! (Also go support Lensko he make good beats!)

6) Sanctuary - Utada Hikaru

I did not grow up with Kingdom Hearts, and only played KH2 within the past year n’ a half. But good God, the moment that Cinematic Opening came on and this song started playing I swear I astral projected into a daze of feelings without names. I know that “Simple and Clean” is the quintessential Kingdom Heart song that gives everyone feelings, but IMHO Sanctuary blows it out of the water. As beautiful as the animation was, or how curious the occasional backwards lyrics are, or how weird it is having high-res Goofy and Donald in what is essentially an anime opening, I really can’t be distracted from this song when I play.

7) Chemical Plant Zone (Rock Remix) - Zerobadniks

Chemical Plant Song is like, one of the TOP Sonic songs by popular vote (and we know how awesome the Sonic series is musically so thats saying something!), but I could never quite vibe with the normal 8-bit version. I think I first heard this as someone’s ringtone and was immediately like “THATS PERFECT THATS EXACTLY HOW I NEED IT!”. The rock makes the song soooo much better and honestly gives the song the perfect vibe. Unfortunately, it took FOREVER to find cuz none of the Rock Covers of this song were the right one. In fact, tbh, I’m not even sure whether Zerobadniks is the correct artist..... that’s just who everybody was crediting when I found it. 

(imma include the link i found since its a little hard to find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqJiZEM6aPI )

8) The Wolf - SIAMES

YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS???? THIS IS A GOD-TIER ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO. I found the video first, and seriously, if you haven’t seen it YOU NEED TO!!! The beat works perfectly with the images on screen and the story being portrayed is really intriguing, with the lyrics adding to atmosphere without necessarily describing the visuals shown. Even without the animation, the song itself is a banger. It bring to mind the feeling of intense motion forward, but unable to decide whether its movement TOWARD something or AWAY from something. I love listening to this on a nighttime drive.

9) Burn the House Down - AJR

If you ask me, the best way to make a pop song better is to add either violins or trumpets. For this song, it was definitely the trumpets that first caught my attention, and the rest of the song kept me listening. I don’t really know how to describe the vibe of this song, and I don’t have a specific character or story in mind when I listen to it, so its a little hard for me to talk about it. I think the best way I can describe this song and what draws me to it is a feeling of nonchalant go-with-the-flow attitude to shenaniganry. Almost an undertone of “We’re hooligans in a situation that we probably should get out of, but hey we’ve got life and each other so why worry?” At least that’s the closest I can get to a verbal description heh...

10) Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell - The Offspring 

DANCE, FUCKER, DANCE, LET THE MOTHERFUCKER BURN!!!

So this also has a KICKASS animated music video, but its technically combined with the song “Dividing by Zero”. Now the video works SO well with both, and the shifting artstyles reflect the differing tones of the songs PERFECTLY. However, I have a preference for both the animation and the song on the Slim Pickens half. Its fun to listen to and sing at the top of your lungs and its SO CATHARTIC. Again I cant really describe what my head does when I hear it, but I think you can probably feel a similar vibe if you watch the music video. 

11) No Heaven - DJ Champion

The first time I finished the original Borderlands, I had been playing for days on end, had just finished a long battle with the Destroyer, and sitting back relieved to have beaten it and reflecting on how much I had enjoyed the adventure. Then this song started playing. For what I believe was forty minutes this song looped on my TV while the credits rolled. By the time the credits finished I was pulling up the song to listen to again! What an absolutely PERFECT cherry to add to this experience. This song perfectly encapsulated the chaotic, trigger-happy, morally ambiguous craziness that I had enjoyed and absorbed in this game. Every time I hear it now, I imagine myself in the wastelands of Pandora, driving haphazardly across the sandy dunes as my companions and I shoot and blow up everything in sight. You know, living the dream.......     

12) Hit & Run (Wolfgang Lohr Remix) -  The Electric Swing Circus

I fucking LOVE electro-swing! The electronic beats and rhythm blend so well with the wild and energetic freedom of swing. A lot of electro-swing gives me a vibe of wild movement, reckless abandon, and freedom from constraint. I think this song melds all of these feelings the best! As the last song might have indicated, despite my general nice and sweet temperament, there is a part of me deep down that is an absolute gremlin secretly enamored with chaos, insanity, and a general disdain for law and authority X). But whereas anything Borderlands related has a more “morality is an illusion blowing shit up is real” air about it, this song is far more peppy. More of a “good-hearted but insane” type of chaos, like an 100mph car chase where you end up sailing over the train tracks JUST as the train passes.

.... I may have gotten a bit off track lol 

13) Kickstart my Heart - Motley Crue

I love this song, but I have to be VERY careful when and where I listen to this. I love songs that make me feel like I’m going a million miles per hour, like I’m gotdam Sonic the Hedgehog. Unfortunately, I may or may not have had multiple instances of listening to this song in the car and abruptly realizing that I’m going like 15mph above the speed limit...... So yeah, regardless of absolutely perfect it feels to play this song while speeding down a nearly empty highway, please be careful and drive responsibly!!!

14) I’m Born to Run - American Authors

Imma just up and say it. This song is a Sonic song; like not like actually from the series but a song for the character. This song encapsulates Sonic as a character better than some of his ACTUAL THEMES (and remember Sonic music are bangers!). Its a song about freedom, living life as it comes, and not letting anything slow you down. Frankly I’m surprised they didn’t make this song FOR the Sonic series, or even the movie! Speaking of which, ironically I heard this song right after watching the Sonic movie in theaters, so yeah there’s no way I can associate it with anything else. 

15) Opa Opa - Antique

Oh, what a PERFECT way to end this list! This may be one of my absolute favorite songs of all time! I don’t remember exactly how I found this song... I think I had just relistened to Dalar Mehndi’s “Tunak Tunak Tun” and was looking for other catchy non-english songs and BOY HOWDY I found one! I know nothing about the band or what the song’s about (its in greek and i dont speak it), but this song is just a masterpiece of retro, pop, and dance sounds. This song feels like the musical and lyrical manifestation of dance and movement. I really REALLY wish I could dance JUST so I can express how happy and free this song makes me feel! This is the BEST song for me to end this list with!

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JESUS, this got long..... Sorry about that XD. It was fun though, and hopefully somebody was vaguely interested in my ramblings.

Guess I need to tag people now? How about @tharkflark1, @rockmilkshake, @neonbuck, @drawingsdrawingseverywhere, @birthgiverofbirds, @puccafangirl, @kalcat, @biblestudybussybopsbabey, @monstrous-milktea, and @memecage! I think there are a couple of people here I haven’t talked to though soooooo..... hi, I hope you don’t mind the tag X)

 Anyway hope you enjoyed and/or want to do this too! This took for-fucking-EVER to type, so imma go fuck off and watch youtube or something now...