#adds a whole other dimension to her line

[len-the-neverending]

Final W359 thought for the night: when Minkowski walked in on Eiffel and Hilbert naked in "The Paranoia Game", her first thought was definitely "oh no, they're hate-fucking."

[ellstronaut]

Going back to this debate

I know Ellle is a multifaceted individual that much is obvious she’s not one dimensional she has many elements to her personality. Additionally, it’s important to remember that even on the spectrum of masculine and feminine, Ellie isn’t completely one or the other. She exists in some sort of grey area between them, embodying both masculine and feminine traits. She’s not defined by one end of the spectrum, but rather by the interplay of these two extremes.

Yet at times the characterisation of Ellie is laced with internalised misogyny. And highlights the way “masc presenting” lesbians are treated in real life tied down to the “man” in the relationship why is Ellie mostly written as the dominant one especially when coupled with fem reader why do we head canon her as a top when it’s literally canon that she’s a switch? Why is there an infinite amount of “ellie taking care of the reader on her period” scenarios outnumber “Reader taking care of Ellie on her period” Ellie written as tall towering over fem reader and not like she’s literally 5’5

The fact is that there’s a heteronormative slant to the way people write her. Like I said almost never written as a switch, but a top. To some extent been portrayed as tall and dominating, never small or vulnerable. And Santa Barbara Ellie is often sexualized even though she is deeply traumatized and emotionally tormented. The problem is that people are viewing her through male-centric lenses, reducing her to an object of desire rather than a fully fleshed out woman with a complex, nuanced personality which includes many dimensions, some of which may be considered feminine.

There is no specific way to be a “masc lesbian” a woman nor feminine and express your femininity. Nor should that separate her from her womanhood/femininity. in a way it’s her way of showing how feminine she is. maybe not stereotypically through outward appearances, but her general identity. she’s a woman who experiences the same struggles that women do, Obviously she doesn’t waver just on the lines of black and white, she’s all rounded. In between. Grey area. The point I’m trying to make is that she’s all and above, you can be both masc and fem. I would add that Ellie's femininity is often overlooked or even belittled by people who only focus on traits that appeal to them. Not her emotional intelligence, her caring nature, her resilience, her dedication to her loved ones. Fuck she’s also a soft heart and a tender soul. These aspects of her are just as important to her character, she is a whole person ffs, exceptionally fleshed out

So fuck

“the hot wife and her hot boyfriend”

Why not

“The hot wife and her hot wife”

“She’s so boyfriend

Uh

“She’s so girlfriend”

Santa Barbara/Seattle is literally at her most vulnerable, disheveled state that girl is literally plagued with trauma, stuck in a limbo of “do I seek vengeance in the name of losing my family and absolutely everything or stay and suffer in silence (at who’s expense?? Hers) Yet we sexualise tf out of her, the most vulnerable pinnacle of existence—glorified and romanticised bc it’s “hot”

this is not a dig at anyone you’re free to write whatever tf you want bro it’s your platform but pls let’s not bs and pretend as of this doesn’t occur

[bestworstcase]

any thoughts on the branwens (as in, the group, not the twins) like world building tidbits? also, because i’ve seen people bring it up, raven has killed a lot of people (assumably??), so how do you think the show will handle that going forward?

i kind of metronome back and forth with the branwens on how i read them, because – with the disclaimer that it is Not That Deep because the whole bandit tribe exists to service raven's character and to a lesser extent qrow's, i just brought a shovel – i think there's two interesting ways to take them:

the branwens are an ethnic group, probably historically pastoralist nomads. in this case the composition of the camp we see – 100% able-bodied fighters, no children or elderly – would indicate that this is just a war party and the rest of this society is out in the hinterlands with the livestock. mistrali expansion in the pre-war era would have driven them further and further onto marginal land, with the result of them becoming increasingly reliant on raiding to survive.

the branwens represent a grab-bag of disaffected people who Left Mistral because of its various problems (steep class stratification, widespread poverty, rampant organized crime, political corruption, imperial history meaning many people living in mistral now are descended from conquered peoples…) and discovered that like, subsistence farming is hard and turned to banditry instead, in which case the branwens are unlikely to be very cohesive in the absence of a strong leader because there's less of a cultural bond.

#2 strikes me as more in line with the probable intention based on how they're portrayed, but assuming "branwen" is the tribe name (as opposed to them being "the branwen tribe" now because a woman named raven branwen leads them), then i think #1 is more interesting with regard to ozpin admitting qrow and raven to beacon.

if the branwens are an ethnic minority in mistral, ozpin is a lot more likely to have heard of them vs an ad hoc group of bandits. now consider how "the branwens are an ethnic minority (and the encampment we see is a war party, supplementing a pastoral subsistence base by raiding)" alters the context of "aside from grimm, huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. our tribe needed a counterforce." and think about the mistrali huntsmen openly extorting passengers for protection money.

right. like, again it's Not That Deep, we're in headcanon territory here, but pulling away from the text in this way adds an interesting dimension to the twins' enrollment – on the one hand it would be discriminatory for ozpin to reject them on the basis of being branwens and on the other, we know that mistral broadly has a serious problem with corrupt and outright criminal huntsmen and the fear of huntsmen "hunting us down" means something very different if the bandits are just the military force of a nomadic society – it's a fear not for the warriors but for the most vulnerable members.

and then you have the twins on this divergent path because their purpose (to protect those of their people who cannot defend themselves) is exactly ozpin's purpose, he just defines the whole world as his people. it's not so much that the twins reject the branwen way of thinking as it is that ozpin challenges them to expand upon it, to think bigger and wider than before.

qrow embraces this and it shifts his perspective on the raiding – he comes to see it as part of the problem, the warriors as killers and thieves; raven likewise embraces it but in her mind, ozpin's ideals are the justification for the raiding. the warriors exist to defend the people, here as at home. what difference does it make if the danger is from grimm or huntsmen or deprivation?

(on its face this may seem contradicted by "the strong live, the weak die," except that raven is also someone preoccupied with "our people," "our family," "we must do what's right for the tribe" and so forth; a strong society is one that can protect its people, even the weak, and the rhetorical idea of heroic guardians sheltering the defenseless populace boils down to "the strong live, and the weak will die without protection by the strong.")

#2 interests me more in terms of how it contributes to the picture the narrative has painted of mistral as this decaying empire that is sort of hemorrhaging population because people. don't want to live there, don't want to have its way of life imposed on them, and we see over and over that the people who feel this way often feel so strongly that they'd genuinely rather leave and take their chances with the grimm.

like, we don't see that in vale – mountain glenn was built under vale's auspices and populated by valean citizens – and we don't see it in atlas – the free towns in arrowfell are clearly older than atlas/mantle. and we don't see it in vacuo, where despite marked cultural differences between desert vacuans and city vacuans both groups firmly consider themselves One People.

i think it's less interesting in regard to the twins than the first option, though. because if the branwens are legitimately just bandits then the absence of children/elderly in the camp would imply that the twins were kept solely to be trained into weapons and the break between them is more straightforward, with their different perspectives reflecting a childhood dynamic where qrow was the whipping boy and raven favored.

whereas if the branwens constitute a whole, functional society – a) any children born into this group must learn some basic self defense as a matter of course, they live in grimm territory, and b) the nature of qrow's semblance, the tribe's fear of him, and his grimm reaper fanboying opens the question of whether it was less "the twins were kept to be molded into living weapons" and more "qrow didn't want to become a warrior, but misfortune kept getting blamed for things like sheep dying or a birth going wrong or grimm hitting the main camp and he wanted so badly to be good for something, and going on raids kept him at a safe distance from home and in a place where he could at least try to inflict misfortune on the enemy instead."

you still have the dynamic of qrow suffering ostracism and maybe even the threat of exile while raven is a natural fit for what she wants to be, and the first stroke of the lifelong pattern qrow has of isolating himself from people he cares for in this specific way. "why couldn't you travel with us?" / "did you know that crows are a sign of bad luck?" – hits different if the defining experience of qrow's childhood was running with war parties because he was too dangerous to be a shepherd. if the thing that really appealed to him most about the legend of the grimm reaper was that she was good enough to protect and defend her people alone.

and then from raven's side you have the maybe not entirely getting why qrow would want to be anything else, and the being glad her brother is with her most of the time, and the being afraid he might leave her behind. i just think it allows for more complexity.

as for raven killing people: i honestly don't think it's going to matter that much beyond maybe raven and yang having a conversation about it – bc i think yang will probably want to know more about why raven picked banditry over being her mom. like.

it happened. raven feeling remorseful isn't going to make it not have happened. she can't bring those people back to life or rebuild those towns or undo what she did. in vacuo, on the other side of the world, there's not really anything she can do meaningfully within the scope of the story to make amends to the people she hurt, either. what matters in the moment is that she's here now, doing what she can to help. the narrative has always cared more about the present and the future than the past, and the stakes are too high for the characters to let "but you did all this awful stuff in the past" become a distraction.

gestures at letting neo go.

gestures at giving emerald a second chance.

and while the context is different and in no way morally equivalent, i'll point out that like. team rwby have killed people too – the white fang militants in v2 for example, and of course adam – they are trained combatants fighting a war. none of them have ever blinked at using lethal force when it is appropriate to do so. and if they can find it in themselves to show grace to emerald, whose reason for participating in the terroristic sack of beacon was more or less just devotion to cinder, then i don't think subsistence raiding is somehow a bridge too far.

not to say that what the branwens do isn't bad but it is of a different scale from terrorism, and raiding for provisions you need to survive is a lot closer to killing enemy combatants in a battle, or to robyn's or sienna's vigilantism, than it is to terrorism. so yeah i think it's ancillary to the personal reconciliation between raven and yang moreso than it is some sort of moral quandary necessitating special handling by the narrative.

[xx-disco-inferno-xx]

thats right yall its time for another shadow-centric sonic au

its also a long one so ill put the lore underneath the cut (my writing isnt the greatest right now bcuz im tired and ive been writing for almost 12 hours straight lmao i can no longer create proper sentences)

debating calling it Sonic 4D Blast because hey reference

Everything is pretty much the same (wow how original, right) but on the ARK, when Black Doom gave Gerald his DNA, Gerald accidentally created a 4th dimensional entity. No one knows how or what to do about it. Gerald just did his stuff with Black Doom's DNA, turned around, and there was Shadow (named by Maria for his lack of a shadow). Shadow was able to successfully cure Maria, and when Gerald's reports indicated so, GUN became suspicious of the almost miraculous turnaround and started investigating.

Once they found out about Project Shadow and what Gerald had somehow done, they regarded Shadow as a top priority threat and began developing experimental technology to counter Gerald's "weapon" in secret.

It took a few years of observation to make sure Maria really was cured, and during that time, she and Shadow became extremely close. Most of the scientists on the ARK either feared him or were cautious around him, though, not quite sure if he could be fully trusted due to all the uncertainty around how he worked.

Eventually, GUN decided to launch a raid on the ARK. Everyone onboard was given sufficient warning that the shuttle was approaching thanks to Shadow, but no one knew why. Once onboard, they immediately began interrogating the scientists and searching for Project Shadow. A soldier shot at Maria in an attempt to get them to cooperate, but Shadow revealed himself and stopped the bullet from hitting her. (im tired pretend theres a conflict escalation here) One thing led to another, and Shadow ended up getting a gold ring forced into his wrist - the experimental technology GUN had been developing the whole time.

It was a set of four golden rings meant to confine Shadow to the 3rd dimension, and while one didn't do it immediately, it slowed him down enough for the soldiers to get the others on him, trapping him in a 3d form and shooting Maria anyway to punish him for acting out.

yap yap yap the rest of the scientists are massacred and Gerald is arrested as per canon event. Shadow is also taken into GUN custody and tortured in a variety of ways, under the guise of scientific research (green line down torso on ref is a scar from vivisection), all while being in indescribable pain from being confined to the 3rd dimension. For 50 years, this is an on and off thing, and he is kept top secret, only known about by some of the highest clearance agents.

Eggman, looking through GUN's databases for anything that could be of use to him, finds one of Gerald's old reports that slipped through the cracks, and begins the search for Project Shadow. The events of SA2 happen, and after Heroes, Shadow is able to break free from the confinement of the Inhibitors, finally freeing himself from the 3rd dimension.

i think theres more id usually add at this point but my brain has literally clocked out so ill just add more like tomorrow or whenever. but basically now shadow just kinda chills like that one homie you see every once in a while

[sloppy-rants]

Rottmnt Rant #2

(Leonardo centered)

One thing I adore about rise is that if you pay attention there are no character traits that ever come out of the blue. They have always been present within the show, they just don’t have any spotlights on them.

One example of this is Leo’s martyr complex, as well as his habit of making jokes out of serious situations. These traits are very present in the movie, and are even main plot points that push the narrative forward. These traits have always been present in the show, however one episode that I think contains multiple examples of these is the episode “Flushed but Never Forgotten.”

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE EPISODE AND THE MOVIE⚠️

In the episode Flushed but Never Forgotten, the boys accidentally flush their dad’s pet fish, Piebald. They decide to cover it up, lying to their dad and replacing piebald with a ‘perfect’ replica (a rock with googly eyes glued on). After about a year, Mikey starts to feel guilt over the loss of piebald, and tells the rest of his brothers about writing on the walls and voices he’s heard that he thinks are coming from her.

We find out that Piebald has returned, and is now a mutant capable of talking and possessing abilities such as turning invisible/camouflaging with her surroundings. Upon initial discovery, the boys are terrified. All of them except Leo.

Leo responds to seeing piebald with “Okay so she’s a mutant.” While the others are obviously scared shitless. This only lasts for a moment, but it demonstrates his true nature, as in this moment he hasn’t had enough time to lie and come up with some sort of fake or funny reaction. He uses one of his coping mechanisms, humor, to deal with the situation. Now of course, after this he goes right back to being scared with all of his brothers, as one would do, but I find it interesting that his initial reaction was to tone down the situation and after that he showed fear, rather than the other way round. Moments like this are sprinkled through the whole show, but I decided to focus on this one simply because of how small and fast it is. It would have been so easy to have Leo just scream along with all the others, but the writers decided to add this bit in. You might think of this as just a joke the writers added in for shits and giggles, but he does this multiple times in the series. A rather popular example of this being his line “Soo.. you guys from Jersey?” in the very first episode.

Now his Martyr complex, I know is a very popular topic for Leo. It provides juicy angst, and it’s a wonderful topic to use for drawings, fan fictions, and rants such as I’m doing now. But usually, those are all centered around the movie. The movie’s climax features Leo locking himself in the prison dimension with Krang prime, sacrificing himself for those he cares about. What I don’t think people talk about enough is that this isn’t the only time Leo does this. This is another reason why I decided to focus on this episode specifically.

Later in the episode, Piebald ends up taking Leo’s entire family. His brothers, his dad, even the paper foot ninja they took in. Initially, he has a plan to gain the upper hand against Piebald. He uses her own trick against her, camouflaging with his surroundings to use the element of surprise against her. Once this fails, however, he finds himself backed into a corner. His family is tied together, hanging behind him as they dangle over a large whirlpool of sewer water, about to be flushed as they had done to Piebald so long ago. In one last desperate attempt to save his family, he pleads with Piebald to let his family go, and take him instead.

He says, “flush me and let my family go.” Clearly stating the he wishes to sacrifice himself for those he cares about. He’s been running this whole episode. Running from the monster, running from the responsibility of Piebald’s “death”, and running from telling the truth to his dad. Now, as the only one left, he knows it’s him who has to save his family, and when given no other choice, he chooses himself as the sacrifice. It’s not even suggested to him that he sacrifice himself, he came up with that on his own. He doesn’t know what will happen to him, he just wants his family to be safe.

Sadly, this moment is short lived as immediately after he says this Piebald cuts the rope to drop the others into the whirlpool, which is where the whole thing is revealed to be a ruse made up by Splinter and Piebald to teach the boys a lesson. But I still think this moment should be talked about more. It’s so interesting to me.

It’s one thing that I think people get wrong a lot. A popular trope I see with Leo is that in any danger whatsoever he will deliberately go out of his way to sacrifice himself first. It’s his first and only plan, and he truly believes it will 100% work out. Watching the show though, this just isn’t true. Leo is a good leader, and he knows what his brothers are capable of. He’s able to use their skills to come up with a clever plan that almost always works when he really puts thought into it. It’s when he’s backed into a corner, stuck between a rock and a hard place that he resorts to his final plan. His last chance to keep everyone he loves safe and more importantly alive. If it comes down to it, he will use himself as the scapegoat willingly, even if the others don’t want it. I love Leo angst so much, and I love it even better when it’s done right. Leo is a smart guy, he knows when he can find an easy way out of things. That’s what makes it even more devastating when he resorts to his martyr complex, because it’s always either a last resort, or a split second decision. I think what people try to do is make it his first instinct, which I can agree with if written to be believable.

Moments that represent these traits come and go quickly, but I think that’s part of why Rise is so well written. The creators trust their viewers, and are aware that things don’t need to be spelled out in order for us to understand them. This show is honest to god just so amazing, and a wonderful example of when artists put out a work that they really care about for others to enjoy.

[moralesmilesanhour]

flowerbyte headcanons

Cuz the tag empty as hell and I am their self-appointed PR manager

It's one thing to think the other is cute. It's another thing to actually get to *know* them.

At first they bond over shared hobbies. Normal kiddie stuff like molecular physics, nothing too crazy

That is, until Miles asks a question that's juuust crossing the line between "okay" and "too personal"

That's when he realizes that Margo likes to keep people at an arm's length.

Which he only partially gets, because they've all got a secret identity to hide, and mental health issues to hide from their parents until they hit 18

But shouldn't it be different with him?

Okay now that all the people who were looking for fluff have left

Margo doesn't like to discuss feelings. They're messy and u can't program them to do what u want 💔 she likes to hide behind mild sarcasm and large sanrio plushies

If Miles hadn't asked her out first then she would've been content with an eternity of soft glances and awkward flirting

Miles is marginally better at feelings. In fact, there is no point at which she's unaware of how he feels about something

It's comforting. And terrifying

All of this is to say that their whole early relationship dynamic is trying to open up to each other while trying to keep the space-time continuum from falling apart like a Nature Valley bar

You know what's even more difficult than that? Inviting your bf that you've been interacting with via virtual avatar for like a year to your dimension

But it's fine. Miles makes a lot of bad jokes about the transition to color television in the 50s, tells her she's pretty, and it's fine.

He asks Margo about her favorite movies and shows so that he can psychoanalyze her and fine-tune his recommendations

She offers to fix all of his "vintage" electronics because they're a "historical marvel" or something

They're both annoying as hell together. God forbid you say something and they both take turns infodumping to you about The Thing like a neurodivergent tag team

Autism vs ADHD

Unstoppable force vs Immovable object. Miles is incredibly stubborn and needs things to happen in a Very Specific Way and Margo does shit in a completely different order every time and somehow they make it work

Those are all my brainrot thoughts for now feel free 2 add on if u want [disappears in a cloud of smoke]

[tianasficrecs168]

Random Naruto Fic recs

Most of these are going to be general fic recs, ones without a ship, just focused on family/friendship and whatnot.

Also I'm obsessed with time travel, so like. There's a lot of that here.

A whole bunch of abandoned works, as well, sadly. This doesn't mean they aren't worth reading just bc they're unfinished!!! Please give 'em a chance.

Edit: some fics from here have been moved to a different list (yes I figured out how to categorize stuff just now, shut up), you can find them on my Warring States Era Naruto Fics

Here's the sitch:

A black dot • means it’s a one-shot

Brackets (…) means it's still being updated/not done/WIP – and I'm paying close attention to it

(000) -> disappeared off the internet (don't worry I have a copy shh)

(general+) -> Time travel or dimension hopping – something along those lines

100demons: "Ten Years Gone" (general+) a series, one of three Thirty year old Kakashi was supposed to have been killed by Pein during the Invasion. Instead, he wakes up in the body of his twenty year old self. (It gets a lot more complicated.)

Chica Blanca: - "One Chance" (...) (general+) last update: 2020 Revenge never tasted so bitter. It never was supposed to be this useless waste of life. Now Sasuke has a chance to go back and change everything.

Frozen Shattered Roses: - “Loop” (...) (general+)                       last update: 2009 My name is Naruto and I'm cursed. I'm trapped in a loop of time, reliving the final fourteen years of my life for the third time. Only this time things will be different, because this time I have a plan to escape.

Phoenyxx: - “Unofficial adoption” (general) • A bed-ridden, sickly Kakashi receives a tiny unexpected visitor late at night, which causes a few interesting discoveries. Another moment to add to an alternate universe.

Jedi Honor Bound Ninja: - “To Be Cared For” (general) • Naruto doesn't often get sick, but when he does he knows his routine: hunker down and be miserable. But this time around maybe he can finally have a taste of what others normally have.

Laurelsblue: - “Summer Grass” (general) • There are many misconceptions about her. 20 Truths about Fuu, the Nanabi Jinchuuriki.

Blackkat: “Sweet baby, I need fresh blood” (general+) • Shukaku fixes the timeline. Grumpily. And with a lot of bloodshed.

Blackkat: “With friends like these” (general) • If she isn’t utterly mistaken, there's a flush rising in Orochimaru’s pale cheeks, one she only ever used to see when Jiraiya was being especially handsy during their genin days. It’s been a long time since Orochimaru got over that particular crush, and Tsunade stares at him now, at the averted eyes and rising color and aggrieved slant to his mouth, and feels glee bubbling up inside of her. “Really?” she says, delighted. “Who?”

Blackkat: “This is the passing of all shining things” (general) • There's a monster whispering in Minato's head, curled around his soul. It’s vast and hungry and full of fury, radiates it and basks in it and lets it spill over through the bars that cage it. If Minato had one ounce more energy, he would rage too, but— Anger is a luxury right now, an indulgence. He can't afford it.

Blackkat: “Switch It Up” (general) • Yamato is assigned to Team 7 as their jounin sensei. He may or may not be an evil mastermind, but it all works out for the better.

QuoteMyFoot: - “In The Name Of” (general) • Slowly, Sasuke forgets what 'living' is. (Post-massacre)

Searching.For.Enadi: “If the shoe fits“ (...) (general+)                     last update: 2020 Time travel. Technically, she could consider this the greatest mission she has ever undertaken, or a brilliant opportunity to finally hit the hot springs. (Or, the one where Haruno Sakura really, really needs a vacation).

Whispering Darkness: - “The life and times of Hatake Kakashi: nukenin” (...) (general+) In the sealed scroll he finds a Bingo Book – his own page marking him as an S-class nukenin with flee-on-sight orders. “Ok. That is definitely different.” In his head he blames Naruto – even if his number one unpredictable student had been nowhere near him on this mission. When things go this stupidly impossibly wrong it must somehow be the future Hokage’s fault. *it's marked as completed but the story's not done in my heart. so i live in delusional hope that it'll be updated one day

Narf—for-the-Garthoc: “Beautiful Day” (general) • Naruto focuses on his last day as Hokage and the people who mean so much to him.

Agent Malkere: - „What You Knead“ (...) (general) last update: 2022 It started, as most things did in Kakashi's life, with a mission gone wrong. (In which Kakashi accidentally acquires an emotionally healthy coping technique.)

Katlou303: - „Time Flies Like An Arrow“ (...) (general+) last update: 2021 Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's a four-year-old civilian having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

Deletrear: - „Kick The Habit“ (...) (general+)                              last update: 2020 Yes, Itachi's emotional and physical well-being is his first and only priority. No, Sasuke does not have anything remotely resembling a plan to ensure this. It's fine, honestly.

Wroth_and_ruin: - „About Face“ (...) (general)                                      last update: 2017 A little yellow-haired boy saves Sakura from the bullies. And everything changes.

Elumish: - „Adoption by Defenestration; or, A Family Can Be A Fox Demon, Its Jinchuriki, and Three Dozen Highly-Trained Assassins” (general) • He will not be the ANBU who let the jinchuuriki plummet to his death out a fourth story window. Let that be another ANBU’s legacy.

Elesrea: - “Anachronistic Drift” (...) (general+) last updated: 2021                                    Her plan was flawless. Save Shisui. Save the world.

Cyan96: - “Kurama” (...) (general)                                        last update: 2018 Namikaze Minato makes a mistake. Uzumaki Kushina makes a choice. Naruto ends up growing up with a red haired, foul tempered older brother who wants Konoha to be atomized, preferably yesterday.

Dragonpyre: - “Time Travel? What the Fuck?” (...) (general+)                                                       last update: 2020 Basically, Team 7 vs. Kaguya, final smack down. Then suddenly POOF they’re twelve again and waiting to meet their sensei on team assignment day. With no way to get back they decide to stop the war before it begins, and maybe save some people along the way. But they’re twelve, how are they supposed to do that? Starring: Naruto Everyone's-My-Friend Uzumaki, Sasuke Maybe-I-Won't-Destroy-Konoha Uchiha, and Sakura Better-Than-This Haruno; with a guest appearance from Kakashi's guilt complex. We'll be in for a ride folks.

Tozette: - “Strike A Match” (general+) • Sasuke could have reversed time to save the world. He could have done it for his mother and his father, he could have done it for his clan or his village. That's... Those are sweet ideas. They're sort of like what might happen if you let Naruto imagine a motive for Sasuke to return to his hellish childhood. Save the village. Save the world. Be a hero. Sasuke makes a terrible hero.

YumeMadarame: - “I’ll fix it for you” (general+) Kurama wakes up in the dark, trapped inside a human body. The memory loss doesn't help. The Uchiha body either. When he finally understands he’s been sent years in the past, – decades, even – before Kaguya’s revival, before the devastation that had come with it, and before Naruto’s birth… he realizes he’s been given a chance to start anew. An opportunity to make things right, this time around.

Microgeek: - “Fox and Son” (...) (general) last update: 2021 Kurama has little love for humans and even less for his jailors, those Uzumaki with wind and tide in their blood, audacious enough to trap a god beneath their skins. But there is enough love left in him for his newest host, who had as little say in this life as Kurama did, and asked Kurama for friendship anyway. (In which Kurama raises a child out of love, hope, and spite, Naruto grows up to be terrifying, and Konoha collectively regrets that an ancient chakra-beast is better at parenting than they are.)

AvocadoLove: “Teach Your Children Well” (...) (general+)                    last update: 2010 What difference can one man make? After Madara and Sasuke's final attack on the village, Rokudaime Kakashi finds a time-travel scroll. Now he's Team Seven's sensei again. And this time, he's going to do things differently. 

Lolistar92: “Kit and kin” (general+) a series, one of 8 (no this isn't a typo. 8) The Sandaime is resolute when he shakes his head. “No, Kakashi. Naruto is safe where he is. Return to your post, as ordered.” Kakashi doesn’t move. “I’ll give you time to reconsider,” he says, jovial tone chilling with how juxtaposed it is from his previous killing intent. ~~~~ Or, former Rokudaime Kakashi wakes up in the body of his 14 year old self, fresh from the Kyuubi attack. He may not have been allowed to save his first pack, but he sure as hell is going to save Naruto.

[b3achysurfur]

If we notice in the webtoon, Taylor and Ben are the only ones who have not been seriously injured...

Aiden was crushed

Tyler was impaled

Ashlyn had a concussion

Logan ended up with a big cut on his side

Do you think something worse could happen to Taylor and Ben?

I think eventually all of them will face some sort of serious injury, so I highly doubt Ben and Taylor will be safe. I think ashlyn and Logan will also get more deadly wounds soon (hope Logan is first in line 🙏)

But I do find it interesting that they are the only two unharmed. Especially since they had a mini romance going on in S1. awwww I miss them 😢

Whats also interesting is how impulsive, destructive, and agressive Taylor has been lately as well as her increased screentime 😈

We’ve also unfortunately seen Logan get a lot of panels lately as well. And idk if u guys remember S1 but Tyler, ashlyn, and Aiden were the ones who got a lot of attention. But now that Tyler and Aiden are out , the attention has shifted to Taylor and Logan. But not Ben!!!!! (I want more Ben screentime, fuck Logan no body gaf what’s going on with him 😒 tell me ab Benny boy NOOOWWWW!!!!!!)

my point is Taylor or Logan may be the next to experience a major event. They’ve also been the ones exhibiting the most “phantom traits” , MOSTLY Taylor tho. also there’s a few other things that point to Taylor being in harms way very soon.

but basically the signs are telling me Taylor is gonna go through smth much worse than what’s happening rn. Back to Taylor and Ben’s relationship tho. Ben always tries to give back to things that treat him well, idrk how to word it. In S1 Taylor is very considerate of the whole group, but there are a few instances where she focuses on him.

in S2, ben mirrors this act by physically protecting her and attempting to comfort her to the best of his abilities

taylor leans into this comfort and support, even if it’s only by a little. taylor needs people, and ben can easily become her person. they both value their family and friends a lot and are willing to put their lives on the line/distance themselves if it means protecting them. they both have lost someone who has guided them out of a dark time in their life to the phantom dimension. they both are kind hearted people who are gentle. they are both a pea to someone’s pod (Aiden and Ben, Taylor and Tyler). they understand each other better than anyone else.

Ben cares about Taylor a lot. we don’t get scenes of them like we do with aidlyn anymore, but we do get little snippets. he is willing to protect her , even if it puts himself at risk. HE COVERED HER COMPLETELY WITH HIMSELF!!! HE DIDNT EVEN COVER HIS HEAD OR ANYTHINGG IGHWHEHA!!??? He had been holding her in place ever since the phantom had started chasing them. HE CARES SM IT HURTS ME.

ben has been such a neglected character, but I don’t think this was for no reason. I believe Ben’s time will come. I was honestly expecting a reaction out of him when Aiden ‘died’ but we got aidlyn so idrc 😈🙏. anyways a lot of people want to see Ben tweak AND I DO TOO!!! but you also have to remember, him not getting mad and bearing with the situation shows how much he has grown from his past. Ben has intense anger issues that he’s HEAVILY ashamed of. keeping himself in check is already hard enough with day to day triggers, but add his new phantom situation onto that? mans is STRUGGLING, but since it’s in silence no one ever talks ab it 🙁 we’ve seen Tyler crack under this pressure, Logan getting madder, and taylor has gotten angrier too! ashlyn is more stressed and tired than angry, and Aiden is having fun most of the time. but Ben? he’s been trying his absolute hardest to not flip out.

so that combined with his affection for tay, if something bad really does happen to her, I do believe it will be his final straw. There’s only so much self control a 14 year old has (even though most adults would’ve went insane by now). Whether Taylor turns into a phantom or she gets injuries/dies, it will hit Ben HARD. Tyler will also be affected, but I really hope it doesn’t overshadow Ben. Losing Taylor would mean Ben wasn’t able to protect her like he wanted to and after Aiden also got hurt, I don’t think he would be able to take it. I think it’ll also extremely upset him when he finds out his family got caught in the crossfire of the kidnapping.

I was thinking about it, and we might actually see ben use his voice out of desperation. I really hope we don’t, bc I think ben not being verbal is nice representation, it’s so important to his character, and I love seeing how ben expresses himself without words. but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he used it to call out to someone. The way this scene (⬇️⬇️) is worded is like, “he CAN (might even) talk, he just doesn’t WANT (have a reason) too”. i really hope he doesn’t, but it’s definitely a possibility 😢 especially if we get a ben centered arc that’s caused by his anger and the loss he’s experienced.

All in all, I don’t think Ben be the next one to be injuried really, but I do think Taylor will. And Taylor getting hurt will finally open up a arc centered around/that includes ben 🙏

hope red gives us the craziest angst we've ever seen for them two and then kills Logan 😛

(sorry for rambling sm 😓 I tried to shorten it but now i feel like some parts don’t make sense. UGH WTV!!! I’m very passionate about Ben and the affects Taylor has had on him 😒)

[evelhak]

I’m curious about a few: Propinquity, Anem and Bitchberg (a great name, lol)

Well, you've already read about Bitchberg by now from the previous ask. :D

Lol, I actually winced a little when I saw you asked about "Propinquity" since it's the current working title of my Akashi centric fic, and I know you don't find him that interesting. It's still just a bunch of "notes" (=bits of monologue and dialogue that come to me and I have to write down so I won't forget). I haven't actively started this fic yet, since I can't really write multiple projects at the same time. I will probably have to finish another shorter fic after The Luminous Things, before I get to this one.

I know the opening lines, though:

Winning is like breathing. Sometimes I wake up, gasping for air, but my lungs seem to have fallen into a partial state of paralysis.

Or something fairly close to that. The idea has been in my head for a long time, because I really enjoy digging up ignored dimensions that kind of naturally follow from whatever is going on in canon.

There is of course one thing in this fic that could interest you: The main love interest is an OC. :) You know some things about Azumi already. Here's a snippet that will probably serve as her introduction in the fic:

I absolutely pretended to be the empress of this micro-utopia, growing up. Not because it was mine to conquer, or control. Because it was mine to know. To pick apart. Explore, taste, and merge with. A little pocket of wonder in this huge city, a bubble with its own rules. That's what I came to realise pretty soon, anyway. About the world. How different, how illogical and ultimately unsatisfying it was, compared to my shrine, my home, my own ecosystem, my island of undisturbed ground. It frustrates me that the rest of the world doesn't know how to do it. Live and let live. Give and take. Circle of life. A system that works. Because I was born into it. An heir to it. Happiness.

Micro-utopias are a huge element in my whole fic series as it progresses, and there are several kinds of them, Azumi's home life being its own example. Utopia is generally something I'm really interested to write about, especially because a lot of people claim you can't write interesting utopia without making it dystopia in the end, and I very much disagree with that, as people are always imperfect, so you don't need to add any intentionally awful circumstances for a story to have conflict, if you're writing believable people. For me, the key to what makes the most out of utopia is to centre it around whose utopia it is and why. This got slightly off topic, these are just themes I really like exploring and since my fics are my playground, I definitely use them for exploration of things I might want to write later in a more polished form in my original fiction.

The working title "Propinquity" came while I was writing a chapter in The Luminous Things where Kagami ends up lost in Kyoto (it's complicated) and spends the night in Azumi's place, where he has many enlightening conversations with Akashi. (Azumi and Akashi are already together in my main fic timeline, their own fic will cover how they got together, among other things.)

Here's a snippet from the chapter also titled "Propinquity", which I haven't yet posted anywhere, so things might still change a little, but for now, Akashi muses something like this in it:

"[Propinquity] is the central theme of this shrine. Things develop, and change, and prosper in propinquity. It rings true, doesn’t it? Right things, wrong things… so it really matters what you surround yourself with. It’s not enough to know and think. You have to see, and taste, and touch… A plant wouldn’t grow from the understanding that it needs water, if it never got it. It would still die from poison, no matter how informed it was. Azumi knew all of this, so bone deep. That’s why she was disappointed with the world. That’s why she retreated back to her paradise. I think that’s what caught my attention at first. How she had a physical place to go to when she needed to get away."

I probably would not have developed any need to write a story about Akashi's love life on my own. (Well, it's not all there is to it, but it is a how-they-get-together type of story). It was the influence of my ex, who's a big Akashi fan, and as I have probably said before, Azumi was originally her OC that we worked on together a lot. Eventually I grew attached to Akashi and Azumi together, and now I have my own version of the story.

I don't think I actually read any Akashi x OC fics myself, but my ex read them and complained about them, usually, and I picked up on two pretty common patterns, which I didn't want to do: I didn't want the OC to be 1) poor, or 2) have a similar family dynamic and childhood trauma as Akashi. This is because I wasn't interested in dealing with the power imbalance that tends to come with very different socioeconomic standing, and I also didn't want to write a relationship where people get stuck in validating each other's trauma, and it takes them a long time to grow beyond that phase because their relationship is centred around how similar their experiences are. I wanted to hit that sweet spot which I like the most, a relationship that centres around growth, having enough common ground, and being inspired by things about the other that you've never experienced before, or even believed really exists in the world. The kind of relationship that makes you feel that you want to fill your own gaps, and a key factor in that is the proximity, or, propinquity to a person you can rely on, because they don't have the same weaknesses as you. I just really love writing about people who are good influences to each other.

A lot of this fic will also be about dissociation and trauma. Yay.

Anem, then, is another original novel I've started multiple times without being completely satisfied. The premise is pretty classic religious cult + good girl/bad girl dynamic, or at least would seem like that in the beginning.

Here's how I seem to have described it on my website at some point:

Dina is a good girl. She picks up flowers every morning, to put on the altar of her family’s home. She’s chaste, she’s beautiful. She fears God. Semira is a “Wild One”, she rarely goes to church, she speaks out of turn. She could be beautiful, if her hair wasn’t so short. Dina doesn’t think it’s her job to save Semira. After all, if the Fathers don’t know how to help the girl, how could she? But Dina keeps ending up spending time with Semira anyway, and the more she does, the stronger the big black swirling something grows in her stomach. There’s clearly something very wrong about Semira. And there’s something wrong about the woods surrounding their isolated village. Dina knows she’s supposed to stay away, but Semira keeps going into the woods.

It has a lot bigger world and anything but clear-cut themes and dynamics, even though it may seem like that in the beginning... and it's one of those early projects that are sort of everything, because you're not good at narrowing it down yet. It's like a dystopian supernatural medieval fantasy horror philosophical cult story I wrote just to barf out everything I was thinking in my early years of studying theology. It's certainly a cult story, but is the cult the big bad or the world around it? It's certainly a queer story, but is it a love story or a hate story? It's certainly trying to say something, but what? No one knows, not even me. It's a big mess.

I'm also starting to feel like I'm dealing with every element and theme I have in this story, in some other story too, and coincidentally someone from my writing group actually just got a book published this year that has a strikingly similar setting and themes, (we both wrote them without knowing about each other) and even though it shouldn't, it does kind of add to my confusion to what to do with this story. I do still want to write it at some point, but it's a big question mark that sort of just pops up from below the surface every time I'm not actively thinking or writing about another project.

Some angsty pictures of Dina, also drawn in my early university years (Oh Lord how obvious my Arina Tanemura influences still were in the way I draw):

Yeah... at least they are accurately dramatic to the story.

Thanks for the ask. I hope there was something entertaining. <3

For anyone curious, here's the WIP list.

[loveinhawkins]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 ao3

They end up watching Casablanca thanks to Robin bringing the VHS over. For the majority of the movie, it’s not a serious watch at all; they’re all happily talking over scenes, slapping each other’s hands away whenever one of them gets too close to another’s pizza order.

It’s comfortable, like they’ve known each other for years and years: instinctively able to tell whenever someone’s wrapped up in the movie and falling quiet accordingly, before launching back into chatter again when the moment’s passed.

Eddie silently entertains himself with imagining how he would react to all of this only a few months ago—not the whole alternate dimension related horrors, just the fact that he’s having a ‘Casablanca impressions contest’ in Steve Harrington’s living room, in which Robin Buckley is beating him soundly.

“Steve,” she says, still in Rick Blaine’s drawl, “I gotta ask you something.”

It seems like Steve can’t hear her, but Eddie knows it’s an act when he briefly presses his tongue against the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing.

“Oh, sorry,” Steve says, exaggeratedly turning from the T.V to Robin, “it’s like he’s in the room with us.”

Robin throws a cushion at his face. Dropping the voice, she says, “I forgot I didn’t bring anything to sleep in.”

This time Steve doesn’t try and conceal his smile, though he does turn to Eddie, mouths bullshit.

Eddie hides his laugh with a well-timed bite of pizza; Steve keeps smiling like he saw it anyway.

“Sure, go ahead.” Steve gestures upstairs with a nod of the head, sighing like it’s a chore. “It’s not like you do this every damn time.”

Robin jumps up in triumph. “Steve,” she says, the drawl returning, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Steve throws the cushion back at her; she dodges it with an uncoordinated leap before bounding upstairs.

“She thinks I don’t notice whenever I’m missing a shirt,” Steve mutters. He rolls his eyes as he says it, but the fondness is obvious, and he must catch something of Eddie’s thoughts on his face, because he says, “What?”

“Nothing,” Eddie says—thinks once again about how natural Robin and Steve are with each other, like siblings; that such a closeness is never a guarantee, but it’s a choice they’ve made, one they keep on making, rather than being born into it. “Just noticed that you didn’t put your hat in the ring for impressions.”

Steve laughs. “That’s cause I knew Robin would win.”

“Well, guess we’ll never know…”

Steve shrugs. “Guess not.”

Eddie scoffs, mimes casting a fishing line. “You’re meant to take the bait, Harrington.”

Steve opens his mouth presumably to retort, but the sound of the phone ringing interrupts him; Robin calls from upstairs, “I’ve got it!”, and he shouts back, “Sure, thanks!”

“That’s what she did with our phone call,” he adds to Eddie, “probably sneaking around in my room so she could find a shirt she wanted.”

It’s said with affection, like he knew that’s what she would have been doing all along.

The phone call must be a short one, because Robin’s back downstairs in less than five minutes, dressed in a royal blue shirt that’s faded with age. Steve softens when he sees it, and as Robin gets closer, Eddie makes out yellow letters across the front: Free Concert Central Park.

Steve catches Eddie’s eye, smiles like they’re sharing a secret.

Then Robin makes for the couch they’re both on: Steve at one end, Eddie at the other. She flops in the space between them, tips over so she’s upside down, feet dangling over the top of the couch, head lolling down halfway towards the seat.

Eddie gently prods her foot; she’s got one threadbare sock on, a hole at the big toe. “What’s up, Buckley?”

“It was Nancy,” she says. Her head tilts in Steve’s direction when she adds, “She asked if she could come over tomorrow, like, late afternoon? And if it’d be okay if she brought Holly.”

“Yeah, ‘course it’s okay,” Steve says. “She didn’t need to ask.”

“Yeah, I told her you’d say that.” Robin sighs, long and heavy. “She was… quiet. I… I hope I helped—”

“Rob,” Steve interrupts, not unkindly, “you will have, don’t—”

“It’s just—” Robin breaks off with another sigh, hands flexing like she’s grappling for the words. “Sometimes I worry that—okay. Do you ever get the feeling… kinda like stage fright? But more… I remember in middle school, a girl in my class phoned asking for my help with homework, and all I could think was oh, now it’s my job to be the Homework Girl, I’ve gotta my lines right. You know?”

Steve frowns, says, “I mean—” at the exact same time that Eddie says, “Yeah.”

Robin rises at Eddie’s agreement, moving until she’s perched upright on the top of the couch.

“It’s like… it’s like I can sense so badly that she needs… I don’t know! A friend, or just someone to tell her…” Another sigh. “See, that’s the thing, I don’t even know what. I’m, like, so focused on the fact that she needs something, that whatever I say, I can’t mess it up, and then whatever I do say is… useless.”

Eddie’s eyes dart between the two of them—Robin’s uncertainty, how Steve’s frown makes him seem… conflicted.

“Robin, I get it, but it—it won’t be useless. Promise.”

“At least she phoned,” Robin goes on, pensive.

“Yeah,” Steve says. He looks off to the side, and he goes somewhere—Eddie doesn’t know where, but he can tell somehow that it’s not about the night he saw the clock, or at least not entirely.

Robin must sense it, too, because she goes still on the couch. “Steve?”

Steve breathes out, rubs a hand over his mouth. “There’s… there’s some stuff I wanna say,” he says hesitantly, “but it’s… complicated. It’s—it’s not mine to—it’s hers, but…”

His eyes drift again, this time over to the windows; the only thing to see outside is the pool, the water covered with tarp and a thick layer of leaves from last fall. When he turns back, he takes another big breath like he’s steeling himself.

“Look, this is… in, like, confidence, all right? It’s… I don’t think she’ll ever talk about it herself. And obviously I know you won’t, um, bring it up to her, but I think—if she’s… it’s something you might need to know.”

There’s something about the way he phrases it, like he’s walking a tightrope. It makes Eddie think of a morning in 6th grade where a kid’s mom had died the night before, but she was going into class anyway, and the homeroom teacher had warned them in advance before she’d come in late. That the instruction to be extra kind to her, to only talk about the whole thing if she brought it up felt woefully inadequate, but also all they could do.

“You kinda got an… abridged version of everything,” Steve says, eyes on Eddie. “So, back when… um, with Will, and… Barb. Barb Holland died. And she—she—”

“It wasn’t a chemical leak,” Robin says. There’s a tone to her voice, Eddie thinks, like these are suspicions she’s already had; but the way she’s looking at Steve with wide eyes suggests it’s never been talked about, not really.

“Right,” Steve says softly. “Nance, she—she got this journalist to, like, expose Hawkins Lab because… Barb’s parents, they still had hope, y’know? Nance wanted to go further than the cover-up story, but she had to fight even for that, so…”

Eddie recalls Murray’s voice down the phone: “Got enough leverage to take a story, water it down until it’s just ripples in the pond, softly softly, yeah?”

Understanding sinks heavily into his stomach, like rocks hitting the bottom of a creek.

“Barb… she died here, in the pool.”

The rocks in Eddie’s stomach turn to ice.

He sucks in a sharp, horrified breath; as Robin, if possible, becomes even more still, Steve keeps talking.

“Not—it wasn’t… Shit, sorry. We didn’t see what… but eventually, we. We knew. And it—it wasn’t like how it was with Chrissy, or… There wasn’t a Gate. There wasn’t anything.” Steve looks outside again, says quietly, “Trust me, I checked.”

“Jesus,” Eddie whispers.

“But Nance, she… It was after Barb’s funeral in ‘84. Before… I know it was before Christmas, but I don’t… Anyway, I came home from school, and the front mat was lifted up, and the spare key was gone, and… It was Nance. She was in the pool.” Steve swallows. “She’d turned off the heating. And she—it’s like she couldn’t hear me. She just kept diving down to the bottom, kept feeling every damn tile. Her hands, they—I had to jump in and pull her out.”

Eddie glances at the pool, and it doesn’t matter that the cover and leaves obscure it in reality; in his mind’s eye he can still see the ghostly glow of the water. Can see Nancy repeatedly trying to dive, Steve desperately calling her name—both of them shaking from the cold.

He thinks of Steve insisting that he’d make the dive at Lover’s Lake. “It’s gotta be me.”

“God, it was awful,” Steve says. “She just… she just went silent, most she talked was fucking apologising for using some towels to get dry. Then she left and—that was it. Never brought it up again.”

There’s a heavy pause.

“You know how we were during Starcourt?” Robin says, fragile. “Like, when everything was… spilling out.”

Steve’s face screws up a bit. “In more ways than one.”

Yeah, Eddie thinks, really hate how all that’s a casual reference point for you two.

“I think Nancy might be… the opposite,” Robin says slowly. “If there was a drug that made you just… go quiet. And I think she’d—” Robin exhales. “She’d put the needle in herself.”

It looks like the sheer weight of that hits Steve all at once. He closes his eyes. “Shit,” he breathes.

Eddie wants to hold him through it. Desperately wants to make it better. Knows that he can’t—that the only thing that would fix it would be Nancy and Steve never needing to dive into a freezing pool.

The movie keeps playing through the long silence. It’s almost over.

“But I’ve got a job to do, too,” urges Rick Blaine. “Where I’m going you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do you can’t be any part of.”

Eddie looks away from the screen, tries not to think of Steve staring out into the road. Fails.

They’re almost too far away to touch. But Steve manages to press his foot against Eddie’s.

I’m here.

Eddie feels Robin shift along the couch, feels her hand gently squeeze his shoulder. For a moment, it’s like they’re all connected through one touch.

And they breathe.

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

From the prompt list:

Aroused by her voice + detective AU for Astarion x Evie

Summer camp AU + wet dreams for Gwen X Gale

Summer Camp AU + Wet Dreams

Gale Dekarios x Tav, Gale Dekarios x Single Mom!Tav, Gale Dekarios x OC, Gale x Gwen

A/N: I’m going to just do one of these for organization’s sake. If you’d like me to do the other one, please send another ask. (Also not going to lie the one for Astarion x Evie has me stumped)

Fanfic Trope Mash-Up

First instinct is to have Gale be a supervisor/counselor at this particular summer camp

It’s school run with teacher and parent volunteers for the kids

Gwen’s daughter Clara was in his class the year before but he didn’t really get a chance to talk with Gwen one on one until the summer

I feel like it’s right to establish now that Gwen is a certified milf

Her family is rich, she spent her youth among the idle, traveling, modeling for a time, the whole thing

She met her ex-husband, had Clara and grew up pretty fast after the divorce

All this to say that Gale has already taken note that Gwen is an objectively beautiful woman

What he didn’t expect was just how much seeing her interact with Clara and the other kids would add so much more dimensions to an already lovely face

Gwen and Gwen end up getting paired up watching over a group of kids

While Gale is great once he gets the kids attention, getting them in line is Gwen’s own talent

She gives out an aura of authority that people don’t question

Gale even catches himself calling her ma’am more than once

At the same time she’s obviously understanding and will let the small things slide so long as nobody gets hurt and everyone is having fun

Gale is so caught up in his growing infatuation he fails to notice Gwen giving him more and more obvious hints that she is equally taken with him

Gwen noticed him too, but didn’t want to shoot her shot until Clara was out of Gale’s class

Clara has enough problems before having to contend with the possibility of her mom dating her teacher

She starts flirting with him and while Gale does occasionally flirty back, he always seems to stop himself before things can really get going

Gale is convinced she’s just being friendly and is growing increasingly embarrassed about his nightly fantasies

This all comes to a head when they escort the kids to the pool

Gale decidedly does not get in the water, opting to stay fully clothed

Gwen meanwhile steps out in an, on the surface, perfectly sensible swimsuit but makes Gale’s brain short circuit

He swears he used to be good at this, but he has an increasingly hard time keeping eye contact and not letting his eyes wander where they will

Gwen thinks she finally got through to him but Gale keeps everything polite, all but sprinting to his car when the last of the kids get picked up

That night he has his first proper wet dream since he was a teenager

He’s doomed

[monkey-network]

Pizza Tower: The Series Episodes

26 Episodes; Season 2 Coming 20XX

A New Universe: Taking place after the events of the game, a singularity has caused everything from the destroyed Pizza Tower to manifest into reality. It's up to Peppino once more to now try to find normalcy in his new world.

Nice Noise: The Noise realizes being friendlier has its perks, so he changes his ways much to Peppino's disbelief.

Pizza Pickiness: Peppino must deal with a customer that's constantly unsatisfied and that is affecting business.

Gun Safety: The Vigilante, with help from The Noise and Gustavo, educates the dos and don'ts of using firearms.

Lunch Rush Slumber Party: Peppino studies all night on how to handle a lunch rush better and becomes extremely tired on the worst possible day.

Brick and Mortal: Peppino is forced to look after Brick the rat while the Noise plans to steal from the pizzeria.

Hot Art Block: Pepperman gets inspired by Peppino for his new line of art works, who doesn't approve when he feels it ruins his image.

Noisette the Bachelorette: Noisette starts dating Gustavo after The Noise flakes on a date. The Noise plots revenge when the two hit it off better than expected.

Peppino's One Good Day: It's a day in the life of Peppino Spaghetti and it goes better than he thought. There's a catch to this, right?

Faker's Fazool: Fake Peppino invades the restaurant but only wants a real job. Peppino tries to give him a good one in fear of what could happen.

The Noise in Loopyland: The Noise finds himself stuck in a bizarre dimension and there can be such a thing as too zany.

Talk Through the Night: Before closing, Peppino has one more customer that constantly tries to chat with him. It gets annoying, but Peppino slowly grows to like his company.

The Piefather (1/2 Hour Special): Pizzahead returns with a new gang looking to run Peppino out for good. Peppino takes matters into his own hands to even the fight, but the power gets to his head.

Super Magical Bubblepop Paisanos with Extra Sauce: Noisette finds a collection of magical keychains that transform her and the others into glittery superheroes.

The Best Bite; The Topping Song: Peppino goes to a new restaurant and has the greatest meal in his whole life, which puts his career into question; Gustavo sings about every topping you can put on a pizza.

Menu-pilation: Peppino relunctantly adds more items on the menu and realizes this was the challenge he needed in life.

Brick the Rat in "Cheese Chasers": Brick hunts down an elusive piece of cheese.

We're Taking War to Gnome: An accident from Peppino has caused the Gnome Forest to plot a siege on his restaurant, which leads to everyone to join forces to protect the restaurant.

Ska-pportunity: The Noise gets into ska music and it's infectious for everybody except Peppino.

Giallo Pepato: Peppino must face the traumas of his past when forced to complete Pepperman's puzzle room.

Down in the Gutter: Peppino and John Gutter make a deal to protect the Pizzeria from The Noise, but the price starts to add up.

Five Noisy Nights at Lenny's: The Noise is locked in a fun center that's haunted. It's all good at first until he realizes he's stuck there night AND day.

We Wrecked A Zoo: Peppino decides to go to the zoo on his day off; Noisette wants to capture the perfect moment with Noise; Brick starts a rebellion.

Spaghetti Western: Peppino begrudgingly reenacts one of the Vigilante's favorite movies with the others for a birthday party.

Peppino Quits (Part 1): After the pizzeria gets destroyed, Peppino decides to throw in the towel as a chef. His new job finds him inner peace, but everything's become too quiet with him now gone.

Peppino Dies (Part 2): A moment of stress has put Peppino in a coma and everyone tries to reconcile with the idea of losing their friend. Emphasis on "tries" because they mostly suck.

[snarkfamily]

Okay I need to get this off my chest even though I think all my followers are bots haha. I will release it to the void so it gets out of my head!

But imagine: in Season 5, they’re battling Vecna and various demo-creatures and Steve is trying to protect his kids, and ends up dying. And a small part of him is relieved, but mostly he’s worried because they need all the manpower they can get, and he knows that Dustin and Robin especially will be devastated.

But then his eyes open, and his body doesn’t hurt, and he can hear birds really clearly, and his eyes focus without squinting, and he thinks “hey, maybe I got into heaven after all?” Except he’s in his bedroom, as it hasn’t been for a long time, and he figures out it’s actually 1981, two months before he starts freshman year. After hours or maybe days of screaming and panic attacks and searing grief, the knowledge that his friends don’t know him and will never know him the way they used to has settled in, and he resolves to make a plan. He still has two years before the shit hits the fan, but El is in the lab and he wants to get her out asap.

The problem is that he’s never been the ideas guy, he’s always been told he’s stupid, and he can’t go to anyone he normally would because they don’t KNOW him anymore, and his kids are only 9! And he briefly wishes that someone else was sent back, someone smarter, but he wouldn’t really wish this anguish on anyone else. And really, if he had parents who were present and cared, like the others, he would probably be committed for the way he was acting, so probably for the better.

He ultimately decides that the best thing to do is deal with the lab right away, so no one gets hurt. He knows Hopper won’t believe him, and what is a small-town cop supposed to do against the lab anyway? But then he remembers Murray Bauman, and thinks “yeah, that guy can take down an evil government organization no problem.” So he’s feeling pretty good about the plan until he realizes that Murray will probably ignore him or shoot him on the off chance he takes him seriously. Then inspiration strikes when he’s doing a grocery run and is gazing longingly across the produce at the Sinclair family. Little Erica appears to be negotiating with her mother about vegetables, and Steve thinks “yes! WWED?!”

So he takes the money his family leaves him, takes a bus to Illinois, and shows up to Murray’s gate. When Murray laughs him off, Steve tells him that there’s a note on his kitchen table outlining where he’s going, and that if he goes missing, Murray is to blame. There’s a silence that Steve chooses to interpret as encouraging, so he keeps going, telling Murray every fact about him that Steve knows: weapons he uses, aliases he has, conspiracies he believes, languages he speaks. Murray finally responds with a baffled “kid… who are you?” And lets Steve in.

Once in the house, Steve’s opening line is “do you think the government could fuck up enough to accidentally cross dimensions?” And Murray is somehow a mix of amused and horrified and confused, but yes, actually, the government COULD fuck up that much. Steve tells him all about the lab, and when Murray believes him, he adds the time travel and the whole history. Murray lets him spend the night and then they go to Hawkins the next day.

Hopper gets involved, and together they gather enough evidence to shut down the lab for good. The adults don’t let Steve do any fighting, even though he complains that he’s been through it all. They argue that even if his brain remembers, his body is a clean slate, and it should stay that way. They want to protect him the best they can. He’s in charge of getting El out, and he manages to convince Hopper to foster her. Over the planning stages, the adults figure out that Steve’s parents neglect him, so they work out a plan where Murray moves into the Hawkins’ trailer park so that he can foster Steve.

As the Upside Down situation gets resolved and it gets closer to school, Steve feels less and less like a 19 year old and more like a 14 year old. His old life feels more like remembering the plot of a movie, and he chafes less under the rules Murray makes for him. By the time school starts, he gets to make friends with Eddie as equals, not with an age imbalance, he just remembers who is important to him. And if he has his bisexual awakening 5 years earlier than the previous timeline, then it’s a good thing his father figure is much more accepting than the Harringtons would have been. To befriend his kids, he puts up babysitting fliers and actually loves babysitting for any kids, not just the Party. He becomes just as inseparable with Robin when she gets to high school the next year, and Nancy and Jonathan are good friends without the added awkwardness of dating. He even gets to know Barb, who it turns out is the perfect match for Robin.

[cosmicmote]

I've been thinking lately how part of

spirituality is concerned with connecting across

dimensions, not dissimilar from how we're connecting now.

Nullus Locus Sine Genio.

or in english - there is no place without spirit.

somewhere on another end of the line she replied

that's a beautiful sentiment.

it reminds her of something Carl Jung once said:

""One who looks outside, dreams; one who looks inside, awakes."

perhaps there's a connection between inner growth and interdimensional understanding."

here I add that the whole of religion is about pleasing the divine

which is obviously interdimensional too.

i find that this is important

and it often gets ignored, or rather we're kept oblivious to it.

darker lights get shone on religion, with intent,

and it all gets twisted and mangled, in displays,

and people get hooked and trapped

in these darker lights. there are better lights

in which religion is shown, blake illuminated perhaps,

but in times this all goes awry, for individuals and

entire worlds, alike, sometimes one in the same.

secularism is a weapon, if not a curse,

and it serves no other purpose, than this,

I could say here not to mention others, but I will mention

I also find it hard not to see how

judaism and what it pleases is the opposite

of the divine, there are rare times when they integrate

and not just incorporate for their own self interests.

I've read enough of the old covenant, also including the torah.

genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, and deuteronomy. moses.

jesus had his flaws as does any king, even if not a sinner

and Alice Walker said enough of the talmud a few years back.

I won't go on.

words ©spacetree 2024

[davidlikebowie-noturaccountant]

that reblog on tbe tlp and dps post i made had me pondering over it for 10 minutes and im about to explode PLEASE SHARE MORE OF YOUR THOUGHTS BECAUSE THEY ARE SO TRUE AAAA

oh my GOD happily i love yapping about this??????

okay first my credentials: i have watched dead poets society 200+ times (i stopped counting, but i have it completely memorised beat for beat), i’ve read the novelisation, i’ve watched the little prince 50+ times and it’s one of my comfort movies, watched it on the plane like two days ago, and i own eight copies of the book in five different languages <3 so

more thoughts below the cut

NOW

i will say there are more obvious parallels to draw between dps and the tlp movie BUT the book has the same innate messaging in a way that is very very special to me. gonna start off with the more obvious things and then get more niche and specific and i will TRY TO MAKE SENSE.

so movie-wise, the aviator serves as the keating figure without a doubt (i would argue this is true in the book as well, but as the book lacks the mother/daughter-little prince all grown up/weird silly second dimension plot line, this parallel is more nuanced and i need to explain it more deeply) and the little girl is neil (though. in the book. undoubtedly the little prince) and her mom is mr perry etc. TODD IS THE FOX IN BOTH THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK AND I WILL ELABORATE but for convenience sake im splitting this up into movie thoughts and book thoughts so they dont get muddled

movie:

one of my favourite things about the little prince movie even though it adds like a whole plot that is not in the children’s book is that it conveys the message of the book VERY well, and a message with THAT MUCH NUANCE is really hard to put through, especially in an animated children’s movie. that being said, i feel like a lot of people don’t really THINK about it, just in the sense of knowing there’s a vague message but not really dissecting it, especially not in the same way that people dissect dead poets society. which i think is really interesting because their messages are fundamentally REALLY similar, with the little prince talking a lot about keeping your mind from getting closed with age and never forgetting wonder and creativity and interest. letting yourself be propelled by knowledge but not in a way that prioritises practicality over pure joy, and then dead poets society specifically preaching (though i’m loathe to use that word) to OPEN your mind THROUGH wonder and creativity and interest, to actively prioritise the joy over practicality at any moment you CAN.

(emphasis on when you CAN, though, because as keating says, there’s a time to be cautious and a time to be daring. sucking the marrow out of life does not mean choking on the bone. which, incidentally, is very similar to something that the aviator mentions in the book, i’ll come back to that)

as such, both movies center a child who is bearing the burden of these undue expectations that for most of their lives up until the point in the movie, they’ve happily pushed themselves to meet in order to keep the peace in their lives. they were perfectly happy (to an extent) being the child they were being asked to be. that is, until someone ACTIVELY shows them there’s more to it than that.

in fact, while one of these is an animated face in which there is not a clear view of much but the eyes and the other is an actual person, these are screen grabs of both movies in the first moments in which they are exposed to that which is going to show them there’s more than that, and i’d be inclined to argue they’re very similar. mild shock overtaken by awe, fixed stare on what they’re consuming (as far as the first page of the little prince vs keating quoting whitman)

this is when they’re starting to realise that they are more than a machine to please the adults in their lives (who are also written very similarly, with, of course, one notable exception: the mother is the one who ultimately realises she was not being fair to her kid, whereas mr perry doubles down and… well. you know.)

this awe-riddled inspiration, the epiphany of the Creative World being real and something they’re allowed to explore and enjoy is facilitated by both the one who did the introduction (the aviator/keating) and support and camaraderie with someone else (the fox/the poets) (yes i know the fox does not technically talk, however, it is clearly a sentient creature in the movie that provides comfort and companionship to the little girl and therefore i will in fact argue that it counts)

NOW i know i said todd is the fox in both iterations but in the movie i dont think the fox is limited to parallels SOLELY with todd, for instance, it very much encourages the little girl to continue with the story, with the aviator, and while it is occasionally like, covering its eyes out of fright, it’s largely serving to push her out of her comfort zone. as such. the fox is both todd and charlie. (the other poets as well but less so in the sense that i can NAME them and draw specific parallels, so mostly todd and charlie)

it is absolutely no secret to us that charlie and todd are the ones closest to neil in the movie, and that charlie and neil’s closeness definitely pre-dates neil and todd’s, and charlie takes neil’s idea of doing the dead poets society and RUNS with it, (lovingly) bullies everyone into coming, gets it to happen and sort of yells over any doubt that neil could have had that he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. todd is supportive but wary, and while the fox in the movie is not in the same capacity as todd in this sense i think there are certainly scenes where we see it just sort of become overwhelmed with what’s going on (like the first time they mess with the plane)

i could go into depth about the whole grown up world thing but that would make this much much longer

the rest of my thoughts are very much related to both the book and the movie and thus i will continue but centre them on the book

book:

i mentioned the messages of the little prince compared to dead poets society above and i just think that’s such a big thing for me because they really do mirror each other and showcase similar thoughts, this idea of the aviator sort of being forced to pursue “practical” things (i think specifically the book cites arithmetic and geography? i can’t remember right this second but i know arithmetic is one of them) and how even though he WAS forced to sort of let go of his personality that was creative, he never really did. he just was careful with who he let see it. which is very keating coded tbh like let’s be real if nolan knew what he was like he NEVER would have gotten that job. but i think specifically because he knew this already and was sort of reminded of it by the little prince LEARNING it it’s very much neil and mr keating. this is why i really think todd is the fox, you have the whole conversation in the book about taming (which i know is kind of in the movie but the book centres it in a way that is slightly different)

to tame people is to change. i will be unique in all the world. to me you will be unique in all the world. you are responsible forever for what you have tamed. when you leave i will cry. etc etc etc

todd and neil tame EACH OTHER. obviously todd is not neil’s first friend, but they have a relationship clearly different from neil’s with the other poets (romantic headcanon or not) because they really have TAMED each other.

also. i think mr perry views neil as his rose. that’s a whole other dissertation.

but. i think the reality is that the movies/book both centre creativity and seeking to understand pure thought in a way that is like two sides of the same coin, but there’s such little overlap that maybe it doesn’t feel obvious?

at the end of the day, there’s really no convincing me that

“what is essential is invisible to the eye, it is only with the heart that one can see rightly”

is not in fact another iteration of

“we don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute…. medicine law business engineering…. poetry beauty romance love, these are what we stay alive for”

because they’re so similar at their hearts.

tldr: the little prince and dead poets society actually carry similar characterisation and messages and i think that speaks a lot about both pieces of media, especially considering that one is literally meant to be for children. it’s almost like tlp is a precursor to dps. a warning to which dps is the result of ignoring. if that makes sense. i’m not sure any of this made sense but THANK YOU FOR ASKING

[indigovigilance]

I was just reading through some of your meta, and was thinking about your one about Maggie being possessed by an angel. I was wondering if the fact that Nina is played by Nina Sosanya, who also played Sister Mary in season one, might be connected. I'm a bit late to the Good Omens series, has that ever been addressed? Seems odd to recast an actress as a different character in the same show, especially a show so detail orientated. Seeing as Maggie and Nina are mirrors for Aziraphale and Crowley, I'm idly wondering if they being secretly an angel, and former demon worshiper would simply would be to add an extra dimension, or if there is something more sneaky afoot. Like spies for each side watching the shop or some such.

Oh, my dear friend, it goes much deeper than that! Do not be bashful about arriving late to the game: I also did not watch S2 until about a month after it dropped, and didn't arrive on Tumblr until a month after that (literally made an account for the first time to join this fandom). The fact that I'm getting these asks at all is evidence enough that anyone can catch up. So here we go!

read on Ao3

(forgive the quality of some of these screengrabs, I'm having internet issues and Amazon is taking it out on the quality of my video)

Nina is played by Nina Sosanya, who in season 1 played Sister Mary Loquacious (I still love that name):

...and Maggie is played by Maggie Service, who in season 1 played a satanic nun as well, Sister Teresa Garrulous (inspired):

But the recycling of the first season's cast doesn't end there!

Shax is played by none other than the illustrious Miranda Richardson, returning after her delightful season 1 portrayal of Madame Tracy:

Reece Shearsmith plays Shakespeare in Season 1 and Furfur in Season 2:

Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss who plays Mr. Harmony, and Steve Pemberton who plays Mr. Glozier, the [zombie] Nazis in both seasons,

worked together on the award-winning show League of Gentlemen. An article about it even appears on David Tennant's website (which I just found today, doing research for this response!). It's a fun little read, I recommend it for anyone who's interested in "the making of" type stuff.

Gatiss was also involved in Doctor Who, which is of course was (per my humble opinion) the crowning glory of David Tennant's career until he stepped into the snakeskin boots. The article indicates that all these actors have prior relationships with David Tennant and Michael Sheen and were very pleased to be cast for this show.

But notably, only Nina and Maggie are named after their actors. Given that they also play out a whole slew of fanfiction tropes (I don't think this connection has ever been written out in meta format but it is alluded to in various YouTube clipshows) it seems to be a Doylian *Clue* that something is a little bit wrong about these characters and their alleged romance.

Other than that, I think the fact that cast is being reused only tells us two things: First, these are wonderful actors and why go looking for new talent when you already have the best? Second, they love this work and they love working together on it, and the actors wanted to return just as much as Neil wanted them to continue bringing his vision to life.

I'm glad you enjoyed Maggie is Possessed, one of my very first metas! I can see that you are going in order along my meta index. If you would like to keep reading on this topic, others have contributed their thoughts on the subject, and I've linked some choice readings below:

Can't You Hear Them? by @vidavalor The Grand Unified Theory by @noneorother which addresses the slew of purportedly human characters that have oddly angelic/demonic traits What's Up with Maggie? - a chain started by @iammyownproblematicfave that I and others have contributed to

I hope that this line of inquiry gets more attention in the future. If you haven't already, the docs below are great resources to bookmark as they are constantly being updated by teams of dedicated clue-searchers:

Good Omens Crackpotting Theory Tracker Hunting for Clues

~~~

I love getting asks like this, thanks for giving me something to do while I wait for my laundry to finish. I'm so so happy that more people are arriving in this cuddly communal crucible of creativity, it's been a great community for me and I hope you join us on this whirlwind adventure of piecing together the million-piece jigsaw puzzle that Neil left for us to play with as we await Season 3!