#ads are getting more invasive by the day lol

[fictionaldeity]

We live in a dystopia. We're literally in a dystopia right as I type this

[arcanefandomweek]

Announcing Arcane Visions!

Taking place during the entire month of October, leading up to the release of Arcane season 2, this event will focus on speculative fanworks and their predictions for our beloved cast of misfits.

Week 1: Revenge - Alliances - Angst Week 2: Discovery - Betrayal - AU Week 3: Invasion - Truth - Fluff Week 4: Invention - Freedom - Last Kiss

Will Ekko and Jinx make up? Is Ambessa invading? Any ideas on Warwick's fate? What are Vi's feelings, putting on an enforcer uniform? All those and more are great questions to answer for this event. We provide some guidance, but you're welcome to pick your own prompts!

You can create a work per week, or one per day if you're insane, or even have a single contribution. You can post a fic's chapters throughout the month, or can cosplay as characters in their new looks... All fan works are welcome, including meta speculation.

We want to help build the hype and reknit the community together!

To participate you can post (from October 1st) on tumblr or twitter using the tag #arcanevisions, and can ping us on tumblr @/arcanefandomweek or twitter @/Arcanefanweek. You can also submit your work to the Arcane Visions collection on AO3, which will open the first day of the event.

Please also check out our Rules and Guidelines under the cut. If you still have questions, check our FAQs or send us an Ask! Don't be shy, and please reblog!

Rules and Guidelines

Fanworks created for this event should be focused on Arcane character(s), and their potential story beyond Arcane 1. You may feature whatever canon character(s) you want, and if inserted judiciously, LoL characters too. While reader inserts and original characters are also allowed, canon Arcane characters should be the focus.

All types of fanworks, including fic, art, moodboards, podfic, playlists, meta, embroidery, and more, are welcome for this event.

NSFW or potentially triggering content, even if canon-typical, must be properly tagged with any applicable content warnings. For the comfort of the mods, please only submit NSFW works if you are 18+.

This event allows all ships and themes so long as everything is appropriately tagged. You will be contacted if your submission is under-tagged. Poorly tagged works will not be reblogged.

ANY use of leaked footage, content, or information will lead to your account being blocked. We do not promote or condone the spreading of spoilers. Please do not base your speculations on leaked information.

Racist, queerphobic, ableist, misogynistic, or otherwise hateful or bigoted behavior or fanworks will not be tolerated. Your work may include aspects of bigotry and oppression so long as they are properly tagged. For example: A fic that features a character facing ableism is allowed with content warnings; a work that includes ableist tropes as part of the narrative or erases a canon disability is not.

If you are submitting visual work, please consider writing an image description!

If you are unable to post on tumblr or twitter, but would like your work cross-posted via our account, please get in touch.

Submitting Posts to AO3, Twitter, and Tumblr

AO3

Please submit your works to the AO3 collection Arcane_Visions. This collection will be opened the day the event starts, and remain open for at least a month after it ends. It will never be hidden, made anonymous, or deleted. If you can't find it in the suggested drop down, enter the name Arcane_Visions manually.

Twitter

If you want us to retweet your posts, @ us (@Arcanefanweek) and use the tag #arcanevisions. If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the post. NSFW material should include the tag #nsfw or #arcanensfw, or you may want to consider adding a sensitive content filter.

Tumblr

If you want us to reblog your posts, use the tag #arcanevisions. Due to Tumblr’s glitches regarding posts with links not showing up in the tag, we also recommend that you @ us (@arcanefandomweek) in the body of your post just to make sure we see it!

If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the body of the post. Any NSFW or triggering material itself must be under a read more cut.

If your post is longer than a few paragraphs, please place the rest of the text under a read more and/or include a link to AO3.

Mods

The event is currently only managed by the blog admin, @space-blue (formerly Blue Daddy's Girl). More mods may be announced closer to the date. If you're interesting in modding for the event, please get in touch.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

How do you feel about track systems for horses? Would a similar system be beneficial or detrimental for captive cetaceans?

Oh that's a very interesting idea. I do really love the concept of track systems and it seems to be a really good way to encourage more movement and improve fitness, hooves ect. for horses.

For cetaceans though... it could be tricky to implement safely if we were looking at physical "tunnels" to funnel them through.

The reason that a lot of cetacean habitats are so "empty", especially for larger species like orcas, is because social behaviour is a huge component of their lives. Social behaviour can include high speed chases, breaches, porpoising, raking/biting, fluke slapping and everything in between.

Obstacles make any sort of high arousal play/social behaviour/aggression even more of a risk. Because in the heat of the moment at very fast speeds, cetaceans can hurt themselves if they scrape against or hit something.

The only way I could see a system like that work is if the track was made using underwater bubble nets. So if they hit them, they wouldn't get hurt. But they'd probably just want to go through them for a massage anyway lol

Physical components of a habitat like rockwork ect. look nice but they will always put cetaceans more at risk of environmental scrapes. We also had that issue in lagoons/sea pens with coral and rocks.

This is why I think Chimelong is amazing with their underwater bubble jets and wave pools because it's a safe way to make their habitat variable and enriching, encouraging underwater exploration/diving and surface wave riding.

The study looking into what factors influence dolphin movement and distance travelled in human care found that enrichment programs and training times were the main influences.

This is just one study though - would love to see more like this with other species, especially orcas.

I'd be so curious to compare the movement of Chimelong orcas compared to SeaWorld orcas too. I would hypothesise that the addition of the wave pool creates a lot more movement and acceleration throughout the day!

Simply adding live fish has had a huge impact on some of the orcas in the the San Diego SeaWorld pod, with lots of hunting and moving around being recorded. And I love that! It's simple but effective!

I think you could get so creative with cetacean habitats to encourage more movement, especially focusing on underwater and diving based enrichment. This would be better than focusing on what the habitat looks like, focusing on what the animals actually value and find enriching.

So things like creating underwater treadmills they could use to exercise on (they'd probably need to learn how to though). Underwater and surface water jets that they could turn on and off when they want, wave pools at varying heights, creating currents in the water ect.

I kind of got off track but imo that would probably be the best way to encourage more movement!

[montammil]

June of Doom Day 6 - "They don't care about you."

| Flinch | Broken Promise | Abandoned |

Characters: Rowan, Sawyer

A little AU if this was the way Rowan kidnapped Sawyer. Also shorter than my usual stuff, been in a creative rut for the millionth time lol.

CW: Intimate/yandere whumper, kidnapping, consensual sex (no descriptive nsfw), drugging, implied stalking

...

Sawyer was never too interested in dating, he had no need to when his life was finally starting to go good. He had friends he actually trusted, got a new apartment that wasn't completely falling apart, and was getting steady income. That was all he needed.

And then Rowan happened.

Rowan was always hanging around the club, watching him with hooded eyes that never dared turn away from him. He would leave huge tips, and tried his hardest to get Sawyer's attention.

For a while, Sawyer managed to ignore him and write him off as one of the usual creeps who saw him as an object to get them off more than a person with feelings.

Yet Sawyer was feeling extra depressed one night, and if he got any more drunk than he already was, he'd just embarrass himself.

He was sitting alone when Sawyer walked over, even if it was more of a stumble than anything. "Hi." His voice was surprisingly clear, though it wavered on the edge of drunkenness. "This seat taken?" He pointed to his lap suggestively.

Rowan sputtered out his drink. It was a little cute, Sawyer had to admit. The same guy who was acting like a total creep was also a blushing mess when his advances were returned.

It gave him an odd sense of control. It was hard to feel scared of a guy whose hands shook whenever he was close to him. Sawyer figured he had little to no sexual experience, given the way he couldn't hold himself together like most people could.

"N-No, of course not. I'd love it if you joined me." He shifted so Sawyer could sit.

Sawyer took him up on his offer. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder, giving him a seductive look. "Rowan, right? You've been coming in a lot. Always watching me. Do you just like watching me or do you think you have a chance with me?"

Rowan practically had hearts in his eyes. "Can't it be both?"

That made him laugh. "Sure. Well, Mr. Rowan, wanna get out of here and continue this in private?" He gestured to the back exit with his thumb. "Free of charge." Rowan jumped up and dragged him out of the club, much to Sawyer's amusement.

...

When Sawyer woke up the next morning, Rowan was already awake. He was on his side, and Rowan was tracing his collarbone with his fingers.

He barely remembered anything, but judging by how almost half of his body was littered with hickeys, he knew they fucked.

Sawyer stretched and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Mornin'."

"Morning, my love. Sorry for all of these." He kissed a bite mark on Sawyer's shoulder for emphasis. "I promise I'm not usually that rough, you just have that effect on me." He ran his fingers through Sawyer's hair. "Want me to make breakfast? I make pretty good pancakes."

"Actually..." Sawyer reached over to grab his clothes off the ground. "I should probably get going."

Rowan blinked in shock, then sat up as well. "Really? Oh, well I can drive you home if you'd like. Whenever you're free, we could--"

"Look, this was really nice and all, but this was a one-time thing." He pulled his slacks up his thighs, wincing at how sore he felt. He was still recovering from last night, that was for sure. "You're a great guy and all, but I don't do relationships."

He slipped his t-shirt over his head. Sawyer resisted the urge to look at Rowan. He could feel his eyes burning the back of his head.

"Why not?" It was a simple question, yet it felt so invasive.

Sawyer stood up, getting his shoes. "Because it's just a waste of time. I've had my share of boyfriends, and they always ended in disaster." He adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves. "Relationships are just drama and heartbreak, I'd rather just enjoy what life gives me, without any added problems."

"And I'm a problem to you?"

He wouldn't let himself get manipulated. "No, because we aren't dating."

Rowan didn't respond for a while. Sawyer got up to leave, only to feel a hand wrap around his wrist. He flinched back, but it did nothing to deter him.

"You make me feel alive." He kissed his knuckles, a strange action that came out of nowhere. "I don't see you as just another sex object like all those bastards do. They don't care about you. But I do." He slowly moved his kisses up Sawyer's arm. "I can prove it. Just give me a chance."

Sawyer shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "I'm flattered, but I'm just not mentally ready for another relationship yet." It felt like a cheap excuse, but it was the truth. He was afraid to open his heart to someone else again. "I'm sorry."

"When will you be ready?" Rowan asked. His tone was flat.

"I... I don't know."

Rowan's grip tightened for just a moment longer before letting go. "Okay." He sounded disappointed, but stepped back to give him space.

Sawyer offered a wave and smile. He made long strides to the door, wanting to escape his regretted actions as soon as possible.

As he twisted the knob, an arm wrapped around his stomach and pulled him against Rowan's chest.

Sawyer opened his mouth to scream, when a rag was forced over his nose and mouth. He immediately held his breath, but the substance was already seeping into his lungs.

His knees buckled and Rowan lowered him to the ground, holding him protectively. Sawyer was terrified, his vision was already fading at the corners, his consciousness being sucked away with each passing second.

"Shh, it's okay," Rowan hushed, stroking his hair. He stared down at him with a sickening adoration. "I love you so much."

The last thing Sawyer saw was Rowan leaning down to kiss him, and then was overcome with darkness.

[marshallpupfan]

Hopefully this isn't too weird or invasive a question, but I'm curious what draws you to Paw Patrol as an older fan, and also what your experience has been like in the fandom and as a collector? (I'm assuming you're an older fan and probably close to my age from the non-Paw Patrol media you share haha).

I am indeed one of its older fans, and I can think up a few reasons that keeps drawing me to it.

One I can say right away is the fact I have a big love for canines, thus I tend to gravitate towards anything with dogs (and wolves, depending on if they're heroes or villains). They make up plenty of my favorites characters, as some of you seen in one of my previous Asks, and I generally tend to enjoy things more when they're involved (a friend recently recommended an older game to me, which I enjoyed all the more because you got to travel around with your trusty dog).

Funnily enough, not too long ago, I took an interest in the Asterix and Obelix franchise because of its dog character, Dogmatix... and I was quite thrilled when I heard he was getting his own spinoff cartoon! Of course, it was only available in French at the time, but much to my luck, the first half of season one got dubbed in English and [officially] posted on Youtube, free to watch! I gave it a go, and I thought it was pretty good! If anyone's curious, click this link to check it out. And yes, this might've been a thinly-veiled attempt to talk about this cartoon somewhere, since there aren't many English-speaking fans. lol

Arquebus/Musketix is the best character.

But yeah, the pups are one of my biggest draws to PAW Patrol, and unlike some fans, I rather like it when other pups get added to the cast. Boomer and Claw both certainly helped renew some of my interest in the franchise, particularly during a time in which I felt things were going downhill. Hey, I just love dogs!

Obviously, Marshall's easily my biggest draw to PAW Patrol. I'll admit, I tend to take a far bigger interest in an episode when he actually gets some good attention... and it's why my interests start to wane when he doesn't. The dude's legit my #1 favorite animated character, so I suppose it's no surprise to hear I often tune in specifically for him. That's not to say I don't get enjoyment from the other pups, but I'm just so crazy about that spotted pup!

Another aspect that draws me to PAW Patrol is just how fun it tends to be (or used to be, but the modern seasons still have their moments). I don't want to go too deep into this because I don't want things to get too serious, but let's just say... life can be quite rough anymore, and it never seems to get much better. I often look for something that can help me escape that for a while, even if it's just for a half hour at a time. I found that PAW Patrol does that for me. It's cute, colorful, fun, doesn't try to be complex, and by the end, everything turns out okay. And if I need cheering up after a bad day, a certainly clumsy, spotted pup often always puts a smile on my face. Some days, I need that.

----

As for my experiences with the fandom, I'd say it's been largely positive. I do tend to meet a lot of friendly people, many of which tend to be supportive and/or cheerful when I need it, and I generally enjoy interacting with most of them right back! I certainly don't regret being a part of it for the last five years or so.

With that said, I've had encounters that certainly weren't pleasant. I think everyone knows about my copycat by this point, so no need to retread that old ground. There's one infamous user out there who just seems to hate everything (unless it involves Everest), and he often turns hostile if you don't agree with his opinions. The same dude even tried arguing and verbally attacking those who work on PAW Patrol... including their families, too! Crazy guy. I've also encountered some fans who seem to make stuff up, believe their headcanon to be fact, and then become angry when people don't agree with them. I once had someone tell me Ryder is "gaslighting" Rubble, and... I don't even want to know what that means or why they believe that.

And in-regards to being a collector, the reception I often encounter has been quite positive, too. Most fans really seem to enjoy seeing my collection, even if it's just out of curiosity to see just how much merchandise they made of one single pup. I still get compliments on it all the time, from both fans and non-fans of Marshall, and I've even seen other folks who just think it's legit cool.

Surprisingly, I've only had one negative encounter so far, and it was, believe it or not, from someone who used to be a fan of PAW Patrol. She became one of those folks who encountered bad users, got tired of them, and then decided every fan must be awful... and of course, she tore into me because I "talk too much" about Marshall and deemed me a "freak" for collecting so much merchandise. Most of what she said was largely laced with swears and insults, and I'm sure she believes she put me in my place or something... though in truth, I was laughing at most of her replies. Why she felt the need to throw such a temper tantrum on me, I'll never know, but she didn't succeed in even the slightest to discourage me or anything. lol

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

We've been expanding the chicken run a little at a time as more and more of the chickens start enjoying their yard, and we finally have all of them using it so it's time for the final push lol. We've also been smothering invasives and reseeding with native wild plants and locally bred heirloom crops like Turkey Craw beans and carolina reapers. It's going really well, and as much as I've been stressed that we aren't at subsistence peoduction yet, I'm remembering way back at the beginning when I SAID to myself I probably wouldn't manage it in year one without a whole lot of good luck. We didn't exactly have bad luck but we didn't exactly have good either, and yet! We're definitely on track at this point to be growing subsistence level grains, veggies, berries, and stone fruit by end of next summer. And that's genuinely been a huge relief to realize.

Also! One of the hens got REAL broody today and was trying to nest in the dirt bath section of the run. Gettin real particular about what straw she added to her nest, all that. And then she spooked and ran inside. But a few minutes later, EGG!!!

The first egg of the flock! She's looking lovely, and I'm excited to crack her open and see if she's fertilized or not (we're pretty sure there's still a roosting amongst the hens we haven't fully ID'd yet) so we can decide if we get to eat it or the dogs do lol. Either way! I'm really fucking excited because ideally this means no more $3/dozen egg prices for me!!!

You have to understand, on a normal month, I buy 144 count egg boxes at least once, and on months when I'm having trouble with meat I buy one of those every two weeks. That is. So much money. And I've done the math. The chickens cost WAY less to keep and use for egg and meat supply than buying other people's eggs and meat costs, AND I know the conditions they're kept in and the ethical practices of their slaughtering. It's fucking. Great. I understand intellectually that most people do not enjoy/are not cut out for the subsistence farming life, but historically, the farther from it I get, the sicker I get, and the doctor's try to help and DO help, but they can't stop it either and keep saying "avoid this, avoid that" like doing that doesn't mean avoiding the godsdamned world.

I dunno. I love my work. I love my home. I love being a wretched little dirt weasel and the smell of fresh spread hay and the feeling of mucking out a stall and the taste of leaves you ripped out of the dirt yourself. In my ideal world, I supervise my interns, see a few clients a day for half the week, and spend the rest of my life poking around in the topsoil. In my ideal world, when I'm hungry I wander out into my garden or my store room and grab a packet of tea or some preserves and chicken jerky or a bundle of kale and just go eat it in the corner with my hands while furiously ink washing my calligraphy bunnies. I will come online for raid nights on weekends and say things like "there are 15 plums left and they need to be eaten or preserved in the next 24 hrs, who wants to bet how many plums I can shovel in an hour?"

My joys are small but I revel in them with hedonistic abandon

[oddeyesarcpendulumdragon]

another late @arcvmonth prompt fill but I have decided to be nice to myself and just do things at my own pace

Anyway this is for Day 5, role swap, and I decided to dabble a bit in the Fusion-XYZ swap that used to be popular back in the day

Main art is of Sora and Shun's swap since they're the most prominent roles. Shun's outfit is semi-based off of Kaito's, as in XYZ instead of Obelisk Force, they would have the Number Hunters. The actual Number Hunters would wear an outfit pretty identical to Kaito's white coat design, but Shun's is a little different (the way Sora's is different from Obelisk Force) because he's trying to be a spy and all lol. I kept his signature colors/palette, I just wanted to make him look a little sleeker since he's not coming out of a civilian life where he got fucked up by a military invasion.

For Sora, I decided that since Academia is no longer a military school, their uniforms would end up being pretty much the same as they were in GX. I wanted to alter Sora's design a bit to show that this was a different universe, so I changed his jacket to be more like an actual GX jacket (still Obelisk Blue because come on he's still a good duelist lol), and his shorts are based off of Rei's uniform in GX, cause idk boy just looks good in shorts. Added a cloak because he had to be sort of incognito at first, like Shun and Yuto with their masks, and because even in canon all the Fusion kids are always wearing cool cloaks haha.

I have more thoughts under the cut but I don't want this post to get too long:

So basically, the swap's premise is that Leo goes to XYZ first and starts his child soldier grooming program there instead. This means that Academia is a normal duel school, while Heartland becomes essentially one big child soldier factory. Leo spreads his influence to multiple Heartland schools and connects them into one interdimensional army network.

Shun and Ruri are still siblings. They grew up together, and when Leo came along and started militarizing the schools, they just kind of got swept up in it. Leo located Ruri rather quickly, but since she already had some family ties, he couldn't isolate her as easily. So he rolled both Shun and Ruri into some of his more elite training squads.

Ruri is still kept in Heartland, but now she has not only Leo, but Shun also telling her to stay put and that she shouldn't participate in the invasion.

Shun is still very young when Leo gets ahold of him, so he swallows the whole "we have to destroy this other dimension for the sake of universal peace" pretty easily, and gets very gungho about it, because he wants to protect the world for his sister. Ruri also swallows the story, and wants to be a hero like her brother by fighting the "bad guys."

Meanwhile, Academia is just an ordinary school with ordinary kids doing ordinary stuff. Sora is just another student. He's super smart and good at dueling, but doesn't have a lot of drive to impress anyone and is considered a problem child. This gets him to butt heads with the star student of the school, Selena, who is annoyed that Sora is always lazing about, while Sora is annoyed that Selena is always nagging him.

You may ask, where are the dragon boys in this scenario? I'm glad you asked!

Yuto is still friends with Shun and Ruri, however, Leo has been taking steps to isolate him from them by sending him on lots of missions of his own. I didn't draw yuto cause I didn't want to try and design an outfit for him, but he plays a similar role to Yuuri: his job is to go and find girls that look like Ruri. Leo tells him that Ruri is special and there are girls like her who need to be found and taken into protective custody. Unlike Yuuri, who was very sadistic in his own way, Yuto is very genuine. He truly believes he's doing the right thing, and that in and of itself is terrifying. When he faces an opponent, he's always trying to comfort them, like "it's okay, being carded doesn't hurt, it's going to be all right." Which is scary! To most people!

Yuuri is another smart student at Academia who sees no need to prove himself to anyone, like Sora, so the pair of them tend to get along. He's one of those annoying kids who never studies but gets an A++ on everything he does and he has a big head about it. Yuuri's a bit of a prankster and a tease, so he also annoys Sora just as much as Selena does - but he annoys Selena far more.

Anyway, the invasion hits them HARD like it did the other way around in canon. Some of the elite students of the Academia barricade themselves in the school and defend with siege tactics as a last-ditch rebellion. Yuto is sent in to collect Selena, but Sora encounters him first. Sora challenges him and loses. But Selena arrives in time and threatens to make Yuto's job hell trying to chase her down if he cards Sora, but that if he lets Sora go, she'll go with him quietly. Sora blames himself for Selena's kidnapping, and the guilt drives him to find a way to get her back.

Unlike Sora, who in canon didn't have anything to do with the invasion, Shun actually is sent to Fusion as part of a strike force where he really racks up the card count and is considered a super powerful soldier. So Leo entrusts him then with the mission to head to Standard to keep an eye on Reiji.

Things go sideways for him though when 1) he notices Pendulum summoning and 2) he meets a girl who looks just like his sister.

So Shun goes to You Show instead, deciding this is a more effective use of his spying. While there, Yuzu ends up asking him to teach her XYZ summoning, which he agrees on account of her reminding him of Ruri.

So at this point, you can kind of guess where things go. Sora and Shun clash, Ruri runs away from Heartland to see if she can help her brother, and she meets Yuzu, who tells her to get the whole story.

Ruri arrives just in time to see her older brother throwing Sora down a flight of stairs after beating him in a duel, and she's horrified. How could her loving older brother do something like this? Shun is also horrified, because Ruri turns on him. He has no choice but to end up retreating back to Heartland, and Ruri stays behind.

Shun starts to switch sides a little faster than Sora did in canon, because now it's personal. At first he thinks that Ruri's been brainwashed or coerced by Reiji, so he's furious and desperate to take revenge, but once he has a chance to think about it, he starts to consider how Weird his childhood is and how much Leo was always trying to separate him and Ruri. So he starts to investigate what's actually happening - plus, he thinks Yuzu was kidnapped, and he feels guilty for getting her involved.

As another swap, Dennis and Sayaka switch places. Dennis is back in Academia trying his damndest to support the rebellion, but he's terrified and hates himself for his cowardice. Meanwhile, Sayaka was groomed into becoming a spy. She didn't end up becoming friends with Ruri in this continuity, so Ruri doesn't recognize her when she joins the Lancers - but Sayaka did still meet Yushou and was enamored with his dueling style, like Dennis was. She's quiet and sweet and wracked with guilt for everything she's done, but is too afraid to stand up to Leo and the Number Hunters.

anyway this is getting long! You can probably extrapolate some stuff from there :) maybe i'll do more scribbles about this au again sometime.

[teetle-time]

Live or Die, Man, We Need Each Other (Part 1 of ???)

Shortly after the invasion, Leo and his brothers go on their first post-Krang mission: stopping a different ominous group of occultists from summoning a being of unknowable power from another (non-prison) dimension to wreak havoc. Evil never rests, after all, even if he and his bros should probably still be recovering from their last big all-out battle.

Meanwhile, Danny just wants to take a fucking nap.

Surely this won't turn into something absolutely massive in scale that sucks them all in.

(or, so do yall remember that Danny Phantom crossover that's been haunting me? yeah lol behold. throwing some ghost king danny in a blender with the rise guys and some classic tmnt tropes that rise never really got a chance to explore, with an eventual side of textfic/chatfic, jack and maddie fenton trying to be good parents, dani, the epf, the giw, roughly one and a half farmhouse arcs, rise-ifications of minor characters from previous tmnt iterations, and *checks notes* shelldon my son <3)

Not actually posting to ao3 right away this time I think- I kinda wanna polish/tweak this bit a lil more first, but I figured this first bit works well enough on its own! also i wanted to infect yall w/ the brainworms because a mere 8 dp-only xovers on ao3 feels like it should be illegal <3

〜

There was an electric charge in the air as Leo peered down at the cultists from the rafters.

Considering the fact that the charge felt like a portal despite Leo's lack of portaling intent, he would bet away his rights to the final pizza slice for a month that something was about to come through.

The cult below (not the Foot, shockingly enough) had chanted enough Latin that Donnie had gone pale upon checking his tech for a translation, so that 'something' probably wasn't good, either.

Just how Leo wanted to spend the end of his first full day off his crutches.

Really.

(Idly, he wondered if there was any point to being so bitingly sarcastic in his own mind when nobody could hear him anyway.)

He met Raph's eyes, then Mikey's, then Donnie's, each of them mirroring his own resignation and resolve.

"Veni ad nos, Rex inquieti Mortuorum!" cried the cultists as one. "Veni ad nos ut serviamus tuo glorioso proposito in mundo viventium!"

Leo opened the mind meld for a split second. Right, so I caught "rex," "mortuorum," and "serviamus." All in favor of sending these idiots to the Pain Train?

That got matching smirks from his brothers, and Leo grinned back before flipping down from the ceiling and dropping into the main mass of observing cultists. "Hey, guys, I think I got a bit lost. I was looking for the bathroom, but it looks like I found a bunch of would-be world-conquerers instead!"

The face of one of the lead cultists, the one at the head of the summoning circle, contorted into an expression of rage almost comically intense- and, to be quite honest, second only to Casey's extremely emotive face.

And then the rest of the cultists swarmed him.

Luckily, his brothers had only been a split second behind him, and the four of them wove between cultists with ease when possible and laid the hurt on 'em when slipping through wasn't an option.

"We gotta break that circle!" called Mikey worriedly. "Barry told me even circles half as ornate still summon things way above our pay grade!"

"We're getting paid?" quipped Leo, even as he zeroed in on the circle and slashed his katanas through the air. "What, we get an allowance now?"

No portal of his own appeared, his energy immediately flowing into the air just above the circle instead. Lovely.

As Leo inwardly rolled his eyes and just pressed further through the mass of people, Raph's crimson projection shot overhead. "POWER SMASH JUTSU!"

While Raph did successfully manage to bring his glowing fists down on the circle with enough force to shake the ground and knock the cultists nearest him off their feet, the circle only glowed an ominous acid green, completely untouched despite the now-massive cracks in the concrete around it.

The lead cultist laughed from where he'd fallen to the ground. "Yes! Yes! The King has heard our call and is coming to do our bidding!"

Leo watched in horror as the acid green crackled into icy blue, and as the temperature plummeted, an eerie voice rang through the warehouse.

"Uh, the only bidding I was planning on doing today was in an online auction for a rare piece of Dumpty Humpty merch."

What.

All motion froze, and Leo found himself gawking as smoke billowed from the circle before coalescing into…a white-haired humanoid teenager.

"And I'm pretty sure that auction just got sniped from me with 10 seconds left on the clock, but instead of getting the chance to snipe it back, I got yanked out here," snarked the teenager, glaring at the hooded cultists with eyes the same acid green as the circle had been.

One of his eyebrows lifted slightly at the sight of Leo and his bros, but otherwise he paid them no mind.

One of the cultists spluttered. "What-?! You're not the Ghost King!"

The teen's face went flat. "No, actually, I'm pretty sure I am. Wasn't planning on it, but, yknow, the old guy picked a fight with me a few years back. If it's him you wanted, uh…you're shit outta luck. I don't really do things his way."

The cultists all started turning towards the teen in anger, but-

One.

One single flick of his wrist, and the cultists were all encased in ice, save for small holes just in front of their noses and mouths.

That was all it took.

The teen groaned and dropped his head into his hands, some of the eerie reverb fading from his voice. "And today's a test day."

"Uhhh…" said Leo intelligently.

The teen stiffened, then stood up straight and scratched at the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. "Ah, shit, sorry about all this. Were these idiots trying to sacrifice you? Cultists have a tendency to do that, even though I keep telling them not to."

"Um, no…Your Majesty…?" tried Raph, his voice rising to a squeak at the end.

"Ugh, ew, please no." The teen grimaced. "You can just call me Phantom. Or my first name, but I'm not really sure I wanna say that out loud with these guys right here." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at one of the cultists, who helpfully made a furious little peep in the ice.

"Fair enough," said Mikey, getting his metaphorical feet under him just before Leo could. He clapped his hands together cheerfully, and only Leo's lifetime of growing up with Mikey let him still see his younger brother's nerves. "So, are there any rules or anything for that summoning circle that need to be put into action before you can go back to your online auctions?"

Phantom shrugged. "I mean, technically if there's still somebody conscious around, I still have to make a deal before I can leave, but I'd be willing to get these guys to the cops with evidence of their crimes in exchange for directions back to Illinois."

Leo met Donnie's eyes. He could see the urge to ask Phantom every question in the English language.

Donnie shot him a pleading look.

Leo pressed his beak together thinly, then smiled at Phantom. "As long as that evidence doesn't include us four. And also my twin bro over there wants to be able to ask you things. Probably all the things."

"I can keep you out of it," Phantom agreed immediately. "I know what it's like to wanna stay on the down-low, trust me. Though…I probably can't stay very long, but I can make an email address so we can keep in touch?"

"That would be splendid!" declared Donnie, a grin already splitting his face.

"Sweet," said Phantom. With a snap of his fingers, the cultists and their icy cases shot out the door, the circle's light died, and a slip of paper appeared in front of Donnie. "Now, uh…how do I get to Illinois?"

Seeing Donnie preoccupied with entering the text on the paper into his systems, Leo went to pull out his phone, but Raph beat him to it, already opening up TelloMaps and showing Phantom. "Well, it's a bit of a ways away, but-"

Phantom's hands flew up to grab at his hair. "I'M IN NEW YORK?!"

Leo frowned. "Hey, what's wrong with New York?"

"Nothing!" said Phantom far too cheerily, already lifting into the air. "Except! It is an almost 900 mile flight and I have cl-uh, gotta be somewhere in under two hours! Gotta go, I'll keep in touch, can't stay any longer BYE!"

And he shot out one of the upper windows in a flash, leaving only a skybound sonic boom in his wake.

Leo blinked. "…huh. D'ya think he knows I could just portal him there, or…?"

Mikey visibly deflated into Donnie's side. "Ohhhmegosh, Barry's gonna lose it when I tell him about this."

"Woah, woah, hold on, who says we gotta tell him anything?" Leo asked.

"Bro, the 'old guy' Phantom mentioned?" Mikey quirked a brow ridge at him. "That'd be Pariah Dark, a violent ghost who ascended to the ghost throne right about when humanity was learning about this hot new thing called 'fire.' Barry taught me about it on, like, my second day of mystic training. Dude was so big and bad his subjects had to revolt and lock him up, like the Shredder on steroids except without the evil armor possessing him."

Donnie pressed his palms together and lifted them against his beak, the perfect picture of someone who'd just realized something horrifying. "Is the throne passed down through, perchance, a line of conquest?"

Mikey nodded. "But usually mystics tend to figure that anybody who could beat Pariah Flippin' Dark would be even bigger and badder than him. Except…"

Raph's face was turned down in a thoughtful frown. "He sounded…kinda like a normal human teenager our age. Except for the 'dead' thing. Did he actually mention Dumpty Humpty, or was Raph just hearing things?"

"If he'd known there'd been a change in power, Barry would've told me," Mikey continued. "Not just because I'm his favorite, but because he knows I'm just chaotic enough to think about trying bigger things on my own, and learning about the Ghost King is kinda huge."

"Only thinking, though, right, Mikey?" prodded Raph sternly.

"Scout's honor!" chirped he immediately.

"Is that even something we can say after we failed at being Todd Scouts…?" Leo trailed off.

"Casey made me an honorary Brownie Scout when she came to visit after the invasion and you guys were all out cold," said Mikey unapologetically.

"I wonder what happened 'a few years back,' and what a white-haired fellow teen from Illinois had to do with it," mused Donnie, helpfully bringing the conversation back around to the important bit.

"Betcha Hueso might be in the know," Leo suggested. "He's a yokai instead of a ghost, but being a skeleton yokai might mean he knows stuff like this."

"Let's get home before we do anything else," said Raph. "I can see Leo's legs shaking under his weight."

"What?" Leo protested. "My legs aren't-!"

Unhelpfully, his knees knocked together hard enough to draw his attention to where they were, in fact, shaking from the effort of holding himself up.

"Ah, crud," Leo groaned. "Never mind. I can still portal us home, though, at least."

"That's what I thought," Raph snorted. "Besides, I think this whole Ghost King mess can probably wait until we're all sitting down, if that's the new guy."

Mikey nodded. "Gotta give ya that. Barry'll probably still make a funny face, though."

"Eh, let him." Leo hefted himself up onto Raph's shell, then leaned to the side and sliced a portal open. "Vámanos!"

〜

As Danny streaked over Pennsylvania, he dug out his phone and started tapping at the email app Tucker had coded a few months back. It'd been mostly for laughs- who on Team Phantom even needed email when they all had Fenton Phones? and even regular phones, nowadays?- but it was just as secure as everything else Tucker made, and as it turned out, it was exactly what he needed this morning.

Better to have it open in the background so he knew when the purple turtle guy got around to emailing him.

Once he made sure he still remembered his password, he pocketed the phone again and pushed himself a little faster. He'd clearly gotten faster since the last time he'd checked- the sonic boom was honestly his first clue- but he couldn't keep that kind of speed up for very long yet, and he was still over…looked like Ohio, now.

Oh, wait, there was a 'welcome to Ohio' sign just up ahead- and he passed it.

Now he was in Ohio.

All that to say, he still couldn't afford to slow down in distraction for very long if he wanted to get to class in a bit more than an hour.

As if waiting for Danny to think exactly that, his phone buzzed.

He tugged it back out to check, and it buzzed again in his hand.

The first notification was a text from Jazz: 'I saw you weren't in your room just now. Fight or flight?'

The second was an email from an alphabootyyyshaker9000@geniusbuilt.com- an email that seemed more like an essay, if the shortened version in the notification meant anything.

Danny grimaced, made sure he was aligned with a highway down below so he wouldn't drift off-course, and tapped out a response for Jazz.

'flight. bookin it rn, p far. tell u later, but im ok'

She responded with an immediate thumbs-up and smiley emoji combo.

"Never change, Jazz," Danny huffed with a grin.

Then he tried to look at the email.

'Tried' being the key word.

Luckily, the purple turtle had prefaced his email with the sentences 'You are welcome to answer this once you have the time. You did mention being in a rush at the moment.'

Relieved, Danny shoved his phone back in his pocket and turned his attention towards his own personal Get-Back-Home 100% Speedrun.

[asoftgoth]

I hope these aren't intrusive to ask, but when it comes to your recent hip growth...

A. It's so cute, first of all

B. Do you believe they're growing solely because of HRT, or because of HRT plus you're specifically eating enough to continue gaining during your transition?

And when it comes to your transition in general, if you happen to plan to undergo any sort of gender confirmation surgery, have you already looked into qualifications/patient criteria? I'm not asking because I want to pry about you but because I think my egg is cracking but I'm already about the same size as you and I'm worried that if I even try transitioning, eventually I'll hit a road block at which point if I want to get any relevant surgery, they won't consider me viable unless I lose a lot of weight.

Again, I'm so sorry if this isn't stuff you're comfortable talking about, in which case please don't feel obligated to reply to this at all. I hope you're doing well!

Hey there :) First off im happy to answer pretty much any transition related questions. These are really invasive though and I appreciate you acknowledging that. For everyone that will read this, please don’t expect every trans person you speak with to be willing to open up like this. But with that said here we go:

A: Lol thank you 🥰💕

B: Its such an exciting and scary part of someone’s life when their egg is starting to crack. I remember those days well and I feel for you. But trust me, it gets so much better 💕 And about your questions, my hip growth is because of HRT mainly, and the fact that I have an overall decent diet. That’s pretty much it. And the diet aspect is important, when you transition your body is undergoing a massive transformation and it needs energy to help it along. My actual diet is for another post maybe, (it’s not anything special tho) but I’m not “actively gaining” and haven’t been since I started HRT, believe it or not! It might surprise some people but I’ve actually lost weight even though I’ve added about 3 inches to my hips since starting almost 9 months ago. Almost all of the weight I’ve lost (about 40lbs) has been from muscle loss throught my body. Plus I’ve also lost a ton of visceral fat from my waist(yay), and gained lots of subcutaneous fat in my ass and thighs (also yay). That’s not to mention my chest which is *really* growing a ton, and fast too. I’d say im really lucky with how my proportions are filling out, but it’s a long process and im extremely grateful. Transitioning definitely isn’t over night tho and as much as this sucks, it’s a genetic roll of the dice for what your proportions will look like. Transitioning takes a lot of bravery, and I don’t say that lightly.

With all that said, yes I do have some surgeries in mind that I want and plan on getting in the next few years. I don’t want bottom surgery, but if I did then my size would be an issue. There are strict BMI limitations for getting a vaginoplasty. It fucking sucks but that’s just the reality of things in 2023. Simpler surgeries like getting an orchi don’t have those requirements and that’s one thing I plan on getting fairly soon. Another one is FFS. I’ve actually talked with a few surgeons already who do FFS and some have BMI requirements and others don’t. The ones that don’t unfortunately may cost a bit more from what I’ve seen. (But they do have more experience too). For implants and things like that, I don’t know, I haven’t researched boob jobs specifically but I can’t imagine BMI would be an issue there. I know it isn’t for fat injections in your butt/hips.

One last thing too that I wanna make clear, because a lot of people might read this. You don’t have to actually take any medicine or have any procedures done to be transgender 💕 Medically transitioning is something that helps so many of us and is absolutely necessary for (I would say) most trans people, (it 100% saved my life, I wouldn’t be here without it). But not all, and it doesn’t define your transness whether or not you’ve taken ~this~ medicine or had ~that~ surgery. I was just as much a woman as I am now for the year before I started HRT when I knew I was trans. And I was just as much a girl when I was born. I’ve been a woman all my life, it just took a little while for me to figure myself out haha. Just trust your gut and make healthy decisions. I put off the whole “deliberately gaining” thing while my body is going through all this change. And I personally feel like im better off for it. However I’m working out and eating to help grow my lower half, so I guess you could say my gaining journey isn’t over, it’s just changed. But anyway, I hope this helps you and anyone who reads this, sorry it was so long lol. If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask, and my inbox is always open too 🖤

[douglas-rain]

Top Five Douglas Rain Recommendations From Yours Truly

You want to see more of Douglas Rain, but you're not sure where to start? Well, do I have the thing for you! As the internet's most preeminent Douglas Rain expert (except for Gerry Flahive I guess, but he's kind of slow at answering emails and more focused on other stuff these days. If he wants to reclaim the title, he can meet me in the parking lot <3), I've made you a handy little list of some of my personal favourite performances by DR that I think you should see and/or hear!

And by 'little' I mean 'I got way too into this, so it's pretty long now'. I put it under a cut; you're welcome.

In the interest of fairness, I've chosen one performance from each of his fields of work (namely: ON STAGE, RADIO WORK, DOCUMENTARY NARRATION, TELEVISION and FILM). Please know, however, that I can give reviews of basically everything in the masterpost, so if you're interested in hearing about any of them, feel free to shoot me an ask!

Without further ado, let's get into it...

-

ON STAGE: Henry V (1966)

Okay, this one's teeeechnically a TV movie, but it's adapted from Stratford's staged production, so I'm counting it. It's also a rare treat in that we get to see DR in colour! (Everybody say THANK YOU to David Rain, his son, for bullying the Festival into restoring this production and adding it to their online catalogue. I owe him my life.)

This is one of Shakespeare's histories, part of the Henriad (aka the collection of plays about the accomplishments of various English kings). Henry V, the main guy in this one, is actually the crowned version of Prince Hal from both parts of Henry IV, a role that DR had played previously at Stratford, so this is a fun bit of character continuity for him! The play centres around the king's invasion of France, with a lot of ruminating on hope and despair and duty and bravery. Harry - as he is affectionately referred to on occasion - is really going through it, and DR portrays him with such emotional intensity. He's proud, he's fierce, he's clever, he's a BITCH and I like him SO MUCH.

The book has been edited down slightly to fit into a two hour runtime for television, but beyond a few... very funny jumpcuts, it's not really noticeable at all. And while the sets are kept mostly simple, the costumes are gorgeous. I went in not expecting much (a mistake I keep making when approaching Shakespeare plays, for some reason lol), and was thoroughly entertained the whole way through!

It also contains the transcendentally funny line, "Tennis balls, my liege!" because Shakespeare was the most hysterical motherfucker on planet Earth. It makes sense in context, I promise.

Can be found on Stratfest@Home, the online streaming service of the Stratford Festival (there's a 7-day free trial period if you sign up). You may also check my masterpost of performances for a possible alternative, but shhh.

-

RADIO WORK: Fifth Business (1980)

I love this one; it's literally so fucking funny. This radio play is a dramatisation of the 1970 novel of the same name by Robertson Davies. Fifth Business recounts the life story of Dunstable "Dunstan" Ramsay, from his boyhood in an idyllic (on the surface only) Canadian village to his experiences in the First World War, his career as a teacher and all the loves and complications he runs into, and the formative experiences peppering his life where he's never quite the main character. He is instead 'fifth business' - neither hero nor villain, but still integral to resolving the play's plot. Ramsay is clever, sarcastic and a goddamn weirdo who's obsessed with saints for non-religious reasons. He dodged a snowball as a kid and the consequences of that haunt him throughout the entire book.

The radio drama features a whole cast of actors, including of course DR as the protagonist (who also narrates everything btw), doing an absolutely delightful job. Fellow Stratford actress Martha Henry, who also happened to be his wife at the time, is in it too!

The entire drama is delightful, honestly. I liveblogged my experience listening to it for the first time, and man there is some wild shit happening in this novel. The entire thing is about three and a half hours, but it really doesn't feel that long.

Can be found (in eight parts) on YouTube or on Archive.org. (Or in a junkbox on a sidewalk in Toronto. I'm still baffled by that.)

-

DOCUMENTARY NARRATION: Universe (1960)

A classic. Documentaries make up a sizeable chunk of the masterpost (thanks to the NFB website and archive channels on YouTube), so there were more options in this category than in any of the others. But I decided to go with this particular gem of a documentary.

It's about - who would have guessed - the universe, featuring the most advanced scientific knowledge of planets and stars at the time. The special effects are also quite impressive - if you move around Space Odyssey circles, you may have heard that the visuals of this documentary were a major inspiration for 2001. Also, DR's narration in Universe is what brought him to Stanley Kubrick's attention. You can probably guess how that ended. (Gerry Flahive has some articles about the whole thing if you don't.)

Anyway, Universe is a beautiful and meditative look at our galaxy and the many things it contains, and DR's narration is absolutely lovely. It clocks in at just under half an hour, so not that big of a time commitment either.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

-

TELEVISION: William Lyon Mackenzie: A Friend To His Country (1961)

It's so hard to find old Canadian TV shows anywhere online and I'm forever bitter about it. Our options here are incredibly limited as a result, so you're just going to have to accept that I'm recommending you a historical short film from 1961, alright? This is as difficult for me as it is for you.

Unsurprisingly, this movie is about William Lyon Mackenzie, who was... *checks Wikipedia* "a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician." Yes, DR is doing a Scottish accent in this role. Yes, I adore it. I know very little about Canadian history, so I can't exactly speak to the film's accuracy, but I found it charming and DR is doing a very good job. Most of the half hour runtime is spent on Mackenzie's various political struggles (some sort of failed revolution, I gather, followed by exile in the United States and some jailtime) and him trying to protect his family. His wife is played by Canadian actress Kate Reid in this movie, which I personally find very funny for... reasons. IYKYK.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

-

FILM: OEDIPUS REX (1957)

I'm sort of cheating again, but the only other options in this category that I have access to are the two Space Odyssey movies, and they seemed like too basic of a choice. So have some more drama instead! This is also a filmed version of one of Stratford's plays, but released in theatres this time.

Oedipus Rex is a breezy 87 minutes and adapts the English translation by Yeats of the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, with a little added prologue to set the scene. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie, who you might remember as the Big Man from The Stratford Adventure. Or from the fact that he was a pretty famous theatre guy. If you need a refresher on your Greek myths: Oedipus was the guy who was prophesised to kill his father and marry his mother. He got done dirty by Freud somewhere down the line.

DR plays the role of the Messenger, a minor part who recounts some of the most famous plot points of the tragedy of Oedipus, which they couldn't show onscreen/onstage. Granted, he's only in this one for like five minutes, but he really rocks up to crash the party wearing the coolest outfit in the entire show. And yes, everyone in this production is wearing Greek theatre masks, so you can't see his face. You get to hear his voice though - and watch his captivating body language!

Can be found on YouTube. Or you can probably buy it on DVD if you really want to; idk, I'm not the boss of you. (I've also clipped his scene if you really, really don't want to watch the whole play. I get it's a big ask. Really beautiful production though, seriously!)

[i-logophile]

So I made that playlist for Game of Shards (and just generally, the turtles), and I've decided to explain the TGP-specific songs in excessive detail bc y'all don't understand the depths of my hyper-fixations.

For the most part, the playlist is in chronological order; however, some of the songs are grouped by general vibes (e.g., songs for Leo's various timeouts in the darkness are all grouped together as opposed to being chronological with the story), and whenever it switches perspective, it may go back to previous chapters (e.g., the first 40-ish songs follow Leo through Ch. 1-7, and then it jumps back to Ch 2 for his brothers' POVs). Instrumentals/OSTs are scattered throughout as interludes between scenes and/or perspectives.

Tbh I don't even mind if people actually read this; I just wanted to write this down lmao

If y'all have any suggestions or song recs, feel free to put them out there! (I reserve the right not to add them to the playlist tho—no hard feelings 🙃) I will probably continue adding to this list because I keep finding more and more songs lol

TGP spoiler alert (duh...). Also TW for mental health issues in some songs.

ROTTMNT Movie

1. "Everybody Loves Me" - Okay, but this song is just like LEO all the way. 2. "give a little." - Leo, stop that angsty middle-child nonsense (saxophone slaps tho). 3. "Expectations" - I ain't got much to say about this one tbh. I feel like it fits the vibe though. 4. "Doomsday" - Leo's getting frustrated with all this leader/hero business. He wants to go back to the simpler times when all he had to do was look pretty and smooth talk. 5. "Not OK" - Leo's tired of being told what to do. the lyrics "Sorry can you please repeat the question? / I'm broke, and I never pay attention" really give that Leo+Raph scene in Leo's room in the movie. 6. "ight bet" - Leo gets cocky and impulsive. 7. "One Wrong Turn" - It's not so much the lyrics as the theme of the song. In other words, Leo, you done fxcked up. "Something funny that I've learned / Is just how quickly fate can turn / How one simple mistake can take you out (out, out, out) / Something funny that I've found / Is just how quickly worlds burn down / Make one wrong turn and you can't turn around ('round, 'round, 'round) / One wrong turn can burn things to the ground." 8. "The Tornado" - LISTEN TO THESE LYRICS. They fit the movie perfectly, especially "Every fiber in me screamed out, but I couldn't make a sound / The whirling of a vortex, a violent carousel / It sounded like a freight train was draggin' me to hell / And this was my prayer / "Save me from this terrible nightmare!" / That was when I saw my family with my eyes shut real tight / Would they know how much I loved them if this was how I died? / No, I vowed I'd not be murdered by a monster in the sky that night." 9. "Otherside" - Leo's existential crisis following the Invasion Pt. 1 10. "When I Die" - Leo's existential crisis following the Invasion Pt. 2.

TGP Ch. 1: Leo Reminiscing

11. "Hold It Down" - More existential crisis, but now with that ever-familiar side of guilt and regret. 12. "Humpty Dumpty" - Something's wrong (*cough* PTSD *cough* chronic injuries *cough*). Leo's trying to push through it. 13. "Home" - The lyrics "When I fall, will you show me who I'm meant to be? / Because I'm getting tired of who I've become", "I'm not a hero or a child, I'm just something in between", and "Days passed as I would start to scream / I'd hear the words around my head like they were circling / You'll never be who they all want you to become / Oh will I make them proud enough / Or am I even worth the love / Don't let my self-doubt take my pride away, yeah / Because my spirit felt the cuts / And my ego lost its luster just as fast as I could say" hits my soul. Poor Leo. 14. "Growing Sideways" - Leo's brothers all seem to be healing, why isn't he? 15. "Superkid" - Leo's a ninja, a hero, yet something is still wrong—he realizes it's him. He surveys the damage to the city and thinks of the struggles his family has faced. He blames himself. ("So, hide your face / Smile at the people even if it's fake / 'Cause they can't know your kryptonite / Fly around the city, make 'em think you're fine / But you can't save them.") 16. "Tread On Me" - Leo's trying to take responsibility, but he's drained. "Lotta miles, lotta folds, I'm still tryin' to just get back up / Don't you tread on me / I could hardly sleep / So I don't / And I can hardly speak / So I won't." "I'm tryna live in the moment like you told me / I'm tryna control it without givin' it up / I'm a soldier and I'm on my feet for now." 17. "Porcelain" - It's the glass theme, guys. 18. "One Winged Airplane" - Self-deprecation with just a touch of despair. ("Even though I keep on fallin', I just pick myself back up / I just keep puttin' my all in, even though it's not enough / I've lost so much already, so what? I'm not afraid to show up.") (I'm biased toward the ADHD songs ngl.) 19. "Corner of the World" - Depression(TM): Leo Style. ("It was tough when he was younger, but he finally got it down / Convincing everybody he's a comic, he's a clown / 'Cause he hides it so well that it can't possibly be found / He's constantly let down, but he says that he heals / He laughs and jokes about it, but it isn't real / He just mirrors the emotions that he wish he could feel / But if no one ever noticed, it's a victory still.")

Ch. 1: Leo's Run

20. "Run Away to Mars" - The song's a vibe, and it fits the scene, what can I say? 21. "Run" - Leo was getting stir-crazy in the lair. Luckily, he can go for a nice run while he waits for the pizzas. ("Something isn't right, I can't hear the inner me / But my shell is doing well, so nobody intervenes / Convos feel like interviews, I get through by any means / Mirror on my face, I'm just displaying what you give to me / Every day I fantasize of burning it all / Go somewhere where I would never be a burden at all / Take every penny that I ever earned and give it away / Disconnect the telephone and disappear in a day.") 22. "run little hero" - "Run, run, run, run from your friends, from your family / Like they're the next calamity / Cut them out like profanity, – into insanity / Running from your commitments / You're running up on the price / You better run little hero / 'Cause you're running out of time." Also, the last lyric of this song killed me. 23. "Run Boy Run" - Just a run, a nice, chill, definitely-not-gonna-have-consequences run.

Ch. 1: Leo and the EPF Van (plus ~panic attacks~)

24. "Paranoia" - Leo notices a black van. Again. And again. 25. "Overwhelmed" - Pretty self-explanatory if you know the song—though this is a different cover than the OG, so a bunch of the lyrics are different. (Personally, I like this version better.)

Ch. 1: Leo v. Mark and Clark

26. "OH WELL" - Everything's gone to shit. 😃 27. "life is good" - Leo cannot, in fact, dodge tranquilizers. "Face down, but I can feel my body moving / Is this real or am I in an illusion / Get up get up I’m only human / Pupils dilated like I’m bout to lose it / so crazy so I turn off the news / Living in a lie and we can’t see the truth / Every one fighting tell me which side are you" 28. "Redecorate" - "I don't want to go like this / At least let me clean my room. / I don't want to leave like this / 'Cause the last thing I want to do is / Make my people make decisions / Wondering what to do." 29. "alive (it's a lie) - demo" - As Leo succumbs to the tranqs, he can't help but think of his brothers, all seemingly on the road to full recovery. Meanwhile, he's stuck. Some ninja he is.

1. Interlude

30. "Sinister Intentions" - Get it? Bc the EPF has sinister intentions? Somebody stop me

Ch. 3: Leo Wakes up and Meets Bishop

31. "Lucky Charms" - Leo wakes up in his cell and thinks lots of lovely self-loathing thoughts. ("Wish I could say, wish I could say / That this won't last forever / But every day, but every day / It never seems to get better / I hate myself but I don't want to / I'd ask for help but I'm too strong to / I got some feelings I've been fighting / Always hiding the truth.") 32. "Now That We're Alone" - Bishop and Leo vibes all the way.

Ch. 3-7: The Darkness (AKA Leo's timeouts) & Bishop's Interrogations

33. "Black Water" - Just listen, you'll get it. 34. "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" - Leo goin' crazy, y'all 😜 35. "Timebomb" - Leo's thoughts toward B-Man during literally every interrogation. 36. "Panic Room" - All bets are off when the lights turn off. 37. "Talking To Myself - demo" - He misses his family, your honor. 38. "Pretty Little Smile" - Leo's trying his best to hold it together. 39. "Ship in a Bottle" - Leo spiraling about Bishop and the EPF and his brothers and... 40. "SAD (Clap Your Hands)" - Thinking specifically of Leo doing the Cup Song here.

2. Interlude

41. "Solas" - Felt like this one was properly somber, but still a good transition into the frantic energy of Leo's brothers in Ch. 2.

Ch. 2-6: Donnie, Raph, & Mikey Want Their Brother Back

42. "Enough" - Donnie is angry at everything. He just wants Leo back. 43. "Me Myself & I" - Donnie regrets fighting with his family. 44. "Happy Song (Low Key)" - Mikey's gonna keep smiling if it kills him. 45. "Brightside" - Mikey tries to hold the family together while dealing with his own issues regarding Leo's capture. 46. "I'm Doing Fine" - Raph struggles under the leader's mantle.

3. Interlude

47. "Glacial Basin" - An appropriately unnerving prelude to Bishop's plan(s).

Ch. 8: Bishop Tries To Manipulate Leo

48. "Twisted" - Leo is (high on pain and painkillers but also) so confused. Come on, Bishop, you're hurting his concussed, drugged-up turtle brain.

Ch. 9: Bioagent-X

49. "Control" - Leo gets angry at Bishop, escapes, and finds his brothers, but he doesn't know what's going on with himself. (I know this song's kinda overused in a lot of fandoms, but I couldn't not include it. I mean, it makes sense here, doesn't it??)

Ch. 10: Turtles v. EPF

50. "Clouds" - Bioagent-X takes its toll. The EPF attacks. 51. "CHOKE" - The plan falls apart. Leo is taken once again. Angst, spice, and nothing is nice.

4. Interlude

52. "Fade (Interlude)" - It's a sad moment, dammit.

Ch. 11-12: They Are All Struggling

53. "everything is falling apart again" - I felt like this song fits Raph very well, especially here. One of his themes in TGP was that he felt like things were falling apart, and since the first half of this chapter is from his perspective following the disaster that was Ch. 10, this was the perfect place for this song. 54. "Gravedigger" - Leo is throwing reason and caution to the wind. If he's his own gravedigger, why not dig his grave as deep as possible and make it even more difficult for the EPF? 55. "Dark Room" - Back home again to his cell and the darkness and Bishop's manipulations. "Way down we go / To the dark room / Where your pain's the only one to greet you / Down we go / To the mind that / Will deceive you. / Only out to get you." 56. "Numb" - Leo struggles with despair. 57. "Headlights" - Leo's had enough. "Is it only me or do you / Ever feel like you've had enough? / Screaming at the top of your lungs / These days it's so dark and I can't get my head right / Mind is spinning out of control / Running, but there's nowhere to go / These days it's so dark that I can't see with headlights."

5. Interlude (and Ch. 12)

58. "Rain, in Your Black Eyes" - I know it's long, but this is my favorite instrumental piece. It's solemn but gradually hopeful. This song follows Leo regaining his Ninpō in Ch. 12.

Ch. 12: A Small Spark, A Blue Flame

59. "Power" - Leo uses his Ninpō and faces down the EPF with his escape in sight.

Ch. 13: Mind Meld

60. "Brother" - They've found him (granted, in the Mind Meld). (And, yes, I know the song's overused yada yada, but it fits.) 61. "can you hear me?" - Leo's gotten this far, but he can't get out alone. 62. "No Chances" - "We want you home in one piece now / We come for you, no chances"

6. Interlude

63. "The Last Survivors" - Cinematic and dramatic.

Ch. 14: Leo Holds On

64. "Come Home" - Leo's trying to come home. 65. "Bones" - Leo plays a desperate, painful game of hide-and-seek while his Ninpō fades in and out of his control. 66. "Bleeding Out" - This song makes me specifically think of when the EPF overtakes Leo after Bishops turns off the lights. 67. "My Tears Are Becoming A Sea" - Leo sees his brothers' light in the impenetrable darkness.

Ch. 14: Hamatos to the Rescue

68. "Flares" - Leo's family is here for him. 69. "Edge of Rain" - Hamatos v. EPF (Take 2)

Ch. 15: They Got Him Back

70. "Call Your Mom" - Yes, I know the song's about Noah Kahan's girlfriend, BUT "Stayed on the line with you the entire night / 'Til you let it out and let it in / Don't let this darkness fool you / All lights turned off can be turned on", "Waiting room, no place to stand / His greatest fears and wringing hands and the loudest silence / If you could see yourself like this", and "Don't wanna drive another mile wonderin' if you're breathin' / So, won't you stay, won't you stay, won't you stay with me?" IT FITS DAMMIT.

Ch. 16: Bishop's Boutta Get It, Guys

71. "Start a War" - Okay, but why does this song describe Game of Shards (not just TGP) so well? I think specifically of the lines: "Bang, shots fired. / Pain is what you desire. / The pen is mightier than the sword." ;)

7. Interlude

72. "Nuvole Bianche" - The send-off. For now.

Once again, feel free to suggest other songs. You may have noticed that some chapters/scenes didn't have any songs, so if you think you know a song that would fit somewhere, lmk! (I'm particularly salty that I haven't found songs for any scenes with the Krang Sister :P)

[m0llygunn]

2, 14 and 20🥰

Sorry for the late replyyy!! I wanted to actually put thought into this, so it took a minute! Thank you for the questions Francy!!! <3

2. When you’re writing a new story, what is the one thing you need to know before you can start? I'm not sure if there's really one thing I need to know, usually everything I write starts with a concept, or builds off a one-liner piece of dialogue. Like when I wrote A Job Well Done I started with just knowing I wanted reader to be asking Eddie those invasive 'balls' questions because I thought it would be funny lol

14. What’s the one word you can never spell/use properly, no matter how hard you try? Definitely and immediately ( just used spell check, and spelt 'immediately' so wrong that it wasn't showing up) I don't know what it is about those words but I cannnnnnnnot spell them for the life of me

20. What is your best piece of advice for writing smut scenes? SUCH A GOOD BUT HARD QUESTION (and why I took so long to answer this) and basically I have to put a read more lol

I feel like I could have a lot to say and this could potentially fall into the ‘those who can’t do, teach’ realm, but I’m fine with it. Mostly because I hardly consider myself a writer, like, it's something I do, but it’s not what I am. I think more than anything I am a learner. I like to learn new things, and in this case, I learned everything I know from reading other people's work. Most boring piece of advice: read. Find your favourite piece of smut, and study why it's your favourite. For me, something is usually a favourite because of the vocabulary — fun words used, pretty words used, there's creativity in the words, there's variety, etc. I am a sucker for good words.

I think the biggest tip for this is looking up synonyms. Usually I write what I want to write first and I let myself be as repetitive as I want, and then I go back and change words that get repeated too often. I don't have as big of a vocabulary as I would like, but vocab is so easily hackable by looking up synonyms for words that you do know! (My testament is that I went to grade school in french but grew up in an english household, so basically I suck at both languages, and have to put in a lot of effort looking up synonyms, like you guys would never ever ever give my drafts the time of day lol)

Also, a fun little thing that I do is a very unorthodox version of research called turning to reddit. For example, if I’m writing a blow job scene, I’ll google something like ‘best blow job you ever got male perspective reddit’ and I’ll read a bunch of replies, pick and choose descriptive words that I like, add it to a list, then write something using said words. It's fun. It’s like a game. I enjoy doing it. You learn a lot (too much sometimes, but the ‘male perspective’ component is an added adventure and helps with variety and novel outlooks!)

But yeah. Sooooo rambley lol, and I don't know if this is actually helpful, but it could be a fun smut writing exercise to try!

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Cool answers, happy super early valentine day lol ❤️ got some more for you! :D

1: are they fans of the Super Bowl/puppy bowl or just like to watch the new commercials?

2: in your universe, will zod ever be redeemed, like maybe teaming up with his son against a massive invasion from darkseid or mongul & maybe sacrifice his life for his son, or is zod just plain bad?

3: this maybe a little dark, but have the duo been in a terrifying scenario before, like a school pew-pewing?

4: what is one thing they would do for a million dollars?Like brush their teeth & then drink orange juice.

5: how would their lives be if they didn’t meet or at least not 1st best friends?

6: I think I ask this already but are much are they a hugger on a scale of 1-10?

As you can tell, my universe is ready for questioning if you want to ask me anything? Asks are open ;)

1) Oh easy….its about the ads especially for whatever new movies or video games are coming out that year the Duo focus on. Though every now and then it can be an ad not related to those things which also gets their attention. A prime example being that time Dr Evil took over General Motors.

2) Probably he can take a similar Omni Man direction in trying to find some redemption for the errors of his ways though even Zod might know deep down he might never truly receive that forgiveness from Chris for the years of harsh treatment dished out since basically the latter’s birth. Perhaps uneasy alliances against worse threats including Xa Du and Darkseid between Zod and his son’s adoptive family can occur to which Chris then earns Zod’s respect as a worthy soldier for his own cause (Truth & Justice) which can be a small step on the massive mountain climb that is full reconciliation.

(More below the cut as the answer for Question 3 might be heavy handed)

3) Oh My yes they have. Mainly for Jake, an incident like that at his school occurred during what was an average day. Suddenly during Pre Algebra, loud banging noises sounding like whip cracks were heard down Bludhaven Academy’s hallways so his teacher took the time trying to investigate but thankfully got out of the perpetrator’s way and had his class go into lockdown mode. The issue was that unfortunately, the perpetrator was a recent grad from this school who knew about said lockdown so they weren’t easily fooled, blasting through the door’s locks. The amount of shots fired and bullets spraying all over that classroom can only bang loudly in Jake’s ears as much as his eyes can see one by one some of his classmates try making a run for it either past the attacker or through the window, only to catch their aim and get mercilessly hit by said bullets. Finally, it took a clever distraction from Meredith who risked getting into the aiming sights did Jake finally act, using his acrobatics and a wooden measuring ruler found on the red crimson fluid soaked floors as an impromptu escrima stick to knock the weapon out of the attacker’s hand and knock them out cold, ending the rampage.

In all, 45 total lives, including about 2/3 of Jake’s algebra class, were lost to this incident, and out of those 45, 41 of them were all below the age of 18. Needless to say, Meredith and Jake had to ask extensive permission not to be counted as heroes in this case (in addition to Bruce and Dick lobbying hard with the news media not to reveal any details about the attacker and their background prior to this incident) as that would distract from the real tragedy and the actions needed to prevent such from ever happening again. The hashtag #BludhavenAcademyBrave or #BAB for short trending very quickly the very next day, complimented by Chris and Jake having a blue and white armband with that shortened hashtag as Nightwing and Skybird respectively.

4) Money isn’t always a factor of concern for them since not only are they happy with the lives they do have but there’s also the small elephant in the room that is Mr. Owner of the Third Largest Corporation in the DCU, Gotham’s Prince Playboy Bruce Wayne being their ally and a factor to it. But if they have to earn a million dollars, I can see Chris and Jake attempting a feat that breaks world records of a sort or participate in many Japanese game shows. A popular one in real life that was around in the 80s was called Za Gaman (‘Endurance’) where its contestants would endure some of the nastiest, most punishing and messed up types of challenges imaginable ranging from being tied to a paddle steamer’s engine, dunking back and forth into the water or eating ice cream while buried neck deep in the snow. That I can see the Duo doing for a Million US dollars.

5) Chris and Jake without ever meet each other would be frankly in much more sadder and less fulfilling lives as they would not have as strong of a drive for adventure beyond just doing so due to their respective families and in Jake’s case with other friend and his Big Sis’ friends doing so. It’s likely Jake might’ve quit the hero business altogether even after his powers came in some time later and trying living a normal civilian life while Chris only really goes into hero duties if he was accompanying Jon. So overall, a lot more would change in ways neither one want to really think about

6) Chris: 8 on good days and 9 on days he feels off and needs a hug for comfort. Though he’d only go for it if he’s given a form of permission

Jake: 10 easily. Both Mar’i and him frankly. It’s a family thing, coming from Kory of course XD

Thanks for these asks as always @pin-crusher2000

It’s very appreciative and yes you can be expecting questions for your universe in due time ;-)

[potatoeofwisdom]

Minecraft rottmnt au?? Oh please tell more

-☆staranon☆

Ok now that I’m actually confronted with the task of putting my thoughts to print I’m drawing a bit of a blank, but I’ll try and ramble about some of it here! (thank you so much for the ask!!!)

The gist is, through mystic mishap (Mikey trying to save him from the prison dimension) Leo is sent hurtling through dimensions to Minecraft. It’s a silly little doodle au I made up after playing Minecraft a few days too many.

Leo, once thrown into the world, is left injured and alone without any means of escaping. So he’s forced to travel aimlessly, searching for any information as to how to get home. He finds strange structures that sometimes contain more information about the world and what had happened before. (Kraang invasion)

This all takes place hundreds of years after the kraang had been evicted from the world so we’re following Leo as he discovers the after-effects of wide scale kraang takeover on a world that defeated them.

Creepers are actually the last surviving “kraang” left on Minecraft, save for a few exceptions we’re still ironing out. They are both self destructive and green due to a fungus based bioweapon the “old ones” (those who fought the Kraang before) used in the war.

(Zombies are also an unintended side affect of this)

They kinda plague Leo specifically because I feel like it would be funny (traumatising). They’re pretty rare normally but he seems to attract them for some reason.

There’s a bunch of other stuff we created as well, like the kinda history of the villager and illagers (the villagers live in a kind of isolated cult society) and the political connections between the different old-one societies and why each of them individually fell to the Kraang or joined together.

In all honesty I’m bad at writing story elements, or character writing. likelyhood is I’m not gonna do much with this au aside from doodles maybe every now and then.

If I was to outline a kind of story it’d be how he goes from structure to structure discovering more about the stories of those who all died during the war against the kraang whilst trying to track down more information about “the portal”.

Obviously there’s several portals in minecraft so he gets mislead into believing a portal to the nether could be a portal home, and that could lead to a certain amount of angst.

He would eventually find a way home, probably after defeating the ender dragon (it’s corrupted by the kraang)

Some facts about the dragon and the endermen:

The endermen have a kind of cryptid, assumed benevolent vibe to them in this. No one really knows their objectives aside from them trying to save(?) the dragon, which is a kind of god in this world.

The endermen are revered as a kind of holy figure due to their connections to the dragon.

The dragon works like a kind of phoenix but nobody knows this, unless the endermen do but no one knows what the endermen know or don’t know.

The dragons breath is literally the dragon dying kraang style™️ it’s great 👍

The dragon is stuck in a kind of half-death because of the kraang so it’s eternally suffering lol

Also the villagers mistakenly believe Leo to be some kind of enderman equivalent due to his portalling, and worship him accordingly, as seen in this post here

Some other facts:

A lot of the old ones religions were focused heavily on life and death and the cycle of decay (the purity or lack thereof depending on the culture) due to the fact skeletons have always just. Existed.

There is more lore about the specific beliefs of each about the life and death thing but I’ve forgotten them and will have to ask my sibling about it again

Skeletons were able to become passive but only due to religious practices of one of the old-one societies (the desert peoples)

All of them added the dragon somewhere in these religions but how exactly the dragon played a role in them was different depending on the religion and was subject to many debates (+ wars)

High-tech-kinda Machinery and magic exist. The ins and outs of both are unclear (Each society were more or less involved in the practices of either )

The underwater temples (and the underwater peoples) were extremely technologically advanced. Arguably the most advanced of all the old ones. They didn’t believe in the standard respect for the cycles of life and death and the practices surrounding the skeletons but they had their own beliefs and culture separate to the rest of the old ones.

The underwater ppl did body modding with copper and technology. Think underwater steampunk. You get me. Their zombies reflect this.

Mushroom islands are like nuclear wastelands but from mushroom bio weaponry

Mooshrooms are the only things that can survive on those islands anymore

They are like the zombies but better (somehow managed to reach complete symbiosis with the fungus. Unclear how exactly??)

Oh yea the dragon lives on the moon but the moon has an atmosphere so it’s fine

The kraang were all eviscerated by a machine created by the old ones. The only remaining kraang are those who were too far altered to be recognised as fully kraang anymore (creepers) and therefore managed to avoid whatever the old ones machine did, or were protected by plot (the dragon corruption).

The deep dark has lore and Leo is definitely gonna explore it in his search to find a way home.

[georgieluz]

getting a few things off my chest about Gen Kill. sorry im in your inbox. but i am. you can publish this ask or keep it in the DM, both are fine.

First, actually the hardest series to watch in all three shows for me. I'm ok with the level of violence in the other two (as well as other trigger-warning content) but the level of civilian casualty in GK just really fuck with me. I find it very hard to want to rewatch GK, even tho I do like the show a lot.

Second, Both TP and GK, for me, are the anti-thesis and deconstruction of BoB. In two different ways. TP talks about another theater and how fucked up these stories are and basically pushes the audience away. Don't look, it's not a story to share (vs BoB that invite you to take part and be with the characters). GK is the modern day glory-seeking meaningless chaotic and toxic reality of the US military (vs BoB's fighting for the right thing, our officers are smart and capable). And they're both meta answers to BoB's more propagandistic story.

Third, ok, let's get silly lol. I have to say whatever is going with Brad and Nate is fucking homo. "Not to be homo sir, but I can kiss you right now" um what. And the eyes contact. Bro. Bruh. That being said... I ship BradRay xD Their bantering old-married-couple dynamic is more my speed, than BradNate victorian yearning dynamic xD

hello, no worries, it's all good, my inbox is always open for thoughts, insights and opinions! this got pretty long so i'm gonna put it under a read more so it doesn't annoy anyone

i published this bc i ended up adding a lot of my own thoughts about it and didn't want it to seem like i was directing them specifically at you or your opinion bc i do go off track a lot.

it was the hardest series for me to get into as well at first, for a similar few reasons. first of all, it felt like i was being dropped into a locked room with men who would hate my guts, and not just have bullied me in high school, but detest my existence too. so i think that atmosphere of over the top toxic masculinity instantly made me uneasy, but that's the point. that's the whole reason the articles, book and show exists really. to show how that mindset and atmosphere laid the groundwork for what happened. i think if they were to have made a show where we as viewers are allowed to laugh along with their jokes, enjoy their interactions, but not be forced to confront the realities of both the invasion and the people taking part, then it would defeat the message and themes that the show is trying to present to us. i think the civilian death, and basically the way the military treated civilians in general, has to make you uncomfortable, otherwise it's not doing its job as a text or piece of media. at least from the writer's perspective and what they wanted to say about what happened there, bc ultimately, everything is a construct with biases and a goal. so i 100% agree with you in that it's easily the most uncomfortable show to casually watch in that regard, but if it didn't show all of that, it wouldn't be a show with a purpose, imo.

i would personally put the pacific a bit closer to band of brothers than gen kill when it comes to discussing its propagandism actually. bc whilst it has the caveat of "this is the reality and brutality of war, it's horrific, you don't want any part of it" and "it's not all camaraderie and brothers being bonded for life", the show still has its 'heroes' who are depicted as sacrificing either their lives or their mental wellbeing for 'the cause', and it still carries the message of "yes this is terrible but it's needed". two things that propagandist themes can thrive amongst. just reading some of the more bootlickery youtube comments about the pacific shows how some of those people cling onto the brutality and harshness of that theatre of war, and the show itself, as a display of heroic bravery and badge of honour. i've seen a few commenters on reaction videos and stuff and they're basically frothing at the mouth about how it's so much more brutal than band of brothers, and they aren't saying it from a critical perspective either, which is what the show may have intended, but more from a "omg brutal war porn nice!!" kinda way. i know i'm rambling off point from what you said, but it's just some of my thoughts. i'm probably gonna ramble a bit in the rest of the post so don't see it as me disagreeing with your points bc i think we have pretty much the same opinion in most ways, but i guess your ask has prompted a lot of thinking from me so i'm just getting some of my thoughts out about the shows.

i think for me, i would say the pacific is a stepping stone between band of brothers and generation kill. i do agree in that it is pushing the viewer away from the idea of war as noble, in favour of saying "no! it's dirty and cruel and harsh and you won't survive it, even if you're alive when it's over" but it's also presented in the same way as band of brothers in regards to how we're supposed to view these men. there's many competent and intelligent guys making decisions and the humanity of those men is always on display. they're still shown as heroes, even if they're broken ones. so i think i can't fully align it with gen kill as a direct opposition to the messaging in band of brothers, but more one that says "ok, we've seen it from that perspective, now let's open up the casket up a little more and try to understand it looking through another lens".

whereas for me, gen kill sets explosives in the casket and blows that shit to pieces. there are no noble heroes competently achieving great feats, or sacrificing their lives for 'the greater good'. the people who do die, or get wounded, are seen as wasted casualties and missions gone wrong, fuck ups that we see in the corner of exterior shots to remind us that it's not all singing avril lavigne in a humvee, that there are consequences, even for the invaders. we see the destruction they inflict on civilians constantly, but the marines that get wounded/die are essentially proof of the incompetencies and fuck ups that even the most militaristic audience has to admit to.

the line of morality is non-existent, apart from a few people that we meet, but they have no power whatsoever. they can't actually do anything even if they disagree with what's happening. they stand by and they watch. we get nate who hates it, very clearly, but his whole thing is that he literally can't do anything. he has no actual power or impact on anything there. i saw a meme on here a few days ago where it was like "i'm competent at my job but i'm starting to think i'm just decorative" and it's funny and just a silly meme but it's also kind of the truth. we see him make a few decisions that go over the head of the initial orders, etc, but in the big picture, they have so little effect that it's a drop in the ocean comparatively. so the little competency we do have is ineffective. and even the more authoritative roles within the narrative that we get to see, like ferrando, are shown as not just making bad decisions, but actually not having much control over matters themselves. they're all floundering from top to bottom. there's no basilone or winters or ack ack there to make us sigh with relief as viewers bc finally, someone will make things right, make the right choice, do the right thing. instead we have these very complex people who have a lot of messed up flaws and shit within them, but some realistic relatabilities too. and sure, a good few of them want to do better and will call out certain shit they see in different ways (doc bryan, nate, espera, brad) but ultimately, they're forced to not just watch and let it happen, but a lot of the time, take part and be culpable for those actions too.. and it's not depicted as a noble sacrifice of their morality, it positions them as helpless and incapable. so the viewer doesn't get their usual hbo war heroes, which to me, feels like a direct answer to both band of brothers and the pacific in that kind of way.

i feel like walt's character shows us that (on a surface level basis but still). he's presented to us as the more appealing contrast to trombley. they're both young and in brad's team, two sides of a coin you could say bc we're shown immediately that trombley is the problem child and walt is the pretty golden boy that spends his scenes telling brad to get some rest or trying to fix the dodgy equipment they've got, or essentially is just trying to be helpful. but they both fuck up bad and kill civilians as an individual. we don't get to keep our clean innocent pretty boy. he fucks up. bad. his hands aren't clean. none of theirs are. not nate's, not even doc bryan's. he says that himself. walt clearly feels terrible afterward and that's the difference between him and trombley (though i will say i do think trombley is much more complex than we see on the surface), but walt doesn't get to escape the blood on his hands. even the most seemingly "innocent" characters never get to remain that in this show. there are no heroes.

and then the second point i mentioned above about the message of "yes was is terrible but needed sometimes" is the other thing that gen kill throws away and abandons. nothing, not a single thing, is depicted as needing to happen. yeah, they're told it's needed and honestly, a lot of those marines were brainwashed into believing it, but the whole point is that it wasn't. it was a colossal fuck up in every way and the show holds up a massive flashing neon sign showing us exactly how, but from the ground.

so absolutely fully agree with you that this show is positioned as a meta deconstruction to band of brothers themes, and even the pacific, especially when the shows are presented as a package deal, as hbo war so often is. it's all a lot more nuanced than what i've said bc i've just been rambling AGAIN, but i think there's a lot of dialogue going on between the three shows when you analyse them from further away that is really interesting to discuss.

so yup, definitely agree with what you said and thank you for dropping by my inbox to talk about this kinda stuff with me! i'm sorry if i went into too much detail or overtook this ask with my own opinions or anything but yeah. i think we all know by now that i tend to ramble when asked about anything!

NOW ONTO THE FUN PART!

it genuinely feels like bradnate have taken up residence in a very large part of my brain. i had heard a lot of people mentioning bradray on here before i watched, so i was expecting that to be the main 'ship' of the show, and kinda thought i'd probably end up getting onboard with that, but i actually only got platonic besties vibes from them. i'm always down for as much gay as possible, so i support it, but i just don't really see anything outside of platonic love between them? i do really enjoy their relationship and interactions though, and some of their scenes are my absolute favourites.

but i'm ALL about the victorian repression and yearning, so ofc bradnate is where it's at for me. as a gay man who repressed all his emotions growing up it just calls to me like a siren lmao. i think that's why i'm like a feral little gremlin about nate actually

[randomnameless]

I have been playing Baten Kaitos EWLO for 3 days straight lol and...

Well, it has been a long time since I haven't played an old RPG !

We have NPCs!

And while some aren't relevant for sidequests and just exist for "flavour text" or stuff, well, they exist and of course add more meat to the environment! Farmer 55 who talks to famer 48 ? Sure they're talking about nonsense (going to the city to find a hubby!) but hey, at least they exist.

And when events happen with the plot, well, they react - in their way - they're not completely and utterly static!

Sure some of them are weird and cryptic as fuck (Mira!) but they feel like they're part of their setting/city they're in - i think it's also helped by the artistic/design choice for each island and area.

Also, special mention to the Diadem Knights (side)quest :

(Sidequest because you can theoretically let everyone die?)

Plot wise, a castle is assieged by the Empire in a surprise attack (hmm) and we have to help the knights protect their castle/defend themselves/protect their King.

And how to help them ? Well, you have spare knights in, somehow, your inventory, and have to support the ones fighting against the Empire, how? Well, when there are 2 knights fighting against 3 imperial soldiers, you have to add 1 knight from your inventory to make the numbers even, and the knights triumph over the imperials. And how to add knights to your "inventory"? Well you have to find the ones in the infirmary and motivate them (using their national flag!)

Sure, it's just a sidequest or a game mechanic, but damn if it, you know, just works getting the player involved with the current invasion and sense of urgency that comes with helping people defend their country from a surprise attack.

In the same vein, we had Triangle Strategy showcase in a small cutscene random yellow (Glenbrook) soldiers wondering why they were attacked, holding a line against red (Aesfrost) soldiers wanting to advance and march on their castle/city.

And because I didn't get the mechanics of this sidequest (tfw you suck lol) I let some knights die, and I'm pretty sure there is a house in the city where a person is waiting for a knight to return home (I think the knight was her son?) but well, since I kind of messed it up, when you return in this home she mourns his death.

But unlike a certain fandom and game in a franchise I still appreciate, no one blames the world, mechanics or the fish grilled over the oven for that knight's death, no, the people living in Diadem aren't written to be completely stupid and blame the aggressors, aka, the Empire (who also, apparently, wrote with markers over their lamp posts just to piss people off lol).

When you finally come in the Empire, well, you can talk - for a time - to the NPCs here and lo! They reveal they are imperialistic pieces of crap, because they think they're superior to the rest of the world and said rest of the world should bow to them - there's even a cutscene where a kid bumps in your party and insults you for making him lose his precious time.

Again, we're in a game who depicts each island/nation through their npcs : the empire is imperialistic? Well, they added NPCs to demonstrate that, it's not only hearsay - we go in the Empire, we talk to its people, we see them spit on us.

No false tea - but maybe Geldoblame was right and wanted to bring enlightment to the rest of the known world uwu - nope, not here.

People do shit, we see them do shit, and Geldoblame falls to his supposed demise after being turned in an eldritch abomination in a pit of lava.

Also, past events in backstories matter : we won't have, say, a character accepting being called a good girl and bonding over sweets with the daughter of the man who orchestrated the sack of her lands and the death of her people and siblings. Savyna's backstory involves murdering the people of Azha?

Watch as there is a cutscene about a kid running away from here, and how you're physically prevented from going in an area by some NPCs because she and Lyude (an imperial who was more or less exiled because he wasn't enough of an asshole) are in your party.

Kalas' is happy after being "finally complete"? Well, it was more or less foreshadowed in Balancoire, when we saw two NPCs talk shit about him because of his supposed "defect", aka only having one wing instead of having two.

Speaking about him...

Well, I watched my bro play the game on GC a long time ago lol, so I knew it, but you can see glimpses here and there about the twist, especially how Kalas himself seems to have more doubts or at least seems to regret his future course of actions, as the party learns more and more about the eldritch abomination he is supposed to release and the idea of betrayal - he is the one who is the most gung-ho about a possible mole in the party, he is seen doubting himself etc etc....

Nothing as hamfisted as a certain twist from another game, but it's nice to see and to spot the clues here and there that, well, he has an agenda that doesn't only revolve around avenging his grandpa and brother.

Given how the Switch version has the JP audio though, I noticed a blooper : Melodia, during the betrayal scene, calls Kalas in the jp audio "nii-san" but the script has her call him "my dear Kalas" - was Origins in preparation already and the devs really wanted to imply that Melodia is the daughter of the leads of BKO, who somehow, through a sidequest, help "create" Kalas?

Or does it relate to Kalas' creation, that happened before Melodia's, uh, "rebirth"?

IDK.

I'll make a post later on about the rest of the game (time to beat up monsters and use a mirror that'll totally work on Kalas to "free" him from the tainted influence!) but so far, from the cast, I'm really impressed with Gibari lol BK's take of the fisher bumpkin who's - totally not a former knight even if he is besties with the King - actually the one to impart wisdom and, in his way, try to refrain Kalas in the first chapters from acting too assholish really grew on me. Hell, it's Gibari who planned the rescue of his bro of a King, got a badass scene where he jumps (rather flies) in front of him to fight against the Imperials, and while it's obvious he's not adverse to using force, he's far from the "dumb muscle" archetype!

and he fucking kills monsters/eldritch abominations by bashing them with a paddle ffs