#after i figure that out i generally dont use the eraser much

[pricklenettle]

19 no delete/erase

[ganondoodle]

as i was awake in the middle of the night for like 2 hours bc i felt sick i had more somewhat random totk thoughts

one being that i really hate how raurus response to concerned zelda is, after sonia died in that almost funny how little impactful it was way, "im sure you are here for a reason" (actually, i hate how often this sentence is used in general to .. idk i guess its supposed to be inspiritational???)

bc what does that mean actually? him saying that to someone who got there absolutely by accident really just sounds like "i dont care go figure it out yourself bc i dont want to think about anything concerning you or your troubles lol" i guess its meant to sound like OOOOH fate has BROUGHT you here bc you have to furfill a role you dont know yet (spoiler its being a sacrifice girl with no personality) and besides me hating the 'inescapable fate' trope in general (at least the way its usually done in these games, which is not to struggle against it but willingly accept whatever you are told and pretend thats good) its really jsut goddamn boring and is really only an excuse to well .. ignore her and her trouble; shouldnt you, if you were actually such a cool guy like the game wants me to believe so bad, do everything in your power to get zelda back to her own world before shes pulled even further into the war you caused now that her only ""mentor"" that could help her get more use of her pretty much useless sudden powers is gone too?? i know shes basically dead wife sonia replacement (can of worms ugh) but it still grinds my gears whenever i think of that cutscene, bc i cant help but hear it as the lamest excuse in existence to not care about her and just kinda .. see what happens which in this case means leave zelda completely on her her own since both rauru and mineru die as well (honestly shouldnt rauru have thought about like .. any plan to defeat gan besides dying himself, given hes the oh so cool and goodest guy king whos only mistake was not stabbing gan the second he stepped into their kathedral castle thing, like even if you had a plan it can still fail but it seemed like he just kinda went in with a handful of people that didnt seem to know each other at all, never got names or faces -or unique voices for that matter- to fight gan face to face inlcuding the girl that came from a different time and had nothing to do with any of this conflict and couldnt even really control her sudden new powers just seems pretty stupid)

thought 2

how totk really feels like botw but for the people who didnt like shiekah tech, its not a sequel, its botw again, but version of only sonau, its like a pokemon game that had two versions but one has weirdly incoherent story and acts like the other never existed jsut as a whole its like retreading the same points but worse, all shiekah tech that was so integral to the world and had such a long history just vanishing and no one caring about any of it like it never happened, HELL the titans were called divine beasts in english but i guess they werent divine or important enough to keep around LOL champions WHO and isntead a never before seen or even heard of race for that matter showing up and planting their ass in every place the shiekah were before, dare i say it feels weirdly manipulative, like either them or some outside force erasing every fact about the ancient shiekah and replace them with sonau stuff bc they are the hot new shit now

this is a point that just doesnt stop bothering me, how the shiekah tech seemed so carefully designed and integrated into botws world and story, its a difficult to keep balance after all, integrating high tech stuff into a medieval setting, but they made it work! and then totk comes around and throws a bunch modern day tech into it puts some vague greenish stone filter on its exterior and call that even better more ancient tech; why did they even bother to make pottery inspired laser shooting spider legged robots so well integrated when they throw a car and rockets into the next game without a thought and call it a day, what was the fucking point

it feels like someone was dead set on having a set of legos thrown into the game it had no place in, if you want players to build whatever they want make a building game instead!! especially if you are just gonna throw it in with seemingly no consideration how out of place it feels togehter with the fACT THAT YOU ALREADY HAD AND ANCIENT HIGH TECH CIVILIZATION WITH A VERY DISTINCT AESTHETIC THAT WAS ALREADY WELL INTEGRATED INTO THE WORLD YOU ARE PLANNING TO REUSE WITH ALOT OF MYSTERY AND UNKOWN STUFF ABOUT THEM TO EXPLORE FURTHER YOU COULD HAVE USED!! but i guess they just "didnt want to play with you anymore" and that so much so that they went out of their way to erase every trace of it, i dont think the words shiekah tech are ever used in the game, and the purah pad and her towers just drive me more isnane bc they are the same shit but called different and also much worse, liek the purah pad isnt some more developed shiekah stone, no its a glorified camera with a teleport function and thats it

(i know i said this before but i really cant stand how obsessed every single NPC is with sonau shit, you get told to your face every second line of dialog that they are so cool and are so mysterious that it just makes me annoyed of them even more, the game is obsessed with shoving them everywhere and telling you over and over you too should obsess over them, they werent weird like that about the shiekah stuff in botw?? the biggesst talking point in botw was calamity ganon ..... which makes sense and in totk its like ... gan is mentioned what, in a newspaper article??? once???and then not even by name i think???)

aside from that big point which will never let me go, its also just .. its not moving forward anything, it actively walks BACK the progress that was made in botw, call me dumb but i dont really count moving one step up in the social roles of each race as a character development (for the side characters like the champions desc- ahem SAGES) but mainly zelda ... god how dirty she was done, totk pretty explicitely makes her regress any development she made in botw aside from she likes link uwu and some people like her too, but also not enough to notice that that weird zelda being all evil and weird isnt her (INLCUDING THE CHAMP- SAGES WHO YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY FRIENDS WITH??? you dont have to be a genius to pick up on that my god, were you all given the mc dumbo potion or what)

she gets put back to square one, back into the little itty bitty princessy maiden role forced upon her by her royal parentage, this time rauru edition, back into a white little dress, back into the scared puppy eyed teenager, back into a situation she cant handle, back into losing everyone around her (tho honestly botw made me care more about rhoam than totk did about rauru), back into being forced to do a big sacrifice- but worse actually

in botw she went to FIGHT AND HOLD GANON IN THE CASTLE SO LINK HAD TIME TO RECOVER AND IT WOULDNT DESTROY THE LAND!! and you are telling me in totk rauru takes up her botw role and she bascially killed herself to ... restore the mastersword.

......... she ... she did that only to be a glorified version of the stone pedestal in the forest. and then she gets returned to normal itty bitty girly no problem via magic sparkle beam at the end and

DOESNT

EVEN

REMEMBER.

it really is just botw but worse, you even get yet another ghost king of hyrule to guide you around (rhoam did it better fight me ... we dont talk about the questionable choice to make himself darker skinned when posing as just some guy)

i honestly dont think i was ever truly taken aback by anythign that happened in botw, while in totk, the further i played, the more i had to fight with myself to keep the feeling of unease, disappointment and betrayal down

its such a god damn shame, totk should have stayed a DLC, i will forever mournfully dream of a game that explores more of the ancient shiekah, doesnt erase integral parts of the world, developes characters more instead of making them regress back and make them end up even less developed than at the start of the game, dives into buried secrets and mistakes of dark pages of history without giving into a weirldy nationalist(imperalisitc?) narrative and lets characters have some agency for once

if it werent for the yiga i might have actually considered refunding the game, just to be at peace with myself

anyway, aboslutely incoherent word vomit.

[enihk-writes]

BlushingScreamingKickingMyFeet — Please rant about your thunderbolt fic ocs, I'm so curious ヽ(´ー`)人(´∇｀)/

Can I also draw the Thunderbolts MC.... 😔💕

(!!) this is a oc/reader discussion

THANK YOU OF COURSE YOU CAN DRAW HERRRRR AND THANKS TO THE OTHER ANON THAT ASKED TOO YIPPEEE!!!!! ILL USE THIS ONE TO TALK ABT MC AND THE OTHER ONE TO TALK ABT MY OTHER OC ❤❤❤!!!!! unfortunately i don't have my pc rn so i dont have any of my reference pictures on hand, also soooo sorry if this is rushed im doing this during my lunch break 😭😭😭

about : thunderbolts mc/reader-insert

[part 1]

1ST LIFE:

MC is an abandoned product of a research experiment where humans tried to play god, they wanted to host the consciousness/body of a god in a human body. she was their first and only successful result even though she was only a vessel for now, she was never given a real name, only ever went by the research serial number. shortly after that the research facility had to shut down and all the scientists involved scattered and destroyed all evidence that they were ever there since this sort of research was highly unethical at that time. by the time the authorities (IGAP) had gotten there to arrest the persons involved, nobody except MC was left.

MC was then taken to a high-security prison where she was detained for probably a few hundred thousand years until directors could decide what to do with her.

MC who is still an empty "perfect" vessel with nothing other than basic survival instincts and little to no further consciousness, is finally brought out by a young man who would later become her legal guardian/superior officer.

the superior officer is in possession of an unaccounted holy relic that belongs to one of the elusive wings (a so-called god of justice's angels/henchmen/proxy) he has his own ulterior motives for keeping the relic and taking the MC under his wing... sorry for the pun i couldn't help it 😞😞

in the first 10-ish years his first order of business was to merge the holy relic with the MC's "perfect" vessel to revive what he thought might be a soul trapped within the holy relic — if it's successful, whatever that's there of our MC right now would be erased forever.

of course, the actual outcome was much different, the synergy between MC and this holy relic was so compatible that the two fused together completely and whatever individual consciousness there was now working as one united being.

the superior officer was obviously not happy with the result but what can he do? in the end he hides that he tried to conduct this merger from everyone and fools everyone into believing that he's doing his job to be the best legal guardian for this sad unfortunate little girl.

MC who is now fully aware of her surroundings, is told by the superior officer that she had suffered serious brain damage from a tragic accident that had taken the lives of her parents and that from now on he was her parental figure. though something deep in her heart (the relic) stirs and tells her to be wary of this man, to never let down her guard and trust him.

as a former high-security prisoner, the heads of the IGAP decide to keep her under their watchful eye, away from the general public and even the other officers of the organisation. with his own authority, the superior officer managed to wipe clean all records of the girls true past and as a precaution takes the time and effort to create fake records of her fake family and lineage. you know, just in case she gets curious as she grew older.

in this world, less then a 100 years ago there appeared those who have the ability to conjure or manipulate various states of matter and energies. and even then they are separated into those that are able to use their abilities for combat and for support roles.

MC at the age of "17" is finally taken to school for the first time, where she will meet with the OC that haunts thunderbolts' narrative and her link to mount hua.

MC is overpowered as fuck but with little to no control over when or where her abilities activate, even after the intense seven years of training in the hidden private facility, she wasn't given the all-clear. if she messed up here, she might never see the sun again.

MC's 1st life at 17 is scruffy-looking, her hair is slightly matted and dry. her pinafore and blouse is a few sizes too big and hangs off her shoulder awkwardly. because of her abilities (summoning thunder) her eyes are permanently shining in this bright gold hue... i like to think people would use her eyes as a flashlight during electrical blackouts at the dorms.

to summarise school life for MC only lasted for a year (will get into that in another time) before she and the others her age were drafted to the respective divisions where they would spend the rest of their lives in, many of whom would die in battle.

MC is sent to division 4, a riff-raff squad full of the most lacking individuals in the whole organisation, and MC's first day was on a warzone at sea where their tiny division of 13 were to fend off 3000 incoming ships. everyone starts praying because this was clearly a mission given to kill them all and be rid of them finally.

MC feels her heart stir again. the relic is acting up and she feels her body react and move itself. she only managed to tell the rest that she was going to deal with the crisis before she single-handedly annihilates all 3000 ships. but it doesn't come without its consequences, 1. the ecosystem of the area is fucked, 2. there is now an eternal rain pouring because her lightning abilities called upon a great deal of storm clouds.

im skipping over her first few years in div.4, to summarise it's not a easy time and her comrades all die one after another in solo missions and she has blocked out this period of her life out of the intense heartbreak she feels for losing them.

when it's just her left in the division, there is a restructuring of the department her division falls under and she becomes the captain. its said the captain never recruits anyone into the division but rookies who underperform are sent to her. div.4 is now the search and rescue squad, and their job is to fish out any forgotten officer left dead or alive in the enemy zone.

in this world, another unusual thing is that everyone has freakishly long lifespans. which makes it more tragic when the kids working for the IGAP die within their first few years of service.

MC in this era is as tall or maybe taller than baek cheon, if you account the height of boots she wears daily. div.4 doesnt have a fixed uniform so she wears a office-style uniform (with a tie because she likes to serve cunt) with a modified harness to carry a few weapons for close combat. her hair is longer now, and definitely more well kept. she keeps her bangs long because people don't really like looking into her fuckass gold eyes. she smiles more, appears friendly and easy-going. but my girl is still a weirdo...... 😔😔😔

end of [part 1]

[musubiki]

Hi, I'm lost, what's m34th?

ah its okay i dont think ive extensively talked about them(?) !! heres a lore post so i can refer back to it as well!! (lengthy bpp incoming) ->

general history:

the m34th was originally founded in the central kingdom as a group of witch hunters/killers as part of the general anti-magic mindset that was common in a lot of the regions following the fall of the witch king

after a while they figured out that killing a witch wasnt practical/efficient because 1) they were loosing a lot of people and 2) even if you kill a witch, it doesnt kill the magic, the familiar just goes and finds someone else to be the host and then you have to find that witch all over again

and they also realized that witches in general were not commonly evil or harming the public, but at the same time the kingdom still saw them as a threat and wanted to erase them from the public eye, so the m34th became a kind of regulating force

ie, they wont kill or harm a witch (unless as a last resort), but if a witch is being a bit too....public?? they will step in. (so this is the reason no one really knows about witches/excuses it as myth. also the reason why witches are forced to find backdoor ways to fulfill their oath of helping people instead of just coming out and curing cancer left and right--the m34th wont allow them to ever be public)

in very EXTREME stubborn situations, they will actually kill a witch if shes too much trouble and just hope the next [insert animal] witch is less of a pain in the ass

so not to say that witches fear them, but they do consider them enemies because 1) a witches life becomes much more restricted under the eyes of the m34th and 2) soilders of the m34th are ACTUALLY capable of killing a witch

general information:

the m34th is made entirely of black canvases (highest possible magic resistance), since the whole point of their existence is fighting witches and magic. (marshal is an exception--he is extremely talented and whatever he lacks like magic res he secretly makes up for in potions)

they also are meant to be magics bane in the sense that in tcwg theres a struggle between technology and magic--technology was created to fill the vacuum that magic left when witches became outcasts, and so its the idea that technology does what magic does (but often slower and less effectively, like healing)

the m34th though is like any government where they have ample funds and resources, and hide a lot of technology and secrets from the public. that being said, the kind of machines and tech the m34th uses is WAY beyond what the public sees/uses/comprehends.

(slaps on *ancient technology* meme because i cant explain it. think really cool technological shit. limes hovering comm device. they probably have frictionless hoverboard bullshit. set your phasers to stun. the kind of technology that could counter and stand up against magic)

they wear almost all white as representation of anti-magic (to contrast witches traditional black attire)

they are the third component to the main magical groups that are in constant conflict with each other: witches, m34th, coattails which represent magic/technology/dark magic respectively (dark magic is a wip but its the forbidden magic of tcwg) and they balance each other out like a healthy ecosystem

another way to think of the m34th is like the cryptic men in black. if you as a citizen see too much or know too much, expect a visit from these guys who are gonna flash the memory pen at you to keep you and everyone in the public ignorant

(for the final conflict against the first witch king the m34th and witches actually do join sides to fight so theyre best thought of as anti-hero types)

[murdaughter]

important vanessa emily things below the cut

extreme tw for child death and child abuse given that em is the daughter of a serial killer and just in keeping with f.na.f lore

-so in my canon, vanessa's mother dies somewhat mysteriously when she's about six years old. i personally don't feel the need to expand upon the, like, where and how of it, but vanessa definitely saw something to incriminate william

-it was definitely something at night, where she was like groggy and confused and for that reason it's very easily written off by teachers, therapists, etc.

-vanessa tries to report what she saw but given that in her canon timeline it was the 1970s (she was born in 1973, making her around 27 at the time of the movie) no one took her very seriously. even in a contemporary timeline, the lack of evidence does her no favors

-things calm down, mainly because william realizes he cut it WAY too close. he also realizes he needs to regain vanessa's trust, especially as she gets older

-we'll say that vanessa was around 10 when freddy fazbear's pizza opened up (which would be a grand opening in 1983), and the murders happened around 1985 (which i believe is like canon to the timeline?? idk man)

-because it was a new business venture (and as vanessa would later learn, a trap) william spent most of his time there, which meant vanessa did too. it became an oasis. her dad seemed happy there, and all the staff liked her and looked out for her. nothing seemed wrong, so to her nothing was wrong

-while she still harbors an underlying fear of her father, he has been working very hard to erase it, and by the time fazbear's is open (i'm not including the diner in my canon bc i simply dont have the bandwidth ahh im sorry) vanessa has largely compartmentalized her fear of her father, considering it just like general teen angst

-but when the 1985 murders happen, vanessa is very, very aware

-i'm undecided on whether she witnessed them because this blog is still in its infancy and i need to do more research on ptsd in general but also like what van's trauma would look like specifically as the child of a murderer, etc

-but either way, vanessa knows about the murders within days of them happening (if not The day of) and william knows she knows

-he then becomes an extremely unstable presence in her life, alternating between manipulation, outright threats, and gaslighting. as a result, vanessa is extremely loyal to him and to freddy's out of sheer fear

-its rare that vanessa is at the pizzeria very late, but she has been there after hours and has encountered the animatronics when they are possessed by william's victims

-vanessa quickly figures out how to communicate with them. like we see in the movie, they aren't really violent unless provoked/under william's influence, especially when it comes to kids.

-it's not the healthiest thing, but vanessa actually develops relationships with the kids, and starts to take solace in them. sometimes, she regards them as siblings.

-the bite of 87 closes the place down right when vanessa is entering high school. she has a weird reputation because of it (she definitely goes from being somewhat popular among classmates just because she like has the hook up to like kind of a pariah just because people are freaked out)

-obviously the murders are never connected to afton but there are very likely rumors and that shit does come down on vanessa in school, especially once the place shuts down

-vanessa has a few outcast friends but again, there is a lot of fear that if she gets to involved william might hurt them too

-once she graduates, she goes to state school (idk if fnaf has a canon location but! i'll pick a state eventually probably) but she is very much under william's thumb the entire time

-william brings her into the fold once she graduates college, as he has learned that it's difficult to keep the security guards alive

-vanessa just straight up is not a cop. she's trained in first aid and knows how to use a gun, but this is all by william's design. all her gear is stolen and/or forged and she has had some close calls

-aside from still being deeply afraid for her life, vanessa is almost entirely dependent on william financially, and he does basically pay her as a full time employee keeping the guards in line, etc.

-vanessa has looked for ways out very frequently but often feels too afraid to pursue them or is otherwise intimidated out of it by her father.

-the events of the film go down in my canon as they go down in the movie

-vanessa eventually Does wake up from the coma, and as william is dead (that's right!! he's dead im not letting that bastard survive lol) the case gets opened up and all that

-im gonna look into whether or not she would go to jail for life lmao. realistically she totally might. even though vanessa is a victim of lifelong abuse and threats against her life she is still an accomplice to a lot of crime so? idk man

-BUT for convenience and rp's sake, vanessa undergoes the trial, faces public ridicule and vitriol, and eventually comes out the other side as emily laughlin. the legal name change doesn't protect her from all of the fallout of the pizzeria, but it does help)

-she becomes a barista and tries to keep her head down. shes dealing with a huge amount of trauma and is just generally all over the place, as she's never been given the opportunity to live her own life before.

-she definitely has a continuing relationship with mike (whether that's romantic or platonic is open to whatever) and of course abby, though they are probably her only links to Being Vanessa. i'm still deciding if the ghost kids remain, but i'm thinking with afton dead, they're able to pass on. which on one hand is beautiful, but it's also another loss for emily.

-all in all, emily is definitely very damaged from her ordeal, but at once is very eager to connect once she feels someone is trustworthy. her relationship with mike definitely has a lot to do with that, as he has proven to her that people Can Be trustworthy

-anyway that's my story and im sticking to it! pls love my baby i care her very much ok bye

[ninjasmudge]

so welcome the Bone King au! (thank you lupin for the name) im disregarding s3 completely for this since i came up with the idea way before it aired, i might come back and retcon the lore a little after the dub airs but for now its spoiler-free! an listen. i know most of my stuff is humour but i love horror so much and its my au i get to choose the nightmares-

in this au swk goes to fight lbd on his own, reasoning it will get the least people hurt, but when he tries, both he and lbd miscalculate each others power. lbd attempts to possess him, but he is the monkey king and he fights her hold more than she anticipated. she is determined to get in his head though, and she does, but not in the way she thought. instead of lbd possessing swks body, what happens is these two ultra powerful beings mash together into one absolutely spine-chilling, unpredictable and mist-shrouded being who calls themselves The Bone King. more under a cut so i dont take up everyones dash

so far, mk and the crew have NO idea this has happened, the only ones who know so far are the mayor and macaque, who were both there at the time.

the Bone King is tall and terrifying in a cold and unpredictable way, and also a huge mess of contradictions. they dont know what they want, their original goal includes erasing themselves from existence, theyre ANGRY, and they change emotional state like snapping your fingers, laughing one second, cold anger the next and then back to a blank watchful look. theyre not very emotive in general, and a very intense slightly bored look is kinda their default, i think the sound vibe that accompanies them would be a distressing silence and a slight whine of power. an also, their voice sounds like swks voice with lbd’s whispering distorting the words slightly.

they trust the mayor but they dont like or respect him, and the mayor serves them as loyally as he did lbd but theres an edge to it bc hes aware this is only Sort of lbd and this isnt the plan they agreed on. they absolutely fucking HATE macaque but the part that was swk doesnt want him dead, and the part that was lbd thinks he could still be useful. macaque is (rightfully) terrified of the bone king since this is two of the most powerful demons in existence and both of them have personal reason to hate him. he tried to slip away when they first combined (the ‘found you’ pics) but the bone king’s first actual agreed on thought was that, while they didnt know if they wanted to kill maq or not, he wasnt allowed to leave. it was also the first time they actually used all the new combined power and they destroyed the temple and most of a mountain just speeding over to where macaque was; they snapped his arm picking him up out of the shadows, dumped him down by the mayor and told him to ‘STAY.’. he did.

i think it would be really interesting to see them interact with mk and the crew, bc swk and lbd are at such odds about what they think of them, but to be honest this is the part that im still unsure of and would have to foray into spoilers territory to figure out so im leaving it for now, but if anyone has any ideas id love to hear them :) i do imagine when they turn up to mk and the crew, that its more like. they see them somewhere in the mists for a second and then theyre gone, making whoever saw them unable to trust their own eyes. a feeling of being followed, lights going out, eyes in the dark. but theyre just. watching. for now

also because im a wimp and not a fan of completely hopeless situations, i think it would be reversible, eventually, and with a lot of difficulty. (lbd and swk remember and oh god the trauma)

[furiosity-wills-the-cat]

Chara, the fourth Blook cousin:

A crack theory that accidentally become way more serious than it should have because it somehow, despite my best efforts, ended up making sense

Brought to you by my idiot conspiracy brain (affectionate) and by encouragement from my Tumblr followers

Under the cut for the sake of your dashes and sanity

Ok here we go my very elaborate accidental theory, because in order to answer the complex questions simply you must first make simple things more complex or something

First, you need to know that Chara became a Blook cousin by adoption.

All of the Blooks are adopted.

Ghosts are not born into families, they make their own.

Got it? Great, because we’re about to start running

so first, im gonna make surprisingly uncommon claim in this fandom, and I am going to say that undertale ghosts are all dead

I’m taking the tiny details we know about ghosts and sprinting with them to new places

Ghosts also do not have souls I decided

Undertale souls do not work the same as souls in traditional mythology

So every ghost is soulless Unless and Until they become corporeal

Evidence: Monster souls cant exist without bodies, and ghosts are monsters, therefore ghosts cannot have souls without bodies

Further evidence: Asriel doesnt steal blooky’s soul, blooky is unkillable, we have no concrete evidence that blooky has a soul

What about mettaton? He only has a soul after he has completely committed to being corporeal and to a specific body.

Also maddy and mettaton are both only killable while corporeal

Im also connecting the dots we have about souls in a new creative way so let me live for a second

Additionally, i am going to claim that there are a lot more ghosts than just the blooks, some evidence given below

Theres like actual scientific knowlege of ghosts in the undertale verse which seems unlikely if theres literally only three or four

The underground is so much bigger than you think, theres that giant forest in snowdin, a large town in the ruins, the huge city of new home, who knows how much space in the large open areas of waterfall etc. Its really really big okay

Also based off evidence of blooky, we can conclude that ghosts can turn invisible whenever they want to and/or haunt objects to hide

So I personally think that ghosts are, generally speaking, extremely reclusive

And the blooks are just a special exception, a beautiful family, amazing for them

So anyway im going with typical ghost lore for now, for the sake of ease, so im gonna say ghosts generally come from monsters who are particularly restless or unsatisfied when they die

HOWEVER i dont think they remember being monsters or anything before being a ghost. They just kinda fizzle into existance with a fully formed personality and immortality while being unkillable and feeling vaguely uneasy

ALSO i personally think that chara was a ghost for a long time before they became a blook by adoption

Based on game lore, i think ghosts can possess any inanimate object and just kinda wear it? But it takes a lot of strong emotion to become corporeal

And chara is the super weird exception because they were a human not a monster.

They dont have a soul (i headcanon that their soul got destroyed when asriel died)

And they KNOW this, which is a huge part of why they kinda just... give up

Because they lost their ability to fulfill prophecy

Also, without a soul, they lost their ability to reset, so for the first time since falling underground, theyre subject to the relentless march of time

But theyre still weirdly strong and powerful and more emotional

ALSO they DO still remember being a human but they catch on pretty quickly that other ghosts dont have memories and because chara is stupid they just lie to fit in

Theyre too tired to explain themself, they just want to be alone and feel awful

Now back to ghost lore

Emotions are a lot harder for ghosts??? I decided

And they dont know why,, they tend to blame it on the soul thing

But realistically its actually more of the immortality thing making actions not have consequences and/or or not having a body so they cant have a sense of touch or have physical effects of emotion

They all know that ghosts just tend to be way more floaty and bored and numb

And thats part of why the blooks are so special

Maddy’s rage and Mettaton’s yearning and Napstablook’s misery are like... not great all of the time...

but theyre also way way more emotion than most ghosts have,,, they are just a family supporting each other, being as functional as they can,, just an emo(tional) ghost family

most ghosts barely do anything except like stare at walls but the blooks have their snail farm and that helps them have purpose and it is good

And they hold each other accountable and it is nice

So anyway chara just chills and is in a depression coma for a few decades before the blooks find them and are like “our child/baby cousin”

and they raise them for a cool minute

They are all very protective of the new baby emo blook

And chara doesnt get therapy but at the very least they once again have a family, and they decide they want to try to become corporeal eventually just like mtt and maddy

So anyway chara starts hanging out in the ruins a lot more and they finally tell the blooks theyre leaving to go become corporeal in the ruins

This is actually because they are trying to hang out with toriel

because they miss their mom ;;

but chara’s not gonna admit that to anyone, especially not to themself

And because theyre still repressing their emotions constantly and pretending to be fine, they cant become corporeal

And they hang out in the ruins for a long time because they feel guilty lying to everyone about everything

They still feel like its their fault that all the monsters are stuck underground, because they were SUPPOSED to save everyone and they COULDNT and it HURTS

But again, they are doing too much repression to use this guilt to become corporeal,

so instead they just kinda hide and watch toriel from a distance and cry

Blooky visits them the most, thats why blooky is chilling in the ruins so much at the start of the game

Theyre just there to visit their shy baby cousin ;;

Ofc they wont tell frisk about this because chara wants space and privacy and blooky respects that

but maddy and mtt also visit them a lot

Oh also when mtt and maddy start dissapearing, blookys mental health plummets as their family and support system starts to dissolve

Blooky was actually doing extremely well (for a ghost) for a long time, i headcanon,

but theyre doing the worst theyve been in a long long time during the game, because of family issues

So anyway, chara dissapears when frisk shows up, and maddy assumes this is becaude frisk hurt their fragile feelings

Maddy spends hours desperately searching the ruins for chara and cant find them and assumes that they had their heart crushed and went to hide and disappear in a depression coma for another few decades, and thats part of why maddy is so furious with frisk

Like,, to be clear, maddy is still jumping to conclusions and throwing blame around with no proof, but also, its a logical conclusion to come to

And mettaton has already disappeared too and been gone for a while, too, by this point, so it hurts even worse

But anyway, what actually happened to chara is that;

Because chara is a human ghost, not a monster ghost, normal ghost rules dont apply to them

And they can possess living things too they find out

Maybe they knew it a long time ago, maybe its a new discovery, but for whatever reason they end up possessing frisk and theyre like “what the heck”

And frisk still has most of the control

But now chara is like,,, “this is my chance, im a human again, gotta save the world for real,,,”

and they cant explain this to anyone without revealing their past

so they just chill in frisk’s mind while being super crypic and trying to figure out how it works

Pacifist route, this is pretty much exactly what happens

They manage to help frisk save the day

And in my headcanon, the no mercy route is started by frisk who is scared when faced by monsters attacking them

And then chara, who was aready hiding in a semidepression coma for a while, immediately transitions to a panicked “gotta protect this body, gotta protect my chance to be human, i died and threw away my chance to save everyone the first time, i CANNOT lose this chance again”

And so the combination of both frisk and chara is the genocide run

Because frisk kills in self defense, and whenever frisk hesitates, chara jumps in

Also theres leftover feelings from the whole asriel incident

Because again, ghosts come from monsters who died unsatisfied

And chara’s main source of unsatisfaction is how they were trying to get asriel to kill people before he died and then he didnt

So thats a strong strong feeling ruling them

So anyway by the time they both realize how bad its become they figure its too late and also the amount of LOVE has made them numb

And thats when chara who, despite everything, still has idiot hero complex and thinks they need to save the world

So, while panicking, they step in at the very end, and erase the timeline and delete everything

And also to clarify

They DONT HAVE this power at any other point in the game

Because, guess why

They become corporeal

Just like maddy, the no mercy route is the only thing that gives them strong enough emotion to spontaneously become corporeal

So they become corporeal and as soon as they have a soul again and can reset again, they just erase everything

Ok back to fluff

Post pacifist route, they are still a non corporeal ghost

They can still float around and look just like the other blooks

And it takes them a while to open up about things, but they do end up moving back in with blooky so that blooky isnt completely alone

And also they do way better with a family

Also they can float through the mountain and talk to flowey down below and bring him news

And now that they know about him, they can bond with him and explain that they dont have a soul either but that doesnt mean theyre worthless

Oh ALSO

The other dead humans dont have ghosts

BECAUSE

ghosts only come from restless dead MONSTERS

and chara is the weird special exception

Because they were a monster when they died

They became a ghost and asriel didnt because they were way more restless and stressed than asriel was when both of them died

Like sure, asriel felt awful, but chara was the one who was way more like “this is my fault, i CANT die now, the world NEEDS me”

So anyway

charablook the emo tween ghost and asriel flowey the eldrich goat daisy are siblings once more and they hang out and eventually they are okay and have a family again

Thank you for reading, this has been my thoughts on a crack theory that accidentally went too far

This isnt even everything, maybe i’ll make a part two eventually, but i promised to have this post out like two days ago, so i wanted to post SOMTHING

Anyway leave your thoughts if youd like

Im not looking for people to disprove it, i already know its crazy, i dont think it was intentional by the game writers, but i do think its a fun concept

thats the fun of it, so if anyone wants to run with it im all for it lol

Thanks again! Have a nice day!

[glitchbirds]

alright anyway. chucky tv series thoughts mostly about episodes 5-8 now. this is all over the place and long please bare with me. also spoilers if you give a shit

the writing + characterization + pacing + etc all took a massive nosedive after the first 4 eps. which is a shame because we dont get to see tiffany, nica, andy, OR kyle until the second half of the show; theyre just very briefly referenced aside from andys phone call at the beginning where we dont get to see him. i feel like the parents especially are written SO inconsistently, switching from supportive to downright hostile to their children at a moments notice (or vice versa) depending on whats needed for the episode plot.

lexy is built up as this incredibly cruel girl who thinks its funny to dress up as jake’s dead father and reenact his death in front of a crowd of people (including jake himself), and after ONE episode all the bite is drained out of her and she’s just this generic nice girl who’s our third protagonist. which id be FINE with- shes only 14, character growth and arcs are a thing, i dont mind her becoming a better person at all- but aside from characters occasionally referencing the fact that she used to be an asshole theres no trace of her old personality for the rest of the show.

and tiffany- god, tiffany feels like she’s just a caricature of herself at this point. theres traces of her actual personality here and there but for the most part she’s this inconsistent mess of emotional moodswings, changing depending on what the scene needs

the 5th episode is the worst episode i think just because its so much filler and exposition and flashbacks to the films and shit the audience Should Already Know. 5+6 both have so many unnecessary expository flashbacks to the movies to remind the audience of the films and i cannot for the life of me figure out why. “for newer fans” ok but each episode starts with a “previously on” segment where they could easily shoehorn in a few little clips from the movies and some expository voiceover, which they DO in the 6th episode’s “previously on” segment? rendering it completely unnecessary to force that shit into the actual episode?

the majority of episode 5 is 1: the kids “killing” chucky, unaware he can split his soul into other dolls, and thinking theyve won until whoops! he killed again! this is somehow framed like its a shock to the audience! and 2: us finally meeting nica again and her explaining Her Whole Backstory to a man that chucky+tiffany have held captive instead of Freeing Him From The Ropes Tying Him To A Chair until its too late to save him. so much of this episode felt like expository shit that the audience should already know that i was genuinely surprised when the credits started rolling, i thought that was all setup for the ACTUAL plot of the episode. but no

speaking of nica she is the most heartbreaking character in this entire series for me because i feel like this franchise just fucking hates her. or it loves to make her suffer. part of why i dislike cult of chucky so much is because its so cruelly mean spirited to her in ways that genuinely arent fun to watch- shes this disabled woman who was institutionalized for a crime she didnt commit but is gaslit into believing she’s psychotic and murdered her whole family, by her doctor who is actively sexually abusing her. shes not able to take revenge herself and instead her body is possessed by chucky (which immediately erases her disability, because i guess thats how souls work now) who kills her abuser for her and then proceeds to use her body for his own gain, including in his relationship with tiffany (which, nica cant exactly consent to her body being used like THAT, either)

and then she finally shows up in this show and shes terrified for her fucking life and her body is intermittently possessed and tiffany spares her life but only because tiffany is attracted to HER, too, and wants to have a relationship with HER that nica doesnt want, so tiffany kidnaps her and keeps her tied up and gagged and eventually at the very end of the final episode amputates all her fucking limbs so nica cant escape from her and chucky wont have any use for her body anymore. WHICH. much to be said about disability in horror and disability-as-torture and the like but just, holy SHIT, why do you hate this girl SO much. how is this supposed to be fun to watch?

speaking of girls returning from previous films, while im glad to see kyle again outside of a short endcredits cameo the show doesnt really do much with her- the scenes of her with andy are nice, but then he abandons her suddenly (despite her hunting chucky with him for a while now and them Actively Confronting Many Versions Of Chucky together before this point) and goes on ahead solo; she finds her own way to hackensack, has a handful more scenes, and then triggers an explosion and thats the last we see of her. she’s mentioned one more time after that and not even by andy.

and YES, both devon and andy were suspected of dying in that same explosion and are later revealed to be alive, but we dont get that reveal for kyle, and im not sure if that means im genuinely supposed to believe shes dead now?

anyway. i have to talk about the chucky series gender + sexuality address now. theres at least two instances in the show that outright state that chucky is bisexual- him in nica’s body calling the guy he + tiffany kidnapped (and made watch him+tiffany make out) “kinda yummy”, and tiffany commenting on chucky getting dick while he’s in nica’s body. i am despondent and i want to curl up on the floor and die over this new reality i am forced to live in where chucky the killer doll is canonically bisexual. hes still v much homophobic though

tiffany being bi was just obvious ofc. really wish the show didnt have her Fucking Amputate All Of Nica’s Limbs Because She’s Into Nica, though

i outright refuse to think of chucky as anything but a cis man you can put a knife to my fucking throat and i will not accept him having Gender Shit going on just because hes in a woman’s body for a good chunk of the time. you cant make me. i have limits. i have fucking dignity. glen(da) though, i will point out- is brought up a grand total of TWICE in this entire show. once in the “gendaflooid” bit, obviously; and once in the last episode where tiffany very offhandedly mentions glenda and refers to them w/ they pronouns. they make no onscreen appearance, which does NOT solve my most pressing question: “if this show is actually taking ALL the events of ALL the childs play movies as canon, then what the fuck is going on with glen(da)?” because at the end of seed of chucky, glen(da) is revealed to be two souls in one, which is the reason for their gender confusion- and which is NOT GENDERFLUIDITY- and theyre split into two separate bodies, one boy and one girl. but chucky refers to them in this show as genderfluid and only mentions having ONE kid, which would imply that glen(da) is still in one body and is one soul. so what the fuck. anyway. all these complaints aside.this show does have its fun moments, its hard to dislike any scene where chucky is toy storying around or getting tossed around like a ragdoll, chucky himself is usually fun to watch because hes just So Good at being the Absolute Worst, theres some scenes that are really genuinely funny (maybe not always for the reasons intended), the main kids are alright and the acting is usually fine (the material they have to work with, less so sometimes), i have no complaints about the effects, its visually more appealing than several of the movies... im glad i saw it. i absolutely am not watching it again any time soon, at all. i curse the fact that theres a season 2. ... also according to a gravestone this is set in 2021 but theres no mention of a pandemic (despite this being filmed in 2021), and also in episode 5 nica says that its been two weeks since chucky possessed her, which i assumed was just her hearing november 8th but not the year and thinking "oh it must be november 2017" or whenever the hell she was possessed by chucky, but thinking on it now im not actually sure because theres later a mention of andy getting broken out of the institution "a month ago", and im assuming kyle didnt leave him there to rot for like 4 years, so what the fuck?

[buckyskorpion]

11 hours - part two

Pairing: Biker!Bucky x Reader

Summary: bucky is the mystery you can’t wait to solve. if you can get out of his bed long enough, that is. a biker au.

Warnings: gang-typical violence, sex scenes, alcohol mentions, probably more to come so stay tuned

A/N: thank you guys so much for the incredible response i got to part one!! it made me so happy so thank you. let me know wha yall think of this bit, we’ve got some plot going on which i always enjoy. i wont be taking tags for this so please dont ask.

title taken from 11 hours by wet | playlist

part one

You don’t hear from Bucky for a while after the party. It’s disappointing - you’re self-aware enough to admit that. But you also aren’t stupid enough to expect anything else. Bucky asked you to that party as a favour, you got a one-night-only special being in his life and you’re not expecting anything else.

You had hoped it wouldn’t have impacted your nightly rendezvous, but those had stopped too. You suppose Bucky decided not to trust you after all.

Almost three weeks later and you’re at work, thoughts of Bucky barely a buzz in the back of your head compared to the job at hand. You’ve always been able to let your work consume you, and it pays off in your line of business. Being a private investigator requires attention to detail, lateral thinking, and a questionable moral compass. Your patented paranoia doesn’t hurt either. Your dad tells you every time you visit that he wishes you’d get into something more stable, something less dirty, but you’re not really good at anything else. Considering the majority of your clients are partners trying to figure out if their significant other is cheating, it also pays well for quite minimal effort.

Quick rule of thumb for aspiring PI’s: they’re almost always cheating.

Today is one of those clients. You’ve tailed the guy in question to a tattoo shop in Red Hook, which is already a red flag. He’s an investment banker and buys Louis Vuitton cufflinks for his ugly work suits. He stands out like a sore thumb in this grungy neighbourhood. You snap a few photos of him outside the store, very obviously checking left and right for a tail before entering the place. People suck at being subtle, you’ve come to realise over the years. And at being observant, because all you’ve bothered to do to hide is sit at the cafe across the road and pretend to be taking photos of the latte art on your coffee.

Entering the tattoo parlour is a no-go, even if your grunge aesthetic would fit in with the clientele more than your straight-laced prey. There are other ways, though. You leave some bills on the table and cross the street into the alley beside the tattoo shop, wrinkling your nose at the dumpster smell. There’s a fire escape which you can reach if you stand on the lid of the offensive dumpster in question, leading to a window you hope will get you some insight into what Mike Shorditch of suspected-cheating fame is up to. Maybe he has a tattooed, lip-ringed young girlfriend he meets here? Or a heavy-set biker boyfriend? Or he just wants a tattoo and his wife is as paranoid as you are.

Squeezed uncomfortably between the bars of the fire-escape, you manage to aim your camera lens at the window and zoom in - jackpot. It’s a small window near the ceiling of the high-roofed shop, letting in minimal light to ruin the dark aesthetic of the place, allowing you a somewhat clear view of the shop inside. It’s really nice, you notice, and they have good taste in music. Slowly Slowly bleeds minimally through the glass and you try focus your lens on the faces inside, catching Mike among them like a unicorn in a goth reunion. He’s talking to someone, waving his hands around dramatically while the guy he talks to towers over him, arms folded over a ginormous chest.

You know that face, you realise as you aim your lens a little higher. The shock burns, almost makes you drop your camera and fall off the fire escape you’re precariously lying on. It’s Steve, blonde head unmistakeable as he glares at your target and dismisses whatever Mike says to him with an eyeroll. Without questioning it, you snap a few photos of Steve’s imposing figure - so at odds with the friendly, downright cuddly man you met at the party a few weeks ago. Just when you thought you’d gotten rid of thoughts about that night, they show up at your work. How is this possible?

None of this sits right with you. This strange coincidence, the weird behaviour at the party towards Bucky and his friends, Bucky’s general evasiveness and the feeling you get of being watched just being around him. Nothing is adding up and you’ve never been the kind of person to leave well enough alone. You snap photos of the shop, as much as you can - Steve’s tattoo sleeve that had been hidden under a jumper at the party, the stencils lining the walls, the locks on the front door, the counter where a scrawny kid in glasses bends over what looks like genuine high-school homework and ignores the adults in the shop. There are too many variables - you have to start making sense of one of them.

The easiest thread to pull is Mike, and he’s the one you’re being paid to solve, so it makes sense to start there. Clearly it isn’t cheating his wife should be worried about, but the meeting he’s having with Steve and the others doesn’t look like a friendly catch up with friends either. His personal cybersecurity is poor enough you figure you’ll be able to solve that particular mystery easy enough.

Bucky and his friends, however? That’s going to take a bit more digging.

***

According to Mike Shoreditch’s bank records, he owes somebody a lot of money. You get this from an account his wife doesn’t even know he has, believing all their money goes into a shared account with a completely different bank. Mike has a lot of secrets but cheating isn’t one of them - the print outs of his secret bank account statements and the pictures of him at Steve’s tattoo parlour would be enough for you to close the case and get your money. But you don’t. Not just yet. You have your own itch to scratch, now.

You’ve taken to watching the tattoo shop’s comings and goings, snapping pictures here and there. Steve comes in at ten in the morning, ready to open the shop up by lunchtime for customers and doesn’t close it until midnight. His customers are the usual sort you’d imagine at a rough tattoo shop in Red Hook - heavy set guys with full sleeves and chest pieces, grungy couples who probably live upstate but are rebelling against their trust-fund parents, random walk-ins who’s nerves you can sense from across the street at what’s become your usual table. There are a few, though, who stand out. Leather jackets and motorbikes they park in the alley beside the shop, using the back entrance you snap a shot of one night once they all went home.

You’re not jumping to conclusions just yet, you’ve learnt the hard way from doing that, but you’re also not stupid. Whatever Steve is into, whatever Bucky is by association a part of, there are some shady looking people involved as well.

It’s one of those days where you’re watching the shop from the cafe, camera left on the table in favour of devouring an almond croissant and cataloguing the people you’ve now dubbed regulars at Steve’s as they enter the shop. You should probably be doing your actual job but you can’t bring yourself to, too caught up in the shady business across the street from you. Absorbed, in fact, so you practically jump out of your skin as your phone rings and you send it flying to the pavement with an errant elbow.

You pick up without checking the ID, and boy was that a mistake. Heart pounding painfully in your chest, you answer, “Hi, hello, hi, this is (Y/n) speaking,” all in a rush.

A familiar, honey-warm laugh rumbles down the phone to you and your previously racing heart all but stops beating. Bucky says, “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Does he know? Had Steve caught you spying and called Bucky asking why the random girl he brought to a party that one time was stalking him? You glance around the street, half expecting Bucky to be standing behind you and catching you red-handed. He’s not, of course he’s not, you’re just losing your mind a little bit.

“No, no, sorry,” you say, running a shaky hand through your hair. “I’m at work. What’s up?”

“I won’t keep you long,” Bucky says, sounding amused, and you hate how the rough catch of his voice through the phone all but erases the suspicions you have for him, warning you to stay away. You had missed him, is all. He says, as if plucking the thought from your brain, “I was missing you.”

“Yeah?” you ask, glad he can’t see the grin you send to the table. “That why you disappeared after the party?”

“Let me explain over drinks?” Bucky asks, dodging your jab with ease. No, no, no, don’t be stupid, he’s bad news and you’ve got the proof, don’t-

“You’re paying,” you say instead, silencing the smart side of your brain.

“Always do,” he says, which is blatantly not true but whatever, “Nine at Joey’s?”

“See you there,” you say, and hang up before you can do anything else stupid.

You bury your hands in your hair, leaning your elbows on the table and letting out a frustrated sound probably inappropriate for a public place. How are you going to go meet Bucky and pretend you aren’t, essentially, investigating his best friend? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you use this to get more answers, full-stop some of the question marks that have been playing havoc with your head all week.

And sex. You’re not going to pretend you won’t be ending up in Bucky’s bed again, shady secrets be damned.

***

Joey’s is a divey, underground bar you absolutely adore, and you’ve met Bucky here multiple times. He introduced you to the place, actually, a week or so into meeting up him. He’d laughed at how excited you were over the movie posters they used as decor behind the booths, the bartender who squeezed fresh apple juice into your shot of Jameson, the dirty bass-heavy music you eventually convinced him to dance with you to. Bucky is clearly trying to win you over by meeting you here, and you can’t say it’s not working. Just a little bit. You’ll still make him work for it.

Bucky’s got a booth at the back when you arrive, two whiskey apple’s already waiting on the table as he stands up to greet you. He pulls you into a hug, not letting you set the tone at all, but you can’t find it in you to mind as you’re crushed into his chest and he rests his stubbly chin atop your head. He smells nice, reminding you of spiced rum or something else warm and comforting, and his hands feel real nice as they dip under your top to press against your bare skin. Had you really missed him this much? You squeeze him tightly, ignoring the thump of your heart as he starts rubbing circles into your back, and you stand there in his arms for far too long to be appropriate.

Pulling away, though, feels like you’ve lost something.

Across the booth from you, now, Bucky slides a drink towards you with his usual cheeky grin. You roll your eyes at him, popping the straw in your mouth and looking out at the bar so you can pretend not to pay attention to him. He bumps your foot under the table but you ignore him, hiding your smirk in the rim of your glass.

“Doll,” he says, exasperated, and reaches across the booth to place his giant hand on the arm you have resting on the table. You look at him then, scrunching your nose up at the pet name which makes him smile. His eyes crinkle up at the sides, all soft and blurry blue, and you feel yourself forgetting why you’re supposed to be mad at him in the first place.

“What,” you say, mimicking his tone just to watch his jaw clench. His frustration is hot, what of it? You love winding him up like this.

“Brat,” he retorts, and oh, that makes you feel something you probably shouldn’t, all low and coiled hot in your belly. “Did you think I was avoiding you?”

“You were avoiding me,” you correct, raising your eyebrows at him. He hasn’t let go of your arm, now taking to rubbing his thumb back and forth across the leather of your jacket. You refuse to let it melt you.

“I was away,” he says, eyes sparkling. He’s practically laughing at you, which is- rude. You huff, barely believing him, and he says, “I was! Did you want me to tell you I was going or something?”

“No,” you say, rolling your eyes at him. You sigh - he’s right, what did you expect? Nothing, and yet you were put out anyway, but that’s a problem you’ve got to deal with on your own. Bucky doesn’t owe you anything and he knows it. You relax, finally, putting your drink down to cover Bucky’s hand with your own. You smile, say, “I’m just messing with you, Bucky.”

“Sure you are,” he says easily, but you know he doesn’t believe you. It’s dropped, then, forgotten as you sit there staring at each other in the dim light of the bar. You really had missed him, even if you still barely knew him. His stubbly jaw, the close-cropped sides of the new haircut he’d gotten since you’d last seen him, the glint of his dog togs against tanned skin disappearing under his t-shirt. The swirl of his chest piece peeking out from the neckline, and you can fill in the blanks because you’ve seen what’s under that t-shirt. You’ve traced your tongue over it, as well as every other inch of him you’re trying to memorise in case another month passed before you saw him again. If you ever saw him at all.

“What?” you ask when you realise he’s starting to smile at you, holding back a laugh. He shakes his head, looking down to pick up his drink and take a sip. You lean back, retracting yourself from his grip and folding your arms across your chest - he’s making fun of you, you know it, but you don’t know why. He does laugh then, also leaning back in his seat and regarding you with that head tilt that infuriates you.

“Nothing,” he laughs, eyes saying the opposite. “It’s just- it’s nice to see you.”

“You going soft on me, tough guy?” you tease, but he sobers at your words, the smile dying on his pillow-plump lips. He stares you down, that deep thing that reminds you how easy it is to get lost in him (if you aren’t already).

“Maybe I am,” he says, and that surprises you. You had been joking, but the heady way he’s looking at you turns it serious. “Would that bother you?”

You shake your head, not trusting yourself to say the right thing. You don’t even know if that’s a good response or not, but you’ve done it now and Bucky nods, downs his drink, all without ever breaking eye contact with you. You get the distinct feeling you’ve just agreed to something you don’t entirely understand, entangling yourself further into Bucky without even trying to. Given what you’d been uncovering about his friends the past week, you should know better. You should leave.

But you don’t. You lean across the booth, coming to him this time, and peel his hand off his glass to entwine your fingers with his. The cool metal of his signet rings offsets the warmth of his palm against yours, and the way he grips your fingers tightly signs the deal. Bucky is too enticing to stay away from, and you are too tired of trying to.

“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” you ask, but it’s not really a question. You watch his eyes dart across your face, tongue flicking out over his lips, stalling for time. You wonder what he’ll say. My friends run dodgy business deals out of a tattoo parlour? I’m involved in that, too? I’m dangerous, I’m a liar, you should stay away?

“I’m a mechanic,” he says. You try not to show your disappointment, but still, this is information you didn’t have before and you’re greedy for anything. “I have my own shop in Queens. Natasha helps me out, helps me run it. I’ve been obsessed with cars and bikes and shit since I was five.”

You smile at that, imaging little Bucky running around a car yard trying to convince his dad, or whoever, to teach him how to drive even if he couldn’t reach the pedals yet. You imagine him now, the hand you’re holding all greased up and elbow deep in a car’s guts, maybe with his shirt off and sweat dripping down his back. You’ve got to see that one day before you die, you decide right then. That’s too hot to just stay in your brain.

“Your turn,” he says, shit-eating smirk in place like he can read your mind. You blush, despite yourself, and scramble for something to say that’s not I’ve been investigating your friends all week and it’s not looking too good for them.

“My dad,” you blurt out, and Bucky give you a funny look like he thinks that’s your fact - you have a dad, isn’t that something. You curse yourself for starting this, you could’ve gone with anything and you said ‘my dad’? But you’re here now, so, “He raised me on his own, like, I don’t know my mum at all, but he always said he wanted me to have something of her so he taught me Russian. She taught him, apparently, and he taught her English. Now it’s like our secret language.”

“Russian, hey?” Bucky asks, and he seems far too surprised for the anecdote you’ve just given but you suppose it is the first actually personal thing you’ve told him. He doesn’t seem off-put by it, though, like you have expected him to be because you don’t do personal. In fact he just leans closer, almost unconsciously, baiting you to tell him more.

“Yeah,” you say, compelled to keep going. “We’d leave each other notes around the house in ‘code’, y’know, but it was just in Cyrillic. Thought it was so cool.”

“It is cool,” Bucky says, smirking at you again, “You’re cool.”

“Fuck you,” you laugh, kicking his ankle under the table but immeasurably grateful for the tone change. You don’t know why you’ve just told him that. You don’t know if you’ve ever told anyone that - Russian isn’t exactly a handy language to know. You feel drunker than you should be after a tiny bit of whiskey, high on the rush of unleashing a secret. Drunk enough that Bucky unlatching his fingers from yours to grip your wrist tight, a bit bruising, tugging you close, makes you flush from your scalp to your toes.

Bucky looks at you, dark and heavy, and asks, “Want to?”

You nod, throat suddenly very dry, and Bucky tugs you out of the booth without another word. Usually you wait a bit longer before getting on Bucky’s bike, have a few more drinks, maybe dance a bit if you can coax Bucky into it. Not tonight. You’re both on the same page - it’s been too long and you need his mouth on you about five days ago.

He pushes you into the apartment by the shoulders, rough enough you stumble but you’re quickly righted as he strides through the door after you and grabs you by the hips. Bucky crushes his mouth to yours, swallowing your needy whine with soft lips and velvet tongue as you fist his t-shirt and drag you both backwards, going and going until your back hits a wall. His palm slams into the drywall by your head but you don’t flinch, only groan as he smudges his spit-slick mouth across your jaw and down your neck. Bucky bites down, sharp teeth on soft skin, and you rake your nails down his stomach as payback for the mark you’ll have later.

“Off,” Bucky grumbles as he shoves at your jacket, getting it stuck at your elbows and trapping your arms by your sides. He seems to like like this, eyes flashing something dangerous in the dark of his hallway. You hold his eyes, heart thrumming something wild in your throat at being caught, pinned, vulnerable. With Bucky, though, you like that.

You want to reach for him but you can’t, so you wait for him to come to you. Kissing you breathless, hand fisted in your hair, other undoing the front of your jeans. God, you wanna touch him so bad but Bucky has you in his grip, yanking your head back to kiss that same bruised spot.  He sucks another under your chin as you cry out, pinpricks of pain-turned-pleasure bursting at the base of your scalp.

He gets his hand in your jeans, in your panties, runs two fingers down your cunt so easy with how wet you are already before rubbing bruising, slow circles on your clit. Your whole body jerks against Bucky’s hold on you, his thighs bracketing your body into the wall and his hand still fisted in your hair. Your mouth drops open in a soundless moan and you feel, rather than hear Bucky laugh against your throat. All executive function has diverted to the radiating ache of pure pleasure from Bucky’s fingers on you.

Bucky lets go of you hair only to press his hand on your throat, cold rings digging into your burnt-up skin and pressing you back into the wall. Long fingers tilt your jaw to look at him, increased pressure warning you against looking away, but you don’t want to anyway. Bucky’s eyes are dark like a sea storm, molten blue, and he squeezes his grip just once before saying, “Still think I’ve gone soft?”

Jesus christ, but you can’t answer him like this - not with your pulse thundering against his palm and the way he picks up the pace on your clit, making your thighs shake with the effort of holding yourself up. Bucky grins, boyish and crinkly, and it’s so at odds with the way he slides his two fingers down and pushes into you, twisting to the knuckle, that you think you might be losing your mind. Unravelling, Bucky pulling at the threads, and the only thing holding you together is his hand on your throat.

“Bucky,” you say, his name a broken breath as you start to lose focus. Everything’s hazy, glassy, your toes are going numb and tingly so you know it’s coming, building tight in your stomach as he rubs his fingers back and forth inside of you. At his name Bucky makes a sound almost like a growl, pressing his body against yours and somehow further into the wall. You need that contact,  the press of his muscles holding you up as it gets harder and harder to breath with the heat coiling up inside of you. He presses his forehead against yours so all you can see is blue edged out by black, claiming your every breath and moan, drawing you in deeper and deeper because you’re his, now. There’s no way back from this.

He presses his thumb to your clit, thrusts his fingers deeper into you, mouth parting with yours as you moan as if he means to swallow the sound. You’re there, you’re right there, and then he kisses you so soft you might’ve imagined it and you’re coming, your whole body clenching up and whiting out while he finger fucks you through it.

Trembling muscles come to leant against the wall, barely holding yourself up as Bucky extricates himself and allows you room to breath. He gently tugs your jacket all the way off, freeing your arms to come up sluggish and heavy around his neck, holding on. He laughs, just quietly, letting you nuzzle your way into the side of his neck and breath in that warm honey Bucky smell as you try and regain mental functions. It’s hard. You think Bucky’s just blended up your brain with a swizzle stuck and sucked it out through a straw.

“C’mon,” he says, gravel rough, and nudges his nose against the side of your head. “Not done with you yet.”

“Hmph,” you say, but let yourself be picked up under the ass and wrap your legs around his waist as he carries you to his bedroom. You press a kiss to the skin of his neck you can reach with every second your body comes back online, digging your teeth in a little when he squeezes your ass as he walks. You’re both still fully clothes, basically, but you don’t plan to be for long. You’ve got tattoos to kiss and a dick you want anyway Bucky’ll let you. You’ve got all night, after all.

***

It’s late, you should be going, but you steal a few more minutes lying on Bucky’s chest. He’s sat up against the headboard, trying to braid little pieces of your hair with the cutest look of concentration on his face. The way he goes from dirty to dork always makes your heart do complicated things in your chest. You’re drumming your fingers on his chest, right next to his dog tags, and before you can overthink it too much you pause your drum solo to pick them up.

Bucky doesn’t pause in his hair-braiding but you can feel him watching you as you turn the worn metal over in your fingers. They’re well loved, a bit bent in places and the letters starting to rub flat  but you can still read it. His birthday, March 10th, and his name. You’d never thought to read these before - they always seemed part of Bucky’s past, something you weren’t allowed into yet. But tonight has made you bold, and you run your thumb over the letters of his name so you can memorise the feel of them.

“James Buchanan Barnes,” you mumble, words half said into his skin. Bucky hums but doesn’t respond, so you say, “I always knew no mother could look at their newborn child and call it Bucky.”

“Watch it,” Bucky warns, but without any real heat. You don’t ask what the tags mean, which war he fought in, when he got back. You lay them back on his skin carefully, straightening out the chain, before turning in Bucky’s arms to prop your chin on his chest piece and look at him.

“I should go,” you say, as you continue to lie there with legs tangled and Bucky’s hand now resting idle, cupping the back of your head. He bites his lip, strokes his big hand down the back of your hair and making you close your eyes for a second. You’re enjoying his touch too much, you’re getting too close for a man you don’t know. A man who you know has secrets you probably don’t want to uncover, but you can’t stop yourself.

“You could stay.” Bucky’s words hang there, suspended in the space between you. He’s never said that before. You never thought he would say that, ever. Bucky looks at you, face unreadable, and you don’t know why you feel sick to your stomach all of a sudden but you do. There are lines being crossed that you can’t backtrack from. You’re not ready to make that step yet.

“Not tonight,” you say, and it’s not a no but it’s not what Bucky wants to hear. He withdraws his hand from you, letting it drop uselessly to the bed beside him. You take that as your cue to go, rolling off the bed and dressing silently with Bucky’s eyes burning a hole in your skin.

You’re pulling away, trying desperately to regain some distance and control from his man who already has you swallowed whole, he just doesn’t know it yet. Even still, you can’t stop yourself crawling back on the bed and straddling his lap, holding his face in your hands as you kiss him. You want him to remember this - not you saying no, but the way your body will always say yes to him as he holds your hips and keeps you there, kissing you back as desperate as you feel.

But now you know you have reason to climb through the laundry room window that night and sneak away from Bucky’s apartment building, that you’re not just being paranoid because you’ve got photos to prove it. It’s that thought alone that makes it bearable to leave him, even if your heart is begging you to stay.

Part 3

[rickriordanfandam]

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear 

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were  thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing 

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes 

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below) 

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/ 

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture 

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry 

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong. 

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up.  the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more 

[oumakokichi]

How do you feel about the line where Saihara says that Kokichi is the embodiment of lies? Personally I dont like it very much.

Hello anon! That’s actually a pretty fun question, in my opinion! It’s interesting that you don’t particularly like the line; I actually like it quite a bit, but I think this is because I didn’t personally interpret it as negatively as some people might have.

There are a few reasons as to why I think it’s actually a pretty fitting note to end on chapter 5, and most of them involve touching on Ouma’s actions throughout the game, as well as what Kodaka had in store for him, so as per usual I’ll put the rest of this under a read-more. Watch out for spoilers when reading!

I think perhaps the biggest reason I didn’t feel like Saihara’s line about Ouma embodying the concept of lies was meant to be negative or harsh is because this is the exact same thing Kodaka himself has been saying about Ouma the whole time. I recently re-reblogged Comun’s (@kaibutsushidousha) translation of Ouma’s official art book pages, and it’s stated pretty word for word there: Ouma is the single character who personifies ndrv3’s themes of lying, and for this reason, Kodaka put a lot of thought and effort into writing him.

It’s not like lying itself was an entirely new mechanic to Danganronpa; it is, after all, a murder mystery game about finding culprits and exposing lies and inconsistencies in trials. However, ndrv3 is the first game in the series to actually flesh out the mechanic of lying, even going so far as to allow you, the player, to commit perjury during the trial—not even allowing, really, but adding at least one mandatory perjury per trial, because even Saihara cannot get by in this game without lying.

Where dr1 and sdr2 were much more focused on a very different narrative involving the ideas of natural talent, usefulness to society, and cycles of hope and despair, ndrv3’s themes instead shift to focus on truth, lies, and the all-too-blurry line between them. Where the previous two games usually presented lies in a fairly straightforward manner (usually limited to lies told by culprits during trials, or by the mastermind directly), ndrv3’s entire focus is on lies from the very start.

The game lies to you about who your main protagonist is going to be, it lies to you about how trustworthy the flashback lights are—it even plays on the your expectations directly in later chapters, by suddenly seeing to tie directly in with the Hope’s Peak arc despite Kodaka saying that it wouldn’t, only to subvert those expectations again and reveal that it was all another lie. Everything, from the truth of the outside world, to whether the characters’ talents and memories are real at all, is called into question, and I absolutely love it, personally.

This level of open-ended speculation is something I believe Kodaka wanted to preserve with Ouma’s character. Because in the end, the point of ndrv3 isn’t to say “lies bad, truth good.” Like Ouma himself, it’s all a bit more complicated than that. Because lies themselves aren’t inherently negative, or harmful, I don’t think Kodaka wanted to give too much away about Ouma’s own lies. Doing so would erase some of the mystery surrounding his character, and would present the facts in a way that was much too straightforward compared to the rest of the game.

This is why most of the clues we do get about his real intentions and motivations are limited to a few definitive facts: that Ouma and DICE were pacifists with a very strong moral taboo against murder, that he wasn’t a Remnant of Despair, and that he loved games and pranks. Almost everything else about him is something we have to guess, evaluating his earlier quotes and weighing it against the information we have by the end of chapter 6, and trying to decide if we believe him or not. Essentially, Ouma is a puzzle and we’re trying to guess what the full picture looks like with only half the pieces.

From a writing standpoint, I think this decision makes sense, especially considering how badly Ouma himself wanted to remain a mystery. So many of his lines throughout the game put emphasis on how much he values lies as a form of free will; it’s clear that he found the ability to choose whether to tell the truth or not extremely important. Presenting us with too many clear-cut facts about him, or having every single character arrive at the same, definitive conclusion about how they felt towards him, would have been dragging the cat out of Schrodinger’s catbox, so to speak.

When Saihara describes Ouma as someone who truly embodied the concept of lies at the end of the trial in chapter 5, I personally felt that this was a great way to summarize Saihara’s own conflicting feelings towards Ouma at that point in time. We know, for a fact, that Saihara didn’t hate him, even despite the things he did. As I mentioned, the localization changed this line, but in the original dialogue of the game, Saihara explicitly refers to Ouma as a “friend” (“nakama”).

Clearly, he never wanted to see Ouma die—but at the same time, he still doesn’t exactly know how to feel about Ouma. Ouma presented a very contradictory picture to the rest of his classmates, particularly if we only look at the end of chapter 5, without any of the subsequent reveals in chapter 6.

He was extremely childish and playful, yet cold and calculating at times. He was willing to sacrifice two people in order to keep himself alive in chapter 4, yet willingly let Momota take the antidote and chose to die under the press in chapter 5, even though he easily could have let Momota and Maki die instead. He often pretended to enjoy the killing game and take pleasure in his classmates’ suffering, yet at the end claimed that he hated it all along.

In my opinion, pretty much anyone would be confused and conflicted in Saihara’s situation. In the time that they knew each other, Ouma followed up nearly every word out of his mouth with, “but that’s a lie though!”, regardless of whether he was telling the truth or not. Considering how little they actually knew about Ouma at this point in time, it’s understandable that Saihara and most of the others would feel as though he remained an incomprehensible liar even in death.

Keep in mind too, that by the end of chapter 5, Saihara and everyone else was still very much under the impression that Ouma was still a Remnant of Despair and Junko’s personal successor. They already realized that he wasn’t the real ringleader of the game, but it wasn’t until discovering his motive video in chapter 6 that Saihara started to reevaluate more of his assumptions about Ouma. Meanwhile Himiko, Maki, and Kiibo don’t discover that Ouma wasn’t actually a Remnant until nearly halfway through the chapter 6 trial, when Saihara puts forth his discoveries.

Considering the fact that they still believed him to be a Remnant of Despair and essentially “Junko 2.0,” Saihara’s conclusion that Ouma was someone he couldn’t fully understand while he was alive, who truly seemed to represent the idea of “lying” itself, feels rather lenient. He could have written him off as a horrible person for his actions and refused to refer to him as a friend… but instead his words sound more curious than anything else, and just a little bit sad.

A huge reason that Saihara, and for that matter all of the other characters, could never fully understand Ouma or his motives is simply because Ouma wouldn’t let them. Due to paranoia and mistrust, Ouma refused to let anyone else in or open up to others, and this is the biggest reason for his downfall in chapters 4 and 5. I can’t help but remember the end of Saihara’s FTEs with Ouma, where he muses that even if he reaches out his hand, Ouma still won’t actually take it—and that’s exactly what happens in the main story, too. It’s downright impossible to help or understand someone who won’t accept your help or let you in.

All in all, I think Kodaka wanted players to feel extremely conflicted at this point in the story. We do, of course, get a few bits and pieces of information about Ouma later on in chapter 6 that help shed a much clearer light on some of his actions, but that’s only if we take that information and go back through the story with it in mind. At the time of Ouma’s death, I think Kodaka really wanted to capture the feeling of someone who remained so mysterious and told so many lies that it was just downright  frustrating, trying to figure out how much of what he said was true or not.

Considering Saihara himself goes on to adopt a very similar opinion towards lies to Ouma’s, I can’t help but think that his comparison of Ouma to the concept of “lies” was never inherently a bad thing. Lies are, after all, meaningful. They’re a morally grey area, absolutely capable of being twisted and used to hurt others, but also just as capable of comforting others, and influencing the world in very powerful ways. By the end of the game, Saihara’s opinion on lies isn’t a black-or-white outlook of “they’re always bad,” or “they’re always good.” Instead, he recognizes that lies are much more complicated than that—much like his opinion towards Ouma himself.

In any case, this was a very fun question to discuss anon! I find it interesting how people’s opinions towards Saihara’s narration at the end of chapter 5 really differs, and I still wonder if part of it has to do with how much harsher the localization made him seem by cutting out the part about him considering Ouma a friend. It’s really interesting how much people’s opinions on this part also tend to tie in with their feelings towards ndrv3’s ending in general, considering the theme of “truth and lies” really kicks up a notch from this point on in the story. Thank you for leaving such a fun question!

[collisiondiscourse]

my art process: a simple(ish) guide to how i (kinda) do things

okay!! so, i said i was gonna post my art process after i finished doing the danny phantom piece so... here it is! the drawing i used for a step by step process explanation is actually... simpler? less clunky than how i usually do things. i must preface this entire post by saying that i am fully self-taught for anything to do with art so if there are some things here that are exceeding no-nos... very sorry OOPS

The drawing took an estimated 4 hours total and for software I used FireAlpaca. My tablet is One by Wacom (aka the tiny ass red one). Without further ado... here’s my narrated guide on how i kind of do art!

1. Sketch Layers

sketches, are ofc, one of the fundamental steps in art. Some artists do them differently, whether they do color blocking/splotches first or silhouettes or your standard messy-lineart-before-the-actual-lineart

i personally do 2-3 different lineart/sketch layers, each layer specializing in different aspects. i took this technique from julia lepetit, a host from the drawfee show--a channel that i really recommend watching if youre an artist, like art, or just generally like having fun background noise while you work on something because... untreated adhd lol

this is the first sketch layer! i color coded them for reference and i use the yellow sketch layer to figure out poses. i use this gesture sketch layer to figure out where i want limbs to go and how i want the body to twist.

after i figure out the posing, i move on to my second sketch layer. the green layer is my refined sketch layer where i figure out the form and anatomy of the sketch. this is also where i start planning how expressions, special costume bits, and hands work!!

the red layer is my last and final sketch layer. technically, the red layer sometimes also doubles as my final lineart! the reason why i do this final step instead of doing the final lineart simply is so i can work on details of the costume. i end up refining certain portions, or even stretching/free transforming the whole body. 

The red helps with the refinement of the drawing bc the ink being a color that isnt black kinda,,,, tricks my brain into not believing that its all permanent. its easier for me to go back and erase/change some parts when my brain doesnt think that everythings final. when im finished, i simply go back and change the color of the lineart to black with the protect alpha function.

this is how the final lineart looks! be sure to close the lineart (aka make sure that everythings connected) so that the bucket tool can work and make your life 2000% easier. 

2. Coloring

my coloring process is kind of... a mess LMAO its super dependent on how i feel like coloring on that day, but this is the usual method i use when im not thinking too much about it.

first are the flats! i use the magic wand tool to select all the areas around the lineart and reverse the selection so that all the areas inside your lineart is selected. color it with a base color, turn on protect alpha, and begin chunking in all the colors.

all of the flats excluding the pupils, background, ectoplasm rings, and danny phantom logo are on one layer. once that is done, we move on to shading!

for shading, i use a combination of the normal pen tool and the airbrush tool to smooth out the edges of the cell shading. since all the flats are on one layer, i simply set this one to clipping mask so that i dont have to worry about coloring within the lines. I only use one color really for shading (here, i used purple) and then protect alpha and add splotches of other colors (pink, orange) in relevant areas.

once i finish doing that, i set the layer to multiply and adjust the opacity so that it looks softer and more attuned to the colors of the actual piece

its at this point that i fiddle with the hue/saturation/brightness settings on the flat color layers to my taste, seeing what works and what doesnt.

i then lightly go over the piece with a bright color (very very very light cyan) and put focus on the areas i think should glow like his freckles, eyes, and ectoplasm rings from where he’s coming out of a wall.

i rlly rlly love layer effects, so i set that one to add and again adjust the opacity to how i want it to look. 

3. Finishing Touches

...yeah i know it looks like a hot mess but hear me out.

on a new layer, make a CRAP TON OF GEOMETRIC SHAPES. ALL OF THEM IN NEON OR PASTEL. i get comments about my coloring methods sometimes and honestly im pretty sure its all due to this step. i make all these goddamn weird shapes, colored according to levels of lighting (yellow in lighter areas, turquoise in areas affected by the glow, purple in shaded areas etc. etc.) and also clip this layer. 

i then set the layer effect to either hue, overlay, or add and set its opacity really low to make it unobvious and cleaner to look at. this is a method that i learned from tumblr user zephyrine-gale who is... exceedingly talented and pulls this off way better than i can WKSDJSKKS

after that... ur basically done!! i add a few more layers like the noise layer for extra texture and sometimes some very light gradients (usually yellow to purple bc of something something color theory)--but after that, the piece is basically finished!

thanks for sticking around and reading this monstrous thing!! i might do more posts like this in the future, so who knows?

if you enjoyed this tutorial, want to support me and my art, or just wish for a way to pay for me to shut up... you can tip me 3 dollars or commission me here at ko-fi

(also reblogs are much appreciated. thanks <3)

[heyjude19-writing]

Im the list anon again and boy do I have more for you but this time I also have some questions as well if your time allows and you are willing to answer of course. First with the other things I loved:

1) the fact that Ron warmed up to Draco so quickly! I genuinely think thats so much in character. Ron is not a distrustful person and as a middle child as they come is very easygoing and would for sure make stupid jokes at Draco

2) The patronus. My god the Patronus. I seriously put the phone down and made a small slow clap during that chapter. At first I was like hmmmm *insert unsure kombucha girl face* because almost all fanfics have him with a dragon patronus and leave it at that (and lets be honest at this point my expectations of you were quite high dont blame me blame your bloody brilliant writing) but then, and I dont know if you did this on purpose or not (I have a feeling you did) but the fact that the dragon was the same (pale white) wounded but still feral dragon that Hermione FREEED (!) from a bank (£££) dungeon, malnourished and used for its nature, surrounded by darkness, wealth and misery!! And it was Hermione who broke its chains!!!!! Is just *chefs fucking kiss* slow clap*

3) the way you describe sex scenes are so natural! Ive never read a fanfic or book that doesnt make me gag a little bit (I am not a fan of smut at all but ill go with it because of a good story) until I read yours. Its so simple but yet intricate and you make the entire act so intriguing and normal and intimate. Bravo.

4) I LOVE SASHA. I love that Theo fell for her head over heels and the way you portrayd her reminded me of a friend of mine who works as a sous-chef in London so I always pictured her when reading it!

5) Dracos inner voice is ON POINT. Like I genuinely think you shoud own the rights to that character now.

6) Ill say it again. I love Ginny. You should also own the rights to her character too.

7) my interest for Quiddich (even when reading the books/wathcing the movies) was on par, if not lower than Hermiones. You managed to get me interested in that too so yes another slow clap to you

7.1) Also such a clever career for Draco!! Made si much sense!

Now to some questions

A) What was the deal with Malfoy referring to Ginny as Weasly and refusing to aknowledge her Potter surname. And why did everyone kept correcting him? It was hilarious granted but I wanted to know whether the reason you included this time and time again had to do wih something deeper? Or was this included as just a funny recurring joke?

B) Why did you choose for Draco to have a “fantasy” to produce a patronus and not for example for him to have had to do that after theyd exchanged “i love yous”. Very interesting angle and i liked that it was sort of a loophole to all the ‘death eaters cant have patronuses’ but quite curious on the thought process

C) Why did you opt for Draco to remove his mark? Do you think that stands as reward for him more or for Hermione? Very smart solution by the way

D) if you have the time- Could you please elaborate a tad more on what the soul-bonding means? Why was it so taboo? At furst hand it seems like a very romantic/amazing thing to do with your partner right?

Lastly- Do you ever itch to make a second part to this? And in the most acceptable case that you dont, I always wondered what you had in mind for them in the future- because of the soul bonding thing, you mentioned that the generational curses will be erased, which means I guess that the Malfoys can have more than one child now, and girls as well. (I cannot believe im asking for this as I am the one to avoid any pregnancy fanfics but) do you imagine them with children and if yes, how many? How do they integrate muggle devices(I know youd agree wit me that Hermione would definitively bring some muggle stuff over!) and which devices would Draco really secretly like?

Pleasewriteasecondpartwhereyouelaborateyourthoughtsonthisthankyou.

Ok rant done. :D

List anon! You’re back with another amazing ask. I’ll do my best!

1.) I like to think Ron matured a lot post-war (not enough to stop making terrible jokes, though.)

2.) Regarding your beautiful analysis of my specific dragon breed for Draco’s patronus: How many points would you like for your Hogwarts house of choice? I will add that according to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Ironbelly’s scales are normally a metallic grey. I will also add that I subscribe more to book canon than movie canon. In the book version of events of the Gringotts escape, Harry breaks the chains and Hermione (with eventual help once the boys catch on) destroys the ceiling so it can have a way out. The partially blind dragon does the rest of the work on its own.

3.) Thank you, that’s very flattering.

4.) Does your friend also get you into fancy restaurants and can they make salted caramel bread pudding???

5.) Thank you, it was one of my favorite aspects of writing this story.

6.) Thank you, she’s so fun to write and flesh out from her book portrayal.

7.) Haha, I felt so validated by that line of dialogue in Cursed Child when Draco tells Harry he wanted to play quidditch professionally, but wasn’t good enough.

Now to some answers:

A.) It’s definitely a recurring joke. It’s up to the reader to interpret Draco’s actions here: is he doing it to be a massive troll? Or is he genuinely not retaining the information of her married name because he considers this fact so unimportant that he does not bother to keep it in his brain? Troll, snob, or both, you can decide!

B.) I’ll address the second part of this first, because it was not intended as a loophole. I 1000% do not understand the “death eaters can’t have patronuses” thing. It makes absolutely no sense. Snape has a Patronus. But beyond that… Umbridge has a Patronus (a cat). If we’re letting that woman have a Patronus, then yeah, I think Draco can cast one. As for the vision that Draco used to conjure it… up to you whether that’s a fantasy or a glimpse of a certain ritual actually working. Draco’s thoughts on the matter: “An image of such striking tangibility that he might have already lived it, or perhaps experienced time in such a way that he lived it now.”

C.) I wanted Draco to have a choice, obviously a recurring theme for him in RN. For my characterization of him, that symbol on his arm causes him nothing but shame and self-loathing (see the end of chapter 36 during his heart-to-heart with Hermione). He’d already exercised almost every known avenue to rid himself of it before Hermione entered his life (he lists these in chapter 44). Hermione already loved him (and has told him so) by the time she’s figured out how to remove it: “I love the man you are today and I will love that man tomorrow, bare forearm or not. I simply wanted you, for once, to have the choice. It’s your body.”

D.) Ooh anon, you are tempting me here. I really hate to be coy, but you might see some future writing on this very topic.

I can at least answer the taboo part: I think soul magic in general (horcruxes, the use of unicorn blood) is quite taboo in the HP universe. As no one knows what happens after death (not even ghosts, Nearly Headless Nick says as much when Harry asks him point-blank in OoTP) I think most magical folk would think the intense ritual (blending magical cores) an unnecessary thing anyway. As Draco explains in chapter 48, since no one actually knows the effects or if it works, it’s considered a bit over-the-top since it’s probably futile anyway. It is also not a Vow with a death component; Narcissa is obviously alive in this story even though Lucius is already dead. I wrote the generational curse protection theory in as a dig at Cursed Child for the way they handled Astoria’s character.

The idea of it I think is romantic, but I will stress it is very dependent upon the intent of the two participants. To quote Draco in chapter 48 again: “To twine one’s soul to another showed a willingness to not only physically tether one’s self during your time here on earth, but to commit to a blending of your magical cores, putting faith in your magic to recognize its bonded counterpart in another life. Should other lives even exist.”

If you re-read Draco’s experience during the bonding ceremony in chapter 51 (starting from this bit: “The cognizance of his own powers never felt sharper, more familiar, but suddenly another power pulsed within to join with his.”) you might find it bears a resemblance to the trajectory of their relationship.

Lastly- I’ve left Draco and Hermione to their wedded bliss. I’ve got nothing planned for them beyond where they are in the final lines of chapter 51. I don’t have that itch to write more into their future because it would feel forced. Draco laid out his two envisioned futures with Hermione in chapter 48 when they discuss having or not having children. They are happy and content in the life they chose together. That’s all I ever wanted for them.

You will see more from this story though. I have an entire series of one-shots and outtakes from the published Remain Nameless timeline that I’ll start posting soon.

Thank you so much list anon! These were fun to answer!

[thoughtfulpaperback]

Charmed 02x17 SPOILERS!!!!!

Okay yall havent had time to do one of these in a while. But I had time to do a rewatch and so I am ready.

Non-spoilery part of this . . . I give the episode a 9/10. The writing (on its own and I'll get into it later) was better than many episodes this season so far. I have mentioned it multiple times this season that episodes 1 to 3 of this season had a different style and scope and (imo) writing pace than the rest of the season except for some of the most recent episodes. While I did have some favorite episodes later on everything pretty much after three didnt feel as grand as far as style went. These last few episodes the writing and style just got turned up. Which is actually great and super frustrating. The writers seem to have the same problem they had last season that is proper plot development/management. We shouldnt be getting all the interesting stuff at the beginning dragging everything out and making no plot progression, then theoughing in all the interesting stuff at the end to get us to stick around. We should have gotten the more plot development throughout the season not just big info bombs ever so often with little devoplement everywhere else.

Here is the truth and I hate it, we had more meaningful screen time and character development with Mel and Abby this one episode than in the entire season. Which is a no-no in my book. The episode on it's own is solid, interesting, and I argue well written, but it should have happened earlier. The things that were good about this episode should have been implemented this entire season. I mean not show will have an A + episode everytime. There will be filler. But it has honestly felt like the writers didnt know what they were doing with certain characters development until last minute. I don't know if that's true, it is just how it has come off to me. So I can understand the frustrations people have felt with this season and its writing. I have them but this episode had me invested and on the edge of my seat. I am excited for more. Which honestly hasnt been the case for many of the episodes this season. I dont mind the last minute overused troupe. I love fanfiction and so I do not easily tire of them, but again pulling it towards the end of the season when many plotlines have been subpar or are least handled in a subpar manner . . .

But on to the spoilers. I am going to go back to the standard likes, dislikes, and episode highlights

1. Abigael character development

Like yall it wasnt much, but like it was more than this entire season so far. I still have no idea what they are doing with Abby-and for me personally it is a little too late to salvage the damage-but the development was actually welcomed. It should have happened sooner. The writers need to pick a lane at this point and just reveal what they want us to think about her (you know like they do with plot bombs) because after some of the stuff and little character development some of us have just soured to Abby. I dont actually dislike the character I just am fustrated with the poor development overall. But I mean had they been doing these little moments across the season rather than setting her up in that weird, poorly handled, and now seemingly dropped love shape with her Harry and Macy (they completely didnt need to have her in there they could have introduced julian earlier on rather than put Macy in a relationship with him after she seemed to realize she had feelings for Harry and then it wouldnt have seemed like she was using julian as much).

2. Mel and Abby moments

The plot was interesting, the development of both characters was better. I mean seriously yall Mel admitting her mom wasnt perfect!!! Given the basic Marisol worship mel had last season and the lack so far of acknowledgement that Marisol made mistakes (regarding thier lives and Marisols marriage). Honestly if they had dropped the Abby Harry crap and had more mel and abby or abby Macy (considering I felt mads and poppy had some great on screen chemistry in the beginning and played well off each other even though it was antagonistic after episode 2) moments like these I feel not only would we know the character better but wed have had better plotlines overall.

Although I think Mel is too quick to overlook all of Abby's past behavior . . . She killed innocent witches and wants to be a demon overlord (or wanted, we dont know what she wants now). But Mel recognizing her mother's flaws and being open to th possibility of being wrong (something she has struggles with both seasons and only gets slightly addressed, if it gets addressed, when it happens) I mean I am here for it.

3. Jordan

I think what has been missing this season is the wittiness of last season and also the genuine fluff. I mean Jordan's comment about kissing Aunt Viv. 10 stars clever (true and revealing about inequity in punishment and treatment of men of color when it comes to sexual assult and harrassment) His excitement over magic. I mean in a lot of ways Jordan is what Galvin should have been/tried to be, but the writers can't seem to do relationship drama and good character development at the same time so....

Jordan is the best and I hope the writers dont mess it up.

4. Julian

So I like the reveal, because I think there is still room to wonder what exactly Julian does and doesnt know. What I understood from this episode is that Julian is behind the experiments in that he started them but the the creatures with those healing powers so that he can take those and use them to heal other. My guess is through creating "more" whitelighters or maybe they og thought they'd just figure out how to raise the dead. Julian at his core (so far) wants to help as many people as possible. Does he know that the creatures die in the process? Is he utilitarian and thinks it is justified? Or is aunt Viv the head person of the actual goings on and Julian is far enough removed from all of it he can emotionally detached from that. Like how for some people it is easier to hear about death than it is to witness it. I think most people are like this but I wont generalize.

Will he change his mind or will we see a different more sinister side of Julian. Like I am interested in getting to know more about his character now, because he has sort of been there as a plot prop more than an interesting character with development. Which is on the writers, the actor is killing it.

5. Hacy

Yall dont get me wrong I think after all the bad writing and angst that the writers did for most of this season, to pull a stunt like that basically at the end of the season was soo wrong.

But I feel that on it's own these moments of Macy confronting and admitting her feelings, the confession, and the little moments (like that face caress and holding him when they get him out of the cointainer) were precious.

That's the stuff we needed more of. Instead of the passive aggressiveness. I know some people hate the amnesia troupe but I prefer it to what they did with the abigael kiss and the jealousy love shape stuff.

Dislikes

1. Middle finger to season 1 and Galvin

Like dont get me wrong, emotional issues dont disappear from one moment to the other and some trauma takes years to overcome if it ever is overcome. But like wasnt Macy admitting she was lonely her whole life and it affected her ability to attach to people and recognize when she wanted someone the basic plot of season 1. I mean she straight up says in the last season that she was so concerned about whether someone wanted her that she never considered what she wanted. And then she says she wants Galvin and now she is saying she never realized when she wanted someone

I think a lot of season 1 has in some ways been "redone" this season. I dont like it because we came here from season 1. We recognized it was flawed. But we still invested time into it. I didnt mind a lot of it, in the beginning to be honest (maybe because I felt it was mostly scenery and vibe than actual erasing plot) but particularly in this episode it felt they were basically saying, "let's pretend it never happened" about the whole first season....okay harry.

In some ways I liked the sort of do over of some character types. I like Jordan as the "mortal in the know" more so than Galvin. I just dont think Galvin was well developed and handled last season. They are doing better with Jordan which is good because if they had messed up the writing for him too I would have been casting my "yall coming off as racist again, do better" look. My biggest fear is that they will mess up Jordan especially if they progress his relationship with Maggie. The writers seem unable to write good/healthy relationships and character development and still give good plotlines at the same time.

Episode highlights.

Macy rehearsing her break up with her sisters

Aunt Viv really trying it with Jordan

"Even white men can't do that anymore."

Abby bringing her bags the the house

[bigskydreaming]

I'm not sure if you got my request because i didn't had internet when i sent it, so i'll write it again xd Do you think Dick (and the batboys in general) are famouse like Bruce? Because in the comics there's not any clue about it, i've never seen anyone say something like "oh look! Its Dick Grayson!, y'know, Wayne's first ward/son And its a shame, because reporters would make such a hard life to all of them, it would maka a good narrative tool

Honestly, this is a prime example of that inconsistency I rant about, and also DC’s refusal to just COMMIT on even the most basic aspects of their universe like….uh…how many kids does Batman have. 

afhsahfklahsklfhal

Like, you would think that would meet the MINIMUM requirements of “shit you should probably have figured out and make sure everybody’s on the same page with” but DC’s like….nah, that’s not important.

So I mean…..I’m reasonably certain - like this is just my personal belief, but I’d put money on it being right, lol - but I think the primary reason there’s so little mention in the comics of how Bruce’s kids are viewed in the public eye/how much the public are aware of them (in the New 52, at least, as pre-Flashpoint there was a lot more plot around that kind of thing, especially back in the 80s and 90s)……

…is because 90% of the writers and editors have no clue either, and nobody wants to be the one to ask, and like, open that can of worms. I 100% think you could ask five different writers at DC which kids Bruce has OFFICIALLY adopted in this current continuity, and get five different answers, lol.

There’s been so much handwaving about Dick’s status ever since Spyral, and again - I think its because nobody bothered to think through the logistics of the Hypnos/global-mindwipe machine BEFORE writing it into the story, and then once it did occur to any of them to like….wonder just how specifically it worked, they were like, fuck it, better just be as vague as possible. So, according to Grayson, everyone Helena didn’t program into the exclusion list before the satellite was activated should have no recollection of Dick Grayson, which is why he was able to ‘go back to his old life’ and be Nightwing again, without worrying about his secret identity having been unmasked…..

But what does that mean for his official identity as adopted son or even just ward of billionaire Bruce Wayne? People can’t have NO memory of Dick Grayson and still remember that Bruce Wayne took in a kid named Dick Grayson. I mean, as far as I can tell, the overall consensus in the comics seems to be that after the satellite was activated, Dick just kinda started from scratch as ‘Dick Grayson’ like, he was free to be himself again, but it was like he was a blank slate/came out of nowhere as far as everyone else was concerned. But again, that means as far as anyone outside of their close circle of family and friends know….Dick Grayson is a non-entity to Bruce Wayne and the two have no history. 

Which I mean, is fairly shitty and you’d think if nothing else, there’d be massive story potential there for delving into Dick’s character and his relationship with Bruce and examining how he felt about ‘having his old life/identity back’….except with the caveat that as far as the world is concerned, his life and identity don’t and have never included his father.

Cut to DC: Naaaaaaaah.

But even WITH that, plot holes persist, and abound, because…..why didn’t the satellite erase the Court of Owls’ knowledge/memory of Dick? Even before Luthor gave Cobb those goggles and files to help him with bringing Ric into the fold, Cobb clearly was already stalking Ric and knew exactly who he was….the Court obviously already had that doctor in place while he was still in recovery…so, whoops. I mean, you could probably come up with an explanation about the Court, via their own tech and resources, having had some protections in place 24/7 that kept the satellite from affecting them even though they weren’t on guard for it specifically…..but again, Occam’s Razor….I feel like the real answer is DC just didn’t care enough to think things that far through. Especially since the average Bludhaven citizen, like Bea, at least didn’t seem totally blown away when Ric revealed to her that amnesia aside, he was supposedly some rich billionaire’s adopted kid….which again suggests that as far as the writers were thinking, people in general are familiar with the idea that Bruce Wayne has more than one kid.

Then you’ve got Jason’s whole situation, and to be honest….I really only have the vaguest idea what’s going on there, because reading Lobdell books is against my religion, and I am a devout and deeply spiritual person, as you all probably can tell. I mean, I know that there’s something going on where like, Jason had himself legally resurrected in the public eye and is openly referring to himself as Bruce Wayne’s formerly-assumed dead foster kid……but like, is that the official official word, or would other writers if you asked them say they’d been operating under the assumption Bruce had adopted Jason too at some point in the Rebirth timeline, or….idek, man.

I…..honestly don’t have the faintest fucking clue what to make of the many back-and-forth retcons about Tim and his parents and his official place in the Batfam/relationship with Bruce, and am actually slightly terrified of even trying to make sense of that clusterfuck of a Gordian knot, so my official stance on Tim is to just like….back sloooooowly away from the anthropomorphic-migraine-masquerading-as-a-backstory, without like….agitating it and accidentally setting off another multiverse Crisis birthed wholly from just that one all-consuming black hole of a retcon.

I mean, there’s a reason I basically just shoehorn all the kids’ official pre-Flashpoint family statuses into anything I write in Rebirth continuity, and that’s not just stubbornness and my refusal to play the “now this kid is adopted…now he’s not…now he is again….except he’s not….oh he’s adopted again…..oh wait now he’s not again" game. 

Its like. Also for the sake of my sanity and stuff.

(And also hahahahaha fuck you DC times infinity, every time you use the words “blood son,” or “real family” in a comic, or have one of Bruce’s other kids refer to Bruce as “your father” when talking to Damian, as if that’s not an utterly bizarre and roundabout way for any sibling to refer to their mutual parent and thus I j’ete REFUSE to acknowledge it as valid….ahem, anyway, my point is, every time they do that in a comic, I double down and headcanon Bruce throwing a random as fuck gala for literally no other purpose than to remind all of Gotham that he has half a dozen kids and they’re all better than everyone else’s. Ugh. Kill it. Kill the “blood son” nonsense with fire and lightning and also lots of stabbing maybe).

Anyway, that’s my official stance on DC’s stance on Damian in the books.

Then as far as Cass goes….ugh, her origins were pretty much utterly butchered by the New 52, which IMO has also failed to give us Cass and Bruce bonding and dynamics sufficient to Sate Mine Ire™, sooooooo…..I mean, my perception of the current canon is that Cassandra’s official status is “secret mystery foster child that nobody really knows about,” but because I do not care for that and there’s the whole not sufficiently sated ire thing I mentioned, I officially reject this canon and willfully replace it with pre-Flashpoint Bruce and Cass love and adoption. DC’s welcome to kiss my critically acclaimed hiney if I’m doing it wrong.

Which brings us last, but certainly not least, as its only this way because I go sequentially and Duke is still Shiny and New comparative to the others and will be until the next inevitable fostering/adoption/clone hi-jinks bumps him up the sequential ladder (except I randomly switched Damian and Cass around this time because LOOK I DONT MAKE THE RULES, THERE ARE NO RULES i hvea Adhd hiccup sob leavem e aloooone soooooob)…..

Duke’s official status, much like the rest of the Batkids, can be summed up as Honestly, I Really Don’t Have A Fucking Clue And Am Just Winging This Whole Thing.

I mean, there’s less inconsistency with him, due mostly to the fact that so few writers other than Snyder use him (boo, hiss, and not just because I hate having to give Snyder credit for stuff - look, I love his Duke, but I loathe how he writes Dami, its a thing, I just…don’t get me started). But what inconsistencies there are….well….they’re a bit glaring.

Basically one major storyline showed Duke as being an official foster kid/ward of Bruce’s and living out of the Manor with Bruce and Damian and occasionally Tim when he’s not off road-tripping around the multiverse….and then Batman and the Signal had Duke in the care of his uncle, who was stated to be his legal guardian and Duke was constantly sneaking out in order to meet Bruce in the special Signal-cave he built specifically for Duke to operate out of so he didn’t have to like, drive all the way out to the Manor to change just so he could then drive back into the city and patrol. And then Batman and the Outsiders just said fuck all that, here’s Duke and Cass hopping hemispheres with the Outsiders every other issue, so apparently nobody’s making unscheduled visits anywhere back in Gotham to make sure these two are where they’re legally assumed to be, which again, for the record is…..*error, source not found*

LOLOL and the really fun thing about this little back and forth is I’m pretty sure allllll these conflicting takes are all the work of the same writer. Like. GET ON YOUR OWN PAGE, DUDE.

Also, again I have to assume the “Can’t Be Bothered To Give A Shit, Or Maybe They’re All Just Really Bad At Logic” curse has struck again, because….uhhhh…..

….at no point anywhere in Duke’s stories have I seen Bruce or literally anyone else express concern about the fact that Duke living with Bruce as his official foster, like he definitely and clearly was at some point at least…..means that literally every single one of his We Are Robin friends who knows that he was taken in by the Batfam (and there’s several of them who know this)….like, by the transcendent properties of You Can’t Honestly Think They’re That Dumb, that’s a good five or six civilians out there who probably took all of five seconds to play connect the dots and figure out the Wayne family, having officially taken Duke in on paper…..is pretty likely the Batfamily.

I mean, I like all of Duke’s friends and would definitely headcanon/write them as all being trustworthy and able to keep this knowledge to themselves for Duke’s sake, if nothing else, but I mean, its pretty unprecedented for Bruce to out himself and all of his kids/allies by extension, to like, that many civilian teenagers all in one swoop….

…sooooooo, you’d think, AGAIN, logically, maybe, perhaps, this is the kind of thing that should be brought up in a narrative somewhere as a plot point worth delving into, y’know, just for shits and giggles and maybe a little bit of that whatchamacallit - oh right, character development, but.

Cut to DC: Naaaaaaah.

 *throws up hands and does the I Can’t Even Shuffle all the way home*

In conclusion:

DC is a mess. The official/public status of each and every Batkid is a mess. Except for Damian, the blood son, but we have that pencilled in on the schedule to be killed with fire and also stabbing, so he can get filed under ‘just a fucking mess’ with the rest of his siblings. Hashtag Solidarity.

I mean, I say just write or headcanon their official status however you damn well please, and it’ll STILL be more effort than I believe DC has put into organizing and staying consistent with all of this, and thus STILL make more sense than what we currently have to work with.

*Shrugs* If they don’t care enough to provide a clear canon blueprint to follow when mapping the Bat Family Tree, I can’t be bothered to care if the one I make up myself happens to contradict one single mention of one kid’s official status as claimed by one issue of one book.

Especially if it was written by Lobdell.

Jason’s just a foster son my ass. grumble mumble bitter vengeful swears and a pox on all DC’s houses. WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HATE ADOPTION SO MUCH, INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW AND ALSO FUCK YOU.

[anon-e-has-a-tmblr]

Ten Niche Interests

Got tagged by my good ole friend @chaotic-archaeologist and I figured it's time to expose my guts yet again. So here we go!

Tanks - what not to love about them? Were invented during the great war, the tanks were firstly designed to be a fort on wheels. Only during WW2 they were used as an independed tactical unit. They still have many flaws, like the odd design of putting the driver right inside the engine, but I guess in the future their design will change. After all, in about 100 years we went from a metal box that houses 23 people to a small and fast moving gun with 3 people.

Ruins - the main reason why I went to archeology and not history. Those fallen stones and mortar have a story to tell, if you only listen carefully. And a skeleton will only make it that much more facinating.

Knitting - funny or not, I was taught how to knit yamacas when I was 16 by my classmates. Its didn't really work out that well for me, so I started to use this new skill to knit puppets. I dont know, I just find the knit (Badam tss). Sadly, last time I touched my knittìng box was when I was still in military service way back when.

Video games - self explanatory. I own several games on Epic Games and Steam, as well as some games for PS1 (yknow, the small grey sony consule from the 90s). Right now I play Old Worlds and Heroes & Generals, and I look forward to start playing civilisations 6.

History - well, technically anything since the beginning of mankind (i.e. the aystralopitecus and their robust friends) and until the WW2 era. What happened afterwards less interest me as I have my parents and grandparents brag about it constantly, and I don't have any desire to look at present times. The eras that are the most interesting to me are the entire iron age (10th-6th century BC, not the european Iron Age which is technically the persian and early helenistoc era but let's not get into that debate alright xD) and the early to middle bronze age, technically till the invention of beer and tea manners in the Levant (2nd millenia BC).

Militaria - anything army and combat. Swords, flame throwers, boots, pins - everything and all. It's facinating to see how military disiplince and traditions have changed throughout the years, from a gang of men with clubs to an elite alpenist unit with night vision goggles and thermal clothes. Just like anything above, it tells the story of a nation. One great example is the Viena's 44 infantry devision that was erased in stalingrad (I dont remember if they were infantry or motorized, it was a while since I've encountered them).

Pins - this is a personal thing. I started collecting pins I find when I was in highschool 8 years ago. My first pin was a tank corp signal company pin that I found in a road-guide camp. The camp hosts Tank crews and is located right next to a tank corp memorial center so it's logical a pin of a tank corp would end up there in the dirt. My collection doesn't have only military pins though, most of the pins I have there are from Loot Crate and places I've visited XD.

Backbacks - gIvE mE mOrE bAgS well in all seriousness, my bags and backpacks collection is the oldest collection I have. I collect them since I'm 10, along-side a plastic bags collection I now use as trash bags and other carrying options. The collection also has some old wallets my mom and I used, as well as 2 wallets that belonged to my grandfather. I might use one of them soon, since the wallet I have now is wearing off. I also have shoulder bags (including one I use right now) and my old school supply bags, as well as old blanket bags and cloth shopping bags.

Art - well that's not news to anyone. I do arts. I learned how to draw from a classmate when I was 16, before that I drew stick figures and cyclamens. I mainly draw scenaries and men, as drawing the female figues brings me the feel of cringe and the will to jump of a cliff (dysphoria amiright). I started drawing animals, however because of Current Year(TM) I didn't have the chance to practice on that. The few arts I actually posted are at @anon-e-also-draws and my ko-fi, as well as my pinterest (shameless plug, I know XD also if you know me since before this blog, you may have seen the arts already).

Vehicles - this is a new-old interest that comes back to me. When I was really young I was always facinated by cars and motor bikes, and after years of doing other things I start to see the glory I saw in those deadly machines. I wqs thinking for the past 6 months about maybe restoring a car in the future. Not now though, as I don't possess the almighty driver's license xD

I could keep going on and on but it got so long, so I will stop here. Tagging : @kova-sonic @ts-sideblog @theboredbaptist @rose-in-a-fisted-glove @the-greenhouse-mind and whoever else who wants to do it. Please do it in a seperated post though, so it doesnt get too long.

I wish yall a great time of the day