#all the love to our captains

[flyhighisco]

it's times like this i miss sergio ramos

[dearabsolutelynoone]

“Anthony was rather famously besotted with his wife…”

Julia Quinn, On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgertons, #7)

[paperultra]

eye to eye.

Pairing: OPLA!Monkey D. Luffy x Reader Word Count: 781 words Warnings: None

He’s been staring for five minutes now.

Five minutes and thirty-three seconds, to be exact. Twenty-seven more seconds and it’ll be six minutes, and you don’t know if you can handle six minutes of him looking at you; everyone on this ship has fallen prey to those big brown eyes, and you are certainly no exception – how many times have you scraped off the last portion of your meal onto his plate, or let him trail after you and chatter away while you did inventory, or sat on the figurehead with him despite your fear of heights because of those eyes? The answer is more than once, and you know you’d do it again in a heartbeat as you finally look up from your newspaper.

“You need anything, Luffy?”

“Nope,” he says.

He continues to stare at you, that achingly wide, sunny grin on his face. You blink. He does too.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

“... Well,” you say slowly, more befuddled as the seconds tick by – surely, it’s now been over six minutes – “do you want something?”

(There is always a ninety-two percent chance that Luffy wants something, concrete or not. Seventy percent of the time it is concrete, and the thing he wants is food.)

Luffy shakes his head. He props his elbows onto his knees and rests his chin in his hands, and you swear you see his eyes sparkle underneath the tattered brim of his straw hat.

“I just like looking at your face,” he chirps.

The force of those few words is enough to stop your heart in your chest. It stutters in place, then starts again, jumping with glee.

“H-Huh?”

“I like looking at your face,” he repeats as if you didn’t hear it the first time.

You lick your lips, grappling for something to say in response to such a strange answer. “It’s … it’s not much to look at,” you finally say, curling up out of habit. “There’re better faces out there.”

“But I want to look at yours.” Luffy jabs a finger towards you. You shrink back a bit, cheeks beginning to warm. “And there’s lots to look at, like your nose and eyes and stuff.”

You wonder if you should take that as a compliment. But Luffy doesn't do compliments; he only does the truth, and maybe that makes what he’s said infinitely more valuable.

"Thanks for noticing," you reply, awkward but fond. He nods happily, and you find yourself adding, "I like looking at your face too."

It's not a lie, nor an attempt to return the favor. You do like looking at Luffy's face. You like the wild, coal-black curls framing it, the perpetually goofy smile, the scar, the eyes that turn into dark honey in the sunlight. The eyes that look back at you and promise freedom and joy and everything good the world has to offer.

"You do?" He sounds very pleased and scoots closer. "That's great! We can look at each other."

"Won't that get boring after a while?"

"If it does, we can go and eat something."

You snort, face now very hot as you move to sit cross-legged. "You're funny, Luffy."

And so you look at Luffy, and Luffy looks at you, knees touching and the room still with a few rare seconds of contemplative silence. A few seconds, because that is all you can take before you dissolve into giggles, half flustered and half entertained. (This is how you often are around him nowadays.)

It isn't long before Luffy joins you, and the two of you end up lying on the floor, cackling until you're out of breath.

"Ahhh! That was fun," Luffy gasps once he can speak coherently again. "Now let's get something to eat!"

"You're bored already?" you ask in between gulps of air.

"No, but I'm hungry." With a grunt, he rolls back and catapults himself onto his feet, then picks you up and sets you down to stand before tugging on your arm. "Let's ask Sanji to make us a snack."

You nod, and soon enough, the floor of the Going Merry thrums with the sound of two scruffy pairs of shoes running over it, laughter bouncing off the walls as Luffy's hand grips yours. It's the same way he holds your heart, tightly but kindly. You squeeze back.

Three words balance on the tip of your tongue. You swallow them.

One day, you think. One day, he will look at you like he did today, and you will tell him how much a person like him means to a person like you.

But right now, you're going to ask Sanji to make you and Luffy something to eat.

[recalled11]

Directionless Pt. 3

Pt. 1/ Pt. 2/ Pt.3/ Pt. 4

[dustykneed]

one moment theyre arguing on the bridge the next theyre necking in a turbolift (bickering is their foreplay.) also mckirk is peak "i married my best friend" energy

also i LOVE the idea of bones being inexplicably more flustered than spock over kissing the vulcan way,, theyre both terrible terrible tsunderes but jim thinks its so funny that they play it up sometimes when hes feeling down just to see him laugh

[ghouldtime]

ITS OCTOBER. I know you're hiding monster headcanons for T141 probably. Share them ? ;D

🎃💀🪦⚰️👻 🍂HAPPY OCTOBER Y'ALL! THE FIRST OF MY FAVORITE MONTH! SPOOKY SEASON IS OFFICIALLY ON AND YOU KNOW ME

I LOVE MY MONSTERS AND CRYPTIDS ALIKE WOOOOO Ghoul is in my blog name for a reason

I'll give you a basic monster type of what I associate them with! (Also please i will happily write monster! 141 any time)

Captain John Price - Bogeyman

You know how he said that someone has to make the bad guys afraid of the dark? Yeah

I take that quite literally

Bogeyman are usually supposed to be an imaginary creature used to frighten children into good behavior. They're the thing lurking in the closet, the monster under the bed that isn't there when you check

Except he very much is, lingering on the edge of your periphery at night

His deal isn't scaring children, though. No, he's above that

He might be a bogeyman but he's still keeping his morals and intentions very well. He's still going after the real monsters of the world

He's always lurking in the dark, in the shadows, waiting to make his appearance and scare the every living daylights of whoever the next victim is

Or he's in between, stashing in the dark as he moves from place to place between targets

His appearance isn't drastically different, aside from longer limbs, sharp claws, and glowing eyes that follow your every movement in the dark. I also like giving him sharp teeth!

You know he's near if you catch the faintest whiff of cigars on the air. You may not see him but he's there, waiting for his chance

As long as you haven't done anything too bad lately, you have nothing to worry about. Maybe you can try to make friends with the monster under the bed

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley- The Black Dog

I know I've done literal ghost Ghost and I LOVE cerberus ghost (Alone operator my beloved) but the black dog is just so fitting to him

They're spectral hellhounds associated with death itself - seeing one is a sure omen that death is near

They're also associated with electrical storms and crossroads, or places of execution and ancient pathways

The conversation of the two Shadows talking about Ghost mentioning that if you see him it's already too late had me thinking on it

If you see HIM, yeah, its likely death is near, imminent, and is looking for someone with your name

His appearance is that of an extra large black wolf like dog with shaggy fur, menacing teeth, and glowing red eyes. I still give him the ability to talk for extra menacing points

The skull is iconic so thought the dogs are usually solidly black, what identifies it as HIM are the few white stripes on his chin

That doesn't mean he's necessarily bad. As much as he's an omen of death, he can be a guide too - especially to those who are lost along the way

He's a creature of the night and shadows itself - you won't find him around in the day, he waits til darkness comes so he can truly use it to his advantage

Like the shadows said, if you see him, it's probably too late. Pray you're not the one he's seeking on behalf of death - much less, you're not the one he's introducing to it firsthand

Sergeant Kyle "Gaz" Garrick - The mimic/shapeshifter

I had to REALLY think on this because he doesn't strike me as any monster in particular. The only other one I'd really associate with him might be something like a poltergeist or a hitchhiking ghost

The mimic is a shapeshifting creature that can shift to match its surroundings, whether that be people or objects alike

I just saw it as him because, while he might appear charismatic and harmless on the outside, there's a whole lot he's hiding up his sleeves

He's adaptable, uses his environments to his advantage, and was the ONLY one in his class who escaped the facility and evaded capture in the RTI testing (I think that's the name for it and that part, correct me if im wrong I probably am)

Mimic/shapeshifter really fits his vibe well because he becomes what he needs to be

Of course, like any mimic, he lacks a 'true form' which is an amorphous flesh colored vaguely humanoid shape with razor sharp teeth (they all have sharp teeth, noticing a trend with these monsters)

That being said, he's not usually presenting as that. He's taking the form of whoever or whatever he needs to get the job done

I cannot emphasize how much you do not want to be on his bad side or have to deal with HIM going after you

He can be absolutely anywhere as anything. You're not going to be able to tell until its likely too late. That's his thing and he's GOOD at it

That said, he still has his humanity, he's still himself. You have to do something to piss him off or be one of his enemies to earn his ire and spite. Luckily he's mostly harmless

Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish - Selkie

I know I know, werewolf Soap is what everyone probably wanted. and I FULLY agree and love werewolf/dog coded Soap BUT HEAR ME OUT

FIRST OFF they're apart of Scottish folklore so we already have that going

Selkies are creatures that can shapeshift between a seal form and a human form by removing their seal skin. They typically hide their seal skin, because without it they cannot return to their home of the sea

They're usually harmless and simply want to be among humans or on land for a little while before they return to their lives at sea. However, they can become extremely violent, vengeful, and destructive when provoked

Soap just naturally has more of that seal personality! Smart, curious, playful, a bit cautious - and certainly has plenty of bite when provoked. Don't let that cute face fool you, they're hunters under the turbulent waters

SO NATURALLY I'm going to want to make him a seal creature

In seal form, I give him the appearance of a harbor seal! The main distinction is he has a more prominent ridge of fur running down his spine and he's a slightly darker shade than the other seals

In human form, he's still himself! Pretty blue eyes and all, ignore the slight webbing between his fingers it's totally just a genetic condition

He's absolutely no joke, though, no matter how cute and cuddly he looks. You do NOT want to play around with him under water, or you're being dragged down to where you're not seeing the light of day again

Just leave him be, bring him a fish or two, and you'll be fine

(I love selkie soap and seal soap in general its so him. But i will dually take Kelpie! Soap too)

(I also know Selkie! Soap is a very popular take but I LOVE IT and will eat it up)

[artist-rat]

my old and new tes character Saima <3 she’s a combination of a couple of my prev. ocs!

[aha-my-villainous-thoughts]

It's all about them.

(I'm just a big ole ball of happy mush at the moment, I love our blackbonnet boys 💜)

[titanofthedepths]

I was talking about this on a call the other day but one of my favorite things about Sea of Thieves is that the characters are allowed to be ugly and so wildly diverse. Even the skeletons are diverse and have compelling and fun designs.

Note that when I say ugly I don’t mean that as a bad thing - I’m a firm believer that ugly doesn’t have to be a bad word, just the same as fat doesn’t have to be. Nobody’s perfect and that’s beautiful etc etc, when I say ugly I mean “not conventionally attractive” and it’s something I wholeheartedly appreciate

Like. Player pirates are randomly generated, which can be frustrating but at the end of the day it’s refreshing to not be able to sit and put together the perfect pirate. There will always be little scars or nicks or features you didn’t choose to place there, but they’re your pirates’ features. Just a couple days ago I realized my pirate has a snake bite on her cheek, and I LOVE that it’s there, though I never would have considered it for her had I been given the option to build her from scratch.

The NPCs, too, are diverse, and allowed to be flawed, and ugly. With their crooked or missing teeth and imperfect proportions and scars and asymmetrical faces - Rare could have very easily chosen to make every last NPC a perfectly pretty face fit for a magazine, and they chose not to. It makes the characters feel a little more real, more like they’re people - I can’t tell you how often I sit and examine the models of NPCs to look at every little detail and just appreciate how imperfect they are.

And like previously stated - and perhaps the thing I appreciate the most - even the skeleton characters are widely varied. Rathbone moves with a hunched posture that hides the fact his frame is fairly small, Grimm is tall and wide in that way that Sea of Thieves builds their fat characters, one of Chi’s horns is growing from her eye socket and she’s lankier than Ruth’s sturdy frame, Horatio has arms that are just a little too long, so on and so forth.

Just… Sure, I don’t by any means love Rare as a company, but the character design we see in Sea of Thieves is some of the best I’ve ever seen. I have a lot of love for this pirate game and the amount of love the design team put into every single character they offer us

[ratatatastic]

"lot of Barkov huh?" paul maurice observes plainly as the depths of hell open up because multiple children are screaming his name (good!)

2024 nhl global series finland practise | 10.31.24 (x)

[cloudilicious]

just watched the trouble with tribbles for the first time - i'd seen so many snippets already because it is just that iconic but it still did NOT disappoint omg please kirk's cuntiness towards baris is everything

[larphis]

The fact that the entire crew lied to Stede at some point to take the blame for Ed’s actions because they knew that hearing just how severly he traumatized him would have scared him off (not as in being scared of Ed, but as in being scared that he has hurt Ed so much that he would rather run away once more as to not cause any more suffering than to face him and actually fight for him) and they couldn’t let that happen because everyone who has been near Blackbeard in the last few months knows that the only way to help this man, the only way to temporarily and after some work even permanently fix his deep rooted turmoil is Stede fucking Bonnet.

[acourtofquestions]

“Rowan knew most underestimated the sharp intelligence under that disarming smile. Knew that Dorian's value wasn't his godlike magic, but his mind.”

[tangents-within-tangents]

The thing about the "Clone Rebellion" show

I've become a lot more critical of The Bad Batch lately and I think I realized that’s because it’s over. 

That means that 1. I can look back on the whole show retrospectively, and 2. any issues or hopes I had no longer have a chance to be addressed or resolved.

I realized I’ve been very caught up in thinking about the missed potential of the show, and a lot of my disappointment/frustration with the direction TBB took (esp in regards to the "reg" clones) is coming from the fact that a Clone Rebellion show does not exist to make up for it. For now this is all we have, and it’s hard for me to just accept TBB for what it is, because I at least have been operating under the assumption that this is all we're going to get, that this fabled spin-off show is just not going to happen. 

Because here’s the thing: We all kinda talk about it as if it's a given, a not if but when, but as far as I can tell the concept came entirely from the fans. Just speculation and wish-fulfillment. I don’t really keep up with news/interviews/behind the scenes stuff, but I’m pretty sure there have never been any mentions from official sources (y'all freaked out about one animation job listing that could be for literally anything). If there's something I’ve missed let me know, but for now at least there have been no announcements or plans or anything.

The only thing really is that the gaps left in TBB feel like intentional setup (we never got an Echo and Rex solo episode like we did with Crosshair and Cody which feels like they are saving it for something else, Echo’s fate was specifically left open-ended by not mentioning him (for better or for worse) in the epilogue, Emerie joins them at the end setting up for a female character to be in the main cast, etc) but that still doesn’t guarantee that we will ever actually get a show. That feels more like leaving the possibility open, not necessarily making plans. Especially since TBB actually puts any potential Clone Rebellion show in a really weird position:

There's a lot of important clone-relevant stuff going on during TBB (like Order 66, Kamino, the stormtrooper bill, Tantiss) but I doubt they would go back and show that again since it would either be repetitive by rehashing TBB’s timeline, or confusing by relying too much on people having watched another show. Yeah most people probably would have, but that still doesn’t work very well narratively if your important beats are just implied and happening offscreen. Like I would kill to see more of Nemec and Fireball but then they would just disappear after being killed off (for pretty much no reason) in another show! Hemlock and Tantiss base were designed specifically to be clone-centered threats, and the underground network were the ones who actually spent time searching for it, but then they weren’t there for the rescue so there would be no resolution. But if we instead pick up at the end of TBB it seems like most clones have already been phased out of the Empire by then anyway. Yes you could still make things work either way and come up with new plots and stuff but it’s still a tight spot to be in and it doesn’t really feel like the writers took that into account.

Whether we do get another show or not, I think it still had a negative impact on TBB though. Like that show already had a cameo problem, but 'setting up potential future show at the expense of the current one' is such an issue in any media (esp Star Wars and Marvel these days). Since we got pieces of both 'important stuff happening to the clones' and 'fun mercenary adventures with the Batch' rather than just committing to one or the other, or equally to both, it just causes issues for both shows. I’ve been working on a full post about the lost potential, but for now I’ll summarize as:

It hurts TBB bc we get these glimpses of a more meaningful story that our main characters, the ones the show decides to dedicate screen time to, choose not to participate in. It’s like that trope/bad writing thing where the story they mention (Budapest, or like the Cullens' backstories) sounds more interesting than the one they are actually showing us. Like it’s okay that the Batch didn’t take the same route as Echo and Rex, but the route they did take should be of equal or greater importance/intrigue, and it just really wasn’t. It was mostly directionless side quests and that made the characters seem selfish and a lot of the plots feel filler-y because there are so many important things going on elsewhere. 

It's just starting to feel unlikely that we'll get TWO post-RotS "clone-centered" shows, so why waste the one we did get avoiding the more important clone-centered storyline? Why not at the least equally divide the time you did have between the Batch and Echo and Rex? Why make an ensemble show if you're not going to try to actually balance all the characters? Why bring back a fan favorite clone just to push him to the sidelines and ignore all his potential? Why focus on the "clones" who aren't affected by/don't care about clone issues?

Believe me, I still want a show focusing on Rex and Echo's efforts to save the clones (I just wish it was the show we got in the first place)! I genuinely hope that we will get this show someday, not just because I love clones and this concept, but because I really see a need for it, there's a lot of gaps and potential to be filled there (which is also why I'm okay waiting bc frankly I don't trust the current state of Star Wars writers to properly handle that potential). But I’m treating it with a more “not until proven otherwise” approach (because we all know what happens when we get our hopes up lolll). So for now this is what we have, and unless that changes, I think we should treat it as such.

A lot of times when I see people mention the idea of a new show it's as a way to fix any issues within TBB. Like ‘this wasn’t resolved that well, maybe in the clone rebellion show…’ ‘Maybe Tech could still come back in the clone rebellion show’ ‘Maybe Crosshair’s character arc could be more complete…’ etc. But again we don’t know for sure if there ever will be another show, and even if there is, TBB should be able to stand on its own. There are some things I think another show could do (like address the plot hole of why the Empire never came back to Pabu, or actually doing something with the CX troopers) but narratively it does not work for major plot arcs or character development like that to be resolved elsewhere (like how a major Mandalorian plot point happened in the middle of TBOBF???). If we do get a Clone Rebellion show I don't think it would make much sense for the Batch to play much of a role in it. TBB ended with a clear send off for those characters, whether that was fully satisfying to you or not, that was the narrative intention. The Batch could show up as cameos, but this wouldn’t be their story anymore, and we know it couldn’t be because they were very intent on retiring and clearly never cared much about the regs or Empire so why would they suddenly change their minds?

A Tech lives plotline would have to be centered on the Batch, that’s his family, but that would just be really out of place in a separate show, especially post-finale (which confirmed that Tech did not come back in canon (at least until Omega joins the rebellion, if you want to be nitpicky ig)). There always could be ways to make it work anyway if you really wanted to, but we saw what retcon battles did to the Sequel Trilogy, and it still wouldn’t really fix any problems in TBB as a show. I’ve said it before, but if the writers were going to bring Tech back then they simply would/should have (they knew season 3 was the final season and they had plenty of time which they spent fighting space gators and whatnot instead).

I'm not saying this to spoil the fun or like dash anyone's hopes or anything. I don't actually know any more than anyone else, I have no impact on what Disney and Lucasfilm do (and clearly they don't really care about making narratively functional choices anyway, get roasted). For all I know this post could age horribly. I just had some thoughts to get off my chest, because I think it’s unproductive to judge TBB based on the idea of an unconfirmed potential other show--that does not (yet?) exist and wouldn't be about them--instead of looking at it for what it is. 

TBB is over. Canon happened, what we have is what we got. We can love it and hate it and critique it and write our au’s and fix-its, but I really think that it’s done. We have to make space for endings, that's an important part of storytelling (which is also why they need to be well-written but whatever). And we also have to make space for other stories to be told. The Batch had their show, they spent the screen time they had on what they did. Those characters got their time and they got a happy ending wrap up, and now it's (hopefully) time to let some other clones take the spotlight.

[kroosluvr]

votv stuff

[belethlegwen]

The Stranding - Chp 74 - Aches and Pains

Good afternoon my lovelies <3 I hope you've all been well!

Can you guess what's the ache and what's (who's) the pain? :D

I'm being a little unfair, everyone is tense and on edge in a situation none of them were really as ready to face right now as any of them thought they were, but there are still aches worth examining and pains worth working through and figuring out how to soothe.

Thanks as always for reading and enjoying, I appreciate you all immensely and hope you're all doing as well as you can!

Loves ya a bunch <3

~ Belle