#also there's a surprise cameo i've been just WAITING to get to so that makes me happy

[pastaxandria]

The Red Thread: Chapter 163

The Library of Pastaxandria has recorded for its archives: Chapter 163 of The Red Thread.

Ship: Matt Murdock x F!Reader

Chapter Summary:

"The person I'm tracking… It has to do with Project Beagle." You grimaced as Matt abruptly straightened next to you, his inhale sharp and startled. "I'm looking for the brother of my old handler. Anthony, from the journals. He might be hiding in Queens, according to S.H.I.E.L.D.. His brother's lived there for decades, and they think he's stashed Anthony somewhere. If I can find the brother… I find Anthony." Silence hung heavy in the air, thick and heavy as a shroud. Then Matt blew out a slow breath, letting go of you so he could scrub his hands down his face. "Shit," he said softly.

Wordcount: 7.6k

Warnings for this chapter: for once this chapter is ENTIRELY SAFE, I even added some extra cuddles for all of you, and there is a WONDERFUL CAMEO I have been waiting to get to at this point in my outline, so go forth!

Read me on AO3 where Matt's suddenly realizing there might be too many things going on for him to handle all of it

[thiswaytwoinfinity]

Emma's Epic Multi-Fandom Rec List: 'Top Gun: Bob' Edition

This is technically like, part 3.1 since I've been working on pulling a giant 'Top Gun: Maverick' rec list together, with all the daggers. I wanted to have this done a little while ago (because August was when I joined the TGM fandom, etc.) but frankly everything has been nuts and so I just figured it was better to share what I had ready rather than wait for the whole thing.

Please cut me some slack, my puppy just got spayed and she insists I hold her bone for her while she chews so I have like one free hand and two brain cells at the moment

I do my best to reblog as much as possible but sometimes I miss it so this is my attempt to make up for that and give all of the amazing creators on here the credit they deserve. Thank you all so much for sharing all of your work with us. This past year has been a long and difficult one for me, especially mental health wise, and being able to escape into these stories has been so valuable and important to me. 

If you read anything on here that you like, please reblog and/or comment on these pics to show the creators some love! 

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: While not everything listed here will include smut, many of these authors have 18+ blogs. Please, please, please respect their boundaries and DO NOT INTERACT WITH THEM/THEIR CONTENT IF YOU ARE A MINOR.

Stories marked with ❤️‍🔥 contain NSFW content

Robert ‘Bob’ Floyd 

Full of Surprises ❤️‍🔥 by @withahappyrefrain — You have to admire a fandom that takes one look at the bespectacled, quiet-seeming character and goes “This guy fucks.” I also had that exact thought when I first saw Bob Floyd (along with several other, increasingly filthy thoughts), so when I read this story for the first time I went “oh, yeah, definitely. This guy fucks and this is how he fucks.” Just like our beloved WSO, it starts out so charming and sweet and then gets so incredibly steamy and sexy. 10/10. And when you’re done, there’s an equally hot Part 2. 

Behave ❤️‍🔥 by @withahappyrefrain — Bob Floyd bicep choking. Let me repeat that, a little louder: BOB! FLOYD! BICEP! CHOKING! It’s even hotter than you think it is. 

Whodunit? by @attapullman — Fun fact: my absolute favorite genre of fiction (books, movies, games, you name it) is a whodunit mystery. So, naturally, I have been obsessed with this series ever since Mo started teasing it way back when, and I love everything about it. Bob and Fanboy are the perfect goofy amateur sleuths, the teasing hints of cameos from all of the other Daggers keeps you on your toes and there’s a dose and campy ‘80s nostalgia running through the whole thing that I adore. It’s just pure, giddy fun. 

The Neighbor!Bob Universe ❤️‍🔥 by @attapullman — I am on record as adoring every single version of Bob that Mo cooks up, but neighbor!Bob holds a special place in my heart. He’s so handy and confident and sexy and he needs help dodging the firtations of all of the older women in the neighborhood who are equally obsessed with him! My bff and I once joked that the perfect man could build you a table and then do both you and your taxes on it, and well, that’s neighbor!Bob to a tee. 

do you wanna make somethin' of it ❤️‍🔥by @theharddeck — Hi, hello, are you looking for a Bob fic so hot it will MELT YOUR ENTIRE BRAIN? This is that fic. Bob has a secret side hustle as your favorite audio erotica performer (username: BullRiderRhett) and he is just as brain-scramblingly hot in person as he is in your headphones. I finished this fic and said out loud, to nobody, “omg I need him.” And because the universe is kind, there is an equally scorching sequel. 

you don’t have to be a star by @sunlightmurdock — Sweet, perfect Bob deserves a sweet, perfect fic where he gets to hear all about how lovely and wonderful he is, just the way he is. Fluffy and warm and the kind of story that gives you the urge to kiss him all over his perfect little face. 

Something in the Orange ❤️‍🔥by @sorchathered — I’m a sucker for a “right person, wrong time” situation and this one is a gut-punch of angst followed by a swoon-worthy reconciliation. I imagine it would be impossible to ever truly move on from Robert Floyd. 

Delicate ❤️‍🔥 and I Want Your Midnights by @laracrofted — *Tyler Owens voice* Are y’all ready to pine? Bob Floyd is an absolute dream boy and he’s at his most hesitant and lovestruck in these two gorgeous stories. These give me the same like, sinking stomach-feeling I get when I stare at pictures of Lewis for too long — like just the tiniest bit of melancholy that makes the whole experience sweeter and more emotional. Does that make sense? It’s one of the highest compliments I can give. 

Covering the Classics ❤️‍🔥by @roosterforme — BOB AND ANNA! ANNA AND BOB! I COULD SCREAM ABOUT THESE TWO FOR HOURS! I love them, this is such a beautiful, heart wrenching, emotional roller coaster of a story about learning how to find yourself and your people after heartbreak and trauma. Anna is such an interesting, complicated character and Bob meets her at every turn with love and tenderness and the biggest open heart in the world. (And also the steamy scenes are BEYOND, like, damn, Bob, neither Anna nor I was ever gonna be able to resist you.)

I Heard Screaming ❤️‍🔥by @oncassette — Yes, it’s a classic fanfic trope — I heard noises and walked in on you enjoying some *private time* while thinking about me — but it’s a classic for a reason. I love it and I reread it all the time. 

Four Eyes ❤️‍🔥by @promisingyounglady — I’m going to quote what I wrote the first time I reblogged this wildly, delightfully, insanely filthy fic: “I need to sit in a dark corner and replay this fic in my brain like a movie now.” It’s that good

Misc. Lewis Pullman Characters: 

Dancing Beneath the Moon ❤️‍🔥by @delopsia (Rhett Abbott) — Del is *the* Rhett Abbott fic writer, in my opinion, and choosing just one of their fics was so much harder than I thought. But ultimately, I’m still so spellbound by this one, where Rhett is a ghost haunting the former Abbott ranch. It’s atmospheric and moody and gorgeous and the pining is top notch — as is the image of Rhett being a grumpy, mischievous house ghost. Also please check out their Floytt universe which I also adore. 

Coyote ❤️‍🔥by @delopsia (Miles Miller) — An omegaverse with a twist! The reader is a wolf being married off to broker peace with another prominent wold family … only to run away with the sweet, gentle coyote who works at the desk of the El Royale.  Dip You in Honey So I Could Be Stickin to You ❤️‍🔥by @laracrofted (Harrison Knott) — Harrison Knott, the man that you are. And the man that you are in this fic, specifically. I need him desperately. Carnally. In a way that is concerning to feminism.

[lunarspiral1127]

X-Men 97 episode 8 *SPOILERS*

Bastion

Not gonna lie, I busted out laughing when I watched his origin story. This is the second time an antagonist had to wait for a couple to make a child and use said child for their plans. Nimrod was lucky that the guy he infected was in a relationship. Plus, I thought it was gonna make Bastion sympathetic due to his childhood flashbacks, but nope.

So, he made a Utopia for humans, but the mutants are enslaved. Saw old Polaris and the Phoenix. But, what bugs me is that he claims that many of the humans consented to be turned into Prime Sentinels without knowing all the details and won't have any memory of being turned. I find it hard to believe that every single one of them would've consented, especially his elderly mother. Dude omitted many details and I'm pretty sure he turned some of them without them knowing. Plus, I'm still mad at him for killing Gambit.

Cameos of Dr. Doom and Zemo (hydra n@zi Zemo, not the MCU version). Wasn't expecting to see them being members of OZT.

Mr. Sinister's just in it for the mutant experimentation.....y'know what? I shouldn't be surprised with that reason why he "teamed up" with Bastion. More test subjects.

Summers Family

Not gonna lie, I was really annoyed with the drama between Cable and Scott. If this was comics Scott, I can understand why Cable's giving him the cold shoulder. But, this Scott didn't wanna abandon Nathan like his dad did to him! It was Madelyn that gave him to Bishop. So, if Scott was there with her, things would've been cool?! God, I'm so sick of this drama. Thank goodness that it didn't last long and that Jean stopped them from escalating it further.

Summers family vs. Prime Sentinels was pretty cool. I like that father/son fistbump, which means things will get better between the two.

It's funny that Jean's being the mom at Cable who's like this big man in his 50s.

Also, Jean and Scott's relationship is getting better which is a relief.

Nightcrawler

Once again, precious boy and MVP. What he said to Jean was really nice. He's always been there as someone's shoulder to lean and cry on. When he talked about Mystique, I felt so bad for him. Honestly, I hated what she did to him just because he was born that way. In the 90s show, she did feel guilt for what she did when Nightcrawler talked to her. But, I still didn't like her for what she did to him. However, with all the words and hugs he's given to others, I hope he has someone who'd give him words and hugs too. He also needs a shoulder to lean and cry on too.

SWASHBUCKLING NIGHTCRAWLER HELL YEAH!!! I've been waiting to see him use swords and it was worth the wait. Him teaming up with Wolverine was really cool. Plus, seeing how his teleporting works was cool too. Love that he was protecting his sister, and I'm glad that we got something with him and Logan cause we haven't had anything like that since he first appeared.

Beast

Why the hell would he let the reporter stay in?! Even if she's not doing her job, she's shouldn't be involved! It has nothing to do with her, plus, I'm pretty sure he revealed a lot of classified information that only the X-Men should be allowed to hear and see. Dammit, Beast. And, dammit Morph for letting her in too.

*sigh* Anyone else think, he's been done dirty in this episode? Cause having her stay in there got his butt kicked. Sure, he didn't know that she was a Prime Sentinel, but they do know the possibility that any human could be one, right? Now, Beast is knocked out along with Rogue, who hasn't woken up still.

Jubilee and Roberto

Okay, so they are gonna be part of the main plot, good. I was worried that they were gonna be sidelined, especially Jubilee.

His mom is a beech. She sold her son out to the Prime Sentinels and didn't believe him and for what? Her reputation?! Man, f**k this beech, she sucks. Poor Roberto though.

Finally using his powers more than once! I counted four times in this whole series so far of when he used them. It's also something that annoys me about the character. He said that he was training in the Danger Room to surprise Jubilee, but why couldn't we have seen that?! Why couldn't we have Roberto training with one of the X-Men's help and see him develop his abilities?! Hell, have Jubilee be there to train him! That way we could've seen more of his abilities and see him grow more and have him interact with other characters, bonding with them. Not just Jubilee. Maybe have him open up to when he first awakened his powers and why he wants to hide them, instead of just telling us.

On the plus side, they should be okay thanks to Magneto's magnetic EMP ability. Speaking of which....

Magneto

I'm glad he didn't get turned into a Prime Sentinel, but I still don't understand how Bastion and Mr. Sinister got his hands on him from Genosha. That blast should've killed him along with the Morlocks. I don't even think it's gonna be explained how they captured him.

His prisoner numbers....yeesh. 😬

The one good thing that Cooper did. Letting him go and realizing that he was right. Aside from that, f**k her. Seriously, was the only good human (regular human, not enhanced) shown in this was Moira?! Cause that's what it feels like.

Now, I was confused at first with what Magneto did, but I think he went to the North or South Poles and used the Earth's magnetic field which is strongest there to cause a worldwide blackout, disabling all the Prime Sentinels. Not killing them, mind you. All while in his underwear, too.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame him if he wages war. He tried to be good. He tried to respect Xavier's dream. But, look what happened. So, I wouldn't blame him if he did this.

HOWEVER! I like that Magneto was good. Part of me doesn't want him to go back to his old ways cause that's gonna be more conflict between him and Xavier. Plus, only Logan claimed that Magneto waged war. If he did, he would've killed the Prime Sentinels, but he didn't. If anything, he'd be waging war on Bastion since he's the one responsible. But, yeah, I'm sorry Xavier. You're cool and all, but Magneto was right.

Cameos

I mentioned Zemo, Doctor Doom, Future Polaris and Future Phoenix. But there were much more.

Omega Red and the Silver Samurai, but one that made me so excited to see......SPIDER-MAN!!! I was so happy to see 90s Spider-Man. I know many would want a sequel to the animated series, but we'll have to wait and see.

The rest I wanna talk/rant about

Professor X shows up finally, but I got miffed when he said "I hope I'm not too late". CHARLES! YOU ARE VERY VERY LATE!!! I know space travel takes time, but COME ON! He better do something real quick to help stop all this crap that's been happening. Dunno how, but it better be something good.

By the way, I'm still annoyed with that black hole excuse. Why couldn't he just contact Scott and the others and stay in touch with them right when he was fully recovered or was well enough?

WHERE THE HELL IS STORM?!?!?! I know she's with Forge, but you'd think the moment she heard about Genosha, she'd head back home flying. She'll probably show up next week, but it's been like two episodes since she got her powers back. Is her not being there sooner a choice the writers made cause if she was there, the fight with the Prime Sentinels would've been over quicker? *sigh* I just wanna see one of my favorites come back and kick some butt like she used too.

I dunno if Forge is gonna come back with Storm, but I hope he does. I want him to help with this Bastion mess. Plus, he did take a photo with him, which has me worried that he was connected somehow but I hope not. It also would be cool, if he contacted the rest of X-Factor and meet up with the X-Men and team up. But, I don't think that's gonna happen.

So, Bishop is definitely out of the picture for the rest of this season, which is bullcrap. It would've been cool to have him and Cable work together again like before along with the X-Men. But, instead, the excuse was they got separated from the time stream. So, we don't even know if he's okay or if he's lost again, or if he actually made it back home. God, I feel like his character's purpose of the show was to help create another characters origin.

Okay, I think that's pretty much it. It was a good episode, even though I did rant on a lot of stuff. We'll see how parts 2 and 3 play out in the next two weeks and hope that the finale will stick the landing.

[raisingmybanner]

accretion [ə-ˈkrē-shən] noun: An accidental deposit of “foreign” material that was not part of the painting process, f. ex. dried liquid residue, flyspecks, etc. (from Stella Art Conservation, LLC) Riza Hawkeye has worked as Security Director for private art authenticator Roy Mustang for eight years with little trouble. However, recently Mustang has taken on riskier and higher-stakes jobs, putting himself and his team in danger of exposure and harm. The objective of a new undercover job – authenticating an elusive ink drawing while undercover on a three-week island retreat – hits too close to home for Riza. Secrets carefully kept threaten to be brought to light, exacerbated by the closeness required while posing as a young engaged couple. Hold on, they have to pose as an… engaged couple? For three weeks?!

I know, promo week for @royaibigbang 2024 is almost over and here I am with an actual promo post. Surprise! This story has been trying to escape my brain for years now, and I'm so grateful to the big bang for being the motivation I needed to get it into shape. I cannot WAIT to share it all with you on October 3 (SO SOON AHHHH).

Prepare yourselves for a romcom of royai proportions, featuring a modern-day AU, fake dating, forced proximity, slow burn, art nerdery, cameos from all your favorite (and perhaps least favorite) characters, idiots to lovers, heist vibes, and more feelings than you might initially expect.

I had the immense privilege of working with a team for this event, something that I've never done before. @aldrendaux was my wonderful beta, cheering me on and tidying up my mistakes every step of the way. (We've got Aldren to thank for the summary, too!) The story will also be featuring art by @areyousanta, @chewytran, @rizaposting, and @justanotherinterneruser. Sneak peeks of the art can be seen in Aldren's promo post here! Go scream at how gorgeous the pieces are!! (or maybe that will just be me, again, for the 400th time)

This fic was sooo much fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy reading it as well! Click through for a sneak peek of royai at a dancing class on their couple's retreat below the cut.

EDIT: Accretion is now live on AO3!

If her heart rate accelerated, it was just the surprise. It wasn’t the fact that her fingers slid through the hair on the nape of his neck for a moment before she quickly moved them down to his collar. It wasn’t the fact that the press of his body against hers felt too intimate, and too familiar. 

She was grateful for the fact that there was no time to linger on the sensations. Soon, Mustang was taking his first step, and Riza had to grip tighter to his hand and shoulder as she moved with him. She felt off-balance, pressed against him. Instead of supporting most of her own weight, she was now dependent on Mustang’s steps to be firm and guide her body along with his; it was a strange sensation for her. It was like clinging to the edge of a cliff face, trusting it not to drop her flat on her back.

Mustang, to his credit, stepped confidently, without wobbling. The added weight to his balance didn’t seem to throw him off at all, and she soon relaxed slightly against him and focused on keeping up with the music. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost forget who the cliff face she was clinging to for dear life was.

“I told you I would keep your feet,” he said, quietly. 

The words made her look up at him automatically and — 

His face was far too close. Too close and too soft, with that small smile and that sparkle in his eye, with the hair starting to fall across his forehead. 

This look and the feel of him, strong against her wherever they touched, was continuing to make everything hopelessly confusing. She had clearly misinterpreted his actions the other night, but she still couldn’t seem to shake her own reactions to him, which was just embarrassing. She was thirty years old, not a hormone-ridden teenager, for Father’s sake.

She realized suddenly that she was just staring into Mustang’s eyes without speaking and felt her cheeks heat with mortification.

“Yes, well, the night is young,” she said, trying to sound normal and unsure whether or not she achieved it.

“I’ll convince you to trust me yet,” Mustang said, holding her gaze.

[thegreatyin]

How did you manage to handle not one, but FOUR separate accounts in fl? I recently made the account for my HD little guy but having to do the tutorial again just seems miserable

there's... weirdly several answers to that question, actually??

a HUGE part of it is due to the way FL is structured. the 10-minute action timer is a core part of the game on a fundamental level, and the fact that i can very easily run out of stuff to do on one character and thus have an excuse to quickly and easily swap to another is just... convenient? satisfying? i'm not entirely sure how to explain it. the fact that i can make progress even while i am fundamentally simultaneously Not Making Progress is like pure dopamine for my freak insane awful little brain. there's just something really pleasing about spending all of my actions pursuing The Goal Of The Day™ on one account before casually swapping to another and doing the same without feeling like i'm wasting time or acting to the first account's explicit detriment. the downtime helps! the recharge time helps! the structure really really works!!

i'm technically only actively playing three, maybe two accounts minimum. the only reason the fourth (the one that'll be my future BaL playthrough) currently exists at all is so i can get his earlygame completely out of the way now and not have to waste time running through it all later, when what i actually want to do is play the ambition i've made myself wait a full year to play. and also getting free goodies as seasonal stuff happens,, something something surprise tools to help us later. the only two accounts i'd say i'm really "actively playing" at the moment are caeru and lark- and of the two, lark takes the most priority, since his ambition is the one i'm currently pursuing in earnest. for a couple months now- despite being My Main FL Character- the scoundrel has actually been pretty inactive on a gameplay front outside of the occasional progression in TLC and discordance content. purely by virtue of having Very little left to do outside of Very long-term grinds and vanities. they're in their "now what?" "now you can start playing the game" era. they've graduated to previous protagonist background cameo in a sequel anime series. they're like the yin FLPC equivalent of red at the top of mount silver. they're Literally just vibing rn. i only keep posting about them regardless because i'm insane and i will never ever ever ever ever let that bat go. but yeah, big TLDR, outside of doing the bare minimum to keep making waves/notability up every week, i'm not actually spending that much time on accounts i'm not currently actively interested in playing. and that accounts for way more gaming spoons than you might think.

i have a virtually lifelong history of playing MMOs, especially and specifically world of warcraft. i was born in the endless grind for useless video game pixel vanities and/or bragging rights. molded by it. you all have merely adapted to doing the same piece of content a pointlessly excessive amount of times for literally no reason besides whimsy and folly. me? i've done my time. i've served my sentence. i've spent weeks doing the original burning crusade netherwing dailies. i've devoted days to running praetorium over and over and over again, back-to-back, nonstop, long before square enix cut it in half and made it NOT take at minimum an hour and a half per run. i've perfected my silverwastes + auric basin goldfarming strategies. i've (almost) crafted dragonwrath tarecgosa's rest. i've killed the sha of anger so many times its dying scream of agony is embedded into the very fabric of my being. ""only"" doing making your name content four times over? that is nothing to me. it means nothing to me. it is so infinitesimal i can do the persuasive seduction quests in my sleep. it's not a matter of handling misery, or having the capacity, or even sighing as i remember the brass embassy raid segment of the watchful questline seriously i don't know why i keep forgetting that exists or what even is my problem with it i just am so consistently mildly inconvenienced by it and its highly specific resource requirements and it is the worst thing ever. maybe i'm just so used to the scoundrel's near-infinite money and troves of disposable items that i've completely forgotten what being poor is like. despite having done that step 3 fucking times now. ahem. anyway. i have transcended the feeble mortal bindings of my resistant-to-grinding flesh and ascended to a higher plane of enlightenment, they may call me insane but they will be the ones left laughing when they see what that "insanity" has wrought, i've usurped them, i've usurped them all-

hacks and coughs and awkwardly clears my throat. i mean. uh. um. Ahem.

the empress' court artistry + tales of the university nerfs helped too.

[justworthlessreblogs]

Unironically here for the tangled au I want to eat it

and so you shall feast. you have no idea how long i've been keeping this in i've wanted to talk about it so bad (it was originally gonna be a surprise fic while u all waited for finale. i thought it was gonna be 5k. it was not 5k.)

i call it the riopunzel au because rio's the rapunzel in this au. and yes he has the 70 feet of hair

why is rio rapunzel, you ask? because noir is the perfect fit for gothel. also riopunzel is a really funny pun. the pun is literally the reason this au exists in the first place. i was falling asleep one night and my brain went "hey you know what an au where rio was rapunzel would be called? riopunzel" and i went "oh my god. i have to write this down" and the rest is history

this makes ciel flynn, of course! kirarin is her real name. she's the princess of the kingdom of ichigoyama, but is currently on the run because she may or may not have stolen a certain crown

the reason she stole the crown is because she's looking for her twin brother who was kidnapped shortly after they were born. she's got this grand fantasy in her head of finally finding him and presenting him with the crown (it's her brother's. she has a matching one) and then they can all live happily ever after. mom said no we are absolutely not doing that that's too dangerous so she went Fine I'll Do It Myself and ran off. absolutely nothing is going to go wrong with this plan at all

to be fair the crown is technically her property anyways

their mom is lumiere. she's the queen, ofc. and no noir is NOT the father we are noirlumi haters in this household. i have no idea who the dad is there aren't really any canon characters i could use and i also don't want to invent an oc. so there's no dad in the picture

lumiere is understandably very protective of kirarin after losing her son, which is part of why kirarin runs off

yukari is the horse except not a horse. she's co-captain of the royal guard. lumiere sent her to track down kirarin and drag her back

akira is yukari's wife and the other co-captain. she's more of a background character but she does show up very briefly

aoi is the daughter of the noble house tategami. she plays in a street band, not that her parents know. she and ciel kinda know each other from events but never really spoke much. she only gets a cameo (sorry aoi)

himari also only gets a cameo (sorry himari) but i picture her as some sort of sweets scientist (maybe like varian from the series but with sweets instead of alchemy? and no villain arc. i haven't actually watched the show so that's all i know about him sorry if i just failed varian 101)

ichika is just a townsperson (sorry ichika)

the ciel de reve is the snuggly duckling. ciel took her alias (ciel kirahoshi, of course) from its name. it's one of her favorite places to hide out when yukari is especially hot on her trail

bibury is a server/bartender at the ciel de reve. she's a lot more well adjusted in this au! riopunzel!bibury was found and taken in by chourou around the age of 6 and got to grow up happy and healthy :)

cielbib have a situationship

chourou's granddaughter, pekorin, also helps out at the ciel de reve from time to time

chourou owns the place but since he's getting old it's pretty much bibury's tavern by now

everyone's aged up a little, the middle school gang is now 17-18 and akiyuka are 21-22. pekorin is like. 11. also everyone is human

eliso and grave are the stabbington brothers, but ciel never teamed up with them so revenge isn't a motivation. they're just in it for the money, especially grave

noir is World's Shittiest Father but what else is new

ciel's natural hair color is blonde, but she dyes it pretty regularly to disguise herself. rio's is his original civilian persona's black-blue color, but the flower makes it the pale blue color it was as julio. as in tangled canon when it's cut it reverts to that black-blue

he's referred to as julio for most of the au, because that's what noir called him. his birth name is pikario ofc

for the most part the story follows the events of the movie. it's more of an exercise in "hey wouldn't it be really funny if i put the characters in this situation"

[moaserendipity]

My Top 10 BL's of 2023

I am back with my personal top 10 of 2023. I know I've been super quiet these days but making a top 10 is always fun to do. The #1 has been decided early this past year but for the rest... It was a crazy year for BL but only a few were really top tier...🔥🔥

10. My Personal Weatherman (Taikan Yoho)

One of the Japanese BL's I really enjoyed watching. It was more grown up then the ones I've seen and that was very welcome. I love the dynamics between the main characters a lot. It was a bit of a slow one, with the lack in communication between the two but I forgive that because the chemistry was really good.

09. Wedding Plan

Oh how i looked forward to this one, the second I saw the trailer. I loved the storyline but I thought it was very short, which made them rush through it at times, which was a shame because it was actually really good and I just wanted to see more. I loved the chemistry between Sailom and Namnuea, So I really enjoyed watching them. They are very new if I'm correct but I didn't notice it at all, so hopefully they will get another BL together but a longer one. Also I love the GL in this BL, it was very natural and I in the end hoped they would be the ones that got to marry. Not to forget about the cameo;s of my babies Payu and Rain and of course Prapai and Sky.

08. Moonlight Chicken

This one I've waited for so so long and it was kind of a surprise because I love EarthMix, Like Mix is my man but my attention got taken away from them and got attached to GemFourth who played Li Ming and Heart. I just loved everything about them! I loved how they incorporated Sign language because Heart was deaf and just the overall chemistry between them, was everything. They made me smile so much. Jim and Wen, you know were amazing as well but I sometimes felt frustrated by their interaction. The close moments they had were amazing of course but it was not what I expected from EarthMix but overall this drama was definitely worth the wait!

07. Kiseki: Dear to Me

I absolutely loved this one. I couldn't get enough of it. I am a sucker for the Hate to Love trope and this had exactly that and in a gangster way. Like I loved it. ZeRui and Bangyi were made for each other and you can't tell me otherwise how he went to prison for ZeRui and even got hurt but he still decided to dedicate his bakery to him with his Strawberry cakes, ugh too cute. The second couple made me want even more. The sassiness of Ai Di and the coldness of Chen Yi, they were really something. The way Chen Yi didn't realize that Ai Di loved him until he went to prison or that one hot night made me slap my forehead because nothing was more obvious, so I can not explain how happy I was they finally got together in the end!!

06. My School President

This really was a GemFourth year because this was their first leading BL and boy how they won us over with their cuteness. The OST was also seriously top tier. I think I loved all the songs. This entire Cast was amazing! To think I almost skipped this one...That would've been a mistake for sure, so I'm happy that I decided to give it another try because I fell in love with them and bingewatched it in one go. I can't wait to see the next project from them.!

5. Our Dating Sim

this Korean BL was a welcome one. I loved the office setting of this BL and the fact that the episodes were short as usual, didn't disturb me that much. Their chemistry made up for that! I will never forget how my heart sank when Ki Tae thought Wan had disappeared again, this poor man but I loved how Wan immediately comforted him the second he saw him. I should really rewatch this again.

4. Last Twilight

I know it's still running but I can not leave it out of my top10 for 2023. I am impressed with Jimmy and Sea. These two are everything to me at this moment. Their chemistry is crazy and I am happy they have this BL to show their talents again. I am impatiently waiting every week for the next episode and so far no episode has disappointed me, which is rare tbh.

3. Sing my Crush

Sing my crush was not even on my radar but the second I came across it, I bingewatched it. I am a sucker for music BL's, where the actors can ACTUALLY sing and play instruments.. I loved it so much. from start to finish. I really think this BL was very underrated. I did not hear a lot of people about it but it definitely deserves more!

2. I feel you linger in the Air

Ever since I saw the trailer, I wanted to see this one badly and boy did it not disappoint! I was in awe every episode. I don't think I've ever seen a Thai Bl that was staged in the past. Also this way of time traveling is one I actually like. As long as no bodies get switched I am loving it. Their chemistry was top notch and those intimate scenes. That kiss in the rain, Art I am telling you and that massage scene, HELLO!! I literally forgot to breathe at that point and my face was almost stuck to the screen, crazy!! So yeah this was a true masterpiece!

01. The Eighth Sense

Let's all act surprised by this one...... what can I say? This one touched my intire being. It touched my soul, My heart everything. I cried, laughed and even cursed at 2 people in particular.. This is the biggest masterpiece of 2023 and nothing can change my mind about this. The way I anticipated every week and felt sad when it ended, ugh!! I just want to praise Oh Jun Taek for the way he acted, because if I'm correct this was his first acting job or at least he is very new but he pulled it of perfectly and Ji sub, I am applauding him for the way he portrayed Jae Won. All I need now is a season 2 or an special episode where we see them do the things Jihyun wanted... like just please!! In al seriousness everything was amazing about this one and that's why it's my number 1

I really do think that the Korean BL's won this round. I feel like they are finally stepping up their game. It's still not as Explicit as Thai or Taiwanese but that's not what I am expecting. I don't always have to have NC scenes because without a story, it's not worth a lot. Overal the Bl's were powerful this year and Top tier. Hopefully next year will bring us even better ones!! <3

[gyuluttony]

would love something mingi x yunho 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 maybe something christmas coded like the two of them having matching sweaters every year, but mingi realizes he can’t fit into his by the time christmas comes around because yunho has been spoiling him so well 🤭🤭🤭

oooh i've been waiting for ateez reqs highkey... i love most pairings in this group soooo bad. these two tall boys are like the cutest people ever so i'm always ready to give stuff for them. gave my bias a cameo because he's an ult (i'm so insane for him) i'm also speedrunning this story because it's christmas eve and i desire to be timely.

What Love Does

This is a feederism fic and features weight gain, breaking of clothes and stuffing. Don't like, don't read.

This year, the holidays crept up on Mingi. He was always usually ready to celebrate, but this time, it came as something a little more out of left field. It might have had something to do with the fact that the holiday season was going to be the first time he spent it with Yunho as his lover and not his best friend.

The pair had spent over half a decade of harbouring innocent feelings for the other before Mingi had confessed his feelings earlier this year. Pretty much all their friends were celebrating the fact that they managed to get this far after witnessing their pining for as long as they did so the transition to couple went pretty smoothly in that department as well.

He knew that Yunho was perfect considering the reason why he harboured these feelings for as long as he did but it was another thing to experience them firsthand. Romantic picnics on the weekends, candlelit dinners when he had a long day at work - there was no area that his boyfriend lacked for romanticism, leaving Mingi a flustered mess whenever he would be subject to it.

Returning these grand gestures back for him was always something that he did. Making songs for Yunho, massaging him when he was tense or just feeling sore from working out or dancing, notes for everyday. They were just the picture perfect fairy tale couple that people were always rooting for.

That brought them to Christmas season. Usually, the two were known as the pair who were not pushovers when it came to the season. Even before they got together, it was a no-brainer that Christmas celebrations would be done at their apartment since they always decorated it festively and were trying new recipes constantly. The amount of practice baking that Yunho did during November astounded Mingi, their place becoming a shared housing for just about thousands of gingerbread families that Mingi would happily munch on in between actual meals. The light displays that they had were always state of the art thanks to Mingi's ability to find the best deals possible to make sure the celebrations were as cool as he wanted them to be in his head.

Everyone was surprised it wasn't Christmas season when they got together but love has people work in mysterious ways. They even had a tradition of wearing matching Christmas sweaters and they had giggled about being able to wear the couple ones openly this year. Mingi had placed the order and on the first day of December, they had arrived and the pair was ready to wear them.

Yunho had exited the room with his 'Christmas Cookie baker' sweater as Mingi looked at the 'Christmas Cookie tester' one with a smile on his face. They always had fun looking for the corniest ones and he had placed this one after a long night of clearing the kitchen of any remnants of Yunho's baking extravaganza one day.

Slipping on the sweater, he looks a little puzzled as it bunches up near his chest, which... now that he's looking at it, is a lot rounder than it used to be. He was used to having pecs but with how much they were protruding and how soft they were, it was a lot more similar to moobs. It was probably just a little bit of relationship weight... he couldn't have put on that much.

The thought came in went as he tried to get the sweater to cover his massive belly that he hadn't even noticed most of the time, which said a lot considering as his hand brushed over it, it felt soft and jiggly, meaning that Santa probably had a lot of competition if they were ever in the same room. As he walked over to a mirror, he felt himself jiggling as he blushed. Where had all this weight come from?

It's not like he stopped going to the gym. Granted, his cardio time got cut in half and he wasn't exactly sure as to what caused it. In the washroom, he lifted his gut up before letting it down, a shiver running down his spine as he felt it rest against the cool bathroom counter and watched as it started to threaten to spill into the sink. What on earth made him think that he could wear the same size as last year... and how did he not notice this sooner?

Grabbing his phone from the bed, he grunts as he bends a little to grab it, feeling his gut hang while he does it before he shoots a message to his friend.

"yo, you and woo wore matching sweaters last year for christmas right? can we borrow them lol"

He wasn't really expecting a response right away considering it was the middle of the day during the week but San got back rather quickly.

"😏 did someone realize how much relationship weight he put on?"

Mingi felt his face flush. Had other people noticed it too? That probably meant Yunho noticed it but why wouldn't he? As he gave it some more thought, times where Yunho was rubbing his enlarged thighs and playing with his belly came to memory. Oh wow, he really hadn't noticed anything because whenever he felt too full and complained like he usually did, Yunho always told him to come over and rest against him while he rubbed his tummy. The way his hands moved on Mingi's fattened body were always enough to lull him to sleep, which likely added to how he managed to get this fat so quickly.

San's next message snaps him out of his stupor.

"fs bro. i don't think i even fit in mine this year lolol woo's might be a little tight on yunho but it should work out regardless."

San had steadily gotten larger during his relationship with Wooyoung but to think that he had put on enough weight to need hand-me-downs from him was making him feel hot in his stomach that was still hanging out of the sweater that he had bought.

Yunho had reentered the room and Mingi turned to look at him. He was biting his lip and making no effort to hide how he was ogling his boyfriend's widened form in the tight clothes as he looked at him. It's not like Yunho had completely escaped the relationship weight, the sweater that same size that he had gotten the year prior was rather tight on his frame and he couldn't help but wonder if that's what San was alluding to as well.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Yunho looked hesitant, not sure as to what his boyfriend was thinking.

"We can..." Mingi began and he watched Yunho tense up before he smiled, "...over the batch of cookies you made. This doesn't fit anyways so maybe I can be the Santa for the party this year instead of San." Before, he would have never thought of fat on his body. Not that he didn't like it but he wasn't ever going to think about it.

Now that he sees his boyfriend scurrying off to get some more cookies to fill him up and just fatten him more, the fat is less about his body and just showing evidence of how much Yunho loved to spoil him... and he loved to be spoiled so he wanted to see how many more pant sizes it would get him to size up.

[faithrainee]

What really would have happened if Peter B hadn't been sent to Miles' dimension? Because as silly and Haha-I'm-Depressed Peter makes his life out to be in his introduction, he really did look like he was at the lowest point in his life. I also think it's interesting that Peter has, from what we see, no job at all. I don't think it's mentioned, though the Wikia's mention the Daily Bugle, I have no memory of that in ITSV.

But regardless of if my memory is right or not, most incarnations of Spider-Man that are meant to be of working age have some sort of job. Usually working at the Daily Bugle, doing a science position, or something else; unless they're being supported by Aunt May or, like the Homecoming Spider-Man, Tony Stark and SHIELD, for the most part.

It's interesting to me that we've never really seen a Spider-Man so depressed as this one, besides Far From Home's Spider-Man, though I feel it's not the same, as Peter in that movie is meant to be younger. Even Far From Home's Tobey and Andrew cameos don't seem to be doing that bad, just tired and melancholic.

I've read some fics discussing how Peter might have ended his own life if the Miles dimension situation hadn't happened to him, and I think that isn't too far-fetched to believe. However, I think an accident would probably be more likely, especially one from his Spiderman duties.

He was out of shape, he admits that, and he didn't really seem to have much to live for, being completely alone with no family at all. He wasn't inspired to talk to MJ by anyone, so she would have likely remarried to someone else after believing he wasn't interested in her anymore from his lack of initiative. People can't wait forever, and maybe she would have thought he wasn't going to change his mind about having children.

I do think his dimension might have had his narrative doomed from the start. I think he would be fighting a villain one day, with everyone surprised he was actually out fighting for once. Maybe he felt a little inspired to go touch grass that day as a civilian and a villain just happened to show up. He's fighting, slowly realizing that damn, this is harder than it used to be.

Maybe he gets thrown and injures his back again, leaving him paralyzed or somewhat disabled. That would likely, down the road, without any intervention from others in his life, leave him completely depressed. Not to mention New York City apartment + medical bills + single man = serious debt. Not sure how long he'd live if that happened, even if he dealt with his disability just fine, he was already hopeless in ITSV.

And the city finds out Spider-Man is just Some Guy. And they mourn that loss, because their hero for 20- hell, 30 something years at that point, was facing the same issues they were and he couldn't take it anymore and none of them knew before it was too late.

Or maybe it's less depressing than that. Maybe he gets crushed by rubble, the city shocked at the loss of their hero. And in revealing him to be some average Joe, they mourn a little, but move on. Someone probably replaces him after that, or the city just has higher crime rates than before.

Maybe he gets beaten to death by the villain, similar to Miles' dimension's Peter. Authorities find him, then, the city might have mixed feelings. He should've been stronger. How could he not have taken down that villain? He used to be at his prime, poor man had it coming. We didn't need him anymore anyways. Etc.

I'd just love to see more takes on Peter's existence without Miles intervention. His Spider-Man is so interesting to me because I feel we don't see a lot of older Spider-Men except in the comics. And we don't see a lot of older men struggling with mental health in media. Period.

[foodfightnovelization]

Hey there! I found your blog last Wednesday, and I gotta say, it's about time someone showed this misbegotten movie some love! I've also been reading Ziggy Cashmere's ebook Drawing For Nothing, which includes all sorts of old material from the film - and even directs you to an early draft of the script! Awesome-sauce! Aside from that, I want to know your thoughts on the proposed franchise Larry wanted to make out of the movie, including sequels, video games, books, live stage performances, etc.?

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying my blog, and yes, Drawing For Nothing is fantastic isn't it? There's a lot more where that came from too, with Ziggy currently working on a documentary called "ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight" (see my last post for more info on that). It should be coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that! I was fortunate enough to be involved in it, even making a small cameo at one point, and I can't wait for everyone to see the plethora of incredible behind-the-scenes material he's uncovered.

And yes, I read that early draft of the Foodfight! script a while ago and I'll talk about it some more once the documentary is out It's a draft from April 2005 and is VERY similar to the novelization, but there are still a bunch of interesting differences worth discussing. For one, the script includes all the real-world mascot cameos intended to be in the movie (such as M&Ms, Pringles, Oscar Mayer etc.) which were excluded from the novelization presumably due to brand deals not extending to merchandising. This actually leads to some surprising changes in the plot and dialogue, some of which I find incredibly funny, so there'll be a whole lot to talk about!

Anyway, as for my thoughts on the proposed franchise? I think it could've worked, I really do. Not to the extent Larry Kasanoff dreamed of- I don't think there was anyway the proposed "Foodfight! On Ice" show was ever going to happen (there's no way the Brand X soldiers could goosestep in iceskates, come on now). I think that's dreaming too big too soon, the "Disney On Ice" shows didn't happen until Disney had already been making movies for decades. That said, I do think if the production of Foodfight! hadn't been so horribly mismanaged and had come out when it was intended to it would've been somewhat of a hit, and to that end some of the merchandising ideas were really smart. Stuff like the tie-in videogame, children's books, and videogames were just what a lot of movies had back then- this was 2006, every movie had a sidescroller on the GBA and a 3D platformer on the PS2. From what little we've seen of the game it's impossible to know how good it would've been, but those kind of movie tie-ins are usually pretty harmless.

As for the other merchandise, a lot of it WAS released...and I think it's pretty great for what it is! If all of the books, toys etc. had just released alongside the movie as intended, then they'd just seem like exactly what they are - merchandise made to promote a recently released children's film, and there'd be nothing much to discuss about them. They're all only so fascinating because the movie itself came out so badly, and so the merchandise provides a glimpse at what might've been had things gone better. That said, I still desperately want to make a post talking about the Deluxe Sound Storybook at some point, and hopefully I'll get the chance soon.

I don't think Foodfight! ever would've been popular enough to warrant a sequel- I think it would've been like Hoodwinked where some people look back on it fondly but it's largely been forgotten over the years, and I don't think Threshold (the studio who animated Foodfight!) would have ever been the "next Pixar" like Larry Kasanoff thought they'd be either. But maybe in another world, where the production of Foodfight! went as smooth as butter, for a time there'd have been a real Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal with a free Dex Dogtective toy inside. Ten years later someone would make a post on Reddit saying "Hey! Anyone else remember Cinnamon Sleuth?" and a series of pointless arguments about the movie's blatant commercialism would fire up in the comments. And that wouldn't be such a bad legacy to have, right...?

[blackdigitalrose]

Mon - Futari wa Precure - EP 29 - 31

First time I've missed a Monday ^^;

EP 29

The first one is the most different summer festival ep so far but it was very much a hi,bye ep with something to pad out the middle.

I do enjoy seeing all the various patterns they come up with, not so much in this case but it is usually more telling on the Cures. Most the usual tropes seen in the other summers eps, all crammed into one.

While this lil fella has travelled quite the distance in this ep and he persevered with it which is the most surprising thing.

However, this is becoming a worrying trend, your Cure's a suppose to be the hero's of the story and yet, the last few battles they've fallen short or been scapegoated out of the problem. Something has got to give here because at the mo, it comes across as Cure Black and Cure White are not strong enough for the job at hand.

And then there were three and that was about it for the ep because he didn't stick around, had more important things to do than deal with the Precure.

EP 30

This feels like one of those scenes that are going to end up going full circle.

It went full circle, guess that is what you call setup.

Well, they didn't waste time, although, I'm not sure what the middle one is meant to represent, is it suppose to be darkness itself? The other two were more obvious.

And I apparently spoke an ep too soon, so the originals did get a power up, I was thinking there was none because I'm sure its never been seen in the movies or other cameo's they've had? And with that also comes a new finisher? An alternative finisher? Never to be seen again finisher?

EP 31

New break cards this ep! For a new set of villains, this series feels like it has gotten a bit stale? slow? As if I'm still waiting for something to happen or change? Narratively it flows, the stuff from the last ep or a couple of eps ago still play a part and that's good, that stuff isn't mentioned and just forgotten about but something just feels missing, this second half is missing umph.

XD That expression is just funny but it shows how little control they have at times, which is odd when you stop and think about it.

A name! I was just thinking that none of the new baddies have been addressed by anything. That's one down at least.

Well he wasn't gone long, there has to be a catch.

Stuff happened but this week still felt eh, some how. It isn't like it was minor stuff either. The baddies actually have the stone keeper prisoner, Pollun has the power of prism stones, the Precure did get a power up and now the dark king has been revived but still, it's just meh. Make it make sense, I'm not even sure what is missing or lacking? Crazy though, only 18 eps left, so 6 weeks till the end of phase one o.O!?

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- King's Maker (Webcomic) - I'll talk more about this next time after I finish it, for now I love the concept and character designs and think there's some good ideas here in both visuals and individual scenes, but overall think the execution is pretty flawed in actually displaying court politics and the effect on the people as a whole given how little we see of anyone not directly involved in the rich boy love drama.

- Wicked (Movie) - I gotta admit, I went in with low expectations but this movie really surprised me, it was genuinely very good. I had some issues of course, I think they stopped songs too often, I was hoping to get more school life scenes between Glinda and Elphie, I thought the Boq plot line was underdeveloped, but those didn't really affect my overall enjoyment with how good everything else was. The pacing was surprisingly good even with the long run time, the costuming and set design was fantastic as was the choreography, the chemistry between Glinda and Elphie was amazing and every actor did a great job in their rolls, both from an acting and vocal sense. The Menezel and Chenoweth cameos were admittedly pretty self indulgent but honestly I enjoyed them, it was neat to hear them sing together. Honestly would pay to see it again, hate to encourage the splitting movies into 2 parts trend but maybe that was the right call here to keep the non musical sections interesting. I will remain skeptical of part 2 given it's the lesser of the two soundtracks but I am still very hyped to see these versions perform 'For Good'. Overall a win for musical theater fans.

- Ennead (Webcomic) - Everyone is allowed to have a piece of media that they like but would never recommend to anyone they know and that's Ennead. I adore the setting and art, I like a lot of the characters and their designs, I do actually like the protagonist and the main romance as problematic they are, and I genuinely think the plot is pretty interesting. But man does it have a lot of content that I would not want to try to justify to my peers like geez. Other than just being kinda egregious I'd also criticize the Eastern beauty standards of making the half cast lighter than they should be and being a bit embarrassingly self indulgent at times, but I will still be eagerly awaiting each chapter.

- The Case Study of Vanitas (Anime) - While this had a rough start it get's more interesting the longer it goes, I like most of the central cast as well as the vampire hunters and their dynamics, Vanitas's backstory gives him very poor babygirl energy, Noe just straight up IS babygirl, and I still quite like the designs and aesthetic of the series overall. I still don't think the narrative progression or sense of humour is great but I'm more positive on it overall than not, we'll see how the rest of the series goes.

- EPIC (Musical) - I've been listening to random tracks from this for awhile now and finally decided to listen to the full set list. It's pretty good, a lot of good vocal talents, the songs are mostly catchy with a few standouts, it's got the usual leitmotifs that we all love, and plot wise it's always got interesting stuff happening courtesy of its Odyssey adaptation. I really don't gel with it's themes or have a strong attachment to most of the case, but I'll reserve judgement until the last saga comes out. For now I'll say that most of the songs by gods or monsters go hard and that Morgan Clae's cover of Get in the Water haunts my soul in the best way.

- Arcane (TV) - Will also wait to give final thoughts on this but man the contrast between Jayce and Ekko's alternate reality trips was so funny every time it cut between them. Like I understand it was emotionally devastating for both of them but Ekko is over here living in ideal future dreamland then it cuts to Jayce eating raw meat while crawling around on a cave floor. Insane choice.

- Dandadan (Anime) - Still fun so far, like that each introduced cast member retains the idiot ball of being stupid and silly and that the aliens got a chance to be sympathetic.

- Dungeon Meshi (Manga) - Farcille placed #2 in the top tumblr ships of 2024! Let's go Lesbians!! They deserve that for real.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Okay so Fontaine has by far been my favorite region plot wise, like wow the story is dynamic and unique and interesting with an actual full interconnected story and likable complex characters who have genuine emotional moments with eachother like wow, who knew Genshin could do it? Landscape wise I haven't explored the majority of the region and still have a bunch of side quests to do, but I do like the whole cast and hope to see them in more events. I've had Navia as one of my favorite units for awhile and now that I've seen her story I can say she's one of my favorites in the game, a really good character to watch and play as I love her. I also just got Neuvillette, so excited to use him.

Listening To: EPIC concept album (All of them), Hard Sell and The Well by The Crane Wives, Re:Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton, Stick Season and Feeling Good by Reinaeiry, Red Wine Supernova and HOT TO GO by Chappell Roan, Wicked Soundtrack, Dream Girl Evil by Florence and the Machine, Ruler of my Heart Sua cover from Alien Stage, Dial Drunk cover by Chloe Breez.

[t1meslayer]

We're so back.

Please ignore the five Pokemon stories that I posted before "Neurocysticercosis" to celebrate leftover sales for PokéPocket. I probably won't be doing a Debrief for them since the collective is kind of its own thing.

But actually, don't ignore them. Go check out PokéPocket! Leftover sales run until July 31, 2024!!!

... That's not what I've gathered you all for today, though. No. If you haven't read my latest JJK fanfic, "Neurocysticercosis," what are you waiting for? Jump on that, and then jump into my little-a Read More below!

===

I made this joke in the opening Notes. However, I do once again have to point out:

What can I say?

It's very funny to me.

I'm also a big fan of Jujutsu Kaisen (don't mind the fact I misspelled it "Jujitsu" in the original AO3 summary), there's just too many things occupying my brain at a given time to write about it often.

My first SatoSugu fic "Infinitesimal Distance" came together soon after I learned my good friend and beta reader (you know who you are) also rotates those boys around in their brain. I had just gone to a Kura (revolving sushi bar) JJK crossover event. I won myself a Megumi figure and a felt hat.

Though I can't recall the exact impetus for that story idea, I do love the way it turned out. There's fun bits of horror storytelling, some of the dialogue is pretty sharp, and I leaned on the knowledge of a friend who lived in Japan to set the stage around Tokyo's Shinagawa city. The story wound up being pretty popular on AO3 too, garnering over 460 Hits and exactly 38 Kudos (as of this writing).

More importantly, it was a big hit for the birthday coalition of spiders.

Furthermore, it was a big hit for my friend who lived in Japan — surprise, she's the other birthday haver! To this day she considers "My fingers glide over you like a redacted passage" to be the greatest piece of prose I've ever written. I don't disagree, but you should've been there the night she beta read the piece, interrupting every other event going on in our friend group's VC just to hype me up.

So naturally... I didn't write any more JJK for seven months. This doesn't mean further ideas weren't festering in the back of my mind.

My original idea for "Neurocysticercosis" was pretty simple: Geto and Gojo are in some kind of art exhibit, Geto gets existential about humanity, and then it's revealed they've been fucking around while Shoko gets her ass beat by the Cursed Spirit of the week.

Shoko's brief beat-to-shit cameo was planned from the beginning. Sorry about that, Shoko fans.

That being said, a lot of my original idea didn't pan out as expected.

Late into the story, Geto makes this comment:

"Ask the average human what they think a 'living wall' is, and they'll talk up woven ferns and grass climbing up the side of their high-class mart. Pedestrian. Laughable. Imaginations stretched so thin within their walnut-sized brains that they couldn't begin to fathom what you and I see every day. Real living walls of scar tissue and rotting tendons and bloodshot, oozing eyes."

I originally wanted Geto to be observing a Living Wall, akin to San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art (I visited the museum with birthday friend and one other member of our group a few years ago).

However, I couldn't necessarily plop Jujutsu High students in the middle of San Francisco without over-scoping my vision through explanatory storytelling. And I was having some trouble finding good examples of Living Wall installations in Japan.

Then my fate turned on a dime one legendary night this February, in which I attended a Lord of the Rings watch party for another birthday. At that party I met an excellent cosplayer who, naturally, also happens to love Jujutsu Kaisen. We shared "Infinitesimal Distance" live, and I told them about the idea I was gestating on for a future SatoSugu piece. The current gift fic recipient recommended using the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art as a setting that would make sense for Gojo and Geto to canonically visit.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Once we started approaching her birthday, I knew what I had to do. We haven't finished the 2014 series Black Sails (her current obsession) together, so Plan A was not viable. Plan B was a go.

Having decided to go with an entire art gallery, this meant I needed to pick actual art. Now... I enjoy an art. I appreciate a good drawing. Sometimes I create my own art, especially ceramics. However, I am not a well-versed scholar in art history. This is an especially big roadblock when I have to try and come up with an artist whom folks might see in Japan circa-2008 — around the time when Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto are in Jujutsu High, as I understand. Not to mention the fact I can't ask my friend since she's the one this fic will be a present for.

My solution?

I kind of just looked up lists of the most influential modern Japanese artists and scrolled a couple of listicles, digging deeper into a few people whose work stood out. Much of that Googling took place over the course of a big family dinner for Father's Day this year.

I sorted through a number of names, including — but not limited to:

Tsuguharu Foujita

Tetsuya Ishida

Tadanori Yokoo

Makoto Aida

Yasumasa Morimura

However, as you all have read this fic (you better have!), you'll know I focused on the work of Chiho Aoshima. The compositions and color in her pieces really struck me, and the surrealist, often beautifully monstrous subject matter felt like a perfect match for the JJK universe.

In particular, this story revolves around A Contented Skull (2003):

Originally I chose this piece as a striking work that would be fun to describe. However, as I began to describe it (during a car ride across the Washington countryside), patterns began to emerge. I realized very quickly that A Contented Skull slots perfectly into foreshadowing the ultimate fate of Suguru Geto.

That's right, it's no longer just an opportunity to have Geto wax poetic about his feelings on humanity, and to reflect all the fucked-up shit he and Gojo experience. We've also got themes in this bitch. Themes of fate and autonomy and death, not to mention parasitic brain worms.

The fic's title is even a reference to a parasitic brain worm. If you had no idea what "Neurocysticercosis" was before now, don't worry. I didn't either. It was 99% big, fancy word to sound interesting, and 1% thematic brain worms.

As far as elements of the writing craft are concerned...

It took a few stabs, but I like the way I formatted painting titles to look like actual minimalist gallery plaques.

Shoko's injured, dying words do a lot of fuckery with text formatting, which I pulled almost directly from the nightmare sequence in my Pokemon ScarVi fic "Paradiso." The Cursed Spirit they're fighting is also notable. I always planned on making a centipede-esque monster, but it wasn't until I actually started writing that I realized the main image in my head was the "Charge Beam Beast" from Metroid: Zero Mission.

Anybody remember this dude? I used to play the beginning of Zero Mission over and over, so he's seared into my brain.

I'm also a fan of the experimental formatting with regards to breaking up dialogue. I finished "Neurocysticercosis" during a long train ride, only one day after I finished reading John Scalzi's The Kaiju Preservation Society. It's a fun little read by an author whose work I tend to enjoy, though given it was his COVID "mindless fun" book, I do think it leans a bit too hard into sounding like a quippy Marvel film.

That being said, he does invoke a fun mid-sentence verb through em dashes that I think creates a great flow. Tried it out here, and will mostly likely use the idea again going forward!

===

Now that I'm done with this piece, I don't know when my next JJK fic will come down the pipeline. There aren't a ton of concrete ideas in my head for the series. However, I do know it'll be time to return to some of my bigger projects...

I'm been dying to write more "Fallout" sooner rather than later.

[masterjedilenawrites]

Thoughts:

Things I liked, maybe even loved:

Crosshair redemption

Wrecker The Crocodile Hunter

The return of Daniel Logan's voice

Howzer's thigh straps

Fist fight with Ventress

Throwing Rampart around like a ragdoll

Rampart screaming

Rampart is my new horse plinko guy btw

Echo's cheeky one-liners (thanks for the hand 🤣)

Omega's Handy Dandy Prison Shank™️

I've been waiting since TCW Season 2 for the Zillo Beast to escape <3 vindicatioooon!

The soundtrack

Beautifully framed shots

This meme my bestie sent me:

Things I'm neutral about:

Fennec and Bane cameos

Emerie

All the new kid characters

The Marauder blowing up

Hemlock (though with that voice and haircut, I could be persuaded to feel otherwise 😉)

Tech

Hunter's beard

Things I have mixed feelings about:

Clone X or whatever they're called... The framing of the character was misleading, not sure if they teased a face reveal on purpose or didn't realize how it came across, either way it was distracting to not have him or the others be anything more than lackeys

The plot: It was tidy, not drawn out. But I could tell it wasn't meant to be the end but had to be. Merp.

Scorch: My poor baby. But also not surprising given the series never actually brought up Delta Squad or made him a real character

Wolffe and Cody: No closure, but I guess there's room for them to show up elsewhere?

Crosshair's hand: Home boy was already having an identity crisis and I imagine losing his dominant hand actually complicates that journey rather than solve it like they tried to make us believe. But also... love that he and Echo can make hand jokes together now <3

The ending: So glad expectations were subverted and they live happily ever after. But... but... no parting words from Wrecker or Crosshair?? I get the need for the "X years later" scene to be just Hunter and Omega, but Echo got a little send off in the scene before. Why not the rest of the squad too?

Bad Batch: finished. 😰 Emotionally exhausted but still present.

I’ll jot down my thoughts if anyone cares to read them. I’d also love if anyone could send or tag me in their favorite posts… memes, interesting observations, and any other fun things, even going back to earlier episodes since I probably missed out on them (I literally had 25 filters on and only occasionally peeked thru when I was caught up lmao)

[orobaxis]

i love your ominis fic! it’s so well written. could i request him and #10 from the prompt list?

(so for once in my life) let me get what i want

ominis gaunt x reader (hogwarts legacy)

ominis tells you his plans for the future and adopts a new name

prompt: "please. please just listen to me."

word count: 2253

warnings: hogwarts legacy spoilers! some violence; gaunt family pureblood purity nonsense; seventh-year ominis and gang (sebastian redemption arc); timeskip & a surprise cameo/twist? :O ominis is a very powerful wizard because of his heritage, and he's even more powerful than his family because of his kind heart; occamies can speak parseltongue (source: trust me bro)

when the impossible happened, when it turned out that you also reciprocated his feelings, ominis' world changed.

he always tells you, "we took the long way round, but we're here now." and every time, you would reach for his hand and squeeze. he can almost sense your smile every time.

ominis had been thinking about it. you were it for him, and he hopes you feel the same way. he was tired.

of hiding you.

so ominis made up his mind.

once you both graduate from hogwarts, he would not return to his family. the gaunts aren't his family--not anymore. it was his friends, and you.

-

"what are you doing outside, sulking here?"

he turns to the sound of your voice and the door opening, and you sit beside him. slowly, you reach for his hand and guide a steaming cup of tea. he mutters a 'thank you' and takes a sip.

you tell him that feldcroft looks nice at this time of the year, so not unlike the time it was ravaged by poachers and ranrok's loyalists. there is laughter in the air, children running around and playing in the snow. carolers singing every night by a bonfire. you always go to the carolers and hand out hot cocoa.

ominis and sebastian would usually sit there, outside the sallow house, listening as you and anne, now good as new, play with the kids, picking snowball fights with the enchanted snowman. you two make them help set up a giant christmas tree for the hamlet. he would fret whenever you climb up the ladder to place ornaments, insisting that using your wand "isn't as accurate". that entire day, while you and anne were busy decorating the tree, ominis would be standing guard by the ladder, making sure that not even the wind can shake it.

he likes it here. it's quiet, and while he enjoys holidays in the castle, being with his family here in feldcroft feels better.

"the kids are scaring the scarecrow again," he tells you with a smile, and you both turn in the direction of the children and the squawking of the poor scarecrow.

anne bursts out the door, smiling when she sees you two. "there you are!" she exclaims. a folded woolen blanket is hanging on her arms, "i knew ominis would be here sulking--"

"i am not sulking--"

"so i got you a blanket to keep you warm. i know y/n wouldn't leave you out here in the cold."

you gratefully take the blanket from her, thanking her before splaying it on yourself and ominis. "have you finished packing?"

"me?" anne points at herself, "of course not! sebastian and i don't pack until you start nagging for us to leave."

"because we need to return to hogwarts by tonight," you remind her.

anne rolls her eyes, waving you off, "we can pack everything quickly, don't worry. you and ominis enjoy the sun while it lasts."

you hum, and watch her enter the house again. turning to ominis, you watch him sip his tea quietly, "you ready?"

"hmm?" he asks behind the rim of the teacup.

"our final term," you sigh, "and then we're done with school."

ominis starts thinking about it again.

"i have to tell you something."

you don't say anything, but wait until he starts talking.

"i've decided...i've decided not to return to my family after graduation."

shocked, you open your mouth to say something, anything. but you know that he has made up his mind about this. "but, they'll start looking for you."

"i know." ominis is quiet for a bit, hands warming up around his cup, as he tries to collect his thoughts. some time ago, he knew that he eventually would have to go into hiding once he decided to leave the family. he just...well, he just needed to tell you about it. "we'll have to lay low for a while."

"we?" you aren't sure if you heard him right. did 'we' mean you and him? you, him, and the twins?

"my family will be looking for us. and if you're with me, i can protect you better."

so that's what he had been sulking about, you think to yourself. ever since you arrived to feldcroft to spend the holidays with the twins, you would always find ominis deep in thought. is this what he was thinking about?

it feels like a death sentence, ominis thinks. you deserve better than going into hiding so soon after graduating. you should be going out there, exploring the world, not being afraid that a family of dark wizards would find you. but he knows his family will not let him go, not with you. and if something happened to you, well, he would never forgive himself.

"i'm sorry," he blurts out. he is frustrated about this, and he knows you must be too. he is sure that you're already processing the fact that you'll be losing months, years of your life trying to hide from his family. he wouldn't blame you if you start despising him now. he would too. "i didn't mean for this to happen."

"wait...ominis," you gently take the cup from his hands to settle it on the ground, "it's alright."

ominis shakes his head, now becoming upset, "no, you don't understand...i don't understand. why aren't you mad at me? you should be!

because of who i am...the darkness in my family is never going to go away, and it will infect you...i'm sorry." ominis hears the crack in his voice and the tears started to flow.

immediately, you kneel into the dirt, cupping his face, "hey, ominis...please. please, just listen to me." you brush your thumbs against his cheeks, wiping his tears, tracing the beauty marks that you love.

"i'll be fine as long as i'm with you," you whisper to him. "i don't care if we have to hide, as long as i have you...everything will be alright."

he sniffs, raising his hands to cup yours resting on his cheeks. he turns and brushes his lips on your palm, "i love you," he tells you, "i would do anything for you, and i will keep you safe, i promise."

"i know, love," you tell him, tears threatening to spill down your cheeks, not from anguish, but from joy. of course you would follow him anywhere. "i love you too, and i will also keep you safe."

ominis says nothing, but nods before leaning forward, resting his head against yours.

let me keep her, please. he thinks. for once in my life, let me get what i want. lord knows it would be the first time.

-

he should have known that these rogue poachers were also looking for him. they accidentally came across the group, as you four were flying back to the castle. they intercepted you, and you had to land somewhere.

"i don't know if you 'eard," a poacher yells as he and his colleagues start to descend to your location, "but the gaunt family is looking to pay a hefty sum if we could get their son and his friends back to them!"

"all the galleons we could ever want!" exclaimed another, "we'll never have to poach for animals in this blasted forest again."

"ominis," you whisper, reaching frantically for him as he takes a step forward, wand out. sebastian stands beside him. you see anne pull her wand out and you do so anxiously, staring at the poachers and trying to keep yourself calm.

it is quiet for a bit, and then the curses and hexes start flying. incantations hurriedly leaving everyone's lips as you tried your best to see where the enemies are in the thick of the night. you worry for your friends, jumping by anne's side, pulling on her jumper as you conjure a shield for you both. as ominis and sebastian try to hold off a horde of poachers in front of you, you don't notice one disillusioned themselves until there was the tip of a wand pressing against your neck and a ragged, "STOP!" is shouted behind you, almost deafening your ear.

ominis turns to the side at the sound, wand still raised and his brows furrowed when he realizes that one slipped past him.

"let go of her."

"we don't want trouble with you, i know you gaunts are a powerful lot," the poacher who has wrapped his arm around your neck tightens it a little. "i just want missy here, and you to come with us back to mummy and daddy."

he raises his wand, ready to strike the man who has you captive.

"ominis..." you start, before the tip of the wand dig deeper into your neck and you shut yourself up with a whimper. ominis cringes at the sound.

"please--" ominis bares his teeth as he lowers his wand

"drop your wand and walk towards me."

"please just listen to me," ominis implores, but the man didn't want to listen to him.

"any sudden movements and she's gone," he pulls on your hair, "your parents want you alive, but didn't say that for her."

now seething in anger, ominis nods before dropping his wand. this appeases the poacher, who tells him to start walking towards him. then, he hears voices.

voices he haven't heard in some time. are you alright? do you need help?

masking it as a pained hiss, ominis answers, yes, get rid of the poacher. he threatens to hurt the beasts in this forest.

i am not from this forest. nor from this land. these poachers took me.

you're close now, ominis can hear your muffled whimpers. help me with the poacher, and we will help you return home.

in a flash, you are released from the poacher's grip and ominis takes a few strides before reaching you. he holds you close as you gasp at the sight before you: a large, winged serpentine beast grabs the poacher by the shoulders and they disappear.

"what--"

"that was an occamy!" anne shouts, running to your side to embrace you and ominis, "thank goodness you're alright!" sebastian runs to you all, sighing in relief when he sees no one is hurt.

you turn to ominis, still in shock. "you saved me..."

"i promised i would," he tells you.

"but..." you turn back to the sky, where you see the occamy flying closer and closer. ominis says nothing, but waves his wand to materialize his suitcase and open it. the occamy flies into it and it shuts. "the occamy..."

"professor howin or ellie peck will make sure that she gets back to her home."

you nod at him, a smile slowly forming on your face before you rush in and plant a small kiss on his cheek. flushing, you start to walk back to where you dropped your broom, ignoring the teasing grin on anne's face.

"well, that was--"

"if you say one more thing sebastian, i will have the occamy choke you."

-

years later, anne and sebastian sallow find themselves in front of a tiny cottage by the sea. it has become tradition to spend the holidays here.

here to deliver the news, sebastian, now an auror, is excited to let them know. the gaunts have stopped looking for them.

you greet them at the door, throwing your arms around anne is joy. "happy christmas!" you tell her, "i'm so glad you made it here safely!"

"the only danger we encountered on the way here were the drunkards outside of feldcroft!" anne exclaims with a laugh, moving to take off her coat and hang it as you hug sebastian.

"any news?" you whisper against his ear.

sebastian pulls away from you with a grin, "yes. where is he?"

"in the studio," you nod to the direction of the room, "now off with your coat and let's move to the studio."

-

he has learned to enjoy it. at first, he huffed when you told him you bought him the wheel, but eventually, he realized how much he loved it. it was calming, and it certainly helped that you also appreciate the finished products he would gift you.

when sebastian tells him that the gaunts finally stopped searching, ominis couldn't really say he's relieved. he was relieved years ago, when he stopped feeling the dark shadow engulfing his being. despite that, he enjoys knowing that they didn't have to hide anymore.

he feels his wife's comforting hand on his shoulder, and he teasingly reaches for it with his own.

"ah, ominis, you're getting me dirty!" you complain, but he only laughs. "i have to go check on the food, and then we can all have dinner."

"how can you even move around with your condition?" sebastian asks, and you huff, rolling your eyes at him before cradling the swollen bump in front of you. "i don't think my child is as big-headed as you seb, that's why i'm still able to move around."

anne and ominis laugh at that. "i'll help," ominis announces, as he gets up from his potter wheel and makes his way towards the kitchen (where you proudly display the many potteries your husband made you).

the twins follow shortly, chortling at how domesticated you both look, especially after adopting a new name. this new name ominis is proud of, because not like the one he is born with, becoming a "potter" is his choice, and with you, he's all the better for it.

-

i was listening to please please please let me get what i want (idk if thats obvious)

i hope you all like this one ;A;

i popped out so many ominis fics today my thesis is jealous aaaaaaaa

[tsintotwo]

(Part 4/4)

(Earlier: Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Okay, finally getting to the 4th and last post talking about Tom Sturridge in his projects. There's not too much left to say as these are mostly cameos.

Vanity Fair (2004)- This was the first movie Tom was in as a grownup (edit: nope, this was the 2nd)- in period clothing (and looking like a million bucks, as you would suspect). Screentime: 2min. You can tell he's still finding his footing in all this. But he's got the it factor already.

Journey's End (2017)- Movie about Brit soldiers stuck in trenches waiting for death during WW2. Sam Claffin and Paul Bettany are in this and I recognized neither before seeing credits 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, Tom plays a bad soldier: drinks and girls are his forte, fighting- not so much. His character is in this movie to basically show the bone-chilling, hope-crushing, cruelly pointless side of wars. He uses his 3/4 scenes to drive that point home like a master. There's one super emotionally charged scene with Sam that sears into the mind- they both absolutely chew it up.

Song to Song (2017)- Tom being in this movie is just the most RANDOM thing in the world, guys. Song to Song is about the music industry and rockstar life, and Tom shows up for like 2mins to play Ryan Gosling's hometown farmland brother of all things??? Wut. 2 lines of dialogue. Cute hair, tho. Cute everything.

Hello Apartment (2018)- Slice-of-life short film about how we all leave our mark in the spaces we move through. Dakota Fanning made this and asked Tom to be in it- they've been friends since doing Effie Gray. Tom is MC's stormy bf- a bit of kissing, a bit of pouting, a bit of shouting. Worth it. (Aside: some STUNNING shots in this, kudos to Dakota). This is on youtube.

That's it, actually. Only movie of Tom's I haven't gotten to is Junkhearts (2011). It's on Amazon Prime for $4 which is worth it, but it seems like an intense movie and I'll take a break before trying to watch this one.

A significant part of Tom's career has been theater work. From what I've gathered, seems like he's done some phenomenal work there- both in UK and US. Got cool awards and noms. Of course, if your play isn't Hamilton, it doesn't get to be on any screen, so there's no way to see any of those now. The one I'm most gutted about is 1984 (2017) on Broadway. I love the og classic by George Orwell, and by all accounts this adaptation/interpretation was banging (AND controversial!). Tom playing a role like Winston Smith... I'd have loved it so fuckin much * screaming-into-pillow break*

How does Tom choose his projects?

"The first thing I’m drawn to is a piece of writing, to an author, to a director. Weirdly, it’s rarely a character. I want to work with people or with texts that push me and make me learn things that I think I can’t do. Because if I think I can do it, then I can’t surprise myself. And if I can’t surprise myself, then I’m definitely not going to surprise an audience." -Tom for Interview magazine, 2022

Why does he often do troubles characters?

"... I think what I’m attracted to is being able to explore a spectrum of emotion. It’s easier to find comedy in something sad than it is to find darkness in something funny. I can be all kinds of people when the darkness is there. Also, the first character I ever played onstage was a boy who murders all of his schoolmates [in Punk Rock]. I do think there’s something to be said by, “You get stuck in a gorge that you start with.” People have always gone, “Oh, yeah. He’s the fucked-up guy.” - same

Here's something about me: I love falling in love with men on silver screen. It's the only space where it's okay to be in love with a version of someone you made in your head because you're not going to know any other version. The only space you get to channel your feelings six ways to Sunday: write posts, write stories, draw, make any art- people will actually celebrate those (whereas try talking to your friend about a new irl crush for five days straight, on the sixth they'll smack you upside your head). The feelings are intense because these men are deliberately performing for you, the emotions forever unsullied because they're not gonna come hurt you (unless they're being cancelled lol). And they're all the finest specimens! So, yeah, I love it, and it happens periodically. What's rarer, tho, is that I get attracted to an actor's whole personality. I mean, like, all of these hot men are hella charming, and you can yassify almost anyone based on interview moments. But, idk, it doesn't always click with me, and I love a character, ship a couple, then move on. Tom, tho, is going to be one of those 2/3 permanent ones. I just find him interesting which to me, is the thing. (And also, he turned out to be one of those rare people in life who lets you know things about yourself that you didn't know before. Huh. Who knew?) And yeah, okay, he's very hot and insanely talented which started this whole intense phase but while this won't last, a genuine fondness and love will. He has a place in my heart forever. It's been such a good time discovering him that I'm legit grateful to the universe.

I'll do a bonus post with links to Tom interviews/vids/ stuff that are worth checking out. Until then, guys.