#also they're a little older so I get to give them growth and have it feel real lmao

[griefabyss69]

Ghost 👻

So this isn't something I've shared before, but I started it in October on the same day I started shrapnel! It's Tommy x Carol x Steve + Carol x Robin, college au. I'm not super into second chance fics but I think the theme works really well for Tommy & Carol with Steve.

It's been really interesting digging into a Tommy POV!!! There's a lot in there it turns out.

This scene is after Carol already ran into Steve and Robin and they planned to get coffee and catch up, and now she's bringing Tommy with her.

Tommy can't even look at himself right now. Carol inspects his teeth for him and even looks to see if his nervous sweat is showing through his over shirt. She's a sturdy tree branch and he's a raccoon, clinging for his life. "C'mon, you look like ten times hotter than you used to," she says, kissing him like five times as she does. "So it doesn't even matter what you look like compared to last week, because he'll still be impressed." That all seems like a lie, but he can't think about it. "And I'll talk so much he won't even notice that you're too nervous to open your mouth," she says. Another kiss - those are helping. "Besides, Buckley's mother was a radio and her father was a jukebox, or something. She never shuts up." Tommy nods. He vaguely finds the joke funny. He looks down at himself one last time before Carol half-drags him out of her room. He feels like he left his ghost in there.

Word guess WIP game

[kedreeva]

A couple months back, my neighbor wanted to get some Spitzhauben hatching eggs for his wife, so he asked me for help finding some good ones, from a good breeder. So I dug around for a bit, since Spitz are a bit of a rare breed, and found a few options that looked decent. One of them happened to be in Michigan with us, maybe a little over an hour from us, so I arranged to go pick them up in person to avoid the stresses of shipping on the eggs.

I picked up a dozen (baker's dozen, she added a few extra just in case), and a half dozen of the Marans eggs for myself (she gave me a discount because fertility hadn't been tested yet, as long as I promised to report growth/hatch rate and update about what comes out) because she claimed to have good quality and her eggs looked to be decent quality. She was really nice, very chatty, and the eggs looked great in person, too.

12 of the spitz eggs hatched, and 3 of the BCM. The BCM chicks looked great but they were being stressed OUT by the quail chicks they were in with, so I snuck them into the brooder with the spitz when I closed up the neighbor's birds one evening while they were out.

I've visited them a few times since, and they've been looking good, but they're finally to an age where on the BCM you can tell sex- perfect ratio, one rooster, two hens.

Now, I used to keep and breed BCM a long time ago. I had wanted to get into showing (never got around to it for several reasons), and I'd dealt with several lines. My original line that I'd mixed from a couple different people always produced REALLY stellar roosters- big lads with sweet, docile personalities that were 100% ready to die for their ladies, whom they always treated well. For roosters, those are all REALLY important qualities. The ideal is a rooster that treats his ladies well, is willing to fight to the death to defend them if something comes after them BUT--- importantly can tell the difference between a predator and a human who is messing with the hens (picking up, moving, treating w/ meds, whatever). Ideally, if a hen makes a noise of distress, the rooster come BOLTING to her at top fucking speed ready to kick ass, but stops dead if he sees it's just a human. And I HAD that- I used to sell the roosters to folks (SELL them, I never had to give away a rooster) as flock protectors, and I would get people coming back to buy another after their guy died defending the girls while free ranging. It's sad, but it's also one of two reasons to have a rooster.

And I see all the time people posting about their mean roosters, about how to handle roosters that are mean to humans, or people telling others oh the rooster is just young and roosters are mean when they're young and they'll mellow out when they get older, just keep putting up with it. Power through.

NO! There is almost* NEVER a reason to tolerate a nasty rooster- one that's mean to the girls, or to humans. This BCM rooster is only a few months old, but you can already see the purpose that's been bred into him. I picked up one of his girls and she went :( and he came RUNNING over to see what was wrong, looked me up and down and went nah that's cool, and then checked on all the other girls. Just in case. I went to move them from their cage to the big play pen that's set up for them, and I thought oh this is going to be a circus, trying to catch them all. The Spitzhauben were acting insane, like I was trying to kill them by looking at them. I braced the carry bin on the edge of the door, expecting to reach in to (try to) grab each bird and put them in. But no. This rooster walked over, got in, called the others, and they all chilled right out, came over and jumped into the bin with him. He's in the playpen right now just watching over all the others. If someone gets into an argument, he runs over and gets between them, and then checks on them both after. When he lies down, the others come lie down with him. On him.

THIS is what a good rooster looks like. Not in a year, not in two years. Right from the getgo, the instincts are all there. Hormones shouldn't eliminate/supercede this behavior- they shouldn't turn a bird into an asshole. They should instigate a second set of rooster behaviors- dancing/courting, tidbitting, and mating attempts. Running girls ragged, pulling feathers, causing injury, attacking people- these are all poor breeding and/or handling problems. These are things that can (and SHOULD) be selected against when breeding fowl

*The "almost" never is that a breeder starting out may not have a choice when it comes to shitty personalities- they may find themselves having to tolerate the least shitty for a few generations, until the personalities show improvement. In this case, most (good) breeders know better than to dump the wash outs on the unsuspecting, and will instead do hard culls for food or sell to folks raising food or who are aware of the personality problems. In any case any tolerance should be an in-progress tolerance, not an endgame result.

[bernardisgross]

Bim bam boum ! Here's the whole comic i drew for Crossroads @zine--garden , a zine focused one showing and sharing love for Hunter x Hunter ^^

I chose to focus on my two favorite teachers !!!

Bonus, making of & talk in the read more⬇

I was very happy to be able to participate and even more happy to finally share a headcanon i've had for years about Bisky and Wing's meeting.

I don't know how clear it is but basically, Wing is a young nen user who happens to have been taken in by a big criminal family. The boss is using his abilities to forge precious gems from cheap materials, passing them as precious gems he bought for his collection. As a renown collector, he also sells the gems and makes tons of money from it. As Wing's skills become sharper though, his forged gems become more and more precious, making it difficult to tell them apart from real ones.

Having sold a good gem in a batch of "bad" ones, the boss is trying to get it back, framing his client as a thief. He calls for Bisky (a "young" hunter with a good resume) planning to trick her into committing insurance fraud in his place. Unfortunately, she's got a better eye than he thought, and asks for the good gem as compensation.

Feeling antsy about his money, the boss accepts, already planning to get rid of her once the job is done.

Bisky can sense the residual nen from Wing the moment she meets him, that's why she demands he comes with her. She wants to make sure at first that this is a normal child in the wrong place rather than the boss's actual associate.

Making him her disciple just came along the way because she honestly didn't know what to do with that kid LOL but didn't want to return him to a bad place. Also, she saw his potential. Here's a rejected final page (rejected bc I couldn't tie the text properly and wasn't very happy with the visual) where it's a bit clearer that she's got back with the good gem and values it a lot BECAUSE it was made by Wing. (also metaphor, analogy blabla)

I love teachers/masters in stories, i love that trope so much!! It's always so interesting to me to have someone older and wiser share their knowledge with the young waiting for nothing in return. Nurturing and loving, becoming a support with the only satisfaction to witness the growth and blossoming of someone else. I think it's so beautiful to help others in this way, to give a little of yourself with kindness.

I think if touches on other tropes i'm sensitive to like found family etc... So of course, i've loved Bisky & Wings for a looong time, and i'm even more obsessed with the fact they're on the same line of teachers 🥺💕

I was always curious about how they could have met and what could have moved Bisky to take him under ... her ..................... wing.....🔥🔥🔥 lol... anyways !!! I went full indulgence and comics are not my thing at all so if you've enjoyed it, i'm very very, very blessed and happy ^^ !!!

I've also included a rejected sketch of the cover with big Bisky :3

and here's a look at all her outfits !! I love Lolita alt fashion soo much, i do tend to latch onto characters who dress like this... and love making my own outfits for them too !!!

I also made a sticker of Palm for the merch bundles !!

Thank you so much if you've picked up Crossroads, it was great from the start !! I'm so lucky and so grateful to @/gachahugs and all the contributors for having me ^^ !! thank you thank you !

[mswyrr]

They presented the possibility of older women--who were repeatedly described as "covenless witches" in a story that also repeatedly told us a witch needs a coven--finding community again and a new reason to live in each other and their own power and then "subverted our expectations" with these women dying to serve a male character's story.

That was the point of their stories. Him.

It isn't common for older women in US pop culture to get depicted as people who are capable of rebirth. Of lives, desires, hopes and dreams that matter beyond solely being a mother. It rarely happens, and it didn't happen here.

It's rare for stories to deal metaphorically with real things - like women who get clean or make positive change in their 40s or 50s. Women who find each other and aren't alone and "forgotten" anymore. These things happen -- yes, sisterhood is sometimes a lie and sometimes "people never change." Sure, those things happen. But sometimes sisterhood isn't a lie; sometimes people make change in their lives.

You don't see these stories when they're women though, especially not older women, especially not gay women.

I'm glad for Jen. She doesn't have a community, though. A witch needs a coven they told us, over and over again. They showed us them getting one small taste of the joy they could share together, in their scene of flight. But that was just for Billy too. And now everyone else is dead. To serve the male character's journey, give him some angst.

Agatha is forever spiritually dead--not experiencing any kind of emotional breakthrough or change--because she's not the lead, so she's static so she can serve as a device within the true lead's journey.

She can't even be allowed the growth I pictured as the worst case scenario - where she dies for *the coven*--so they can live and have community and spiritual rebirth together--and makes enough peace to go with Rio. She doesn't even get that much, to get to have a real death that matters and has a sense of completion to it, where we can imagine her reunited with her child and/or at peace with Rio. She can't have that because she has to be Billy's amusing sidekick, his Jarvis, his moral warning lesson about his powers and the witches he got killed and his angst. Because his story matters and theirs didn't.

I was talking to a friend the other day about how love stories often have a "point of symbolic death, when all hope seems lost" (concept from Pamela Regis's study of romance novel structure) and with mf couples they get to rise again from that, into rebirth, into new life. Ff canon couples in stories often, due to a bunch of reasons, aren't allowed that narrative power. They remain trapped in tragedy and despair. I thought surely Agatha herself though, as the lead character, would get to have some kind of change or rebirth as part of a community of women, given that her core wound is betrayal by community -- but she, as a character, doesn't get to go into the symbolic underworld and change and be reborn, because she was never the lead character to begin with.

Sapphic love remains broken once it breaks, the "point of symbolic death" is literal death or a shattering end, there is no rebirth. We, I guess, lack the symbolic potency to come back, in the eyes of the world? We are not generative. "Which one's the man?" "How do they even have sex?" "Your marriage isn't real because you can't make babies." (Kudos for subverting that one, though, show! Except... a child born of women, without a man, cannot live a full life I guess?) And specifically, as a 30something queer woman, people who call my wife, after I've described her as my wife, my "girlfriend" and are shocked by how long we've been together. That we're grown women and our commitment is right down to the bone, that it has blood in its veins. We are not little girls playing dress up. But that is how a ton of nice people see us; we exist but we are spiritually empty, lacking potency. And the stories reflect that. That energy, that core belief that we are the juvenile, non-generative form of love and relationships. And this woman too, she remains in a kind of eternal spiritual death.

That's why people are mentioning the Hayes Code, they're feeling how that aligns with larger cultural prejudice against us and our humanity and capacity to have the kind of power of living and loving that is ascribed to mf love and that more (though not always, misogyny is a hell of a thing) straight women get in stories.

The idea that it's GOOD for a story to do this, because "sometimes sisterhood is a lie" and "sometimes people don't change" ignores that context of who precisely this narrative "subversion," this spiritual aridity is given to. And who gets to live and grow and be reborn and strive and learn and become in stories, to be allowed to connect with the transformative potential inside themselves and each other.

The show did give us a lot -- I think it's important to recognize that. The canon ff love; I would have never expected that. The canon kiss. They put a lot into that and I honor that. This wasn't a classic "bury your gays" and I'm not mad at them. They did their best. A lot of the issues I have are probably due to the problems of the mcu overall and how static it is. But the deeper themes are also just incredibly disappointing to me, and I wanted to outline why.

It's entirely possible to be disappointed but appreciate context and not be unkind to creatives who did their best within overall industry/cultural limitations, which is where I am at and what I mean with this.

[callofdudes]

141 + Rodolfo & Laswell general headcanons

Before he was Ghost (and still sometimes after) he was the guy you'd go to if you had a rip in something or wanted something stitched/embroidered.

His brother was the type to bully him like he did, but if anyone outside the home tried to hurt Simon Tommy would beat them.

Had a schedule where he was to be home straight after school but would sometimes get to go dirt bike riding with Tommy.

Was a prime bullies target because he was very small before his growth spurts. And after said growth spurt has a lot of stretch marks around most of his muscle area.

Is the favorite child of Laswell.

Loves squishmellows, has many.

Will eat Thrills gum just to spite everyone even though it tastes like dish soap and he hates it.

Brings all Gossip to Gaz first.

Because of trauma and stress Simon gets constant migraines and everyone knows to avoid him because he gets insanely cranky.

Knows spanish from how long he was kept in mexico.

Used to play those computer games where you had to input the command of what you wanted the simulation to do.

Doesn't like VR. It's cool but he gets motion sick inside.

Huge mama's boy.

Had braces when he was younger but it didn't stop him from showing off his amazing smile.

Used to bug his older sisters with nerd guns.

I like the idea of Johnny being the youngest chaos gremlin but being the middle child also works for him. (Of two or three sisters)

His parents let him be in football because he was a very smart kid. Topping his science and math classes and becoming valedictorian of his class.

He thinks he's the favorite child of Laswell.

Gets scared when Simon tells him about pixel command prompt games.

While his sisters were watching Frozen he was dealing with the weird crush he had on the king.

Steals pick up lines from Kyle.

Doesn't voice his achievements a whole lot because he wasn't enough for his dad when he was younger no matter what he did. Which has led to his snarky form of confidence and Rizz.

Even older people with take credit for his work and he will fight.

Was 100% a theatre kid.

And an only child.

Is scared to come out even to people close to him after what happened when his platoon mates first found out and wouldn't let it go.

Also thinks he's the favorite child.

Almost got his eyebrow pierced once.

Started to learn what a good father should be because of Price.

Brings all gossip to Ghost first.

Massive people watcher. People credit Ghost for his people watching but it just gives Kyle more opportunity to also people watch.

Has a mentor/big brother little brother relationship with Ghost and they're actually very close.

Used to be a menace when he was younger, and to be fair he still is.

Can't have kids because his balls don't work very well 😅

He was in history in school and was also very good at math.

The Duolingo bird hates him for some reason so he's taken to learning languages from interrogations, now knows 7 languages.

Is Nikolai's permanent backup plan if some shit goes down in Russia and has gotten used to waking up with the man asleep on his couch.

Attracts girls looking for older rich men and it pains him to tell them he is not old, nor is he rich.

Had a strict Military dad who currently still works for the military as a higher rank than him and they do not have a good relationship.

Spends most of her leave time up in the mountains camping. She loves being out in nature.

Has older brothers who are really into rock climbing so she'll accompany them and their friends for rock climbing and camping when she can.

Simon is the favorite child.

Everyone thinks she's married to Price but she'd actually scold him like a child half the day and encourage his antics like a good friend for the rest.

Was in the history and chest club.

Keeps gifting Simon his squishmellows.

Mother to all her 141 children.

Brings her wife to base and Johnny had taken to calling them the "moms".

Will bully people for 141.

Have you ever seen the crazy taser girl?? Yeah, that's him. He has many tasers and he loves them all.

He's actually crazy.

Very capable of yelling and defending himself but Alejandro has bestie senses and usually beats him to whoever did it.

Rudy is quiet but don't bark at him because he barks back.

Alejandro and Rudy used to skip school and go hang out on the cliffs they now trek for military.

His father made a joke once that he was going to get milk and Rudy never recovered mentally.

(and then he left for real-)

He was in photography and sports team manager in school.

After checking out each other's turf, Simon and Rudy are now chronically insane besties.

(had this in my drafts for a while, decided to post because I'm bored.)

[blue-mint-winter]

Maegor's natural conception: debunking the dark magic baby theory

There is a popular theory that Maegor was conceived with dark magic. Some go even farther and say he was a clone of Aegon. I've been trying to find if anyone actually did a comprehensive write up of this theory, but I only found some more casual forum discussions on Maegor's and Aenys' paternity and whether Aegon was sterile and his sons were bastards. I decided to reason out what was the most likely explanation of Maegor's pecularities and why it's not a conception via dark magic.

Debunking the magical conception theory: why Maegor was NOT a dark magic baby

Arguments used to support the dark magic baby theory:

A rumour that Visenya practiced dark magic -> theory that she used dark magic to conceive.

A rumour that Visenya was barren, because she didn't conceive earlier despite being married to Aegon for years.

Other reasons for people thinking that Maegor was conceived with dark magic are:

His big size, great strength and fast growth in childhood.

His excessive cruelty.

His inability to have children that weren't stillborn and malformed.

There are two kinds of arguments - those related to Visenya, the supposed magical conceiver, and those related to Maegor - his magical conception is used to explain his unusual traits.

Assuming both rumours about Visenya are true - she was barren and knew magic to conceive - she had both a reason and means to create a dark magic baby Maegor. However, if she wasn't barren, she could just conceive naturally. It’s possible for Visenya to give birth at 41, as other women gave birth at an even older age, like Alyssa Velaryon at 47 and queen Alysanne at 44. She didn't need to use the dark magic.

That's when the supplementary theory comes in. If Aegon was sterile, then Aenys was a bastard and Visenya had to use dark magic to get pregnant.

The arguments related to Visenya are a lynchpin to this entire dark magic baby theory, because if she didn't use dark magic to make Maegor, then everything else doesn't matter. That's why debunking Maegor-related reasons isn't necessary, but I will still do it for my own satisfaction. Explaining why a character was evil with him being a dark magic baby is just a bit ridiculous for the world of ASOIAF. There are plenty of evil characters in the series and none of them were made with dark magic.

Dark magic and Visenya's knowledge of it

I think the best way to prove if there was magic involved in Maegor's conception is to look to the rest of the ASOIAF series and find a similar case of magic use. There were Melisandre's shadow babies, but they weren't real, living humans like Maegor.

On the other hand, there is a character whose storyline has to do with childbirth and magic - Daenerys. When she was pregnant, she ate a stallion's heart to strengthen her son in the womb, which could be a magic ritual. Then she met a real expert - Mirri Maz Duur was said to know everything about childbirth and never lost a baby. She was a godswife (a priestess, healer and midwife) and also she was taught birthing songs by a moonsinger of Jhogo Nhai, that is a place north of Yi-Ti.

So apparently there is a branch of magic involved with birthing in the series. There's nothing said however about conceiving. The information is so little that it's impossible to say if Visenya knew this type of magic or any magic related to conceiving children or if conception magic even exists (let me know if there are any leads in the books about that). There's no mention of Visenya making trips to far east of Essos to learn about this branch of magic. The book only tells that she went with Aegon to Oldtown before the Conquest, where she might have learned anything to do with poisons and magic. However, none of the maesters so far displayed knowledge of a magic used to conceive. They're proficient at making moontea, performing a C-section and using poisons.

As well, there are reliable reports of Aegon and his sister Visenya visiting the Citadel of Oldtown in their youth, and hawking on the Arbor as guests of Lord Redwyne.

Incidentally, the moonsingers founded Braavos. There's a Temple of Moonsingers and also House of the Red Hands, which is a great center of healing. That means that Braavos is the closest location to Westeros where one could learn about birthing songs. However, the book doesn't mention Visenya ever going there. Due to the history of Braavos being founded by escaped slaves hiding from dragonlords, it's very unlikely she would go there or even be welcomed. Or helped with making more little dragonlords. If she visited, it would have been a huge event for the Braavosi. Not even king Jaehaerys went to negotiate there for the stolen dragon eggs, he just sent Septon Barth.

The rumours about Visenya using dark magic claim she did it when she was older and couldn't use a sword. There are two mentions of rumours about Visenya using dark magic:

Even those who loved her best found Visenya stern, serious, and unforgiving; some said that she played with poisons and dabbled in dark sorceries.

The oldest of the three heads of the dragon, Visenya was to outlive both of her siblings, and it was rumored that in her later years, when she could no longer wield a sword, she delved into the dark arts, mixing poisons and casting malign spells. 

Poisons and malign spells seem useless when the goal is to conceive a child. That's a type of magic to deal with enemies and Visenya learning it even before Conquest makes sense, as she was going to help Aegon with the war.

During Maegor's reign Visenya was suspected of killing High Septon with dark magic from afar, before she arrived in Oldtown, but there were many more likely suspects closer to the dead man. In any case she is only implied to know killing magic, not conception magic.

One videomaker had an interesting point about using magic in ASOIAF. If Visenya used it in some way to conceive Maegor, she had to pay a price for it - his inability to have healthy children. It would be a logical and satisfying setup and payoff. On the other hand, if Visenya knew a magical way to conceive, why didn't she tell Maegor at any point so he could use it to have a son? It would have prevented many political problems, like his polygamy causing the Faith to rebel. Looking at it this way, it's more likely that Visenya didn't know how to conceive with magic.

The evidence in text that Maegor was conceived by Visenya with magic is nonexistent. It's at best very circumstantial. Additionally, I found no evidence that a type of magic to help with conceiving a child even exists. There is only magic that helps with birthing and strengthening a child. It could be what Visenya used on Maegor after his natural conception.

Why Maegor wasn't a dark magic baby

The strangeness about Maegor's childhood is linked to his big size and strength and most importantly, his fast growth, as if it was accelerated. He could defeat adults in a fight when he was 13. It looks like he reached physical maturity early. (As an aside, it would make sense if he was a clone, but in Star Wars universe - the clonetroopers' growth was accelerated so they reached maturity at 10 years old and could fight in a war).

No newborn was ever more robust than Maegor Targaryen, maesters and midwives agreed; his weight at birth was almost twice that of his elder brother.

On the other hand his brother:

Aenys came first. Born in 7 AC to Aegon’s younger wife, Rhaenys, the boy was small at birth and sickly.

It's interesting to note that Maegor was a robust baby. If Aenys was too small and Maegor was like two of him, then it seems that Maegor was large but within a norm for babies (or Visenya wouldn't have been able to birth him). Also, it sounds that Aenys was simply a premature baby and it caused his many problems with early development.

Magic affected the growth of dragons, as with time they were growing slower and becoming smaller which was connected with weaker magic in the world. It's possible magic was used to affect Maegor's growth as well, because Targaryens are said to be a blood of a dragon. Visenya was more likely to have knowledge of this kind of magic rather than magic to conceive (which, again, we can't prove even exists in the series).

Visenya could have used magic, like Daenerys eating a stallion's heart, to make Maegor strong, resulting in his fast growth. She could have bathed him in blood, like Sam Tarly who was bathed in blood by warlocks from Qohor to make him brave.

She could have given him potions so he'd put on muscle quickly. She could have put him on a protein-rich diet. She even could have used magical equivalent of a hormone therapy to make her son grow up faster. The point is that it's easier to make an existing baby strong than invent a new branch of magic to make a strong baby (especially if doing it naturally is more convenient). This isn't Harry Potter, where they put things in a cauldron, say a few words and a dark magic baby is made.

Maegor's exceptional physicality and cruelty can't be used as a proof that he was a dark magic baby. He's not even the first character having those exact same traits. Maegor shares many similarities with Gregor Clegane, known as The Mountain, like his big body and strength, cruelty, brutishness, dimness and suffering a serious head injury. Their lists of crimes are also very similar: rapes, kinslaying, fighting partisans (Faith Militant, Brotherhood without Banners), raiding, killing servants and innocents, killing a horse in anger, destroying half of a boy's face (Maegor - slashing a stableboy, Gregor - burning his brother), killing an Aegon, killing wives, allowing torture by their subordinates. Both of them were healed or possibly resurrected by a dark magic user (Maegor by Tyanna, Gregor by Qyburn). Even their names sound very similar. Maegor is just a Targaryen version of Gregor and anyone can guess that making Gregor a king would be as much of a disaster as Maegor's reign was. So if Gregor was like that without any magic involved in his conception, why would Maegor be any different?

Maegor's inability to conceive normal children can have numerous better explanations than him being a dark magic baby:

Ceryse was infertile (Hightowers knew about it before the marriage or Visenya used poison/magic to stop her from conceiving in hopes of Maegor getting an annulment and marrying Rhaena as his mother proposed to unite her and Rhaenys' lines).

Tyanna and/or maesters poisoned other wives (including Alys Harroway when she and Maegor were in Pentos and met Tyanna).

Maegor had some sort of genetic defect that made him infertile because he was an incest baby.

Tyanna used dark magic to heal/resurrect him and that interfered with his ability to have healthy children.

He was cursed.

He used bloodmagic himself - proof: all the mass murders and burnings that look like blood sacrifices, he cut out Tyanna's heart with Blackfyre - seems like a part of a dark magic ritual.

His children were malformed because they were premature, other Targaryens also had malformed babies (like Rhaenyra's daughter Visenya and Daenerys' son Rhaego). In Rhaego's case his appearance could be caused by Mirri Maz Duur using him in a dark magic ritual.

In addition, it's proven in the series that dark magic use can cause infertility. According to Mirri Maz Duur, Dany became barren after her son was sacrificed in the failed ritual to resurrect Drogo. It could be just an effect of a miscarriage at her young age as well.

There's no mention of Visenya trying to resurrect anyone in her youth, which would make her barren, and she would be the last one to curse her own son with infertility when he was meant to continue her and Aegon's line.

On the other hand, Tyanna's use of dark magic to heal Maegor seems like the most likely cause of his infertility. Dany's example proves that dark magic can cause infertility in a woman, then why not a man too? And Tyanna told Maegor that she poisoned his children in the womb. She knew that was a price of her magic - making him unable to have healthy children. She didn't poison his wives, she cursed him and that's why "his seed was full of maggots". It was defective in some way. Maegor's life was prolonged by dark magic at the price of his bloodline never continuing. He was unable to create life after his own was magically extended, therefore unnatural.

All of the above reasons point out that Maegor wasn't evil and infertile because he was a dark magic baby. Any dark magic that influenced him and caused his infertility came at a later time in his life than his conception.

Maegor wasn't a dark magic baby.

Visenya wasn't barren and Aegon wasn't sterile

Whilst no one ever questioned Visenya’s fidelity to her brother-husband, Rhaenys surrounded herself with comely young men, and (it was whispered) even entertained some in her bedchambers on the nights when Aegon was with her elder sister. Yet despite these rumors, observers at court could not fail to note that the king spent ten nights with Rhaenys for every night with Visenya.

In other words, Aegon rarely had sex with Visenya (if they even had sex on those nights), he was in love with Rhaenys and had sex with her often.

[...] rumors flew about the court that King Aegon might take another wife, as Rhaenys was dead and Visenya childless and perhaps barren.

Somehow the rumour was spread that Visenya was childless because she was barren and readers took it at face value, when the explanation is right there in the first quote. Visenya didn't have children before, because she and Aegon rarely had sex. They had a marriage of duty, not love. The one Aegon was obviously trying to conceive with was Rhaenys. And they tried at least for 6 years until Aenys was born in 7 AC. I'm assuming they started after the Conquest, when the constant wars ended and they needed an heir to stabilize their new regime. On the other hand, after Rhaenys died in 10 AC and Aenys' condition worsened, Visenya and Aegon were forced to do their duty and actually started trying to conceive. They succeeded after only a year, as Maegor was conceived in 11 AC and born in 12 AC.

Why is no one asking why Rhaenys took 6 years to conceive? I think she was the sister with fertility issues, not Visenya.

Again, when looking to the main series for similar cases, I can think of a character that had trouble with conceiving and birthing a living child for years and that's Lysa Tully, the mother of the infamously weak and sickly Sweetrobin. Aenys and Sweetrobin are described in a similar way: they are small for their age, grow slowly, have spindly limbs, watery/runny eyes, cry a lot, and prefer their mother's milk. Sweetrobin wasn't weaned, while Aenys "screamed for a fortnight when he was weaned".

As we know, Lysa's fertility issues were caused by her having an abortion when she was a teenager. She almost died from it. We don't know anything about Rhaenys' younger days, but she was a party girl, so a similar situation could have caused her to have trouble conceiving until she was 31. Lysa gave birth to Sweetrobin after 10 years of marriage. She had 5 miscarriages and 2 stillbirths. In Rhaenys' case there's no information about any stillborn babies, but miscarriages could be hidden if they happened early in her pregnancies. Besides that, she and Aegon had political reasons to hide any of their troubles with conceiving the heir to the throne.

It looks like Visenya and Aegon are both wrongly accused of infertility. Maegor being quickly conceived after Rhaenys died and they needed a spare proves that they were both fertile. They just needed an urgent reason to do their duty.

It's all a misunderstanding

As an aside, I have a theory that the rumour about Visenya being barren was caused by a cultural misunderstanding. Valyrian/Targaryen customs in regards to procreation could be different than Westerosi tradition. Targaryens' immunity made it less pressing to have many children right away like Westerosi do, because the children wouldn't die of common illnesses and most likely survive to adulthood. Another reason for less children could be the necessity to maintain control over dragons and the hierarchy within the family. Too many people having dragons in the family at once would lead to infighting for the leadership. Examples of that kind of conflict were Maegor fighting his nephews for the throne and then the Dance of the Dragons.

I think Westerosi assumed that from the start of his rule, Aegon was trying to conceive children with both of his sisterwives. Rhaenys gave birth, but Visenya didn't, so she had to be barren. The Westerosi just couldn't imagine a situation in which a man, a king wouldn't even try to get one of his two attractive wives pregnant.

Visenya, being a warrior type and married only for duty, not love, probably wasn't keen on having children if it wasn't needed at the moment. Her behaviour and priorities weren't like those of a typical Westerosi noblewoman, whose most important duty is childbearing.

Later on, Targaryens adapted to Westerosi culture and started having more children, because there were many stillbirths and infant deaths. Also daughters couldn't inherit, so some kept trying to conceive in order to have sons.

Why Maegor and Aenys weren't bastards

I think that kind of plot twist misses the point. If the famously incestuous dynasty isn't actually doing incest and instead has kids with secret lovers, then what's even the point of making them incestuous in the first place. Targaryens are supposed to show the negative effects of incest and abuse being passed down the generations of a royal dynasty.

Visenya was faithful as the book says: "no one ever questioned Visenya’s fidelity to her brother-husband", while Rhaenys was rumoured to take other lovers, but then she had a sickly son. He was sickly because he was born from incest and he was a premature baby. Aenys only survived because he bonded with a hatchling, while many other Targaryen children like him later on didn't have that opportunity (like Jaehaerys and Alysanne's sons Aegon, Gaemon and Valerion, Baelon and Alyssa's son Aegon, Viserys I and Aemma's sons). Both Maegor and Aenys are Aegon's sons and I'll leave it at that.

Conclusion

The theory that Maegor was a dark magic baby has no legs to stand on. There's no evidence of a dark magic conception ever occurring in the whole series. Visenya couldn't learn any magic related to birthing because she never went to far east of Essos and as a dragonlord, she couldn't go to Braavos. She wasn't barren, she and Aegon rarely had sex (if they even did) and they didn't want to conceive when Rhaenys was still alive and trying to have a child with Aegon. After she died, Maegor was conceived quickly because Visenya and Aegon had a motivation to do their duty - Aenys' state regressed and it was uncertain if he will survive to adulthood.

Being a dark magic baby isn't needed for someone to be big, strong and cruel as proven by The Mountain, ser Gregor Clegane, whom Maegor resembles a lot in his size, strength and terrible deeds, which are almost the same. Both of them suffered a serious head injury which also could be a reason for their cruel behavior.

Infertility isn't caused by being created with dark magic, but by taking part in dark magic rituals, like Daenerys was. Maegor was healed/resurrected by Tyanna in a later part of his life, after which he kept having premature, malformed babies. There are also many other plausible causes of his lack of healthy children.

There's no reason to believe dark magic was used to conceive Maegor but he certainly had contact with it later on in his life.

.

I hope I was convincing in this argument. I'm open to discussion and questions. If there's any book evidence I missed, please let me know. I spent entirely too much time thinking about Aegon-Visenya-Rhaenys dynamic and their sex schedule, but decided not to include that as it wasn't that important to the argument. Next up I could analyze Jaehaerys and Alysanne's bad parenting or move on to reading and comment on the Dance era.

[barb-l]

Isn't a writer question but was curious; How does wenclair different from other ships you've enjoyed?

Is it solely due to having been a lifelong Wednesday Addams fan, or is it specifically the Netflix's Addams world that you find intriguing?

I ask mainly because I recall you once saying that your wenclair comics--specifically the Next Gen Au I believe--are written and made with a lot of intention in regards to dialog and the discussions had between characters.

Is this due to a greater insight into the characters or simply a mark of growth in writing comprehension?

I like to think I put as much thought in all ships I've been hyperfixated on tbh. Wenclair isn't even the one I've been obsessed with the longest. So far it's actually Trimberly, for which and I was hyperfixated with for like 3 years.

But yeah ok I get ur point lol The intensity this time feels different, I suppose.

I think it's a mix of both being a long time Wednesday Addams fan and how cute of a ship Wenclair is both in concept and the canon execution of their dynamics.

As some of you are aware, I've been a fan of The Addams for a while now. All incarnations of them are great in their own way, but one of the many reasons why the animated 2019 movie is my favorite is because it didn't give Wednesday a bland ass male love interest. I don't think the B/W series did it(because Wed was like six in that) but the 90's movies, musical, and netflix series for some reason found it necessary to give Wednesday male love interests so painfully boring and i hate it. This isn't even about making Wednesday attracted to boys. I personally headcanon her bi, as the ol' stereotype that all grumpy/angsty female characters must be lesbian isn't my cup of tea, and also because I like to think all Addamses just don't give a shit about gender when it comes to romance. I woulda been fine with her getting a boyfriend so long as they're not boring af and goddddd canon incarnations still haven't delivered. Joel was sweet but he was too much of a wimp, not even Gomez is that pathetic. Lucas' thing with Wednesday was just portrayed in such an icky way in the musical that I couldn't finish watching by the time their sexually charged duet came on, and don't even get me started on the boys Netflix gave her. I expected better of Gough and Millar...(unless the blandness was on purpose like it was with Lana Lang--)

Anyways, because of all said canon love interests, I've been desperate for Wednesday to have a love interest that is both not painfully het or boring for once. Crossover shipping with Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice the Musical was fun but was ultimately a very niche fandom. I could only draw and write for an audience of twenty or so people for so long. Parker from the animated movie would've been great, but the cop out with her mom dating Fester just made it too weird for me to be fully on board with the ship.

So when Enid Sinclair was introduced as a character I was absolutely ecstatic. On paper alone she already seemed great. She has a very distinct appearance (even if her "design" was inspired by Harlequin and it shows) that goes so well when she stands next to Wednesday, whether it's in the actual show, fan arts, or even in official merch. Her being Wednesday's complete opposite in so many ways makes her being paired with Wednesday so dang interesting too.

And I don't just mean aesthetic or personality wise. I'm talking about how one of Wednesday's struggle stems from having too much smothering love from her family as someone who gets overwhelmed too easily, and Enid's loneliness and insecurity coming from her own family's lack of love and attention where it matters most. Or how Wednesday's just girl who, deep inside worries about being an actual cruel monster like the very bigots she hates, while Enid is a supposed beast who resents herself for only being a scared little girl. Even the fact that Wednesday is an older sister to a soft-hearted younger brother while Enid is the youngest daughter to a bunch of rough-housing older brothers feels very on purpose.

Everything about Enid feels deliberate. Like she IS supposed to be paired with Wednesday, platonically or romantically. She's the best person to stand beside Wednesday as a character because they have enough differences and similarities to have interesting conflicts but also significant character growths sparked by each other. She's not bland or boring like the canon love interests because even without her attachment to Wednesday, Enid is still such a compelling character. The mere fact that she's as popular as she is despite an eight-episode series being her debut in a franchise that's been iconic to generations is already pretty amazing, and only a character as impressive deserves to smooch somebody as iconic as Wednesday Addams.

And their on screen chemistry is just *chef's kiss*

[wordy-little-witch]

Can we know about Atlas or Buggy Seraphim idea you have. Are they smaller than S-Hawk and S-Crocodile? What are the reactions of Buggy, Crocodile, Mihawk, and everyone else?

So I actually don't have like. A STRICT idea for S-Buggy, all in all. But what I DO have is this:

• he is, indeed, smaller than the rest. My personal thought process is that while they ARE made between cybernetics, lunarian and sourced DNA, they also have to.... idek I guess like INCUBATE. So if they got the DNA for Buggy during Impel Down, growth would be a lil closer to the rest. Still notably OFF but not quite so... teeny.

If it was only after he was named a Warlord, then I can see Atlas being visibly MUCH younger than the others.

Let's say for these purposes the current seraphim are around 10~. Atlas would be, on the older end, about 7-8~. On the lower end, he could be from 2-5~.

• he's semi or nonverbal! He either prefers to or can only speak in sign. Buggy has stints where he goes semi-verbal, and he was a late talker himself, but for Atlas it's. A constant thing. Words are hard.

• his wings are disproportionally tiny compared to the others and the tips of his feathers are white-grey.

• he wears a cat ear beanie!! Loves cats!!! Loves all animals actually. Give that boy an animal encyclopedia and he's RIVETED for HOURS

• his Haki is.... very strange. His range for Observation is outright NUTS and nobody expected to have a nonverbal cyborg baby going into a sensory overload every time he tried using his Haki. ((His abilities there are currently disabled btw))

• loves music

• kind of clingy all things considered. Atlas is real hesitant about trust but once you've gotten into his I Trust You Group, he's following you like a duckling.

As for reactions -

Buggy

• this is... it's complicated, okay? He's doing his best but seeing the kid initially gives him.... so much anxiety. On the one hand, the carefully cultivated persona he's crafted is now going to inevitably implode. It's already well past salvaging as is, but smth about having the final nail in the coffin makes his chest knot up.

• is very patient and doesn't treat Atlas any differently from any of the other seraphim. That's a kid, they're ALL kids, and Buggy's a clown - making kids happy is literally in the Code.

• he will forget sometimes that not everyone knows sign language so he and Atlas will be absolutely going HAM about something and get really confused and/or offended when someone interjects or asks what they're doing.

• he absolutely calls Atlas smth like "my little mime" or "mime of mine", and it makes people melt. Carries him ((and the others as needed)) around, usually on his hip, can and will pepper faces in kisses and swing them around to get squeals and laughter.

• mama buggy supremacy need I say more /hj

Mihawk

• was certainly not expecting this. Like. At all. Hawkeye Mihawk was blindsided.

• ngl was very hesitant on having ANOTHER vulnerable party on the island, especially one so.... small. His own seraphim and Crocodile's seemed so intimidatingly tiny and then this little guy just.... proves everything wrong there. Holy fuck.

• when he realizes Altas's Haki is so sensitive, he asks Buggy what he does to cope. When he finds out Buggy always just.... locked it down, he's flabbergasted. Makes it his MISSION to research oversensitive oberservation haki. His spouse and tiniest child deserve better.

• is very good with Atlas's sensory needs and winds up also encouraging the other seraphim to be more open as well. None of these bitches are neurotypical.

• if asked, he will deny getting a little choked up when Atlas, Birdie and Angel each called him some variant of father. He did though. He absolutely did.

Crocodile

• he's too big and cool and wealthy for feelings (/j). But if he did have them, he'd be extra soft with Atlas. Angel and he click due to many reasons. He and Birdie are decently close. He and Atlas are... a little different. For one, the tiny little clown lunarian is so.... well..... tiny. And quiet. He likes small, cute, quiet things.

• he spoils all of the kids absolutely, but if anyone asks, he'll gut you. Stop. He has a reputation damn it.

• considered getting an AAC book, not only for Atlas but definitely considered heavily with the kid's presence and needs.

• was a little concerned with all the little red flags from all the kids, but ESPECIALLY from Atlas - especially because he can see the red flags now in Buggy too, now hidden under layers upon layers of masking. Reptile man is doing some math here.

• sometime the world gets a little too Much for Atlas, and Crocodile will never admit to the Emotions that come up when the kid creeps up to him, tugs on his pants leg, and signs 'hide, coat?' He let's the kid take as much time as he needs and does NOT stop to think on the ramifications of being considered a Safe Place for him ((He thinks it a lot))

BONUS REACTIONS

Angel

• the Oldest of the seraphim because he came out first so OBVIOUSLY he's the biggest and oldest. Takes his role as Big Brother VERY seriously

• weird mix of VERY protective and Cain Instinct. He'd never ever ever hurt Atlas but sometimes his baby brother is just........ so very.......... smackable.............

• learned sign in the lab a little later than the others, uses it far less, but knows most of the swears.

• complains about how ANNOYING having brothers is but if anyone else complains about his brothers, he'll throw hands.

Birdie

• still thinks he should be the oldest since he was STARTED first and only came out after Angel due to technical issues, but whatever

• still deciding on his name but is very tempted to follow Atlas's example and pick something Cool and Mythical. Is debating Avalon but isn't sure he wants to commit to the accidental A-theme they'd have going on.

• he learned sign the first after it turned out Atlas couldn't or wouldn't talk. Played it off as a useful skill to have anyway. Secretly a big softie.

• he's the type to wordlessly take Atlas's hand in a crowded area to make sure he "doesn't get lost or kidnapped", tries to play it cool but always flutters his wings that little bit more when a smaller hand holds his own just a lil tighter.

• preens the others far more, but absolutely keeps any spare feathers bc he knows Atlas likes them.

• milder Cain Instinct but he can and will bite with and without warning. Not even always aggressive either. Sometimes he just loves someone so much he just noms

• usually keeps Atlas company when he's overwhelmed and needs to decompress - he's either a cuddle buddy or a silent sentry if protection. Anyone who tries to interrupt gets stabbed

[crazylittlejester]

I need to get this out of my system so if I seem a little pissy about this, it's because I AM pissed.

I don't like that people say Zelda doesn't have a personality. I don't like that people say Zelda is just the helpless princess you save every game. I HATE that people are able to give Link a personality despite not speaking but they say Zelda doesn't have a personality!

It's so ANNOYING to see people say this type of stuff about Zelda because even from the first few games in the series, you can analyze Dawn and Aurora's actions and see their personalities!

Dawn is wise and courageous. She knew that she would get kidnapped by Ganon so she split the triforce of wisdom into pieces and his them in dungeons HERSELF! Adding more onto that, you can see that she's able to compose herself in danger and is also willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good.

Aurora is stubborn and courageous! She was the only person who was told where the triforce of courage was and because of that, her brother tried to force the information out of her. She could've just given up the information but NO. She stood her ground against her brother and suspicious wizard man and refused to give up that information because her dad only told her about the location for a reason!

Even if both of these aren't a fleshed out as later Zeldas, and this was back when the formula was still "defeat the evil, save the princess" they still show personality through their actions just like how Hyrule's actions can be analyzed into a personality!

It's not hard to analyze a character through their actions and the Zeldas are FAR from flat characters. From Z1 and Z2, we only got more and more story in game and we got more and more stuff to see the characters' personalities shine through but it baffles me that people still think Zelda doesn't have a personality.

To close off my argument, we see a clear difference between the Zeldas, right? We can tell they're different people! That tells you that they indeed do have personalities. Sorry for ranting I just really REALLY needed to get that out of my system

Don’t apologize, you cooked here and I agree, I feel like the argument could be made that the Zeldas have more visible personality than the Links in some cases. Saying Zeldas have no personality is INSANE, especially when Tetra and BOTW Zelda are sitting right there (bringing up those two specifically just because they’re very different from the others, they don’t really fit the same format). If you can say Link has a character arc you can DEFINITELY say the same of Zelda, her character growth is so clear to me. Especially in the newer games?? (Skyward Sword and BOTW specifically) Like come ON, She is not a boring character

And like you said, the older games’ Zeldas aren’t as fleshed out, BUT TO ME THEYRE EQUAL WITH LINK IN TERMS OF HOW EASY IT IS TO FEEL THEIR PERSONALITIES IN THE GAMES (that’s just my experience with playing these games tho)

Justice for the Zeldas, because I think they’re awesome

[goodluckclove]

So an indeterminate amount of time ago I waded through the depths of writing Tumblr and ended up adopting a queer youth living in a sort of rough situation. Like not "parasocial, for the bit" kind of adoption, but also not "let's sign actual paperwork" adoption. I just kind of brought them into my family in my head because that's how my brain works.

We met here so they might see this but I'm not going to tag them just in case they're embarrassed by this. But if you see this - hi Auggie! Hope this doesn't embarrass you too much.

I took up the role of mentor/parental figure once I realized this person didnt really have an older queer adult in their life, but I was surprised by how much deeper it's gone since that. I don't ever want actual human children, but this odd long distance communication has given me some sort of psychological rough equivalent that's been truly surreal.

Like, I did not raise this person, but I see myself in them. They sometimes act exactly as I did when I was their age. Their pain and confusion are an echo to something that I put to sleep a long, long time ago. And in that contemplation there's this hunger to reverse time and change the story, to give this person what I wanted so desperately when I was that age.

I was such a lonely youth. Just confused and afraid. I used to lament for hours, wishing I could build parking structures instead of being a writer - because then I could look at the cars parked and know my creation was serving its purpose. The few friends I had then tried, but ultimately had no clue how to comfort me.

I can't be that person that says life gets easier as you get older, because that's only like an eighth of a truth I truly think is impossible to explain. So when they fall into despair I find myself almost begging little else but please wait. I know it hurts sometimes, but please wait. Just a little longer. You're going to start to find out what this is all about very, very soon

I hope they believe me. But either way I want to be there to whatever extent they find comfortable. This is a truly incredible person and I believe the world would grieve the loss of their growth.

[capinejghafa]

do you think that the show's "inej is incapable of killing" made people idk "soften" inej up? like "making her the mom friend" when in the books she isn't?

Also book rec anon (though i think you had several so i'm one of them) LOVING YOUR RECS THANK YOU!

I will say this because Inej being seen as the "mom friend" is nothing new! Actually, it comes from the book fandom. Having read several fics from before the start of the show, it seems more like an expectation that she is forced into this role because if Kaz is the "dad" of the group, then Inej has to be the "mom". This gives me a lot of pause and makes me feel weird because the fandom collectively assigned a very nuclear family dynamic to the crows that we should play off as a joke... but some people are unironically very serious about it.

I think the show definitely softened Kaz much more than his book counterpart (because he's older and has a bit more of life experience. At least, that's my interpretation of show!Kaz). While show!Inej does have the capacity to be cruel and dismissive. I think it's often overlooked because thinking that Inej is even remotely a little mean is sort of frown down upon. The thing is, nuance plays a big role, and sometimes, we don't want our characters to be messy. Which isn't fair to the crows because they're deserve to be seen a fully dimensional characters who are just trying their best.

I think Inej gets a bit of the short end of the stick because people want her to be the pinnacle of kindness or the most badass characters of all time... and my goodness, there's no in between, no room for flaws or growth. I think Inej is best when she gets to arcs where she questions her faith, where she fails, where she still has so much wisdom to learn.

But this is all imo!

(Also, I enjoy working on the recs so much! There is a list that I will make public when the author fic recs are done!)

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

hi slug!!! what do you think of the block party trailers?

Thank you for giving me the excuse to go finally listen to them.

Rivals: Hmm, this is a really interesting comparison! I wouldn't have immediately classified Doppo as a "act first, think later" character, but he definitely has those moments. The music is bouncy but not immediately doing it for me. I think it's one of those songs I'll grow to like quickly, though.

White and Black: (not to be confused with Doppo's Black or White, naturally) SHADY BOYS, LET'S GOOOOOO! I love this match-up. I think they are the kind of people to have a meet-cute in which they committed identity fraud and/or credit card fraud on one another. Anyway, I love the style here. Team Rocket-ass mfers. I agree with the top YT comment at the time of writing, which is, "This is the most fanfic-y thing Hypmic has ever officially released, and I am here for it." I also love that neither of them makes one single effort to hide their scumminess. Truly a duo for the ages.

Thanks for Having Us! Now Look Alive! Osaka Big Up: (or whatever people are calling the Sasara/Roshou one) I adore the fact that Sasara introduces them as a three-person group ft. Rei, but Rei just happens to be doing something else (stealing Juuto's identity, most like) and thus it's a two-person act today. Sasara and Roshou's comedy/speaking dynamic is much more relaxed and natural feeling than it was in their first appearance in Ah, Osaka Dreamin' Night, which is a nice reflection of the current state of their friendship status. Music is chill. I'd like to hear more of it before forming more opinions. Their singing voices sound good with this older, slower style of song.

The Demons' Flowers: I appreciate how the MV style departs from usual Hypmic MV to mimic the MVs for this kind of music. Very JRPG-esque. The lyrics strike me as a little generic for music projects, which is atypical for Hypmic, but it's definitely appropriate for Juushi.

Get busy: I really like this match-up; their high energy works together well here, as does their commitment to working together with the homies to kick absolute ass. I'm not sure KR fully understands the connotation of the English title they've chosen; they're probably going for more of a "Take it easy...but take it!" vibe.

Viva la liberty: While the music itself isn't doing much for me yet, I like this take on how both Saburou and Ramuda have grown throughout the story while still acting in very similar ways to their act 1 selves. An unusual match-up, but I can dig it.

What Lies Beyond the Dreaming: Wow, I really like this. Like Scenario Liar, it almost feels confessional in the sense of how it creates a closed sense of solidarity with the listener (you're the only one I can trust, let me tell you my story for your ears only, etc.). In that case, it's being spoken to his brother, I suppose? Would love to hear the full song.

Closer: I like Hitoya's singing a lot in this one. The darker lyrics and tone suit them both quite well, and I wonder if this points to Jakurai and Hitoya finally talking things out, including Jakurai's experiences in the war, in act 3. Or perhaps that's simply wishful thinking.

My Life: Positivity: Aside from the obvious enjoyment of Hifumi wrangling the rest of the cast into being his enthusiastic background singers, I really like how this song is both bright and bubbly at surface level but says a lot of deeper things about Hifumi's character, like how he's willing to open himself up to being hurt again so long as he has the protection of his friends and loved ones. I don't think it's the kind of thing I'd listen to, but I am looking forward to seeing the full thing.

Move Your Body Til You Die!: Roger that, sir. o7 Very glad to see that Riou's solos are as silly as ever. I think this is my favorite so far in terms of music. It is most definitely my favorite in terms of music videos.

Will-o'-the-Wisp: I really, really, REALLY like the lyrics and how much growth they show for Samatoki. It's nice how you can tell just musically how much he's healed and mellowed out since the start of the series.

HIPHOPPIA: This is my actual favorite musically, and while I understand and appreciate the thematic point of having so many styles of music on this album, I'm personally a bit sad there isn't more of the classic hip-hop sound. Lot of interesting imagery in the lyrics.

Conclusion: Move Your Body Til You Die! is a work of art.

[bigskydreaming]

Jason, randomly, out of nowhere, without warning: Hah, I'm taller than you now. LMAO. Loser.

Dick, who knows perfectly well that height has absolutely nothing to do with self worth and also that he's supposed to be above being blatantly baited by his little brother, who is obviously the REAL loser, and needs to be reminded of that fact which so doesn't count as actually being baited: Please. You're only that tall now because you got revived in a magical pit of green ooze that optimized your growth when bringing you back from the dead which is CHEATING, and thus doesn't count. Loser.

Jason: Really? Me dying and being dunked in a magical pit of green ooze to undo the physical trauma of my MURDER and also the years of malnutrition that led to my growth previously NOT being optimized is 'cheating?'

Dick: I regretted it as soon as I said it but I can not afford to set the precedent that I made a misstep in the minefield that is our fraught sibling relationship. I have no choice but to double down. The only way this ends well is if you choose to let it slide and gracefully accept a subject change. I'll even let you pick. As long as its understood that me letting you pick is not an admission of wrongdoing on my part, its just me being Awesome and you're welcome.

Jason: First off, I have never let anything slide gracefully a day in my life and I'm damn sure not about to start NOW, when you were being an ASS....

Dick: Oh biiiiig surprise, little brother can talk a big talk about being the bigger man, but god forbid someone give him the opportunity to back it up.....

Jason: Not my fault if you're feeling particularly SMALL at the moment, pun absolutely intended. Since its not like you have a monopoly on those no matter HOW much you've tried to act like you do over the years....

Dick: Hey, I've never claimed to have a monopoly on puns. I just said I find it INTERESTING that you were totally cool with using the name, costume and SIGNATURE BRAND OF HUMOR I DELIBERATELY SPENT YEARS CULTIVATING AS A LITERAL SIGNATURE BRAND all while insisting that noooooo, no need to CREDIT your older brother who quite literally paved the way with all of that and gave you his express PERMISSION to adopt it all as your own, hahaha, who actually gives credit where credit's due, that would be so weird right....

Jason: Tell you what, since you're sooooo sore about not being properly credited for your work why don't you go ahead and figure out a royalty rate for all the times I used YOUR intellectual vigilante property or what the fuck ever, and I will PAY you to never bring it up again.....

Dick: I would LOVE that, actually. I think it would be a great way to acknowledge MY trailblazing hard work, but I think we both know you'd literally just make a show of stealing the money from Bruce to make some kind of statement about how beneath you all this is which KINDA DEFEATS THE POINT of acknowledging or crediting someone's work as WORTH something, so -

Their siblings, who have been standing right there the whole time, and who are all Very Tired, and literally just wanted to know if their older brothers wanted to go to Bat-Burger with them and are now regretting everything, why does this always happen and why don't any of them know better by now: Is it done? Is it over? Can you stop? Ever?

Dick and Jason, simultaneously swiveling in instant older sibling solidarity: Wow. So impatient. So entitled. So demanding. Why, in OUR day, we'd be LUCKY to be granted even ten minutes between patrol and bedtime, to scarf down an Alfred-Approved Healthy Snack, but its not enough that Bruce lets you run around Gotham stuffing your faces with fast food at any hour of the night, noooooooo, its gotta happen RIGHT NOW, like THIS INSTANT, how dare anyone make you wait five whole minutes to get whatever you want.....

Tim: I honestly can't tell if I hate it more when they're just being obnoxious at each other & we're stuck bearing witness or when they combine their powers of obnoxious and aim it at us.

Cass, gravely: There are no winners here.

Damian: And Father doesn't get why I wish I was an only child.

Duke, wistfully: I took being an only child for granted.

Stephanie, with popcorn: None of you appreciate good theater.

Bruce, from somewhere offscreen, even miles away: My parents died because of the theater, STEPHANIE.

[mash4077confessions]

☆ ☠ ✿ ♡ ൠ for Hawkeye please?

Sure :) Have some Hawkeye stuff

☆ - happy headcanon

Oh, happy Hawkeye! It takes on many forms and comes from many things.

He could look like a gleeful child, open and ready for an embrace.

He could look like a wild mad man, out on a wild rampage, full of bitting wit.

Hawkeye is happy when he sees B.J. holding a baby, when he sticks it to the man with his friends, a beautiful woman (or man) looking his way, when he's eating orgasim inducing food, etc

He'll be very happy when he sees his dad again.

His sparkling eyes, crinkles, and a wide eyed grin. Such a beauty!

☠ - angry/violent headcanon

An angry Hawkeye is a raving nightmare; a borderline lunatic.

He gets so damn loud! How could a man who is notoriously already so loud when having a simple conversation, get even louder!? Well he does it.

Hawkeye gets angry about various social injustices, the textures of food not aligning with what the texture is supposed to be, his jokes bombing when being told to people who are supposed to laugh (they know who they are), being told what to do by random people who think they know better but they sooo do not!, etc

✿ - Sex headcanon

Sex with Hawkeye can vary depending on who his partner is, how he feels about them, and where they are.

Of course, they are sure to get a fun little performance out of him regardless of those variables, but it will still make a difference.

In Korea, he was primarily having sex because he's a hypersexual person in a stress inducing environment and sex is a very pleasurable way to get your mind off of such things. Privacy being an issue, sex was often done on the quick. Just enough foreplay to make a good show of things, but not enough to really dazzle them.

When he has the time and privacy, and actually cares about who he is with, he will go much slower...much deeper.

Once again, Hawkeye has a bit of a volume control issue. He WILL. NOT. SHUT. UP.

There will be dirty talk, moaning, groaning, grunts, and panting (if he's really going hard). The only way to make this man stop being so noisy, is either to have his tongue occupied with your mouth or your genitals.

♡ - romantic headcanon

Well we know Hawkeye has been in love before (Carlye) , but it doesn't come easy or often for him.

He has mistaken lust and loneliness for love before, so Hawkeye thinks he's been in love more often than he really has.

Hawkeye could be in a healthy romantic relationship one day, but it would take a lot of growth, introspection, and maturity on his part to really foster such a bond with another human being.

Perhaps post war...perhaps somewhere in California...

ൠ - random headcanon

-Hawkeye LOVES Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood when they eventually premier. I don't know why he's watching those shows. He might be babysitting someone's kid or maybe he gets really into hippie culture and is having some weed while watching daytime public tv. All I know is, once he sees these shows, he thinks they're fantastic. He is a Muppet, after all.

-He has a sensory processing disorder. In some ways as he's gotten older, it's gotten "better" but in other ways it's gotten "worse". Mostly it gives him issues with food textures and smells, but he also has issues with clothing and loud noises that aren't coming from him.

-Hawkeye's mother was Jewish. She wasn't from Crabapple Cove originally, and was somewhat ostracized by the locals, until Daniel Pierce put his foot down and refused to deal with any of that antisemitic bullshit.

-Hawkeye and B.J. will see each other again.

[cyberphuck]

The other day the neighbors called the city on me again for having an overgrown lawn. I explained to City Guy that I was disabled and broke, and he gave me two weeks to "work on it" (I asked him, too, if there were programs to help me take care of the stuff they wanted me to take care of, and he said no). I traded a bag of dog food to a guy to mow my lawn, and he just... did not come back lol so today I went out with some very rusty loppers to try to cut back some of the bigger stuff.

We have a few milk thistles-- I tackled like three or four biggish ones-- but the majority of the overgrowth in the front yard is one massive creeper vine. There weren't any of what I as a Californian would call weeds besides the thistles-- not even dandelions. At least the creeper vine is green, doesn't have spines, doesn't harbor any kind of bugs, and is soft and moist enough not to be a fire hazard. (I'm not entirely sure what the creeper vine is. It's not virginia creeper, poison ivy, kudzu, wintercreeper, mile-a-minute, or honeysuckle. It's green, will grow up, through, and over anything and likes when you run it over repeatedly with your car, soft and cool with no stickers or hooks, and explodes with bitty white flowers in the mid to late fall. I like it.) I was out there sweating and shaking, taking frequent breaks because of my knees and back, doing my best to cut down the biggest growths. A car pulled up to the neighbor's house and the man himself got out. I straightened up, lowering the loppers, and stared fixedly at him (sweaty, sunburned, covered in leaves) as he walked into his house. He didn't even turn his head to make eye contact with me. A little while later, an older lady came out with a lawnmower and mowed their already-pristine lawn. I watched her. She also didn't look at me. Neither of them said anything like, "hey, noticed you doing yard work and crying, need a hand since the mower's already out?" To be clear, they have never spoken to me, even once, since they've moved in. Sometimes their mail gets delivered to my house by accident, and I'll walk it over and put it in their letterbox. A couple of times there were big manila envelopes that looked time-sensitive so I knocked, trying to make sure they got it and not wanting to bend it to fit it into the letterbox. TV was on but no one came to the door. I'm the one who ran across the street to help grandma out of the tub, remember, the one who buys lemonade and candy from the local kids, the one with a separate bowl for toys on Halloween, the one who chases down the neighbor's dog in the middle of the night and puts him back in the yard so nothing happens to him, the one who brings my dogs in when they start barking so they're not bothering people. I'm the one who brings a slice of birthday cake to share with the cranky old man across the street, who stopped to help a bleeding woman at walmart, who saw someone riding their bike on the side of the freeway (?!) and pulled over to put his bike in the back of my car and give him a ride home. I don't do that kind of stuff with an expectation of some kind of payment. And god knows I don't even like some of my neighbors-- I don't really like anybody, if it comes down to it. But we've all got to live on the same street, and I think it's important to be on at least nodding terms with your immediate neighbors in case something happens, you know? You don't have to bring over lemon squares every Sunday, but it'd be nice to have someone let you know if your house is on fire, or know that if there's an accident and you need help, you can bang on someone's door. Just come and talk to me about it once, okay? Once. Find out what's going on. Maybe there's a super simple fix. Maybe there's something we can trade. Maybe we find out you can't help at all. Maybe I'll tell you to shove it up your ass, but at least you tried before you got the fucking city involved.

Unfortunately for you, I'm not a 'turn the other cheek' sort of person. The cuttings from the insane, fast-growing, impossible to kill vine can go under your porch.

[loveakii]

i love all your mikaelson metas and i just wanted to remind you of these little bits in 2x17 where Klaus takes Freya to see Esther. Klaus saying to Esther while Freya's there that "he's happy she gave Freya away so that he could be born, consider me an upgrade", i always felt so bad for freya in that moment. to have your traumatic experience thrown in your face by somebody you've spent years searching for? ouch.

in that same convo, esther says that she made the deal with dahlia because she thought she wouldn't miss the one child she was forced to give up. and my god esther that's awful.

freya and Klaus are such parallels, freya is a parallel to quite a few of the siblings actually (klaus, elijah, rebekah mostly). freya also getting to kill esther just like klaus did.

i have freya thoughts and opinions. two moments that warm my heart though are in 3x9 where she tells elijah that this is the best christmas she's ever had and in 3x13 (Heart Shaped Box) when Klaus saves her because that moment at the end feels like when freya finally feels fully settled into the family.

love those scenes you pointed out. I think klaus sees a lot of himself in freya in s2 and that's what fuels his distrust (aside from the regular paranoia). there's a scene (can't remember the episode) where cami says that klaus of all people should have compassion for freya and he responds that it's because of their similar upbringings that he distrusts her: "I know better than most that whether the parent raising you loves you or loathes you, they still form who you are. After all this time, am I not Mikael's son, and isn't Freya just as dangerous as Dahlia?" klaus is appalled when compared to mikael in earlier seasons but here he's able to admit to it here, which is a nice speck of growth. I don't think he would've done that if he wasn't confronted by freya, who's his mirror at times. they're both ruthless and selfish in their own ways. freya also shares her ruthlessness with elijah, as well as her self-sacrificing nature, and I agree that her wants and struggles are very similar to rebekah, except as the older sister she isn't as suffocated with the brothers authority and overprotectiveness.

it's painful seeing them fight each other in s2 when they all have the same enemies! and really sweet to see them finally come together as a family