#and Flynn is still kinda. getting used to that.

[fangaminghell]

Erin: Hey Flynn-

Flynn: ( jumps a little) O-oh! E-Erin! Hey!

Erin: ..... Actually, nevermind-

Flynn: Oh, no, wait wait wait- d-did you need something,I'm sorry-

Erin: Stop apologizing, you- ( sighs) You're still so jumpy around me. If you don't want to be around me, just say it.

Flynn: N-no! That's- that's not what's going on at all!

Erin: Then what? We've known each other since we were kids-

Flynn: A-and that's what makes it so weird!

Erin: .....What.

Flynn: Y-you can't tell me all of this is weird, right? We- we used t-to just exist a-around each other! W-we never really talked o-or anything or really knew each other and-

Flynn: A-and now we're in this new space where we- we a-aren't the same a-as we used to be you know? E-everything has c-changed so quickly...I'm still reeling....

Erin: .....

Erin: ( turns away) So you want to go back to how things were. Is that what you're saying?

Flynn: .....I don't know. Being brave....is so hard. E-even now but- ( she takes a deep breath) I-I want to be a person who can at least try to be! S-so.....so!

Flynn: ( takes a step toward, taking Erin's hand) I want to get to know you, Erin!

Erin: ?!

Flynn: I-I always thought that- that being your friend was just some far off dream.

Erin: ....You really thought that?

Flynn: Y-yeah! Y-you were always so cool....a-and a little scary but....you were still always there. I-I would imagine t-talking to you, b-but never had the courage too.

Erin: ( shrugs) Eh. No offense, but I doubt I'd let you in, back then ( looks down at her hand in Flynn's) ......You really want to know me?

Flynn: ( nods, eyes brimming with determination) Y-yes!

Erin: .....Heh.( takes Flynn's hand, and grips it a little tighter. She smiles a little) The name's Erin. Nice to meet you.

Flynn: ( smiles with confidence that she thought would never exist) My name is Flynn! I hope we get along well!

[hedgiwithapen]

dhd prompt: eliot leverage and jacob librarians are dopplegangers. somehow they swap places, causing much confusion and hilarity.

(liberties were taken with the prompt) “We really think this Agrinext company’s using magic that’s killing bees? And that’s our priority?” Eve asked. Jenkins gave her a dour look from behind the Clippingsbook.

“Unless you’d rather deal with the doppelganger infestation, yes, Colonel, the company killing bees with a loose magical artifact--or worse-- is the priority.”

Cassandra opened her mouth. Eve winced, knowing she was about to get a patented Cassie Lecture about the interconnectedness of all  creatures, etc etc, and cut it off at the pass. “Right. Bees. Okay, then. Fire up the back door."

~

They split up. They always did; Eve had decided it was inevitable and tried not to fight fate quite so hard on that particular matter.  Jones headed for the server rooms, Cassandra was going to the research and Development area to scan the various chemical compounds with her mind, or...however exactly it was she figured things out. Eve was still a little afraid that if she asked for clarification, she'd get an explanation that would (possibly literally) explode her brain. Stone was supposed to be on distraction, with her. 

And he was. Standing with a dark haired woman and speaking to a receptionist. Looking a lot like he was Flirting with the receptionist.  Eve moved towards him to scold him for wasting valuable time when she spotted...what was Flynn doing here?

"Flynn!" she called, locking eyes with him. Flynn scurried over. 

"Hello!" he said, beaming right into her face. "That's me, Flynn."

Eve took a step back. He wasn't standing right. " Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm... Flynn." He paused. "Ryder? My associates are--"

"Oh, god," she grumbled. "You don't know me."

"I'm sorry," Flynn said. "I... hit my head recently..."

Eve got on the coms. "Gang, circle back. Whatever this artifact is, it's done something to Flynn."

"Since when is Flynn even here?" Ezekiel whined. "Fine, I'm coming."

The con had been going very smoothly. Of course, when a con was going very smoothly was about the point where suddenly it went very smoothly right off the rails, and into a trash can, which was usually on fire. At least this time, Hardison thought, no one was throwing him into a pool. 

Of course, getting caught breaking into the CEO's office was still bad, especially with a company like Agrinext.  Two armed goons--and it was a seed company! Why did they have goons! It was worse than Wakefield!-- blocked both of his exits, and Hardison was not feeling too great about his ability to jump through a window without breaking all of his bones. 

"Put the hard drive down," one of the goons said. "Slowly."  

Hardison was moving to do exactly that, not taking any chances with the gun pointed at him, when he spotted a familiar face over Goon number 2's shoulder, and breathed a sigh of relief. " It's about time you got here to save my ass," he said. 

Eliot actually froze in place for a second before Goon 2 turned the gun on him and he threw himself at the fight. Hardison ducked back while Eliot took out the two guards.

"Lil sloppy," Hardison said to his panting boy friend. "I like the new moves though. Some Wuxia in there. Don't tell me you've been watching without me and Parker."  When Eliot frowned, Hardison took another step back. He may have mocked his boyfriend being able to tell a violist from a cellist based only on finger calluses and vibes, but  some things really were Distinctive, and this guy--this guy wearing Eliot's face--was not Eliot. "What in the hell kinda mirrorverse did you pop through?" he asked.

"I didn't. Why are you breaking into the CEO's office?"

"I," Hardison said, "Am trying to save the bees." he paused. " And also, you know. Take down a corrupt executive who was profiting off colony collapse caused by weird pesticides."

"It's not the pesticides," not-Eliot said. "It's the stelea of Ah Muzen Cab."

"The what of the who now?" Hardison asked.

"Mayan god of many, many things, including bees."

"Uh-huh." Hardison said. " Kay. You look like my boyfriend and you're acting  a little crazy so I am just gonna take this and... go. Thanks for the punching."

~~

Ezekiel leaned closer to the hidden door in the server room, listening for the latch mechanism as he poked and prodded. He closed his eyes, steadying his heartbeat. One--two... should be three more pins, and--

"Boo!" a voice hissed in his ear as someone dropped from the ceiling to land next to him.

He turned, ready to smack whoever it was with the nearest weapon--which would have been his phone-- but stopped when he saw the blonde hair and the maniac brightness in her eyes.

"Parker?" he asked.

"Zekie!" she beamed. "Look at you! All grown up and cracking safes! You've almost got that one."

"I do have this one," he said, flatly. "I'm the world's greatest thief."

She booped his nose, just like when they'd been kids in the same foster home. "Second greatest, maybe. How's the gig?"

"It's pretty good," he said. "I have a good team. Yours?"

"Solid. Two newbies need some work, but they're getting it. Reminds me of teaching you."

"Excuse me? I already knew how to crack a safe when we met."

"And yet you couldn't tell I'd already gotten into that one. Sad." Parker smiled again.

"You already stole the artifact?" Ezekiel asked. " Parker, I need that."

"Then you should have beaten me to it. It's gotta be worth a lot, to be kept so secret, and if the company's smuggling ... Guatemalan?-- antiquities, we can use that for blackmail."

"It's not an antiquity," Ezekiel said. "It's dangerous." He  pressed his lips together. Eve would say not to tell anyone, Jenkins would rail about the importance of secrets. But Parker was like a sister--and she's helped him out from under MI6's thumb. "It's magic," he said, waiting for her to laugh. 

"Oh," Parker said. "Neat. Hmmm... I'll trade you for it, then." 

"Fine, Ezekiel said. "What do you want for it?" He had plenty of stolen--borrowed--sparklies, plus one of her pokemon cards from when they were kids...

"I heard a rumor you nabbed the dagger of Aquabi," Parker beamed, handing over the tablet she'd swiped. "Give it."

Ezekiel made a face. "Fine. Usual drop off, tomorrow."

"Good to see you, little brother," Parker said, and dove for the airvents as an alarm started to wail.  Ezekiel grumbled again, heading for his own exit.

~

"Stone? There you are." Eliot turned. Stone was a name he'd used a few times, but not today. 

"Sorry," he said, turning on the charm as the redhead beamed at him. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

"That's... not right," she said. "You look...." and then she started muttering under her breath, fingers flickering in front of her like she was shifting through information. It reminded him a little of Parker, and a little of Hardison. "Just like him but you're not him. I'm sorry. My bad."

"That's alright. You know, they say we've all got seven doubles."

"They do," she said, oddly flat. Eliot turned to look where she was looking, and froze.

He wondered, a time or two, or three, if he was being honest, what he'd do if ever he saw his own face on someone else.  It hadn't been that litteral, as a kid, which was the last time he'd thought about it. What he'd do if he recognized the mirror of his smile, his eyes, the crease above his brow when he frowned. He'd looked for it in older people, not his age. Someone old enough to be the person who'd left him.

This man looked like he could have been left in the basket beside him. 

"who are you?" they both asked in the same voice, at the same time, before an alarm started to blare.

Well. Eliot had carried questions as long as he'd known the difference between knowing and not.  He could carry them longer. Getting his people out mattered more. 

~

"Jenkins," Eve said, back in the Annex. "What were you saying earlier, before we left? About clones?"

"Doppelgangers, actually," Jenkins said. "Why?"

"Because I found one of Flynn," Eve said, holding up a bewildered look-alike.

Jenkins frowned. " That's impossible. I fixed the issue moments after you left, it was really quite simple."

"Then someone kidnapped Flynn and stole his memories!" Eve said. 

"That's news to me," Flynn  said, leaning over the raining from the stacks. " Hi Eve! Who's that?"

"Oh my god," Eve said again, as reality--actual reality-- sunk in. "I just kidnapped a civilian." 

"If it helps I don't think I'm technically a civilian. Harry Wilson, lawyer and, uh... you know lets just stick with lawyer, actually. Uh. not the suing you kind, though. I just...really should get going? maybe? If I can... just..." he wiggled out from under Eve's hand. 

Above, Flynn hooted with laughter. 

[seththeforestgiant]

VAT7K ARCANE AU!!! #arcane vat7k au!!!

OKAYOKAY so like what if

Varian comes from the undercity but he was found by Heimerdinger when he was rlly young so he hasn't gotten the chance to really taste the life on the streets.

Hugo, on the other hand, saw his parents die at a very young age, so young that he barely remembers them. He used to live on the streets, barely surviving until *a parental figure* found him and took him in.

You'd think he was lucky, but his life was never easy. He had to work in order to get food and shit yk had to do some dirty jobs and steal. He was REALLY smart and made snarky comments or played pranks all the time which got him into trouble a lot. Hugo was always into the theathrics, working for his family/employer but still seeming like he lives on his own terms. He was involved with the *parental figure's* gang and had access to some pretty illegal supplies.

Meanwhile Hugo was trying to survive, Varian got the opportunity to actually grow. Him and his father had been invited to live amongst Piltover's richest and most luxurious people. Rapunzel/Cait had become one of his best friends, sort of like a sister (Maybe Vi could be flynn, a previous thief that has come to the "good side"). Varian was always really smart and became the most known and admired inventor in all of Piltover, making the city famous for his inventions that improved lives daily.

When he came across the magic of moonstones, heimerdinger forbid him from continuing his research in that field. He was scared of their power and the dangers that kind of knowledge could create.

Varian, however, was not discouraged (maybe he was trying to heal his father with them or some shit idk). One day he snuck out into the black market of the undercity to gather some questionable supplies and stumbeld across Hugo.

Hugo's parent/employer, when they heard about Varian's work tasked him with befriending the scientist and idk somehow fuck up Piltover from the inside.

So blah blah balh Hugo gets brought into the labs and pretends to have good intentions, befriends varian, falls in love with him and when his betrayal is revealed shit goes down.

But like @imanalbertross said they don't rlly like eachother at first?? Like Varian feels threathened in his position and Hugo kinda catches feelings really fast then plays it off by being annoying and making fun of varian which just makes varian dislike him more at first

So hugo kinda treats him as this stupid but kinda cute rich boy

Please give me more ideas!! I want to develop this au :)

-how can we incorporate varian's mother into this??

-and the library of knowledge?

Credit goes to me and the two very cool ppl that gave me ideas (screens below!!) Tysm!! @imanalbertross @mustardonaraccoon

Edit: OH AND MAYBE HUGO DOESNT KNOW THAT VARIAN WAS ORIGINALLY FROM THE UNDERCITY BUT DONELLA KNOWS THAT BCS SHE KNEW VARIAN'S MOTHER THE PLOT THICKENSSS

[agentlizardofowca]

Bubbles!

Human Perry and Heinz watching their favourite star trek/star wars show! Perhaps split into three sections: 1) Heinz and Perry watching it together, 2) Perry with Heinz watching it with Phineas and Ferb, 3) Perry and Heinz trying to get Vanessa to join in on their mutual love for this franchise.

(Hope this wasn't too much to ask. My ao3 if you require it for anything: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SD2006)

@adhd-riddled-crow Thanks for the ask! I made it just one drabble and I chose to use Space Adventure instead of irl IP's. Established relationship Perryshmirtz, Human Perry, fluff! An Introduction to Space Adventure! (1975)

Heinz and Vanessa were supposed to go home after they had dinner with the Flynn-Fletcher family. Instead, Candace and Vanessa disappeared to the top floor to go see her Ducky Momo collection. Perry was sort-of thinking about how to extract the gothy girl, so that they could get home, but then Lawrence asked Heinz about Drusselsteinian clock-making and Perry realized they would not be making it back to Heinz’s apartment anytime soon. He didn’t mind. Not at all. He listened to his brother and his boyfriend happily yap for a solid twenty minutes before he realized he was falling asleep. So, he yawned, stretched, and moved to the couch for a ‘little nap’ Perry Fletcher had taken many ‘little naps’ in his life, and most often he startled awake four hours later despite his intentions to only lay down for ten minutes. This happened often, especially when he still lived with the Flynn-Fletchers, they usually just let him sleep. Not Heinz, Heinz wasn’t afraid to wake him up. Perry’s grumpy and sleepy face didn’t scare him, infact, he kept pointing out how cute it was.

A while later, Perry woke from his light slumber as he felt warmth and movement beside him.

“Sit over here, Ferb. We still fit.” Phineas whispered from the other end of the sofa.

“I believe we’ve grown, Phineas,” Ferb responded calmly. And he sat on Perry’s leg. When the uncle looked over he met Ferb’s apologetic expression.

“Oh, you’re awake, Uncle Perry,” Ferb noted, mostly to point it out to Phineas.

“Oops! Sorry.” Phineas said, looking completely unapologetic. “Do you mind, we want to watch Space Adventure! Dad bought it on dvd, and it has a bunch of bonus features we can watch afterwards.” 

Perry tucked his legs in a little closer and smiled as the kids settled in a little more comfortably to watch the movie. He leaned his head back on the armrest and closed his eyes once more.

“You’re not going to snore through the whole movie, are you?”

Reluctantly, Perry opened his eyes again. 「Just start the movie.」 He signed grumbily and he sat himself vaguely upright. This often -but not always- stopped him from falling back asleep. The movie started with bombastic music and a lot of background information to establish the sci-fi world. At this point all of them have seen this movie so many times that they can just talk through it, which was exactly what Phineas did whilse Ferb and Perry politely listened.

Barely ten minutes into the movie, Heinz and Lawrence popped into the room to ask Perry something. Not even halfway through the question, they notice what movie’s playing. One thing leads to another, and suddenly, Heinz is in the armchair beside Perry, holding his hand, playing with his knuckles and watching along.

Heinz had also seen this movie many, many times. The first time, he was in Drusselstein and the movie was poorly dubbed by just 6 voice actors for the entire movie. “They were all men,” He explained. “So all the women characters had really fake high voices.” 

“A bit like monthly python?” Lawrence asked. “Except they did that on purpose, of course.” 

“I guess so. But the movie was also heavily censored. The first time I saw it in America I was so confused.”

“Hey Dad?” Vanessa’s voice rang out behind them, from the top of the stairs. “It’s getting kinda late…” Just like everybody else, her eyes were distracted by the screen, where Captain Zowt was speaking; an alien commander with red eyes and horns. “What’s this?” She asked as she and Candace made their way down the stairs.

“Are you really watching the space movie again?” Candace asked and turned to Vanessa. “So he’s a corporal for the bad guy, but he’s secretly a spy for the rebellion.” 

“Candace, you’re spoiling the movie,” Ferb interjected with a little frown.

Meanwhile, Vanessa kept her eyes on the screen. “Is he a big part of the movie?” 

“Vanessa, sweety, come sit.” Her father said and he waved her over. “If we all ask for Popcorn there’s no way Linda can say no.” 

“He’s one of the main characters, Vanessa!” Phineas explained cheerfully. “But he doesn’t get as much screen time in this movie as in the sequel.” 

“Wait, so who is he trying to help?” She asked as she settled on a pillow in front of the couch.

“Someone else, please explain! I only pay attention when the pudgilu is on screen.” Candace pointed out with a groan. In her defence, the movie was quite plot-heavy.

“Pudgelu?” Vanessa parrotted, curiously.

“Oh it’s a little space puppy that can fly and it’s SO cute!” Candace explained loudly as she gestured vaguely about the space-pup’s shape and size. “He has really big, cute eyes and he naked little noises!” 

“Candace, he’s not even in this movie, you’re just confusing her now!” Phineas interjected. “Let her catch up first.”

At this point, Lawrence paused the movie. “Can we all agree that we start the movie over so that Vanessa has a fair chance to watch it?”

So, the movie was restarted. It was a herculean task to prevent Candace and Phineas from talking through the entire movie and spoiling all the big twists. But with a lot of soda, a big pile of popcorn and a lot of shushing and stern looks from their uncle, they eventually settled down.

As the end-credits rolled, everybody turned to Vanessa. 

“Did you like it?” 

“So how many movies did you say there were?” She asked instead. “And is Zowt in all of them?” 

“He is, but he’s an old man in some of them.” Phineas explained.

Vanessa turned to Candace. “Like, a hot old man?”

Her friend thought for a moment and shrugged. “Kinda. If you’re into demon aliens with gray hair.” 

On the other end of the couch, Perry was distracted by his boyfriend, who was strangeling his fingers happily. He turned to Heinz, who bounced happily in his seat. “I can’t believe we finally managed to introduce Vanessa to sci-fi!” 

Perry happily patted Heinz’s hand. He was going to try and watch so many movies with her now.

“You should watch the other movies and then tell me if you agree that Zowt and Prince Spohth would be perfect together, I have so much fanfiction to send you!” 

“Wait,” Vanessa turned to Candace with a little frown. “I thought you didn’t care about Space Adventure?” 

“Oh, no I do.” Candace giggled. “I just didn’t want you to think I’m lame if you didn’t like it.” 

“Candace, I still want to be your friend, no matter how lame and weird you are. Ugh.” And she rolled her eyes.

By the time the movie ended, it was way past bedtime for the boys, so the Doofenshmirtzes stayed just a little longer whilst Perry tucked them in and said goodbye. Downstairs, Heinz somehow got sucked into Candace and Vanessa’s conversation, which was all good and well until Vanessa discovered that her father also had a crush on Zowt. 

[hier--soir]

feb + mar + apr reads

norma jean baker of troy by anne carson [★★★★★]

"Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks."

"Is she human? Are you? Is she a beast out of control? There's so much danger. No human can become just a beast, you plunge beyond - beyond what? Remember Jack the Ripper? 'I'm down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I get buckled,' Jack wrote in a letter to the newspaper, September 18, 1888. He never did get buckled. Of course insane, his mind blooming with it, who could go down that rabbit-hole or unlock such a puzzle as Jack? - but still, the woman! the thing is! the woman has everything and you smile and you take some."

: ̗̀➛ an exploration of the lives and myths of marilyn monroe and helen of troy.

: ̗̀➛ anne carson is there anything you can't do? please email me back. please.

piglet by lottie hazell [★★★★]

"'I want to make some food,' she said. 'For both of us?' he asked. 'No, just for me.'"

: ̗̀➛ one woman, piglet, and the lead up to her wedding in the face of a big confession from her fiancé.

: ̗̀➛ this one slipped beneath my skin and writhed around the spot inside me where i've tucked away all of my food issues.

merciless gods by christos tsiolkas [★★]

"I'm scared that if I let go, not only the room, not only this city, but the whole world will go cold forever."

"Your false gods cannot save you. There is only one God, my God."

: ̗̀➛ short stories that bash you over the head with how awful things and people and places can be. i did not live for this one... particularly wasn't into the one where a guy jerked his dad who has alzheimers off.

foe by iain reid [★★]

"All day. Time keeps moving. I've always thought that was a good thing. Until recently. I'm not so sure now. Is it good? For time to go by fast?"

: ̗̀➛ they want to send junior to space and replace him with a robot that looks and acts and talks exactly like him so his wife has company in his absence.

: ̗̀➛ marriage and trust and complacency, and a guy called terrence who we get reminded over and over has long gorgeous hair.

: ̗̀➛ a little boring for my taste. i had an idea of where it was going pretty early on, and it took a while for me to be proven right. pretty disconcerting!

acts of desperation by megan nolan [★★★★]

"The need was a true and human part of me, but I could feel nothing else of myself to be true or human, and so the need seemed ungodly, an aberration."

: ̗̀➛ a book full of confession, desire, jealousy, violence, and power. messy messy messy!!!! readers procceed with caution.

: ̗̀➛ shout out to everyone who said i should read this - you were right, it is up my alley.

gone girl by gillian flynn [★★★★]

"My wife was no longer my wife but a razor-wire knot daring me to unloop her, and I was not up to the job with my thick, numb, nervous fingers. Country fingers. Flyover fingers untrained in the intricate, dangerous work of solving Amy. When I'd hold up the bloody stumps, she'd sigh and turn to her secret mental notebook on which she tallied all my deficiencies, forever noting disappointments, frailties, shortcomings."

: ̗̀➛ i have become a gillian flynn STAN this year, it's true. despite having seen the movie multiple times, i enjoyed reading this, and was delighted to find some differences in the texts [for better and for worse].

: ̗̀➛ nick dunne, big fan of the lie of omission, mama's boy whose mama is dead, i'd like to introduce you to couples therapy.

dead beautiful and life eternal by yvonne woon [reread] [★★★]

: ̗̀➛ the first two books in a paranormal romance trilogy. these kinda bang guys, i can't lie. 15-year-old me was onto something when she decided to keep these instead of donating them. however, they DO have some of the worst book covers i've ever seen, sorry yvonne.

fourth wing by rebecca yarros [★★★]

: ̗̀➛ a romantasy book that has dragons, smut, and twists that you'll see coming from a mile away. pretty fun. recced to me by one man in person and a thousand women on tik tok.

: ̗̀➛ no one who has the thought 'double standards for the win' is using 'whomever' in a casual sentence with the guy she's having sex with.

: ̗̀➛ good enemies to lovers should have actual murder attempts. but maybe that's jusT MY OPINION.

my book rating system is as follows:

★ = i felt pure contempt the entire time

★★ = yeah it's a book

★★★ = i liked it!

★★★★ = good fucking book, damn

★★★★★ = blew my dick clean off and i'll throw a tantrum if everyone i know doesn't also read it and love it

[telugu-girl-13]

so...i just watched wicked! here's my review, with the goods and the bads. these are more or less in order. major spoilers for wicked below!!

disclaimer: i watched and am talking about this movie as a person who has not watched the plays or any content related to wicked before, and just knows the story of the wizard of oz. i didn't even know the wicked witch of the west's name was elphaba before this movie came out (it's never generally mentioned okay 😭) so that is how clueless i am. however, im kinda glad about that, because otherwise much of the plot might have been somewhat anticlimatic.

additionally, i am a naturally cynical person and even if i love something, i feel the need to point out all its flaws, so bear with me!

below the cut! bullet points because i felt like it

wicked was an overall amazing movie and experience, ariana and cynthia were outstanding, and i absolutely cannot wait for the second movie!

the introduction with the munchkins celebrating elphaba's death had me expecting her to die throughout the whole movie, i was almost certain there would be tears. BUT IM SOO GLAD SHE DIDNT!

elphaba being the child of a secret alcoholic affair was NOT expected, nor did i expect that to be shown. (plus it escalated so fast) random, but i had to say it 😭 and im sorta glad her moms not alive anymore

at first, i expected nessarose to be that one person in elphaba's childhood, i was actually really surprised when she wasn't. still, an interesting character who needs more recognition!

the fact that the movie was directed by an asian director has me so happy, because i also saw a lot of representation in the background cast! different skin colors, body types, hair colors (GINGER REPRESENTATION LMFAO), we got them all! and i was SUPER happy about that!

one of my new favorite quotes is 'well, bock, i believe strangers...are just people i've never met *hair flip walks off*'. like GALINDA HELP 😭😭🙏🏽🙏🏽 whyd i actually expect that to be some sort of inspirational quote loll

is there a reason why all the male extras were so zesty? like i swear, ALL OF THEM WERE GAY FOR FIYERO (and fiyero was flirting back). ESPECIALLY THAT ONE ASIAN DUDE WHO BECAME FRIENDS WITH GALINDA IN THE BEGINNING, his lines had me rolling lmfao

not the popular boy x popular girl until popular boy actually falls for the nerd girl trope...whyyy...also fiyero lowkey gave flynn rider vibes with that entrance (but i havent watched tangled either cuz i dont have a life or a disney account sooo)

madame morrible using elphaba, and the wizard being powerless? that was not expected ( though my dad anticipated madame morrible being 'evil' from the beginning, hes smarter than me )

someone would say 'save the turtles!' to elphaba and she'd be like oF cOuRsE and be so confused why everyones laughing 😭

"we're...friends. best friends" babes your lesbian i need them to both ditch fiyero and get together

defying gravity is HANDS DOWN my favorite song. NO ONE can convince me otherwise. its the most dramatic song, its at the very climax, and ITS MEEEE will always be playing in my head

SO IF YOU CARE TO FINDDDD MEEE LOOOK TO THE WESTERN SKIEEEES

fuck glinda and elphaba themes (unless someone wants to match freaks with me) A SHIZ THEMED 300 FOLLOWER EVENT (thats never happening forget i said that)

i need to see how glinda became the good witch and see elphaba saving the turtles animals cant wait for the next movieeee

anyway, thats it gbye! (ill probably edit this if i remember more stuff)

ps. i am extremely sorry to the people sitting near me in the theater who probably had to hear me sing a few times :P

[ponett]

wait, you could have gotten a follow up with Ken himself? did that go very far or were you not interested? i getta imagine even if you dont like his work, asking the man himself about his days on the comic would be illuminating.

I could have. Part of me was definitely curious, since there's so much we don't know about what was going on behind the scenes at Archie and Ken's one of the few people still interested in talking about it. But it's also like... I dunno, I just like to keep some distance between me as a critic and him as a creator. I can talk about his work, I can talk about things he's said publicly about his work, but I don't need to drag him directly into it. It's the same reason why I've never interacted with him directly on Twitter, even though people loooooooove to get into arguments with him about Sonic shit. As critical as I've been of both him and his work, I have zero desire to grill him in person.

Were I to interview him, there are basically two paths I see here:

Option A: I do a totally cordial softball interview, magically putting aside my well-established opinions on the guy from my decade spent running TKP, and use it as an opportunity to get some more insight into the creation of the comics from him. And then what? I go right back to poking fun at him on my Tumblr blog that has his name in the URL? I'm pretty soft on the guy these days compared to all the Sonic fans out there who think he's The Literal Devil, but still, there's no way for this to not feel like entrapment to me. Like I'm just playing nice so he can give me ammo for when I turn around and continue poking fun at his work and his occasional legal threat. And even if I never use anything he says in that interview against him, since I finished covering his Archie Sonic run for the blog years ago rarely have any reason to even bring him up, my audience will sure as hell comb through every word he says to find more coal for the hate train.

Option B: I'm more critical of him to his face, in which case I'm basically just bullying a kinda pathetic old man, who's already alienated most of his peers and committed career suicide, for writing some children's comics I didn't like 20-30 years ago. There is not a single iota of me that wants to turn into Ken's equivalent of that asshole who paid to be a guest on the BumbleKast just to ask Ian Flynn a bunch of questions that boiled down to "hey so this story you wrote sucked, why'd you write it that way?"

It just doesn't feel right to me no matter how you slice it. Ken's not some monstrous public figure who needs to get held accountable for his actions in an interview or something. At the end of the day, it's just comics. It's not that serious. He can continue making his weird little Lara-Su Chronicles comics and putting his foot in his mouth of his own accord, and I can continue being like "lol remember when Knuckles got called a 'proud man-child' at his own funeral" as a side thing to my own creative career, and never the twain shall meet

[richeeduvie]

I know you’ve touched on Lalo seeing Princesa’s favorite old movie stars (and how she clearly has a type and it’s cock with mustache lmao) and just like. It’s a good thing Princesa likes old movies and these actors are already dead lol imagine if Princesa was fawning over like. Pedro Pascal. Man would be in danger!!!

Anyways, I like to imagine that Princesa likes lots of romantic movies with heartthrob stars— Tom Conway, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Peter O’toole— and at first it makes Lalo a little jealous because of course it does. Lalo is the type of dude who won’t buy Princesa Frosted Flakes bc why does she need some buff tiger man on her cereal. Could see her reading the very hungry caterpillar and be mad she’s reading abt other men. She’s like “you’re the handsomest man I know” and he’s like “you know other men???”

But then one day Princesa says something that totally changes his whole perception of it.

“You know, I used to put on this movie and dream of being just like her. A handsome man showing up out of nowhere and sweeping me away somewhere… and my dream came true.”

“ I used to depend so much on these movies because… they kept me company. While I was waiting for you to find me— for us to meet, you know?”

And then it’s like Lalo can’t bring himself to hate all these ancient gringos from the movies. Because he knows little Princesa was so lonely and just as needy as she is now— but she didn’t have anyone (once again his hands are always flexing when he thinks about poor little girl Princesa). So they kept her company while she was waiting on her guy, yeah? They’re not so bad. And now, she doesn’t even need them anymore. But he’ll still keep buying her movies. It’s good that she has something to do that can keep her inside.

Also— I think Lalo is so in love with Princesa (love is what we’re calling it to be nice lol) that he definitely thinks they’re like a fated pair and he’s basically the only man in the entire world who can give her what she needs, so their meeting was like destiny. And to hear that she kinda thinks the same way— that her life up until Lalo was her waiting for Lalo? That makes him so happy it’s almost sick. And he’s definitely bringing it up when they fuck (cough cough make love) for the next eternity.

I think it helps Lalo's jealousy that her old hollywood stars always end up looking at him or exist in his image. Suave man with a mustache, cock with a mustache. I think it also gets at him cause he hates to think he's believing Princesa is made for him and they're soulmates - it's so weak of a thought for a big, strong man like him to have. You know, the way he thinks of himself. But him thinking that while Princesa's attraction to him was based on her childhood crushes. But I love this!

The idea of Lalo being cautious of the Frosted Flakes Tiger cause he's ripped has me cracking up though. Tony's got some chesticles idk what to say-

"You know...it was just that I used to put on this movie and dream of being just like her. I know it's childish...which is fair, I guess. I was a little girl. But I would just think about someone coming, someone kind and...everything, and they'd take me away, even if it was just for day. I think it happened, it came true, maybe."

She sniffles. Even after all this time, Princesa can't meet Lalo's eyes when she talks like this in his arms.

"They kept me company, I didn't really have a way with making friends. For the most part. But then I grew up and they were still company - noise, while I was waiting for us to...meet, you know?"

Lalo stares down at her.

There is no possible way that they didn't make love that night.

The thought thrives in Lalo's head, that they are meant to be. She's made for him, and all of his life up until he met her was to make sure that he'd be able to take care of you. He wouldn't exactly say it, the words would make him too open, weak in the head and arms. But he feels it and his ego, his delusion in his obsession revels at Princesa's words. She's braver than him to say it.

Then the way little Princesa was alone as a little girl that takes up space in his head. She's so needy now, he's gotta think a child that needs a mama and papa and friends would be even needier, but she didn't have anyone to come and save her...no good papa and no mama at all, and all she had were movies to keep her company?

Yeah, not a good thought.

"Now you don't need these movies anymore, no? Just me?"

"...Lalo."

"Just saying."

[humanperryfic]

KINGS OF HEARTS

(A VamPerryshmirtz AU Halloween doodle that went a little overboard)

(look I know it's a few days after Halloween but it's still Halloweekend so it counts)

AU thoughts:

so clearly they're both vampires in this AU. but they are Very Different vampires.

perry was turned in his mid-thirties in the late 1700's

he works for the VOWCA, the Vampires Organization Without A Cool Acronym, as one of their top agents

VOWCA generally works to (1) fight vampire hunters (2) keep vampires from being known too publicly and (3) kill the covens of evil vampires that threaten (2)

it's kinda like a good-guy coven of badass vampires

they've even got like their own livestock farm so their agents can avoid killing normals and not starve to death

side note livestock blood tastes horrible to vampires but morals yk

the rest of the flynn-fletchers are Also vampires

except they were turned in the late 70's and VOWCA rules say you gotta be a vampire for 50 years before you can join (something about being used to being a vampire)

so perry's protecting them from a distance, keeping them alive until he can bring them in

and of course he gets assigned to fight dr. doofenshmirtz.

who is a pathetic wet cat of a vampire. turned at about 45 between world wars, immigrated to the US to attempt to take over some small midwest american town and form his own coven but using inators instead of the vampire powers he's still kind of uncomfortable using

this clearly has not worked.

at all.

he married charlene in the late 60's, who had no idea he was a vampire until he got SUPER hungry, accidentally drained her too much, and turned her to keep her alive

which she divorced him for (fair tbh)

oh and she was pregnant at the time so Vanessa is like...mostly vampire but still a little human? like, extreme garlic allergy, faint but visible in mirrors, sun sensitive but won't burn, extended lifespan but not immortal, can drink blood but also gets some energy from human food

she looks/acts 16 but is actually about 48 real years old (so ages at about 1/3 the speed)

anyway charlene is part of one of the really dangerous vampire covens.

and heinz is still just trying to take over the tri-state area using stupid inventions.

he's not like. vampire type evil. he's very canon-type evil.

perry sees him for the first time and is like. VOWCA sent me to fight this guy?

he sticks around to see if he gets dangerous but after a while he realizes that as long as perry is there to thwart his inventions, dr doofenshmirtz just isn't that evil

he looks scary, sure, but that's at least partially just him being kinda malnourished and terrible at taking care of himself

also fighting him is kind of a break from being dangerous and shooting other vampires with silver bullets

and despite everything. they get close.

the antagonism grows into fondness.

it's the same story as always, because it's still them

heinz falls first, perry falls harder

and eventually perry is the one to formally ask heinz out (there's some sort of formal ritual thing since they're both vampires- perry's a lot older of a vampire so he knows these things, which freaks heinz out a little bc he's trying to impress perry)

during their first date perry gets word that the flynn-fletchers are in trouble and the two of them run to go save them

heinz is the one that inators the evil vampires away and perry is like "if i were a less respectable vampire i would literally marry you right now"

too bad vampire courtship is a formal Thing

and because the flynn-fletchers were able to defend themselves pretty well they're allowed to join VOWCA early

phineas and ferb take to it disturbingly easily, candace is less easily persuaded since she still wants to be a Normal Teen, but once she realizes Vanessa is also basically a vampire she's like "alright fine"

linda and lawrence learn some self defense and basically just keep running the antique store

and eventually heinz winds up going "good" and joining VOWCA. which is basically a reverse proposal in vampire terms.

it's a damn good thing perry was planning on marrying him anyway <3

[marching-weirdo]

if you told me that I would draw pj masks in 2024 two years ago I would ask who are they.

gunntech au sketches cause I'm normal. also taken during ap us history so ignore random strokes :3. headcanons under more.

connor:

my trans king!!!! 💪💪

gave him scars. most are long and thin, since they usually happen when hes running

let Greg give him a haircut before he transitioned, now never not gets a Greg haircut ™️

stays up late reading, hence eyebags

I have a trans male friend who loves this au as much as I do, so he asked if he could "model" for catboy.

again, this was during class, so he was smouldering like Flynn Ryder while I was learning about Pennsylvania so you know

the more you know

anyway he's Filipino and I'm like OOH THIS WOULD BE COOL

so he's filipino american

also BIG EYES cause cat

gay (thanks romeo) but he's only had, like, two crushes in his life

one of the two kids who go to school

could care less what people think, likes to show off scars ("For the ladies!" his gay ass says)

interesting marching weirdo fact, the lines making up Connor are more scraggly and rough then the others! it's kinda to show he's an angst boy for me lol. but it's cool lore about me!!

imma be honest, Connor was my least favorite sorry!!

also ignore bad gay pride flag, I ran out of colors

amaya

Japanese american (I think it's in @elmushterri video)

oh also @elmushterri is the creator of this au so follow super cool and amazing and intelligent and interesting and-

psa out

lesbian

see Connors flag error for bad Yuri flag

amaya is super careful about getting hurt

see, El said in a qna that amaya was under a super strict household so her aunt probably would want her to shave her legs, etc until said aunt eventually gets redeemed and amaya can be her own girl boss

so I read that and said "HOLD MY BEER"

so when she was like 9, she got a scar on her cheek due to training with Connor and Greg

amaya went home and her aunt starting freaking out

idk if I want the aunt to say it directly to her or like to a friend on the phone that amaya hears, but her aunt says something along the lines of "scar" and "uncivilized" and "ugly" (I imagine what amaya heard was a distortion of what her aunt actually says but I degress)

since then, amaya makes sure to be as safe as she can and not get scars.

she eventually gets one on her leg, but she can cover it with pants

so she changes the "Don't get hurt" philosophy to "only get hurt where you can hide that scar"

so she is the most careful of the three

but she has multiple scars around her body

for a while she thought "if I get a scar on my arm, I won't on my face" philosophy because ngl she's my version of anxious™️

but eventually she realizes that's dumb.

her back is shredded due to enemies trying to cut her wings

eventually when she is in therapy and an adult, Luna will draw shapes on some of her scars and vice versa

adult amaya still gets embarrassed whenever someone sees her scares

anyway

amaya has terrible eyesight. horrible. Luna knows this

has a hair pin with a moon on it as a gift from luna (the notes that came with it said "for when you need to shank a bitch on short notice"

wears it everywhere

keeps hair long to hide neck scars and only puts it up during training or on duty

fun story: Greg and connor wanted her to get a really short hairstyle so they could be the "Bob boys"

amaya refused and greg and connors dream died

the other kid to go to school

star pupil. young prodigy.

as all mae whitman characters should be

fun fact: took me hours to do her nose.

finally figured it out when I looked at katara fan art and said "ah"

so MAE WHITMAN CONNECTED UNIVERSE?!?

also

her lines are very curvy and delicate to show her more level-headed thinking.

as opposed to connors roughness

my fav. I support her rights and wrongs 😔✊️

greg

rich kid mullet let's gooooooo

i kinda got inspired by a cross between andrian from miraculous ladybug and dick Grayson from Wayne family adventures

speaking of adrian

he's French American because of course

he grew out his hair to match amaya and connor hates him now

home schooled (rich kids smh)

because he's homeschooled, he doesn't care about cuts and scars and hurting himself because he thinks it's perfectly normal

also, he was sprayed with acid during a test (you know those dinos from jurassic Park who shoot venom? that but feral child)

incredibly buff and will hug you to the point of death

TALL

I looked and he seems to not have many ships with men

so an ally

he's also clueless so...

he doesn't actually know that homophobia is a thing

he sees two men kiss he thinks cool

two women? cool

a woman and a man? SAVE ROOM FOR JESUS

joking.hes chill

he has dimples and the biggest smile ever

for angst: his smile gets smaller and smaller as each season happens.

as a teen, his resting face is a smile

eventually resting he looks in pain

ANYWAY

incredibly smart

romeo hates how smart he is

but romeo is street and lab smart

greg tries

he can tell you about quantum theory but doesn't understand that people are sarcastic

he's probably autistic or has adhd or both

he probably wasn't professionally tested

Luna probably gave him a lizard to watch and Greg didn't move for 16 hours

also luna and greg are besties

because of course

fun drawing: very square

I wanted him for two reasons

1: he's always stiff due to being a Gunn

2: he feels like a robot: infinite possibilities but only if a button is hit

anyways thank you! sorry for long post! villains up soon!!

[terapsina]

Shoutout to the temporary ships that were created with the intention of getting in the way of the intended ship but that I actually liked way more than the ship the writers were trying to get me to root for.

(a.k.a I kinda get a bit salty on this one)

---

1. Laurel and Tommy - Arrow

As soon as they got introduced I felt the feeling of doom. Because they were so immediately adorable and full of chemistry. I loved them from the word go even though it was so clear they were going toward a Laurel and Oliver resolution (and then to add insult to injury they changed their minds on that, but Tommy was taken from Laurel anyway).

---

2. Clara and Danny - Doctor Who

It's up for debate if Clara's relationship with the Doctor was meant to be romantic-coded or not (I personally prefer it as 'not' but they really were very fuzzy with the lines) but either way Danny was still used as the threat that might separate them. And that was really annoying for me because I liked Clara and Danny so much. And then they killed him (which is a scene that still tears my heart to pieces).

---

3. Cordy and Doyle - Angel: The Series

They were short and sweet and I enjoyed them (and though the Cordy and Angel thing wasn't really a thing at the time, there were some signs that it was on the writers' minds... and I wasn't a fan). And then they killed Doyle (...I might have to rename this post to 'killing off the love interests I actually enjoyed to give way to the ships I didn't').

---

4. Rachel and Joey - F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

This ship went past my notice when I watched the show as a kid (my entire obsession rested on Monica and Chandler) but after rewatching as an adult I actually really liked their potential. It might have come up a bit unexpectedly but there really was something quite genuine about it (and Rachel deserved so much better than Ross). I wish they hadn't ended it as such a joke.

---

5. Worf and Troi - Star Trek: The Next Generation

They were created with the sole intention of getting in the way of Troi and Riker. But I liked them better. I just found them more interesting.

---

6. Tamsin and Bo - Lost Girl

They were more fun to watch than Bo and Lauren, had better chemistry and I just enjoyed them a lot more ('and then you see you' living in my head rent free for years now). But instead they gave Tamsin the short end of the stick and used her as a stepping stone (in so many ways, genuinely, even past shipping they just never gave that Valkyrie a single break... and then killed her in the most insulting way possible, because of course they did).

---

7. Wynonna and Dolls - Wynonna Earp

Talk about chemistry. Season 1 of that show was so good and I really did fool myself into thinking this was where they were heading but no, of course not (I should have learned my lesson about Emily Andras after she killed off Hale on Lost Girl). How is an old dude with a gross mustache more interesting than a literal dragon? The answer as far as I'm concerned... they're not (now guess if they killed him off. Guess!).

---

8. Lucy and Flynn - Timeless

A tragic love story happening in the wrong order and out of time because he meets her when he needs something to hold on to and she gives him a crusade. And she meets him while he's zealously following that crusade and thinks he's just a terrorist? Dude. But no, apparently the happy ending is supposed to be the guy that wanted the cake and to eat it too (sometimes I genuinely boggle at how the writers just will not notice when they've hit gold and instead go on beating that dead horse even more to death (and yup, somehow manage to kill the gold)) .

9. Dutch and Johnny - Killjoys.

(First I have to say that I still recommend this show a 100% and this is just quibble of a shipper at heart) But how is it that when you build the whole series around the heart of this relationship, you still end up using Johnny as a brief stop point (a la basically a Married!AU) before you put Dutch back with his brother? Like, yes, they're each other's best friends and always will be but people that are in love can be each other's ride or die best friends too.

---

10. Mel and Abigael - Charmed (2018)

Alright, Mel went through the intended love interests like candy (and I liked most of them well enough) but Abby was the one that intrigued me the most, so it was a great shame that she was never properly Mel's love interest at all and more enemy/antagonist/ally/friend with mostly one-sided feelings for Mel (enemies to friends to lovers was RIGHT THERE).

[lovebotomy]

Im thinking about writing post canon merwaine fic. gwaine survived but lost his memory and travels around albion trying to figure out what happened the past years he can't remember. merlin gave arthur farewell and is trying to find a will to keep living (literally bc suicide kinda failed - immortality :///) and while kilgarrah said arthur will return he said no specifics and he lied before so can he trust him? can he trust anything? can he trust himself? what is even the point of arthur rising again? plan albion failed why should the problems of future be his burden too? he has so much blood on his hands along with blood that hasn't been born yet but will be shed because the kingdoms weren't united and anyway people die all the time what's the difference if they die sooner or later they die after all (unlike him) (((he's soooo off the rails))). he doesn't want to see anyone because what's the point what's the point. he isn't close to gwen anymore and can't go back just to confess his failure again. he starts to think about what if he didn't listen to gaius at the start would the results be different? there's nothing for him but then he stumbles across gwaine in a small town and when he finds out he doesn't remember anything hes so happy. at least someone he cares about who isn't burdened by his mistakes, gwaine has a chance to start again and be actually happy but merlin can't get himself to leave him and what if something happened so he sticks around and joins gwaine on his adventures. it's starting to become another arthur situation for him, coddling a man he cares about from anything that could hurt him. but unlike arthur gwaine is perceptive and doesn't let merlin do that. instead he wants to understand him, first because he thinks merlins hot and then because he just doesn't make sense and is soooo messed up but he feels it in his bones it's his duty to make that strange guy happy. then something happens in the town. and while merlin helps gwaine help the people and solve the terrifying mystery (because would he otherwise? maybe? would it change anything?) he slowly learns again what it means to be human and not have every action dictated by forces out of this world. slowly learns again how it feels to recognize right from wrong, how to be a person whose existence isn't dependent on another

it sounds kinda cornyyy when I write it out like that but basically imagine gwaine as character written by t kingfisher and merlin as one by gillian flynn. it would be veeeery psychological and dark in the sense of exploring how merlin would feel after canon with gwaine lightening the mood with his more optimistic perspective.

anyway Would anyone be interested in this bc while I love the idea Im not native english speaker 🤓🤓 and refuse to put in the effort if noone will read it (googling every other fucking word to check if I use it correctly is annoying I have better use for my time). and while I enjoy psychoanalyzing merlin combining it with coherent plot will be tricky (but still fun) (but it would be bigger project so yeah I don't work for free I need like 1 compliment a day)

[invisibleraven]

“before you say anything about me being at home tonight, i want to remind you that you are too.”

peterpatterlina

When the Phantoms became big, they found that they were always on the go-performing, recording, rehearsing. Plus all the meetings and promotional things they had to attend, it meant they didn't have a lot of down time. At first, they all thrived on it, loving that they had made their dreams come true, that they got to do all this stuff, when most people their age were sitting in class or working drab 9-5 jobs.

However, it didn't last-they were all tired, and starting to get burnt out, but there was no real let up as they grew bigger and bigger.

Finally Julie got her tia involved, and Victoria negotiated that band got some time off, and slowed down their pace so they could decompress. Julie wasn't sure how she did it-Andi had wanted them to do more, so being given this slack was a blessing.

However, because they had been in each other's pockets for the past few months, they agreed as a band to do their own thing on their nights off, so they didn't get sick of each other. Alex had packed up a bag and headed off to Willie's, and told them that his phone was off unless it was a legi emergency, with a not too subtle glare at Luke.

Julie didn't ask what the other two guys were getting up to-she had a self care night planned. Originally Flynn was going to join her, but then a deadline got moved, so she had to bow out. It sucked, but Julie figured she could still do it all on her own.

She set out her nail polish, her face mask, hair stuff, a tone of snacks, and her favourite trashy movies. She had taken over the living room, and was just about to break out her nail file when Reggie walked in.

“Before you say anything about me being at home tonight, I want to remind you that you are too.”

"Figured you might want to go out," Julie replied. "Do something fun."

"I'm kind of tired of going out almost every night?" Reggie confessed. "Kinda wanted a quiet night in, but I can go out or go up to my room if you need some me time."

Julie hummed, considering. "You can stay if I can give you a manicure."

Reggie held out his hands with a grin. "I like red or black if we're doing polish, but I'm open if you have another idea."

"Hey, are we having a party and I wasn't invited?" Luke asked as he swung over the back of the couch, landing next to Julie.

"No party, I was going to have a little self care night," Julie replied. "I'm gonna do Reggie's nails. You want in?"

"I bite mine too often for that," Luke confessed. "But I could be down for the masks and the movies if you share the chips. Or I could do your toes while you do Reggie."

"You tickle me, you get kicked," Julie stated, offering Luke a bottle of a pretty teal colour before grabbing a sparkly black for Reggie.

Julie was sure Luke would coat her feet in polish, but he was actually quite precise, confessing he used to do this for his mom after she broke her leg skiing one year. Though she had to suppress a shiver when he blew the polish dry.

Reggie admired his nails, and offered to do hers, painting them a nice deep purple, just as precise as Luke, though his tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth as he did. The three of them tossing around gossip and song lyrics alike as the polish dried.

"I'm gonna make smoothies," Julie declared. "You guys pick a movie and then we'll do masks."

"You're cool with us staying?" Luke clarified. "Cuz we can vamoose and leave you to it if you want."

"Yeah, we don't need to intrude on your night," Reggie agreed.

"Nah, it's more fun with other people," Julie stated. "But neither of you are touching my hair when I do it later."

"Understood," Luke said, giving her a mock salute. Reggie looked a little sad about it, but nodded-he was just as particular about his tresses, so he got it.

Julie did take a bit longer to make the smoothies though-just to give herself a moment. One of the big reasons she was bummed that Flynn couldn't make it tonight was that she needed her best friend to vent to. Mainly about the two guys taking over her spa night-guys she had been friends with for ages now, and who she was starting to develop feelings for.

Feelings she wasn’t sure how to handle. For one because they were for Luke and Reggie equally, which was its own set of complications. Secondly because they were her bandmates and best friends so if she said something and they didn’t reciprocate or it went bad, everything would be ruined between them. She had wanted Flynn to reassure her that her feelings would fade, or to set her up with someone so she could move on.

But for now, she would enjoy her night and hold her tongue, and everything would be fine.

Only when she went back out, Reggie was straddling Luke, applying a face mask, his own face coated in a layer of green. “Hi?”

“Luke wouldn’t stay still,” Reggie explained.

“I’m ticklish!”

“On your face?” Julie asked, setting the smoothies down and choosing the sheet mask, applying it in mere seconds. “You guys choose a movie yet?”

Luke nodded at the screen. “Low rent Love Actually for February.”

“Oh this one is so bad,” Julie grinned, and handed Reggie the remote. “Punch it Chewie.”

“I love you,” he said. Reggie always was weak to Star Wars references, so Julie used them to make him smile. Even if she would never admit she had enjoyed watching the movies with them.

“I know.”

“Get a room,” Luke teased.

“We have one,” Reggie said, tossing an arm over Julie’s shoulders, making her blush. “You snuggling or not?”

“Not until we wash the goop off my face,” Luke replied, scrunching his nose. “It’s tight. And itchy.”

“You said you’d do them,” Julie reminded him.

“Hoisted by my own petard,” Luke said with a shrug.

They settled down to watch the movie for a bit, pausing a quarter way through to wash their faces and have a bathroom break.

“This movie is really bad,” Reggie said as they settled back in.

“It really is,” Luke said from where he was leaning on Julie’s other side. “Let’s see how bad it gets.”

“Bad,” Julie stated, snuggling in. Letting herself enjoy the cuddles, the terrible movie, and soon found herself drifting off.

It was a couple hours later that Julie woke up, still tangled up in her boys, but their snacks had been cleaned up, the tv was off, and there was a blanket over them.

And a note on a pink Post It sitting on the table.

You three are adorable together. Maybe do something about that.

❤️ A

Julie blushed, knowing Alex meant to tease. But if he could see it, even with the three of them asleep…maybe it was time to swallow her fears and follow her heart.

But then she yawned, and the tangle of her boys looked so inviting, so she resolved to do something about her feelings-after another nap.

[antiquepearlss]

Team Awesome Headcanons because I just really love them

Whenever Rapunzel is gone on a diplomatic trip and Eugene has stayed behind (he’s captain of the guard, he can’t always go away for long stretches of time) he will have sleepovers with Varian (or sometimes Lance) because he’s found that he really doesn’t like sleeping alone.

Varian stole a cardboard cut out of Eugene that was intended for a celebration. He keeps it in his lab as a joke, it freaks Eugene out everytime he sees it. But he also kinda loves it, it makes his cheekbones look great.

They’re both big readers, so sometimes they will read the same book and talk about it together.

They have plans to write an adventure book together.

Eugene finds the fact that Varian had a crush on Flynn Rider hilarious, but it’s not something he ever brings up. Varian is kind of embarrassed by it.

Eugene sucks at cooking and baking but Varian is actually pretty great at baking, and he can cook well enough. With Varian’s help Eugene can make technically edible food.

Eugene forces Varian to take spa days when he thinks he’s overworking himself. Rapunzel and Lance occasionally join.

If Ruddiger isn’t hanging around Varian he’s probably with Eugene, they’ve bonded.

Varian once refused to talk to Eugene for a full day because Eugene mentioned taking Ruddiger with him on a diplomatic trip and not Varian. Eugene thought that Varian going was kind of implied. (It’s okay Eugene, Varian is just a moody teenager and he’s a little stupid.)

They both know Morse code and will use it to communicate during boring meetings.

Varian felt bad about missing and also being kidnapped on Eugene’s birthday, so he got him a crappy romance novel and cheap hand lotion. It’s all he could find/afford on short notice. They sucked, but Eugene still loved them.

Now for Eugene’s birthday, he makes him lotion. It’s a different scent every year. And it’s better than anything else in Corona.

Varian’s gloves do not last very long due to the chemicals + wear and tear they go through. So Eugene gets him a new pair occasionally. For Varian’s birthday he got him a pair imported from the Dark Kingdom, and Rapunzel embroidered on them.

Varian secretly loves stuffed animals. Eugene got him a stuffed raccoon for Winter Solstice. It was the first time someone other than his dad had gotten him a gift for Solstice in a long time. He cried.

Varian crying is Eugene’s second least favorite noise. Right under Rapunzel crying.

Varian once had a nightmare where Eugene hated him. It tore him up and he literally traveled to Corona in the dead of night to ensure it wasn’t true.

Varian is incredibly close to Rapunzel, but he is slightly closer to Eugene because they understand each other a bit more. 

Both being former criminals, both hailing from the dark kingdom and only recently knowing about it, both struggling to find out who exactly they are, both being commoners who are now essentially royalty, etc.

Eugene doesn’t refer to Varian as his brother often, but he does in times of strong emotions. Varian refers to Eugene as his brother a little more often though, since it means that people are less likely to bother him due to his connections (and also because it makes him so happy.) As they get older they do refer to eachother as their brother more often.

Eugene was the first to refer to Varian as his little brother, and this was when he was telling off some noble for harassing Varian. Varian first referred to Eugene as his brother whilst sassing him.

[aardvaark]

the librarians "and the final curtain" (s2 finale) watch through:

"i made some very bad bicycle pant choices in 1995" "there are no good bicycle pant choices" adorable flynn/eve banter as always

no internet, no electricity, that really would cause a lot of problems. i mean, hospitals, for one thing…

yeah exactly! this is not very prospero at all really! whats that about??

ooh i like that they give an explanation as to why flynn’s note to himself was so vague. often im watching a show like this and thinking "okay but why the riddles? just leave some instructions, damn".

"im gonna hate time travel, aren’t i?" me too baird me too

that schrodingers cat joke is the best!!

Cassandra: It’s Schroedinger’s cat.

Flynn: No, he's upstairs in the Theoretical Animals wing.

Cassandra, whispering: He's alive?

lmaooo baird saying "WAS THE WORLD ORIGINALLY RULED BY TALKING DINOSAURS FLYNN." [to cassandra] "don’t even think about it." baird is good at preventing cassandra from either getting off track or straight up breaking her brain lmao. don’t even think about it!!

oh this show gets all my issues with time travel plots cause they always break my brain a little. they just talked about one of the grandfather paradox variants.

oh damn. seriously how do baird & flynn come back??

ah man the time travel is getting complicateddd stop talking to this very important figure whose works & life are still very much known today

aw, jenkins thinking about arthur coming back… seems like jenkins has had some great times but also definitely some incredibly long lonely stretches…

ooh yes ive read about how prospero/the tempest relates to shakespeare, as one of the last plays he wrote alone!

now moriarty killing shakespeare would’ve straight up been the grandfather paradox since shakespeare-as-prospero brought moriarty into the real world, so he wouldn’t have existed if they killed shakespeare back then.

parker would like magic because like 80% of the time it’s just used as a blue lightning taser.

speaking of parker, hi again beth riesgraf.

is baird uh. is she good? is she drowning, or are the lake ladies just kinda hanging out?

"what kind of sorcery is this" 🎶 what kind of fuckeryyy is thissss 🎶 (me & mr jones).

ohhhh my god are they really not gonna come back to the present?? im so stressed!!

"time travel the long way round" & "anybody can time travel, just in one direction" haha. funny and also a little poetic :)

okay this season finale was STRESSFUL but also very very awesome

[misarem]

yapping about Kill the Past under the cut cuz im now free from the 25th ward finally

THE SILVER CASE

-it feels cliche to say the first game was my favorite but uhhh haha. knowing suda, The Silver Case probably didn't fully accomplish what it set out to do but to me, it's so self-contained and demonstrates such ownership of a style that mostly came out of necessity that i can't not admire it, and i'm also so fond of my playthrough of it which was so fresh and curious, compared to the other two games which were fun but I was thinking too much abt how it connects to TSC

--also just the way i played this game is so special, i was very committed to the darker aesthetic to the point where I only played past like 10pm for a while, which is funny cuz the opening of the game is straight up paranormal but by the 2nd chapter transmitter loses that edge until debatably lifecut. tokio is also haunted and paranormally but by that point i just started playing normally. it sorta reminds me of paranormasight which starts out so spooky and the curses are very present but a few hours in it sorta reverts to being a pretty normal feeling but still very good detective mystery. at one point a character does an escape room ala zero escape and its funny. but TSC doesn't stray from its initial vibe as much as paranormasight at all.

-i also played the parallel stories of TSC separate from each other rather than alternating, which made placebo such a slog but i almost feel like I appreciated both stories more that way, even though i would have loved to experience how placebo compliments transmitter

--despite not clicking with placebo at first, tokio is like one of my favorite characters this year hes such a fucking Guy. and you experience him so intimately in placebo in a way i can't even describe but is effective by the end.

---theres a bizarre and esoteric mental link in my brain between tokio, ange from umineko and fucking flynn moore from the furry visual novel Echo because of them being like surprise deurotagonists (sp?) that get fucked up from having to search for the truth about the past and how theyre all chained by it. do you think they would put happy colors in my padded cell or would it just be all white.

-I also feel like I came out of TSC a lot clearer than I did FSR or 25W, I'm sure I missed several details at first but the shelter kids stuff and kamui as more of a role and a criminal influence than as a person wasn't that hard to wrap my head around even though I thought the silver eye stuff was so whatever. i kind of wonder if part of the reason i clicked with it faster was because I'm such an mgs2head, and the whole kamui thing is sorta like what the solid snake simulation appears to be at first

-also the mackerel phones video about Kusabi is so good and feels like a must watch for how well researched it is and how accurately it nails the feeling and message of transmitter.

-TSC also uses film window a lot better than 25W and it might be worth researching how the latter being a phone game affects things but i just got off that game

-also would kinda love a translated version of the PSX version someday just to feel how different it is. idk if certain ppl hate the official translation so much maybe they should do it themselves ooooh

-i havent read 4.5 and i meant to do so before 25W to have that context about sumio and sakura and i kindaaa didnt so lol i have to do that eventually.

FLOWER, SUN AND RAIN

-"flower, sun and rain" is like a speech tick to me in the way of like, rupaul on the weakest link immediately defaulting to chaka khan when he doesnt know the answer to a question

-i wish i felt flower, sun and rain the way I felt TSC. i had a decent time with it and even had a good sense of humor about the more obviously tedious parts and the OST, and I get how mundane it's supposed to be, what it's saying about living in peace and the lie of paradise, but it didn't click with me as much. maybe a pitfall was being so attached to TSC when i played, i was probably looking for something i shouldn't have instead of just enjoying the game for what it was altho i didn't hate it or anything.

--ideally this also gets a translation on its original console cuz I like some parts of the PS2 soundtrack and id love to experience all the art assets and music in PS2 quality.

---sorta tangent. i love the opening tracks for all of these games but Anata no Tameni might be my favorite, beyond just being amazing its so dramatic and unlike the rest of the series and it really stands out. the ds opening in comparison might actually be my least favorite because of that lol

-i think that the mondo/kodai revelation is so funny just because it's an idea you'd either keep in the back of your mind or just wave off because of how dumb it seemed but regardless it's constantly staring you in the face. assuming you even played TSC before this

--sumio was never super proper or anything, i don't think, but his personality here compared to TSC is so funny, he can spend 20 years with bottled up rage and fake his way into an incompetent police force without slipping thaaat much but here he has enough small inconveniences to hit a kid over it. kind of an interesting play on like the salient thing about personality and the self being buried and it feels like an early version of like a shiroyabu situation. not the last time i will compare sumio and shiro.

--i also think its funny that the model of sumio mondo looks pretty similar to kodai compared to the key art of mondo and we should explore that one day

-i wanted more out of toriko kusabi, she was a fun diversion and i didn't expect her to be a tokioesque second protag or anything but idk. she was fun when she went against sundance and at the end and her being like a subliminal kinda suggestion to sumio's buried memories of her father i think is cool. in a less meta sense it's also cute that shes working for her dad i wonder if tetsu has to like try not to step on christine everytime he comes home from the bathhouse at like 2am. actually i dont remember what their family situation even is

-speaking of kusabi i think him like being the guardian/ferryman for sumio's journey is so so beautiful and true and i like that he gets to pull him back from the depths the way sumio sorta inadvertently did in parade/kamuidrome.

--its also really funny to me kusabi just disguises as a chubby white guy. it was probably a fatsuit but i feel like kusabi could be like 50lb away from being a bear anyways. its like the grocery store deli scene in bobs burgers.

---i also appreciated parade from transmitter way more playing this and thinking about sumio. when i played parade the first time i loved connecting the dots on everything but then it kinda got buried by kamuidrome and lifecut. and now im such a shooter for sumio kodai. look at me talking about the previous game wooo.

-i think the character designs in this are funny for how little of them you can actually see. everyone loves yayoi and yayoi is such a serve but my other fav is ken. all the punk details are completely lost in the actual game. the models also super undersell stephen carbione's look, cuz in-game he sorta looks like tokio but then you see his key art and its like yea he would look like that.

-tokio was in this game

-i think edo macallister should be a bellhop in every video game with a hotel ever. im going to the other side of the country soon and if the guy behind the desk at the hotel isn't edo i will be severely disappointed.

-i love that its hyenas. i think there should be like tokio morishima as an anthro hyena and he still has his domesticated turtle or at least like hyena sundance or yotaro or something. i think ppl would be quick to anthropomorphize tokio as a literal turtle guy.

-the eleven children stuff is whatever, i do like that theres a bunch of sumios running around but idc for all the other implications and like step and remy and koshimizu and whoever else. is sumio mondo still deaf and mostly relying on lip reading? cuz i dont think that gets brought up again. i mean he wakes up to a phone ringing every morning but i guess those are the clones. if the hearing is referenced early in fsr and i just missed it then that would be very cool. maybe thats why the voices for the characters are abstract and illegible. maybe flower sun and rain is the best game ever.

THE 25TH WARD

-what if we were all protagonists.

-i dont think this game uses film window as well as TSC but i do like the art and how much of it there is in correctness and matchmaker, also the different styles.

-i love yotaro osato sadly hes so funny and fluffy. hes osato in my notes and in normal convo but i want to call him yotaro affectionately. i do love tsuki too hes such a sufferer.

--i think theyre a teeeeny bit like like p4 adachi and dojima if they were both murderous.

-i feel bad for the lady that gets murked immediately in correctness i had a funny voice for her in my head

-shiro and kuro god bless them are funny and parallel sumio and tetsu to me. both sumio and shiro grapple with their criminal power, although sumio goes against the hc unit while shiro attempts to but finds himself back with them at the end, and while kusabi over time softens quite a bit and learns from sumio in a more overt way than kuro being literally the "japanese dirty harry" and not having as much of an arc, they both are compelled enough by their partner to rein them back in. just the surface level so i dont have to write a whole essay in a stream of consciousness type of post

--what even happens to them bc as far as i can tell, shiro just continues to be a tool of the state and kuro maybe? shoots her superior and then the 25th ward blows up.. with them on it? like okay at least tsuki got outta there.

--on the shiroverse timeline. theres conflicting sources on if his immortality is a kamui thing or a sumio mondo thing or something else and thats funny. the sources all being fan wikis and tvtropes because fuck this game that zero people played and negative people have documented.

-i need to like hold myself back from analysing meru as trans because its so clearly done for shock value but it somehow aged really hilariously now with how prevalent trans egirls are. liek theres a strange almost unearned truth to how meru exists online versus irl.

--kind of all of the gay/trans mentions in these games are like this although kusabi you can at least take in sorta good faith?

-i need to think abt what i thought abt tokio here. its increasingly funny how online he is for being a normal dude in the late 90's early 2000s.

--his portrait in yumi is kind of a hear me out but all the cgs of older tokio look crazy. tokio in general looks a mess in this game and its funny. look at him try to be masc

-i mentioned mgs2 above and the 05 chapters of these games are so reminiscent of the s3 plan and the patriots with the frontier etc using the city to collect data and the protags having to figure out where they fit into it. during TSC, i was paying a lot of attention to the story as it related to the advent of technology. it felt really relevant to kamuidrome and all of placebo but mostly ended up as background/context to the story. it was used a lot more here and i really liked it. chat logs are a great framing device in all the routes since they add so much flavor and emphasize the loneliness of life in the 25th ward (semi-related: in both TSC and 25W, the environments are devoid of people in film window, and i think this works way better for 25W than it did for TSC). placebo is yet again a good example of this with tokio only really interfacing with the world through his computer most of the time

--in terms of twists, i might actually like "the city is just a means of data collection ready to be wiped at any moment/it resembles a computer more than an actual city and life there is so impermanent that its hard to tell how real it all is" better than the end point of tsc which was "they were trying to mass process children to find a means of immortality" which i was so whatever on even though the game is trying to be crazy and also say something about like life and aging in society, but in tsc i like "they were mass grooming perfect civilians and inadvertently making them susceptible to crime" as a conclusion a bit more. but i mean 25W also poses so many more questions than it does give answers so.

---despite everything i think it was an interesting idea for suda and masahiro yuki and masahi ooka to create the 25th ward almost as a sandbox to explore more of the ideas of the first game like how the internet affects human connection, communication, sharing of information, and how people are affected by criminal power/kamui. it was a cool idea in the original but i love actually getting to see shiroyabu steadily become more unhinged (death filing), kurumizawas pervasiveness, tsuki and osato coming to grips with their own (esp osato's immense) criminal power, etc. in spite of all of the loose ends and craziness, sometimes you really need a space to work out your ideas and express yourself and i commend grasshopper for doing that so i could have played this on a nokia in 2005. in japan

overall these were video games. very excited to forget everything about them when i fixate on something else. tsc might actually be one of my fav things i played this year. would love more analysis of the 25th ward, theres some essays/interpretations floating around and ghenryperez will get to his video on it eventually. maybe i need to be the change i wish to see but also boo putting effort into writing and analysis sux.

i started sudas works with nmh, then 2 before stopping until i played killer7 a year ago and really liked its style and sense of humor. i think this happens to a lot of people, and then a year after that i started tsc. i wasnt originally that interested in nmh tsa but now that i know theres hello 25th ward characters in it i might have to try. and then nmh3 after that. and then i also wanna play twilight syndrome/moonlight syndrome when that gets a translation because of lunatics. and i also got killer is dead when it was on sale for like 2 bucks. we can enter the greater sudaverse.. together