#and anyway it seems like the main thing was about noah which from what i can tell at least was barely anything and nothing current

[waywardworldhopper]

I... don't know how I feel about this statement. I mean, the statement itself is well written, and I like how they gently go "hey if you want to do activism there are better options than harassing some internet comedians."

But just... validating the complaints with this kind of response seems dangerous, especially given Dropout clearly recognizes they're tenuous at best. Like, I'm all for them taking an explicit stance on Palestinian liberation and directing fans to charities, but it feels like giving these accusations the time of day is encouraging more harassment.

🍉🍉🍉

Additional resources to support the people of Palestine:

Demand a Ceasefire in Gaza

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

UNRWA

UNICEF

Gaza eSims

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Ok so I was gonna go more in-depth about the timeline and try to figure some things out, but I got a little sidetracked and time got away from me so I might continue this later but for now I need to go to bed. Please enjoy this infodump about the apocalypse in Moth Wizard (my post-apocalyptic fantasy setting) and the origin of magic.

(Content warning: war, religion, death, extinction)

When exactly canon diverges from our timeline is not determined yet since I've currently placed the apocalypse really taking off "sometime in the near future" and I don't know how much of the bad stuff may or may not happen in real life. We live in scary times. Ideally I'd keep it "in the near future" for a while though, like I don't know when (if ever) I'll actually Make The Show, but I'd like for it to still be in the future when I do. It would make the "this could happen to our world" part of the "this could happen to our world and while you individually cannot save us from it, it is entirely in the hands of humans to stop it and turn things around before then" message of the apocalypse, y'know, still apply.

As I mentioned recently in a very excited tag ramble, the apocalypse has several components. I think the main ones are war, climate change, and similar corporate greed consequences like pollution, unsustainable hunting, and destruction of habitats. All of it is human in origin. This is important to me, because if it weren't humans, then it would be Hashem (G-d), and He promised never to do that again after Noah and his family survived the flood. What Hashem did was give humanity the magic that allowed them to survive (and which now fills their world with wizards).

I like to think of this as kind of an inverse of the story of Noah. Hashem did not raise the tides, it was man, and man did not create the means by which life was able to live on, it was Hashem. Are we even now? Probably not, I wouldn't claim to know whether "being even" is even an applicable concept, but I do think that this event thousands of years later changed something forever. A circle has been closed. Life on Earth will never be the same.

I'll uh, definitely consult a rabbi about this at some point though, because I'm mostly making stuff up that sounds right and fits what I have in mind for their world. I'd like to make sure it's at least not actively contradicting anything.

Anyway, so we have the nearish future timeline deviation, I hope, where everything gets worse, billions of people die in world war III and countless species go extinct. Every single country on the planet is either at war or caught in the crossfire. If not for the gift of magic, it would have been the END end of life. How long after this does the story take place? I haven't decided. It's hard to put an accurate number to things.

Let's say hypothetically, magic is introduced in the year 5800, nice round number in the nearish future (a bit over 15 years).

As I've mentioned before, the first people to discover magic were kids probably aged 12-17, because of how the magic system works. To use magic, you need to try and truly believe in it, recklessly, and I don't think anyone is better at recklessly believing in undiscovered magic than teens, speaking as a former teen myself. Too young and the line between make-believe and reality won't be the right shape, too old and they'll have lost faith in undiscovered mysteries. Teens inhabit the sweet spot where the world seems just strange enough that maybe if you really really tried, you could fly.

And suddenly one day, the teens were right.

Sidenote but what I really love about this part of the magic system is that it comes with built-in explanations for why small children are not blowing up cars on accident (it has to be fully intentional and separate from playing pretend), and why not everyone uses it enough to call themselves a wizard (it's hard to believe recklessly and intentionally enough), AND gives good excuse for why anyone desperate enough could do it in a burst of emotion (recklessness is easy if you have nothing left to lose, the exact boundaries of possibility don't seem so important anymore). It's great.

It takes a while for people to believe the kids who discover magic. Obviously this footage going viral on TikTok is faked, and now there's a whole trend about pretending magic is real. And anyone who tries while under the impression that it's fake will of course fail, they don't believe at all. But the news don't have to spread via social media, it's much easier to show people in person. And do you believe it when you see a flying car on the news? You thought this was a reliable source, why would they buy into this obviously fake nonsense? And then you meet your 11-year-old cousin who claims she can make animals talk. You don't believe her, of course, until she points to a squirrel and the squirrel addresses you by name. The world is already in chaos, and now this?

Within a year, I think, it is generally understood that magic does exist. The exact mechanics are still unclear and everyone has their own interpretation, but the fact that some people are genuinely able to do things that until a year ago were definitely impossible is hard to deny now.

Somehow, magic seems to favor saving lives over taking them. This is not actually because magic itself has morals, but because it favors vulnerability and cannot be controlled the way guns can be controlled. Governments try and inevitably fail to create magical armies. You simply can't command someone to use magic. They would need to raise such soldiers from children surrounded by cultish propaganda in order to control their faith to such an extent, which of course they do to all their citizens, that's how they ever got anyone to kill another human on command, but they didn't have the foresight to include "you will be a wizard" in their programming starting 10 years ago. And now they won't get the chance. Their time is about to come to an end.

Oceans rise. Nations fall. The world we know dies screaming.

[whymustyouhurtmeinthisway]

Finally read Soul Eater vol. 14 three entire months after initially buying it, and I gotta say, it was fine.

I’m enjoying the series for sure, Crona’s story is captivating as always and I’m interested to see where it goes, but man, the pacing seems to get worse and worse as the chapters go on. Like I’ve talked before about how the series skyrocketed way harder in scope size than it probably should’ve, but Jesus.

The series is so cool in concept, basically all the characters are so sick, I love so many of the ideas and plotlines, and the artstyle is one of the best I’ve seen in manga ever (or really in general ever), but I find it just fumbles the execution not enough to ruin it, but just enough to frustrate you.

Outside of the scale/scope thing I talked about before, there are just so many ideas that start out cool as fuck but then eat shit on the landing. Like Soul’s corruption to the imp has been building up more and more since even before the kishin was released, with him using more and more of its powers hinting towards some huge unraveling where everything comes loose and he becomes a big chaotic threat with a big arc about rescuing him. In the end that kinda happened, and his chaos form was pretty cool, except he got over it in like a chapter and everything’s cool now (though I will say his conversation with the imp and whole character struggle is cool)

Honestly now that I mention it, Soul’s a weird character for me, where I think his internal struggle and arc are interesting and I enjoy them, but I just have no thoughts about him as a character outside of that. I just can’t really think of anything about how he acts outside of his own head that really endears me to him, I find him just kinda bland. The majority of his time acting normally around others really doesn’t display much personality I find, which is unfortunate considering how cool his internal arc and piano thing are.

Speaking of characters, god there are a lot of them aren’t there? From what I can tell Atsushi Ohkubo kinda runs into a rare writer issue, being “I have more ideas than I know what to do with”. He just seems to have so many sick character ideas in his head that he can’t help but add to the series, but as he keeps adding them he finds he can’t handle the increasing responsibility of actually using them all well in the story.

Like think of how many characters are at least active by volume 14:

We of course have the main 7 (Maka, Soul, Black☆Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, Patty)

Then another 7 in the rest of the Spartoi (Kiriko, Fire, Thunder, Ox, Harvar, Kim, Jackie),

Then we can add on the 5 (important) DWMA staff members (Death, Spirit, Stein, Sid, Mira)

Then the 6 other Death Scythes (Marie, Azusa, Justin, Tezca, Dengu, Djinn)

And the 5 members of Medusa’s (former) gang (Crona, Ragnarok, Free, Eruka, Mizune family)

And the 4 surviving members of Noah’s gang after that fell apart like wet toilet paper (Noah, Gopher, Index, the Clown)

And the 3 elder gods we know besides Death (Eibon, Asura, that dude in Eibon’s book)

And 7 assorted characters who are (presumably) somewhat important but don’t fit into any other categories (Blair, Imp, Excalibur, Maba, Angela, Akane☆Hoshi, Clay Sizemore, probably more I forgot)

That’s 44 characters in total, and that’s only including the ones who are alive and shown to be at least somewhat involved in the current conflict and/or important in the world as a whole, which seems to me as very clearly being a lot to keep track of in a series as quickly paced as this one

Anyways, this is a lot of words to say Soul Eater’s very good so far, but I really wish it just got to reach the full potential of its ideas more than it ended up being able to

[brionysea]

https://www.tumblr.com/foodiewithdahoodie/716996704083361792 this post is more about familial mlvn parallels but it made me think of the max/Mike curse parallels, esp considering that what’s happening to Max after the fact is a vision and I’m like….kind of connecting that to what happened around Mike in season 4 being a manifestation but I Can’t Articulate it. Anywho yeah thought u would enjoy

UMMMM HELLO???? I AM LOOKING DIRECTLY AT IT (x)

i was thinking about what a pre-season 4 mike's vecna visions would look like recently, and that scene with el would literally fit right in. his girlfriend who he cares for but Not Like That trying to pry an answer out of him about why he can't say he loves her? getting defensive and making her cry? having to go against the friends don't lie rule to protect himself? like. i am... hhhh no thoughts just chaos. all you'd have to do is tweak it a bit so that el Inexplicably Knows Everything and hates him for it, being representative of his own negative thoughts towards himself, and it would fit right in with the canon visions from season 4 (mike mouthing off included, because let's be real, he'd do that to vecna's face too). leaving it to play out the way it did plays more into the advantage of a subtle slow burn so that he can't figure out anything's going on too soon, which, if you're going to mess with mike wheeler's head, you need because he's just too smart

california was kind of a nightmare scenario for mike before anything even went "wrong". he had to pretend to be someone he's not, somehow try to be normal with both el and will in the same place, and then el gets hurt and it's kind of his fault ("if you say so" before the music gets turned off and el gets knocked down, which still makes me lose my MIND), then the fight with will, and el schmacking a bully after the boys were unable to track her down fast enough to prevent that and all the drama afterwards... dude's not having a good time. he had no power there, which is the fastest way to get to him, as seen by his rambling about how useless he is and the clear impact that sense of powerlessness (very ironic) has on his mental state. and i'm staring so hard at how weird everything at rinkomania (rink of madness) was, and how disconnected our three characters' perspectives seem to be from each other, and how mike looked confused by will's version (aka our version) of events but was too busy trying to run away from that confrontation of having to vocalise his own feelings to even clarify what he was confused by or what his version of events looked like, which brings what they're both experiencing into question (mike not even looking in will's direction when he rolled his eyes but somehow seeing it anyway — what else aren't they showing us about mike's version by hiding behind will's?). there are those behind the scene photos floating around of noah schnapp at rinkomania in will's desert outfit. idk, i don't trust that place at all

when it comes to season 4 being a manifestation, it's like... this is just my interpretation, but it's pretty clear to me that the curse would be mike's excuse to literally face his demons. it was the Main Event. even when he was shipped away from hawkins and separated from that plot device, he was still trying to sort everything out in his head, which would've ironically been much easier for him to do if he was in a situation like max's — he gives me "only i'm allowed to hate myself, if anyone else does it i'm throwing hands" vibes. but mike still had some influence over things going on in lenora (like the aforementioned "if you say so" demonstrated by angela just ceasing to matter at all after mike called her a nobody) and in the general... area, idk american geography, like suzie's house and the pen with the coordinates and wherever the nina bunker was. i haven't thought about how argyle and the pizza chain plays into this but they might be manifested too (something about the restaurant expanding into nevada and how impressively wide mike's range is —there's no way that russian prison's real — and argyle as like the one person in season 4 just telling someone to "not lie"). el says "i'm real" at the very end of the season when she's with max, which makes me question if she went from "not real" to "real" during her season 4 side plot instead of in season 3. it would make sense since she really starts heading into her independence era once she leaves brenner behind and most likely after the end of season drama with mike, and max and dustin's similar journeys from an Idea of independence (while still circling mike/the party) to Acting on that independence (dustin getting his own side plot after breaking away from the party and max talking about free will while going against mike's wishes) seem to span 2 seasons as well

it's fascinating to me that even with mike as the lynchpin to all this, the main event doesn't follow him. it stays in hawkins. it's not even like the curse is a thing, and the curse also follows mike. it leaves him alone, even with the symptoms that did follow him. it (supposedly) never goes past a nosebleed at dinner and a headache at suzie's house. is that because he's made a mental connection between all his inner angst and his hometown (the smalltown boy agenda), or is it just a result of trying to sideline himself because he thinks he's unimportant? is it because there's no point in opening a gate with his death if he's all the way across the country? wouldn't that be better for vecna's plans of remaking the world? is he just not as willing to put the byers (including el) at risk as he is the hawkins NPCs? or was he actually losing his mind all season and we just didn't know because his perspective was cut off from us?

[lordystrange]

Hey, I just wanted to come here and say thank you for being more nuanced with everything regarding Noah and Israel/Palestine. I’m Jewish and I do come from a Zionist family that doesn’t mean I necessarily love Israel or it’s government, but a lot of people believe in Zionism and for obvious reasons. It’s hurtful, it hurts when people from this fandom who didn’t even know what it was didn’t know crap about Jewish history ethnicity struggle be so quick to say really antisemitic and hurtful things. We’ve heard it many times but it seems like it’s everywhere now.

Noah said in his post he feels fear and the internet pro Palestinian people ridiculed him! He goes to Penn ladies and gents they literally painted a rabbi being h*ng on the side of a building around that same time. There’s scary stuff out here being done to Jews and making fun of Jewish people who say they are afraid is so insensitive. Nobody is saying they are more afraid then the gazans, and to think it’s some malicious effort on our part to compare pain and fear is WRONG. we are all hurting from what happened since Oct 7. I just wish people valued Jewish lives. many hostages are still taken and many died in the nova festival. We should value both sides.

Black and white thinking has gotten us no where and it creates further hatred further miscommunication. Israel and Palestine will never be a easy conflict it has history it has perspectives, it has unfortunately really distasteful politics and war mongering leaders from both sides.

Hi!

I’m glad you’ve found my posts and liked them. Honestly, I have many more in my drafts but I don’t wanna cause a shitstorm. But then again, I do wanna lead people to more nuanced way of thinking.

I think one of the reasons for my nuanced thinking is that I don’t assume my thinking will ever be done. There will always be more to learn about everything. So I keep all door open and ears ready to listen.

Nothing indeed is black or white. Right things can also be wrong and true things can also be false.

I feel like the more I think about this Noah case, the more I am confused (and less confused at the same time). I am very aware that jewish people have done awful things in the name of zionism and still are. But I have not seen any definition of zionism that literally includes genocide of palestinians (or baby killing as Noah haters believe). And since jews have been persecuted for ages, I can understand the will to have a safe homeland for them. And I can also understand that zionism is portrayed as a very good thing in zionist households, and that would mean leaving out all the horrific things some zionists have done.

Do I agree with the way Israel ended up being formed? No. Do I support what IDF is doing now? No. But do I think Noah thinks ”killing babies (or anyone) is sexy”? Also no. I don’t think he actually wants anything bad for anyone.

I think anyone has a right to want their own country for their own people. It doesn’t make anyone evil. The problems come when other people are being mistreated/killed because of it. Which is what Israel is doing, but Noah is not.

You also mentioned the fear and that is another thing people should acknowledge. Because again, it’s not black or white situation. The fact that palestinians have to fear for their lives doesn’t mean that jewish fear (also for their life) isn’t valid. Everyone here deserves to feel safe. And I support especially the what people call bad people’s right to feel safe because I think that would solve a lot of problems. I doubt any IDF leader is doing this for fun. They are all afraid of what happens if they don’t.

I could go on forever. But my main point with my posts is that nuanced thinking is only helping the world, not hurting palestinians nor jews.

I want to add that I definitely value jewish lives. I’m sorry that so many jews have to feel like their lives are not being valued. And that their caring for each others lives is seen as a bad thing.

Anyway, thank you for the ask! I’m always open for more discussion :)

I’m gonna end this with a quote from Bertrand Russell: ”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” (Am I targeting this to those who are so adamant about only one pov… maybe…)

[itspileofgoodthings]

How do you feel about happiness? The Taylor song from evermore, not the concept (though I’m sure you have interesting ideas there too, haha). I struggle with it because it feels like such a ‘divorce’ song that it just… makes me feel really upset, lol. I don’t get any of the ‘sweet’ in the ‘bittersweet’ that others tell me they get from it. It reminds me of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story in that way, which I seem to remember you had some umbrage with? Anyway maybe I’m leading too much with this question now and you have totally different thoughts— super curious to hear them!

oh I love happiness! (both the Taylor song and the concept haha.) It is very sad so I get why it’s upsetting to you, but for me it’s full of such real human grief and love and there are so many lines that just cut so deep.

and in the disbelief I can’t face reinvention, I haven’t met the new me yet. after giving you the best I had tell me what to give after that. all you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness. no one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him too. honey when I’m above the trees I see this for what it is.

and of course the main hook—there’ll be happiness after you but there was happiness because of you. so simple, so true!! the way happiness does not and cannot be contained to one person and yet also, in another sense, the way that it IS. as the song says, both of these things can be true!

[percontaion-points]

Delicious Monsters chapters 19 & 20

Today's review might be difficult for some; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Click here for the rest of the series!

Chapter 19

“I need you to listen to me, Daisy. Really listen to me. We can’t have any more unpredictable things like what went down the other day. That shouldn’t have happened at all. That wasn’t in the plan.”

Why do I get the feeling that a plane could have literally crashed on top of Daisy, and Grace would still find a way to blame it on her daughter?

I wondered now if she had experienced anything like I had inside the house. If that’s why she was avoiding it. 

Again, why the fuck did she take the house if that’s the case?

 I could count on several fingers the times when Noah had cut off contact because he was upset with me.

Girl, that should have been your first clue to run. 

“You can’t control me.” 

“I’m not trying to control you. I’m trying to give you advice. If you wanted to go skating, and I told you the ice was too thin for that this time of year, would you go just because you thought I was controlling you? Or would you figure that, living here all my life, maybe I know a thing or two about ice thickness and was trying to help?”

 I squished down farther in the seat. When he put it like that, it made me look like some impulsive and reckless person who did the opposite of what people said for the sake of it.

I am once again stating that telling people “Don’t go into the house!” without actually telling them why isn’t exactly going to convince them to stay out. 

Every single person in Daisy’s life has completely and utterly failed her. Every single one of them. 

“I mean, why would you want to go inside?”

WHY THE FUCK WOULDN’T YOU?!

The house now belongs to Daisy’s mum; she’s fucking living there! Every single person tells her not to do it, but can’t be arsed to actually tell her why! 

“My mom and aunts want your mom’s business to fail because of how dangerous that place is.”

From the perspective of Grace, that has “lawsuit” written all over it. 

Note: I have no idea how the Canadian justice system works. 

I traced my fingers across the scratches on my face. I was doing a bang-up job already.

Chapter 19 summary: A week passed following Daisy falling, and the start of her first day of school. Grace is weird about the incident, and randomly seems to blame her daughter for the accident. Like yes, Daisy probably should have stayed on the path, and paid more attention to what was (not) under her feet. But at the same time… She literally fell off a cliff, JFC. 

Anyway, it’s her first day of school, but also the first guests are coming to stay at the main house. Grace takes Daisy across to drop her off, but also to meet up with the guests. 

King agreed to take Daisy the rest of the way to school, and the first half of the trip was spent in stony silence. He finally asks her why she went into the house, and then is kind of angry and disappointed at her. Yet he continues to refuse to explain why she shouldn’t have done it. He eventually tells her that he only warns people once, and then it’s kind of on them if they do the stupid thing or not. Which… I get it. But he’s being such a sanctimonious shitweasle about the entire thing. Again, without giving any sort of reason for his behaviour. 

Inside the school, Daisy is surprised to find out that King is kind of popular. He calls her out on her questioning this, though. They both agree that they aren’t interested in the other romantically. He then drops her off at the front office and leaves. 

Chapter 20

“How are your teachers?”

 “Fine… Why?” 

“Just making sure. Not everyone who works with children should.”

I get that there are people who probably shouldn’t be working with children, or anywhere near a school, full-stop. (Not simply for paedophile reasons.) 

But this is simply such an odd thing to say. 

“How are your teachers? Are any of them PAEDOPHILES?!” 

I wondered now what sort of friend Katie Kuru had been to Mom. And how she knew to be afraid of the house.

Chapter 20 summary: We mercifully skip over to the last class of the day, which is biology. After class is over, Mrs. K asks that Daisy stay behind for a second while the other kids leave. Once they’re alone, Mrs. K asks if Daisy is Grace’s daughter, and goes on to explain that she used to hang out with her mom and dad back in the day. She gives Daisy her phone number and asks that she pass it on to Grace; that Grace should call her, and they can have dinner sometime. Mrs. K is also surprised to hear that they’re living at the mansion. 

Grace picks Daisy up from the dock, and asks how her day at school was. As mentioned, she asks in such a bizarre way. Then Grace gets upset when Daisy tells her about Mrs. K, whom Grace identifies as Katie. Grace is of the opinion that Katie is a “summer friend”, and that you’re supposed to lose touch with them after the summer is over. Which Daisy thinks is utter bullshit. But Daisy also thinks that the reason why Grace keeps these sort of people separated in her head is because she felt like she could confess her deepest sins to them, and then move on after the summer was over. 

[dom-i-nate]

Coming Clean | Nate and Danny

Who: Nate Mantle and Danny Andrews @domdannyandrews Where: Danny's suite When: Morning, 03.23 Notes: Nate admits to using and cheating. TW: addiction, drug mentions, mentions of physical abuse, cheating

The night before had been... something. He certainly hadn't expected to get a text like that from his brother of all people - and his heart nearly stopped when he realized Nate was involved. Both of his best guys in trouble with the cops? Luckily Danny had been able to get them both home, though he wished he had fought harder for Noah to stay. Nate wasn't really in any state to talk, and it was obvious something else had gone down considering he could smell the booze on his boyfriend. So after a sleepless night, Danny slipped out of bed, curling onto the couch in his living room with a hot coffee as he waited for Nate to wake up. He wasn't angry at his boyfriend for slipping up. If his dad was the reason, he understood. But something tickled low in his stomach, an inkling that there was more to the story. He heard shuffling earlier than he thought he would, and he looked up when Nate came into the room. "Hey. There's coffee, if you want," he said quietly, tilting his head towards the kitchen.

It took Nate a solid 5 minutes to realize where he was. The sharp pain in his head and stomach made worse by the blinding lights from the window. He smiled when he realized he was in Danny’s bed, which faded quickly when the memories of the night before flew into his mind. “Oh fuck,” he groaned running a hand down his face in frustration. He willed himself to get up, knowing he had to face the music. He walked into the main room wearing the clothes he wore the previous night. “Oh, no that’s alright. I should actually get going, honestly,” he said, his face still feeling heavy as the bruise on his eyes made itself more known, and his ribs still pulsing in dull pain.

Hurt flickered over his face. Now Nate didn't even want to talk to him? "I think first we should talk, yeah?" he suggested, setting his mug on the coffee table. The tone of his voice made it seem like less of a suggestion but not quite an order. "You wanna tell me what happened last night? It's not often I have to go into town and pick up my brother and my boyfriend from police custody," Danny said, aiming for a smile and failing considering how exhausted he was.

He closed his eyes softly with a deep breath. Yes, they needed to talk. But no, he didn’t want to and he was not well enough for this. “If I tell you, you’re going to want me to leave anyway,” he answered honestly. He walked closer to where Danny sat, but he didn’t sit himself. He sighed hotly, “I was on my way to a meeting when I ran into my father. And he started in on his shit - I was worthless and a disgrace and all that. And I had an attitude with him because he was wrong and he punched me a couple times,” he said pointing to his face. “And I should have just gone into the meeting. I know that, Danny, but I didn’t wanna go before cleaning up and the only thing open was the Wyrm. But on the way in, I ran into a Serpent who sold me some coke. And I…I’m sorry,” he said honestly, pain welling in his swollen eye. “But I’ve been fighting it for weeks. I could barely keep my head above water and I…I fucked up. So I took the hit and then decided to sit at the bar for a drink because I’d already fucked up.”

Danny fought to keep his face neutral. He knew Nate was beating himself up about relapsing, and he wasn't here to heap on the guilt. He couldn't keep himself from frowning when Nate mentioned how his dad hit him - wow he didn't think he could get that pissed that fast at someone - but he let out a breath to calm his temper. Nate was the priority here. Getting to his feet, he crossed to his boyfriend and took his hands in his own, squeezing his fingers lightly. "Am I thrilled you slipped up? No. Am I angry at you? Also no. Sobriety is fucking hard, babe, and you've been stressing about your dad visiting among other shit. There's other choices you could have made, sure, but you know you fucked up, and you'll learn from it, yeah?" He gently pushed some of Nate's hair from his eyes. "What happened after that? You and Noe were pretty beat up when I found you with the cops," he prompted, knowing there was more to the story.

When Danny got up to move closer, all Nate wanted was to crash into him, hold him, keep him close. Of course he was saying all the most wonderful things and each one hit Nate in the gut harder because he knew he didn’t deserve it. He kept a short distance away from Danny, knowing this part was hardest. “Before Noah got there, I ran into an old friend,” he said softly. “His names Mateo and he used to go to school here and we were best friends. We were…more than that,” he said. Nate made himself meet Danny’s eyes, “you are the love of my life, baby, I swear. But you’re not my first love,” he admitted softly. “And we got to talking and old feelings started swirling and before I could think straight - I was kissing him.” Admitting this was hard, he could feel a burn slide down his throat as he swallowed. “And then I stopped it, and he left and that’s when Noah came in.”

He didnt' push, though he ached to hold his man close, to prove this slip up wasn't going to drive him away. Danny knew what he was getting into once Nate told him about his addictions. And, everyone had a past, right? How could he be mad at Nate for having love for someone else before him? But then - His throat worked on a hard swallow, realization coming slowly after the initial reaction of feeling like he had been punched in the chest. He and Nate weren't monogamous, obviously, but they had an unspoken (mostly unspoken) agreement that other Dominants weren't part of that. And this wasn't Nate hooking up with Sam at a masquerade ball, where they were only two strangers. This was Nate, choosing to kiss someone else - someone he'd loved and lost. Danny pressed his lips together, his hands falling from where they had been holding Nate's. "You kissed him?" he asked faintly.

He breathed out slowly, trying to keep his emotions in check as much as he could as he watched the information process within him. “Yes,” he admitted his voice cracking but he tried to keep himself stoic. He didn’t want to lose it and make it seem like he wasn’t taking this seriously. “Baby, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,” he said honestly, “I messed up, I know I did, and I’ll do whatever I have to. Anything to prove how much I love you and how sorry I am.” He cleared his throat quickly, “then Noah was trying to get me out of the bar, and these Ghoulie assholes came up on us and pushed Noah to the ground, so I hit him. And then the cops showed up, spewed some bullshit to Noah about how your dad wouldn’t be proud of him right now, and I got pissed at them and started yelling. But then they said to call you before anything got worse. And that’s everything.”(edited)

The whole thing about Noah barely registered if he was being honest. Sure some low level rage bubbled in his stomach, but most of his body felt cold with shock. Danny didn’t know how to process the fact that Nate did what he did, knowingly. No one had ever cheated on him before. “I see. I should - I guess I should talk to Noah then,” he muttered, running a hand over his hair.

The fact Danny wasn’t saying anything hurt more than anything he could have thrown at Nate. “Baby please,” he said, his voice bordering on cracking if he wasn’t careful. “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. Please…please just talk to me.”

“I don’t know what to say, Nate,” he admitted in a shaky voice. Grief, rage, anger, sadness, jealousy - all those things he could handle. But the cold lance of hurt deep in his stomach was unfamiliar, and he didn’t understand how to process it. “You… you kissed someone else. Someone you love. It’s - is he still in town?”

That was fair, he couldn’t fault the man for being without words at the moment. “Loved,” he corrected, “past tense.” He ran his hand down his face, wincing when he’d forgot about the bruising. “I don’t know. Maybe? I would guess. His claim is Madeline’s brother so I know they’re all visiting.”

He inhaled sharply, letting it out on a slow, unsteady exhale. “Loved.” Danny struggled not to let his thoughts spiral, like they had with Daisy, wondering if he would turn out to be someone Nate talked about in past tense as well. “Are you - do you want to see him again? While he’s here?”

Nate shook his head, “no. Not like that anyway. I mean, if I hadn’t have fucked up I would have liked to catch up with him and introduce you to him and all that. But, no. You’re the only relationship I’m concerned about right now.”

Another hard swallow made his throat bob visibly, still struggling to process what was happening. What had happened. “Did -“ Danny paused, wiping sweaty palms against his pajama pants. “Did I do anything to…” he tried to ask, wondering if he’d done anything to make Nate feel like he needed to seek intimacy elsewhere.

Nate immediately started shaking his head and taking a step towards Danny. “No, no baby you didn’t do anything. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever known. You’ve been nothing but supportive and you’ve been putting up with all my shit. This is all me. I fucked up, you didn’t do anything at all,” he promised. He wanted to hold him, wrap his arms around Danny and never let go. But, he needed to let Danny drive this, determine when he was okay with it, if he ever would be again. “This is not an excuse,” he began, “but I was not in my right mind, Eros. I swear, I’d never do something like that if I was. But that doesn’t excuse it, because I still did it and I’m so, so sorry.”

He let out a short breath, running a hand over his hair, shifting back as Nate stepped forward. If there was anything in this world he knew with certainty, he knew he loved Nate, and Daisy. He'd heard that to love someone was to allow them the ability to hurt you, but he didn't think it would ever feel like this. "I love you, Nate," he said slowly, willing his voice not to shake. "That... that won't change. But I need a - I need to process this."

Nate allowed Danny to create distance between them, though it broke his heart to watch him back away like that. Like Nate had just completely destroyed him. His damaged heart fluttered at the words, but dropped a bit at Danny's next words. "Yeah...that's fair," he agreed. He turned towards the door a few steps before half turning back towards the other, "I love you, Danny," he said simply and truthfully, "I swear it." With a soft breath he turned back towards the door and made his way towards it.

Danny bit the inside of his lip, looking up to the gorgeous man he knew he couldn't be without. "I know," he said quietly, looking away before he could watch Nate walk out the door. He sank down to the couch, burying his face in his hands, trying to ignore the burning behind his eyes.

[mistyscenter]

Tags by @goldengroovy

That's actually it, this is literally why people keep misgendering Qiu and ignore Tamarack as a love interest.

I remember when I first entered the fandom (for reference the wedding dlc was just about to drop when I joined, and for the olnf fans is around when the first demo came out which only included meeting tamarack and qiu and going home) that it really felt very queer friendly with a lot of mcs not only female ones but males and non binary ones, heck my first mcs were always trans women, then a shift happened: the game got popular among, what I can assume to be cishet women and from there a fandom that used to be queer friendly felt very cis (and white but I can't speak on that)

I think Noah making this post shows that this fandom isn't a save space for trans people, I've seen people misgendering and deadnaming renee and terry, two very important trans characters in the main cast of both games, I've seen someone making a mc who's a trans woman and shitting on Renee for?? Not coming out and having difficult feelings around being trans??? Generally because renee is misogynistic in step 1 but like....that's a huge part of her character?? Which to me is a huge indicator that the person wasn't trans because, I may not be transfem myself but like....yeah I can understand why Renee feels that way about girls in step 1.

Anyways what I'm trying to get here is that the Our Life franchise as a whole is different from other otome games because your character gender identity can be such a huge thing and because now and forever will explore it with Qiu, this is something that is extremely rare in those spaces because they're mostly for cishet women and not for queer people Our Life advertise itself as a Queer game because it is. It really sucks how OL2 is the best game for trans people but has so many fans who seem to be cisgender, maybe they're not and I'm generalizing but it doesn't change the fact that the reason why this shit keeps happening is because of the fact that this game got popular in spaces that are mostly dominated by cishet women.

i’ve been wanting to make this post for a while now but i decided not to because i felt like the our life community didn’t need it

but sadly i’ve been seeing it so much recently and so i’m just gonna post it

We need to talk about Qiu’s pronouns and gender identity and how to use it correctly!!!

So as we all know, in step 3 Qiu is genderfluid which means that sometimes they use they/them and other times they use he/him and that is expressed through their nail polish. They do not use both they/them and he/him at the same time. As they also said, if you don’t know what pronouns they use, you should use they/them.

So when you are making those headcanon posts referring to step 3 qiu please only use they/them if you are writing a short story or a full fanfic and you mention that at the time of the story that they prefer he/him that is completely okay!

now let’s talk about step 2…

for step 2, qiu does not know what they identify as they are not non-binary

they do use and only use they/them do not refer to step 2 qiu using he/him

conclusion:

the only time you use he/him pronouns on qiu is if you’re referring to step 1 and if you mention that at the time they refer he/him in step 3

use they/them in step 2, if they prefer it in step 3, and if you don’t know what pronouns they prefer in step 3

thank you for coming to my ted talk :)

[halforcdad]

Totally agree with you about Lucy! Tbh it’s been here since s1 but this fandom (especially on Twitter) have a Kate bias and treat Lucy awfully when they get the chance. And they were simply waiting for the shoe to drop so they could finally say oh she’s SO wrong for this since none of them seem to treat her like her own person with her own feelings. ESP with that scene from s1 that you said they’re comparing this too. So many people hated her for that and thought kacy was dead in a ditch afterward. I really don’t get it. But it’s also obvious with the way they advocate for more things about Kate (like back story, relationship/scenes with Jane, etc) but hardly ever say oh I wanna know about Lucy (when arguably lucy is more of a main since she’s the one on NCIS) . We all know why this is too even if people don’t wanna say it. Kate is the white one and Lucy is brown they will always villainize her actions first even when Kate was the one in the wrong (in s1). Anyways this ep is definitely ending with better communication for them so I am not sweating it. Twitter overanalyzes in the worst way like they always do

I do get the sense that some people were waiting with bated breath for the chance to point at Lucy and call her a hypocrite like some sort of gotcha! moment the minute she slipped up and didn't tell Kate something. Which is weird because you're a fan of this ship shouldn't you be rooting for both of the characters? 💀

The Kate bias is a very real thing. I feel like when 1x11 happened I mostly saw people blaming bad writing and giving Kate a pass for being a dumbass and saying it was out of character for her (when we'd only seen her...briefly for 7 ep at most so what's ooc and what's not at that point). But when Lucy isn't perfect, she doesn't get the same excuses or defense, the mistakes are all on Lucy and not on 'bad writing'. There doesn't seem to be a lot of 'putting yourself in her shoes' type sympathy for a lot of what Lucy was dealing with in S1 (like if I had to see my ex who hurt me badly everyday at work I would be in a state lol).

And God I felt like I was in the trenches after 1x20, both on twitter and on here because the reactions were wild Gonna try to be brief because I feel like I've spent a lifetime talking about it (because it's the best episode of s1 lolol), but that entire episode was about Lucy and her trying to move on, but being unable to because Kate still had such a huge effect on her (bc she loved her!) and still all the fandom focus was on Kate and how sympathetic she was! I think even if Kate showed up with a clean bill of health, she still would've been babied immensely because Lucy made her cry (even though they were both crying). The treatment Lucy got after that was truly disheartening. Like there was no room for nuance. As a poc, seeing everyone baby the white woman (and getting to ready to fight for her because she cried) even though she's the one who fucked up is very, hm, realistic lol. Lucy deserves way better.

You bring up a good point. The fandom goes crazy over Kate and Noah, but Lucy's family doesn't get the same level of speculation and fanfare. And we only got like 2 mentions of Noah in S1 vs. all the tidbits Lucy's dropped about her family. And of course I want to see Kate interact more with Pearl Team and develop friendships, but like we don't even know anything substantial about Lucy and Jesse's relationship or with her and Tennant for that matter. Those should probably take priority. The shows called NCIS: Hawai`i not FBI: Hawai`i lol.

If there really was a season to sweat over Kacy's relationship, it wouldn't be the season where they've been actively showing them working on themselves and being better with each other. It's like we didn't get an entire Whistler/Kacy love fest episode in 2x03 or something. Some people are quick to think the worst and go, 'ugh miscommunication is such a kacy thing'. We probably haven't been watching the same show this season then because they're clearly taking steps to fix that in just the first 5 episodes.

[halfmyfault]

the look of hers, the excitement, the sudden spark of hope. "yeah, you have my eyes." he was sure lucien must have seen the same exact thing on his face before. that look, the look. the moment in which you see someone finally understand whatever it was you have been screaming for everyone else to try and get. "i like poetry. of all types. and i'm way too earnest to not love a play with called the importance of bein' earnest." — they fed me, clothed me, showed up to my recitals and it wasn't enough. wasn't what she deserved. love, in his experience, that was usually the one missing piece, the things parents had the hardest time figuring out. love was what she wanted. "i'm sorry." again, because god, he would have loved her. he would have showered her in so much love she wouldn't know what it was to live without it. and had she been there, maybe noah wouldn't have been so lonely, maybe they could have been friends, maybe they would be as close as richard and theo were, two against the world. it was always easiest to fight the monsters out there when you weren't alone "i, i know, i might do it anyway, just so you know." an infinite amount of apologies wouldn't be enough. "well, i have about forty five empty rooms back in the main house if you need it." he was joking, well, mostly. "got two here too, if you'd prefer." his heart whined. his brain seemed to be working overtime to not let it break. "you don't gotta take either though." he was nodding along to her words and taking mental notes, like he did when he was back in school. hana. one h, one n. danya, her friend, good, kind, keeps tabs on her. people from school, not important enough to name. "did you not want to go to college? do you have any plans? what, what do you wanna do?" there wasn't a hint of judgement there in his tone, only sincere interest. if she didn't want college, then college wouldn't be done. it was that simple. if she wanted to be a singer, an actress, a coal miner, he would support it, it was that easy.

from what hana had learned from wikipedia, because, yes, both her biological parents had wikipedia pages. what the fuck? how likely was that with other kids like her? "i figured, nash, it was a joke." hana laughed, pulling a knee up to her chest as she watched him sit down across from her. "you like oscar wilde?" hana asked, eye wide, a smile tugging at her lips. finally. someone who got it. "it's okay. really. it wasn't like they didn't take care of me, or whatever. they fed me. clothed me. showed up to recitals and stuff." she gave a one shoulder shrug, like she didn't even care about them. "you don't have to say it forever nash. i promise. i'm not going to suddenly resent you." he wanted to know her. her. her. no one had ever said that to her before. no one, and all at once that felt profoundly sad. like she should have know how sad that was before the fact, but until someone told her, she couldn't see it. "i am kind of between places right now. crashing on a friend's couch. i grew up in austin though. i'm in dallas right now though. no siblings. which, like, good. i don't think my parents were great at being, you know, parents? not that they didn't love or care for me, i just think, being adopted, there was this disconnect. and it was like, i couldn't tell what it was, but they were always in on the secret. so it wasn't until found out the truth that it all made sense, you know?" hana could be so cavalier sometimes, there was an earnestness to talking about her parents. she really thought they tried, but they never caught on. and it didn't help that hana was a rebellious kid who never liked to listen. "i have a few friends. dayna, the friend in dallas, she is-- she's good. and kind. and she knows i am here. i have a few friends from school, but most of them graduated high school and raced off to university or college."

[the-archxr]

So, now that I'm freshly widowed (Eddie dearest 😭), what did you think of season 4?? 💕

Well first, my condolences. I haven’t cried that hard at a death in a long time, so I get it 😂

But secondly, I have a lot of thoughts about it, so to sum it up in general (so that way this post isn’t miles long), I feel so-so about it??

I liked it very much (vol 1 more than vol 2) but there were some aspects that I strongly disliked to the point where they were kinda hard to ignore.

Here are just a few I didn’t like (with extra details cause I’m bored and need to rant):

Mike Wheeler (no I will not elaborate. Other than the fact that Mike from season 3 on is not the fucking heart of the group.)

other than Noah Schnapp’s amazing fucking acting, especially in THOSE two scenes, I didn’t like that Will was pretty much sidelined again. Like considering he’s technically supposed to be the main character (the one the entire show started with and is essentially about), ever since season 3 he’s not really involved at all. Although it seems that with the ending of season 4, he’ll (hopefully) be in season 5 a lot more, so we’ll see how that pans out.

now my least favourite thing that happened this season was the weird Nancy/Steve romance rekindling. Especially since they didn’t really take it anywhere at the ending (not that it would’ve mattered, I still wouldn’t have liked it). The entire thing seemed pointless and completely contradictory to their character development(s) in prior seasons, ESPECIALLY Steve’s. Steve’s whole character arc after him and Nancy’s breakup (and mainly in season 3), was that he moved on from her. Nancy and Steve are great characters, but to each other romantically, they represent the stereotype/the expected partner. Nancy’s whole thing was that she didn’t want to be with Steve because she didn’t want to end up like her parents. Which stems from Steve originally wanting to be with her, making plans at 18 to marry her and have children because that’s what’s expected from his parents. These are things they moved on from up until the Duffers decided to fuck that up, so by bringing it back it just felt empty; like Nancy was just lonely and had nothing better to do, and that Steve can’t possibly be with anyone else who compliments his personality.

and speaking of Steve (even though it isn’t limited to him)… I was really hoping to get some more insight into the lives of others? more character development, or explanations of other underdeveloped characters?? We got a lot with Max (and her story arc was great, don’t get me wrong), but I feel like there’s so much stuff we still don’t know/haven’t seen from others?? For example, since season two, I’ve been dying to see the Harringtons. I get the whole point is they’re never around and they’re shitty people, but I want to see interactions between them and Steve. I want to see Dustin talk about his dad (is he dead, are his parents divorced??), and I want them to address Hoppers ptsd from being in a Russian prison, instead of making jokes about him loosing weight.

Like I said, I really did like this season. But similar to Multiverse of Madness, a lot of it felt like ramped up action sequences without any “meat” behind it.

Then again, this season was to primarily set-up the next one. And with season 5 being the final one, hopefully, they tie up some of these looser ends??

But anyways how did y’all like it??

✨the-archxr thoughts✨

[therandomfish]

Metal Lords: How to melt faces and make friends

Hi everyone, my name is Nick Braunton and I am a Randomfish. I am also a very huge fan of Heavy Metal, the genre not the film made in 1981. On Netflix they just released the film called Metal Lords. Holy crap that movie! I’ve now watched it multiple times and wow is it awesome. Starring Adrian Greensmith, Noah Urrea and Isis Hainsworth this movie centres around 2 dudes called Hunter and Kevin who are in a band called Skullfucker and they’re looking for a bassist for battle of the bands. How best to describe this movie? I would say it was School of Rock esque but that’s not even it. There isn’t a Jack Black character in this. It’s about a couple of guys and eventually the girl that joins them becoming a band and learning about the strength and the beauty of heavy metal. It’s the type of film that you wouldn’t of seen being made during the era where every religious leader, every overprotective parent and every head of school saw heavy metal as a genre something to be stamped out because it meant losing your children to a world of orgies and drugs and they were the ruling social class and therefore anything that threatened them or seemed to would be destroyed. This movie talks about the good things from the music genre, the idea of taking control, of living life your way despite what everyone else says and it’s about a love for the music, which was kind of what the metalheads where about anyway, the drugs and orgies were just a wonderful by product.

The acting in this is brilliant where we have Adrian Greensmith as Hunter the unapologetic yet well meaning metal head, Noah Urrea as Kevin, the nerdy best friend who becomes as metal as Hunter and Isis Hainsworth as Emily, the cellist who joins the band and ends up hooking up with Kevin. Each one of theses characters does have a cool arc they go on in this movie; Hunter learns to let go of wanting to push everyone away so no one will hurt him including his friends and family along with being a better friend to both Kevin and Emily. Kevin becomes more confident in himself and even has a moment where he’s playing drums for another band after he and Hunter fall out where he ends up in a hot tub with a hot girl and she’s kissing his neck and he’s getting advice from various metal legends Tom Morello, Kirk Hammett, Rob Halford, and Scott Ian about being with a girl he actually likes or some random hot girl who may never speak to him again afterwards. Though I have to say I love Emily’s arc. She, much like the boys isn’t well favoured in the school social hierarchy and has to take meds in order to keep her anger under control and when she doesn’t she has outbursts which honestly I can totally relate to as I had moments of unbridled anger back when I was a teen too. She is shown to have a crush on Kevin pretty early on from when they first start speaking and is also the one to suggest that they start dating and everything else though she is very aware and doesn’t take things too fast for either of them. She and Hunter having a fight becomes the catalyst of Kev and Hunter’s fight in the film but we do see how Hunter can learn to compromise and be a good friend as opposed to being a complete dick all the time and he apologises for upsetting her and to Kevin too. But like I said all the actors are amazing, I highlighted the 3 main leads only but the whole cast does pretty brilliantly well.

If you’re not a metal fan because you genuinely can’t stand the genre then by all means never watch this movie because it is everywhere but if you’ve never really listened to metal before and might be even the least bit curious then I heartly recommend this film to help you get into this mighty genre of music. And if you are a fan then what the hell are you doing if you haven’t seen this yet? Go…. Watch it already!

Randomfish out

[neopronounsmybelovaed]

So, a while back there was a decent bit of discussion about books with neopronoun characters- I just got a copy of Meet Cute Diary and read it within two days. So. I figured we could have a chat about the use of neopronouns in the book!

First of all, summary. The main character, Noah, runs a tumblr blog called the "meet cute diary" about trans people finding happy relationships. All the stories are made up, but it does help people. And then someone writes a callout post to expose the stories as fake, so he enters a fake dating AU to earn back his reputation. This will go great. (This does not go great.)

The author- Emery Lee- uses e/em pronouns! I'm an author who uses neopronouns working on a book with a character who uses neopronouns, so it's really awesome to see em and eir book- it gives me a lot of hope for my future, honestly.

Plus, e's a talented author. I think e also has a book coming in 2022, that I am definitely going to keep an eye out for.

This isn't really related to neopronouns, but the protagonist of the book ran a tumblr blog trying to bring hope and positivity to trans people. And then encountered a lot of stress and harassment. Which was interesting to see written out, to say the least.

The character who uses neopronouns is named Devin, and e uses e/em. There's a part of the book where e briefly uses xe/xem, briefly uses they/them, and e uses he/him on the beginning, but at the end it seems like e/em is what works for em.

So, Devin. E is smashing those nonbinary stereotypes. First of all, e is absolutely not written as "woman lite" or whatever. E's AMAB, which- in a culture that sees most nonbinary people as like, a woman with short hair and jeans- is definitely something that deserves some representation.

Another big stereotype we're all familiar with for neopronoun users is that we're all young. Devin is still young, because the story centers around teenagers- but e's a year older than the main character and presented as pretty mature.

The book also dispells the notion that nonbinary people HAVE to use they/them. E uses they/them for 22 pages of a 391 page book (and a lot of those pages don't even include em.) Eir pronouns at the beginning are he/him, even if e identifies as nonbinary from the beginning. Which, nice. Binary-using nonbinary people are valid as hell. And the use of neopronouns is also very very cool!

We loving holding a middle finger up to stereotypes.

Introducing kids to pronouns from a young age is done in the book and explained why that's important.

Page 170

"Why'd you start by introducing your pronouns? Kids don't even know what that means."

"Maybe not, but they're going to hear about that stuff somewhere, so why not start now? I can open them up to it here, or I can wait for someone else to teach them wrong."

Hell yeah! And the kids don't totally get it (One girl says "I'm Bailey. I pronounce she.") but they've got the spirit and it's being normalized from a young age!

Another good message about pronouns- that I really need to internalize, don't I?- is that they're your pronouns, bitch, you don't need them to make anyone else happy.

Page 190

"I don't want to make things too complicated, though. I just- I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with he/him anymore."

"Devin, they're your pronouns, You don't have to consider anyone else before you pick them."

Also! Noah shows us the 100% CORRECT reaction to an unfamiliar set of pronouns: "I've never heard those sounds before in my life, but I nod anyway. It's not my job to tell Devin what pronouns xe can or can't use." (213)

And then he uses those pronouns for em until e tells him not to. No "your pronouns are made up." No "you make our community look bad." No "whatever other transmedicalist exclusionist bullshit rhetoric exists somewhere." Just acceptance.

The book also uses xenogenders. Not explicitly- like, e doesn't say "I'm xenogender"- but the concept is there.

Page 223

"The truth is, if I had to describe it, I'd say I'm like two percent milk."

I turn to em, eyebrows scrunched. "You're like what?"

"You know, two percent milk? Like I'm two percent boy, but no one knows what the hell the other ninety-eight percent is."

Which, that's pretty similar to a xenogender. Even if e doesn't start identifying as two-percent-milk-gender, the concept is there. It's a metaphor because common terms like masc, femme, neutral, don't work to describe a gender. So e uses an object that describes eir gender- milk. Two percent milk.

And though Noah does correct em on how two percent milk actually works (it's not 2% milk, 98% something else. 2% is a fat measurement), he doesn't ridicule the metaphor. Good job dude.

Devin also, obviously, cycles through some different genders and pronouns before settling on 2% boy and e/em. Before the book, e identified as a trans girl, before realizing that wasn't right either. Some people off-screen were assholes about that, but Noah looks at that reaction and goes "that's bullshit!" And he is absolutely right.

Characters are also corrected when they mess up on eir pronouns.

Page 248

"Well, you still talk about him like you think he's pretty cool."

"Devin uses e/em pronouns," I say.

All in all, excellemt use of neopronouns in this book. A lot of other fun stuff too. Would recommend.

[mikewheeler]

Vent o’clock: People need to understand that shipping will and mike is fine, but it’s truly (and I’m sorry to say this to Mike and will fans) not gonna happen. Not only is it too late to develop a relationship like this in the last season of a show. But also, There has been no indication AT ALL of mike returning wills feeling and a script that however way you interpret it isn’t proof because the millions of people who need to know these indications aren’t gonna read the script, if they were to want to drop hints at this “developing relationship” they need to make it clear for everyone not 1% of the audience who read the scripts. Moreover, people seem to interpret mikes insufferable (I don’t personally find him insufferable but I can see how other maybe do) character traits on him being secretly closeted which I know for a fact is not the case and NOT because I think it’s impossible for mike to be gay and there can only be one gay character in the whole show but because and talking from a writing stand point it would be too late in the show to establish it (look at how much it took them to establish will). What’s so annoying to me and what I see people putting as *proof* is whenever anyone talks about wills sexuality they always take it as confirmation to mike and wills relationship and it’s what started the *queer baiting* nonsense. Like wills SEXUALITY is established not mike and wills relationship, I swear I’ve seen people use Noahs interview from when he confirmed his sexuality and being in love with mike as proof for byler and it’s like ??? This is actually disrespectful to will, that his own sexuality and him coming to terms with it is always lumped with a non existent relationship (smh) And the main reason why they won’t happen is because they’ve always and I mean always said that Mike and eleven is their main couple they want them to be Superman and lois lane or iron man and pepper potts, leia and Han it is very clear that they want them to be like that iconic sci-fi couple that can be remembered till the show ends and years to come (whether they successfully make an iconic relationship it’s not the point but I’m talking about their intention). Anyways that’s my rant, I’m just so annoyed that people think that people who want eleven and mike to stay together are just “Milevens” like I’m not a shipper and I don’t care I’m just a fan of the show but my social media has been full of byler content and I’m just confused like there’s a difference between interpretation and just blatant delusion. Byeeee thanks for listening xoxo

Yeah I mean all of this discourse very much exists only inside the fandom bubble, I think that’s the most important thing to remember. No matter what our opinions are, we’re all weirdos that spend a lot more time than the average Joe talking about stranger things. That’s the first thing to remember lol.

Genuinely I do not think anyone outside the fandom really saw what went down in season 4 and thought mike has feelings for will. The “mike fighting homosexuality” theory very much exists only in the fandom space… nobody outside of tumblr/tik tok saw will crying in 4x08 and mike not even noticing and thought “damn mike is in love with will but just can’t acknowledge it.” I think a good portion of the GA was annoyed with mike bc they’re protective of will and thought he was a bad friend (and imo they’re wrong lmao but that’s a diff issue) but to the millions of ppl watching this show, the issue of “will mike and will get together?” is nonexistent.

Truly everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think that needs to be reiterated. There’s nothing weird or wrong about shipping Mike and Will. But I do get that it has gotten a little out of hand, post vol 2 especially, so I get the need to vent. Like some people have been disrespectful and frankly a little wackadoodle in the way they’re treating others. So long as everyone stays in their lane and nobody annoys me with their opinions (e.g. reblogging my gifsets with ur paragraphs long b*ler analysis in the tags), I’m cool.

[beepboop358]

Victor Creel Theories

(also includes ST movie DNA series: Star Wars)

Victor Creel is described as "a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s." We know he will be institutionalized at Penthurst mental hospital, where Peter Ballard works, based on leaked on set pics.

There a few possibilities regarding his character:

He could be a former test subject with some kind of powers and a connection to the upside down (which would also follow the even/odd season pattern of a main character being directly involved with the upside down creatures) I think it's highly likely that Victor Creel will be involved with the mystery/danger in Hawkins in some way, and have a connection to the upside down. He could also be disturbed on top of this, and he could be involved in Eleven's storyline this season.

That he is not a test subject and is ONLY mentally disturbed.

He may be related to one of the already established characters. Most likely Joyce, and maybe Terry but it's a stretch.

Before I go any further into that last possibility, I just want to preface that this idea of an "evil father/grandfather with powers" could be a purposeful Star Wars parallel. The Duffer brothers have already paralleled and used Star Wars references a few times in the show:

In Star Wars, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, and Palpatine is Rey's grandfather (aka the literal worst guy in the universe). A common theme in ST is abusive/bad fathers - that post here. Interesting...

Palpatine is also Anakin Skywalker's father, so Luke and Leia are both the grandkids of Palpatine as well as Rey is, but it's unclear if they are just force midichlorian related or actually dna related as well but I won't get into that here!

Luke and Rey are both force sensitive (have powers), so are Darth Vader and Palpatine; their descendants (kid/grandkid) have powers, and so do they (father/grandfather) The descendants use their powers for good, while the ancestors use their power for evil. Who has powers in ST? Eleven and Will - and they both already have this idea of abusive/bad/evil fathers: Will has an abusive father Lonnie, and Eleven has an abusive father figure Dr. Brenner "Papa".

So... Victor Creel being the evil/bad grandfather to either Eleven or Will and the evil/bad father to Joyce or Terry, would make a FULL Star Wars parallel to people who are morally good and have powers (Will and El - Luke and Rey), discovering they are the descendant of an evil male figure who also has powers (Victor Creel - Darth Vader and Palpatine)

If Victor Creel turns out to be the father of anyone in the show my bets are it's either Joyce Byers or maybeee Terry Ives.

If he was a test subject, its likely he went "crazy" with some of his powers and the government couldn't cover it up so they declare him mentally insane to get him committed, and he probably goes insane being locked away as well. Personally, I think he may be 001 or an early test subject, when they were still working out the kinks of the program, and I think he does have a big connection to the upside down.

The Duffer Brother's on s4: "In Hawkins a new horror is beginning to surface, something long buried, something that connects everything"....

Now let's get into the possibilities for Creel's storyline/who he could be related to (split into 3 parts).

Part 1: Creel could be Joyce's father

Based on Victor Creel's description as "disturbed" and that he is "in a psychiatric hospital", it could connect him to Joyce's bloodline.

There are several comments in the show hinting to this idea of mental instability in Joyce's family:

s1 ep.5: When Lonnie comes to visit in s1 after Will goes missing, Joyce says to Lonnie "No, don't look at me like that, like how everyone is looking at me, like I'm out of my damn mind" He responds saying "I think you need to consider the possibility that this is all in your head. Remember your Aunt Darlene?" Joyce quickly replies, "No, this is not that."

That conversation, although quick, is very telling. Lonnie is implying that Joyce had an aunt who was mentally unstable - and Joyce clearly knows about her aunt being unstable because she responds to his comment by saying what's she's experiencing is not that (the mental instability of her aunt)

s2 ep.2: Joyce says to Bob, "this is not a normal family", when he suggest moving out of Hawkins.

I used to think Joyce was always was referring to the whole 'my son got stuck in an alternate dimension with supernatural monsters and is now traumatized, and we were sworn to secrecy by the government' thing but maybe she is also referring to her biological family.

s1 ep.2: When they are searching for Will, one of the other police officers, says "Joyce is one step from the edge" and the other officer responds "She has been several steps for quite a while now".

If Joyce is related to Victor Creel biologically, and he did also happen to be a test subject, has powers, or has some other relation to the upside down, this could possibly have contributed to whatever kind of abilities Will has, because he would be a descendant of Creel. But Joyce does not seem to have any powers and neither does Jonathan. If they were related to Creel, it's odd that they both didn't get powers, but Will did. I've always thought Will was born with his powers, like El.

We know almost nothing about Joyce's past, it's never discussed in the slightest in the show, which I feel like is purposeful. We don't know Joyce's maiden name; she doesn't change it back after she and Lonnie divorce. Maybe the Duffers are saving Joyce's backstory for s4 (and possibly s5), like I think they are doing with Will and El's connection. Will, El, Hopper, and Joyce were pictured in a series of 4 tweets posted by the stranger writers, hinting to the main 4 storylines for season 4. My analyzation of this tweet here.

I think it's possible that Joyce's storyline this season could also have to do with her past- not just her searching for Hopper- but also more personal information about her. Perhaps we will see flashbacks of younger Joyce and maybe learn about her biological relatives.

Noah also said this would be the darkest season for Will, so this idea of being the grandkid of someone evil or disturbed could fit into that.

Part 2: Creel could be Terry's father/Eleven's grandfather

The only other person I could see potentially having a biological; relation to Victor Creel could be Terry Ives and Eleven, (because it would complete the Star Wars parallel mentioned earlier) but it's a stretch for several reasons, the main one being that Terry and Becky's father Bill Ives, died in a car crash (year unknown).

So for Victor Creel to be Terry's father that either has to be:

Her adoptive father OR

Her mother cheated and led Mr. Ives to believe Terry was his kid but her father is really Victor Creel, and Becky is actually Bill Ives son (which would explain why Becky has no powers)

Right of the bat it's interesting Terry's father's name is Bill. Bill is a nickname for William (Will Byers full name is William), and Billy's a nickname also for William... Hmmm....

Immediately after El is born, Terry is adamant that Brenner stole her child to use as a weapon to fight the commies BECAUSE SHE HAD SPECIAL ABILITIES - and she's completely right about everything. How does Terry know El had powers immediately after she was born? Because she knows she has developed some kind of special abilities from the experiments as well. When El goes to visit her mother in s2, THE LIGHTS FLICKER, just like they do when the upside down is near, but it's not Eleven controlling it. Her Aunt Becky says it's just the wiring, and Eleven responds: "IT'S MAMA. She wants to talk." And then we see Terry's NOSE BLEED, just like El's does when she uses her powers.

Quick side note about El's biological father is Andrew Rich: (It's revealed in the canon novel Suspicious Minds that Andrew Rich is El's father) He was a college student who got expelled from school due to protesting the Nixon address, making him eligible to be drafted in the Vietnam war, and he died in battle. Terry was involved in the Project MKUltra experiments at Hawkins National Laboratory in College, under the direction of Dr. Martin Brenner, but didn't know she was pregnant at the time. Andrew never even knew Terry was pregnant, meaning she was extremely early on in her pregancy at the time he was sent away, not even Terry was aware yet. It's also stated in this book that BRENNER HAD A HAND IN GETTING ANDREW EXPELLED SO HE COULD SEND ANDREW AWAY. The novel states that Brenner has Andrew drafted because he wants to SCARE Terry, to show her how much power he has over her life. There's definitely some history between Terry and Brenner that we don't know about yet.

If Victor Creel is in fact Joyce's father it's interesting that the powers seem to have skipped a generation with Joyce, and also one kid with the Byers, but if Victor Creel is Terry's father, no generations were skipped in passing down powers. ANYWAYS, this is all just theories and speculation since we have no actual concrete reasons to believe he will be related to Joyce or Terry.

Part 3: The possibility that Creel could be involved in Eleven's storyline this season does not rely on them being biologically related.

**One of the filming locations for this season is the Claremont House, which is RUMORED to be Creel's house and also "Vecna's lair" the new monster for s4 (unconfirmed) This is the house the Hawkins group goes into in the ST4 sneak peek, where they see the grandfather clock striking midnight. If that's true, there's a connection between Creel and the upside down and having powers, which could connect Creel to Eleven. The Duffers: "In Hawkins a new horror is beginning to surface, something long buried, something that connects everything". This thing "that connects everything", could be Creel's storyline (his possible connection to the lab/upside down/person in the show), because Creel's storyline also spans all the way back to the 1950's and before that, so there's our "long buried" part most likely.

Robert Englund recently revealed in *an interview* that his character Victor Creel gouges his eyes out, making him unable to see. Englund also mentions what it's like working with Millie Bobby Brown and talks about the first time her met her, he doesn't mention any other cast members in detail like he does Millie.

He's clearly working closely with Millie's character Eleven.

But why? I think Creel could be involved with Eleven getting her powers back, and her reliving her past. Once the government baddies realize El has no powers, they're gonna want them back. If Creel was in fact a test subject, maybe there is some kind of connection between them, Such as Eleven revisiting what happened to her in her past and how that could relate to her getting her powers back.

Another thought I had was that perhaps the gruesome murder he committed is somehow related to something that ends up impacting in Eleven's life.

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Whatever Victor Creel's storyline is, it will be an important one, and it will carry somewhat into s5, since he will be a returning character. He is not signed as a series regular, but as a recurring character, which means we don't really know to what capacity he will be in s5. It could be flashbacks mostly, or he could have just as big or small of a role.

Source: indie wire

That detail about eyes being gouged out reminds me of fear street 1666 when the townsmen who was sacrificed to the devil becomes possessed and gouges the kids eyes out. Leigh Janick, director of fear street, is married to Ross Duffer. They both direct and make horror/sci-fi themed series about kids in a small town set in the 80's, who fight supernatural evil with a heavy undertone of queer themes, that are even filmed in a lot of the same locations (the mall, the town streets, etc.) I'm not saying it's the same thing, it definitely won't be. But there's so many similarities between ST and Fear Street, I thought I would mention this as another.