#and i don't mean the dolls

[mothdust23]

"MISS, COME IN! COME IN!!"

Hinder's voice crackled in her ears. Everything was sore. One of her wings is painfully bent, and when she rises and brushes the rubble off, a burning smell reaches her nose. Rana glances down at her arms, feeling a strange pain, and notices cracklike scars running through her flesh, still smoking. That explains the burning smell..

"Yeah, yeah, I.. I hear ya.." she manages to cough out, wiping soot from her eyes. Her hat lays in tatters, the remains of the brim still burning with unnaturally scarlet flames. The witch plucks a scrap from the ground, watching with growing concern as it reduces itself to ashes before her eyes.

"You were hit and went down, these ones feared the worst.." Hinder whispers, projecting a feeling of worry and comfort to its witch. "Are you still able to move? You should get out of there."

Rana didn't enjoy going out without head protection, but..

"Not until I finish the mission. Are you still in contact with Harm and Hurt?"

She puts her hand up to lower her hat, but only meets air. Scowling, she climbs up out of the crater she's stuck in and looks over the horizon. A fortress stands far in the distance, with dozens of pinpricks of red light standing between it and her. The enemy.

"They're on their way, miss. This one wants to note it could send out Heal to-"

She lowers her hand to her ear, hurriedly yelling "NO." to the doll. "Heal is too fragile, it wasn't made for a battlefield like this."

"..Yes, miss. Nevertheless, help is on the way."

"WHAT!? HELP ISN'T DURABLE ENOUGH FOR AN ACTIVE CONFLICT EITHER!"

"O-oh- no, this one didn't mean Help the doll, rather help the concept!! It apologizes!"

She lowers her hand, sighing. Hinder may be a mess at times, but it was the only doll she made who could communicate with her and her other creations. "It's fine. ETA on Harm and Hurt?"

"They're close. This one will stand by for further orders."

"HELLO, MISS!!"

"Ah, finally-"

Two combat dolls in matching green kevlar run up to her, one of which is smiling unnaturally wide. They're both covered in scorch marks, and the smiling one's hands are covered in reddish liquid. Unlike its halberd-carrying twin, it's unarmed.

"Hello Harm, hello Hurt. Are you two doing alright?" Despite her own injuries, Rana doted on them, using her sleeve to clean red liquid off the smiling one's cheek.

"Yes, miss! This one took out thirty-seven enemy soldiers with its bare hands!! Is miss proud? Is it? Is it?? IS IT?" it says, grabbing onto her sleeve as she lowers it back to her side. Its smile widens.

"Yes, very proud. What about you, Hurt?"

"Thirty eight, miss! Are you prouder of this one?"

Hurt smirks at its twin, who blushes a bright green and looks at its witch in betrayal.

"Now now, it isn't a contest. I'm proud of you both." Rana mutters, putting fingers to the bridge of her nose. "We have many more to get through before we reach the fortress."

Hurt and Harm step back and whisper to each other. Harm points to its witch's head, only for Hurt to scoff and flick its nose with its hand.

"Miss, where's your hat?" Harm asks, leaning out from behind its witch. Its expression is imperceptible.

"Huh? Oh, one of those dreadful soldiers shot it off with some sort of firebolt. I'm fine, don't you worry."

"But.. if you don't wear the big hat.. you gave these ones an order.. to kill everything in this valley.."

Hurt tightens the grip on its spear.

"Yes, so I did. Why do you as-"

Harm's claws are parried by its twin's blade, inches from Rana's throat.

"W-what is that one doing!? This is our witch!"

"She isn't wearing the hat! She doesn't count!! This one wants to kill her! It wants her to be the 38th!"

Rana steps back in horror, green light forming in her palms, as Harm giggles and knocks the halberd to the ground.

"This one remembers, miss! It remembers its old life! This one used to be the enemy!"

"I.. I gave you a better life. Calm down, you're not supposed to remember."

"T-this one was a civilian, miss! It never wanted to kill! It n-never wanted to harm!!"

"Harm, choose your next words very carefully-"

A swipe of claws, a flash of green light, and Harm collapses into inanimate pieces. Hurt stares at the pile in horror and kneels by it, picking up a fragment of Harm's face. Its eyes are empty, and its smile reminds the doll of a skull's.

"How.. how many of these ones, were the enemy, miss?"

"...."

"Miss.."

"We have a fortress to capture, Hurt. Do you want to end up like your twin..?"

"N-no, but, please miss-"

"THEN KILL THEM. FOR ME. FOR YOUR OWNER. I GAVE YOU LIFE."

Hurt flinches, tearing up, and shakily holds up its spear.

"A-are we.. even the good guys, miss?"

...

...

"I'm sorry, everyone. After they called in air strikes, Harm and Hurt.. couldn't make it out."

Her many dolls sit and stand around her, Heal tending to her injuries and burns.

"They.. they're dead..? But.. they were so brave.."

"This one c-can't sleep without Hurt in the room protecting it.."

"This one was going to help Harm with its nightmares.. it.. it never got to help.."

Rana looks up and sees Hinder staring at her from the balcony.

"This one heard the whole thing." it whispers in her mind.

..well, that'll be an annoying doll to replace. Luckily, she has all the raw material she'll ever need.

[mollysunder]

I know Heimerdinger's Christian Linke's favorite character, and I sort of tolerated it in s1, but now it feels like things are a little too indulgent. Heimerdinger gets to team up with Ekko to launder his reputation through Ekko and the Firelights. Heimerdinger gets the first narrative game and second character teaser in the promotional cycl. Heimerdinger gets to SING A SONG that's included on the s2 Arcane soundtrack (Spin the Wheel).

Maybe I'd be less annoyed if the show at least did more to acknowledge Heimerdinger's failings as a leader, but his character description can't even do that. This is how the official Arcane website describes Heimerdinger:

"Heimerdinger warned the Piltover Council about the dangers of using magic without tangible solutions for safeguarding its use. Learning from his mistakes with Jayce, Heimerdinger inspires Ekko to keep looking for a solution and works with him to solve the problem, instead of just offering advice."

That's not Heimerdinger's main problem! The problem is the fact he's the person most singularly responsible for the state of Zaun and Piltover. It feels like the show and the cast are just dancing around the fact that Heimerdinger technically has the highest body count in the show (Day of Ash, pollution, extreme poverty, etc). The one time someone puts him to task (Jayce), the show makes it seem like Jayce is wrong or overstepped, and yeah he did do it for Viktor's sake, but Jayce was right! Heimerdinger's bad at his job, he shouldn't be in a leadership position if he's a bad leader.

[uriswhumpchamber]

I'm here to bring y'all some living doll whumpee propaganda - and I mean living doll, not conditioned whumpee who thinks of themself as an object (those are good but y'all write them better than me).

And I do mean propaganda.

No mess, no proof of someone living having been hurt. Blood splattered means violence happened, but... What is a bit of broken porcelain, or whatever other material left on the floor, if not something to just sweep away and put with the trash?

No chance at salvation. Who would try to save Whumpee, after all? It's not like they're an actual, living, thinking being - yes, anyone else in their situation could (arguably, but in every setting there's at least one revolutionary) be argued as a person, someone could want to save them. But Whumpee is a plaything. Nobody will come for them.

Being made for someone else. Being made, their purpose defined from the start, whatever it may be. Specially good when that purpose is "take a beating without dying or breaking that much". Specially good when it very much isn't, but that's what happens anyway - with Whumpee not being able to even expect it, no matter how clear the signs, because that's just not how it's supposed to be.

Failing at that purpose, when it's the second - because now they're in pain, now they're suffering, and so it doesn't matter anymore what they were meant to do - they can't. And who- what even are they, at that point?

No chance for adaptation. Whumpee isn't a living being, after all: they can't get used to pain, to overstimulation, to discomfort, to stress. They can't grow around things, can't have their body change to save them, in whatever little ways a living being can make themselves survive - no scar tissue, no numbing of the feelings when it gets too much. Whatever happens, they can only take it - and keep taking it, their body responding in the same exact way each time.

The way conditioning works for a being that's meant to be obedient. It's no longer a matter of Whumpee breaking down and becoming obedient, it's a matter of them refusing to be reprogrammed to Whumper's whims - even if everything in their brain is trying to cave in.

The chance for dehumanization to hit even harder. After all, if Whumpee believes themself to be a person, in whatever way "person" can be defined to include them, then what happens when they're shown just how different they are to a real person? What happens when Whumper decides to correct them, no matter what it takes?

[descendant-of-truth]

I think the other reason I don't really get into ships as portrayed by fandom culture is that it seems like the mindset is more like. "I want these characters to be in a Romantic Relationship(TM)" instead of "I want these characters' relationship to be romantic"

What I mean here is that, so often I see pairings enacting romance tropes to the point of heavily altering or downright replacing their original dynamic - as if the people behind it only understand romance as a series of checklists to tick off. Couples like to kiss and sleep in the same bed and flirt with each other, so it doesn't matter who the characters are, if they're a couple then naturally they'll do those things, right??

And that's where the whole thing starts to lose me, because I would assume that the appeal of shipping characters is, y'know... the characters? Rather than just, the idea of a couple? If I'm thinking about how it'd be cool for them to be in love, my first thought is always "so how would they show it," because just like everything else about a person, the answer is going to be different on a case-by-case basis.

Maybe the characters involved aren't really into kissing, but they like arranging date activities. Maybe they aren't committed to the structure of dating at all, and just want to be around each other whenever they can. And even if they are the types to like doing traditionally romantic things, that doesn't suddenly erase whatever else they had going on before they started adding that on top of it.

I'm not saying that the more typical romance tropes and activities are bad, just that they're applied kind of excessively, regardless of whether or not they actually work for the characters involved. I want to see my favorite characters having relationships that are true to who they are, not what the stock depiction of a couple says they should be.

[gertstarlight]

south asian sapphics in media <3

[heuffopla]

A little advice for new tumblr users who may be perceived as even just a lil bit feminine by others and who would like to post selfies. Do NOT use any of the usual selfie tags like "selfie" or "OOTD" or whatever because there are weird people checking those tags and they WILL message you weird shit without your consent.

Instead I'd recommend just having a fun lil tag that you made up like "I look very cool yay" something fun just for you if you want to find your pictures again later.

Trust me, your selfies will not go viral on tumblr.com, do not use the usual tags.

[spasikonik]

hii this is my first post i've never used tumblr before !!!

[spacerangersam]

i realised that fanny died in the middle of the night, inexplicably with her hair done up and a day dress, so decided to give her some more appropriate night clothes

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Are those little dolls made to look like 3zun as animals in the most recent comic? I need to know how/when Nie Mingjue got those. Are they gifts from Lan Xichen or Nie Huaisang? Did Jin Guangyao sew them himself and stuff them full of evil talismans in case the song didn't work? So many possibilities.

The 3zun dolls were a self-indulgent reference to this (previously abandoned) doodle! As for who made them in universe? I'll leave it up for interpretation B*)

[phoenixcatch7]

The Wayne doll house

Have some haunted doll au, since it's been bubbling away in my mind.

The bat cave is large and sprawling, many layers and tunnels and hollowed out cracks in the walls. It takes many years to fully reinforce to prevent stray kids from tripping into stagnant waters or fall down crags as he once did. The doll cave, as it becomes known, is in one of the deepest, darkest corners, one where the lights of the furnished caverns above don't reach.

It's one late night sitting at the computer when it suddenly occurs to Bruce that his first encounter with a doll was at the well entrance, many levels above.

There was nothing there when he went back.

-

The justice league stared at the subaru. The subaru, having no eyes, did not stare back.

The seven of them had just finished a very long, arduous mission, and narrowly escaped government censure after the base they'd been raiding had turned out to belong to some corrupt official. With the alert up, they couldn't escape through city airspace, or even in their hero suits.

So civilian it was.

Batman had hotwired some bloke's car while the rest of them ducked into alleys and shop bathrooms, but the problem remained. There was seven of them. And five seats.

"I can shift into something more suitable for being carried," suggested j'onn, "but I believe one of us might have to hide."

"Foot well?" Hal tried, and everyone looked around at the tall, bulky, broad heroes.

"Think they'd have to go in the boot," Barry finally said. Everyone immediately turned to him. "No."

Batman spoke up before the discussion could devolve.

"I think.... I would be best for that."

The team stared.

"Batsy?"

Having no lungs meant he could not drag in the tired sigh he wished, but whatever force allowed this body to talk was capable of approximating something suitably resigned.

"As I am, I am... incapable of fully passing as human. It would be best if I remained out of sight."

"So just? Go change? I swear we won't be weird about whoever you are under the mask. Even if you're like, bald."

"Thank you, Wally, but I'm afraid I'm being serious." Reaching for the mask in broad daylight was unpleasant, but the glue and wires held as he gave it a few thorough tugs. "It doesn't detach."

Everyone stared. Clark reached out as if he wanted to check, but withdrew.

"Do you even have a civilian identity??" Oliver eventually asked. "Because at this point I'm genuinely not sure."

Wayne Enterprises and Queen Industries had a meeting that same evening. "Hn."

"Can we go back to the 'incapable of passing as human' part?!"

"We can discuss it in the car," he snapped, stalking past Barry and popping the boot. "In case you haven't forgotten, we're on a time limit."

For once, that seemed to encourage them, and batman, with great dignity, folded his joints and cape into the small space, ignoring Hal's mutter of 'what kind of contortionist -' as he slammed the lid. With a little shuffling he managed to activate his comms.

"I will inform the watchtower of our delay."

"Batman, they're tapping all outgoing signals, you can't -"

"It won't trigger," he interrupted, before he twisted his consciousness and sent it spiralling across the country.

Bruce awoke with a groan, stretching his limbs and taking a moment to marinate in his annoyance before he reached for the comm and voice modulator on the beside table.

"Batman to watchtower, we've encountered delays. If the Texan state government calls we haven't entered the state in six weeks. Batman out."

-

"Alien?"

"No."

"Reanimated corpse?"

"No."

"Uh... Demon?"

"Hm. No."

"You're not just a meta human, are you?"

"No."

"Vampire?"

"No."

"Robot??"

"No."

"Batsy, please, someone's got to win the bet eventually. How do we even know you're not lying?!"

"You don't," Batman said, not looking up from his paperwork and Flash groaned, letting his sticky notes fall to the floor as he buried his head in his arms.

"One day," he bemoaned to the keyboard, "one day we'll figure it out."

"Until then please keep your eyes on the monitors."

Flash groaned again.

-

Robin ducked under superman's arm as he scuttled down the corridor, laden with the night's haul of snacks. The real problem wasn't getting them - stopping league members from raiding the kitchen would be extremely counterproductive - but keeping them until he could return home to his human body to eat them. Batman had started searching him each time they left and it was really cutting into his daily sugar intake. Unfair! Just because he didn't actually use energy to stay up my night to fight crime, it felt like he did!!

'Oh, you're broken, Robin, oh, don't go out until the glue has fully set, Robin' his arm was fine! It wasn't like there was much crime to be fought on the watchtower anyway! At least not physically.

So he was pretty pleased with himself until he went to set the snacks down and found that the tar like glue they used had soaked through the sleeve and gotten all over his chocolates.

With his other hand, he tried to pry them off, wincing as the wrappers tore and stuck. He tried to shake it, ignoring the way his elbow rattled in the joint.

"Come on, come on - aw, cheezits."

The arm fell off. Robin stared despondently at the limb, surrounded by torn wrappers and dripping black glue where it connected to the elbow. The sour stink of formaldehyde filled the air.

He was going to be in such trouble with Bruce.

The click of the door jerked his head up.

Flash stood in the doorway, wide eyed. Robin stared back.

Flash screamed.

Oh yeah @dehydratedmockingbird have a thing

[codacheetah]

I think it's funny how many ppl draw Loop with the heels fused as part of their body And thus the Universe decreed "You shall be cunty"

[kaymarie-bell]

the Twisted Wonderland is real!!!

[cononeillbreastingboobily]

Izzy Hands, you have a really bad migraine. I challenge you to withstand the bright artificial lighting and strong smells and buy a product from a Lush store, without throwing up. You will have to engage in smalltalk with at least one employee. You have 20 minutes. Your time starts... Now.

[lizardkingeliot]

whyyyy do i feel like i would be ~cheating~ on quentin and eliot if i decided i wanted to write fic for another pairing from another fandom... someone plsssss tell my brain to stop being so silly 💀

[lilacerull0]

it's cool that you think l'amica geniale isn't actually about friendship. you can go fuck yourself