#and i was just like. man. god. i miss having a creative drive

[pechebeche]

sometimes im like maybe i overreacted abt how much my harassment affected me! and then i realize i haven't written anything in nearly two years and it's like no. no i think im still exactly as angry as i should be about losing my most prominent coping mechanism & ability to engage with media without paralyzing fear, lol

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

I am so happy you're back and seem to be doing even a little bit better! We missed you!

I wanted to send a little message, so you can ignore it if it sours your mood or you don't feel like dealing with it, feel no pressure at all! It's just this blog has been a safe space and the community has been so welcoming that I figured I could vent really quick

You know when sometimes the brain just has a really shitty day, like when you draw something and it screams at you that it's trash even though there's nothing wrong with it? I've been having a rough time with it deciding to scream that comfort characters would cheat, probably as an 'You are so unlovable not even fictional characters would be loyal' bullshit. Now, logically, I know this makes -67 sense. But, I was wondering if you could just reassure that like, Sanji, Mihawk, Buggy, Shanks, Crocodile, Blablablablabla long list of One Piece characters you write for, would not cheat? I'm sorry, this sounds lame to even write out but I'm trying to get my brain to stop thinking that asking for help is 'pathetic' because it is not and it only applies that logic to me, never to anyone else.

I dunno man. Brains and bring human ate both though af.

I missed all of you as well. Really and sincerely. I have a tendency to go radio silent when I'm going through a difficult time and I hate it immensely, but hearing that I was missed to makes me all

And yes, oh gods, I know. My brain is frequently my worst enemy. Especially when I'm not writing. My anxiety starts working overtime and my creative drive becomes dedicated to coming up with problems that could potentially happen for me to worry about even more and it's an absolute bitch; or even when I am actively creating and a little voice insists that everything I make is stupid garbage.

This is still very much and always will be a safe space. It definitely is awful to feel that unworthy of love. Full disclosure, I've mentioned in passing before that I've been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder depressive type. My main issue is auditory hallucinations that like to insist that everyone I love and care about only tolerate me out of pity and secretly would rather I not be around, which leads to me isolating myself from people. Huge part of the reason I go silent when life decides to be a bitch. I know it's just as bad feeling that way about comfort characters, if not even worse, when we're supposed to have them to help us get through that kind of bullshit.

So let me provide a little drabble for the one comfort character I’m certain wouldn’t ever allow us to continue being so silly about our worthiness of love and affection, because we’re all worthy of such a basic human need. I may do more later, but one in particular jumped at the opportunity to provide this comfort, and I fear he may counter me with his dreaded puppy-dog-eyes should I even dare attempt to wait.

Good Enough

OPLA!Sanji x AFAB!Reader

Lil drabble thingy

SFW, Hurt/Comfort

Possible TRIGGER WARNINGS for depression, insecurity, self-worth

♫♬ Moonshine ♬♫ — The Fratellis (yes I’m STILL on my Fratellis BS leave me be)

"Never knowing is the most evil feeling, when every answer here is none too appealing"

Sanji had always been a flirt. You knew that from the moment you started working on the wait staff at Baratie. Your trust issues had made it a little difficult for you to open up around the young sous chef (and occasional waiter on the frequent occasion that Zeff kicked him out of the kitchen for insubordination), but it was his outgoing nature and perseverance that had ultimately won you over. He had a way of making you feel like you were the only girl in the world when you were together, doting upon you, all but worshipping the ground you walked on.

But when he was sent out to work the dining area, it always made you nervous. His innate charm, his handsome features—he was nearly always a hit with female customers. No matter how much you told yourself that he was only doing his job, there was always a nagging feeling that maybe there was more to it than that. Watching him interact with a table of pretty young women, who by their clothing and demeanor were obviously far more affluent and sophisticated than you, left you distracted in your own work.

Seeing how they giggled at everything he said, how they fluttered their eyelashes when he brought them their drinks.

How the pretty blonde at the table leaned so close to him while he pointed to something on the menu, close enough to brush her hand across his.

You managed to spill a tray of drinks all over yourself while you were watching, leading to a scolding from the front of house manager. You saw the table of girls from the corner of your eye, giggling at your clumsiness before you were sent off to clean yourself up and change your uniform.

No matter how much you told yourself you were being silly, there was nothing you could do to shake it. The doubts, the thoughts of how easily he could find someone better than you. You had your jaw clenched the entire time you were changing your shirt in the staff restroom, tossing the soiled one aside as you leaned against the sink in front of the mirror and forced yourself to take slow, level breaths.

You were still on the clock. You couldn’t break down. You had to get changed, had to get back to work, had to pretend everything was fine, if he found out you were being so stupid about this then he would definitely drop you like a bad habit, you had to compose yourself or—

Knock knock.

Your eyes darted to the bathroom door, your breath catching in your throat at the sound of the light knock.

“J—just a minute,” you forced out, flinching at the sound of your own voice breaking a little.

Stupid, you’re being stupid, stop it stop it stop it—

A brief silence followed your answer, a silence that seemed to stretch on for miles despite lasting only a few seconds. The familiar, gentle voice that answered after a moment made your hands clench around the porcelain of the sink.

“You alright, love?” You drew in a sharp breath, swallowing, clenching your eyes shut. Of course it was Sanji. You had almost hoped that the manager had come scold you for taking too long. That would have been easier to deal with right now. Your eyes darted to the locked doorknob as it rattled a little. “I heard—”

“I’m fine,” you said immediately, the strained quality of your own words as they met your ears making your hands tighten a little more on the edge of the sink. “I—I just tripped and spilled a few drinks, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?” You gritted your teeth, laying your head back to stare up at the ceiling. Of course he wouldn’t let it go that easily. The doorknob rattled a little again, and you glanced at it as if it were a viper poised to strike out at you at any second.

Stupid, you’re being stupid, don’t—

“You sound—”

You reached out and turned the lock on the doorknob, and turned away from the door, crossing your arms over your half-buttoned shirt and stared down at your feet. After a long moment, you heard the door open behind you.

Evidently you didn’t look any less distressed than you felt. His quiet sigh met your ear as the door shut lightly and the lock turned. “Oh, love, it’s fine,” he said gently, his footfalls echoing quietly in the small bathroom, closing the short distance across the tile floor between the two of you. Your whole body tensed as he wrapped his arms around your waist from behind, resting his forehead over the crown of your hair with a quiet chuckle. “It’s only a few drinks, it could happen to anyone.”

You shook your head, your shoulders shaking a little. Stupid, it was so stupid, but the words were already leaving your mouth before you could stop them. “Oh, yeah, anyone.” You couldn’t stop. You couldn’t. He had a way of pulling all your insecurities to the surface that no one else did. You pulled your crossed arms tighter, staring down at the white floor tiles for a moment before shutting your eyes tightly, your voice shaking a little. “Especially a dumb screw-up like me—”

“Don’t do that.” His tone came out a little sharper with this, and your breath hitched audibly in your throat this time, your shoulders hunching as you clenched your eyes shut tighter, swallowing back the lump in your throat. As if to counter your stiff posture, he pulled his arms tighter around your waist, pulling you closer, his thumb rubbing lightly against your waist in a comforting manner. “Don’t, sweetheart. Please.”

The warmth of his embrace already had you relaxing a little. Your shoulders slumped, your body leaning back against him, but your eyes were still burning when you opened them to stare down at the toes of your shoes.

“Was it the manager?” he asked gently, shifting behind you to rest his chin on your shoulder. “If he was being an ass I’ll gladly kick his ass off the docks.” Your breath left your lungs in a slow, trembling sigh as you shook your head no, your gaze drifting down to his hand at your hip, still rubbing lightly against you, your lips curling into a fleeting smile at his offer. You knew you were being stupid, but… “Then what’s wrong, love?” he asked, his voice a soft, comforting murmur in your ear.

“I…” You drew in a deep breath, closing your eyes as he tilted his head so his cheek lay against your shoulder. “Y—you—“

You swallowed against the lump forming in your throat, drawing in a deep breath, trying and failing to steady the whirlwind of thoughts swirling through your mind, thoughts of how maybe this was all a lie, of how you weren’t anything more than a silly little fling to him, how you weren’t good enough, how easily you could be replaced.

You bit your lip, glancing down as his hand found yours, watching his fingers lace between your own…and the breath left you in a slow, resigned sigh.

“It’s stupid,” you said quietly.

“If it’s got you this upset, then it’s anything but stupid,” he countered, and you had to purse your lips tightly to keep them from curving into a small smile as you felt his press briefly against your cheek in a soft kiss. “And if it’s something I’ve done—”

“N—no, you haven’t—” But how quickly you shook your head, how your shoulders tensed, betrayed your worries. “I…I just…” You slowly relaxed once more as he squeezed you against him, his cheek nuzzling against your shoulder, his soft blonde hair tickling against your neck. Still unable to turn your head to meet his eyes, you bit the bullet and forced yourself to voice your worries. “You have beautiful women making goo-goo eyes at you all day,” you said, keeping your voice low in an attempt to keep it steady. “I—I don’t—I’m not—” You bit your lip, your heart racing as you clenched your eyes shut, cursing yourself internally as you felt the tickle of a tear leaving your eye to trail down one of your cheeks. “Y-you could have any girl you wanted. L—like that blonde that was hanging all over you while you were showing her the menu, or—or—”

“Oh, sweetheart…” You weren’t quite able to mask the small sob that hitched in your chest as Sanji loosened his embrace—only to gently place a hand on your hip, guiding you to turn around and face him, to pull you against his chest as you tried and failed to fight back tears. He gently shushed your quiet sobs and stammered apologies as he wrapped his arms around you fully, combing his fingers through your hair as he laid his head over yours. Your eyes remained clenched shut as you fought to control your breathing , as he pressed a tender, lingering kiss to your forehead.

Sanji lowered his head and nuzzled into your hair, holding you flush against him.

“I already have the girl I want. The perfect girl.” He pressed another tender kiss to your temple, murmuring against your skin, “I have her right here in my arms. And I hope,” he said, his tone turning a little playful as he shifted to rest his forehead against yours, “that I’ll still have her tonight after dinner shift is over.” He brushed your hair behind your ear, smiling as he tilted his head to meet your gaze, puling a small smile to your lips as your cheeks grew a little warmer. “So we can cuddle up together on the balcony…watch the stars…laugh at all the drunk idiots stumbling back to their boats…”

You could practically hear him smiling as a few soft giggles escaped you, as you finally leaned fully against him and returned his embrace, your arms wrapping around his torso as you buried your face against his chest.

“I’m sorry,” you sighed, relaxing against him. “I…I’m just…”

“I know, love.” The way he called you ‘love’ all but melted your heart now that you were calmed down, pulling a faint smile to your lips. “I know. You don’t have anything to be sorry for. And if it’s any consolation, I was in the middle of telling that self-righteous blonde bimbo how my sweet, adorable, beautiful girlfriend would wring her neck if she kept putting her hands on me—“ He chuckled as you whined in protest of his praise, tugging you closer and grinning, meeting your eyes without hesitation.

He lifted his hand to your face, his thumb brushing across your cheek, the warmth of his gaze holding yours.

“I—“

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

You both jolted in alarm, your heads turning in unison toward the sound of the pounding on the bathroom door. Before you could so much as glance at each other, a gruff voice spoke up from behind the door.

“We’re in the weeds, Eggplant!” Zeff called . “Get your scrawny ass to the kitchen! And bring your damned girlfriend, we need all the help we can get.”

A long moment of silence stretched between the two of you as you both stared at the closed bathroom door, before your gazes drifted slowly toward each other.

Before you were both giggling under your breath, as you buried your forehead against his chest, a broad smile spreading across your lips as you clung to him.

“I suppose we’ve been summoned,” said Sanji, pulling back from you only enough to gaze down at you, still smiling. “Shall we, then?”

[euijoosorangeslice]

Sk8r Boi p.1

- w.yx x reader

eventual smut ahead!!! Pretty long compared to most my works, Kissing strangers, oral sex with somewhat strangers, tell me if I missed anything

Great. Your annoying little sister is making you drive to the skate park for the millionth time this week. Why? "I wanna hang out with Yuma again! And I don't have my license yet." Her annoying voice made you want to crash the car. But, you didn't. Maybe there would be some new creative trick for you to learn, since you brought your own roller skates.

As you pulled up to the park, your little sister let out an annoying squeal. “Oh my god, he looks so hot!” She said, giggling as she stared at her soon to be boyfriend through the car window. “Well, go get him. I’ll be around, just call me and wait by the car when you’re ready.” Your sister barely listened (as usual), and hopped out of the car.

Swing your bag over your shoulder, you walked out of the car and locked it behind yourself. Walking over to a bench, you sat down and tied on your skates. It had been a while since you last practiced on them. You started with a few slow circles, getting the motion back into your memory.

You fell a few times, but luckily you had put on some knee pads to save you from scarring. You were dressed in a loose jersey shirt that was tucked into a light grey skirt, with calf-length socks and converse.

The wind outside felt nice against your skin as you sped down the ramps. A small group of young men started to accumulate around the park, getting out of their pickup truck and heading towards the section of the park you were in. You ignored them, going to work your way up the ramps at the park.

When you got to the tallest one, the group of boys started cheering. In particular, one blonde boy with a beanie on his head and headphones around his neck started calling out for you. “Hey, wait for me!” He used a running start to skate up the backside of the ramp, kicking the bottom of his board when he was standing next to you. “Nicho. And you are?” The man spoke, making you chuckle. “___. Nice to meet you, Nicho.”

“Hey, I’ve got a bet for you. If you beat me to the other side of this ramp, I’ll let you slap me. Square in the face.” Nicholas stated, a smirk on his face. You couldn’t believe what you had heard. Hit him?! “Sounds like a deal.” You responded, Nicholas’ eyes lighting up. “Wait! There’s more.” He interrupted. “If I win, I want a kiss.” He smiled, making you roll your eyes.

“On the lips, preferably.” He specified, making you scoff. “Prep your face. I’ve got pretty hard hands.” You shot back, tightening your helmet. He chuckled in response. “On three, alright?” “Mhm.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

You pulled your body forward, your skates kicking up as you began flying down the slope. At the same time, Nicho flew down the slope at a similar, but slightly faster speed. You heard the shouts of the crowd below you, pushing harder to build momentum. As you approached the peak of the ramp, you found yourself unable to stop. You were pretty rusty, and you blanked on how to stop.

Bittersweetly, Nicho was already on the other side waiting for you. Putting his arms out to stop you, you slid up the ramp and smoothly into his arms.

“You okay? Let’s get you down sweetheart.” Nicholas spoke softly, a smile across his face. He lifted you in his arms, walking down the slope with you in a princess hold. “Nice one, Xiang!” His friend shouted, making him laugh. Nicholas leaned in close to your ear, whispering.

“You’ve got some cute panties on.”

Flustered, you came to the realization you were wearing black lacy boy shorts with stars on them. The way Nicho was holding you, anyone walking by could see. “It’s like looking at the night sky.” He teased, you quickly prying yourself out of his arms. “Very funny.” You said, bitter as you pulled your skirt slightly down.

You took off your helmet, holding it under your arm. “So, my highness. I’ll be wanting that kiss at your earliest convenience.” Nicholas declared, smirking at you with his teeth caught on his bottom lip. “Fine. But right now is not that.” You snapped back, skating away into the whirlpool shaped ramp. Nicholas watched as you vigorously skated around the track, focused on the way your hips swung with your every move as well as your arms.

He loved how rehearsed you were, and it was nice to see you so dedicated. Suddenly, he watched a little girl run up to you.

“___! Can me and Yuma have some money to buy some snacks?” Your younger sister begged you, making you roll your eyes. “Fine. Take 20 and do not bother me until the end of the night.” You tossed twenty dollars at her, making her giggle and run off. Nicholas approached you again, this time in shock. “Your sister is hanging out with Yuma?!”

“Yeah? Is that a problem?” “No, just- Yuma is my brother.” You two laughed at the irony of the situation. “Hey, give me your number so we can talk later. Ive got to run some errands with my friends.”

-

You ended up dropping your sister off home after the skatepark, sitting in the car as she walking inside. “You’re not coming?” She questioned, flustering you again. “I’ll probably be back in the morning.” You stared at your phone reading the message.

nicho:

I can’t wait to see you at my place. make sure you’re ready ;)

“Ooh, who’s texting you?” Your sister peeked into your phone, making you push her face away. “No. Get out of my business and go to sleep.” You demanded, your sister whining as she left the car and went inside the house.

Finally, you could mentally prepare for what was about to happen. After you had left the park, you and Nicho had been talking quite….suggestively. All of the sexting had gotten deep, as far as Nicholas asking what kind of things your were into, and what your favorite positions were. The thing that got you the most was Nicho asking you

nicho:

are you flexible?

cuz I can’t stop thinking of you with ur legs behind your head.

As you pulled up to Nicholas’ apartment, you took a deep breath. After you left your car, Nicholas came downstairs to walk you upstairs. “Hey, ___.” He was wearing a lazy t shirt with just his boxer, in contrast to you wearing a sweater and a skirt.

In silence, Nicho wrapped his arm around your waist and walked with you back into his apartment. “Ignore the mess.” He whispered, as to not cut the atmosphere you two had created. As you made it to his bedroom, he shut the door behind you two. There were a few beats of silence, until Nicholas attacked your lips. You moaned in shock, hands flying behind his head.

He laid you down on his bed, pulling your sweater off over your head. Nicholas admired your body, staring at the bra you were wearing, a push up bra with black and white stripes that matched your panites. “So pretty.” He mumbled, planting a kiss between your breasts. Nicholas pushed his face into your breasts, taking in a deep breath. “And so soft, fuck. Can I take this off?” He asked, playing with the straps of your bra.

“Yeah, but don’t break it.” You replied, Nicho scoffing. “Trust me, this isn’t my first time. I’ve unclipped many bras in my lifetime.” He snapped back, hands awkwardly fumbling behind your back. “For someone who’s done this many times, you seem to be struggling.” You teased, making him grumble. Finally, he unclipped your bra, a smirk on his face. “Close those pretty lips and lay back.”

You followed his instructions, letting him attach his lips to your nipple. You gasped, using your hand to grip the sheets below you. Something about how practiced his tongue was made you wonder how often he does this. “Nicho, stop wasting my time.” You whined, pushing his head farther south. He complied, diving his head under your skirt and pressing his lips against your panties.

You hummed in satisfaction as he pulled your panties away and directed his tongue towards your wet folds. Nicholas dragged his tongue up to your clit, making electricity spark between your legs. Without warning, he harshly sucked on your sensitive nub, making your close your legs around his head. “Nicholas! A w-warning would be nice.” You squeaked, feeling his smile against your core.

“Brats don’t get warnings.” He quipped, pressing his thumb into your hole. He pushed farther, making you gasp as you clenched around his thumb. “Especially since I shouldn’t, you know, waste your time?” He whispered, swiftly thrusting his finger in and out of your hole.

You reached for his wrist but your hand was quickly swatted away as he added another finger. Your head bounced against the pillow as you grinded against Nicholas’ hand in hopes to reach your approaching climax. The movement soaked his hands in your liquids, only making him more eager to keep making you feel good as his fingers sped up inside you. His thumb rubbed over your clit, making your body seize as your orgasm crashed through it, moaning with every breath.

“Nicho!” You shrieked as he attached his mouth to your core, lapping at your juices as they constantly flowed from you. Your fingers were tangled in his hair, your body lifting off the bed as Nicholas used his perfect tongue to overstimulate you.

You finally pushed him away successfully, Nicholas looking up at you with a smile. You looked down, realizing you had soaked his grey sheets with your liquids. Your face showed a horrified expression, your pupils blown as you realized how big of a mess you made. “Hey, it’s okay y/n. I can just change my sheets. Plus, it was pretty sexy in the moment.”

You swiftly closed your legs, curling them close to your chest. “I- can I shower at your place?” You asked nervously, Nicholas chuckling. “Yeah, just ignore my roommates.” You stood up, pausing in your steps. “R-roommates? You should’ve told me , I was moaning like a wild animal!” You scolded. “Don’t worry, they won’t mind. Here, take my hoodie and my boxers.”

-

That night, you sat against his chest, bundled in his clothes covered in his scent as you two talked the night away. “I really enjoyed your company, y/n.” Nicholas quickly said, stopping you from leaving his apartment. “Maybe I’ll see you again at the park, Nicho.” you replied, a soft smile across your face as you shut the door.

He flopped against his bed, burying himself in his sheets since they still smelled like you. “I can only hope.” Nicholas whispered, bathing in your scent.

————————————————————————

a/n how would we feel about p.2?

[mackeralsauce]

'kay gonna rant ab some frustrations (very opinionated) with the cuttletavio community and whatnot. don't like it? move on! more down below:

(TW for mentions of heavy topics and similar. I'm tired of people being uncreative and diluting the ship to 'toxic yaoi yay!!!'. Oh, and mentions of NSFW in passing.)

Oh my fucking god. Can we stop with the boring-ass 'Toxic Old Man Yaoi' bullshit already? It's so overplayed and uncreative.

There's gonna be a lot of people who disagree with my takes in this, and frankly, I don't care! I'm shrimply tired of seeing the same old cycle repeat in this fandom of 'cool big artist or writer ends up making something frankly disgusting with cuttletavio'. I block liberally and whatever so there's your forewarning and whatnot.

Another forewarning is that I am very much autistic and so these issues drive me to this point because I see much more potential in the ship! This is one of my special interests.

Part 1: Toxic Tropes, Abuse, and Everything Inbetween.

Every time I hear about something in this fandom, it's someone making content of Octavio and Craig that involves abuse, homewrecking, non-con, racism, fetishization, or anything else under the shit bucket! Yeah, yeah, people on the internet can have their opinions. It's not inherently bad to represent issues like that, but it's the fact that it is ALWAYS portrayed in a romanticized light! Because let me remind you, this community is for the *ship* between these two characters. Representation of such topics need to be done tastefully. Real people are harmed by shit like that, and spoiler alert! I should fucking know.

There's so much "Craig being racist haha!" jokes from certain groups. That's primarily the fault of the NA translation of Splatoon, but it's still quite irritating. There is much more to his character than just that. Really, is that the ONLY fucking joke you idiots have? Damn. Boring as hell! Not to mention we know from interviews that even nowadays he wished for peace and tries to help any Octarian he comes across... Oh, and I won't name names, but some people just straight up BUTCHER his character. Yuck.

Then there's the portrayal of Octavio. Typically, people outside of the cuttletavio community will end up portraying him as a fascist dictator (gross and wrong). We have the opposite problem here. People straight-up infantilize him, make him woobified, etc. which annoys me quite a bit. I think we forget that, y'know... HE IS A SHOGUN? A COMMANDER? Such a government is going to be militaristic. I'm not saying that he's evil, but making him out to be an innocent 'widdol guy' is just. Eugh. Not to mention this is usually done because of headcanons involving him to be trans. I love Trans Octavio headcanons! But I hate the overfeminization and overtwinkification of him. Let him be strong and trans, is that so hard?

And these topics are the small potatas. My biggest gripe is when people make their ship to be just 'toxic yaoi' and bluh bluh boring. Look, I get it, there's people who eat that slop up. Whatever floats your boat. But holy FUCK the amount of straight-up garbage and romanticization and lack of creativity I see...

Part 2: Missed Potential and Lack of Creativity.

Oh my fucking god. We have this one ship between two queer adults who grow to old age, and you guys can't even let it be healthy? Yes, I get there was war, but it doesn't mean they were fucking toxic when they were dating. Whatever your interpretation is, you don't have to make them cruel, horrible people to each other. Even if your interpretation involves them being morally grey or complex characters, you can make them have flaws without making them abusers.

Let me explain this: Romance is very, very complicated. It's not all sex, and it's not all fluff either. Most interpretations I see of cuttletavio are often 'All or Nothing' on certain factors. The three popular topics people put their stocks in are Angst, Sex, and Fluff. This is expected in fandom, but what bothers me is that so few people actually consider the alternatives, and that its usually ALL of one trait without anything else. Angst for the purpose of just angst doesn't hit, it's just edgy and boring. All smut with no love will wear thin. Tooth-rotting fluff has no substance if you don't even show the platonic side of their relationship. A good romance is oft built on a good friendship. Why not delve into those aspects? If you need them to kiss to tell they're in love, then you're doing it wrong.

Of course, that critique is moreso a small one. Beginner writers can easily fall into those and that's alright. Why it bothers me is because there is such a drought of good content- at least from my scope of view thus far- in cuttletavio. There is potential for greatness (and I am not slacking on trying to showcase this; I am working on my own content in the meantime), but hardly anyone delves into it. Why not explore how they got to know each other? The complexities of their characters? Tropes are alright, but get to a deeper level, and find the human within the idea. Not only that, but explore the world they're in! The circumstances of why they're in war! The politics, the governments, and the cultures of the time. These are old men in a fictional post-apocalyptic society devoid of humans. The inkfish could have evolved culturally in completely different ways! Please, just explore SOMETHING!

Y'wanna know why the whole toxic yaoi shit bothers me so much? Because it lacks creativity. It's overdone. Stale bread. It's like the slop they serve in a school cafeteria. You can get toxic yaoi ANYWHERE! It's such a common, overplayed trope for mlm ships, that you'll never go devoid of it. So why make cuttletavio into it? I haven't seen anything creative enough to excuse it. All i've seen is people committing character assassination and stripping them of any of their intrigue or humanity. It's bland. I'm sick of it.

Conclusion.

I'm too exhausted to write any more of this but yeagh. Just sick of this shit. There is potential to these two old men, both in their youthful and elderly years. Let them make love, war, friendship, and peace. Don't reduce them to poor dollar-a-dime toxic yaoi tropes that have become tired and sloppy from years of poorly written BL and similar.

If you can't write/draw/etc. good romance or sex without making them abusive in ANY way (cheating, non-con, physically, emotionally, etc.) then you need to learn how to write complex characters and complex stories. You can have characters argue without it being abuse. You can have complicated dynamics without all that.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

sou !! hello !! this is also random and specific but i saw the datekou headcanon post and i was wondering. might you have any inarizaki road trip hcs?

i didn't until you asked me so LET'S GO

oh god you thought dateko was bad??? they were only stuck in the car for thirty minutes at MOST

(or something idk i haven't quite mapped out their geography yet but miyagi is a coastal prefecture and sendai isn't like SUPER far inland, so i'm just making assumptions out here)

but anyways. kurosu is driving obviously as much as he moans and groans about it

shoutout to the coaches btw they are CARRYING these headcanons

realistically i guess they'd road trip to another school for a training camp or like idk. maybe hot springs for some r&r bc inarizaki def has the budget for it but in my heart they road trip to suna's hometown during one of the breaks so suna can see his family <333

i guess it also kind of depends on WHERE in hyogo and aichi they are but we could get a solid 4-5 hours of driving if it was from, say, asago to tahara

kita makes a list of all the snacks everyone wants and rounds up aran, oomimi, and akagi to help him raid the market/convenience store like the old hunter-gatherer days

they end up with two massive tote bags of drinks, chips, cookies, and other miscellaneous snacks and one cooler for things like puddings and cakes and whatnot

oomimi sits shotgun because kurosu needed someone to help with directions and everyone else was on "make sure the miyas don't kill each other before we get there" duty

they all thought that kita was brilliant for making atsumu sit in the back and osamu up front because even tho they're separated the twins will NOT stop bickering and trying to throw random pieces of trash at each other. poor riseki gets caught in the crossfire the most often

they all converged to make one giant road trip playlist so you've got the weirdest mix of pop rock/bubblegum/k-pop/city pop, lofi, indie soft rock, show tunes and soundtracks, and more

(i named those genres with certain charas in mind so like. have fun figuring that out!)

nobody's willing to take a nap in fear of what the twins might do to each other when they're not looking

they play really stupid games like the alphabet-chain game and i spy and even try for a few rounds of truth or dare because, hey, there's nothing like being stuck in a car with your fellow teenagers for four hours to set the mood for emotionally vulnerable bonding time, right?

anyways. everyone learns that gin is afraid of heights and all sorts of horror movies, akagi would like to get his ears pierced some day, kosaku got rejected in middle school in front of his entire class and has refused to fall in love since, and suna takes pictures to capture the memory of a place he does not want to forget

(sorry i'm being emo about suna missing home again i'll stop)

kurosu is sweating BUCKETS in the front seat btw. "oh my god what do i do with this information am i supposed to talk to them i'm their TEACHER i'm supposed to guide them i do NOT get paid enough for this - "

a shame, really, considering inarizaki could definitely afford to give that man a raise

it's okay they get some really funny dares like daring gin to text his crush a totally random and weird question

(and thank god atsumu has his phone tucked away in his bag)

there's not a whole lot of dares they can do in the car tbh so they get really creative like daring osamu to eat this absolutely evil concoction of mixing tiramisu pudding into a bag of spicy chips and eating the whole thing

he does. nobody knows how he survived it

and then riseki dared both osamu AND atsumu to shut up and sit down and not even so much as GLANCE each other for the rest of the trip

this was at, like, the 1.5 hour mark btw

and okay he didn't say it EXACTLY like that because riseki is a sweet respectful underclassman but that WAS the closest to snapping he's ever gotten

they do stop occasionally here and there to get out and stretch their legs, but this makes their trip even longer bc it takes like thirty minutes each time to wrangle everyone and get them back in the van

also akagi is trying out his most terrible pickup lines. or antipickup lines. either one works

akagi: "are you lactose? because i can't tolerate you ;)" aran: "PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP"

the only reason aran feels like he isn't completely suffering is because gin is sitting next to him and gin is kind of soothing like a cute pet would be. not that aran is thinking of gin as a pet nooooo ahahaha that would be weird

meanwhile gin is wondering why aran keeps trying to feed him crackers

they finally get to suna's hometown after being on the road for SIX AND A HALF HOURS

and while everyone is happy to be outside soaking up the sun and fresh air, they're all going to miss the bonding of being stuck in a van perhaps just a little bit

it's all right, they've got the return trip to look forward to

(made 100x worse when akagi busts out a drinking game and proclaims they should play with juice boxes, but that's a story for another time)

[forlorn-crows]

You can't just ask me this crow, I'm so bitchy bestie-

So I'm gonna give you two I'm most bitchy about :)!

Ghoul characterized wrong? It's Rain. Oh my god. It's rain all the way, people either make him a shy little thing uwu boy or he's a massive bitch. Not even a fun bitch, like genuinely I've seen some people write him as being so snarky and nasty for literally no reason and it drives me up the walls!!!!! Like yes he can be bitchy, he's a little sharp tongued at times, but he's not? Malicious? Or cold-hearted? Honestly it's more recent I've noticed the shift towards bitchy Rain than anything else, like end of last tour coming into this one but this one especially. It frustrates me to nooo end because like, stop it, I'm putting him up on a shelf you can have him back when you learn to be nice to my babygirl.

Ghoulette? Cumulus but especially Lus when she's shipped with other ghouls. By herself she's seemingly always the mom casted character (I'm pretty sure you've heard my feelings on this already so I won't bore you with that rant today) and just sooooo bland, but when she's shipped with any of the boys (90% of the time it's Mountain specifically) it feels like she literally doesn't care about them? Feels like she's written as just tolerating their affections, its rarely ever her being actively in love with someone else.....?? I think thats why I'm so fond of the way you write her and Mountain tbh, because it actually feels like she, yknow, likes him.

Anyways

I have opinions man.

- Void

we're here to biiitch lets goooo (though i said it already, when it boils down to it, there is very little i seriously have a problem with when it comes to how we as a community write ghouls that technically dont even have fucking names lmao. its just interesting to see what irks people, and how true some of the patterns can be amongst fellow creatives)

malicious is def the word i was trying to find when speaking about dew being written as mean. look, i love mean rain as much as the next person. bc mean rain is hooot. but hes not 'mean for the sake of being mean' like i said. as a person. obviously kink and scenes are very different, i'll try to stick to speaking about character as a whole. but, i get what you mean, its like, im pretty sure he exists somewhere in the middle there?

and some others have some thoughts about the 'uwu boys' as well. and yeah, honestly? i want my ghouls to read as old as fuck hellbeasts. i dont want them reading like innocent children. and i dont want to get in a debate about agre either, bc thats a different boat, but thats part of the reason i dont read or write agre. rain is not a dainty shy innocent uwu little creature. he is strange and offputting and confident and reserved when he needs to be etc etc.

again, ive got specific stuff to go over about lus. but, i do think you bring up a good point about writing the ghoulettes in relation to the ghouls. which, as a bi woman, why dont we write different gender pairings moree????? hello????? again, different topic, not the task at hand. but i think it has to do with what you're saying here. its like there's a piece missing in their interactions. and sometimes it can get into objectification territory bc they arent fleshed out properly.

if were saying the ghouls are poly....then the GHOULS. ARE. POLY. you know what im saying?? its not just the group of 'boys' and the group of 'girls'. i want the in between too. and i'll always make a point to write more of it. thank you for being fond of my mountlus, bc i am very fond of them and their relationship.

@divine-misfortune

[eroaneki]

I'm still so scared by what happened to me earlier this month. I feel like I had a legit mental breakdown. I still feel extremely raw and vulnerable and constantly on the edge of a panic attack, but I think that's more so because I'm afraid of not being able to control how I feel. Like that I feel completely out of control.

I literally triggered myself into a mental breakdown by drinking cold brew on an empty stomach. Like out of fucking no where had a massive injection of liquid caffeine directly into my bloodstream. And I was also coming off of weed. And it was... 3 days before my period. I think all of that combined with is what really sent me over the edge. I'm usually smarter about tapering myself off but I also have never had a 7 month period where I used daily. I think my longest has been like 2 months in the past. This has been basically daily use since like, January.

I've taken half of a 5mg edible twice in the last like 3 weeks because honestly I'm so fucking spooked I'm gonna end up going insane or something. I know it's unlikely. But man I miss the creativity weed gives me. My head isn't as loud anymore and quite honestly I feel "normal" I guess. Whatever my normal was when I was using daily. So I guess that means I've leveled out? But my heart keeps skipping throughout the day and it freaks me out and I hate it and I've already had everything ruled out by the cardiologist so it just is what it is I guess. I'm fine according to them.

Idk existence is scary as fuck. But I guess you have to have bigger balls than life and that's how you win. Just growing those balls into a massive force takes so much time and effort and "do it scared" mentality. I understand why people scream when they do things that scares them. It pushes them forward. Gives them the strength to do it.

Also side note, I hate adrenaline? I run so high in the morning and I know it's my body trying to wake me up but could you not? Can you be more gentle about it? Also life without coffee is fucking ROUGH. My heart pounds too fast when I drink it and quite honestly I don't need the extra stimulation in the morning so I've switched to tea, but occasionally I'll pour myself like 2-4 oz of coffee and sip slowly on that. Usually on the days I'm home.

God I feel like I have no idea how to survive as a person sometimes. I just feel like I'm walking blind. It sucks. Really badly. But I'm okay for the most part now. I still get a little shaky driving but again, I just think I'm scared I'm gonna freak out again while driving. I'm so scared of what happened to me that I'm trying every which way I can to avoid it happening again. It's rough. Rough rough rough but for the most part I'm fine.

My outlook is mostly positive and I feel more of my piss and vinegar self coming back, which is nice. But yeah. Still definitely licking my wounds and a little worried about my period coming up this month. But I have my emergency lavender and Xanax and sweet smelling body scrubs and ice pack and everything else I use to help calm anxiety lol

I also have a really good support group and I started therapy, though I did have to cancel my appointment for tomorrow because my new insurance doesn't kick in until 8/1. Annoying but I know it's not the end of me ever going to therapy ever again. Just have to wait probably another week 🙃

[godbirdart]

do you have anything you can share of your rps on proboards? i too miss those days.

ohh man i miss those days so much. my small group of friends in junior high were really into writing about our sparkledog ocs on proboards. we had our own private one dedicated exclusively to our ocs. all our ocs had human, quad and anthro forms and there were so many romantic scandals and plots going on it was MCU levels of convoluted sometimes.

sidenote my best friend at the time and i had a monopoly on the oc roster [it just happened that way] and made up a bunch of wolf gods that drew inspo from greek/roman mythology. each one was a deity of Something and had unique powers. EVERYONE was paired with a mate that somehow managed to corresponded with their own respective power. they had so much going on we often had multiple threads specifically for certain paired characters. if i remember right we created threads for refs, threads for lore, specific universe categories and so on. there was a point i'd even made a seperate website using my neopets-petpage level of html understanding [not too unlike refsheet.net or charahub], listing the bios and relationships of our characters.

my fondest memory was spending the better part of a school year rewriting our ocs into Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. no, we never rewrote the first or second film. ONLY the third. during this rp we were juggling multiple characters at once, and we did our best to give each character SOMETHING to do. I don't remember which scene we were rewriting but my friend had this old wolf dude named Bon who had NOTHING to do in the moment, so she ended up writing "Bon Breathed" full stop and that shit has stuck with me as the most hilarious thing for well over a decade. We rewrote one or two other things, like Underworld, but the PotC 3 au one was the longest running one.

we all rped together for a few years. by the end of high school i was super interested in making a webcomic for a bit because i'd just discovered resident evil and saw the blackblood wolves starting their comic on deviantart, buuut everyone else was being pressured into picking career paths and/or had lost their creative spark. gotta grow up, i guess.

I've long since lost contact with every person from that group. the majority dropped off the face of the planet immediately after graduation. it sucks, but I still have a bunch of their OC art carefully stored in page protectors in a binder on the shelf beside my desk. i still have notes on each character, and i still have some art from our early deviantart days saved on an external hard drive. i'll likely never see those people again, but the memories leave a warm fond feeling in my chest. i frequently catch myself wondering if i should start that comic i always wanted to make with them.

[antrea]

this is a ramble but i just wanna write down my thoughts

i'm a new hockey fan as of february so this was my second flyers game ever and first flyers game at home (now i'm like as being 'born and raised' in nj/philly area god i've missed out on so much)

ivan played so fcking amazing for literally just being thrown out there after what like 1.5 weeks stateside? like what on earth

i still wholeheartedly believe in sammy and i cannot take this slander bc if he is so bad then the whole team is worse and cannot provide offensive support (see habs, hawks games)

tipp is soooooooooo fast. i think there were 2 separate isles breakaway chances where thankfully he was actually the only one to catch up with the dude and the pressure he created was enough to totally erase the chance. there were so many times that i thought he was gonna score bc of his sheer speed :(

morgan had some brilliant moments but i think around 2nd period i was sure he was on torts' doghouse bc he just gave away (flag) a lot of pucks lol and he started to move more slowly and then i think that's also when torts moved tippy up and shuffled some lines and i was sad - but honestly he was still injecting so much speed and creativity and he was actively winning back pucks he lost so yeah!!!

i will never forget that final 10 seconds goal for the rest of my life. the farg ERUPTED and i was just like non stop screaming and JUMPING UP AND DOWN for like 5 whole minutes. i didn't even know who fcking scored, it was so chaotic. when they said frost i nearly expired on the spot

i think frost giving away the puck during OT was like the saddest thing ever but i think that line should've started OT anyway........

about refs: since i'm so new to hockey i wasn't sure what was a missed call or just philly fans yapping lol. it's definitely much harder to tell from 200's level what is a foul and what is not

i don't know if i was just like clued in to looking out for cam atkinson mistakes but oh he lost the puck a lot :/ and when he had it he never really did that much with it

whew PK was actually back today i think and i totally attribute it to seels. i think there was one PK where he and garny blocked consecutive shots and you could HEAR it ooft

on the flip side i hate our PP so much and i quote the woman behind me but "it doesn't even look like we're on a power play"

wells fargo center is nice. for some reason before 2024 i went to 0 hockey/ice arenas and now i've been to 4 (blue jackets, caps, habs, flyers) and flyers is by far the nicest

gritty is INSANE energy man we are so lucky to have gritty

due to driving in (ugh next time i'm taking the train) i only had time to speedrun one of the shops on the concourse and there were 0 frost jerseys broooooo. they had like every other player. i was trying to figure out which of the like 4 jerseys we have this season to get anyway and i still don't know...

i was just reflecting all the way home that like i've started seriously following sports since 2010 with german football/bvb and since then i've hardcore picked up ravens nfl, orioles baseball, and figure skating, and i've just never felt this kind of high in-stadium until flyers hockey. and maybe it's just bc i've never been to like orioles playoffs or bvb in germany (i've only been to bvb friendlies in the states) but like i feel like hockey should be more popular lol

[bleachbleachbleach]

7/29 - 8/6/2023

I started last weekend really excited about writing Renji 2, and had a good time with that. And then proceeded to have no writing time past last weekend. =_= I just need to chill out and accept that life is going to be about driving and People and racecars and the Women's World Cup rn and not about my blorbos and stories. Not that I don't also like the aforementioned but also MY BLORBOS AND STORIES THO. ):

As excited as I am about this chapter I'm still not sure if it ~works because Renji is just infodumping about 79 different things, and the part I wrote was about written vs. actually-followed easement policy in West Rukongai and how long it takes to run places. Which on one hand, Renji Why, but on the other, Why Not, Renji.

Something I have done a lot of this week, though, is driving—more in the last 7 days than in the last 7 months, to be specific—and I got reacquainted with my nemesis, audiobooks. I still don’t think I actually like audiobooks, but all of the books I listened to were very enjoyable in spite of the format, and I recommend all of them! This is especially exciting because these choices were guided by "what is currently available at the library."

The week’s roadtrip audiobook selections:

H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald (2014)

Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers (2021)

Orange World, Karen Russell (2019)

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead (2019)

H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald (2014) I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, but I’m glad I didn’t get a chance to until now, because coming off of condor!Tobiume this book was especially exciting. I didn’t realize until listening that it drew so heavily on The Once and Future King (and TH White’s biography in general) as intertext, which has really made me want to re-read that book, since I haven’t read it since the summer after I graduated high school. H is for Hawk is a falconry memoir, and it is quite a bit about birds—the goshawk Mabel in particular—which I figured would be a good time, from a creative nonfiction, ecology writing POV, two genres I generally like. But oh my god it is so much better than I already thought it was going to be! MacDonald has such strong analysis of masculinist, neoliberal cultures past and present, and the kinds of mythologies falconry comes from with regard to class and gender (and sexuality, re: TH White), and her own parsing of these things as she grows up. I want to read this book again.

Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers (2021) I am OBSESSED with this book and I keep recommending it to everyone I see. It’s about a tea monk on a future moon where, in the distant past, robots developed to work in human factories gained sapience and left the human places to go live freely and separate in the wilds. Yearning for something missing from their life, the tea monk sets off into the wilds and encounters a robot who has been sent out to check in on the humans, and to answer the question, “What do humans need?” I don’t know that I am usually a robot person—but I am a traveling tea monk person haha—but I love these robots so, so much. They name themselves for the first things they see, so they all have plant/animal names. They hyperfixate on watching stalagmites grow, for centuries. This book is so soft and thoughtful and incredibly thought-provoking. It’s about a future that doesn’t rely on post-apocalypse; nothing overtly dramatic happens but everything is gripping.

Orange World, Karen Russell (2019) This is collection of short stories—I was able to pay attention to some far more than others, but Russell had the most interesting prose for me. There were lines where I was like, man, I wish I were reading this so I could copy this down.” Really strong sense of region and place in each story, and the world building (as one might hope of a book titled Orange World) is superb. I was familiar with Russell conceptually but hadn’t read anything by her before. My favorites were the story about Plains State/Midwestern storm farmers, who captured, husbanded, and rented out storms of various stripes—and now their industry was being affected by climate change. And the story about four sisters who are gondoliers, and use echolocation (of a sort) to navigate the span of a short story.

WIP-wise, I guess LOL I’d love to write as beautifully as Karen Russell does!! But more seriously I guess it’s about being bold about the mechanics of a world and how much it is possible to accomplish even in the span of a short story.

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead (2019) I’m only halfway through this one, but it’s historical fiction about a reform school in the South during Brown v Board of Education, and the false promises experienced while attempting to integrate the South.

As far as where this could be WIP research, Whitehead does a great job of minor timeskips across the parts of the novel, including skips of actually writing out major precipitating events, which makes me feel more embolden about how I’ve structured some of this WIP.

[wattpadscapcons]

Old Fan - FNAF 1/2? Foxy

omg I hate how a single prompt got me to write an entire fic but mmmmmm I have more experience in writing nowwwww Also NO, this does NOT mean that I willing to write for the cast again per request. I am simply letting out some of my creative liberties. Damn I started this like a year ago....yikes.

==============

Ten years ago, you were a spunky, somewhat reckless eleven year old. You didn't have to think about bills, work, or school outside of finishing what little obligations you had before you could numb your mind watching TV and playing games.

You had all the time in the world. When you were invited to a party, you would go. Incidentally, that would cause you to meet someone who would end up plaguing the back of your mind for ten years.

"Alright kids, ye settle down!"

=

You knew the "pirate accent" he was using was fake but it was humorous and charming to many of the girls in your class at the time. It didn't take long to form a liking to the character he played extremely quickly, finding comfort in the hot-headed pirate. Fazbear's Pizzeria surely had it made, the games, the sweet entertainers, and what your friends called an "indoor play place".

You collected the plush dolls of the beloved cast, though from the animated cartoon Fazbears had created to entice children to get sucked in. Seeing the animal counterpart of Foxy dressed up as a little pirate was enough to make you ecstatic.

=======

The time you went to show him the doll, he gave you an equally excited look.

"Aye will you look at this, is this me?"

"Yeah."

"I appreciate knowing that I'm your favorite lass."

You could still remember how embarrassing it felt when he said that. In front of your friends, god they didn't live that one down until for the longest time. You were more or less to stunned to tell him that the others wouldn't fit in your bag, the moment had already passed and he was back to playing games with the rest of the patrons.

=========

That party was the last time you saw him in person, at least until now of course. You weren't allowed to go back after a few "incidences" occurred as your parent's put it. You would learn later on that people had supposedly gone missing in that restaurant. You were skeptical of the rumors at best. You never had any bad experiences there, outside of seeing the staff's punching bag, "Mangle" get bullied by the older kids that were often dragged along for their younger sibling's birthdays. Any issues you saw with the rest of the cast never really clicked until you hit high school.

= You couldn't believe you were going back to that restaurant to see if the Foxy you knew as a kid was still working there. You knew he wasn't the mascot, but he was still fairly important in keeping kids in line and happy.

-

To his coworkers, Foxy was just another bordering-washed-out child entertainer. To you though, you could only see the remaining glimmer of spark left in his eyes. He while seemingly tired, still had the drive to keep moving unlike the rest of the "cast" as Fazbear Entertainment always put it.

He's out on his break.

This is probably not the smartest move you've made before. The closer you got to your childhood idol, the more you could feel yourself slowly losing your nerve to talk to him. You had several thoughts go through your mind, a lot of "what if's" that only stopped the second he locked eyes with you.

"Can I help you?" “Um. I'm sorry but, are you Foxy?” “Yeah, you got the right pirate. Who's asking?”  “My name’s Y/N, I’ve been a really big fan of you since I was little.”  “Since you were little you say, I haven’t got that old have I?” 

=

The man in front of you let out a sad laugh at the thought. He'd been working in the same spot for the prime of his youth, to think some kid who saw him in his early twenties would want to talk to him now was a little..... odd. Sure you may just be visiting places from your childhood and meeting your idols, maybe grabbing a few pictures before you leave.

To which you quickly corrected him. “No, no! I was just wanting to thank you.” 

“Thank me? You got nothing to thank me for.”  “That's not exactly true...You really made my childhood one I'm happy to remember. You’re the best!” 

=

You could tell that made him happier than he cared to show. Poor guy hasn't had many people say stuff like that to him in years after all. More or less your sudden appearance was comforting, like he hadn't spent the last 20 years of his life doing this job just as a way to pay the bills that would constantly stack up.

“You flatter me kid. Care to stick around to humor this old pirate? I don’t have too many fans anymore.” You didn't miss the way his dipped into a more depressed tone. Still you had a feeling that you staying at his workplace distracting him would be more detrimental to his job than helpful. It seemed rather....off-putting as well.

The man had hardly spent what...ten minutes talking to you, and he already is asking you to spend time with him? Either the man was desperate for human interaction outside of his workplace, or he had some type of ulterior motive here. "I don't want to bother you while you're working." "It's no bother. My shift ends in about two hours. If you can stand the kids and my coworkers for that long." You have no idea why you stayed, with every red flag you saw you should have turned around, got into your car, and left by now. You still chose to believe that he has no alternative motives for this other than to reminisce and chat. At least that's what you told yourself, repeatedly, for two hours as you watched this grown man dressed as a fox pirate play with kids.

What could go wrong?

=

Finally I came back and finished this damn thing... It's been sitting in my drafts for months! I just wanted to get this out of the way since it's been bugging me for the longest time. I hope you enjoyed it! If I choose to do original Chica or any of the other's stories, I'll do them on my alt, which is really unlikely since I'm no longer in this fandom.

But hey, at least you got the two foxes right?

1/20/23

[jubilantwriter]

Well heelllloooo my beloved~

Let's go wiiiithhhh 4, 8, 16, 26, 55, and 68!

Helloooooo my darling~

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Usually through music, but nowadays I've been drawing inspiration from hefty quotes on tumblr and comics where there's a certain Flavor to it that I really like and wanna try with my own takes.

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

The middle! That's where the meat of the fic is, and where my general creativity really goes loose and uncontrolled lol. You can bet that my excess writing collects in the middle and just continues to unravel from there. Beginnings tend to be rough, but once I get a start, I manage to keep on chugging.

Endings are where I really struggle. Don't- [grabs your face to look away at my incomplete but published fics] -don't look over there.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Oooohh so many. Granted, all of them tend to be centered around my and my friends' OCs, but the one I'm nursing right now is:

Clay (from Pokemon Black and White) has to deal with the grief and guilt of his younger cousin going missing (my OC, Rod, of whom you know), and processes it as healthily as he possibly can. Which is to say, he processes it poorly. There's blame tossed around and angry jealousy/envy towards another figure who's lost a family member.

Takes place just before Legends Arceus truly kicks off, but is set in that universe. I've actually been working on this fic for AGES, and it's only recently returned to bother me in the corners of my brain.

26. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

GOD. I would have to say... "The Space Between". It was my first true horror fic where I pushed myself to really experiment with my writing. Building the atmosphere, figuring out how to word things just right to drive home the pure terror David was in was a struggle, but a well fought one! I remember putting myself in David's headspace and freaking myself out with horror stuff to get me to really feel and experience what David felt to properly translate the terror into words. I even thought about reading a Stephen King book or two to understand how to write horror! Needless to say, I didn't end up doing that LOL

After all that build up tho came the downhill climb from all that horror tension, which honestly is what got me put into a standstill. Like, how do you write a satisfying conclusion to all that build up? That's still something I need to work on for that fic, and one that's been nagging at me for ages. Hopefully, I'll figure something out. I know how it ends, after all.

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

...........r Od, my pokémon OC. loL. Writing my own OC has been a pleasure and a joy, just because I can put him into so many situations and throw him into so many AUs with my friends. But also, the biggest appeal of Rod is that he's my own character. I know who he is and why he behaves the way he does better than anyone else - his motives, his drives, his weaknesses. Not only that, but he's a character who can change and grow into something else! He used to be a cis man before my friends and I talked more and more about him until we realized... no, actually, he's a transman. He leaves so much room for experimenting, for discovery and building that it's so much fun to work with him! It's less constraining to work with him than with established characters, and it's also SUCH a breath of fresh air!

My friends DEFINITELY had some part in my choice to write about him. They all just... loved him so much??? Right from conception when he was nothing more than a sock puppet with googly eyes and a fishing pun for a name. They loved him so much that they all breathed the life into him, until I actually had something to work with.

And then they kept playing with him!! Lord did they play with him. So I played dolls with their OCs as well, and this interconnected world with OCs just kinda grew and expanded and became so much fun to explore that I just couldn't not enjoy writing fics about him and their OCs falling in love or being a family or struggling together. A lot of the fics I write of Rod tend to be shared only amongst my friends, but maybe... some day... I'll post something here.

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

Listen to songs in hopes of getting my writing spunk on. That, or daydreaming! Daydreaming scenarios really helps.

The other thing I do is write my fic on minecraft which is a sane and nor Mal thing to do,

[donotexterminateupgradepudding]

Black Sails meta. I love Captain Flint and want to blather on about him in 2022

I have been adrift in terms of media and recently stumbled upon the underappreciated Starz series Black Sails that ran from 2014-2017.  The main summary on the internets is that season 1 is lame but improves afterwards (and yes, it certainly does!).  I’m not usually into violent media, but I can look beyond that when it has a larger premise - generally something that touches on questions like; what is civilization?  What does a civil society look like?  Who benefits?  Who is excluded?  Who matters and who does not?  How colonialism hurts all but those at the very top making all the calls from their distant and comfortable place in Whitehall.

And of course - the MC, the one driving the plot - Captain James Flint.

A man who tightly controls how he presents himself and how much he reveals to others - and spoiler - that amount he reveals is very little.

I’m just going to focus on seasons 1 and 2 at the moment as those pull together the entire story of why Captain Flint exists and what his motivations are.

I would like to give a round of applause for the creative team behind Black Sails, Flint is one of the few INTJ characters that I have seen who is so well written and behaves consistently throughout.  Everyone likes to talk about how the MBTI can be used to create and define characters in media and the darling personality for many villains are supposed to be INTJ but almost always poorly executed.  But Flint, god, chef’s kiss right there, he hits in all the right places.  The mental calculations he’s constantly performing, adjusting to see how to play things out, his crazy ideas (which aren’t all that crazy if you are paying attention) the rich inner world, few close friends and a need for lots of quiet and alone time with his books. Yes, a pirate captain who likes books - so let’s start with that.  The entire plot is kicked off by his quest to find the schedule for that of the L’Urca de Lima, a Spanish treasure Galleon.  He wants the gold to secure so that Nassau can protect itself and self govern as a sort of independent state founded by questionable commerce and pirate crews. John Silver of course has the page and doesn’t know what it is - and thus begins his own search to determine its value.  Thus, he asks Dufrense about it and the accountant makes it clear that if Flint finds a book he likes on a prize, he takes it.

The first episode, although sloppy in other aspects, works hard to make Flint a walking contradiction/mystery.  He’s a feared pirate captain but highly educated and distance and a bibliophile.

We get more insight into him indirectly when Silver sneaks back onto the Walrus and searches Flint’s cabin for the missing logbook.  There in the dim light we can clearly see the first book Silver examines is the epic page turner

De Jure Belli Ac Pacis by Hugo Grotius.  Just some light reading in Latin about the basis for Western international law.  So, we know that Flint is well versed in deep legal thought and framework and he can read Latin.  Which isn’t too surprising for an educated man in the 18th century and was educated in the end of the 17th.  As the sequence continues we can catch a glimpse of a book on Flint’s desk as well.  The top book is Leviathan by philosopher Thomas Hobbes.  I have tried to make out the bottom one, but the scene is too fast and the lighting too inconsistent to see what is underneath.

Hobbes of course laid out the concept of the ‘social contract’ as well as an idea that some sort of absolute power or sovereign is needed to maintain society and prevent men from falling to their more ‘baser/animal’ nature.  Of course the show starts out with the idea that the pirates of New Providence Island are not men in the eyes of the law; where the law = England.  There are more books in his cabin and unfortunately, less effort is put into showing how nerdy they are as well.

These alone tell us, the viewer that Flint is a huge nerd and continue to contrast with how absolutely calculating and efficient he is towards doing what he needs to do to best serve his own goals.

When he finds out that someone searched his cabin (with the nice little feather in the bottom of the drawer trick) it confirms that the schedule is on his ship and in his crew.  However, the person who stole it is still unknown.  But that doesn’t matter, within mere minutes, he figures out that he can accuse Singleton who wants his job, is the thief, just setting off a fight to the death from which he pulls a blank page.  When he found that feather, I knew he was going to use that as his method to remove Singleton and find the page.  Adding to this is the sheer brutality of his fight with the other man.  He is a highly skilled fighter and takes a beating making his victory even more emotionally significant.  A white shirt bloodied and sliced open, his face a total mess, the shaky hand by which he hands the page to Billy Bones, who has no choice but to endorse his lie.

Please confirm the schedule my dear Billy, you have no choice after what you just witnessed.  He owned the entire situation and uses it to his full advantage before riling the men up with his “Princes of the New World” speech.

Keep in mind anyone who says this speech indicates he isn’t INTJ isn’t examining it in the context of the rest of the series.  He knows this is the time to give a speech.  Introverted types of people can give rousing speeches - if anything those of us who hope to advance our personal goals realize it is a necessity.  Public speaking is a tool.  Saying things to advance yourself is a tool.  The entire series reminds us time and time again, James is a person with few close friends he cares about and does not open up to anyone but them.  Furthermore, Captain Flint is a man created by the formerly proper Lt. James McGraw.  With Flint himself, being a tool for him to achieve James McGraw’s personal goals.

But back to the books.  It takes a few episodes for Miranda Barlow to be introduced who on the surface appears to be a woman who is involved with Flint likely in a romantic way.  At the beginning of episode 3 he wakes up in what later is revealed to be Miranda’s bed and casually walks into the kitchen in his undergarments before she patches him up more.

Knowing that he’ll be leaving soon for the gold, he remembers to grab a book he found in Captain Parrish’s cabin, a book of plays by Middleton which he clearly took for her.

Though Miranda’s body language and fiddling hands tell us she’s not quite sure what to do with what is likely another stolen book he’s brought her.  However, this also will tie into season 2 when it is revealed that Miranda lent James one of her favorite books, Don Quixote by Cervantes.  She in part lent it to him to help him determine how to deal with her husband, Thomas and his quirky personality.

Miranda states James may need to learn Spanish.

Now, I have to admit, I’ve tried multiple times to read Don Quixote, however, I’m always met with defeat (and that edition was indeed in English).  Yet, we should have enough of an awareness to realize that the book has a man who is both absurd and true to himself and no one will argue that Thomas Hamilton is a charming idealistic aristocrat who wants to ‘make a difference’. We see after this flashback that Flint is looking at all of the books from the nameless Spanish Man-O-War that was captured by Flint’s visionary plan.  He stops at one book, La Galatea, also by Cervantes.

After taking it off the shelf and all alone in the cabin, he takes the time to read the book.  This confirms that he has learned to read Spanish in addition to being able to speak it.  And we can look at this two ways - he learned Spanish because Miranda thought it would be useful to him in his career (true) or because he wanted to understand Thomas more and thus saw the book as research on his personality.

Once securely in the captaincy; again, he picks up the book and prepares to head ashore to visit Miranda.

They take great care to linger on shots with the book, when he talks to the two look outs; the fact he cares a cutlass in one hand while a book in the other.

Silver even comments on the book, which he simply replies that it isn’t for him.  We can certainly see that this is for Miranda based on the Middleton in season 1 and the flashback with her copy of Don Quixote.

However, under the cover of darkness, he is unable to approach as she is entertaining a local mother and her children and in classic awkward INTJ fashion, places the book on her porch where he knows she’ll eventually find it.

Pssshhh, not like I’m actually going to reveal my emotions to you Miranda.  You know those pesky emotions are difficult for me to handle.

The following morning before he opens fire on Charles Vane, we see Miranda opening the book to see a single line of “I’m sorry”.

Can we just stop and appreciate how on point this is for Flint and for anyone with a similar personality.  It is hard to apologize in person with words when one is more intimately involved with someone.  And that you have a long term relationship with.  Apologizing though an action is completely in character for him.  He is likely apologizing for their argument about her letter for the pardon in Boston; for the fact he brought her here; for what he is about to do in the name of an independent Nassau; for future things that Miranda will disagree with.  All of it.

In addition to all of this, the entire main plot of La Galatea is around two men and their love interest with one man being more elite and properly educated while the other is poor an rural.  It is a story that has a love triangle and Black Sails likes its examples of how love triangles work outside of civilization with the ending that sees Max, Bonny and Rackman successful and not selling out to keep their relationship.  In contrast, the ‘peak of civilization’ in London destroyed the love triangle that was James, Thomas and Miranda due to how wrong it was in the eyes of a few.  I can only guess that Flint selected this book because it had something in common with Miranda and their shared relationship with Thomas.

Which leads to the next key book that is involved in the ‘riveting’ reveal in season 2 episode 5.  Which isn’t that riveting if you’d been paying attention since the beginning.  I did not know the full background of Black Sails in our age of easy information and summaries.  I had assumed the queer rep was in the Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham and Max relationship based on the few things I’d seen.  But it was painfully obvious to me by episode 3 that Flint was not a straight character and his relationship with Miranda at the present was not one based on any sort of romantic love.  He let’s her belittle him as she cleans his wounds after bleeding on her floor as they interact like two people who know each other well - out of habit.  Richard Guthrie finds the stashed away portrait of the handsome Hamiltons and watches as Miranda flirts with the pastor. 

This is my long-winded way at getting to the key book, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius a very famous Roman stoic and emperor.  Miranda gives the book to Guthrie to find something to reflect on his circumstances and she wants to share this with him.

James will have none of this.  He has a look that could kill as he shuts the door while looking at Guthrie as Miranda slips away between them.  After the most awkward sex scene in the show where Flint passively lies below a sexually frustrated Miranda, he stares blankly beyond her unable to even touch her with his hands, unsure where to even place them relative to her body.  This is all one needed to realize that whoever the person is/was that captured James’s heart if it were even possible, it was not Miranda. 

As they dress, Miranda knows James is upset and when asked, it becomes an explosive argument about Meditations.  James has hidden the book away while Miranda feels her connection to her old life and Thomas and that book are slipping too far away from her - which drives her to write the previously mentioned pardon letter.

Flint can’t share that book with anyone else - though in season one we are left with him only reminding Miranda how important that book is too him with little else.  This is the start of the fight that James Flint isn’t sure how to resolve and other than Guthrie realizing that Miranda Barlow is the famous Miranda Hamilton who according to rumor had a torrid affair with her husband’s closest friend (a naval officer) we all know it is referring to Flint.  Though Guthrie only hears one side of the sex and thinks Flint was more involved than staring off into space as Miranda used him, but we know he likely felt that he should let her use him based on their complicated relationship and past. As the flashbacks slowly unfold, we first get the Cervantes books linking James, Thomas and Miranda.  What the big reveal is that Meditations was a gift, dedicated to James from Thomas.  To stop Flint from destroying the weak inherant nature of Nassau, Miranda rides into town with the book.  To present it to him, as she feels that he never got over the ostracization he faced and how he ignores that fact he could have been hung for his actions under civilized English law.

It is hard to tell who is right or wrong - honestly both of them are likely correct.  They have been dealing with so much pain and trauma that they’ve had a long time to learn how to really make their words sting as they argue.

She leaves him alone with the book which he gently touches.

And opens to show the full note that Thomas wrote directly to him. 

When we see the last dual flashback of James and Miranda leaving London, he reflects back on his relationship with the one person we can confirm he truly loved - reading to him in his bed from the very book.

So yeah, this book holds a lot of emotional meaning for him and even if Miranda shared a love of the text with her husband, she never denied that their relationship was something much deeper.  We could also look at the fact that Marcus Aurelius in his younger years was involved with his older teacher and they wrote lots of sappy love letters to each other.  That if they’d existed in another time and context their relationship would have been less of an issue.  It is funny how the progressive English intellectuals like to refer back to the classics while only taking part of it while ignoring other aspects that did not fit into their early 18th century narrative.

And with that, I’d like to wrap up my quick meta about the role of key books reveal much about Captain Flint’s complicated relationships, past events and how he may think about the present and future.  I’d like to dive into another quick analysis on how they visually broke down the growing closeness and relationship between James and Thomas in season 2 flashbacks but that will be for another day.

[lava-bros]

How are you guys?

Probably not the answer you're expecting but I feel like there's probably some form of closure I should give this blog. I definitely went very ambitious with the development I wanted to do with these characters, at the time obviously I had the energy and desire to make the stories so I'm not faulting myself for doing it. It was fun at the time and that's what these blogs are about!

So here's some fun story bits that were in the works before I moved on to other creative things. If you DO end up reading this, be prepared it's pretty lengthy. There's some old thumbnails of updates that I never got to finish, along with a few designs of story elements.

As well as a few trigger warnings, there's some talk about death, loss, substance abuse(in a magical sense), a lot of fire, emotional trauma. I think that covers it, so if you're fine with that continue on!

Sol was made to be this sort of slimy two faced asshole that used people for his thirst for knowledge without care of what happened to the people he left behind in the process. He pushes the limits of his relationships until they either break or start to bend to him whim. There was a long time he wasn't a good person, and his friends suffered for it.

BEFORE THAT THOUGH, we're going to time skip backwards a bit before he was introduced to the blogs. Sol used to be a slimy single faced asshole that actually had friends. He was on top of the world, gave no shits about who knew him, who liked him, who hated him. He'd escaped from the lab he was created from and he wanted to experience life to the fullest because this man honest to god believed NOTHING could hurt him. He ended up forming a crew, they got up to some hijinks, they had a great time doing it, and they were a big family. This was supposed to be explored with the "Remember your sins" meme, but lost the drive pretty quick after starting. I did some digging around and I found some of the old thumbnails

Essentially it filled in some of the missing pieces of Sol getting backstabbed by one of his crew members and learning that he's not as invincible as he thought. This was also where the explanation of the White and Black Cores come in. Black cores I was able to finish with the explaination, white cores I unfortunately never got around to. I'm sure there's some roughs floating around or at least on paper. But basically white cores plays in the opposite of the black cores. Black cores are too much magic, so white is not enough. So Sol witnessed having his core broken into and he lost an huge amount of his magic which threatened his existence. His body went into panic mode, and he went absolutely nuts and killed his family(or so he thought). He set the whole place on fire, and definitely Skip died because when he finally came too he just sort of stuck around her corpse and spired into a depression. He went through some stuff it wasn't a good year(or decade I can't remember) for him.

Skip ahead to his next phase, rebuild. So after all that shit, he picked himself back up, made a new identity, tried to rebuild his empire. Got mixed up with some not so good relationships(the not so good being on his end), finding himself unable to trust again because of obvious previous shit. He still didn't know who it was that betrayed him, and so he gave up that shit to be a new brand of asshole. The kind that DOESN'T actually want to make friends anymore.

That's where we jump to Sol adopting kids and it's the worst idea. This plot point I honestly kinda wished I did so differently. It was such a missed opportunity for Boom and Pom to have a parental figure, regardless if he was so bad at being on. Whenever I make AUs with these three now, their dynamic is so different, Piper(Pom) adores Sol regardless if he sucks at taking care of any sort of organic creature. That's all I really have to say about that. Boom sees him more like a boss and Pom hates him but slowly builds into being okay with him later on in the blogs.

So now I'll get into the present/future stuff. A big part of what the blog was going towards was this project called "the interviews" and man I wish I had all the thumbs for it, but I think a lot of it was on paper. Here's just some of the beginning ones:

Shout out to Simon's very obvious in check emotions.

Anyways, so this was going to be a series of updates in regards to looking for new hires. Along the way it would cut back and forth between Bob and Sol, Bob who's trying to move forward while Sol who's still held back by the past and can't move on. The above section was basically going to be what Bob was going through.

Meanwhile with Sol, he would meet Skip who's been haunting the warehouse as a Boo, unable to move on because of her ties of anger and regret for what Sol had done. She'd go on talking about how she'd been there since she died, hating Sol quietly and learning her new powers to find a way to get revenge. But as she watched him grovel for nearly a decade over her body, she decided that he'd done a better job torturing himself over and over enough times that she didn't need to do anything. But she reconciles with him, telling her friend that it's time for him to move on. Sol argues that he's unable to, how could he after what he's done, and wishing it hadn't happen. He goes on mentioning that he couldn't control himself, he wouldn't have done that even if she betrayed him by breaking his core. That's when Skip reveals that it wasn't her, it was Po, the snowpokey of their team.

Learning this, Sol is furious, but keeps his cool for the time being. Him and Skip have a bit of a bonding moment, reminiscing about the past, then Sol offers Skip one of the jobs. She reluctantly agrees, since she's stuck there anyways, and she becomes the new security. Sol brings her to Bob, and he has an emotional moment with her too, seeing that one of his friends did in fact pass away at the incident.

That was as much as I had solid plans for, at least with Sol's arc. Rough ideas was Sol going to confront Po on his own, and turns out Po's resented him for years. They fight and as Po looks about to win Bob comes in and shows off his own frustrations that he'd been keeping. He loses it and beats Po to an inch of his life sort of deal, Sol stops him, and he offers Po an opportunity to change, which he declines. Maybe later on he changes his mind, unsure. Didn't get that far into it. But yeah that was pretty much Sol's whole arc. Pretty long. A lot of bummer city stuff, but becomes pretty chill at the end.

NOW SIMON. Honestly his was a lot tamer in the sense of just his own self discovery. His arc is essentially feeling abandoned by Sol when he escaped whatever vague lab they were from. He's always felt Sol could connect with people a lot easier than he could. Sol was full of a lot of sympathy where as Simon was empathy. He couldn't exactly relate to a lot of what people felt. Unlike Sol, that you could argue was created with a lot of emotion, Simon was made with very little. It made him desperate to feel what others did, and from that it made him feel empty. So to fill that void, he filled it with the only thing he knew he could. Magic. Thus it lead to him consuming magic constantly, and furiously.

Simon developed these 'black core' symptoms very early on, where he has a constant hunger to consume magic and it's completely messed up his way of thinking because of it. Though his ultimate goal had always been to basically combine with Sol, because in his eyes, Sol is everything he wants to be. So ultimately at one point, he does. It's right during the big arc where Boom loses his arm in the fight. They lose and Simon and Sol combine to make this guy.

It was during the time I unfortunately pretty burnt out on trying to produce all this content on my spare time. So doing huge updates and big arcs were getting harder and harder to do. I missed just having a funny blog to draw silly answers for, so I skipped over all this, and instead just planned on it all being talked about in past tense. That's when Bob and Scotty suddenly came in.

As for the rest of Simon's arc, part of it was shown on the blog. Scotty helped separate the two after combining, and turns out everything he thought would fix him came crashing down. It didn't work, he didn't feel how he wanted to, and he hit a low point in just having no idea what to do anymore. His thoughts consumed by this hunger that can't be satisfied, and he can't grasp the concept of love or what it is to love.

He slowly comes back to with Scotty's help, showing him compassion and forgiveness for his actions. Teaching him that there is nothing wrong with not understanding. There is nothing wrong with not having those feelings. It takes time and experience to understand and find yourself. So she helps him rebuild, helping him do the things he enjoys that doesn't, you know, hurt others with an ending violent hunger for power. He officially gets his weird uncle status badge. Hooray!

Now a character I didn't get much opportunity to explore, Scotty. She doesn't exactly have "end game" planned, because she's definitely more of a supporting cast for these two. So she was created in the same facility, you know the vague unnamed one, after Sol left. She was given a little less magic so she didn't, you know, go nuts like Simon, and perhaps a little less emotional than Sol. She was supposed to be the in between but basically the "better" version of them. And then Simon lost it and destroyed the vague unnamed facility and broke her core. That's what the grabby hands represented in this post

But with still a little magic left, she wasn't gone. There was a vague concept of either Bob or Sol returning to the facility and finding her core. Probably Bob if I think about it now, to look for some answers about what Sol is and how to get him to be less... uh... fire. And sort of repairs Scotty while he's there and just sort of leaves her to figure out her thing. Then upon Simon and Sol combining, Scotty arrives, using her ability to separate them through means. I honestly cannot remember how.

But that's it! Those are the arcs that I had planned for this blog that I never got to, and honestly never will get to. I do still love these characters deeply, I use them all the time in AUs I will sometimes post on my main art blog. They're my self indulgent characters, and I love them dearly.

They've grown a lot since this blog began, or heck, even before this blog began. Sol was made to be a throw away character, made just to be Boom's really terrible abusive boss in his early years. Christ look at this absolute piece of shit. My whole design concept was literally "sleazey car salesman"

And Simon was literally a joke. I misspelled Splorch once, and he was created from it. He was meant to be the opposite of Sol in every way, and he honestly still is.

What a lovely walk down memory lane. Thanks for sticking around for those that got this far. I honestly enjoyed the time I had with these blogs, they were truly a lot of fun. I met some great people from them, and it's lead to some really great friendships. Aside from that shit though, gave me these characters, and they're going to stick with me for a long time.

Thanks for all the support that this obscure blog received over the years. This one hit so much different than BoomPom did. I felt like this one was more of my own, and less tied to the popularity of other much bigger blogs. It honestly shocks me that people sent asks here, and people took interest in these characters. Means a lot to me if you did and for all the asks this blog received in it's life span.

I hope you have a pleasant day, you deserve it.

[joyful-soul-collector]

Lovecraft Country Episode 1

My dad told me I'd love this show and I got nothin else better to do rn so let's fakkin GO

Oh wow there's a lot happening

Jackie Robinson just cut Cthulu in half with a baseball bat

OH ITS A DREAM okay that makes much more sense

Looks like this is the 40s or 50s? Idk my years very well, but segregation is a thing for sure (future Marko here, it's the 50s)

Aw man they gotta walk? That sucks

"Stories are like people. Loving them doesn't make them perfect. You just try and cherish them, overlook their flaws" GODDAMN I love that. I don't agree with overlooking their flaws (both in stories and people), but I understand the meaning and I love it so much

Father's gone missing womp womp

Hippolyta, that's a cool name, imma steal it

I gotta say Atticus is a very pretty man. I didn't see it as much when Johnathan Majors played Kang in Loki (mainly because he wasn't there for long I think), but he is v pretty

Oooh secret legacy?? Mysterious letters??? V interesting...

Oop dude literally in the middle of a BJ and just talks to Atticus like he wasn't A Bit Busy just then

Ooh those two sing well!

Fuck yeah bust open that hydrant

Oof I guess Leti isn't as close to her sister as I thought

Oh damn she drew a grim reaper right over where they need to go lol

Damn Atticus is probably so smart with all those books, if people weren't so damn racist maybe he wouldn't have had to join the army to move out, he could've been a writer or somethin

Oop there's a hole in the wall. Bet that's a fun memory...

Bruh who tf did he call in South Korea???

Oh gross, the monkey noises.... hate seeing how people act towards them

Bruh this red car is fuckin banger look at the wood?? If old cars like that weren't so unsafe I would love to drive one

Oh jeez I hope this diner isn't too awful an experience...

Oh my god what in the fuck is happening

LETITIA FUCKIN LEWIS

WAIT THAT'S THE CAR THEY SAID HIS DAD WAS DRIVING THE FANCY SILVER CAR

WAIT WHAT THE HELL DID THE TRUCK HIT??

WHO'S THIS RANDOM WHITE LADY

Okay so the diner was definitely a terrible experience. Love how smart Atticus is tho, he figured that shit out quick

This little girl is so creative I love her drawings

Sounds like Leti's mom wasn't the best to her, but her family never saw that so they're mad she didn't go to the funeral

Oof that's a rough fight to have, the one between Atticus and his dad. I understand why his father would be upset at Atticus for joining the army, but I also understand Atticus too. He views his country the way he does stories. "You just try and cherish them, overlook their flaws"

Dad and George's parents were shit, so then his Dad was shit, and George feels like he didn't protect his brother or Atticus enough. Oh the cycle of abuse ever turns...

Devon countyyyyy that's the one with the grim reaper on it

Aw fuck is that a cop

Nooooo fuck fuck fuck

FUCK ITS THAT SHERRIF THAT'S MURDERS PEOPLE

SUNDOWN TOWN FUCKIN FUCK

Oh you motherFUCKER

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK

Oh mgod that was fucking terrifying

GODDAMNIT NO FUCK

HOLY SHIT WTF IS THAT

GO LETI YOU CAN DO IT

Fuuuuuck this guy is turning into a monster....

The flaaaaares v nice

Bruh why you guys walking did she total the car??

THERE IT IS THERE'S THE SILVER CAR

UHHH?? "WELCOME HOME"???

Ok so that was uhhh fucking amazing? The mystery, the monsters, the awesome characters, the struggles with racism juxtaposed with the science-fiction struggles, FUCK this is set up so damn well?? Goddamn okay I'm gonna proofread and post this and then imma watch the next one cuz I can't fuckin WAIT

[captzexx]

“ 🔥 “ Warcraft Lore

It's a big mess.

That last creative director seems to have just been in love with the concept of Sylvannas and just made it all about her. It could have been fine but the story just seemed to devolve more and more into fanfic.com story (or Ao3, I dunno I'm old). Properties like this with so many pieces really need a strong big picture eye to it to keep the story consistent. I hate to always use him as the example but these kind of big stories need a Kevin Feige or James Gunn person to direct and drive it forward without the emotional attachment. I also feel they really need to be able to let go of characters and let the story grow from new blood with the passing of old.

I give me some Turloyn god damn it! If you're gonna give me old dogs of war, give me one last hurrah with heroes from the Warcraft 2 for the Alliance. They already basically wiped out the Horde side and made them all villians or martyrs, give me some loss other than Varian on the Allys. Danath claims Stromgarde, Gilneas is reclaimed, rebuild Lordaeron, or maybe show the Light implodes without Shadow to temper it. There's too much to play with already rather than keep bringing in new bigger problems that get solved in a 40 man raid.

Give us a new guardian. Give us a new kingdom. Give us a small problem but difficult one.

One of my favorite things from the old days were the giant game events like the Gates or Wrath when the Lich King would randomly attack. Where the world united to gather resources and prepare for a real campiagn or war.

Maybe Metzen has a plan since he's taken the helm again. I dunno. I've heard good things so far from the newest expansion, but I'm not yet ready to step back in as much as I'm missing that comfort.

@nixalegos